Game Scoop! 807: I Played Ninja Gaiden Ragebound

Summary

Game Scoop! Episode 807: I Played Ninja Gaiden Ragebound – Detailed Summary

In Episode 807 of Game Scoop!, hosted by veteran games industry expert Damon Hadfield alongside co-hosts Sam Claiborne and Justin Davis, the IGN & Geek Media team delves deep into the latest happenings in the gaming world. This episode, released on April 16, 2025, offers comprehensive insights into new game releases, nostalgic retrospectives, listener interactions, and lively discussions on gaming trends.

---

1. Opening Remarks and Game Updates [02:21 – 10:18]

Damon kicks off the episode by setting the stage for a week filled with intriguing game discussions. He mentions playing "Ninja Gaiden Ragebound", "Assassin's Creed Shadows", and highlights the anticipation surrounding the Switch 2 console’s pre-orders.

Assassin's Creed Shadows Sam Claiborne shares his unexpected experience with "Assassin's Creed Shadows," where the game prematurely rolled the credits after Act 2, leading to confusion about the game's structure. He reflects, “I didn't expect it to like last night… and so I did all that. Roll credits. I recommend everybody roll credits on the game." [03:06]

Damon adds a touch of the supernatural, recounting an eerie encounter within the game: “At a temple last night, a guy just sort of kind of appeared out of nowhere and talked to me.” [06:14] This sparks a humorous debate about whether the character was genuinely supernatural or simply a quirky NPC.

Blueprints The conversation shifts to the highly-rated "Blueprints", a first-person exploratory roguelike game. Justin praises its depth, comparing it to "The Witness", and emphasizes its layered gameplay mechanics: “It's like a randomized selection of rooms, kind of like if you had a deck of cards.” [10:18] The team discusses its challenging puzzles and the satisfaction of uncovering its secrets over multiple playthroughs.

---

2. In-Depth Game Previews [10:18 – 28:43]

Ninja Gaiden Ragebound Preview Damon presents an exclusive preview of "Ninja Gaiden Ragebound", developed by Game Kitchen and published by Emu. He nostalgically references the classic NES trilogy, highlighting the game's pixel art and innovative mechanics such as the Guillotine Boost—a spinning attack that allows players to chain moves and navigate gaps creatively.

Sam and Justin express their excitement about the game’s faithful recreation of the original series' essence while introducing fresh elements that enhance gameplay. Damon elaborates on the story, noting, “You play as Kenji, one of Ryu's pupils, who must deal with a demon threat that has emerged.” [24:49]

Key Features Discussed:

• Pixel Art Design: Emphasizing nostalgia with modern enhancements.
• New Mechanics: Guillotine Boost and platforming challenges.
• Storyline Integration: A side story that complements the original narrative.

Kingdom Come Deliverance Justin shares his immersive experience with "Kingdom Come Deliverance". He describes a particularly memorable mission involving a drunk priest and the challenge of delivering a sermon while hungover: “The voice acting is good, and like, ... you have to reference back to the stuff that Pastor Godwin told you...” [19:18] The discussion underscores the game's deep role-playing elements and realistic interactions within a medieval setting.

---

3. Listener Emails and Interactions [32:46 – 62:45]

Austin from Provo, Utah – Omega Cups [32:48 – 34:02] Austin inquires about the origins of the hosts’ nickname, "Omega Cups." Damon and Sam reveal that it's an anagram of "Gamescoop," adding layers of creative wordplay to their branding. Sam reminisces about an episode involving anagram explorations: “We had found an anagram website...” [33:14]

Jason Wellborn – Nostalgic Game Music [34:02 – 43:54] Jason shares his affection for classic video game music, sparking a rich discussion on the evolution of game soundtracks. The hosts debate the nostalgia factor versus the inherent quality of music from eras like the NES and Genesis. Sam articulates, “Game music was a set of instrumentation when it was like eight bitty sounds...” [35:10]

Caleb Russ from Tennessee – Gaming with a Newborn [32:46 – 49:26] Caleb seeks recommendations for games suitable for short play sessions while managing life as a new dad. The hosts offer practical advice, emphasizing multitasking strategies such as using a Baby Bjorn bouncer to keep the baby content while indulging in quick gaming bursts. Sam suggests, “Get yourself a Baby Bjorn bouncer... You can just keep them bouncing, play to your heart's content.” [33:12]

Peter Dahlberg – Console Standardization [50:00 – 55:45] Peter poses a thought-provoking question about the feasibility and implications of having a single home console on the market. The team engages in a deep dive into the competitive landscape of gaming consoles, touching on economic factors and consumer benefits. Justin concludes, “It's a non-starter in the world of video games... it's the Nintendo holdout which is like, that's just that dynamic is so fun.” [53:19]

Leaf from Nova Scotia – Game Map Design [58:54 – 62:45] Leaf discusses frustration with map designs in games like "Witcher 3" versus "Elden Ring." The conversation explores user experience in open-world games and the balance between guidance and exploration. Sam emphasizes the importance of player-driven discovery: “I like the idea of how it's a process... what's the point of the open world if it's just listing all the stuff out.” [60:28]

---

4. Video Game 20 Questions Segment [66:39 – 79:37]

The Video Game 20 Questions segment features a listener's challenge to guess a Nintendo DS game that heavily utilizes the stylus. Despite numerous attempts and strategic questioning, the hosts struggle to identify the game, ultimately revealing it to be "Feel the Magic"—a Sega-published title known for its mini-game extravaganza. The segment highlights the hosts' camaraderie and playful banter, as they navigate the complexities of game identification based on minimal clues.

---

5. Announcements and Promotions [79:37 – 88:24]

IGN Live Event Damon announces the upcoming IGN Live event in Downtown Los Angeles on June 7th and 8th. He encourages listeners to secure early bird tickets, promising a weekend filled with live shows, giveaways, playable games, celebrity panels, and interactions with various brands and publishers.

Related Podcasts Promotion The episode also promotes affiliated podcasts like the Oxventure Podcast, an action horror comedy series set in a supernatural Wild West, and the Next Gen Console Watch, which discusses the latest in gaming hardware.

---

Notable Quotes

• Sam Claiborne on Gaming Anagrams: “Omega Cups is an anagram of Gamescoop.” [33:28]

• Justin Davis on "Kingdom Come Deliverance": “It's incredibly immersive... I want to Role play. It's like, okay, I need to go pick some herbs...” [22:43]

• Damon Hadfield on Console Competition: “It's a non-starter in the world of video games... it's the Nintendo holdout...” [53:19]

• Sam Claiborne on Game Maps: “What's the point of the open world if it's just listing all the stuff out.” [60:28]

---

Conclusion

Episode 807 of Game Scoop! offers a rich tapestry of gaming discussions, from detailed previews of upcoming titles like "Ninja Gaiden Ragebound" to deep dives into the preferences of game map designs. The hosts engage seamlessly with listener feedback, providing personalized advice and thoughtful commentary on industry trends. Whether exploring the nostalgia of classic game music or debating the future of console markets, this episode encapsulates the lively and insightful essence that Game Scoop! is renowned for.

Listeners new and old will find this episode a valuable exploration of both current and beloved aspects of the gaming landscape, delivered with the expertise and enthusiasm that has made Game Scoop! a staple in the gaming podcast community.

Transcript

[Damon Hadfield]

I have played Ninja Gaiden, Ragebound, I have a hands on report for you on that. Also, Sam Beat, Assassin's Creed, Shadows, and we've all been playing the highest rated game of the year so far. All that and more on IG and gamescoop coming up next after these messages. What sort of promises have you made to yourself this year? Getting in better shape? Eating healthier? Saving more money? Traveling somewhere new? What about discovering a new culture by learning a new language? With Babbel, you can, in just a few weeks this year, speak like a whole new you. With Babbel, the language learning app that gets you talking. Babbel's quick 10 minute lessons, handcrafted by over 200 language experts, get you to begin speaking your new language in three weeks or whatever pace you choose. And because conversing is the key to really understanding each other in new languages, Babbel is designed using practical real world conversations. Babbel's tips and tools are inspired by the real life stuff you actually need when communicating. With a focus on conversation, you'll be ready to talk rather wherever you go. I've used Babbel to brush up on my Spanish before trips to Mexico. It's useful for learning an entirely new language, but also for those who, like me, haven't used a second language in years and could use some refreshers. Need proof that Babbel gets you talking? Studies from Yale, Michigan State and other leading universities continue to prove Babbel works. One study found that using Babbel for 15 hours is equivalent to a full semester at College. With over 16 million subscriptions sold. Babbel's 14 award winning language courses are backed by a 20 day money back guarantee this year. Get talking with Babbel now let's get more of you talking in a new language. Babbel is gifting our listeners 60% off [e-mail] Gamescoop get up to 60% [e-mail] GamesCoop spelled B-A B B E L.com Gamescoop Babbel.com Gamescoop rules and restrictions may apply. This episode is brought to you by LifeLock. It's tax season and we're all a bit tired of numbers. But here's one you need to hear. $16.5 billion. That's how much the IRS flagged for possible identity fraud last year. Now here's a good number. 100 million. That's how many data points LifeLock monitors every second. If your identity is stolen, they'll fix it guaranteed save up to 40% your first [e-mail] podcast terms apply. What's up everybody? Welcome to IGN Gamescoop. I'm your host Damon Hadfield and joining me this week are Sam Claiborne.

[Sam Claiborne]

Hey, good to be joined.

[Damon Hadfield]

And Justin Davis.

[Justin Davis]

Scoot.

[Damon Hadfield]

We got a great show for you this week. It's a little bit slow now that we're past the Switch 2 madness, although we're just sort of in a holding pattern. Still waiting to hear when those pre orders are going to go live. Is anything going to happen to the Price? We'll wait and see. Not much else happening right now, however. I lit the beacons. I lit the beacons and Aragorn ran in and said the beacons are lit. Gamescoop calls for aid and Theoden said and Scoop Nation will answer. And we have a bunch of fun listener mails to share with you. And also I've played Ninja Gaiden Ragebound, which I am feeling quite keen on. Talk about that in just a moment. But first, Sam, you rolled credits, as the kids say, on Assassin's Creed Shadows.

