Game Scoop! 818: Nintendo Switch 2's First 10/10

Summary

Game Scoop! Episode 818 Summary: Nintendo Switch 2's First 10/10

Release Date: July 17, 2025
Host: Damon Hatfield
Guests: Nick Limone & Sam Claiborne
Network: IGN & Geek Media

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1. Exciting News: IGN's First 10/10 for Donkey Kong Bonanza

The episode kicks off with Damon Hatfield sharing thrilling news about IGN awarding a perfect score to Donkey Kong Bonanza. This marks the first 10/10 review from IGN since Shadow of the Erdtree a year prior.

Notable Quote:

Damon Hatfield [03:09]: "Logan did it and he liked it so much. Gave it a 10 out of 10."

Nick Limone expresses his excitement, highlighting the rarity and significance of this score:

Nick Limone [03:10]: "Oh, my God."

Sam Claiborne adds context by recalling previous 10/10 scores:

Sam Claiborne [03:32]: "It was the Resident Evil 4 remake."

2. Deep Dive into Donkey Kong Bonanza

The hosts discuss Donkey Kong Bonanza as a bold successor to Super Mario Odyssey. They commend Nintendo's decision to center the Switch 2's first 3D platform game around Donkey Kong instead of Mario, which they believe proves to be an excellent choice.

Notable Quote:

Logan's Review Blurb [04:00]: "A brilliant successor to Super Mario Odyssey in a smashing return for a classic Nintendo character."

Sam shares his initial skepticism but acknowledges the game's potential:

Sam Claiborne [05:07]: "Logan just proved his mettle with Mario Kart… and he said I’m excited because I love a core Nintendo game that gets a 10."

3. Exploring Claire Obscure: Expedition 33

Damon provides an overview of Claire Obscure: Expedition 33, sharing his early impressions after playing the prologue. The game presents a unique premise where society faces a countdown leading to the demise of those reaching a certain age, spurring expeditions to defeat mysterious painters causing these deaths.

Notable Quote:

Damon Hatfield [18:00]: "Shujinko is a turn-based dungeon crawler that also teaches you Japanese."

The discussion delves into the game's storytelling, art style, and the emotional impact of the prologue, highlighting questions about the game's world-building that will unfold as players progress.

4. Insights on Death Stranding 2

Nick and Sam discuss Death Stranding 2, focusing on its gameplay mechanics like the collection of BTs (Beached Things) and optional boss encounters. While Sam appreciates the game's narrative depth and character development, he voices concerns about repetitive areas and prolonged battles that could hinder exploration.

Notable Quote:

Sam Claiborne [25:33]: "If you really want to do tough battles… it just sucks that my timing's a little bit off."

Nick enjoys the rhythm-based combat and finds satisfaction in mastering the game's mechanics:

Nick Limone [27:04]: "The timing-based input stuff to me feels like a rhythm game. So I kind of dig it."

5. Tony Hawk 3 and 4 Remastered: A Nostalgic Ride

Damon shares his enjoyment of the remastered versions of Tony Hawk 3 and Tony Hawk 4. He reminisces about the original gameplay, particularly the iconic airport level, and appreciates the enhanced graphics and nostalgia-driven design.

Notable Quote:

Damon Hatfield [30:15]: "It's so fun just trying to get the high scores. Just, like, grinding rails, like, all over the levels."

Sam, who played earlier titles, expresses interest in diving into the remastered versions despite not having foundational muscle memory:

Sam Claiborne [28:43]: "I actually might give that a go."

6. Breath of the Wild vs. Tears of the Kingdom

Nick and Damon compare The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild with its sequel, Tears of the Kingdom. While Nick praises the sequel's complexity, he favors the original's crafted and atmospheric experience.

Notable Quote:

Nick Limone [34:46]: "Breath of the Wild is just a better authored experience… I'm a sucker for atmosphere and environment."

Sam highlights the expansive open world of Breath of the Wild and commends its dungeon designs:

Sam Claiborne [36:31]: "The Hyrule Castle is the best dungeon of the whole series in that game."

7. Listener Mail: Video Game 20 Questions

The hosts engage with listener Scott from Southern California, who poses a question about why Damon hasn't played Shining Force 3. Recognizing the game's legacy, Damon acknowledges his limited experience but expresses willingness to explore it based on Scott's recommendation.

Notable Quote:

Damon Hatfield [85:00]: "I had never played scenarios two and three, but I can do that on your recommendation."

8. Community and Personal Stories: Arcade Adventures

Sam recounts a visit to the Redemption Arcade at Stones at Stonestown Mall in San Francisco, marveling at the vibrant arcade scene reminiscent of Tokyo's arcades. He describes the variety of redemption games and the unique atmosphere, highlighting the contrast with the declining mall culture in the U.S.

Notable Quote:

Sam Claiborne [53:43]: "This just came out of nowhere. Nobody told me about this."

9. Movie Discussions: Superman and Predator Franchises

Sam shares his enthusiasm for the newly released Superman movie directed by James Gunn, praising its character development and action sequences. The hosts also discuss Predator: Killer of Killers, lauding its animation quality and expansion of the Predator lore.

Notable Quotes:

Sam Claiborne [57:52]: "I loved it through and through."

Damon Hatfield [67:21]: "Predator, Killer of Killers. It has my highest recommendation."

10. Upcoming Events: Comic Con Coverage

Damon announces that the team will be attending Comic Con in San Diego, where they will provide live coverage. Nick and Sam express their excitement for the event, teasing discussions on upcoming titles like Predator: Badlands, Alien Earth, and Twisted Metal.

Notable Quote:

Damon Hatfield [85:34]: "We're all going down to San Diego. So hopefully on tomorrow night, Wednesday night this week, I can play some Donkey Kong Bonanza."

11. Conclusion and Future Episodes

The episode wraps up with final thoughts on the rich lineup of games discussed and a sneak peek into future content, including a second episode featuring Mark Medina. The hosts encourage listeners to engage via email and promote their live shows and affiliated content.

Notable Quote:

Damon Hatfield [89:03]: "This episode of Game Scoop was produced by yours truly, Damon Hatfield…"

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Key Takeaways:

• Donkey Kong Bonanza receives a rare 10/10 from IGN, sparking discussions on its place alongside Mario platformers.
• Claire Obscure: Expedition 33 impresses with its unique narrative and art but raises questions about its world-building.
• Death Stranding 2 offers compelling mechanics but suffers from repetitive gameplay elements.
• Remastered classics like Tony Hawk 3 and 4 evoke nostalgia while enhancing modern gameplay experiences.
• The Legend of Zelda series continues to excel, with Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom receiving high praise for different reasons.
• Listener engagement and community stories enrich the episode, fostering a deeper connection with the audience.
• Upcoming events like Comic Con promise exciting content and live interactions.

This comprehensive summary captures the essence of Episode 818, providing insights and highlights for both longtime fans and new listeners.

Transcript

[Damon Hatfield]

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[Nick Limone]

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[Sam Claiborne]

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[Nick Limone]

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[Damon Hatfield]

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[Sam Claiborne]

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[Damon Hatfield]

Discover Area 51 [e-mail] what's up, everybody? Welcome to IGN Gamescoop. I'm your host, Damon Hatfield. Joining me this week here in studio is Nick Limone.

[Nick Limone]

I'm back, baby.

[Damon Hatfield]

And Sam Claiborne is here.

[Sam Claiborne]

Are you usually over there like that?

[Damon Hatfield]

What? In the middle?

[Sam Claiborne]

In the middle.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, sometimes. I don't know. Joebert works in mysterious ways.

[Nick Limone]

The Roulette.

[Damon Hatfield]

Who knows what Joe Bert's up to?

[Sam Claiborne]

A roulette host. Roulette.

[Damon Hatfield]

We got a great show for you this week. I finally started playing Claire Obscure. Still very early on in that, but I can share some early thoughts on that. And I've been playing Tony Hawk 3 and 4, the remaster of that. Having a lot of fun with that. We've got some. Also good. Some good topics from listener mail. But first, by the time this episode is out, our review of Donkey Kong Bonanza will be up. Logan did it and he liked it so much. Gave it a 10 out of 10.

[Nick Limone]

Oh, my God.

[Damon Hatfield]

Our first. The first 10 that IGN score. First IGN or 10 that IGN has given out since Shadow of the Erdtree a whole year ago.

[Sam Claiborne]

Wow. Which wasn't a real game, let's be honest.

[Damon Hatfield]

Which was a very great expansion of a game. Yeah. I mean, gosh. Okay, so here's, here's. Let me really test you then, Sam. What was the last full game that got a 10 out of 10 from.

[Sam Claiborne]

I. I believe there was. There was one before even that year.

[Damon Hatfield]

You played it and loved it.

[Sam Claiborne]

I know.

[Damon Hatfield]

Anyone was anyone.

[Sam Claiborne]

Was it Prince of Persia?

[Damon Hatfield]

It was the. The Resident Evil 4 remake.

[Sam Claiborne]

Wow. That was a good one.

[Nick Limone]

Was that last good one?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Wow.

