Game Scoop! 801: No Genre Is Safe from Split Fiction

Summary

Game Scoop! Episode 801: No Genre Is Safe from Split Fiction

Release Date: March 7, 2025

---

Hosts:

• Daemon Hatfield
• Sam Claiborne
• Mark Medina
• Justin Davis

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1. Split Fiction: A New Cooperative Adventure

[02:14] Daemon Hatfield:
"Good news everyone. Acclaim is back. I know the world has been clamoring. They've been missing Acclaim since it went bankrupt in 2004. It's been 21 years, but it's back baby."

The episode kicks off with an enthusiastic discussion about Split Fiction, a new cooperative game from Hazelight Studios. Daemon shares his personal experience playing the game with his five-year-old son, highlighting its ability to bring family members together through engaging and varied gameplay mechanics.

[03:17] Sam Claiborne:
"I already know, so I'm not going to guess."

Daemon praises the game's design for continuously introducing new ideas and gameplay mechanics, ensuring that players are constantly engaged. He cites the seamless blend of platforming, environmental puzzles, on-rails missions, and mini-boss battles as standout features.

[04:16] Daemon Hatfield:
"My son says it's the greatest game ever. Oh, there you go. All right, feel free to use that one."

The hosts commend Hazelight Studios for their innovative approach, comparing Split Fiction to their previous successes like It Takes Two and A Way Out. They discuss the game's co-op nature, emphasizing the importance of cooperation and communication between players.

[08:21] Sam Claiborne:
"I experienced that, too."

Sam likens the learning curve of Split Fiction to that of Mario Party, noting how the game effectively teaches players new mechanics through its diverse challenges. The discussion touches on the game's appeal to both casual and hardcore gamers, underlining its broad accessibility.

2. Acclaim's Triumphant Return to Gaming

[17:00] Daemon Hatfield:
"Acclaim is making a triumphant return. Acclaim was a prolific publisher, mostly in the '90s."

The conversation shifts to the revival of Acclaim, a once-defunct game publisher known for titles like Mortal Kombat, NBA Jam, and Turok. Daemon reads a press excerpt detailing Acclaim's new mission to support indie titles and reignite classic franchises under the leadership of CEO Alex Joseph, formerly of Graffiti Games.

[19:21] Justin Davis:
"I have a lot of... You're right, like Acclaim, the company does not have fans, but many of their games are very well liked."

The hosts reminisce about Acclaim's legacy, discussing both their successful franchises and some of their less acclaimed titles. They ponder the strategic move of resurrecting the Acclaim name in the current gaming landscape, contemplating its potential impact on indie game development.

3. Missing in Action Games: Unreleased and Awaited Titles

[31:13] Daemon Hatfield:
"Let's go to our Missing in Action Games feature."

In this segment, the hosts delve into games that were announced years ago but have yet to receive a release date. Topics include:

• Wolverine from Insomniac: A highly anticipated title with minimal updates since its September 2021 announcement.

  [31:46] Sam Claiborne:
  "But are we being punked right now?"

• Knights of the Old Republic Remake: Despite recent statements from Saber Interactive's CEO, skepticism remains about its release.

  [33:05] Daemon Hatfield:
  "But for Kotor, as recently as last... I don't think so."

• John Carpenter's Toxic Commando: Announced in summer 2023, this game aims to blend cooperative gameplay with horror elements but lacks substantial updates.

  [34:26] Justin Davis:
  "Is there a Toxic Commando movie coming out?"

• Beyond Good and Evil 2: Viewed as a cult classic project plagued by delays, with doubts about its eventual release.

  [37:15] Amy Nicholson:
  "They do the opposite, actually."

The hosts express disappointment over the prolonged development periods and the dwindling possibility of these games seeing the light of day. They also discuss the broader implications of industry trends on game releases.

4. Inside IGN: Work-Life Insights from the Hosts

[47:12] Daemon Hatfield:
"We're going to get into some extracurricular activities."

This segment offers listeners a glimpse into the daily work-life of IGN employees. The hosts share their routines, responsibilities, and the balance between gaming and professional duties.

• Daemon Hatfield:
  Manages three shows, including Game Scoop, Daily Fix, and Next Gen Console Watch. His tasks involve planning, researching topics, and preparing for interviews.

  [50:11] Paul Scheer:
  "Hardly ever anymore. However, ironically, I am previewing a game right now..."

• Sam Claiborne:
  Runs a global team focused on strategy guides. His work includes playing games to create detailed walkthroughs and managing a team of writers and editors.

  [53:23] Sam Claiborne:
  "So that's a lot of time is spent with me and my team being like, okay, upload our save to the cloud..."

• Justin Davis:
  Oversees the IGN store and commerce team. His role involves writing deal articles, managing online sales, and mentoring junior staff.

  [54:02] Sam Claiborne:
  "Mark and I just being in the guides realm..."

The discussion highlights the dedication required to maintain high-quality content and the collaborative efforts behind the scenes.

5. Listener Engagement: Video Game 20 Questions

[68:12] Daemon Hatfield:
"Next, let's go to Video Game 20 Questions."

Listeners participate by suggesting games for the hosts to guess through a series of yes or no questions. In this episode, the chosen game is Dr. Mario.

[73:20] Sam Claiborne:
"Is this a puzzle game?"

[73:22] Paul Scheer:
"Yes. It was NES and Game Boy, so I didn't know how to like..."

After a series of questions narrowing down the platform and genre, the hosts successfully identify Dr. Mario.

[73:45] Sam Claiborne:
"Is it Dr. Mario?"

[73:46] Amy Nicholson:
"It is Dr. Mario."

The segment fosters community interaction and adds a fun, interactive element to the episode.

6. Extracurricular Discussions: Movies and Personal Stories

Towards the episode's end, the hosts discuss recent movies they've watched, such as the animated film Flow, and share personal anecdotes, including:

• Transmission of Emotional Responses:
  Daemon recounts how his son was moved by Flow, highlighting the game's emotional impact.

• Favorite Games and Their Mechanics:
  Discussions about Dr. Mario, Tetris, and other classic games, reflecting on their design and personal preferences.

• Listener Messages:
  A heartfelt message from Bailey Davis, a respiratory therapist, expressing gratitude towards the show for positively impacting listeners' lives.

[69:16] Sam Claiborne:
"I have a job that I know that's helped a lot of people, so that's great."

[75:02] Sam Claiborne:
"So weird. Like, like Deep Cut Yoshi's island bosses..."

These conversations emphasize the hosts' connection with their audience and their genuine passion for gaming and related media.

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Conclusion:

Episode 801 of Game Scoop! offers a rich blend of game reviews, industry news, behind-the-scenes insights, and interactive segments that cater to both longtime fans and new listeners. The hosts' engaging discussions on Split Fiction, Acclaim's return, and the challenges of unreleased titles provide valuable perspectives on the evolving gaming landscape. Additionally, personal stories and listener interactions add a relatable and heartfelt dimension to the episode.

Notable Quotes:

• Daemon Hatfield [04:16]:
  "My son says it's the greatest game ever. Oh, there you go. All right, feel free to use that one."

• Sam Claiborne [17:00]:
  "Acclaim was a prolific publisher, mostly in the '90s."

• Paul Scheer [54:02]:
  "It's not like I can't wait to come to work and play that game. It's more that I like that part of the work."

• Amy Nicholson [68:12]:
  "Listeners, remember, you can always reach us at the email address gamescoopgyn.com."

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For more insights and updates, visit Geek.com.

Transcript

[Amy Nicholson]

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[Paul Scheer]

And I'm Paul Scheer, an actor, writer and director.

[Amy Nicholson]

You might know me from the League Ve or my non eligible for Academy Award role in Twisters. We come together to host Unspooled, a podcast where we talk about good movies, critical hits, fan favorites, must sees, and in case you missed ems, we're talking the Home Alone from Grease to the Dark Knight. So if you love movies like we do, come along on our cinematic adventure. Listen to Unspooled wherever you get your podcasts and don't forget to hit the follow button. What's up everybody? Welcome to IGN gamescoop. I'm your host Damon Hatch and joining me this week are Sam Claiborne.

[Sam Claiborne]

Hey, it's great to be here.

[Amy Nicholson]

Mark Medina.

[Paul Scheer]

I'm here, Damon.

[Amy Nicholson]

And Justin Davis returns to us.

[Justin Davis]

Hey, you can't get rid of me that easy.

[Amy Nicholson]

After hiatus, he's back baby. And we got a great show for you this week. Good news everyone. Acclaim is back. I know the world has been clamoring. They've been missing Acclaim since it went bankrupt in 2004. It's been 21 years, but it's back baby.

[Sam Claiborne]

And Acclaim is a video game publisher just for everybody listening but no idea.

[Justin Davis]

What Dave for the Utes a very.

[Amy Nicholson]

Prolific video game publisher from the mostly from the 90s and I've got a list of games that are floating out there in the ether and if you've already watched next gen console watch you, you're thinking deja vu right now because yes, I am borrowing a topic from my other show where we'll check in on some games that are missing in action and see what the chances are that they're ever actually released. But first, Split Fiction is out now and getting rave reviews everywhere. Got a 9 out of 10 from IGN and I've been playing a lot of it. Now this is a co op. These are co op only games that Hazelike makes so I must have someone to play with. Can anybody guess who has been my partner in Split Fiction?

[Sam Claiborne]

I already know, so I'm not going to guess.

[Amy Nicholson]

It's my 5 year old son. It's my 5 year old Son and we've been having a great time. It has been a education for him I think because first of all we've never played a game together. We've always just passed the controller or he just plays by himself and these games are like, you know, I, I think he's like I haven't played Hazelight's other games. It takes two and a way out. But I think they're just constantly as as well this is the case here. They're just constantly throwing new ideas and new gameplay mechanics at you. At one moment you might be platforming and then there might be some environmental puzzle solving and then there's some like on Rails flying and jet skiing missions and then there's a mini boss that's like an arcade shmup. It's just constantly bringing new ideas. It hardly ever recyc gameplay mechanics. So like Kingo is experiencing a lot in a short amount of time with this game. And here's the the box quote that Electronic Arts can use to sell Split Fiction. My son says it's the greatest game ever. Oh, there you go. All right, feel free to use that one.

[Sam Claiborne]

Top of his list.

[Amy Nicholson]

Feel free. Use that one.

[Justin Davis]

He played, he played Spider Man. He's played, you know, he's played as.