[Sam Claiborne]

Rolled? Yeah. I didn't expect it to like last night. No. Two nights ago I had done a bunch of. I was playing for a long time. It was like a Sunday, you know, I was playing for a long time. And I also said Act 2 end and I was like, there's acts in this game.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, I don't know.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, yeah. Well, apparently that's when you get Yasuke. So I'm like, so the entire game takes place in Act 2. So Act 2 is underway. Right. And that ends. And then I'm like, oh, there's a few new quests and it must be opening up into Act 3 now. Usually these games are bigger than you expect, right? I start playing and all of a sudden the credits just rolled. So Act 3 is maybe shorter than Act 1, though, at least the way I was playing. Maybe it's cuz I was like accidentally killing templars on the side or something like that. I don't know what happened, but so I did all that. Roll credits. I recommend everybody roll credits on the game. It has a great fun series of quests leading up to the end. It's all fine. It's a great. It's my favorite Assassin's Creed. I. I think that that's all good. I, I never once in this entire game left medieval Japan. I don't know if you're in the animus in this game or what. Aside from like, well, you know, in the beginning where there's, like, a person, like, talks to you like this, and you're in the animus, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, that's it. As far as I know, that's it. Except sometimes you fight like, a Tron guy, you know, it's like there's a corruption in the animus, and you go, just kill a guy. There's no consequences. There's no, like, storyline to that or anything. It's like, purge, corrupt entity. I'm like, okay, this is going to be cool. I'm going to, you know, get my disc and get over there on my bike. But no, no, nothing like that ever happens. However, after rolling credits, I went back in the game and actually filled out another ring of, like, easy to assassinate things and started unlocking some fighty things that I could do that I was like, well, never gonna use these. Who cares? But then I was like, oh, there is an animus section of the assignments. And I went to go try to do them, but they were completely impenetrably opaque. And I couldn't figure out how to do any of them. So unlike anything else where it's like, this person is in Kyoto. This person's in South Kyoto, this person's in this temple. And then you can, like, send a scout and do that instead. It's like, collect 400 hardwood. I'm like, well, I've never even played a mission where I do that, but I've definitely collected that wood before. Like, what's up with that? Another one is just like, find the five shards. You have one out of five, and then it just takes you to, like, this kofun where you're supposed to end the quest. So I have no idea where those are. So anyway, I came in today and I was like, hey, Guides team, I have some questions for y'all. So I'm going to need to work on that. So we'll see. But, yeah, suffice to say, great game. Love, love beating it. I want to play the DLC like crazy now. I want to see if they do any more cool, like, monsters. And there's nothing supernatural in this game, so I'd love them to do what they did with Ragnarok, you know, and, like, do, like, a fantasy version.

[Damon Hadfield]

Well, there's something a little bit like, I met. So at a temple last night, a guy just sort of kind of appeared out of nowhere and talked to me. Seemed to talk to me in, like, riddles. And then I turned around and he's gone. So there's something like that that happened.

[Sam Claiborne]

So he's a trickster.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

So either funny guy. Yeah. Either it's supernatural, or he's just a weirdo. You just met a weirdo. Yeah, yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

That guy. Yeah, yeah. I remember that part. And you fight some people that are called, like, Godai, and they're like, you know, supposedly, like powerful. They're based in the elements, but they're just people. Although one guy, it. There's this. There's just a dojo, or not a dojo, like a big temple that is completely on fire and it never goes out. And one of these guys is by that. It's just a thing on fire all the time. And you can see it from a distance. It's kind of, Kind of great looking.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. Anyway, I went right to Blueprints the moment after I realized I couldn't do any of those Animus quests.

[Damon Hadfield]

Cool. Well, you inspired me. I have continued playing Assassin's Creed Shadows even though I said I thought maybe my time was over, but I've been pushing.

[Sam Claiborne]

So you did your Yasuke sacrifices and then you went back to Now.

[Damon Hadfield]

That's exact. That's exactly perfect. That's exactly it. Yeah. And I, I, I, I kind of want to see through. See it through to the end, maybe only for nothing else. I, I don't. I can't tell you the last Assassin's Creed game I beat. Actually, I know.

[Sam Claiborne]

Maybe, maybe black one seemed a lot tighter to beat. Like, you can really focus on the central circle, and then there's some, some extra stuff after that. But that, yeah, the Yasuke storyline is interesting because you, like, you always wonder, like, you know, like, how did he get even wrapped up in Templars and Assassins? And that storyline's cool. Like, it's neat.

[Justin Davis]

You didn't. Damon, you didn't beat Odyssey.

[Damon Hadfield]

No, I played it for a really, really long time, but never beat it.

[Sam Claiborne]

All right, can I spoil something in Odyssey? Because I'd never beat it. And Mark Medina spoiled it for me today, and I want to spoil it for you all and whoever doesn't listen. So, speaking of Supernatural, usually it's like, well, the urine Animus. It's going to explain, you know, why things are supernatural is because it's based on memories. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Maybe you did drugs.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

In that game, there's a legit supernatural thing. No, sorry. In this.

[Damon Hadfield]

I'm sorry.

[Sam Claiborne]

I'm talking about Valhalla. So anybody wants to skip those spoilers?

[Damon Hadfield]

I definitely did not. Valhalla.

[Sam Claiborne]

All right, Odyssey people. Come back. All right, you're fine. You're fine. We're going to go to Valhalla. Yeah. Eivor is immortal. You meet Eivor in the future. Did you know that?

[Damon Hadfield]

No, I didn't know that. Eivor. So you play it.

[Sam Claiborne]

So your character that you're playing as that inhabits Eivor. You cut, you meet. You go to, like, a place, and then you meet Eivor.

[Justin Davis]

Cool.

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, they'll explain that in two. Assassin's Creed. Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Because there's like a wand of infinite life, a scepter of mortality, or something like that. And so.

[Justin Davis]

I remember that now. Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

So they do like, an Indiana Jones thing where it's like the Last Crusade ending, where there's, like, still a night alive. Right, right. It's like that.

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay, well, you mentioned blueprints. Yeah. That game kind of came out of nowhere for me to be the highest rated game of the year so far. And it's nice that it's. It's concluded with both Game Pass and PlayStation Plus. So you both have played this? Maybe. I think, Justin, you actually mentioned it last week and you said you were still sort of, like, wrestling with your thoughts on it. Can you. Can you.

[Justin Davis]

No, I mean, I don't think I said that last week. I think I just said it's rad. I mean, what's happened to me and I'll talk about it later, but I've just been completely waylaid and enamored by Kingdom Come, Deliverance, and, like, don't have any time in my life for anything else, including my family. And sleep.

[Sam Claiborne]

You have to learn to read.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, And I did. So that. So I had to pause blueprints. But, like, I did play it for a couple nights before I moved on to Kingdom Come and absolutely love it. I don't. I mean, I don't know.

[Damon Hadfield]

So if anyone hasn't played it.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, yeah, sure.

[Damon Hadfield]

This is a first person exploratory roguelike, where the conceit is that your great uncle, I believe, left you his estate. And it's a magic house where every day the house resets and you walk in the front door and there are three doors. And when you open a door, you get to choose what room is put there. It's basically. It's like a randomized selection of rooms, kind of like if you had a deck of cards. And some of the rooms can lead to other rooms, and some are dead ends, and some have certain.

[Sam Claiborne]

Why did you just have to say that about cards? Damon, I love this game.

[Justin Davis]

Blueprints is hard to talk about because the thing that makes it so cool is that it has secrets in it that are spoilers. Right. And so there's stuff that I want to say about, like, oh, man, I love this moment, and I love that moment, but I kind of can't. And so it's a challenging game. It's kind of like, no, just trust me. Take my word for it. You're going to like it. Which, it's good that it's on PS plus and Game Pass, Pass. Because it makes it easy for people that have those subscriptions to give it a try. But it's a little bit like the Witness in that it has. You'll walk by something a bunch of times that you don't even know is a thing until later in.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's awesome.

[Justin Davis]

And so it keeps peeling back layers of an onion where stuff that you didn't even know was possible is possible. Like, I played the game an embarrassingly. Maybe not an embarrassingly long time, but like, a couple hours before I learned that you can walk around outside. As an example, like, the game starts you in room one of the mansion, and then I would just walk in and, like, okay, I'm going to place this room. Place that room. But I played a couple hours, and I'm like, what if I just turned around and left? And, like, once I did that, I realized there's, like, grounds you can walk around on, and then they have secrets in them. And so, like, I feel comfortable sharing that because that's a very tiny minor.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is that where the Morph Ball is? You go backwards at the start.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, that's where you. Where the Chozo statue is.

[Damon Hadfield]

That's kind of a big spoiler. I'll cut that part out of the show.

[Sam Claiborne]

The Morph Ball.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. You can see the blueprint of the house. The point is to make it to the back of the house. Basically, that's the 46th room. That's what you're trying to get to. So the basic gameplay is just laying out these rooms, trying to make it so you don't get yourself stuck at a dead end and eventually make it to the back of the house. But as Justin was saying, there are secrets and puzzles that you discover along the way. And you learn. Since it's a roguelike, you're playing it, you know, day after day, resetting the whole thing. You're learning as you go through it. So that's the idea.

[Sam Claiborne]

One of those big secrets is that there's. There's rooms with two bananas in them.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yep.

[Sam Claiborne]

Two bananas.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yep.

[Justin Davis]

There are. There are it is a rogue light in the sense that, man, I don't know, I, I, I'm going to give very light spoilers, but it's not spoiling anything that I would consider significant. But if some people are crazy hardcore about it and want to know nothing, then, you know, maybe, maybe you're listening to the wrong show. But like, very, very light, you know, there are permanent upgrades. And so it is a rogue light in that way of like, you know, I've just seen some complaints online that, like, I want to chime in and I want to tell people to keep going of, like, it's random every time and I don't feel like I'm making any progress and I played for a couple hours and I'm giving up. And it's like, I, you know, for those folks, I would encourage them to kind of keep going. You will unlock some permanent upgrades in a gameplay sense, but you're also going to unlock more knowledge.

[Sam Claiborne]

Like, yeah, it's the witness thing, right?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. And it's a puzzle game of like, you're going to find little notes around the estate and some are written on blue paper and some are written on red paper and it makes a difference which is which. And like, you're going to learn, like, does it matter where you place a room? Like, can some only be, you know, are they different if they're placed on the west side of the house or the east side? And you know, you're going to learn like, how certain rooms, you place a room that lets you turn the power on or off and then that can change things and like other rooms of the house and like, you know, everything that I just said is like kind of a very light spoiler in the sense that, like, you just kind of have to play the game a little bit and poke and prod at it and figure it out. But imagine that. But just like, way more just like, it gets crazy, like the, the level of, like, how interconnected things are in a way that you don't really understand and appreciate when you start.

[Sam Claiborne]

And one thing that might annoy people about this game is that it does recommend. The game itself recommends that you use a piece of paper and a pencil to play on.

[Justin Davis]

It's definitely that style of game. You're going to have an absolute insane serial killer notebook by the time that you finish with stuff that makes absolutely no sense.

[Sam Claiborne]

But I do hear that there's plenty of things like padlocks you can just look up in a strategy guide if you're a wimp.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

And Some things you can't. Some things you have to solve over and over again.