[Damon Hatfield]

Wait, wait, wait, wait. Was it last year?

[Sam Claiborne]

No, it was 2024. Oh.

[Nick Limone]

It was the beginning of.

[Damon Hatfield]

It was like March.

[Sam Claiborne]

It was. And right before that, I gave metroid Prime a 10 out of 10 remake.

[Nick Limone]

Also a good game.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. But anyway, Donkey Kong Bonanza. Yep. I actually have Logan's review here. I can just read a little bit of a blurb from it. So, you know, definitely go watch. Read his review. But Logan said the leader of the bunch. Oh, sorry. The leader of the bunch is finally back to kick some tail in Donkey Kong Bonanza, a brilliant successor to Super Mario Odyssey in a smashing return for a classic Nintendo character. It was a bold choice to build the Switch 2's first 3D platform around Donkey Kong instead of Mario, but it's proven to be the best decision Nintendo could have made. There you go. Feeling pretty good. Like I said. I know. Like I said last week. My son is so excited for this And I like that we just realized that it's gonna be. So we're recording this on Tuesday. The game should be live tomorrow for us Wednesday evening, maybe at 9:00pm or maybe at 6:00pm yeah, you'll be able.

[Sam Claiborne]

To install it by midnight.

[Nick Limone]

I'm hoping to at least get at least three hours.

[Damon Hatfield]

That's what I'm saying.

[Nick Limone]

Papa's hungry.

[Damon Hatfield]

Sorry, Kingo, you're going to be at 8:30. I'm staying up playing Donkey Kong Bonanza tomorrow. But I want to know, Sam, you've been a little down on Donkey Kong this whole time.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. Well, I just wonder if this. I read the review too. Yeah, for sure. So the review, interestingly, that excerpt that you wrote is all entirely in rhyming couplets and iambic pentameter to make it sound like the Donkey Kong rap. In fact, Logan did the. The entire review that way, so it took a lot of extra work. So I'm really excited because I love a core Nintendo game that gets a 10. And what I read through in the review is that it does have enough variation and changes and stuff like that to make it more like a giant 3D Mario game. And we'll just have to see if that, that, that feels that way to me too, because I still see this game as like a, you know, like a one trick pony. Right. It's got this. Mario's trick is jumping, and I'm fine with that. If Donkey Kong's trick is digging and it's just this one, that's fine. Yeah, that's fine. They don't call him Jumpman for nothing. Right? So, yeah. So I think it looks. I mean, this is really, really good news for me. Like, I don't just get down on games because they, you know, I have something against them. Yeah, it's because they don't look good to me. And I'm telling y' all what I think. But I think that this reviewer Logan just proved his mettle with, with Mario Kart. We all saw him review Mario Kart next to us at IGN Live, and he did a really great job with that review. And it was 100% how I felt about the game in the end.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. Yeah. I think we were just talking with Logan before this when we were planning this week's next gen console. Watch. I think he said he likes Bonanza more than Odyssey.

[Sam Claiborne]

Generally likes Mario platformers better than Donkey Kong platformers, but he likes this more than Odyssey, which is like, wow.

[Damon Hatfield]

Because I words I would say Odyssey is the best 3D platformer ever. Made.

[Nick Limone]

I would agree with that sentiment. So this has me very excited.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Nick Limone]

Logan is also like, you know, we're in a. There's a group of people at Ignores, like, your taste and I align very well. And he's one of the first people, like, oh, you're basically just kind of like, exactly what I enjoyed, like, in terms of games. So the fact that he said that and then he messaged me directly just out of the blue, because I was like, I haven't seen you online on Switch, too. What's going on over there? What you been up to? And he just messaged me back, you're gonna love it. And I was like, oh, my God, I cannot wait.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, I mean, it's great to hear that. Apparently, even though it's not Mario Odyssey 2, it's turned out great in the end. It's a strange choice to not do Mario because. Well, we were also talking about this. There's. It's not going to sell as well as Mario Odyssey just because it's Donkey Kong and not Mario. Right. So it's a little bit bold of Nintendo to go in that direction. They could have guaranteed themselves more sales if they made it a Mario game, but they would. They did.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's an interesting build that Nintendo's doing towards Donkey Kong because they're doing that. They did the Donkey Kong theme park, right?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean, clearly that was aligned.

[Damon Hatfield]

They also just trademarked this movie.

[Sam Claiborne]

Trademark the movie. The year. Yeah. Yeah. So there's definitely a lot of DK movements happening, probably with bongo drums under them. But, yeah, I think it's a good sign that these other franchises can get a lot of love. I don't really care if the game sells well or not, but I cannot wait to have a summer game to play.

[Damon Hatfield]

It is.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. Like, it's just going to be an awesome. Like, this is the playing game. Like, we travel a lot in the summer for work. Right. We travel a lot in summer for vacations. And like, this. This game, just to have this as, like, the Collectathon game, that's awesome to me. Like, that's. Mario Kart did not become the Collectathon I wanted it to be. And I don't mind. I don't mind if there's like a, you know, a thousand moons in Mario Odyssey. I'll get them over time, right?

[Damon Hatfield]

Oh, yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

And so that's the case here. Logan said he completed the game with a couple hundred bananas. Banana crystals or whatever they're called.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

And he said there's a couple hundred.

[Damon Hatfield]

More.

[Sam Claiborne]

He said there's a couple hundred more to get and he's going to go for it. So, you know, like, that's the type of game which seems like it's going to feel good to play over the rest of the summer. And there's a lot of play right now, honestly, like, this is a great summer for people to play video games like this. It was not always like this. People.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, it's a pretty darn good year for games in general, but I think this summer in particular has me excited. But if I'm. If I may be a little bit controversial.

[Damon Hatfield]

Here we go.

[Nick Limone]

I think this is where the Switch 2 launch actually begins for Nick Limone, at least, because Mario Kart World was a cute little. Okay, I'll pass the time with you. You roll credits within the span of about an hour and a half, two hours.

[Sam Claiborne]

Was that your Yoshi's touch and go of this generation?

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, basically. And now I'm just like. Just. I re beat Breath of the Wild while waiting for Banana Bonanza to come out and I started Tears of the Kingdom. Like, please just give it to me now, Nint. I think I rebought the Final Fantasy Pixel remasters just to just do. Just to feel something on the. Wait for bananas. But yeah, this is, for me, the one that I'm probably most looking forward to. Apart From Death Stranding 2 this year, this is the one that I'm really looking forward to.

[Sam Claiborne]

Awesome. Wow. You got them in the same month. Almost.

[Damon Hatfield]

It is wild. Like, we've said for years that it's a tall order for Nintendo to follow up Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. And it's just like they just didn't at all. It's like, it's so far. Mrs. Missing the Mark from what.

[Nick Limone]

I like it.

[Damon Hatfield]

I like it too. And I still play it. I'm playing it often, but it's just like, there's just nothing to it. And that open world is nothing.

[Nick Limone]

It's like going from Smash Brothers ultimate back to like, Smash Brawl, where you're like, oh, there's just less stuff to.

[Sam Claiborne]

Do.

[Damon Hatfield]

Anyway, anyway, I don't wanna. I like Mario Kart World.

[Nick Limone]

I'm still playing, like every other day online. And then I get angry at people being better than me.

[Sam Claiborne]

Nick, I beat Death Stranding.

[Nick Limone]

Oh, well done.

[Damon Hatfield]

There you go.

[Sam Claiborne]

I loved it through and through. It has, you know, it doesn't have as many endings as the first Death Stranding, but it has a lot of ending sequences. And I know a lot of them parallel the first game and it Goes on. Keeps going.

[Nick Limone]

It does.

[Sam Claiborne]

Keeps going.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's a Kojima game.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, exactly. That's the most Kojima moment. Like chapters 13 onward. That's. That's where it becomes a Kojiwa game. Like through and through. Before that I was like, oh, he's really lightening up and making a general audiences game. But no, doesn't stick with that.

[Nick Limone]

If you make it to that far in the game though, it's like 100%. All right. You get it.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yep. It's funny how they showed this stuff in the preview too because this couldn't be later in the game. Like a lot of the stuff that they showed in early on in trailers and stuff. I was like, when is this going to happen?

[Nick Limone]

Yeah. Pro tip for any Kojima game, never watch the final launch trailer because it will just show you the end game.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, that's really funny. Yeah. But there's a lot of resolution in the end to what's happening. One of the things completely didn't make sense to me because I missed a key detail and so I had to get the lowdown from Mark Adina on that. But other, other than that I, I, you know, it really clicked with me. And then I, I did a few deliveries after in the post game too because we. And by the way, check out our video on the everything to do in the post game if you kind of want to know. Like, is this worth your stretching your dollar for? Because like, you know, there's a lot of main game but there is, there is stuff to do afterwards including I. I think a really cool extra prepper which is like a difficulty.

[Nick Limone]

The perfect one. Mr.