[Amy Nicholson]

He's played Elden Ring. But Split Split Fiction is the greatest game ever, according to him.

[Paul Scheer]

There you go.

[Sam Claiborne]

Which character is he playing?

[Amy Nicholson]

He is Mio, the brunette.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay, that was a good choice because by the time you get to the area where you gotta toss things at enemies, I find that is difficult for people that don't play a lot of twin stick video games.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah, yeah, we, I mean, he's managing it like we're deep into the game maybe seven or eight hours into the game now. So, like there's, you know, there's been some moments that have taken some time to get through. You know, I've, I've tried to be very patient, but like, to his credit, you know, even if he, he's like learning and he doesn't get frustrated and he just sort of like keeps practicing and gets better and better and then we figure it out together. So it's like, like to give you an example here, he's five years old. This is just one thing that you do, you know, this is a game where you bounce between a fantasy world and a cyberpunk world. And we're in the fantasy world and each of us can shapeshift into different forms. Me, the other, it's Mio. And then I can't think of the other girl's name. Anyone remember?

[Paul Scheer]

I just looked it up before the show started.

[Amy Nicholson]

It's another. It's like a three letter word I just can't think of right now. It's also, yeah, I'm playing that character. She has the British accent and I can shapeshift.

[Paul Scheer]

Zoe.

[Amy Nicholson]

Zoe, that's right.

[Sam Claiborne]

Zo.

[Amy Nicholson]

So you can shape shift into a fairy or an Ent, Basically an Ent from Lord of the Rings. And the other character, Mio, played by Kingo, can shift into a giant monkey. It is, it's more, it's shaped like a gorilla, but it has a tail or like, like a small dragon that can swim really fast through the water. So this is what we have to do. We have to get through the water, but we can't get through the water in our human forms because there are piranhas in the water. There's big poles sticking out of the water. So I, as Zoe, can jump onto the pole and climb up and down it. And then Kingo can shift into the little water dragon thing and grab like a rope underneath the water. And then he can Pull me through the water while I'm riding on it. But I also have to watch out for these man eating plants that are around when you go through the cavern. So I have to go like up and down to avoid the man eating plants. And then we come to a spot where there's man eating plants are blocking the path and there's another pole on the other side of them so I can jump over the plants to that pole. But that pole starts sinking. So Kingo needs to get me fast and he has to go around this like corner and then come around on the other side to grab me before I, you know, sink into the piranha water. And it's like this is the sort of thing that he's capable of doing after. After a couple of tries. So I've been really impressed and it's been great.

[Justin Davis]

Do you. And of course, I mean if he messes it up, you have to punish.

[Amy Nicholson]

I punish him severely.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah.

[Amy Nicholson]

He goes straight to his room with no dinner.

[Sam Claiborne]

No, I don't think I was playing video games at 5 in any competent level. I mean, I mean I wouldn't have been playing.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah. Even if we were, it'd be like, it'd be like at the level of Super Mario Brothers, right?

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. But even that, like I didn't play until, I don't know, later 80s because it was just wasn't popular. It wasn't around.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. I mean I'm excited. Like I did. I didn't get an early copy and the game came out today. So I'm gonna download it and play it. But the conundrum is I have two children.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

So which one do I play it with? I guess I'll probably just pick my favorite.

[Paul Scheer]

There you go.

[Sam Claiborne]

You're not going to thunder down it.

[Amy Nicholson]

And then so like Mark and Sam are both playing it, right?

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Amy Nicholson]

What do you guys think?

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, I. I'm actually surprised because what Sam is saying. Correct. About Zoe, like when you get to, I want to say the third or so mission where you're having to pick up the barrels and throw them.

[Sam Claiborne]

That does that respect the boss and the cars, right?

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah. Well, and that. Yeah. The parking meter boss is like so chaotic.

[Amy Nicholson]

I like a fun boss playing.

[Paul Scheer]

Playing as Mio also very tough. That's who I'm playing as. And the gravity shifting is. It's messing with my brain because you do the gravity shift and so your split screen. So then your screen tilts. But then you know, I'm playing with Amanda and her screen is normal. So then she'll be like, what? What? What should I be looking for? And I'll look, and then I'll look back at mine, and it, like, throws me off. It's very. But it's very cool.

[Sam Claiborne]

I experienced that, too.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah. I think it's very fun. If you've played It Takes Two, then. Then you'll know what you're in for for this game, because I played that game as well, and I think it's very, very fun.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

You know what it reminds me most of is Mario Party, because it kind of teaches you a little mini game, and then it takes. You know, you both get good at it, and then it moves to the next one.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

And I play this type of game mostly with, like, Mario Party is, like, the type of game I play with casuals the most. So it's like. It's funny to play, you know, this and be like, well, this is not that same type of game, but, like, it teaches people the same stuff. Although I will say, like, things like the jump. It's basically jump, jump, grapple, hook. Like, things like that are, like, not easy for people to remember what buttons do what. And then you add in your weapon, and it's just like, you know, like, I even. It's like, you know, every time you. Anybody here plays, you know, a new game, you learn that all. And then if you just play a different game, you hit the wrong button a few times. If you've never done any of that before, like, this stuff is, like, really, really strange for people. But I'm glad they did it that way. I mean, it's. It's a good learning experience for how video games work now. It's not like it's any different than how any game works. It's, like, all the same, but it's like click to run. I thought that was funny. Like, when I was playing with my wife, she's like, why would I hold down the stick? And I'm like, every game has that now. You know, it's just like, nobody, like, thinks about that. Like, were y'all used to it? But I remember the first time doing that and being like, oh, yeah, that's kind of weird that we all run that way now.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, the. The. The part. One of the early parts where you're going where it's like all the, like, ogres and stuff like that, and you're. You're jumping from pole to pole and climbing them. That part was confusing Amanda quite a bit because, yeah, you. You.

[Sam Claiborne]

But you can just take.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, you push square to like, dash up a pole.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

But like, your character is kind of jumping dump it.

[Amy Nicholson]

Exactly.

[Paul Scheer]

So then she kept getting her buttons confused because then she would get on the pole and then she would jump and she would just jump off. So totally in agreeance there.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

One of the smart things that it does there is that it widens to full screen with both characters. So, like, if you just go ahead, just get to the top, the other person dies a million times and it's fine.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's no problem.

[Justin Davis]

Maybe what I'll do is, like, my. My two daughters have been fighting and arguing with each other a lot lately, so maybe they have. Maybe they have to play it together and dad doesn't have to play at all. Yeah, it'll. It'll either heal. It'll either heal things in the Davis household or it'll make them 10.

[Sam Claiborne]

It is a game about cooperation, right?

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean. I mean, like, the. The story is not. Not just the. The gameplay.

[Paul Scheer]

Something Amanda mentioned is, is there is a world, Justin, where you play as Mio with one of your kids and then you play as Zoe with the other one. Because that's. She. She was like, I kind of want to beat it. And then I want to swap characters and beat it again because they are pretty drastically different.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

Most of the time on what you're doing. And, like, I want the cool electric whip thingy, but I only have someone so good. Holy smokes. Sorry.

[Amy Nicholson]

Holy smokies.

[Paul Scheer]

I cannot believe that that was in a video game. That was. That was the best.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

That's great. No, I just, like, Joseph Ferris is such an outspoken over the top. I think part of it is for marketing. I think part of it is just to be memorable, but, like, kind of like, kind of like not likable all the time. Right.

[Sam Claiborne]

And.

[Justin Davis]

But then they make these, like, incredible. Like, they just don't miss, like, every single game that they release is like a game of the year contender banger. Like, it's rad.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

I also like that he sticks to his guns. They released a kind of a commercial, and it was advertising their discord to be able to find people to play with. And because he's like, I know that, like, co op is, like, not always easy to find and I've heard your feedback. And he's like, so then you could just go to my discord. Like, he's like, this is a game for two players. I'm not going to let the other person be AI and stuff. And I like it. It's stressful because Then I'm like, I really. Damon hit me up a couple days ago and he's like, we're going to talk split fiction. I was like, all right, I have to see if my wife will play this with me.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, I do the same thing. So this game is getting like crazy good scores. Like, we gave it a nine. It's gotten tens at a lot of places, and I don't understand that at all. So. I totally understand these games. Like, I like playing them. Okay. But like, I just feel like this is telling me that, like, there's just not enough co op games out there.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

You know, like, there's a hunger for this type of gameplay and that's what makes it seem like unbelievable genre defying stuff. But I'm like, we used to have lots of co op games that just was a thing, you know, it was like pretty common.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, that's true. Maybe, maybe the bar is low. Like, there's like, what, like Lego games. Right. Which by the way, like, I love the Lego games so that I'm not hating, but like, they're very simplistic. Right. And like that's. That's kind of one of your only options if you want to do same screen co op.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yep. I totally get what Sam is saying because even though I'm having a great time playing this with my son, where I am in the game, deep in the game, it doesn't. Yeah, I wouldn't, I wouldn't, you know, give it. It's not like a 9 out of 10 or a 10 out of 10. For me personally, maybe it's more like an 8 or something. But one thing I was surprised of, I said I didn't play It Takes Two. But as I understand it, that's a. The premise is like a husband and wife. Marcus is right. Who are like not getting along. Right. But that's something happen on the verge.

[Paul Scheer]

Of divorce and they're.

[Amy Nicholson]

But they're forced to work together through this. These challenges and then they come out on the other side. So I haven't not played it. I. That's kind of like a. I mean, I don't know. I guess I just. I was just. It. When I played Split Fiction, I was surprised. But the writing is not very good, I don't think.

[Sam Claiborne]

No, it is not. The writing of the other one was good. Yeah, I know.

[Amy Nicholson]

I mean, it's supposed to be about two writers, but like the. So first of all, like, their characters, you know, they're these. They're both going to these worlds that they've created. But like there's no story in the worlds. Right. It's like there's no. No, actually like writing that we're experiencing and then the game, like the dialogue is all super cheesy. Like I'm not, not exaggerating. This is. The dialogue is literally like, I like fantasy. No way. Sci fi is much better. Nuh. Fantasy is the best genre. It's really, it's really that Brain dead is the.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

And then that keeps going and it's like, well, yep. But you know, I. I write sci fi because I think it's better. Well, I write finest because I think it's like, it's just, it's inane.

[Paul Scheer]

Every time they switch they're like, are we in your world now? Yes.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

Yes.