[Justin Davis]

It's so good. There's like, the rooms have different colors that have different kind of connotations. Like, you know, pink rooms always help you. They always have buffs. Like, red rooms are always bad. Like, you know, they're. But. But sometimes you need to place a red room because of the way it interacts with something else in the game world. And so it's like you kind of like, it's more of a roguelike than I think people kind of understood or thought it was. Like, all the stuff that you think about, I don't know, like a dead cells or any other roguelike, you know, Hades. Like, you can debuff yourself in blueprints by like, by placing these red rooms that make your run harder, but then they provide you this other benefit. So there's like a risk reward component.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

I just got to the room colors thing and started figuring some of that out because it was like, you're going to get a gem in every green room. I'm like, oh, but backtracking loses me a bunch of money if I do. And all my green rooms are back there. It was really cool.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. How are you finding it, Sam? You're actually going to spin something.

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, I'll tell you what, that shovel's never there when I go in that room, so what the heck? It's never that easy. I've never. I've only played two runs, so I got to that security room, though, in like, room 40 at one point, though. So, like, I, you know, I understand what the game is and I know what I'm doing, and I can't wait to play more of it. Is that duck from Gone Home? Is that Christmas duck?

[Justin Davis]

It did look like the Christmas duck. I'm not sure. I just noticed that too. There's more. I think that the game is a little slow. I've just seen so many comments of. I did five or six runs and I didn't make any progress and didn't learn anything. And maybe this just isn't the game for me. And I think that Blueprints is a little bit slow to kind of show you what it's about.

[Damon Hadfield]

I think it's Onboarding could be a little bit friendlier.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I agree. Like, eventually you learn some of the stuff that I just imparted to the listeners and viewers, but if you were to play the game on your own, it's gonna take two or three hours until you kind of understand not what's going on, but you understand how you should be engaging with the game and what it's kind of asking of you. And it's a little bit slow to sort of like, there's way more story and lore in the game than you think there is. But, like, it's super patient about, like explaining to you, like, I don't know, it's. I don't know, it's hard to talk about. I'm going to leave it at that. I don't want to spoil anything.

[Sam Claiborne]

Why do you think people are flipping their lids for this game?

[Damon Hadfield]

Well, that's, that is one thing I wanted to say is I played it for a couple hours over one night and I thought this is a very cool, clever game, but the highest rated game of the year. I don't know about that. That was sort of my impression.

[Justin Davis]

It's because it just keeps. It keeps going and it keeps going and like, words have meaning and paintings have meaning and pictures have meaning and sometimes the picture is one thing and then the next time you place that hallway, it'll be a different picture and that has meaning. And like, like all this stuff that, like, surely that can't mean anything. Like, it just keeps going and there's more and more and more layers to it. And, you know, that's, that's, that's why.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, I'm excited.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's a clever game.

[Damon Hadfield]

I'm excited to learn more. Very clever.

[Sam Claiborne]

And I think the only other game that we're looking forward to that looks this clever is. Is Donkey Kong.

[Justin Davis]

Right?

[Damon Hadfield]

Donkey Kong Bonanza.

[Sam Claiborne]

Layer. Layers upon layers.

[Damon Hadfield]

I mean, there are layers.

[Sam Claiborne]

There are layers and bananas just like this game. Lots of bananas in both games.

[Damon Hadfield]

There's Tom. Tom joins us now on the show. No, man, no. I'm looking forward to Monster Train 2 coming out in May and Slay the Spire 2 still coming this year. Please be excited.

[Sam Claiborne]

Another spire.

[Justin Davis]

Ever do to you, Damon? I like to watch one or two YouTube essays before bed most nights.

[Damon Hadfield]

Same.

[Justin Davis]

And I watched one several months ago about apparently. Look, I don't know how many hours of Slay the Spire I played. Dozens and dozens. That that game actually has like, decipherable lore for which, like, it doesn't have a storyline.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, yeah.

[Justin Davis]

But Slay the Spire has like, lore. Like there is an answer to, like, who that weird space whale is at the start of the game and who you are and what the spire is. And like, you know, I always just kind of click through the events as fast as I can and just get back to the Slinging cards. But, yeah, you know, apparently slay the Spire 2 is going to answer some more lore questions about the game world and, like, what's the city behind you? Like, I'd never even thought about it when I played the game, you know?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, but, Justin, you said you had a story to tell from Kingdom Deliverance. You still on the first one?

[Justin Davis]

Oh, man. Yes. So I'm still on the first one. Like, guys, I can't. Like, I'm losing sleep over this game. I went before Scoop. I went down to check my game Timer. I met 40 hours now, and I think I've only been playing it for, like, 10 or 11 days.

[Damon Hadfield]

That's, like, where I am in AC shadows.

[Justin Davis]

And, like, so, like, it's. It's to the fact, like, it's almost unhealthy. Like, I always play a little bit of video games before work and it's, like, incredibly hard to stop and, like, start my work day now. It's so immersive. But the specific mission that I did last night is it starts off as kind of like, I didn't do it last night. I did it several nights ago. But anyway, it starts off as kind of like a normal murder mystery of, like, someone got murdered and there was a crime and, like, talk to the villagers and investigate what happened and explore these blood trails. And, like, you know, it's interesting, it's an intriguing mystery, but it feels like kind of a standard mission. But it eventually leads you to, like, the local parish priest and, like, someone talk to him in confession. And you need to get out of this priest. Like, what did this guy tell you in confession? He's like, I can't tell you that. Like, that's against my sacrament. And so he's like, all right, like, I'll talk to you about it some more tonight at the tavern. Let's go to the tavern and we'll talk about it together.

[Damon Hadfield]

The priest is going to talk to.

[Justin Davis]

You, so you go to the tavern.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, okay.

[Justin Davis]

And so you go to the tavern with the priest. And then the night goes completely off the rails. You both end up getting 10 out of 10 drunk. You end up fist fighting with the town bailiff. And then the priest is like, we got to go get some wenches. Like, let's get the tavern wench. And, like, you go off with the tavern wenches and, like, it's like, the game's rated M. It's incredibly explicit. And then, like, you wake up the next morning and, like, all your clothes are off and, like, you're in A field. And like the priest is there and then he's freaking out because it's Sunday and he has to go deliver a sermon. And like, he's like, you gotta. He's like, your name's Henry. He's like, henry, you gotta help me out. He's like, I can't. He's like, I'm gonna throw up. He's like, you gotta go deliver the sermon. You gotta do it for me. And so like that's the actual mission. Like that's all been a cutscene and the mission is that you have to go deliver the sermon while you're hungover, while you're drunk in the game. And the voice acting is good. And like the. So that's like been a really interesting, memorable mission that a lot of people like in the game. But sort of the gameplay nerd in me like to. To succeed at the skill check of like delivering the sermon is you actually have to reference back to the stuff that Pastor Godwin told you before. And like, you can lose like if you pick the wrong dialogue options, the townspeople like won't like the sermon. And so like he talks to you when he's all drunk about like what makes a good sermon. And you have to try to remember some of that and pick the right stuff. So good. 10 out of 10. Great game. It's awesome. Like, the nobility in the game treats like you're basically a peasant. That's who you are. It's like a peasant role playing game. And like the nobility treats the peasants horribly, but not in like a cartoony mustache, twirling vision, villain way. But like you. There's a mission where you go on a hunting trip with one of the nobles and he's one of the good nobles too. He's like one of the nice guys, but he's on a horse and he makes you run next to him. They're like, do you want to give Henry a horse? And he's like, no, he's a peasant. He can't have a horse. And like the game actually makes you run and like he's having a whole conversation with you on his horse and then you're like sprinting alongside him as fast as you can. It's great. Great game.

[Damon Hadfield]

It sounds great.

[Sam Claiborne]

So you're not going to drop it and skip to two now?

[Justin Davis]

No, like I'm completely like, it's so immersive that like it just. It's been a really long time since I felt like I want to role play in a game, but in this game I want to Role play. It's like, okay, I need to go pick some herbs, and then I'm gonna brew those herbs into a potion. And then I need to, like, make some food. I need to smoke some meats because I'm gonna be out of town for a while. So it's like I'm playing. I'm playing the game like that.

[Sam Claiborne]

Can you imagine the bender that you're gonna go on in the next game that makes you forget how to read?

[Justin Davis]

Mm, yeah, yeah, I know. Like when all your skills reset to zero.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

Man, what a great game.

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay, well, I have a preview of Ninja Gaiden Rage Bound Up. You can read it at IGN or watch it at YouTube. This is the one that's from. It's being developed by Game Kitchen, which is the team that does Blasphemous one and two, so really great pixel art. And then it's published by emu, which their whole thing is sort of reviving beloved but neglected old franchises. So they did TMNT, Shredder's Revenge, they did Streets Rage 4. They did Metal Slug Tactics, and they have the upcoming Marvel Something Invasion. Chaos Invasion. I can't remember the name of that one. Cosmic Invasion, I think is what it is. So, yeah, this is sort of Ninja Gait and Ragemount. It's the meat in the Ninja Gait and sandwich we're getting this year, which earlier we got Ninja Gaiden 2 black. And then in the fall, we're getting Ninja Gaiden 4. This one's coming this summer. And this is the 2D action platformer that plays a lot more like the classic NES trilogy of games. And I liked it a lot. And I want to tell you something really cool. This is the prologue of Ninja Gaiden Rage Bound. Now, this is a 2D action game. I don't think this is a spoiler, but again, like Justin was saying, if you don't want to know anything about this game, you can skip forward. But I want you to cast your minds back to the first time you played Ninja Gaiden 1. And you saw that opening cutscene with the two ninja knight underneath the moon, run towards each other, jump into the.

[Sam Claiborne]

Air in front of big castle.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. King. And then they fall. And then the red ninja falls. And that was Ryu Hayas's father. And that's the whole reason Ryu comes to America and tries to find out who murdered his father. And then he murders a lot. Thousands of presumably endangered birds. That's who we're seeing right here in this game. You play the you play as Ryu's father in the moments leading up to that sword battle. I just think it's very, very cool. This is basically the tutorial level.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Wow.

[Justin Davis]

So it's a. It's a prequel?

[Damon Hadfield]

Well, no, because then after that moment, then you're. You're back to the moments right before when. When in Ria's village, when he learns of his father. So Ryu goes off to do the events of Ninja Gaiden 1. And you are Kenji, one of Ryu's pupils who stays back and has to deal with this demon threat that's open up. So, like I said in my preview, it's a guide in to Ninja Gaiden. It's a side story that sort of plays out alongside the events of the original game. So I thought that was cool too. Yeah, I don't know. It's. It's. It's. It's very similar to the originals. It does have some new tricks. So you have a guillotine, something, what is like a guillotine spin, basically a spinning attack that you can jump. It's. You can deal damage with it, and you can also. It's called the Guillotine Boost. You can also chain it onto different enemies, so you can use that to get across, you know, wide gaps where there's no ground beneath your feet. And so they build up these platforming challenges with that in mind.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay.