[Sam Claiborne]

Perfect.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah. Mr. Impossible. There you go.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Nick Limone]

It's funny, there is also like I've been dying to talk about a certain mechanic that's in Death Stranding 2 that I still have not seen anyone mention at all that. So like I guess slight spoiler for Death Stranding 2. But the collecting BTs thing is I think so sick. And there's also optional areas that if you ride the coffin hoverboard you can ride into the a tar pit lake. And then there's. I just got a notification that I have entered the BT Nexus and I was like uh, oh, I don't think I'm prepared for this. And then a crazy series of giant boss encounters ensued so I would assume I can also capture those. But I was not equipped for it at the time. But very excited to explore even more of that game.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's what we were calling pre release internally. There's kind of like, some Pokemon stuff to it where you can capture the various large BTs, you can't capture small ones. Got to chuck a grenade in their mouth. It's cool. That is used for one of the sub orders in a really funny, interesting way. And I don't think it's. As far as we know, it's not used anywhere else. And that's where I'm a little disappointed. Boss fights in this game are not hard. They're just not.

[Nick Limone]

They're pretty.

[Sam Claiborne]

And so it's like, you don't need to call your giant lion Pokemon. I just never did. And like, in hindsight, I just wish I'd played with it more, because that's really what it's there for. But it's not that, like, somebody's like, hey, here's your list. You're going to go out, you're going to catch them all, and then you're going to come back and talk to the professor. Like, that would have been great.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, I mean, you catch them all, man. It writes itself. Like, you have. You have Lindsay Wagner, literally, name dropped Princess Peach or Princess beach in the first game. So I was like, come on, catch them all, man. There you go, Kojima.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's really good. I love it. And maybe it'll be some dlc. Dollman is also a very funny character in this game because Dollman serves as a sort of a Na', vi, right? Like, it's an advising character, breaks stuff down, but not only does that, and I can't wait for you to get to this point, Damon, but then proceeds to summarize every single cutscene you watch in the game and gives. Gives you the lowdown. So if you miss something in that, you know, he'll say like, well, I guess that means that his name is actually, you know, this and this and this. And what does that mean to you? Well, here's what it means to me, and here's what it means to the larger. It's just really funny. It's like this, like, little explainer for everything. It's a lot of dialogue.

[Nick Limone]

I've always posited that Kojima and his localization teams, especially in the early Metal Gear games, nailed the idea of, like, sometimes people playing video games don't pay attention, so they repeat information by just asking the question. Metal Gear question mark. And I was like, oh, I'll just repeat the same thing I just said. I kind of love that. Also, I love Dollman because he is mindful of your time. And he goes, sam, we got a long cut. Scene coming up. Maybe you should save the game.

[Sam Claiborne]

Really?

[Nick Limone]

Yeah. I was like, oh, thanks, Dollman.

[Damon Hatfield]

That's good. Is there an in universe explanation why so many characters are named something man? No, it just.

[Sam Claiborne]

There's not. They. They do poke fun of it a little bit in this game is like, I forget what happens. Like Dawn Man's like, why. They certainly don't come up with more creative names than you would expect. Something like that. But the. The but in this game there's two big character name reveals and one of them is not a man name, which is really funny and then. And very stupid. I wish I could talk about it in this episode. And. And then the other one is related to. I won't even. I won't even say what it's related to. But there's another reveal about a returning character and a name which is so funny too. But you'll just let the people get there.

[Damon Hatfield]

Cool.

[Sam Claiborne]

They talk about the names.

[Damon Hatfield]

All right, well, Donkey Kong Bananas I'm very excited for. And we're actually recording a second episode this week. It's Tuesday right now. We're going to record next week's episode this Thursday because next week is Comic Con. We're all going down to San Diego. So hopefully on tomorrow night, Wednesday night this week, I can play some Donkey Kong Sam 2 and then we can discuss it a little bit on Thursday.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, I like that plan. And you know, just so everybody knows, we. We don't just do half the good topics when we each show and we do two shows in a week. We actually make both episodes just as good as the other episode by saving up topics all year long.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yep, yep.

[Sam Claiborne]

And then spreading them over two episodes in and sort of concentrate or pate.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yep, that's exactly right. Every episode is an 11 out of 10 here off the charts. Okay, so first 10 that we've given out in a year. We'll have to wait and see what the other sort of other media outlets reviews are looking like. But of course, Claire Obscure, which I can talk about in just a moment, was sort of like a big favorite. Many people's game of the year. It's one of the best reviewed games of the year so far. But I was looking this up because I like to keep track of this stuff. The best reviewed game of the year is not Clar Obscure. In fact, the best reviewed game of the year is something you might not have even heard of before. I had never heard of it until today. And I'm looking at Open Critic. I like Open Critic better than Metacritic. It's a game called Shujinko. Are you familiar with this?

[Nick Limone]

I have not.

[Damon Hatfield]

This is the best reviewed game of the year. It has 94 on Open Critic, whereas Claire Obscure has a 92. Shujinko is a turn based dungeon crawler that also teaches you Japanese.

[Nick Limone]

That sounds kind of.

[Damon Hatfield]

I mean, I know it's an indie game and it's the best reviewed game of the year. It came out back in February and I'd never even heard of it.

[Nick Limone]

A Shirin the Wanderer.

[Damon Hatfield]

Like, I mean, I don't know if it's a roguelike. They call it a turn based dungeon crawl. I think it's more of a JRPG gotcha. That also will also teaches you Japanese.

[Nick Limone]

So I mean, if it teaches me kanji, I'm in. I can only learn hiragana and katakana so many times.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, Shujinko. Check that out. If you want to know.

[Sam Claiborne]

Check it out in Japan this fall.

[Damon Hatfield]

The best reviewed game of the year is so far. Anyway, Claire Obscure, Expedition 33. I finally booted this up on Game Pass last night. Oh yeah, by the way, I've said incorrectly twice on this show that Claire obscure is on PlayStation Plus.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, right, right.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's not. I don't know where I got that.

[Sam Claiborne]

Idea from worth correcting. I keep seeing those comments.

[Damon Hatfield]

Apologies if I misled anyone with that. I don't.

[Sam Claiborne]

You could have just kept on saying it until it happen.

[Damon Hatfield]

Have just kept on saying it. Double down maybe a year from now, two years. It would be there be like. Yeah, it'd be like that time we. That I. I put the wrong episode number on episode and we. We just skipped an episode. And then I just gaslit everyone into thinking saying that that particular number is bad luck for podcasts. So.

[Sam Claiborne]

Anyway, bad luck for podcast.

[Damon Hatfield]

Claire Obscure. I only played the prologue, so I haven't like gotten into the meat of game. Not like settled into a gameplay loop, but I've gotten a taste of what the sort of like world building is like and the art style and art direction and the story and the voice acting and you know, there's some tutorial battles that you fight through there. So. Good first impressions. I think I'm starting to understand why this game impressed people so much. I have some questions, but maybe they're explained. Maybe, maybe, maybe they're not. Okay, okay, let me back up. All right, let's talk to people who maybe haven't played Claire Obscure, which I don't know what percentage of our audience that is. This is a jr. Well, it's A turn based rpg not made by a Japanese studio, but it's that style of game. And the whole premise is that 67 years ago the painters showed up and painted the number 100. And I guess starting then, everyone who was over 100 years old died. And every year she changed. It goes down to 99, 98, 97. Anyone below that age dies or at that age dies. That's the premise. And then they send out these expeditions to try and defeat the painters to try and stop this from happening so people can live their full lives again. And the expedition numbers count down. So now we're at 33. So no one, when you start the game, no one is older than 34. Right. So it's a very, I think it's a very cool premise. And then as that. That's just the premise. I will say a spoiler now. Okay, this is a spoiler for the prologue of the game. So what happens?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, that's not much of one.

[Damon Hatfield]

But you know, the very first thing that happens is they demonstrate, you know, this, what do they call the gomage? This is what happens every year. Everyone gathers and everyone who's that age is like, you know, they know what's going to happen. They, there's nothing they can do about it. They're going to die. And so everyone gathers and they watch the painters change the number down to 33. And then everyone just sort of like, they get like Marvel blipped. They sort of like float away with flower petals and dust. But man, it's a very, you know, effective scene. But as a parent, it's the kids having to watch their parents disappear. I was like, oh my God, I don't know. Jesus Christ.

[Sam Claiborne]

And eventually it's just going to be a lord of the flies with those kids.

[Damon Hatfield]

I mean, I know, yeah, it's a really like, it's a very thought provoking premise. But my question is. So all we see is this town. Is this town all there is of humanity? Are there other towns?

[Sam Claiborne]

That's really confusing in the game. Like what is this world? Yeah, exactly. It's all really dreamy and it's like an island across from the other island.

[Damon Hatfield]

And yeah, yes, they have to get on a ship to go start their expedition. I mean, you're just nodding your head. Do you know?

[Nick Limone]

Oh yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay, so this is.

[Nick Limone]

I finished the game.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

So this is something that's explained at some point.

[Nick Limone]

I think that, yes, a lot of it is explained.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay. Yeah, this is just what I was thinking. I was like, where are we?

[Sam Claiborne]

I don't think. I don't think that geography is explained.