[Sam Claiborne]

This is sci Fi. Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

It's going to keep happening. Stop talking about it.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah. And then each world is just full of tropes from that genre. Right. Like we're not seeing anything new in the cyberpunk world or the sci Fi world.

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, the longest conversation in the beginning about like, why do you write sci Fi? And like she's like, I think I wrote this. You're just jumping down a hallway.

[Amy Nicholson]

Exactly.

[Sam Claiborne]

And she's like, now here's what comes next. And it's like, you're gonna jump on six platforms. Like that's not what you do when you write a game and then the protagonist comes across six round platforms.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah, I'm glad. One, I'm glad we're all on the same page with that. But you know, the gameplay is super fun and that's what really matters. Yeah. In a game like this there's a.

[Paul Scheer]

Lot of fun, like references and Easter eggs as well. If you, if you like that kind of stuff. Like very early on you jump onto a giant hell, a bay of Hail. And I was like, I was like, oh, it's like Assassin's Creed. And then it says something about it being a leap of faith. I was like, oh, it straight up is Assassin's Creed. Okay, got it.

[Sam Claiborne]

I just. Damon explaining that to his son. That's from. No, you don't know that.

[Paul Scheer]

The Sands of Time. That's from this game called Prince of Persia.

[Amy Nicholson]

And yeah, in case anyone is wondering, I will not be playing Assassin's Creed Shadows with my son. I don't know. That's. That's a maybe a maybe one. Maybe we need to wait a little bit longer for a game where you.

[Paul Scheer]

Will just Assassin a little bit too much.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

They also didn't go out of their Way to make this like kid friendly. Like, there's a decapitation and some F bombs, right?

[Amy Nicholson]

Well, I don't. Are there F bombs? That's funny you say that. I don't remember F bombs. But there's Maybe there's. Yes, there's some S bombs and like.

[Sam Claiborne]

That'S what it is.

[Amy Nicholson]

If there were just one, that wouldn't bother me because like, Kingo's not even aware that there are bad words. Like he doesn't. They would just. It would just watch over him and he wouldn't even notice it. But there was several S bombs like in a row. So I was like, okay, you can switch the language on the fly. So I quickly switched it to Japanese. And first of all, I think it's an improvement. Playing it in Japanese, that sounds pretty good. But Kingo did not like that. He wanted me to turn it back to regular language.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh no, that's great.

[Amy Nicholson]

But I thought that was fun, so.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, anyway, yeah, and I'm not criticizing that decision. I'm just saying just so people know, like, it's just. You can play this. It is very kid friendly in the way it plays and how it teaches you how to play games. But it's like it doesn't, it doesn't go out of its way to be a kid game. It's not a Lego game.

[Amy Nicholson]

No. Yeah, it's not like that. But yeah, it is kind of a little bit weird tonally because it can be very, very silly. But then you're right, like that an org, like gets his arm chopped off by a guillotine and blood is like spilling out everywhere. And so it's just, just oddity.

[Justin Davis]

They must have market like I would imagine and maybe look like I'm super biased because of the age that I am and who plays video games in my house. But they must have market research on who. Like, is this couples playing their games or friends or, you know, parents and kids. Right. And like clearly if they're. If I'm a symbit rated T, like they must, they must know or must think they know that it is not that many parents and kids playing. So that's interesting.

[Amy Nicholson]

Anyway, split fiction, it's a whole lot of fun. I think anyone who enjoys those other games is going to enjoy this one as well. All right. Acclaim is making a triumphant return. Acclaim was a prolific publisher, mostly in the 90s. They started on the NES, would go into 16 bit consoles and all the way into the PS2 era. And acclaim was mostly known for licensed games. They originally brought Mortal Kombat to consoles. And then they brought a bunch of wrestling games, they brought NBA Jam, they had Turok. So they were, you know, very well known. But I think it's a little bit strange to be using the name today. Let me read to you. This is from Games Industry Biz. 90s games publisher acclaim has been revived supported by a team of industry veterans looking to support indie titles and reignite classic franchises. Led by CEO Alex Joseph, former founder and CEO of Graffiti Games, the firm aims to provide resources including funding, marketing and PR support to independent studios. And Graffiti Games is still in business. They publish Turnip Boy, those games. So I don't know, he's not the CEO of them anymore. Now he's going to do this Acclaim thing. So what I think is interesting is that even though Acclaim published a lot of well known games, I don't think anyone was like a fan of Acclaim back in the day. Right. They were fans of Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam.

[Sam Claiborne]

I was a fan of the logo. It's so cool.

[Amy Nicholson]

It is a cool logo.

[Justin Davis]

Maybe, maybe the Acclaim wrestling games, which was never like my thing. I think those were well liked, right?

[Amy Nicholson]

Oh yeah, yeah. I'm saying they published a lot of well liked games. I just didn't think they're not like Konami or a Capcom. Right. Where the name has a lot of cachet. So I just don't know, you know, if you're starring an indie publishing label today, I don't see how using the Acclaim name helps you anyway. Right, right. But still interesting.

[Justin Davis]

I mean, you know, like you said, Turok, I have a. I have a lot of. You're right, like Acclaim, the company does not have fans, but many of their games are very well liked.

[Amy Nicholson]

Oh yeah. So like in addition to game the franchises I mentioned before on the NES, they did 3D World Runner, which was a square game. They did Rambo, Wizards and warriors, double dragon 2, the NES port of NARC, total recall, Terminator 2, which we just saw last episode in that Nintendo Power. And Sam, they did Thrillers, Safari.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, I mean Acclaim Wizards and Warriors alone on NES was like an incredible series. And the second one has the famous Fabio cover on Iron Sword that a lot of people know from that. So one crazy thing about Acclaim was that they thought that you as a young Damon Hatfield in Kansas might be really into Acclaim and made a cartoon called Power Team of the acclaimed characters, including Kouros, which is the name of the warrior in Wizards and Warriors. And also Quirk, who I believe is a tomato from a game Boy puzzle.

[Amy Nicholson]

I had that game too.

[Sam Claiborne]

You had Quirk?

[Amy Nicholson]

That was one of my first game boy games.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's pretty fun, right?

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah, it's a fun game. Playing puzzle game.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. And then I can't remember who the other characters were. I could look.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah. So it sounds like it would be like Captain in the Game Master, but just with acclaimed characters. I never saw it.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then. Well, it's weird because it has like some episodes where this had this cartoon and stuff. And then I think they like, game showed it at some point. So it has this like two different eras of like, you know, tries like, who's that guy?

[Justin Davis]

You might.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, what is that? There's a power team, I think. I think the main guy is. Is Kuros there?

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah. Who? Look, it just looks like he. Man, that's great.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. And I guess they published a basketball game.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah, I was going to say NBA Jam.

[Justin Davis]

Well, I was going to say NBA Jam was one of them. I didn't know if you mentioned.

[Sam Claiborne]

So that was Bigfoot, by the way, the famous monster truck. So Bigfoot's in it. But yeah, it looks like they did Arch Rivals and then the nes. This is all NES era. Isn't this funny?

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

What is this? I'm so confused.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's an Acclaim Games super Team up show called and they. Yes, they did publish Bigfoot, I've confirmed.

[Amy Nicholson]

Cool. Good to have that confirmed.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yep. But.

[Amy Nicholson]

And so in order for them to all like join hands like that, they had to lift cork up off the ground because he's only like, knee up. Okay.

[Sam Claiborne]

So then they also like hit the stride in the 90s where they like, before they even did the famous stuff, we were talking about World Combat NBA Champ, which are Midway games, by the way. They also had a partnership with Midway, but they did tons of licenses. Like, I remember them as being the licensed people. They did like crap, you know, like Simpsons games. They did a Punisher game. They did Bill and Ted's excellent video game Adventure. Remember that turd?

[Amy Nicholson]

Yep.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. Some really, really bad stuff. All the Simpsons early stuff, though. But yeah, then Beetlejuice, Terminator 2, they brought two consoles, like all that stuff. Crusty the Krusty Game. So, yeah, that was all happening. But then they had these like, you know, huge years with those wrestling games that Justin's talking about too.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

Yep.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, look at this.

[Amy Nicholson]

I know.

[Sam Claiborne]

And it's using the Mortal Kombat.

[Amy Nicholson]

I was just going to say. Yeah, I think this is Batman.

[Paul Scheer]

I remember. I remember.

[Sam Claiborne]

This could have, you know, blown people's minds at the time, but the games are just terrible. They look good, though.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah. So acclaim lasted until 2004 when went bankrupt. There was some. Some light controversies around that time too. They got in trouble for like not paying royalties to companies like Marvel, things like that. And then they ran that sweepstakes or that competition to if someone would name their kid Turok, they would win some. Some sort of. Some sort of prize.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh my gosh.

[Amy Nicholson]

And then they're.

[Justin Davis]

Didn't they also advertise on tombstones?

[Amy Nicholson]

Yes, there was. They were trying to. Offering like advertising on tombstones. I forget. I think that was for. They did one of those PlayStation era games. That's like a 3D, kind of a forgettable 3D action adventure game with a horror theme. I can't think of the name of it right now. Anyway, that's what that. What's the advertising on?

[Paul Scheer]

What's the play there? You just. You go. You go into a funeral and you're.

[Justin Davis]

Like, oh, I mean, it's just shock value.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah. It's just shocking. Yeah. And then it turns out the winners.

[Sam Claiborne]

Of that was the game you're thinking of Psychic Force.

[Amy Nicholson]

No, it wasn't that one. The winners of that Turok contest were just paid actors. No one actually named their kid Turok.

[Justin Davis]

They. I acclaim. I think a bit of Justin Davis lore is the very first video game review that I ever got paid to do. Like my. One of my very first freelance gigs ever was this acclaimed racing game called xcra. XGRA was an extreme G bike racing game. It was bad.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah, I bet.

[Sam Claiborne]

Damon, was the game you're thinking of Forsaken?

[Amy Nicholson]

Nope.

[Justin Davis]

Maybe.

[Sam Claiborne]

Nope.

[Amy Nicholson]

Nope.

[Sam Claiborne]

All right, I'm gonna give it one more time.

[Amy Nicholson]

It's like not Nightmare Creatures. It's a game around that same time in the same type of game as like Nightmare Creatures.

[Sam Claiborne]

I think you think it would be like 1999.

[Justin Davis]

Was it not Shadow Man?