[Damon Hadfield]

And there's Ryu, and he's in one of his 3D outfits with the helmet. I thought that was pretty cool to see that rendered in pixel art. And then you make friends with a demon. S. Her name is. What is it? Kimori, Something like that. And so she joins along, comes along with you, and she has some special attacks that you can use in battle. That's like, basically, you know, your limited resources, special attacks. But then you also. If you come upon a demon altar, she can go into the demon world. Kenji will sort of go into a trance, and then she can manipulate the environment in different ways. So the most basic example of how this would be used is if you come to something that's blocking your path, and you can see there's a lever on the other side that might raise the wall. She can go into the demon world. All of a sudden, you can see these demon platforms that she can use to get over there and around, and she can release the lever and open up the wall, so now you can get through. That's the most basic example of how it might be used. Other than that, if this is not a Metroidvania It's a level based action platformer game. Although there is a map because you like. I think in like the 3D games you're scored at the end of each level on how. On your performance from.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

E to S. So I think from the map you can replay previous levels in order to improve your score. There's also a bunch of collectibles to find and things like that. You see some of these enemies are glowing. That's how you can.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

If you get one of those, you get like a hyper hypercharge attack that if you make contact with your next enemy, it'll. It'll kill them in one hit, even if they're a bigger enemy or a bigger obstacle. And then sometimes you'll see multiple enemies are glowing like that. So there could be a. A specific order that would be most beneficial to defeat those enemies in. So that's just like an extra layer of things to think about.

[Sam Claiborne]

Are there bosses?

[Damon Hadfield]

There are bosses. Yeah, Big bosses here. I think this is a. A big demon bat thing is coming up here pretty soon. Then there's a sort of a twin, a double twin like snake dragon thing that I came out of a river.

[Sam Claiborne]

This is the lady in the demon world right now.

[Damon Hadfield]

Nope, this is Kenji you're playing as right now.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay, okay. But so there's also monsters in the game.

[Damon Hadfield]

Oh yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Just like ninja guy.

[Damon Hadfield]

That's the whole thing. This rift has opened up and now demons are coming into our world.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay.

[Justin Davis]

And Ryu says, good luck with that. Kinji.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yep. Yeah, well, to be fair, he's already gone. He's already off to America. When that happens, Kenji's like, yeah, it's up to me. I must do my sensei proud.

[Justin Davis]

I bet he felt Ryu probably felt bad when he got back.

[Damon Hadfield]

He did. Yeah. Then he missed.

[Sam Claiborne]

This whole thing is the bounce off of enemies downstroke type thing used a lot. Yeah, it looks like it is.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, it is.

[Sam Claiborne]

Like to kind of platform through past things.

[Damon Hadfield]

That's exactly. Yep, that's exactly.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. I mean that adds a little bit of a jumpy skill element to it.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, I liked it a lot. I got to have a really good feeling about it. I think it's going to be another, you know, just like the other games I mentioned. Like, you know, tmnt, Shredder's Revenge and Streets are Age four. I think it's like this is in good hands with developer and publisher that get it. They have love for the franchise. This is the boss fight you're going to see right here. And I Think they're cool. Just, you know.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's great.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. Bringing it back in a good way. It's got great pixel art. The whole thing is pixel art too. For even the title screen cuts, they talk. Oh, yeah. This, I wanted to point out. This. This demon speaks perfect English.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, that's great. Remember that in Bio. Bionic Commando Rearmed, you come to the bosses and then you just always just talk to them before you beat them up, I think.

[Damon Hadfield]

But I think there's like a big.

[Sam Claiborne]

Robot that said ppp. Yeah, well, they do. There's a lot of talking in the original because you call on the radio, right?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

And you, like, talk to, like, somebody or you trick somebody, stuff like that. But yeah, there's a little bit more of that in Rearmed.

[Damon Hadfield]

Anyway, Ninja Gaiden Rage Bound is supposed to be out this summer. It's great. I feel good about it. Looking forward to that one. Do you say data or data? Well, at my house we say data. And for the longest time, I thought paying a fortune on a monthly data plan was just normal. That was until I found out about Mint Mobile and their premium wireless plans. That started just 15 bucks a month. Isn't that right, Seth?

[Justin Davis]

Okay.

[Damon Hadfield]

I was actually very skeptical about Mint.

[Sam Claiborne]

I have to be honest.

[Damon Hadfield]

But I have been using it for actually forgotten how many months now.

[Sam Claiborne]

But whatever. I am a true believer now.

[Justin Davis]

Initially, I was skeptical because as you know, I live in the middle of.

[Damon Hadfield]

Nowhere and basically America's hinterlands. I'm actually closer to parts of Canada than I am to most of the.

[Justin Davis]

Rest of the United States.

[Damon Hadfield]

So naturally, I just figured that with all the moose and bears and whatnot, a service like Mint was pretty much not going to serve my specific mountain man needs. However, I'm here to say I was pleasantly surprised. Yeah, I can say authoritatively, Mint is pretty rad. Actually, it turned me into a believer. And I am, as you know, an expert in what is rad. Thanks, Seth. All Mint Mobile plans come with high speed data or data, your choice, and unlimited talk and text delivered on the nation's largest 5G network. Use your own phone with any plan and bring your phone number along with all your existing contacts. Ditch overpriced wireless and get three months of premium wireless service from Mint Mobile for 15 bucks a month. No matter how you say it, don't overpay for it. Shop data [e-mail] Gamescoop that's mintmobile.com Gamescoop upfront payment of $45 for 3 month 5 gigabyte plan required equivalent to $15 a month new customer offer for first 3 months only then full price plan options available. Taxes and freeze Extra cement mobile for details Spring is in the air, but you know what we don't want in the air of our homes? Litter Box Stink. That's where Pretty Litter comes in. It obliterates odors so you can enjoy all the wonderful scents of spring. Pretty Litter's non clumping formula traps odor and moisture. It's ultra absorbent, it's lightweight, low dust and 16 pound bag works for up to a month and Pretty Litter can give you peace of mind. It changes color to indicate early signs of potential illnesses in your cat like urinary tract infections, kidney issues and more. Since Pretty Litter ships free right to your door, you never run out and you don't have huge kitty litter bags taking up space. I currently have these huge bags of other kitty litter cluttering up my garage, but my first shipment of Pretty Litter is on the way to my front door and I'm excited to try it out. That cat litter smell is one of the only downsides to owning my cat. Same Pretty Litter helps keep your house smelling fresh and clean. Try it for yourself. Go to prettylitter.com gamescoop to save 20% on your first order and get a free cat toy. That's prettylitter.com gamescooP to save 20% on your first Order and get a free cat toy. Prettylitter.com gamescoop terms and conditions apply. See site for details. Okay, let's check in with the listeners.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh hey listeners.

[Damon Hadfield]

Listeners. Remember you can always reach us at the email address game scoopgn.com Just like Austin did. Austin says My name is Austin. I am emailing from Provo, Utah. I have been listening to the show pretty consistently for the past six years and there is a question that I frequently have but have not inquired about until now. You have given yourselves a nickname and I have never heard an explanation for it. Why do you call yourselves the Omega Cups?

[Justin Davis]

Oh no.

[Sam Claiborne]

Should have been listening for eight years.

[Damon Hadfield]

Well Austin, are you. Are you sitting down?

[Sam Claiborne]

Take a drink of water.

[Damon Hadfield]

Omega Cops is an anagram of Gamescoop.

[Sam Claiborne]

Just like an anagram is when you mix up all the letters and words and come up with other words.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yep, just like Goose Goose Camp. Just like as cop, you know.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, he didn't didn't question it whenever Sam said as cop me go said, oh, that's a completely normal thing to say.

[Sam Claiborne]

I believe a real scoop was one too.

[Damon Hadfield]

A scoop gem Is one too. And then the most underutilized one is. Go mop a sec.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

Whenever kids are misbehaving. Hold on. Go mop a sec. Yeah. That's it. That's. That's all there is to it. We're a big fan of. Good answer anagrams here.

[Sam Claiborne]

Fanigrams that did occur in one episode in which we were sitting at our desks and Damon, you kind of sat where I was facing. Justin, you were nearby then, and Tina was there. And I think what we were doing was we had found an anagram website and I was plugging in things to that, like our games, I think. And it was really like, they're amazing if you look up your name. Like, you could find crazy stuff. But we did do Game Scoop. I don't. I think I just printed out a piece of paper or brought it in for that episode.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yep.

[Sam Claiborne]

From that site.

[Damon Hadfield]

That's correct. Okay. This is Jason Wellborn who says. Hey, Scoop Daddies. Fun fact. My wife and I had our first date at an ice cream parlor called Scoop Daddies. One's musical tastes tend to solidify as children into adolescence and then last into adulthood, but it's the same. True for video game music. Modern game music is great, but I will always have a special love for the music of Super Mario world, Mega Man 2, Batman, NES, et cetera. What say you, Scoop Crew? We've talked about this before.

[Justin Davis]

I don't.

[Damon Hadfield]

I don't.

[Justin Davis]

I mean, like, I like. I loved and you know, would get nostalgic if I heard now like the Baldur's Gate 3 soundtrack, like the main theme of that game, I feel like would make me feel some feels if I just caught it in the environment somewhere.

[Sam Claiborne]

Game music was a set of instrumentation when it was like eight bitty sounds and arcade sounds. And then it was a set of instrumentation when it was midi. Right? And then it was like Redbook Audio. And there on which is what you can put on CDs that just became music. So at some point, video game music became less about the composed on computers. This sounds like nothing else that's ever existed to. This is music that sounds like everything because it's an orchestra playing it or a licensed pop song in Grand Theft Auto or a band hired to make cool music in Assassin's Creed. Those are just different for me. Like I. It doesn't have the same effect for me because this is just. They're the musical genres I don't like or do like. And they're just in the game and they're emphasizing the story or not. Whereas like Mega Man 2, that. That really doesn't sound like anything. Like it doesn't. Nothing before that sounded like it. Those composers will say like, oh yeah, I listened to heavy metal, so I wrote some Castlevania songs. But then you listen to the Castlevania songs, you're like that. It just sounds like alien music. It came from nowhere. And I think that's what's cool about that. And then even those MIDI like kind of slap based sounds and stuff from the Super Nintendo era, those are nostalgic. And then you get to like the sampled weird shit on the Nintendo 64, like banjo kazooie music. Like that stuff's so weird, you know. So I just think that it's less a matter of nostalgia. I'm thankful for through that, but it's more like that's what I think of a video game music. And then now we just have music.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, there's definitely like. I think you. It's a really good answer because you touched on something important which is like I have nostalgia for the sound chips of like the nes, like the Specific.

[Sam Claiborne]

Or Genesis is a good one too, right?