[Nick Limone]

I think it is. But I would say the thing that I love about the prologue in general is that it one completely pulls you into a world. That one. We've never really seen a game that looks like this in terms of its fantasy setting. You know, it's. It borrows a lot from stuff like Final Fantasy, but it is presenting us with a brand new world that is just alien to basically everyone, which I really love because that's very hard to do in 2025 where it's like, yeah, this is just brand new stuff. I have a real life point of reference for stuff like this, but it's just a cool, fascinating world and I think they do a good job of posing questions up front that slowly get answered over the course of the game.

[Damon Hatfield]

Game.

[Sam Claiborne]

You know, you're describing. What I respect about Death Stranding too, is that like, it is a fantasy basically, that has nothing in common with anything else. You'd put the F word in front of. Right? Like, it is a completely manufactured universe that's not referential too much other than like Metal Gear and like a few things that, like, kind of funny and. And. But yeah, the idea of BTS or the Duster ending or whatever, it's like totally, totally. Like, I just have a lot of respect for that. I enjoy games that, you know, have elves and dwarves and stuff, but like, it gets a little old, you know.

[Damon Hatfield]

Exactly. So Claire Obscure, you know, it's really impressive. Small team making their first game. It's a $50 game. Great art. I love the art design. I love the character design. Great facial animations, voice work. All that stuff is good. You know, really interesting story, interesting predicament. People making really, really tough choices. Having to live with really tough things. That's like, wow, this is all really cool. But then. So here's another little bit of a spoiler. So right when you leave the prologue, this is what happens. You go off, you get in your ship, and then they land somewhere and then they see an old person. They're like, what? How are you old? And then that person cuts off one of your group's heads. And then you get like, attacked. I was a little bit unclear what was happening then. Like, it looked like some like, projectiles were being fired at us. And then the main guy gets like, separated and he's on his own. And that's where you can actually take control and play. Is there any. Can you shed any light on or should I just play and find out?

[Nick Limone]

I mean, yeah, you kind of nailed it there. That was basically the Normandy landing at D Day where they just got there and got absolutely wiped out with. They were definitely under prepared for it.

[Damon Hatfield]

Because no one comes back and they don't know what they don't know, right?

[Nick Limone]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

No one ever comes back from the expedition.

[Sam Claiborne]

For the people that haven't played, generally the people that go on the expeditions are the people that are going to die in the next year. Right. And so they definitely never come back. But this expedition does have a younger person with them.

[Damon Hatfield]

It does have someone. She has like six or seven years to go and they tried not to get her to go. I like her character a lot. So Sam, you played enough to actually get into more of the meat of the game, right?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I got to the big spoiler of.

[Damon Hatfield]

The game and I got a taste of the combat where there's dodging and parrying. That's the part of it that didn't work for you.

[Sam Claiborne]

What really didn't work for me is this stuff. Like just the every area is like really, really samey and it's a lot of dead ends and it's really boring.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay.

[Sam Claiborne]

You just gotta fly around like this and you're like, whoa, I've been in this red forest for way too long. And all I get out of these treasure chests are things that don't help me very much. And then you fight the same enemies over and over again. Like it just really hinders explore. Like if you get introduced to a world and then the way you explore that world is super slow and boring. That's my, my problem with it now. I do like the cutscenes and stuff, but that's not really why I'm playing a video game. And then some of the, some of the turn day stuff is actually really clever and cool. Like that really changes it up a lot. But you have to like you're going to play them over and over again. And so it's like if you, if you really want to do tough battles and like learn stuff like whatever your to tolerance level for that might have changed over the years. For me it's gotten pretty low where it's like, well I, I did figure this out and I didn't do it really well. But I definitely don't want to do. I don't like a 15 minute boss fight a third time. The second time is enough for me because I know what I'm doing and I'm like, well, it just sucks that my timing's a little bit off. And then like clearly, like, you have to make these calls like who. This is either going to be a 15 minute, 20 minute battle or I'm going to reset the game. And I just like, that stuff is just annoying to me.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, yeah, I could see how that would be annoying to me as well. But how did you find it, Nick?

[Nick Limone]

It never really bothered me. I honestly, usually in an RPG like this, I go out of my way to avoid fights. When I start to get over it, like, I'm like, all right, let's, let's speed this up. But in Clerics gear, I was like, yeah, I'll fight another dude. Why not? I'm having a good time. I'm a huge Paper Mario fan and this is evocative of that in terms of like it's.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's a really good comparison. Paper Mario drives me crazy.

[Nick Limone]

The timing based input stuff to me feels like a rhythm game. So I kind of dig it. And, and I think there is something satisfying when you get to a point in the game where you get strong enough to just one shot enemies as soon as you engage with them first by getting a first strike off. And I don't know that. It just tickles the part of my brain. I'm like, I got stronger number get bigger. I am happy. But yeah, there is some boss fights that will take you a long time. There's. There's a couple optional boss fights in the end game that will be at least an hour long, if not longer.

[Sam Claiborne]

But they are, which is very, that is very Final Fantasy 7.

[Nick Limone]

That's pretty fun though.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean, I'm referring to PlayStation Final.

[Nick Limone]

Fantasy VII, but yeah, no, it's a good time. Honestly, my only real criticism I have of Clericure in general is I think it does a bad job of explaining and making the UI friendly for the Picto system. I think the Picto system is interesting, but I don't think it does a particularly good job of explaining how it works and how it benefits the player. Unless you really sit down and dig through like, okay, I think I understand what it's trying to do there. So I would encourage you to play around with that because that's how you basically get op enough to survive in the end game. But if you just want to mainline it, you can like roughly figure out what you have to do and be like, alright, that's good enough. It's very similar to the badge system again in Paper Mario.

[Damon Hatfield]

Well, I'll play more. I'll share some further thoughts on the next episode. I've also been playing Tony Hawk 3 and 4, remaster, remix, whatever you want to call it. Anyone else playing that? Nick?

[Nick Limone]

I've not jumped in yet.

[Sam Claiborne]

I played one and two, but I. I don't have, like, a foundational muscle memory with Tony Hawk, so it's not that. I mean, maybe three and four have more tutorials that would help me. One and two didn't. So I just, like. I was like, I'm. I played and wrote guides for skate a lot. And, like, I. I love those games, and I kind of have those in my system. But, like, I didn't. I didn't really play Tony Hawk except for Friend's House and playing split screen. And I must have understood it then, but it's definitely. I never had it at home.

[Nick Limone]

I do love the original Tony hawk's Pro Skater 3, but I'm looking forward to the.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's the one, right? People love that.

[Nick Limone]

That was, like, the PS2. I don't know if it was a launch title, but. Launch window, I think, because I remember that was the first game I got with my PS2.

[Damon Hatfield]

I got it with my GameCube.

[Nick Limone]

Oh, wow.

[Damon Hatfield]

It was a launch game for a GameCube.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. And that was a big deal.

[Damon Hatfield]

That was the last one I played. I never played four, so, yeah, that's what I've been spending time with Tony Hawk 3. And Sam, there is a big tutorial in there if it.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, that actually is appealing to me. So I actually might give that a go. But, like, honestly, I'm playing, like, five games I can't talk about right now. Like, Donkey Kong's about to come out. Like, I'm. I'm inundated.

[Damon Hatfield]

Oh, I know. Yeah. I mean. Yeah. As soon as. I mean, starting tomorrow, I don't think I'm gonna be playing much of anything else except for Donkey Kong.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. Yeah. It's great. It's a great problem.

[Damon Hatfield]

I do have the muscle memory for Tony Hawk. It comes back right away. It just. It just feels so good to be chaining your grinds into a manual. Back into a grind. Like, it's so fun just trying to get the high scores. Just, like, grinding rails, like, all over the levels. Anything but.

[Sam Claiborne]

And they could make the levels that much bigger in three, Right. So there's, like, really fantastical.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. It's weird that you played three, right? Yeah. Yeah. You're saying that I got. With your PS2. I. My, like, core memory of that game is the airport level.

[Nick Limone]

Oh, yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

Right. But it's like. It's weird. It's like the fifth level. You Unlock. But in my mind, like that's what I like played the most time. Yeah. I was like, what? I gotta wait. I gotta keep unlocking stuff to get to the airport.

[Nick Limone]

I always remember the Canada level and the suburbia, the suburban level, the Canada level always. Because again, I was like, however old I was a child. But there's this. In the Canada level, there's a dude who's peeing off the edge of a building and if you hit a lip trick by him, you knock him over the cliff and he goes and falls down. And I don't know if he's still in the game or not. So someone in the comments, please confirm. Is the man peeing still there?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, it's good.

[Sam Claiborne]

The graphical Upgrade for this one looks a lot better than Tony Hawk 1 and 2 remake.

[Damon Hatfield]

1 and 2 was a long time ago now, wasn't it? Was that like 10 years ago or something?

[Sam Claiborne]

It's during COVID It was during COVID.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, it was during COVID Are you playing on Switch 2 or what console?

[Damon Hatfield]

No, on Xbox. It's on Game Pass.