[Amy Nicholson]

It might be Shadow Man. That might be exactly right.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, it was Shadow Man.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah, I think so.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah, something along those lines. Anyway, it is said so the three guys that started a claim used to work at Activision. And it is said that they chose a claim so that it would appear before Activision alphabetically. And I could not actually find a source confirming that. However, that is exactly what the former Atari people who started Activision did. That's exactly why they named Activision so it would appear before Atari. So it is entirely possible they did the same thing with the claim, but.

[Sam Claiborne]

Appear before and what, like the yellow.

[Paul Scheer]

That'S what I'm saying. Like I've heard of like, like, like we had a place here in our town called Ultra Pools, but it was a L, T, R, A because they wanted to appear first. And then, and then it was like AAA Pools and stuff. Yeah, like I get that. This I don't understand at all.

[Sam Claiborne]

You're.

[Amy Nicholson]

You're a rep for Toys R Us. Okay, you're. And you're going to CES 1990 and say, okay, let's get a list of the. The. Let's get a list of the.

[Sam Claiborne]

The whole hall is alphabetized. You're looking at the booth close up to the parking lot.

[Amy Nicholson]

Who comes up first? Claim. Okay, let's go look at a claim before we go over to Activision.

[Justin Davis]

I think about that, I think about that in the context of Game Pass because games get paid by Microsoft for their usage on Game Pass. How many people are downloading it and installing it? And I confess, like, I sort game. Like my game pass is sorted by A to Z sometimes. Like I'm just looking for something random to play. And I made it to Donut county and I didn't make it any farther. And then that's what I play that night. And like that's been a real thing for me in my life. It's like, I bet, I bet there's a non trivial advantage to having a.

[Paul Scheer]

Having an early game, the Assassin. Once you scroll through all the Assassin's Creeds that are on there.

[Sam Claiborne]

So at the next Gamescom, Justin, maybe we can do a commerce booth that's called like AAA IGN merchandise.

[Justin Davis]

I'm gonna, I'm gonna start Aardvark game development.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, exactly. And the, the thing about that though is that you realize that people are gonna start in the A's and then by the time they get to the Cs in Germany, they're drunk. They're not gonna get any further than that. I've been to Gamescom. I see what happens there. There's a beer garden between every single part of the hall.

[Amy Nicholson]

It's true. It's true.

[Sam Claiborne]

You have beer to get to the next beer.

[Amy Nicholson]

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[Justin Davis]

You know, I mostly use it to.

[Amy Nicholson]

Just scroll on social media and click things that I like anyway.

[Sam Claiborne]

So why am I paying like several.

[Amy Nicholson]

Hundred dollars a month to do that? I'm going to be checking out Mint Mobile. Absolutely. If you like your money, Mint Mobile is for you. Shop [e-mail] Gamescoop that's mint mobile.com Gamescoop upfront payment of $45 for 3 month 5GB plan required equivalent to $15 a month new customer offer for first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details. 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. BILT 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 Bilt points toward. Points can even be redeemed towards a future rent payment or unique experiences that only BILT 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 joinbilt.com gamescoop that's J-O-I-N B I L T.com 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.

[Sam Claiborne]

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[Amy Nicholson]

That's enough of that. That's enough of a claim. Let's go to our Missing in Action Games feature. This is what we talked about on Election Council Watch this week. Had a really good conversation with Jada Griffin and Ryan McCaffrey over there, but I want to hear what the Omega Cops have to say about some of these games. So you know, games that were announced years ago and that we haven't heard from in a long time have no release date. We've got no updates. Games like Wolverine from Insomniac.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah.

[Amy Nicholson]

Will it come out ever?

[Paul Scheer]

Of course. Of course it will.

[Justin Davis]

But are we being punked right now?

[Amy Nicholson]

Okay, well then let's move on to Knights of the Old Republic remake.

[Paul Scheer]

I knew we were going to talk about that one. No, that game's dead.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah, that one's super good.

[Justin Davis]

Hold on back on Wolverine for a second. Second. Like, that game was hella leaked, right? Like, that's why it feels like we haven't heard about it in years and years. But imagine that those leaks didn't happen. There's nothing off schedule about what we're even.

[Amy Nicholson]

Oh, yeah, it was announced in September 2021.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. And that's the. That's the only time. And they haven't shown it.

[Amy Nicholson]

Hasn't been shown officially shown us anything besides this teaser trailer.

[Sam Claiborne]

Just the teaser. Yeah. So I think it's unusual and we. The. And compounding it is that every time there's a Sony conference, everybody's like, well, I'm excited to see the Wolverine tease. And we just had a couple of those and we came on this show and said, can't wait to see that Wolverine tease. You know, like, that's the issue.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, sure.

[Paul Scheer]

Like, they did release Spider man in 2023, so if it's the same team, I have to assume that, like, yeah, I think it's just a case of being shown too early. I don't think this game's like, in trouble at all.

[Justin Davis]

Also, was it like. And I don't know how much we can talk about those leaks. Well, maybe I just won't bring it up, but I believe that that game is on. Like, I think it was the, like 26. 2026 was like the what the leak indicated for Wolverine, if I remember right. Always plan for 26, maybe, but I can't remember. I don't have any of that data in front of me.

[Amy Nicholson]

But for Kotor, as recently as last. What is it? April 2024, the CEO of Saber, which is handling development now, says it's alive and well. Remember, it was announced as an Aspire game, but then got moved over to Saber.

[Justin Davis]

I don't believe it.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, I think that twinkle in the eye of a game developer still, I just don't. I mean, it might not ever come out, but if it comes out, like, it's just so many more years away.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, well, and it's such a bummer because it's such a perfect candidate. Like, look, that is a game that's hard to go back to and play. In 2025. And so like, what? It's just like some games get remade and I'm like, okay. Like, I don't know. This game didn't really need a remake, but Kotor is not one of them. It would benefit so much from it.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. And also there's like, it's not. Star wars is having issues right now. And right in the middle of that there was a shakeup where Star wars is like, hey, we're publishing games again. And so there's just all this stuff happening behind the scenes business wise that is probably like, who knows if it's affecting this or not. I'm saying that it is, but it's just like there's so many things that could get in the way of this game if it's not just being shown all the time already. Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah. My. My guess is that it's not going to come out.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah, I don't. I don't think so.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Amy Nicholson]

Here's one maybe you've completely forgotten about. John Carpenter's Toxic Commando.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, yeah. Is there. Isn't there a Toxic Commando movie coming out?

[Amy Nicholson]

I think you're thinking of Toxic Adventure.

[Justin Davis]

Yep.

[Amy Nicholson]

I watch Peter Dinklage. This is Toxic Commando. Totally different. The. The. The official description is team up with your friends to send the sludge God and its horde of things that should never be back to the underworld. So it's going to be like a left 4 dead back 4 blood type.

[Sam Claiborne]

Game, I think in like Trauma Verse. Trauma verse?

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah, like, yeah, that sort of.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

I've never heard of this game.

[Amy Nicholson]

It was announced in summer 2023.

[Justin Davis]

That genre is interesting because one of two things happens. Either it's like evolve and nobody likes it, nobody plays it and it goes away immediately, or it's just going to have 10 million people playing it on Steam every single day for the next decade. And there seems to not really be a lot of in between. Like, it's a. It's a great idea. I know that John Carpenter is like a really hardcore.

[Amy Nicholson]

He is a big gamer.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Amy Nicholson]

Who the hell knows how actually involved he is in this beyond lending his name to the title. But sure, yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Wait, what is. What is John Does? Is this not Troma? It's not.

[Amy Nicholson]

It's not actually connected to Troma. No, it isn't.

[Sam Claiborne]

So Toxic Commando is its own thing that has nothing to do with Toxic Avenger.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yep.

[Sam Claiborne]

Or the Toxic Crusader.

[Amy Nicholson]

There's going to be some sort of plague that's turning people into these things. That's the Toxic park. And you're You're a commando. You just have to mow them all down.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, so you're not toxic, you're like an anti. Toxic commando.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yes.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

Understood.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. But I mean, both. Both are great video game concepts. They are toxicity and commandos.

[Amy Nicholson]

They truly are. But since we haven't heard anything more since summer 2023, I don't. I'm not super confident. That one's also coming from Saber Interactive. So they're busy not making multiple games. Whenever you're talking about missing in action games, you inevitably come to Ubisoft 2024.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, yeah. Beyond Good and Evil 2.

[Justin Davis]

Am I going to be really sad now?

[Amy Nicholson]

Beyond good and Evil 2 and Prince of Sands of Time remake, which, you know, I guess to be fair, that.

[Sam Claiborne]

One got checked in on and they said it's not even close. Right.

[Amy Nicholson]

Basically another one. Yeah. So it was announced in September 2020 and then last summer they showed a little teaser during their Ubisoft event. Just a little teaser that said 2026.

[Justin Davis]

I can respect the game developer. Nintendo did this with Metroid Prime 4. That's like. Nah, we're starting it over like, you know, sorry, check back in another three years. It's like, like, it's like. Okay, well, fair enough. Thanks for letting us know.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah, yeah. It's funny you mentioned Metro Prime 4 because I think aside from that example, Nintendo doesn't really fall into this trap. They don't really announce a game years ahead and then just leave people hanging for years and years wondering if that game's ever kind of come out.

[Justin Davis]

And they kind of do the opposite, actually.

[Amy Nicholson]

They do.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

Coming out next month out of these two, Beyond Good and Evil two is. So if I think about it too much, I'm going to get really sad. I love the original Beyond Good and Evil. And even what they showed off of two looks so ambitious and weird and interesting. And it just, you know, I don't know, just makes me sad.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean, that one's our generation's vaporware, Right. Like that is. That is the Duke Nukem of the next gen, right?

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah. Except Duke Nukem eventually came out, even though it was bad.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. But it didn't come. I mean, it came out because they wanted to use the title and take advantage of that.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

I don't even know if this has that going for it. It yet.

[Justin Davis]

I like, I see. I see so little pathway to this game coming out and making money.

[Amy Nicholson]

Exactly. The original game was. Was a. It's a cult classic, but it wasn't a commercial Success. So, okay. They're going to spend literal decades making a sequel to it. Like, and, like, who's the audience? It's like, it's Justin. Hundreds of people.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. Hundreds of people to make a sequel to, like, you know, this platformer that, like, look, like, I love Beyond Good and Evil, but, like, nobody's asking for that sequel.