[Justin Davis]

Yep. The Genesis sound chip is really famous, you know. And I honestly like, you know, Genesis is better than Super Nintendo. But like I have fondness for like the Super Nintendo, you know, sound palette as well. So it's like that's a super real thing. I mean. Yeah, like obviously like you know, the Zelda theme, like there's just music that's like a part of my DNA. But I. I think that like, you know, the eight bit blips and bloops and you know, it's probably been a decade or so since like that soundscape came back and was like in popular music for a while. Right. Like, and then, and now it's already, it's already kind of like out of fashion again. But there was a hot second there where like, you know, that sort of electronic Game boy sound palette was like, you know, a real part of pop culture again in the, in the, you know, I don't know, 2010 or so.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. So to dig into that a little more in the old consoles, for the most part, the 8 and 16 bit consoles, the music was being generated by the console itself. There was like a sound chip or synthesizer, whatever you want to consider it inside the console.

[Sam Claiborne]

Wasn't it was an instrument. Yeah, it is the synthesizer. So there's actually an electronic instrument.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. There's cart data on like a player piano. Exactly. There's data on the cartridge that would just tell the console what notes to play in what order, in what tempo. That's one thing. So it's like there's a house band inside the console playing the music for every game on the platform. And that's what I love. Like, the entire 700 or whatever games available for the NES all sound very sonically similar because it's the exact same.

[Sam Claiborne]

And when they don't, you're like, what is going on?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Like, it's really special when it uses some weird instrumentation or when you know the beginning of Bayou Billy, it actually says, that's shocking when that happens.

[Damon Hadfield]

Exactly. The Sega Genesis was the same. It was the same way. It was just a more sophisticated synthesizer that had in there. And even up to the. Well, then the Nintendo went a different direction. The Super Nintendo you're talking about, it basically had a sampler inside the Super Nintendo. So it wasn't generating the music. It had a sampler. And then the cartridge would have the samples on it. And when you would load the cartridge into the Super Nintendo, it would load the samples into the sampler. It was. It had eight channels. So basically you'd have eight samples playing. And then again the cartridge would tell the console what. At what pitch to play each sample, in what order, in what tempo. So that's how it was generated.

[Sam Claiborne]

You can really see that laid out in the Mario Paint music program, because that's exactly what it's showing you. It's showing you the sample of a dog going.

[Damon Hadfield]

Isn'T that.

[Justin Davis]

How crazy is it that all of these composers had to make their soundtracks in Mario Paint using that dog and pig?

[Sam Claiborne]

I never worked in Mario Paint.

[Damon Hadfield]

I think it's insane. That's the route that Nintendo decided to go in with the Super Nintendo. Just something completely. A completely different way of creating the music for it. I guess, you know, they're thinking, we'll get more realistic, realistic sounds that way. The samples had to be very compressed and each one is very small. But yeah, so I just think it's cool that that was. There used to be a solution. They had to come up with very clever solutions to get music on an old console like an nes. And I like the uniformity of that console's entire soundtrack. That all sounds sonically similar. And then like Sam was saying, when you got to CDs, it just. It lost a little bit of that magic. Although I just learned recently, Sony made the sound chip for the. Made the sampler for the Super Nintendo. So there was not like a chapter end when they released the PlayStation the PlayStation had an advanced version of that sampler. It had 24 channels instead of eight. So, like, I just learned this. Final Fantasy VII is not playing CD audio. It just loaded all the samples. It's playing. It's playing.

[Sam Claiborne]

It sounds like it too, if you think about it that way. Right? It's very sample. Yeah, but it's not using the red book.

[Damon Hadfield]

But then something like. Something like Wipeout, they're just playing license tracks off the cd.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, or Tony Hawk is the thing.

[Damon Hadfield]

That's right.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's really interesting. I was going to say another thing is that some games are about music, so they're kind of groundbreaking. You remember them a little bit more. Like Ocarina of Time is a good example of a game that's like. It's built around playing music. And so many of the songs written from like a six note, you know, I don't know how many notes here for the Ocarina. It's like five or six or seven, like, are really catchy the way they instrument them and people remember them forever. And I have two thoughts about that. One is that like, because we played the game that's about music and you have to play the music, you remember it. And not necessarily nostalgia. It's just that game beats it into you. And then the other is that the really good songs in that game, like Gerudo Valley, that's a kind of a sample y Spanish guitar song. If that was recorded today, it would basically sound exactly the same. Like, it's not like you could put that game in. You could put that song in Breath of the Wild. Nobody would know the difference that it wasn't a brand new song. So that's like really straddling this interesting time period. And then some games have really good soundtracks of famously, like Crazy Taxi and Tony Hawk and gta. Games by City and Five have soundtracks of like pop music and you know, stuff like that that people like, really learn music through. You know, like, I remember like, there's half the songs in Vice City, I didn't really know them. I didn't grow up in the 80s listening to the music that that game is about or anything like that. So it's like, you know, I don't know what was in that game. It was probably like White Wedding and In Excess and stuff like, I can't really remember, but like, it was like every time like, oh, that's. That's who Gary. Gary Newman is. You know, stuff like that.

[Justin Davis]

I think like half of. Not half, like 10% of my enjoyment of, like, a franchise. Like, SSX is just the soundtrack. Right? Like, all the. All the pop punk, you know. Well, SSX was a little bit more electronic, but, like, all the.

[Sam Claiborne]

That you might be less likely to, like, now if a game was all Taylor Swift and Katy Perry and stuff like that, you might not be into that game as much as you were when you were tuned into being, like, part of MTV and the radio, which is in your 13 to 18.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I mean, I think, like, video games are more popular now than ever. Right. Like, but. But there's an element of, like, you know, Tony Hawk and, you know, other extreme sports games. Felt like they were, like, a part of culture in a way that, like, you know, skate culture was music and video games and also obviously, you know, fashion and, like, so if they, you know, if there's a skate game that comes out now, it has to be a continuation of, like, that music. It's not just gonna be, like, top 40, right. But, like, you know, so even though video games are bigger now, I do wonder about their ability to kind of, like, shape and move culture forward.

[Sam Claiborne]

So Damon posted on Facebook this morning that he was listening to some really bad 90s bands. Stunt Temple Pilots. What else was there?

[Damon Hadfield]

Beastie Boys is a really bad 90s band.

[Sam Claiborne]

No, that was a good one, but. Yeah, it's a good one. It's a good one.

[Justin Davis]

Stunt Temple Pilots are good, too.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, okay, but that's not my point. Yeah, yeah, I remember when it came out for sure. I definitely had it. There's a series that I associate with that so much, and that's Rock Band. And Rock Band really went back and mined the 90s and a little bit of the 80s and a little bit of the 70s and some 60s, but they really did like, this kind of, you know, this spread. And then they had contemporary songs, they had the ayes in it and stuff like that, you know, and that. That was the last time I remember really connecting to, like, a pop culture moment about music in a game. I think it's been a really long time.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

What's the studio behind Rock Band Harmonix? Are they still doing, like, a mobile game? I thought they had some kind of a mobile game that they were working on.

[Sam Claiborne]

Do you remember that Rock Band was, like, was such a vehicle for music that the Portal song ended up in it as, like, a free update or maybe you had to buy it. I can't remember. Stephen Colbert wrote a song for the Colbert Report that was released as free for it. Like. Yeah, it was this momentary platform it.

[Justin Davis]

Was just really, really cool that I did not remember. I thought Harmonix. Weren't they bought by Epic and that's why that stuff is in Rock Band now. Or did I complete. I might have completely dream that. I really don't know.

[Damon Hadfield]

I haven't heard an update on Harmonics in a while.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, they made that, that game right before the Pandemic, which was like a board game and then you put down like cards and meat space in it.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, but I think it was a. It was a mobile game. I don't know. We're not.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, I see. So that was like. That was like the extension.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, the hardware that went with it or something like that.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, yeah, I think you're right.

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay. This is Caleb Russ in Tennessee. Caleb says I'm a new dad with a six week old baby, to say the least. Life is busy. I enjoy hearing your stories about playing games with your own kiddos and I can't wait until my daughter is old enough to pick up the controller as well. But for now I find my myself with little time for gaming. I'm writing and seeking suggestions for good games to play with a newborn in the house. Balatro on Switch has been great. Can you recommend similar games that can be enjoyed in short sessions? Can you recall games you played when your little ones first arrived? Thanks for everything. I love the show and listen every week. Well, Caleb, here's what you need to do. You need to get yourself a Baby Bjorn bouncer. Both of my kids lived in them for like the whole first year of their lives. You set them in the bouncer on the floor, they're happy as a clam. Give them that little crinkly paper toy that they love and they'll just say. And then you can just bounce them with your foot and whatever they're facing you, they're not seeing the tv. Play whatever you want. As long as they're happy or sleeping, you can just keep them bouncing, play to your heart's content. I did. I just. I spent a lot of my gaming time doing that when my kids were young.

[Justin Davis]

I was going to say the exact same thing. Face them away from the tv. And when they're in that meatloaf phase, they can't move.

[Damon Hadfield]

Nope.

[Justin Davis]

They can't go anywhere. And so then you just play all the M rated games that you can before. Like once they can crawl and walk, then you have to put those away and you don't get them anymore. So.

[Sam Claiborne]

So Manhunt 2 is your recommendation?

[Damon Hadfield]

Manhunt 2?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. They won't even know it's going on right behind them. And they won't know.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. In. But in terms of games like Blotcho, like, I don't know. I don't know if you played Slay the Spire or Monster Train, like we always call out here. But also Shogun Showdown is another one that. Just a more recent one that I recommend. 2D 2D tactical ninja, roguelike with pixel art. So it's firing on all demi cylinders there. That one's called Shogun Showdown.

[Sam Claiborne]

If you just want to forget about the baby entirely. Play Kingdom Come Deliverance.

[Damon Hadfield]

Exactly.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. I did consider my daughters are one's turning 11 and the other one's 8. And I thought about. You do a lot of picking herbs in that game. And I thought about like, maybe I could let them like pick herbs.

[Sam Claiborne]

There's too much child labor that you're being introduced to in this. In this.

[Justin Davis]

I was thinking about engaging in some child labor. But like the game's rated M and the odds that someone would ride by on a horse and call you the C word is like way too high.

[Sam Claiborne]

So you can explain. It's like that doesn't mean much in Europe.

[Justin Davis]

Don't worry about it too much. It's historical. Don't.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, historical.

[Justin Davis]

But like you could get your head chopped off. Like, so anyway, I decided that they could.

[Sam Claiborne]

Those are my herbs, you see.

[Justin Davis]

Word, John. Exactly. That's exactly what would happen. I remember when my first daughter was born. Not really playing many video games at all. It was a very sad for like that first six or 12 months, we were just hanging on for dear life and just surviving one day at a time is my very truthful answer. But it does get better. Just hang in there.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, it definitely gets better. I never had it that bad, I don't think.

[Justin Davis]

But I mean, I don't. I don't really like it's. You need something. If you have something where you can save anywhere, then you just get used to playing in like 10 minute stints. Right. Like. Like Kingdom Come actually does not let you save anywhere. And so with Quick Resume and Save Anywhere, I wouldn't really just play anything. Just play anything.

[Sam Claiborne]

Elden Ring wouldn't work.