[Nick Limone]

Gotcha. Gotcha.

[Damon Hatfield]

You just grab it.

[Sam Claiborne]

It does look like a bigger improvement.

[Nick Limone]

I might have to poke around.

[Sam Claiborne]

Can you play as a turtle?

[Damon Hatfield]

I don't know if this is 3 and 4. Assuming. I mean, assuming we're looking at 3 and 4. Yeah, yeah.

[Nick Limone]

I believe the Ninja Turtles, or at least one of them is a secret character. And I think the Doom guy is a pre order or like. Yeah, you have a deluxe edition.

[Damon Hatfield]

It has the Doom Slayer and just a demon character. Like right here. Yeah, but you have to pay. Those don't come with Game Pass. You don't get those through Game Pass. Yeah, it's. It's very fun. And I just, I love the arcade setup of Go. Each level has certain challenges. I mean it's very Nintendo and Mario also. Right? Like going into a 3D level of a Mario game, like you can see what your objectives are. Like, you know, what, what, what can I accomplish in this, in this run this, this play session or something.

[Sam Claiborne]

I'm glad these remakes are working and I'm glad there's like a skate coming out. But like what, why aren't these working? Yeah, I know. Why aren't, why aren't these working as like every three years games or something? Like it's just kind of surprising to me that we don't have like really, really. Because it's just a really fun arcadey mode of game that you think like kids would still play and adults love it from back Then, like, I don't know, it just seems like a easy formula.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's like. It's like Burnout. Like, why did Burnout stop? Why did Burnout go away?

[Sam Claiborne]

Exactly that.

[Nick Limone]

I will poke around on this on Game Pass, but the one that. I don't mean to look a gift horse in the mouth, but Tony Hawk's Underground is probably my favorite one.

[Sam Claiborne]

Just because of you like that one, huh?

[Nick Limone]

How wacky that game is. It is nuts in terms of its story mode. But I don't know. As a kid, I just love the idea I can get off my skateboard in the skating game, which, again, in hindsight, it's not very fun to walk around in the game. But as a kid, I'm like, whoa, this is crazy.

[Sam Claiborne]

That was definitely a GameCube era. More open world one, right? That was on.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, that was PS2.

[Sam Claiborne]

Maybe two games after four. It is like the sixth one or something.

[Nick Limone]

Is there a fifth Tony Hawk? No, it's after four, I think. I believe after four, it goes into Underground.

[Sam Claiborne]

Just goes right to Underground. Okay, cool.

[Damon Hatfield]

So Sam's playing stuff that he can't talk about yet. Nick, anything else you've been playing recently you want to share?

[Nick Limone]

Just to wait for Bonanza. I've been playing Breath of the Wild. Finished that on Switch two game. Still amazing. A masterpiece, even. And then finally, finally, finally, just because I was hungry for something to play on Switch 2, I finally started Deltarune and I finished chapter one, and I'm working through chapter two. But, you know, I was a little bit apprehensive to play deltarune because I think undertale is a bonafide masterpiece as well. And I was like, well, you can't do it twice. You can't just. You can't just make a masterpiece twice. That's nuts. That's unfair to hold someone to. And then I finished Chapter one. I was like, oh, shoot. I think Toby Fox might have did it again, but who knows? I've barely scratched the surface on what deltarune has to offer. But everything I'm seeing is indicative of someone who's learned a lot from their previous games and also just reflecting on their past as someone who was a ROM hacker and making really interesting stuff in an era where people. That's a lot. Making a lot of interesting stuff that people may have overlooked back in the day. AKA the Earthbound Halloween ROM hack.

[Damon Hatfield]

You beat Breath of the Wild again. How are you feeling today? Breath of the Wild versus Tears of the Kingdom.

[Nick Limone]

I think it cements it more and More. I think Tears of the Kingdom is more complex in every single way, but I think Breath of the Wild is just a better authored experience. I think a lot of the moment to moment of Breath of the Wild feels more just crafted and it just hits a little bit harder for me. I don't know what it is, but I do think that it's version of Hyrule. Even though it's the same quote unquote, same map, I think the Hyrule and Breath of the Wild is more interesting to me to explore and find. And I think it has to do with Tears of the Kingdom just being like, here's a billion things to do. And I like that Hyrule in Breath of the Wild is a lot more sparse, but I think that it's in. In its sparseness, it allows you to kind of really take in the environment. I'm a sucker for atmosphere and environment, and I just love existing in the world of Breath of the Wild more than I do Tears. But they're both incredible games.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, I like. I like the idea of revisiting them on Switch 2 now also, but I just know that realistically I'm not gonna play both. So I'm trying to think which one.

[Nick Limone]

And I have been playing with, call it cheesy, but I have been playing with the Nintendo Switch, like, Zelda app that they have to do like shrines. And I was like, oh, yeah, you know, I'll mainline the game. I'll just do like a couple shrines. But with the app, I was like, oh, shoot, you blink. I did like 70 shrines in no time. It was like, oh, shoot. And they do a really good job of one, making that a nice quality of life upgrade that would have been better in the game. And also the Zelda voice memories. And in Tears of the Kingdom, it's Zelda, Rauru and Master Koga. They have like, additional lore for you to uncover and, like, context to new land. So it really feels like I'm doing a walking tour of Hyrule. And you learn a little bit more, which is a nice touch. I'm a sucker for that kind of stuff.

[Damon Hatfield]

Cool.

[Sam Claiborne]

I still think now, especially with whatever, eight years of hindsight. Even though this game, Breath of Wild, is not known for its dungeons, the Hyrule Castle is the best dungeon of the whole series in that game. It's not as good in tears, but it's really, really good in Breath of the Wild.

[Nick Limone]

It's incredible. It's my favorite part of that game of just like, dude, this is the idea of Do I want to do like an extraction shooter, make my way in there, grab some loot, jump out, complete some quests, and then return with when I'm sharp? Like, it's so. It's so good.

[Sam Claiborne]

And I want by the time you get in that loop of like just raiding it for good weapons that you know where your go to's are and you just feel like you're just invincible by that point. It's so good.

[Nick Limone]

Open world Zelda 3. Give me the dungeons like Hyrule Castle, but times X.

[Sam Claiborne]

You know, I mean, you're right. They're Kojima dungeons, right? It's like, give me the. Give me the metal gear solid 5 version of infiltration areas in Zelda.

[Damon Hatfield]

You know, it's crazy to think modern Nintendo, you know, they've. They've like given us the best zeldas, the best 3D Mario. Now we have the best, apparently that Donkey Kong has ever been. Can they do it again with Metroid?

[Sam Claiborne]

Absolutely not.

[Damon Hatfield]

Absolutely not.

[Nick Limone]

Well, they got a lot to prove because based on my limited time with Metroid Prime 4, I was not taken away by the game because I was like, oh, this just feels a little worse than Metro.

[Sam Claiborne]

I'm joking mainly. But like, they did, they did a great 2D Metroid. I mean, yeah, if you're going to separate those series, which I think you should, then I think Dread is just as good as, you know, any early Metroid game. It was a fantastic 2D Metro game.

[Nick Limone]

And I will caveat that I only played like up until the first boss, so I would assume it's tutorial to like, you know, the tutorial boss. And I was like, all right. I mean, it's what you kind of expect. But I, I think that Metroid, the Prime series in particular, shines in the late game where you are like, okay, I remember this one little piece of this part of the map that I got to go back now that I have this ability. So cautiously optimistic. The game does look incredible though. It looks beautiful.

[Sam Claiborne]

I agree. I mean, I'm not saying that I just like, I don't know how to top Metroid Prime. Like, that's, that's the issue. Like, like the problem with topping Metroid prime is like trying to top a game by adding more stuff to it, which I know people disagree with me on this on. But like, that was Arkham's problem. Like, I don't think Arkham needed a city. Arkham Asylum was so smart and it was so. It was such a great contained, you know, experience. And I think that worked for it. You learned about Arkham Asylum. You learned about this like historical thing. You start breaking through walls and finding deeper parts of the oldest. I'm like, brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Metroid prime worked that way too. Because you're like, oh, the chozo are kind of a cool bird. Like always. That had never been in Metroid before. Like that, that. That Samus was raised by birds. Like that stuff is like maybe in a manual and it didn't make any sense. And maybe in some Nintendo Power comics. Right. It's like it doesn't. Nobody cares. But they did a really good job in that game and they tied zero Mission in with it it really cool way and have it like it was all perfect stuff this. They always try to go bigger and bigger and bigger. So sure. Metroid bigger. Like on multiple planets. I. I don't know. I don't feel it as much, but it can work really well. Also, I don't think we've seen this game on Switch too, which I'm really excited about. Right. We've only seen what they. They have been claiming is Switch one, which is like after Cyberpunk. Like this game could look really good. Which is what I want out of a Metroid. I always, I always talk about that. I want Metroid to be like cutting edge graphics, you know. I guess you've seen it on such too. That's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's great. But I hope there's like a, you know, Space Marines intro and stuff and then like they just take all that out.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah. This is the stuff that worries me when I see other people. I was like, what are other people doing in my Metroid game? Like, I want to be alone, damn it.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

My two thoughts were other. M had a lot of other characters in it. That was a problem with that. But here there's all these other characters, but everyone has. Is wearing a helmet. So I don't think they. I think they didn't want to do a bunch of faces.