[Paul Scheer]

Well, and I. I think Ubisoft really. Not to be a downer, but I think that they are in a, like, only sure wins mode right now.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

And so I'm sure that that's kind of what's happening. Like, after Prince of Persia, the Metroidvania one, you know, great game but didn't perform super well, they shut that studio down. I'm sure that the. That's what these are suffering as well, where it's like, if we don't think this is going to sell hell of money. You all got to work on Assassin's Creed.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. You're all making Assassin's Creed and, you know, Splinter Cell.

[Sam Claiborne]

I just want to just point out, though, that it's better that these games don't come out than that they come out in 10 years as a Suicide Squad type game.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, yeah, I know.

[Justin Davis]

That's true.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

No game should ever come out as a Suicide Squad type.

[Sam Claiborne]

Kotor could easily end up as a anthem. Like. Right. We don't want that. Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, no.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Amy Nicholson]

Cotor is a live service game. Now, is the Old Republic still a thing, or is that still, like a something that people can subscribe to and play today?

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, remember, they have an older Republic now. Right.

[Paul Scheer]

For sure.

[Justin Davis]

Well, no, it's new. The High Republic is newer than the Old Republic.

[Sam Claiborne]

Newer than the Old Republic. Okay.

[Justin Davis]

Okay. And yes, Kotor, the. The MMO is still around.

[Amy Nicholson]

Interesting.

[Paul Scheer]

Yep.

[Amy Nicholson]

All right, one more. Just one more. The Wolf Among Us two.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, yeah. Oh, so that's another one that makes.

[Sam Claiborne]

Me sad because, well, Telltale Come Back.

[Amy Nicholson]

Went away, but then it came back. But.

[Sam Claiborne]

But it didn't publish a game yet. Right.

[Amy Nicholson]

I think maybe they did some. Like the Expanse.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. Which I didn't play, but I did. It got back on my radar because I watched. I hadn't watched, like, the final three seasons of the Expanse, and I watched them and loved them and wanted more. And then. And then, you know, it's like, oh, yeah, they made that game, which I know was well liked.

[Amy Nicholson]

I don't know when Wolf Among Us 2 was announced, but in March of 2023, they delayed it to 2024, which is obviously coming on. But then we had a story in September of 2023 that Telltale reportedly laid off most of its staff. So, like, who's even making this game if it's still going to be.

[Justin Davis]

Right, that's what I was gonna say. So there was. Telltale was revived.

[Amy Nicholson]

Right.

[Justin Davis]

And released one game and then basically almost died again. Right, yeah.

[Amy Nicholson]

Anyway, I don't think Wolf Among Us 2 is coming out.

[Sam Claiborne]

You know what occurs to me after seeing all this stuff is that one interesting way to revive these franchises or whatever, I guess licenses would be to make a co op game. And then it would get tens across the board and everybody would play it. Maybe do that instead of a pointy clicky adventure game.

[Paul Scheer]

Maybe force you to play with your friends.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, yeah. Everybody wants it. Couch Co op.

[Justin Davis]

There is a. Telltale is such an interesting, fascinating company. They made a Guardians of the Galaxy Telltale series that was, like, good. Like, they were all, like, pretty good. Yeah. I mean, and like, obviously they started with, like, Strong Bad. Right. Like, that was like.

[Amy Nicholson]

Well, I think it started with Salmon Max, even before.

[Justin Davis]

Well, but yeah, Strong Bad and Salmon Max, but. And then obviously hit it big, right, with Walking Dead.

[Amy Nicholson]

Do you remember at. I remember playing before Walking Dead, Justin. Future game before Walking Dead, Justin, they did a mobile, like, puzzle game.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, they did. Made a game called Puzzle Puzzle Legend.

[Amy Nicholson]

That was it.

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, before that they did Back to the Future and Jurassic park and nobody liked them.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah, they did those two.

[Justin Davis]

There was always. There was always two Telltales, like. And I don't know if it was literally like an A team or a B team, but, like, they made it. They made CSI like Law and Order.

[Sam Claiborne]

Hell, yeah.

[Justin Davis]

And then they were making dress. They were making these like. Like 5 out of 10, 6 out of 10 games. And then, you know, these really critically acclaimed, elevated, you know, stories.

[Sam Claiborne]

Remember right at the end, they did a Batman.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, yeah, it was great. They did two seasons of it.

[Sam Claiborne]

What are the top five Telltale games? It'd be like Walking Dead, Borderlands.

[Amy Nicholson]

Borderlands.

[Sam Claiborne]

Wolf.

[Amy Nicholson]

Wolf Among Us. Yep. And Strong Bat. It's a cool game for attractive people. That was really good.

[Justin Davis]

So I think that those four that you named are undeniable.

[Sam Claiborne]

Straight up Sam and Max, or do they do a spin off Max?

[Amy Nicholson]

I think they were sequels.

[Justin Davis]

They did. They were sequels. Yeah. And those. Those games, they were Telltales first.

[Amy Nicholson]

Weren't those on.

[Justin Davis]

They were on, like, Game Tap.

[Sam Claiborne]

Right.

[Justin Davis]

Or like, that's how Telltale started. Or how Sam and Max got started was on that weird subscription service. I mean, I Would put, like, I would put their. Their Monkey island was. It was.

[Amy Nicholson]

Wait, I don't think they did that, though. Oh, I'm sorry. They did, they did. They did a series. You're right, you're right, you're right.

[Sam Claiborne]

Like an adventure game on Monkey Island.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, everybody hated it at the time because, you know, they were. They were comparing it to the old LucasArts games, but like taken in a vat. Like they're good. They're a good, funny, cute, clever.

[Sam Claiborne]

But there was also like a straight up adventure game, Monkey island sequel also that somebody else did. Right.

[Amy Nicholson]

Well, that was more recent, but yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

The three years, something like that. I know which one.

[Justin Davis]

Yes. I think those four undeniably like on their Mount Rushmore and then the fifth one is kind of up for grab because they did.

[Sam Claiborne]

They did.

[Justin Davis]

I don't think I played them, but they did. Bones. They did a couple of bone.

[Amy Nicholson]

You're right. Gosh, they did so much.

[Sam Claiborne]

Minecraft story mode. Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

That might be the last game I reviewed.

[Sam Claiborne]

When I saw that event that. The announcement of Minecraft story modem, I was like, this is gonna make them a billion dollars and it's the smartest idea ever. And nobody played it.

[Justin Davis]

Now it had like Patton Oswald, I think did the voice of the main character, if I remember right.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean, it's like the funny idea, like that's they're doing the story mode. Like it's funny, you know, like.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah, I think they did a Wallace and Gromit series.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Amy Nicholson]

And they did that really bad Game of Thrones one, which is. It's crazy that got all the voice talent from the show. But then the game was just.

[Sam Claiborne]

How would you like to know about trees in the Game of Thrones universe, everybody? Well, there's the secret grove of trees. What are they going to use it for?

[Amy Nicholson]

Let's check in with the listeners. Anyways, listeners, remember, you can always reach us at the email address game scoop.com. just like Bryce did. Bryce says, when I was watching you go through the Nintendo power in episode 800, it reminded me how when I was a kid, I loved the Howard and Nestor comics to the point where I always entered Nestor wherever I had to enter a name in a game for many years after starting with Dragon War Fun, it made me wonder, did any of the Omega Cops have a standard name that they would enter in games? And if so, what was it? Keep up the great work. I always have and still to this day use Kane K A I N, which I think I get from Final Fantasy 4/2.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Amy Nicholson]

Unless it's a female character. And then I name her Kim.

[Sam Claiborne]

So in every game since Castlevania 3, Dracula's curse, I've entered my name as Help me. Just in case. I get.

[Amy Nicholson]

Just in case.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, there you go. When I was younger, I. I would enter my name in, like, Final Fantasy Games, right? Like, Squall would just be Mark and all that. But it got to a point where I was like, no. Like, I. I want Titus to be Tus. I want. I want, you know, all that stuff. I mostly play as female characters and I name them all Alyssa. And I don't know why. That's just. I just. That's just what I started doing and that's it. So I still do it to this day.

[Justin Davis]

I. I mostly also play female characters and then name them after my daughters, usually. Almost always. Or it's. But it's actually related is. It's a pet peeve of mine. If a game doesn't have, like, a default name for your character, because then I get a little bit stressed out. I'm like, no, I want my character to just be with their name. Yeah. I don't want the pressure of having to decide what their name is.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah, Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

I always thought it was crazy in Final Fantasy you could name characters. Like, it's a game about character development. Like, what are you doing?

[Amy Nicholson]

It's always funny in Zelda when they're like, name your link. Like, what? He's still just going to be linked.

[Paul Scheer]

Just name him Zelda. Good to get. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The old final fantasies, like the, The. Well, I. I sure like the Super Nintendo ones as well. And before that. But the. The PlayStation ones, you can rename any character. And I always thought I was so funny because In Final Fantasy 9, you start with a character named Garnet, and then she cuts her hair with a dagger and then renames herself Dagger. So then her name pops up and I would just always change it back to Garnet because that's what I was used to. And she'd be like, my new name is Garnet. And I would just be like, yeah, I'm funny. I'm real good.

[Sam Claiborne]

I really think that the funniest thing from, you know, Twitter 10 years ago was when people would named Link my Dude in Ocarina of Time. And then you watch the cutscene with a deku tree called Link. My dude.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, My dude. Wake up.

[Paul Scheer]

You're leading me to save the world. My dude.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, it's so good. And then there's a ton of those for Animals Crossing, which are so funny. And some of them are dirty and they're just. They're just great.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I.

[Paul Scheer]

It's funny.

[Justin Davis]

I went through the same phase that I think everybody went through of doing dirty words in games as a teen.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. I think the town thing is like, you name your town my butt or something like that. And it's like people are just constantly talking about, like, oh, there's so many new houses in my butt.

[Justin Davis]

That's great.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's pretty good.

[Paul Scheer]

Hell yeah.

[Amy Nicholson]

All right. This is Matt from Buffalo, New York. Work says, I have watched Game Scoop for approximately five years. I was curious to know what a day in the life of an IGN employee is like. How much of your workday is playing video games versus other work? What percentage of games for work are games you actually enjoy? What percentage of games you actually finishing? Do you ever get together as a group and play things just for fun during work hours? Do you still wake up in the morning and say, ugh, I don't want to go to work? Not looking to make a career change or anything. Just curious to know more about what it's like.