[Justin Davis]

No. Yeah. Like it. It needs to have a pause button and it needs to have a quick, you know, quick, quick save, quick stop, quick resume and then just play. Play.

[Sam Claiborne]

What about Animal Crossing? Would that be good? Because it kind of peaceful and cute and cozy.

[Justin Davis]

I think so. Except. Except saving. Starting up that game and shutting it down is a little bit of a pain. And so I, I appreciated games. Yeah, exactly. So I appreciated games that just let you just go immediately. And even if it's some 60 hour epic game, if you can accomplish something meaningful in like five minute chunks. And it's like, okay, this is, I.

[Sam Claiborne]

Mean, Breath of the Wild is kind of like that.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, yeah. Like, yeah, Zelda. So it's like I played Zelda when my kids were little.

[Sam Claiborne]

It just snaps on. You just keep running, you know.

[Justin Davis]

That's exactly. And I played the whole game in handheld mode for that exact reason.

[Damon Hadfield]

All right, this is also, you can.

[Sam Claiborne]

Listen to podcasts, like video game podcasts. You could do that.

[Damon Hadfield]

You can listen to the one video game podcast.

[Justin Davis]

There's only one.

[Damon Hadfield]

This is Peter Dahlberg. His letter is a little bit lengthy, says, hi, Damon, Sam and Justin. I've been listening to Scoop since the early, early years. I appreciate all the work you all do in making such a great show to listen to week after week. On to my question. After listening to last week's episode with everything about Nintendo, the Switch 2 price, what it might be, with potential tariffs, game costs, etc. I started thinking about this old talking point. Should there finally be only one home console on the market? I'm 41 and I love Nintendo. I always buy their consoles, even the Wii U. But this cost of entry to the Switch 2 generation, assuming a pre order can be procured, is a lot to ask. I understand that Nintendo cannonballing into the pool, at least in the same general region of power as the PlayStation and Xbox, is going to cost them more in general. I've also been an Xbox gamer since the original came to market. I've never delved into the PlayStation library. With the high development costs of all the consoles, it seems like customers would benefit greatly from a single console that all developers can build games for a single console would likely mean an even higher buy in cost. But I personally would find it more worth it knowing that games developed for all three consoles would in theory come to the same console. I think you get the idea. I'll let you take it from here. We've talked about the one console, the one console future before. They're sure there would be some benefits if there were only one console, then every game made would work for it. But I mean, like, how are you going to. Okay, who, who gets to make the console? Who gets. Who, who's not allowed to compete against this console?

[Sam Claiborne]

Right?

[Damon Hadfield]

It's like it doesn't make really, if you give it any thought, it breaks, it falls apart.

[Justin Davis]

Well, the only way it could ever happen. It'll never happen. But if it happened, the way that it would happen is the video game companies would come together and form a consortium, like the Blu Ray consortium. Right. All these competing companies got together and agreed on a standard for like, here's. There's more of these than you might think. Like USB is a standard. HDMI is a standard that these companies agree on. Right. To standardize to the benefit of themselves and the consumer. But it's a non starter in the world of video games. And I mean, it's kind of like you're just describing a PC in Steam, basically.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, I mean, I know, you know, I guess expert in capitalism. But like, making a single system does not lower prices. Right. It sets a price that could go infinitely high because there's nobody to undercut it. So that's, that's kind of the magic of these companies getting bigger and then, and then floundering is that somebody undercuts them and then you have really interesting things happen. And I know it doesn't seem like that's been happening with like, you know, new console makers or anything, but it has been. A lot of them have failed. And then, and then there's also the platforms like Justin's talking about, and then the fight between subscription services and stuff. It's all, it's all, it's all like deeply capitalistic competition happening. And some of those have resulted in cheaper game delivery. Like, I didn't pay a dime more for blueprints. I had already had a subscription that I would have never tried that game but had I not had that, you know, and so there are ways that we're going to be playing games cheaper than buying a $500 switch 2 and an $80 copy of Mario Kart.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, there's, you know, part of me is like, it's insane that there's video game consoles and fragmentation and like if you're not us and if you're not a game scoop listener and you're a casual, like, how do you even begin to work out? Like, what do you mean I can't play? Like, I have an Xbox. I can't play the last. That's confusing and weird, right? Because movies are like that. Music's not like that. Nothing's like that. But like, Sam, you invoked streaming. Like it's the same.

[Sam Claiborne]

Music's like that for streaming now.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, well, music's like that for streaming. But I was thinking about television is like, you know, there's Netflix shows, right? So it's like, you know, the Kind of fragmentation of media and figuring out where you can play something and listen to it and watch it. It kind of seems to ebb and flow of like sometimes it's okay and then sometimes it seems to get a little bit worse again. And we're, we're, we're in one of the low, low points I would say right now. Unless you're a PC gamer and then you can play basically everything except first.

[Sam Claiborne]

Party games now that you know, PlayStation's coming to PC all the time. Xbox.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, that's true.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's really interesting. It's a really interesting time. It's the Nintendo holdout which is like, that's just that dynamic is so fun that like this company wants to make consoles and only wants to make games for the their own consoles and everybody else is moving away from that. Like that's going to be interesting. It might result in those Nintendo games being more expensive because they do have Monopoly on their own IP and if they have the best games and the best characters, then they can set the prices of whatever they want for them. They don't. There is somebody has to make a better piece of art which like that should happen.

[Justin Davis]

You know, that's an interesting point of like, you know, we said it on the show last week or two weeks ago, like now that Nintendo has torn off the $80 band aid, like obviously everyone else is going to, right? Like it's inevitable that Xbox and PlayStation will. But a, they have PC as a revenue line that Nintendo doesn't have. They have to make all their money on the Switch version of the game and you know, B, you know, competition drives prices down, not up. And no one is in competition with Nintendo. And I don't mean that like they're the best developer on the earth, but like you said, like their games aren't coming out anywhere else. Like that's the only place you can get them and play them. So maybe, maybe that's reason why. Maybe that's an environment in which they could have a higher price point than Sony and Microsoft actually in a weird way.

[Damon Hadfield]

Well, Peter adds separately, I've never had a video game 20 question suggestion picked so maybe it can happen this time. I've been relistening to the. I've been re listening to the back catalog from the very start over the last couple years, usually one a day at work. A couple notes I took. Sam's first appearance was February 18, 2011 with Ryan Geddes and Greg Miller. The first game he ever discussed was Dead Island.

[Sam Claiborne]

I don't even remember Playing Dead Island.

[Damon Hadfield]

Also, Justin's first appearance was October 21, 2011 with Greg and Jack de Vries. And the first game he discussed on the show was Batman. Arkham City.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. Okay. Definitely remember that. Man, that was early. I hadn't been here very long. I'd only been here a few months. Thanks for having me on, Damon.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, thanks for joining us. Peter said, I think it would be fun to have one of these as the game of the week and if that surprised them at all. Well, though we have had both of those games separately before, so I did not pick one of those. But I thought that was an interesting anecdote.

[Sam Claiborne]

Dead island would be a really hard one for us. I don't think we would get that one.

[Damon Hadfield]

Maybe.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, it's.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's. I don't even. I. I don't know. I mean it has a 360 game. Yes, it was. Right. Like even that is hard for me to remember. This series is complicated.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. I was gonna say. So the game came out out of nowhere and was a huge smash hit and everybody liked it and yada yada yada, and it sold really well. And then didn't they just completely botch the sequel?

[Damon Hadfield]

They took forever to make the sequel and they released instead like these spinoffs or like side stories or something like. And then.

[Justin Davis]

Right.

[Damon Hadfield]

Eventually Dead Island 2 only came out.

[Sam Claiborne]

Like 2 came out like 2 years ago.

[Damon Hadfield]

2 years ago. And even though that's supposed to be good too. Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Weird story from the zombies were so popular.

[Damon Hadfield]

All thanks to the Walking Dead. And remember, it was the first trailer for this game that really built the hype for it. It was a very. That very somber reverse trailer of the little girl going out the window. Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

But wasn't that for Dead Island 2?

[Damon Hadfield]

No, that was Dead Island 1.

[Sam Claiborne]

It was. Okay, so. Oh no. The two was the running down the sidewalk one.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, that's right.

[Damon Hadfield]

I remember that the second trailer actually represented the tone of the game that was like the. The trailer for the first game had a very somber tone and the game ended up being really silly and goofy.

[Sam Claiborne]

It took it. Right? That's exactly.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. One more email. This is Leaf from Nova Scotia. Leaf says I wanted to write in about maps and video games. I recently played Witcher 3 for the first time and after about 30 hours I got fairly frustrated and dropped it. I would open the map and there was literally hundreds of question marks on my map. Now my problem isn't necessarily that there are too many discoverable items or quests, but rather that showing Me that many makes it feel endless and overwhelming. It feels like if I skip them, then I'm not fully experiencing the game. Whereas if they were hidden, I wouldn't know. I'm missing anything. I think I've been slightly spoiled about Elden Ring's design where I felt I was continuously discovering incredible things. But there was essentially zero markers on the map. Elden Ring is filled with content, but you'd never feel overwhelmed by the map as there are no markers. So with that said, would you rather a marked up map like Witcher 3 or would you prefer a totally empty map like Elden Ring? Assassin's Creed Shadows has a very marked up map.

[Sam Claiborne]

Once you, once you, once you climb up to something and look around.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I was just going to say what Leif is talking about. We, you know, we made fun of them. We've been bashing them on the show for years. But it turns out Ubisoft and their tower climbing open world games, they were on to something like that's the best of both worlds, right? It's like the map is empty and it's all fogged over and you get to a new area and you climb up and then it's like, here's the. It's not the Witcher 3. Here's 500 things to do. It's like n. Here's like 18 little things to do. And there's a treasure over there and a camp over there. Go do those and then go climb another tower.

[Sam Claiborne]

Here's what I like. I like it when there's a in game Fallout style compass that may have question marks on it when you get near them, but they, they're not represented on the map until you get when. Until you discover them. I like that. So it's like you can be proximity aware to not miss something, right? Because that would feel stupid if you're like, I mean this has happened to me before. Like I played an entire game and didn't realize like something near the beginning I walked past, you know. So it is nice to have that option. But I definitely do not want my maps filled up with collectibles and stuff like that. I think it's ridiculous. I think it's so handholdy. And in like the new Zelda apps, I think they're gonna walk a little bit of a line here. But the fact that eight years on they're just gonna tell people where the koroks are and what ones you have, like fuck you. All right? I mean, come on. Eight years of searching for koroks and then they just give it away.

[Damon Hadfield]

Ridiculous. Now I have to mark this episode explicit in our syndication.

[Justin Davis]

Okay.

[Sam Claiborne]

Sorry. I'm not sorry. It's not okay. It's not okay.

[Damon Hadfield]

Sam, are you sure you just don't want to make that. You want to be the one to make that map?