[Nick Limone]

Well, apparently that. But also the trailer shows a bounty hunter from Federation Force is chasing Samus. I was like, oh, what's going on here?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, those are just corny things. Like, I don't want to get down on a game. I haven't played too much. But like, those are all like, not. They haven't been good signs for Metroids previously. That's. That's the point. I think what we're all getting at here, right? Like there's. There's good Metroid. Like you can symbolically kind of make out like, what's this Metro gonna be like? And boy, I, I think the, the last Switch one was great before. People think too that like, you know, I'm always getting down on Nintendo games and like them in the end. First of all, I don't, I sometimes I don't like them in the end. But a lot of times Nintendo doesn't show you great stuff about a game that, that could very well be good. And that's just the thing that Nintendo has been, I think, particularly not great at recently. They want to control stuff with the trailer and then a direct and then a treehouse play session. And like, I just don't, I just don't think they're doing a really good job of that. But who cares? That's like their marketing team. I don't review marketing teams, so maybe we should. Don't blame me. They're the messenger. I'm also a messenger.

[Damon Hatfield]

All right, let's check in with the listeners.

[Nick Limone]

Oh hey listeners. I gotta do it because Justin's not here.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yep, listeners, remember you can always reach us at the email address. Game scoopgn.com just like big Tony Style.

[Sam Claiborne]

He's back.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's been a while. It's been a minute since we've heard from Big Tony Style. Big Tony Style says. I recently came across the Behemoths post celebrating the 17th anniversary of Castle Crashers and it's upcoming. Its upcoming DLC coming this August.

[Nick Limone]

There's a Castle Crashers DLC and it's 17 years old.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's completely baffling to me that they never just made a sequel. In my opinion, the original was one of the most fun co op beat em ups I've ever played. What games should have had a sequel that you think would be a surefire hit? First of all, I don't know how the Behemoth is still a company and like how they make money. They don't. They hardly ever put out a game. Yeah, I mean, I don't know.

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, we looked this up on the show a couple episodes ago, remember? And it was like, oh, they did, they did put out some stuff but I just, I'm not Big Battle Block.

[Nick Limone]

Theater was the last thing I remember them making.

[Damon Hatfield]

And that was years ago. I just don't know. I don't understand. Anyway, games that never got a sequel but probably could have used one. Oh man, there's some snarky answers. Like Half Life 2.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, that's a pretty good one.

[Damon Hatfield]

Or Mario.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean I, my go to is always Bionic Commando, but they, I just Ignore that. They did do a three Armed too. Yeah. But they added the jump button. But I'd love if Bionic Commando, like really great no jumps swingy, crazy hardcore variation of that. Like kind of physics based platformer shooter. I love it.

[Nick Limone]

Think my two choices. One's joking because the sequels are bad. Parasite Eve, I'd love a sequel to a proper sequel because two wasn't very good.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay.

[Nick Limone]

And the third birthday was laughable. And then Vagrant Story should get a sequel, but that'll never happen.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. I don't think I ever played.

[Sam Claiborne]

I don't think Chrono Cross is a Chrono Trigger 6 sequel. So I think Chrono Trigger 2. Yeah. I mean, you can keep on square for this also. I mean, live a Live. Could be a really cool sequel game. You're right.

[Damon Hatfield]

Like Einhander. Einhander is such an amazing shooter.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, you're right.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yes.

[Nick Limone]

The bouncer, huh, everyone.

[Sam Claiborne]

The warriors for a rockstar. Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

What was honestly?

[Nick Limone]

Bully two.

[Sam Claiborne]

Bully two. There you go.

[Damon Hatfield]

There you go. That's a really good.

[Sam Claiborne]

Brilliant.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

I also thought it's been since the official release, I think it's been seven years now for Dead Cells.

[Nick Limone]

Oh, man, I would love a Dead Cells too.

[Damon Hatfield]

There's been other, you know, roguelikes that have gotten great. Monster Train 2 is the one that I've been obsessed with this year. Slay the Spire 2 is coming out later this year. They can do a dead cells 2. I know. There's like so much content for dead cells 1. They could still do a sequel.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah. There's something effortless about the way that game moves and feels.

[Damon Hatfield]

It feels so good. I like to just boot that up every now and then just. Cause it feels so good to just play.

[Nick Limone]

Random aside, did you know that there's an animated series about dead cells? It's on prime video and it's like a French on Prime. A French produced short form animated series that I was like, oh, is this gonna be bad? It's very funny. Almost has nothing to do with Dead Cells other than the characters, but it's pretty funny. And it's like 10 minute episodes but filthy language. So wouldn't watch it with the kids around.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay.

[Nick Limone]

But I was surprised. I was like, oh, shoot. This is actually pretty funny and good.

[Damon Hatfield]

This is it though.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, it's pretty interesting.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay.

[Nick Limone]

And it's like eight episodes long, so.

[Sam Claiborne]

It'S like games sometimes do this, but it's fun to think of a sequel to a game that's right in the middle of a series that never had a direct sequel. And this is the Call of Duty kind of does this. Right. So it's like where you. So an example would be like if you really like Symphony of the Night, they never did a Symphony of the night 2. They just moved on to a bunch of Game Boy games. Right. Like that's weird. You know, like just a Symphony of the Night two would be awesome.

[Damon Hatfield]

I mean. Yeah. Yes.

[Sam Claiborne]

Use the systems. Grow, grow those systems. Don't completely reshuffle the deck and continue the storylines which are really corny and funny. And now some of those Castlevanias have related storylines, some don't. Some are just standalones. Right. So there's a billion Belmonts, as they say.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. Nintendo started doing numbered sequels with Mario Galaxy 2. Well, I was thinking, I was thinking Super Mario Bros. 1, 2 and 3. Then they switched to world and just 64 and sunshine. Right. But you're right. Then they did Galaxy 2.

[Sam Claiborne]

I like that. I like when. When you take that and you. You kind of double down on the. The really cool game of the series. It'd be really fun to games if just to go back to series that are old and do that though is a really like. Like they did it with Final Fantasy 4 the After Years. Like that's so cool. Like I didn't play it. I didn't have time. But I would have loved to 1010 2. Yep.

[Nick Limone]

I'm a child of the 90s, but sunshine, a Mario Sunshine sequel, I would really enjoy.

[Damon Hatfield]

There you go. Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

So like that would work, you know, or Final Fantasy 6, the sequel. Like, I mean, come on. Like those characters in that world. Like, I don't know. There's just. There's just really an interesting foundation. Like we have sequelitis and we have remake, you know, problems like now. But like you can find a lot of creativity going. It's like andor. Right. So you can go wedge yourself in a beloved thing and do the right. Do right by it.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Nick Limone]

I feel like Final Fantasy VII really needs a third person over the shoulder shooter starring Vincent Valentine. But I don't know, that might be crazy.

[Sam Claiborne]

Isn't Tactics famous for not having a sequel or is there like.

[Nick Limone]

Yes, correct. Final Fantasy Tactics. It's advance after that and then a two and that's about it.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. And then I do really like Advanced.

[Nick Limone]

Advance is great.

[Damon Hatfield]

That's a really, really.

[Nick Limone]

A two is fine.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

There's a Nintendo. Well, I guess advance wars kind of got a remake thing. I don't know if that ever had.

[Nick Limone]

A days of ruin, Advance Wars 1 and then Days of Ruin on. On DS.

[Sam Claiborne]

So it had a cat, which is 3Ds.

[Damon Hatfield]

It was like all edgy.

[Sam Claiborne]

I played that one.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, man. If I think of Nintendo announced Sunshine 2 today, I think people would lose their minds because it was bad and Good.

[Sam Claiborne]

Right.

[Damon Hatfield]

Because 20ish years seems to be about like the strongest nostalgia.

[Sam Claiborne]

Right?

[Damon Hatfield]

Anything that's about 20 years old and it's like 23 years old now. So it's like it's right in the pocket of when people would be like, I'm so happy my. My childhood is back.

[Nick Limone]

Well, you know, Mario does have his vacation outfit in Mario Kart World. So that model exists. Could be there.

[Sam Claiborne]

It'd be really cool to take a really good classic pinball machine like Medieval Madness, like the widely regarded as the best game ever made, and make a sequel to that. Yep, that'd be super cool.

[Damon Hatfield]

Well, speaking of. Well, you say pinball, but speaking of classic machines you could find in arcades. Sam, are you familiar with the 1991 midway game, strike Force? It's a defender, like really, but 91. And you have a ship. You're on an alien planet, and you can fly back and forth, pick up people, pick up spacemen, and then they're shoplifter. Like there are green aliens that you blast and they. They blast apart into pieces.

[Sam Claiborne]

Nice. Sounds great. What could be better? Well, I hope it has a joystick instead of a bunch of buttons, though. It's hard to defend.