[Sam Claiborne]

And Mark, this is your performance.

[Paul Scheer]

I don't do anything all day. Never. I only play games all day. Yeah, sure, I'll go first. Let's see. No, I. Of course, everybody is like, oh, I got the Sunday sad.

[Sam Claiborne]

Ask Mark the questions one at a time.

[Amy Nicholson]

Okay, here we go.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Amy Nicholson]

How much of your workday is playing video games?

[Paul Scheer]

Almost none, because I'm the manager of the video guides team. Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Like, but Mark has to capture nice looking gameplay frequently and get that up. And he's very good at that. So it's like if he's playing a game for work, sometimes it's the very first part of that game.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah. Yeah. But I. I would say mostly like most IGN employees, surprisingly, like, yeah, I play after work weekends, stuff like that during work hours. Very rare nowadays.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah. Do you ever get together as a group and play things just for fun during work hours?

[Paul Scheer]

No, only. Only. So I have a team of two people and yeah, sometimes if we like, it'll be really fun. We'll be like, hey, guys, we have to play this game together. But it doesn't happen often, so. No.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, we used to do that when we were. We were all in the same office and that was a very frequent thing. We'd all sit down on a couch and play games.

[Paul Scheer]

That was us four were all in almost arm's reach of each other when we worked in the office. So things were different.

[Amy Nicholson]

It was a lot different.

[Justin Davis]

And even. Even. Even earlier than that, in the first couple years, there was more of that, right? Like, more of like, hey, it's lunch break. Let's just play something.

[Amy Nicholson]

We used to have a gaming PC behind us.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, no.

[Justin Davis]

Whoa. Is that me? That was me.

[Paul Scheer]

That was you?

[Justin Davis]

What is this?

[Paul Scheer]

What was it?

[Justin Davis]

Oh, my God.

[Paul Scheer]

Wait, can you just pause it like. Okay, so there's Dan Station, Jared. It's gotta be on this. There's. Yeah, so that's funny because video.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, this is like VR.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, it was the VR.

[Justin Davis]

I remember the VR camera of the office.

[Paul Scheer]

That was Amanda's desk that Justin was sitting at. And my desk would be across from that.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah. So we used to have a big TV and a gaming PC behind us, and we have a Steam account, so we have access to it. And so we used to play a game called It's Fun Checking Out Games on Steam. And we just pull up something random and play on Steam for whatever.

[Paul Scheer]

Nice.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah, yeah. Everyone's gonna be different. First of all, we don't all. It's a hybrid work environment now. None of us live in the same city. Justin's in a different state. So very different. These days, I come into the office usually three days a week. Sam and Mark work from home. So it's the times of us, you know, all being working together in office are very, unfortunately, over. Still, it's different for everyone. How much? Whether you're playing games during work hours. These days, I almost never play games during work hours. I don't. I'm not reviewing games or previewing games. Hardly ever anymore. However, ironically, I am previewing a game right now that's a very Damien game that I got to play during workouts, but usually I'm never doing that. So me. There are three shows that I oversee. This one, of course, the Daily Fix and Next Gen Console Watch. Daily Fix is a daily new show. So every day, Monday through Friday, we start with a morning meeting where we get together and figure out what we're gonna cover on the Daily Fix. Then everyone breaks away, and then I'm usually planning and preparing for one of these shows, Game Scoop or Next Gen Console Watch, which involves, you know, picking topics, doing research, you know, so I hopefully sound like I know what I'm talking about, planning questions and prompts for my guests. Because you'll find usually people wait for permission to talk. So if you don't have, like, questions and stuff planned, ask people. There's gonna be a lot of dead air. And then at the end I don't have that problem. Right, yeah, yeah. Sam doesn't have interruption joke. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have to the end of every day I have to screen the Daily Fix, make sure it's okay. Sometime during Thursday, Jobirt, who's producing this show is done editing next gen console watch. So I screen that, make sure that looks okay. And then Fridays I spend editing and publishing GamesCube. And that's just. That's a pretty typical work week for me. Sam, how about you?

[Sam Claiborne]

So I. So I run, you know, a global team now. So I have a lot of early morning meetings and stuff like that that I'm doing with my leads in other countries and doing that stuff. But because guides always has great background work to do. Miranda Per and I, the kind of the written psychist, Mark can answer his own stuff. As managers, we actually still write strategy guides. We get into it. I did a bunch of echoes of wisdom most recently, actually. So that was the last time I sat down. I was like, I need three hours to play this game today. And I'd go in and I would make this elaborate series of screenshots and tables and descriptions of how you got every echo. That was my job for that game. That's an example of when I'd play a game at work. Usually though, what I'm doing is I'm playing games at night and realizing what next day there's just some hole in our coverage that either I assign or do myself. Right now I'm doing a really boring set of data entry on maps and tables for an old Assassin's Creed game. Not that it was for Valhalla, but just making sure we have these new checklists and maps and stuff. I want to familiarize myself with the tool and I know that that game is being used a lot as a strategy guide. So that's an example of there's always that work to do and I love that work. So that's what I'm going to be doing. If I'm not doing what's my task for the year, which is to get us however x many video views and page views and manage a team of.

[Amy Nicholson]

20 some people, big team. I manage one person, Jobert doing a great job.

[Sam Claiborne]

I have managers that manage people. So, you know, Mark manages two people on that team, which is great. Makes it very easy for me when Mark is a great manager and manages with people well.

[Amy Nicholson]

And Justin, you were hired as the mobile gaming editor replacing Levi Buchanan back in the day.

[Justin Davis]

That's right.

[Amy Nicholson]

And he's still doing that to this day, still just playing mobile games.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, it's great. You know, the Angry Birds two, not very good.

[Sam Claiborne]

Snake is still king.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. It turns out all this time, Snake is king.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

I mean, you know, one thing, I'll talk about my job in a second, but one thing I want to point out with regard to playing games at work is like, even when you are playing games at work, I feel like it's not as, you know, it's like you're not. I have a vivid memory of like I was reviewing a game called Battle Block Theater and like that was right when I think like, like the Last of US or maybe BioShock Infinite came out.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh my God.

[Justin Davis]

It's like, I want to play BioShock Infinite. You can't.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah, do Battle Block Theater.

[Justin Davis]

And I'm like, oh, so. Or you know, or even if you are playing the Last of Us, it's like, okay, go play the first five hours at a preview event. Now you gotta play the first five hours on Xbox and now you gotta replay the first five hours again on PlayStation and play through it the rest of the way and review it. And so it's like that was Mark's.

[Sam Claiborne]

Like full time job for a while, is to play the first five minutes of every version of a game.

[Paul Scheer]

God. Yeah, it's true.

[Justin Davis]

And so, you know, like, I don't want to come off as like complaining. I like, I never get the Sunday night heebie jeebies of like I'm dreading go, you know, getting up and going to work the next day. That's never happened to me. Even when things are like the most stressful and most awful, like it's a cool, it's a good place to work, it's a good job. But that doesn't mean that it's like, oh, you just play video games, have a great time all day. Like, like it's called work for a reason. Right.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's what the money's for.

[Justin Davis]

That's what the money is for. I don't think of you at all. My job now is I run the IGN store and I run our commerce and shopping team. So we're writing deal articles and things like that. That is my group that's overseeing that. So what does that mean in practice? My group is also spread out on a couple different continents. So, you know, a lot of meetings, a lot of emails. Something that's been gratifying is when I was a junior employee, I really benefited from a lot of mentorship and training from other people on the team that have Been doing this a lot longer than me as my career is advanced. It's really gratifying and feels good to have the opportunity to now mentor and train junior staff myself and sort of help set the strategic direction for the group and then they can go forth and execute on it. And I'm here to help get them unblocked or unstuck and allocate resources onto the things that most need it to sort of help us accomplish our goals.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. And I think people can imagine that Mark and I just being in the guides realm. When you play a game, Mark, you actually came at this a little bit different because you've always had video around. So you've always had to have clean, good playthroughs of video. Which means that you actually do play a game either once badly and then a second time really well. Right. That's one way to do it. Which you can say like that's fun or not to play a game twice, but to do writing or data mining of a game or do a map, you play for five minutes and then you write for 10 and then you play for five more minutes and you write for 10. Or you might play for 15 and then have nothing to write about, which is great. But that is 100% what you're doing. When you're doing this. Think about this. Think about filling out map points. You're just walking your character around and taking a bunch of screenshots, putting them, making sure they're all organized and everything. And then writing exactly what you need to and then going into our map tool. That's what most people are doing. And it's laborious. It takes a long time. And when I'm doing that, that's when I'm playing a game at work. So it's not like I cannot wait to come to work and play that game. It's more that I like that part of the work. I like zoning out and doing that. Now I don't get to do that as much anymore. I don't even get to do the slog anymore, which is my favorite thing. Because a lot of stuff, what we do now is just managing projects and content and stuff like that.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, you mentioned about video. It is true. A lot of my life is playing through games twice and they make it harder and harder. So stuff for like Elden Ring, if you step on a blade of grass in that game, it auto saves. So it's a lot of like a lot of time is spent with me and my team being like, okay, upload our save to the cloud do this practice run, then you have to quit out of the game. Download the game from the cloud. And so it's, it's, yeah, I, Even when you're playing a game for work, it's not what you think. It's, it's not, I'm not going to say it's not fun, but it's not, it's not just playing for fun. And then I also want to mention what, what Justin was talking about with the, the Sunday scary, because I, I, I, I started to mention that as well. It, it is tough. And I, to, I do, you know, you're like, oh, man, I don't, I don't want to work tomorrow, whatever. Right? I think, I think that that is, is fine for anybody to do, but I do very much like, force myself to remember where I work, especially working from home. When I worked in the office, there was a ton of that because that meant an hour and a half each way commuting. That was more what I didn't want to do. And now I don't.

[Sam Claiborne]

You almost have like, and I'm not using this word lightly, but you have kind of have a PTSD memory of like, work. Work sucks. And so, like, going to work sucks.

[Paul Scheer]

Because of the drive. Exactly. And so now I have to remember that it's like, dude, your job is not like, it's not that bad. Just like Justin saying, like, even your worst days are not that bad at ign. And so I very much, like, recognize the privilege of being able to work at a place like this. And so I am less sad about work than probably most people that have jobs.

[Amy Nicholson]

I don't want to speak for anyone else, but for me, the most enjoyable 90 minutes for me every week is what we're doing right now.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, my most enjoyable 90 minutes was adding a check mark to the 126 walkthrough pages of Assassin's Creed today. So speak for yourself.