[Sam Claiborne]

I love making maps. So the thing is, like, there's a difference in using a companion map, which is. Which. Which, you know, is really fun. And you're using it because you're, like, looking for something that you want to get to a lot easier and stuff like that. That's all fine. I just don't need the game to do it for me. I want the option. If the game's doing it for me, then what's the point of the map? What's the point of the game? What's the point of the open world if it's just, like, listing all the stuff out? Just like, let me fall back on that if I need it. And, yeah, it's great to have that fallback. It's awesome. But I like the idea of how it's a process. I mean, I used to really like the idea of, like, you know, I would play through Ocarina of Time, and then I'd be thinking, like, I need to look up a strategy guide for the stuff I didn't do in this game. And I would go buy, like, a paper guide and come home and just be like, whoa. The stuff I didn't know is really interesting. And now I get to do all that. Like, that's the. That's the type of exploration, discovery, reward that I think is better than the game. Just saying, hey, there's 300 things in this game, and here they all are. Just do them one at a time. Because that doesn't feel good to me. It's not the same.

[Justin Davis]

There needs to be some sort of in game, you know, there needs to be, like, a diegetic. Like, Zelda actually does it really well. Of, like, you climb up to the top and you mark it with a point, and then you go there.

[Sam Claiborne]

I love that. Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

And, you know, if it's integrated into the gameplay experience in some way, like, man, I can't remember what game it was, but there's like an urban game where you would read a street sign or whatever, and then it would, like. Then it's like on your map of, like, oh, there's a building over there. And, like. But it does. It's not there until you read the street sign. And, like, you know, it's just cool. Like, that's the right way to do it.

[Sam Claiborne]

That, that, that telescope in Breath of the Wild, they're. They're off my shit list now. I like them again because that was a good, good move in that game.

[Damon Hadfield]

That's what I want to say. I like the Breath of the Wild method. Just a completely open map, but you, when you look, you will see interesting things that you want to go and investigate. So you place your own markers.

[Justin Davis]

Well, I think it's fine if the. If there is a permanent map marker, but after you've discovered it.

[Sam Claiborne]

After you exactly.

[Justin Davis]

It's immersion breaking. If it's like, you know, 10 kilometers away in the Witcher 3 and then you know that there's something over there.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. And since my high horse, I'm still on. I also think all games should have cheats. Cheat codes. Why are we doing this? Why do we even bother? What? Just give me cheat codes. If I could just right now go into Assassin's Creed and spawn like a thousand horses just for fun. Like, let me do that. That'd be great. How great would that be?

[Justin Davis]

I think I've said it before that when a game reaches its five year anniversary, it's five years old. Give the keys to the game to the players and then give them over. Yeah, you can turn. You can. It's your game now. And you can turn on Big Head mode and you can spawn as many wheels of cheese as you want and just go nuts.

[Sam Claiborne]

Let them cook, as the kids say.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. Justin, I've been playing Lego Star the Skywalker Saga with Kingo. But when you start the game, like, you have to start with a new host. You have to play through all the movies in order. You can't just jump to Empire or jump to Phantom Menace. And it's like, what? Like, just let us play the game, unlock the game. There should be a code. Just unlock every level, every character in this game so we can just run around and have fun.

[Justin Davis]

I do think an underrated accessibility, like, accessibility has gotten so good in games with like nuance between like, man, what was the game last year that you could set the puzzles to easy or the combat to easy? And it's like just stuff like that is clever. But like an underrated accessibility benefit is just skip. I just don't want to do this one. I just want to skip it. Like, just let people skip any section or any level of any game. Like, why not? Who does it hurt? Like, whether it's too hard for you, you can't do it, or like, if you're replaying the game and you're like, I'm just going to skip this half. I'm not into it.

[Damon Hadfield]

Maybe it's Prince of Persia, the Lost Crown. I think you're thinking of the head like puzzle difficulty and combat difficulty.

[Sam Claiborne]

Maybe this episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game? Shifting a little money here, a little there, and hoping it all works out well? With the name your price tool from.

[Damon Hadfield]

Progressive, you can be a better budgeter.

[Sam Claiborne]

And potentially lower your insurance bill too. You tell Progressive what you want to pay for car insurance and they'll help you find options within your budget. Try it [e-mail] progressive of casualty insurance company and affiliates price and coverage match limited by state law. Not available in all states.

[Damon Hadfield]

Summer's around the corner and I'm already planning my next getaway. I love using points for travel and I'm always looking for ways to earn more. Here's a scoop gem Pay rent with BILT to earn flexible transferable points and unlock exclusive benefits along the way. There's no cost to join, and just by paying rent you unlock flexible points that can be transferred to your favorite hotels and airlines, a future rent payment, your next Lyft ride, and more. When you pay rent through bilt, you unlock two power powerful benefits. First, you earn one of the industry's most valuable points on rent every month. No matter where you live or who your landlord is, your rent now works for you. Second, you gain access to exclusive neighborhood benefits in your city. Bilt's neighborhood benefits are things like extra points on dining out, complimentary post workout shakes, free mats or towels at your favorite fitness studios, and unique experiences that only BILT members can access. And when you're ready to travel, BILT points can be converted to your favorite miles and hotel points around the world, meaning your rent can literally take you places. So if you're not earning points on rent, my question is what are you waiting for? Start paying rent through BILT and take advantage of your neighborhood benefits by going to joinbilt.com gamescoop that's J-O-I-N B I-L-T.com gamescoop make sure to use our URL so they know we sent you. Joinbuilt.com Gamescoop to sign up for Bilt today. Anyway, that brings us to Video Game 20 Questions. Our suggestion this week comes from Alex, who is riding from Northern Virginia. I think this is an interesting pick this week and with that, let the questioning begin.

[Justin Davis]

One of those Northern Virginians we don't.

[Sam Claiborne]

Have to ask if it's interesting.

[Justin Davis]

They're a wily.

[Damon Hadfield]

That's a freebie.

[Sam Claiborne]

Does this game have cheat codes?

[Damon Hadfield]

I don't know.

[Justin Davis]

Does that count as a. Do we have to. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. Did this game come out in the 70s, 80s, or 90s?

[Damon Hadfield]

No.

[Sam Claiborne]

Did this game originally come out on a compact disc, medium?

[Damon Hadfield]

No.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, weird.

[Justin Davis]

Okay, yeah, that is a little bit weird. Is. Was this game originally a mobile game or PC game?

[Damon Hadfield]

No.

[Justin Davis]

Wait, so it definitely came out on a cart, but not in the. Not before the 90s?

[Sam Claiborne]

Did this come out for a Nintendo system?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Justin Davis]

Did it come out on the switch?

[Damon Hadfield]

No. That's five.

[Justin Davis]

Is this a DS or 3DS game?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Sam Claiborne]

Cool. I love those. Would you say this game was really heavily reliant on the stylus?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, boy. Okay. I know. I guess I was gonna say I know these pretty well, but.

[Sam Claiborne]

Brain Training, Picross and Yoshi Touch and Go.

[Justin Davis]

There was Yoshi's Touch and Go and Pack Picks and Rub Rabbits and all Those weird early DS games.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is this a DS and vanilla game, not a 3DS game?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Justin Davis]

Was it. Was it developed or published by Nintendo?

[Damon Hadfield]

No.

[Justin Davis]

Okay, so maybe it really is Rub Rabbits or Pack picks.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's not Dr. Kawashima's brain training.

[Justin Davis]

Whatever.

[Sam Claiborne]

What was the full name of the game? I had a long name. Brain Train. Brain Training. Train your brain in one hour a day.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Use the stylus heavily, but not Nintendo made. There was. Oh, so it's not Kirby either.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, that was a good stylus game.

[Justin Davis]

The only good Kirby game there was Meteos.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, that's good. Yeah. A lot of these we're talking about are puzzles. Should we commit to a puzzle genre?

[Justin Davis]

Sure.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is puzzle game.

[Damon Hadfield]

No, I don't. No, that's. I don't think that's what you would call this. And that's 10.

[Justin Davis]

Remember there was a game Henry. Henry Hatsworth that was like part puzzler, part.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, I think platformer.

[Justin Davis]

Puzzle platformer, but in with a twist.

[Sam Claiborne]

What else would you be doing with that stylus?

[Justin Davis]

It could be an adventure game. It could be like a trauma center.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, yeah, all those sims. Yeah. So we had Trauma center and. And Layton, but he would know.

[Justin Davis]

Yep. Yeah. Professor Layton. Nintendo might have published Professor Layton.

[Sam Claiborne]

What about Ace Attorney?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, I wouldn't describe those as stylus heavy. I actually think they don't. Well, no, you can select menu options with the stylus, but the whole game can be played with with just the controller. The Ace Attorney games are originally Game Boy advance games. Isn't that interesting?

[Sam Claiborne]

Do we even need to know if this is developed in Japan or are we just presuming it is?

[Justin Davis]

I don't think it would help me. I'm only.

[Sam Claiborne]

What about. Is this developed by Capcom or Konami or one other company?

[Justin Davis]

Well, I don't know Konami. So Konami did the DS Castlevanias and one of them had like swipey, touchy magic tricks that you could do, didn't they?

[Sam Claiborne]

I don't know.

[Justin Davis]

Maybe Trauma center was. Was at Sega Atlas? I. Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is this a Capcom Atlas or Konami? Maybe.

[Damon Hadfield]

Is it Capcom, Sega Atlas or Konami? Yes.

[Justin Davis]

Is it. Is it. Is it Sega?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Sam Claiborne]

Whoa. Yeah, Maybe it's the Sonic BioWare game. Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

The Sonic what? Sonic. The Dark Brotherhood. Man, that would be such a good, like bar trivia, like video game bar trivia question.

[Sam Claiborne]

It really is.

[Justin Davis]

Okay, I'm trying to think. I mean, I. I'm just assuming it's trauma center, but I'm trying to think about what else.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, that's really cool.

[Justin Davis]

I don't know what else Sega Atlas was up to on the ds.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, we could just ask if it has like colon based polyps in it. That's all I remember from that game.

[Justin Davis]

No, do you remember? I mean, maybe you did. Didn't play the game like I did.

[Sam Claiborne]

You. You eliminated polyps in a colon?

[Justin Davis]

No, like what I was gonna say is the game starts off as like, you know, you're doing surgery and like get rid of these polyps. But then it becomes really weird and supernatural and there's like demons and aliens and I think you're like drawing pentagrams and stuff. Like it gets really like. The story is insane. Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

I've been to a hospital before. Justin.

[Justin Davis]

Is this a surge? Is this a. Is this a gamer? You a Sergi Sim? Yeah. Sergi Sim.

[Damon Hadfield]

No. Oh, no.

[Justin Davis]

We spent so much time goofing around because we assumed that we had.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's like, it's clearly a demon simulator.

[Justin Davis]

Okay.

[Sam Claiborne]

Played this.