[Damon Hatfield]

There is a joystick. There's a joystick and then like a triangle of buttons. What could be better is the game it was originally prototyped as, which is called Soarian Front. Soar like a dinosaur. I think that's what the alien must have been called. And you should look it up. The art for Sora in front is amazing. Around the cabinet, it's got like this Godzilla, like monster who's like punching against like a spaceman in a spacesuit. It looks. Yeah, this is it. Look at that.

[Nick Limone]

Oh, that's kind of sick.

[Damon Hatfield]

It looks so good. But apparently Sorian Front didn't test well, so they changed it to Strike Force, which sounds generic. And the art is just completely like a spaceship.

[Sam Claiborne]

And. And Williams made Strike Force. Huh?

[Damon Hatfield]

I think. Did it say Williams? I think I said. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think it said Midway did Strike Force. Maybe you have to fact check that for me.

[Sam Claiborne]

But anyway, it's late, though. It's like a late defender type thing, right?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. Well, I mean, it's 91, so you Midway.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean, so. I mean they had. They had become Midway. Midway was okay.

[Damon Hatfield]

So then that's. That's what happened.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

Anyway, I just. I love the viewers and listeners should look up the art for Sorian front and then compare it to what it turned into, which just looks like a generic interior of a spaceship. Strike Force.

[Nick Limone]

This looks like an arcade game that would have been in like the Watchmen comic book. It's like a fake video game.

[Damon Hatfield]

Oh, it's beautiful.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. This looks cool. Yeah. Bally, Midway and Williams all became the same thing. Yeah. Did I talk about the arcade I went to on this show? The Redemption Arcade?

[Damon Hatfield]

Not that I've. Not that I've heard.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay, so there's Nick. You never lived in the Bay Area, right?

[Nick Limone]

No.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay, well, there's Damon. Do you remember the mall out on Juniper? Sarah? Like, it's like. It's called Stonestown.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yep, yep, yep, yep.

[Sam Claiborne]

The kids call it Stones.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay.

[Sam Claiborne]

So I went there to see a movie the other day and I was. I was with my friends who used to work at ign, Scott. And we were. We were walking through this mall and it was on a Friday night, absolutely jam packed with kids. Like completely like kids walking around doing bad things in the parking lot. Like everywhere the food court was crammed. The entire mall is all Japanese, Korean and other like, kind of like cool, like boutique things. Like a bunch of vinyl toy stores. Nice. Yeah. They have the Japanese pancake place. Yeah. And it's just gotten more and more. But it also has like a Trader Joe's and a Whole Foods and stuff and so. But it is like a mecca of like kind of contemporary cool pop culture places that kids like. So that was already amazing. There's a bar in the movie theater, which I thought was funny. Like they're kind of doing that kind of thing. You. Down below the mall there used to be like probably a Sears or a Montgomery or whatever. You go down there and it is a as like a football field sized redemption arcade like you see in Tokyo with the. A Castlevania machine.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

But they're all. They're all.

[Damon Hatfield]

They're all redemption games, right?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. 10 by 10 marble dropping redemption thing.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes.

[Sam Claiborne]

There's a Contra one. There's a huge wall panel, two player bust a move where you aim the bust a move. That's just. That's not why maybe redemption. But it's also a game. They had all the big like Halo environmentals and everything, but mainly redemption for like the anime statues and stuff. Like the stuff I've never seen this In America before. And it went on and on, and then it just turned into a bowling alley. A full size bowling alley in the back. Like this is like a, you know, like. Like an airport, you know? Yeah, it was. So is this the Stones? I don't know.

[Damon Hatfield]

Look at that carpet, though.

[Sam Claiborne]

But it looks like it. I think this is it. And if you aim this way, then that's where the bowling alley is. It is so massive. And there's a bar down there, but everybody down there is a kid. There's no parents anywhere. It was totally insane. Just to see a functional arcade shopping mall. That was like the most popular thing. There's.

[Damon Hatfield]

There's a Pink Panther game. The kids that. I love Pink Panther.

[Sam Claiborne]

I know. That's like. That's like when you go to a casino and it's like. Everything's like Betty Boop and Pink Panther. You're like, oh, yeah, that's right. This is for old people.

[Nick Limone]

I wish. I wish I lived in a world where this was like the alternate. Like.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, yeah.

[Nick Limone]

People just like to chill at the arcades in the mall. That's.

[Sam Claiborne]

This is it. This is.

[Nick Limone]

That's awesome.

[Sam Claiborne]

Stones, they call it. Yeah, it was.

[Damon Hatfield]

I mean.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean, this just came out of nowhere. Nobody told me about this. We just were walking through the mall. What the hell?

[Damon Hatfield]

I'm not a fan of redemption games. I like actual video games. But I have to admit this looks pretty cool. And I'm glad there's a guy. So many teens that live near here that they have the place that they can go because I was looking over the people here. I mean, I know. Yeah, it's crazy.

[Sam Claiborne]

I don't know, it just felt. It felt a little bit like a Japan. It felt a lot like San Francisco. The redemption zone is where you return your tickets. It's very funny. I don't know, it just felt like, yeah, I'm happy for the kids.

[Damon Hatfield]

I mean, it's also just nice because the. The mall downtown in San Francisco is dead. Right? Like, they've lost.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's gone.

[Damon Hatfield]

There's just nothing there at all.

[Sam Claiborne]

You cannot figure out how to. Yeah, it's like been empty and closed and like, I think you can't go to movies there anymore. Like, it's been just a total mess. And that's normal. That's like normal shopping mall stuff in the United States. For people that don't live in the United States, this might be kind of like a weird conversation, but like, 80s 90s United States was like, basically revolved around a shopping mall. You can see it in fast times and Ridgemont.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's true. My high school life. I think we're at the mall every Friday and Saturday night.

[Sam Claiborne]

Every Friday just get dropped off there.

[Damon Hatfield]

By our parents and then we just roam the mall. It's crazy.

[Sam Claiborne]

Roam the mall and then olds roamed the mall on Sunday mornings. That's true Wall walkers.

[Nick Limone]

Very true.

[Damon Hatfield]

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[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, I don't have a dog in the Superman fight. I think it's just like, you know, like I don't care if these movies are good or bad. And the Snyder ones were kind of boring for me. And you know, Superman's always been just such a lame character that I never read the comics as a kid or anything. Except for the death of Superman. I read the heck out of those and I really liked it during that time time. But yeah, it worked really well. James Gunn did a full James Gunn treatment to it to make it all about like space aliens and a big, you know, kind of like operatic thing. And the twists are really funny and the characters are all a pleasure to watch. So, like, I don't know a lot about Superman, but I know just what I explained. You can tell. Like, I read enough comics stuff I know I'm talking about there. So it all worked for me and saw it at Alamo and got dinner and drinks there and that was really great. And a lot of this movie, just like Guardians 3, which I liked, is about saving animals and it was really, really sweet. And Superman does some really great animal saves. And of course the dog is really a main character in it. And it's a great dog. Main character, however, CG it is. I loved it.

[Damon Hatfield]

You famously watch pretty much everything Marvel, everything. So how do you like this is relaunching the DC Universe in film. So how.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, I mean, if it's all James, I already like Peacemaker.

[Nick Limone]

Right, Peacemaker.

[Damon Hatfield]

I mean, yeah, Peacemaker's great. Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. So Those are the two things that are in the universe. Oh, I also watched Creature Commandos, and I liked that, too. So, like, yeah, that's all great. I mean, I like, also, the Batman's fine, but it's not part of this, apparently. Like, I don't know what's happening.

[Damon Hatfield]

Oh, yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's confusing to me, but, like, yeah. I mean, the other DC characters in this are really stupid. And, like, if they have some kind of foundation in reality and people care about them. Like, I'm not talking about Lex Luthor. I'm talking about, like, I don't know. There's, like, a human computer character. There's, like, a Mr. Terrific woman. Mr. Terrific, yeah. There's a woman that can make saws from her hands. They're just awful. And then there's a famously awful Green Lantern, which I like, but they kind of make fun of that. They kind of poke fun at these, like, this dork squad. Right. Like, that's fine. That's. That's cool. You know, like, do the. Do that stuff. That'll work for me. But when comics take themselves seriously, it's tough, and you have to build to that. And that's what Avengers did really well. Right? Endgame did a really good job. Black Panther did a really good job setting up Endgame, and so did all these movies that were kind of corny, and then it kind of took itself a little bit seriously, and it was great. I don't know how they're going to do that with this. We'll see.

[Damon Hatfield]

Cool. What'd you think, Nick?

[Sam Claiborne]

Does Batman need to be in a Superman movie? Do they need to have a crossover? I don't think so.

[Nick Limone]

I think inevitably, I think it'll have to happen.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. No, you know what that's like.