[Justin Davis]

Okay, you guys, I would recommend everyone think long. Be very, very careful and think long and hard before you become an important person at your job. Because I get these terrifying emails.

[Sam Claiborne]

We got a really big problem.

[Justin Davis]

There's something really wrong on the store. And it's like, well, okay, cancel everything.

[Paul Scheer]

That's up to you. I used to be. My first seven years at ign, I was on a team called the Gameplay Team. Man, I had it so good. Those days are over, man. Anyways, okay, I love it.

[Amy Nicholson]

We, we're going to get into some extracurricular activities. Do we need to dismiss you, Justin?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I have to Go. I. I have a. I. My daughter has a choir concert, which, by the way, I'll tell you, you know, she's like, dad, I got selected for this choir concert, and what I said out loud was, wow, that's so great. Congratulations. And what I thought in my head was like. Like, you have never sung anything in your life.

[Amy Nicholson]

Like, how.

[Justin Davis]

How did this happen?

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, interesting.

[Justin Davis]

Like, I think she's just kind of like. She's just very well behaved in school, and so I think the choir teacher kind of like, you know, just picked her for.

[Amy Nicholson]

That's good.

[Justin Davis]

Anyway. Yes, thank you. Happy scooping. Good luck on 20 questions.

[Amy Nicholson]

Later.

[Justin Davis]

See ya.

[Amy Nicholson]

Jova. You want to just throw a picture up there, or do you want to. Oh, yeah, just leave it like that. That's good. That's good. All right, here we go. Okay. Excellent.

[Paul Scheer]

You left on a good frame.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah. Did you leave on a good frame?

[Sam Claiborne]

Can you find some sunglasses for Justin while we.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah, Jover, please find some sunglasses for just some. Okay. Extracurricular activities. I watched Flow, which is the animated film that won the Oscar for best animated film. And has anyone else seen it? Sam, you seen it?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yes, I've seen it. And I. Yeah, yeah, I liked it. I told you. My. My cat loved it.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yep.

[Sam Claiborne]

Watched the whole movie, start to finish. It's right under the tv, which he never does.

[Amy Nicholson]

It's a nice companion piece, the Wild Robot, which was out last year from.

[Sam Claiborne]

I didn't see that.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah, it's very, very good. The difference. A big difference here is that in Flow, in Wild Robot, the animals and the robots all talk, so there's lots of dialogue. Of course, there's no dialogue in Flow, because there's no human characters. It's just animals. So the only thing you hear for the entire movie are animal sounds and nature sounds. And there's the old saying in the theater show, don't tell. That's all this movie can do. They can just show you things, and it's really, really wonderful visual storytelling. Just the basic premise is that the cat and these other animals experience something very, very disruptive in their lives and have to go on a journey together, and they have to figure it out. And that's, like, what the whole message of the movie is. You got to go with the flow. All of us are going to have challenging things happen. Us. Happen to us in our lives, and we have to decide how we're going to deal with it. So it's great. It was really, really good. I watched it with. We're watching as a family My wife. Wife, who loves Wild Robot, was really bored by Flo and zoned out. But my son, he was. He watched the entire thing. He was engaged from start to finish. And in fact, as a first, Sam, you'll appreciate this because you've seen it, so I'm assuming you haven't seen it, Mark, is that right?

[Paul Scheer]

I have not.

[Amy Nicholson]

Okay. Sam. At the end of the movie, Kingo cried.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Amy Nicholson]

And it's like. It's kind of like a bittersweet ending, but it's just. It really affected him. And it didn't. It didn't end up where he thought it was going. He was really moved by it. So that was the first time I've seen him have, like, an emotional response to a movie. So that was kind of a big deal.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

This is kind of the end of the movie right here. They kind of anthropomorphize the animals just a little bit. Like, they can control boats and stuff like that and, like, do nice things to each other, which is strange. They don't talk, but they. You could.

[Justin Davis]

The.

[Sam Claiborne]

You know, I was kind of expecting it to be like, well, what would really happen in this kind of fantasy world with these animals and stuff like that? But it's a little bit more. It's a little bit between Disney and reality. It's not full on talking to each other. But they have their personalities and they have a little bit of ability to self determine which animals generally don't.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah, there's lots of symbolism. It's a movie you'll be thinking about for a while after you see it. There's one thing that happens in the movie that. But I raise an eyebrow too. And I was like, well, that's kind of weird. And I'm not sure what to make of that. Maybe we can offline about that later, Sam. But other than that, flow was very, very good. I recommend it.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. I mean, it has a. I mean, they, they. They don't mask it too. Like, there's a. There's a lot of Noah's ark stuff happening in this, which is like, you know, you can. But it's a real twist on all that, that story. So it's not. It doesn't go where you expect it to and stuff. Also made in Lafayette. Shout out to our Baltic nations.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yep, Yep. That's good.

[Sam Claiborne]

Good.

[Amy Nicholson]

I'm also only one episode away from finishing Paradise.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, man.

[Amy Nicholson]

Which is good.

[Sam Claiborne]

The final episode is a real changer. Really changes things up.

[Amy Nicholson]

That happens a couple times.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean, I'm not saying I'm not trying to tell you, like, there's a twist or anything like that. It's not like that. It's just like, it doesn't, you know, it wraps things up in, like, you know, a kind of expectant way, but then you're also like. Like, you know, you can kind of see where they're leading you.

[Paul Scheer]

And so it feels like this version of the show is over and that season two is going to be dramatically different.

[Amy Nicholson]

Interesting.

[Sam Claiborne]

I liked it.

[Amy Nicholson]

I've been enjoying the whole thing. Fun show I've been enjoying.

[Paul Scheer]

Paradise is great.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. I was really hoping it was actually a secret Sonic Universe movie, but Sonic did not show up this season.

[Amy Nicholson]

I was going to say I like James Morrison in it. I used to have kind of a negative opinion. So good. He was such a wiener as Cyclops in X Men. And I haven't seen the Sonic the Hedgehog movie, so. But he's really funny in Jury Duty and he's really likable in this, so I've come around.

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, the only reason he could have been. He could have been a cool Cyclops, he just needed to smoke cigarettes. Yeah, that's. That's really the key. That's why we all think that's what.

[Amy Nicholson]

Was wrong with that. Yeah. And then, of course, Sterling K. Brown.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is amazing, but you saw the penultimate episode, which is the disaster movie, which is like, crazy.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah.

[Paul Scheer]

There's a. I like, didn't. I didn't breathe that whole episode.

[Amy Nicholson]

There's a really effective. Seen in that movie or in that episode.

[Sam Claiborne]

The interesting thing about this show that I've never seen anybody do, so I'm not going to just say they invented this, but it was new to me, was that when you watch a disaster movie, then you get this, like, they try to attach you to a bunch of characters. Damon, you know this from the Godzilla movies. You just don't care about the people because they spend 15 to 20 minutes, that feels like two hours introducing you to a bunch of boring people. They're like, I'm a pilot. No, I'm in charge of safety in the tunnels of, you know, the subways in San Francisco. Like, it's just nonsense. And then they're like, how are they gonna tie together? Like, that's all movies. This movie spends six hour long episodes getting you emotionally involved in all these characters. Then it shows, like, what disrupted all of their lives. And, like, by that point, you're like, I really don't want anything bad to happen to these people. It's brilliant. Yeah, it's really, really smart.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah, that's good.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

So I like that about it, but.

[Amy Nicholson]

Just without any spoilers. Are you both happy with the way it ended Season one?

[Sam Claiborne]

I am more happy with it than other people. Our staff was like, oh, like, you know, the season arc was ruined by the. It's like, whatever. It's just another episode.

[Paul Scheer]

They've been like that the whole season, though, and I disagree with them along.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, I don't know. I know. Some people convinced me to watch this show because it was, like, such a great show, and they were right.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah. Yeah. Corrado was super into it. Sorry. I'm gonna name names that the audience doesn't know, but there. There are. There is a very, like. I don't want to say stuck up. That's not the right word. C. Group of people at IGN that they just. It seems like they hate everything, and I always got to get in there and ruffle them up.

[Amy Nicholson]

Unless it's like, hey, Christopher.

[Paul Scheer]

No. Unless it's pretty good, guys.

[Amy Nicholson]

Unless it's scorching.

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, what. What this movie has going for it, though, is what Game of Thrones did, which is just has a good, like, twisty, turny plot, Plot, plot, plot, plot. It has good characters, and then it's just like. It's just a lot of things happen all the time. It never drags stuff out. It's, like, tight. And, like, when you're watching it, you're just like, I can't wait to see what happens next. And then they show you what happens next. They don't drag it out. They don't do a bunch of, like, past scenes, which they do have, but it's not. Like, every week there's an hour of somebody's past, and then like, five minutes of showing, like, what. That. Where that foot came from, you know? Like, I hate that. So I'm really happy with that.

[Paul Scheer]

So they'll. Yeah, they'll say something, and you're correct. And then it's like 10 minutes later, you're like, oh, that's why they said it. They. They do that a lot in this show.

[Sam Claiborne]

And. And there is a major, major video game theme in it, which is absolutely shocking. And you still have more. More to go on that one day. Okay, I will leave it there.

[Amy Nicholson]

Cool.

[Paul Scheer]

It is.

[Sam Claiborne]

I am not.

[Paul Scheer]

It is the funny.

[Sam Claiborne]

It is unbelievable. And I can't believe it's not the biggest thing that people are talking about. Like, I watched it last night, and I was like, how is nobody talking about this everywhere right now? Because it's just crazy.

[Amy Nicholson]

Okay, well, I'll finish it tonight. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. And that brings us to video game 20 questions. Our real suggestion comes from Bailey Davis, a good, very close relation to Justin Davis in Moody, Alabama. Bailey says. Just wanted to say I'm very thankful for Scoop nation and all you on the show. I'm thinking back on some of my favorite memories over the past few years, and some of them involve going to the park on a sunny day to walk and listen to game Scoop. I work in healthcare as a respiratory therapist, so I also know what it means to positively impact people. Just wanted to say you impact more people than you know. We're very thankful for you all. We're very thankful for you all in Scoop nation as well. Thank you for reminding us, Bailey. And with that, I have the suggestion here. So let the questioning begin.

[Sam Claiborne]

I have a job that I know that's helped a lot of people, so that's great.