[Justin Davis]

Wait, SEGA though.

[Sam Claiborne]

We got Sega?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. Oh, man. I can't. I can't think of almost anything else that SEGA was up to in the DS era. They might have published.

[Sam Claiborne]

There's. What about shooters or platformers?

[Justin Davis]

I mean, I'm gonna assume that they were Sonic Moon.

[Sam Claiborne]

That was a stylus based. Remember that one first person shooter.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, yeah, yeah. With the same developer as Dementium the Ward.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yes. Dementium the Ward. Yes.

[Justin Davis]

No, I don't think So I don't know. Oh boy. It not being trauma center has completely thrown me for a loop.

[Sam Claiborne]

Did this game have characters that appeared on Dreamcast, Genesis or Saturn games?

[Damon Hadfield]

No.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay, so kind of a standalone, brand new. Because there's no like Sonic game or anything like that.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, right. Actually that's a pretty good. Like, I think there might have been like a Samba de Amigo.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, are there RPGs that say. What do they do? Like Star. What's that game? What do they do? They do the Star one one.

[Justin Davis]

They did Fantasy Star.

[Sam Claiborne]

We're not even close to this. I can tell. Was this interesting pick. Oh, what if they did a licensed game?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is this a licensed game?

[Damon Hadfield]

No. That's 15.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh boy.

[Justin Davis]

When this.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's been really tripping us up. We've been missing license game recently, which is like, just stupid.

[Justin Davis]

I'm. I think I'm wondering if this is a one off or like part of a franchise or. I don't want to ask if it was a one off though, in case it got it. Like, is it helpful to know if this is the first game in a series?

[Sam Claiborne]

Did they do Zack and Wiki? No, that was Capcom, right?

[Justin Davis]

Yep.

[Sam Claiborne]

Or not Ni no Kuni, but maybe there's like something like that that's on.

[Justin Davis]

The tip of my brain, but not. I think you might be right. I'm trying to think about there being a DS shooter. Maybe I'm thinking of the Conduit, which was a Wii game and that was Sega. Right.

[Sam Claiborne]

Or what about like a space shooter? Like a Top Gun shooter though.

[Justin Davis]

I don't know, man.

[Sam Claiborne]

Where you like hold the DS sideways and it'd be all cool. Remember those.

[Justin Davis]

Not a though, you know, SEGA DS exclusive.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is this Rub Rabbits or any of those games? What's the. What's the room? Room Detective one. What's that one called?

[Justin Davis]

Room Hotel Dusk. Hotel Dusk. No, man. Hotel Desk is really good. And Rubrabbits was Ubisoft. I know this era really well because this is when I started as a professional games journalist and I worked for a handheld.

[Sam Claiborne]

I can just see Sega doing like launch games to be supportive of the DS too, you know?

[Justin Davis]

Yep. So I.

[Sam Claiborne]

What if they did a knockoff frame training game?

[Justin Davis]

I mean, it's very possible there was a million of them. Maybe they published the Bible.

[Sam Claiborne]

When that came to, we eliminated puzzle games. Right?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

So what other games just use stylus? Should we just ask if it's a shooty?

[Justin Davis]

What would be helpful to me is to know if it's part of A SEGA franchise? Or is it some weird DS exclusive thing? Or to know if we've mentioned the name of the game. Why don't we just ask?

[Sam Claiborne]

Did this series first appear on the Nintendo ds?

[Justin Davis]

Did this series first appear on the Nintendo ds?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Justin Davis]

All right, all right. So it's something, so it's a d. You know, something weird, Some weird, random thing that SEGA did on the ds. I don't know. I don't. Oh, did that. Maybe there's a. Well, no, it can't be Virtual Cop. Can't be any of the House of the Dead games, because those were Sega, but those didn't start on the ds.

[Sam Claiborne]

Should we just ask, like, is this an RPG or a shooter or what? Are those the only things we're coming up with? Right?

[Justin Davis]

I mean, I can't even. My mind palace has been turned over and it's. I don't. I just, I just don't think I have it.

[Damon Hadfield]

You have three questions and a guess.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is this an RPG or a shooter?

[Damon Hadfield]

No, but.

[Justin Davis]

Nor is it Puzzle. Maybe, Maybe they. I mean, I, I, I can't even picture. I know there was Sonic Advance 1, 2, and 3, but I can't even picture. Oh, but it's not part of a franchise.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's not part of any of that stuff. I'm not sure we know this game.

[Justin Davis]

I bet I know it. I bet there's a decent. I have most of the DS library in my class.

[Sam Claiborne]

What about a music game? Did they do any music stuff?

[Justin Davis]

So I was thinking about that. I was thinking about. There was Elite Beat Agents and Oindan, but those were, those were not done by Sega. Those were done by Nintendo. And then I assume that. Yeah, I assume that there's like, you know, other, you know, there's. Remember that weird Guitar Hero DS game that came out? That clip into the Game Boy card?

[Sam Claiborne]

That was great.

[Justin Davis]

That thing was insane.

[Sam Claiborne]

We relentlessly mocked that in the office. Remember when it came.

[Justin Davis]

Yep. I don't know.

[Sam Claiborne]

I don't know where to go with this. This is probably a Hail Mary from you. Than it is. More than it is.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. I don't have.

[Sam Claiborne]

We don't even have a genre, so. Do they do sports games? Like cute sports?

[Justin Davis]

Probably.

[Sam Claiborne]

Probably. What about golf Jol. Aren't they. Don't they famously have a golf series or a tennis. What about tennis?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, like, there's Virtua Tennis, but like, it's, it's a series that started on the ds, so. Or, you know, it's a one off. Off. I don't Know I don't have it.

[Sam Claiborne]

Do you play as a human? Yes, a. It'd be so much more fun if it's an animal.

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay.

[Justin Davis]

Ask.

[Damon Hadfield]

If you hold. You have one question. I guess Ask if you've named the game.

[Justin Davis]

Have we named the game?

[Damon Hadfield]

You have not named this game. And I. And. And with that, I'll let you make your guess.

[Justin Davis]

I don't know what that means. Does that mean we invoked the name of like other. Like we've invoked the name of the franchise, but not like moon or hotel.

[Sam Claiborne]

Dusk or one of those that I don't know.

[Damon Hadfield]

Just like the Last Jedi. You have everything you need.

[Justin Davis]

Is that a quote from the Last Jedi?

[Sam Claiborne]

I think Mark says that before he appears as a hologram.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay. Should I reveal.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, Justin, we don't have it.

[Damon Hadfield]

Rub Rabbits is not a Ubisoft game. Rub Rabbits is not this game. Rub Rabbits is the sequel to Feel the Magic. Feel the Magic, the launch window game where you're a guy trying to impress a girl with a bunch of mini games trying to get her to fall in love with you.

[Justin Davis]

Yep. Wow.

[Sam Claiborne]

Look how retro this looks now.

[Justin Davis]

This game was cool. It was like. I mean, it was like a slightly worse warioware.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

It's all a bunch of minigames. It's a really silly, silly mini game extravaganza.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's just what we called the whole era of 3Ds.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yes.

[Justin Davis]

Feel them. Feel the magic. I didn't remember. I didn't remember that that was a Sega game at all. So I don't think I would have gotten there.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yep.

[Justin Davis]

Rob Rabbits was not ds.

[Damon Hadfield]

It was. But that's the sequel to Feel the Magic.

[Sam Claiborne]

And it's not by Ubisoft.

[Damon Hadfield]

No. They're both Sega.

[Justin Davis]

Right? Yeah. Okay. Got it.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

Well, feel the magic. Nicely attempt. Thank you for the suggestion, Alex from Northern Virginia. Viewers, listeners, if you have your own suggestions for video game 20 questions, email them to me at the email address gamescoop.com and I wanted to let you know, ignore IGN's in person event. IGN Live is happening again this summer in Downtown Los Angeles June 7th and 8th. Make sure to grab your early bird tickets. Get the best price while you can. They're only 15 bucks a day. We're gonna be there hanging out with an awesome live show all weekend. There'll be live scoop, tons of giveaways, playable games on consoles, PCs and handhelds, celebrity panels, other brands and publishers, including Netflix 2K sports, IDW, Arcade1up, many, many more. So head over to IGN.com feel the magic competition There'll be a Feel the Magic competition. Yep. Head to head. Feel the magic. Come to IGN Live and feel our magic with Game Soup Live in person. Head over to IGN.com live to grab your tickets before they go up in price. And that's going to be all the scoops that we have for you this week. Thank you to both Sam and Justin. Thank you to Jobert working behind the scenes to make this episode possible. My name is Damon, this is IGN gamescoup. And we're out. This episode of Game Soup was produced by myself, Damon Hatfield and Jobert Adienza. Technical direction is handled by Jobert Atienza. Technical production is by Marianne Franzen and Amir Akib. Audio engineering is by Amir Akib and post production editing is by yours truly, Damon Hatfield. Graphic design is by Nicole Kagempen. Gamescoop is an IGN production and part of the Geek Media Network. From the folks behind Outside Xbox and.

[Sam Claiborne]

Outside Extra comes the Oxventure podcast, where.

[Damon Hadfield]

The supernatural action horror comedy of the.

[Sam Claiborne]

Weird west has returned in a new.

[Damon Hadfield]

Season of Tabletop RPG Deadlands. Each week on the Oxventure podcast, we visit a treacherous frontier full of monsters and magic where even the trains run on the souls of the damned.

[Sam Claiborne]

Our five players have overcome impossible odds.

[Damon Hadfield]

And now find themselves running a monster.

[Sam Claiborne]

Hunting agency for hire.

[Damon Hadfield]

But when sinister forces threaten one of their own, it sets in motion a whole new adventure. They may not all survive, so join us in Oxventure Deadlands only on YouTube and on the Oxventure Podcast, available wherever fine podcasts are downloaded. Deadlands is an Oxventure production and part of the Geek Media Network. Next Gen Console Watch is the Igen show discussing the latest gaming hardware. Whether it's the PS5 Pro, Nintendo Switch 2, or something new from Xbox, it's all fair game. A next gen consolet hosted by myself, Damon Hatfield, a 20 year IGN veteran. I am joined by my co hosts Ryan McCaffrey, host of IGN's Xbox podcast Podcast Unlocked, and Max Scoville, host of iGen's PlayStation podcast Podcast Beyond. I will try to keep these console war discussions civil, but no promises. Listen to Next Gen Console Watch on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Friday. Don't, don't, don't don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't.

[Justin Davis]

Don'T, don't, don't, don't don't, don't?

[Damon Hadfield]

O Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't.

[Justin Davis]

Don'T, don't, don't, don't.

[Damon Hadfield]

Don'T, don't, don't.

[Justin Davis]

Don'T, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't.

[Damon Hadfield]

Don'T, don't.

[Justin Davis]

Don'T, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't.

[Damon Hadfield]

Don'T, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't?

[Justin Davis]

Sa.