[Paul Scheer]

I have a cousin named Bailey and she is also a respiratory therapist.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's incredible. That's amazing. First of all, I want to guess the last one just so I can get it in one question. So let me know if the writer writes it in. But I believe the game is let's go Pikachu.

[Amy Nicholson]

Okay.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay.

[Amy Nicholson]

We'll see.

[Sam Claiborne]

One quest.

[Amy Nicholson]

Stay tuned to find out.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is the game. Let's go Pikachu. All right. Is this a licensed game?

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, boy.

[Amy Nicholson]

No.

[Paul Scheer]

All right. Does this game. Did this game come out after let's go 2015? January 1, 2015. Did it come out after that?

[Amy Nicholson]

No. No. Okay.

[Paul Scheer]

All right. That's a lot of years. Okay.

[Sam Claiborne]

Does this game have animals in it?

[Amy Nicholson]

It. No.

[Sam Claiborne]

Whoa.

[Paul Scheer]

You said it's not a licensed game.

[Amy Nicholson]

Not.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. Why would I even play this? No animals. That's so rude.

[Paul Scheer]

L. Not a licensed game with no animals. No, man.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is this a sci fi game?

[Amy Nicholson]

No.

[Paul Scheer]

Is this game for. Was this game exclusive to the platform it released on?

[Amy Nicholson]

It was a How to. How to word this? It appear it here.

[Sam Claiborne]

Mark to reword his question.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah. Do you. Do you like. I don't know. Let's see.

[Sam Claiborne]

I guess we could do like. Do you consider this a console exclusive from when it came out? That.

[Amy Nicholson]

Was a h. I don't know how to word. Was not a console exclusive, but it was like company exclusive. That doesn't make sense. Sorry. It's okay. Technically, the. The technical yes or no answer is no. It was not a console exclusive.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is this a Nintendo published game?

[Amy Nicholson]

Yes.

[Sam Claiborne]

All right. It sounds like it's Smash Brothers and It came out for 3Ds and. And Wii U at the same time. Is that the one that came out okay.

[Paul Scheer]

Huh? Yeah. And Mario Kart.

[Sam Claiborne]

No, not at the same time, though.

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, right, right.

[Sam Claiborne]

Think of any Nintendo game that they published on two consoles at once.

[Justin Davis]

That's.

[Sam Claiborne]

Now, it did happen on the Super Nintendo and NES a lot. You know, the backwards days. But we know. So it's before 2015, but that's all we know.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

All right. Is this from the last century?

[Amy Nicholson]

Yes.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, okay. So maybe it is one of those. Wait, did this come out on.

[Amy Nicholson]

Did this come out on the nes? Yes.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay. Yeah. So. And did it come out on Super Nintendo?

[Amy Nicholson]

No.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, interesting. Okay, so it came out on NES and maybe an arcade platform. Was this an arcade game?

[Amy Nicholson]

Okay, it eventually was. You wouldn't think of it that really as that, though. That's 10.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay.

[Paul Scheer]

Mario 3H. So made by Nintendo.

[Sam Claiborne]

Exclusive. Is this a Mario or Zelda Universe game?

[Amy Nicholson]

Yes.

[Paul Scheer]

Well, I mean, so how many are there for nes? Not that many.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is it a platformer or. Or action adventure game?

[Amy Nicholson]

No.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay, so we're looking.

[Paul Scheer]

Mario's missing.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. Well, if it became an arcade game. Oh, it's going to be golf or Dr. Mario, probably.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah. Also, Mario's missing came out on Super Nintendo.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is this a puzzle game?

[Amy Nicholson]

Yes.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is it Dr. Mario?

[Amy Nicholson]

It is Dr. Mario.

[Paul Scheer]

Wow.

[Amy Nicholson]

Nicely done. Which came. It was NES and Game Boy, so I didn't know how to like.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

And the arcade version is really interesting. In fact, I just saw one at Blair Rally Vintage Arcade in Portland. No, sorry, sorry. Eugene, Oregon. Really, really cool game.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah. Dr. Mario. I was surprised we had never done this game before for 20 questions.

[Sam Claiborne]

Crazy.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, man. I love Dr. Mario so much.

[Amy Nicholson]

The music is so good in this game.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Fever or chill?

[Amy Nicholson]

Yep.

[Sam Claiborne]

Did you have this? Were you a Dr. Mario player?

[Amy Nicholson]

I was Dr. Mario player. I had it on. I think I had on both NES and Game Boy.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, I was a little bit of a. I think I've talked about this before. A partisan when it came to games. And I like Tetris so much that I refused to play Dr. Mario. So now when I play it with someone, you know, like my wife or a friend who lives is very good at Dr. Mario. I hate it.

[Amy Nicholson]

Well, so isn't it odd because, like, Nintendo was very involved with Tetris bringing Tetris to, you know, to the world and Game Boy and nes. So it's weird that they, like, still wanted to have their Nintendo wanted to have their own puzzle game still, even though they had great success with Tetris. Right. I just think it's.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, it's almost like mid licensing. They were like oh geez, no, but we need to do something like this. And then all of a sudden like.

[Amy Nicholson]

But we got it.

[Sam Claiborne]

They're like, okay, just put this out anyway.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah, but it's good.

[Sam Claiborne]

We'll never know. But it's going to be something weird like that.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah. Do you like Dr. Mario?

[Paul Scheer]

Oh, I love it. I love it. I like Dr. Mario more than Tetris. Not that they need to be compared to each like you know, remember Dr.

[Sam Claiborne]

Mario from the year.

[Paul Scheer]

I do love Dr. Mario quite a bit.

[Sam Claiborne]

There was a great game for Super Nintendo called Tetris and Dr. Mario. And it just had a really competent version of Tetris and a really competent version of Dr. Mario in it. But even better than that, it had a mix mode where you play Dr. Mario and then you play game A of Tetris and then game B of Tetris which is like, you know, get. First you play Dr. Mario, then you play get rid of Junk in Tetris and then you play like an open Tetris game where you're trying to get tetrises and that's the part that scores the most. So you want to eliminate as many viruses as possible. Then you want to eliminate all your garbage in Tetris and just as quickly as possible. And then like, like just kill in the Tetris game. And it's so fun. It's two player head to head, competitive. It's just a fantastic game.

[Amy Nicholson]

Nice.

[Paul Scheer]

I also really like Tetris Attack for Super Nintendo. That game also had really good music Attack.

[Amy Nicholson]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh gosh, what a. Yeah, you're right. The music is really, really good. And it's all based on Yoshi's island of all games.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

So weird. Like, like Deep Cut Yoshi's island bosses and characters and stuff. So weird.

[Amy Nicholson]

Of course the eternal question. Yeah, I guess we're supposed to be we're playing as Mario or and Mario's throwing medicine into a pill bottle because the germs are in the pill bottle. They're not even in. They're not even in a human's body.

[Paul Scheer]

What are we playing as Mario? He's just. He's just throwing us the pills. We're in the pill bottle.

[Amy Nicholson]

Wow. Okay. So we're something assist. Okay. Mario throws them to us. We're not actually.

[Sam Claiborne]

But. But that's making the assumption that Mario is not just throwing them compulsively because he has to but then controlling them with his mind.

[Paul Scheer]

Yeah, yeah. It's something I never considered.

[Amy Nicholson]

You know, the easiest answer is usually the correct one, right?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. Haku's razor. Mario's razor.

[Amy Nicholson]

Well, nicely, Job. Thank you for the suggestion, Bailey. David. Viewers, listeners, if you have your own suggestions for video game 20 questions, email them to me at the email address gamescoopgyn.com and that's gonna do it for this edition of. Nope. That's how I ended up. That's how I end. Next gen console watch. What I was supposed to say is that's all the scoops that we have for you this week. Thank you, Sam. Thank you, Mark. Thank you, Justin. Thank you to Joburt and everyone working behind the scenes to make this episode possible. My name is Damon. We'll be back next week. No, that's how I do. Next gen console watch. My name is Damon. This is IGN GamesCube. And we're out. I should mix I guess I shouldn't mix topics with Next gen and gamescube. It gets me really mess gets me brain fried. I shook you in my dream as hard as I could stand When I stopped you fell away Pockets full of sand Waking up a world away Cutting through the air 7,000 miles to kill I'll see you when I'm there just look into my eyes you're watching it decay Twitching in the net again trying to get away I am living in between the pleasure and the pain emblems glowing in the night and melting in the rain I've been modified I've been modified well, I guess it was worth a try But I feel I shook you in my dream as hard as I could stand When I stopped you fell away Pockets full of sand Waking up a world away Cutting through the air 7,000 miles to kill I'll see you when I'm there I've been modified I've been modified While I I guess it was worth a try, but I feel modified. You should listen to the gamesready biz Microcast. More people are playing games than ever before. They've never been more popular. And yet the business behind it is facing some real challenges and changes. There's been tens of thousands of layoffs, hundreds of studio closures as major companies face rising costs and falling sales. There's uncertainty around the future of game consoles. There's legal and government intervention into how games are even being paid for. The role of AI is changing how games are being made. There's the impact of games like Fortnite and Roblox dominating everyone's time. And then there's the desperate wait for Switch 2 and GTA 6. And that's just 2024. Two leading business journalists with a combined 35 years of experience offer you a weekly guide through all of this and more. I'm Christopher dring, head of GamesIndustry.Gameside Biz. I'm James Batchelor, Editor in chief of GameStry Biz, and you can join us every Monday for the gamesindustry Biz Microcast the most important stories, expert guests, exclusive market data, and all in less than 30 minutes. Usually. The GameStry Biz microcast every Monday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, I am Kristen Russo.

[Sam Claiborne]

And I am Jenny Owen Youngs.

[Amy Nicholson]

We are the hosts of Buffering the Vampire Slayer once more with with Spoilers, a rewatch podcast covering all 144 episodes of, you guessed it, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

[Sam Claiborne]

We are here to humbly invite you to join us for our fifth Buffy Prom, which, if you can believe it, we are hosting at the actual Sunnydale High School. That's right. On April 4th and 5th, we will be descending upon the campus of Torrance High School, which was the filming location for Buffy's Sunnydale High, to dance the night away to 90s music in the iconic courtyard, to sip on punch right next to the Sunnydale High fountain, and to nerd out together in our prom best inside of the set of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

[Amy Nicholson]

All information and tickets can be [e-mail] prom come join us.