[Nick Limone]

I mean, we did it for the longest time, and now we're over it. I enjoyed Superman quite a bit, Honestly, a lot more than I expected to. I've been checked out of the superhero films for a minute just because they're all kind of the same to me at a certain point. But I will always check out something that James Gunn does. I think he's a talented dude with an interesting who understands just, it's not a superhero movie. It's just, you gotta make a good movie first. And, you know, whether or not it's a superhero is kind of besides the point. But I think he does a good job of making it feel like I'm just picking up a random issue of super and be like, maybe I like Superman after this. And turns out I Did. I think he did a good job of capturing Superman as Boy Scout as just like a force for good. Just no qualms about it. Just I need to do good. I am compelled to do good. And that really resonated with me and I really enjoyed that. And yeah, he. He clearly loves the source material and just has a fun time blocking out all the scenes. The blocking. This is awesome. And if I have to say, I think this new Superman very handsome. I'm a big, big fan. Big fan. I like Henry Cavill.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot of good laugh lines, you know, like James Gunn. Like, I've seen him do ones that don't land too. Especially Guardians. Right. It's like sometimes they don't all land, but it's all fine, right? Yeah, but like, it kind of was like 100% the theater I was in. Like, I just was really surprised with people being that into the kind of obvious setup for a joke. Moments. They're great. They're always surprising. James Gunn has a little bit of a gross out thing, which he doesn't do obviously as much. What's that?

[Damon Hatfield]

That's his like, Troma.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think that's like, you know, where. Wherever that works. Wherever they can work it into. I. I think this is a PG or PG13 movie, right? Like, it's like, yes, yeah. Wherever he could work in shock. I think he did. And it's just, it's not in decapitations as much as, you know, monster killing and stuff like that.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Nick Limone]

That said, this is now the second time in a year that I've gone to a movie and someone I sat next to a stranger was on their phone the entire time. So I had to deal with the entire time. So I had to tell them, like, the homie left his seat to go do something, presumably on his phone, came back, then took his phone out again. That's why I was like, hey, man, can you turn off your phone? And then he was like, what? And then I was like, could you please turn off your phone? It's very distracting. He goes, I'm so sorry. I apologize. And then he turned it off and didn't do it for the rest of the movie. I was like, what are you. Dude, you're older than me. What are you doing? Like, what's going on? So if you're watching this and you're listening to this, don't be that guy. Don't take out your phone even.

[Damon Hatfield]

Just got to check a quick text.

[Nick Limone]

No, you don't. I Promise. It's fine. Don't do it.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, that's everybody's experience after Covid, right? Watching TV on the couch and on your phone. Just like everybody just got used to that. It's very bad behavior. And to your point, like what? Like if you can just like you're thinking, like, who cares? It's just my phone. Like, if I'm going to not enjoy this movie, then I can. But no, like, you're seeing a light out of the corner of your eye and you're distracting you. And once you're distracted, you're just going to think about that over and over again and then it's going to ruin your movie going experience. And that's why you only go to Alamo where they check you out if you are on your phone.

[Nick Limone]

If you don't take out your phone during a movie, you're just a better person than the people who do.

[Sam Claiborne]

I turn off my phone. I still do that. I just do it.

[Damon Hatfield]

Just turn it off.

[Sam Claiborne]

I watch the credits and turn off my phone.

[Damon Hatfield]

Cool.

[Sam Claiborne]

And I can do that because I know my wife will never do that. So I can rely on the crutch of having her with the watch and the phone and everything right there at the ready in case there's an emergency.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. Well, I've not seen Superman yet, but I did see a movie this week from this year that instantly shot near the top of my list. One of the best movies I've seen this year so far. Nick, I know you've seen it too. I think it's Killer of Killers.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, I can't wait.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's so good, Sam. It's so good. I mean, no.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

No hyperbole.

[Sam Claiborne]

I've been watching a lot of movies with said wife, and I'm like, oh, I don't know if I can get her to watch this Predator movie. Maybe I can't.

[Damon Hatfield]

No hyperbole. It's the second best Predator movie. Yeah. And I like prey. I like to prey a lot. This is better. It's so. It's so great.

[Nick Limone]

This is sick. As.

[Sam Claiborne]

Wow.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's a little less than 90 minutes and it's just non stop action. There's no, like, scene where everything stops and characters just talk about stuff like. Nope. It's just really nonstop action the whole way through.

[Nick Limone]

It goes down smooth.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's. It's so. It's animated. It's an anthology movie where there's three heroes that have faced off against the predator at different periods of time. And then. Well, yeah, then there's There's a fourth scenario at the end. Let's just.

[Sam Claiborne]

Hell, yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

And it's great. It's so good. It like expands on the Predator mythos with just like, just cool Predator action and gadgets and like. Yeah, it's. I. Oh. And the action is great.

[Nick Limone]

Like, that's as gory as hell.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's gory as heck. And the action scenes are like, you know, even though it's animated, they're composed and choreographed just excellently. There's like a faked long shot action scene in the first story. That's so cool.

[Sam Claiborne]

And the next live action Predator. We saw the trailer for Bad Last.

[Damon Hatfield]

That'S coming out later this year as.

[Sam Claiborne]

Like a young hunter in it, right?

[Nick Limone]

Yeah. Both directed by Dan Trachtenberg, who also did Prey. And honestly. Yeah, that dude, he gets it. Please give him more. Let him do whatever he wants.

[Damon Hatfield]

Just let him do cool stuff in the Predator universe. Yeah.

[Nick Limone]

Because he knows what he's doing. And I'm very excited to see not only Badlands, but whatever comes up next. If we don't get a proper Aliens versus Predators, they're doing so much with.

[Damon Hatfield]

That because one of the predators in this movie, Killer of Killers, is like wearing a cape of xenomorph tails. And then in the trailer for Badlands, the. There's like a. Yes, that's the one where the. There's a synthetic human that has the. Weyland Yukoni Fanning.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, it's El Fanning. Teamed up with a predator to survive in this, like sort of, you know, some sort of trial for this young predator, it seems like. But all that set up sounds great. I love. I love a young person trying to do a trial by surviving in the wilderness. I love an unlikely companion. And honestly, again, Dan Trachtenberg knows what he's doing and I think he will be allowed to rest when he makes an Alien vs. Predator movie.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Nick Limone]

Knocks it out of the park and then he can do whatever else he wants after that.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's so good. One in Killer of Killers, one of them, the stories is set in Japan.

[Nick Limone]

It's so cool.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's amazing. It's so great. It's like not. It's just like some of the coolest, like ninja and samurai action that we've seen in a film.

[Nick Limone]

Ninja versus Samurai. But also a predator.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yes.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's so great. It's on Hulu. Predator, Killer of Killers. It has my highest recommendation.

[Sam Claiborne]

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies just to see if you could save some cash. Well, Progressive makes it easy. Just drop in some details about yourself and see if you're eligible to save money when you bundle your home and auto policies. The process only takes minutes and it could mean hundreds more in your pocket. Visit progressive.com after this episode to see if you could save Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states. It can be overwhelming to manage a business, especially when you're first starting out. Your to do list just keeps growing every day with new tasks, and that list can easily begin to overrun your life. Finding the right tool not only helps you out, but can simplify problems you haven't even encountered yet. And for millions of businesses, that tool is Shopify. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and 10% of all e commerce in the US from household names like Mattel and Gymshark to brands just getting started. With hundreds of ready to use templates, Shopify can help you easily build a beautiful online store to match your brand style. And best yet, Shopify is your commerce expert with world class expertise in everything from managing inventory to international shipping to processing returns and beyond. If you're ready to sell, you're ready for Shopify. Turn your big business idea into With Shopify on your side, sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com routes realm go to shopify.com realm shopify.com realm.

[Damon Hatfield]

And that brings us to video game 20 questions. Our suggestion this week comes from Scott, who lives in Southern California. Scott says, I started listening to you all during COVID on my commute to work. I don't think I've missed an episode since Scoop truly is the best out there. My question is for Damon. You and I share so many video game interests and are about the same age. Tactical strategy games, card games like Slay the Spire and Monster Train are my go to titles. My question is, as a mutual fan of the Shining Force series, how is it you haven't played Shining Force 3? The game is an absolute masterpiece. In my opinion you are missing out on what I consider to be the best best video game created. The best. Shining Force 3 is the best video game. Saturn Saturn. It's very accessible now with fan translations of scenarios 2 and 3 to English. I highly recommend it. Please bring the series back. Sega I did play Shining Force 3. Scott Back well I think back in the late 90s I rented a Saturn and rented Shining Force 3. It was released in three parts in Japan. They called them scenarios 1, 2 and 3 and. But then in North America they only released the first part as Shining Force 3. So I've never played scenarios two and three, but I. Yeah, I can do that on your recommendation.

[Sam Claiborne]

Do you think they did Those as like CDs in Japan? Like they actually had.

[Damon Hatfield]

I don't know how else they would have done it on the Saturn.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, it wasn't like a. There's no digital distribution. Like Genesis had and Super Nintendo over there had digital platforms. Right.

[Damon Hatfield]

In Japan. I don't know if the Saturn did. I'm not sure.

[Sam Claiborne]

I think that's too big of a game to do digitally. Back then it was always like a little version of a Zelda level.

[Damon Hatfield]

It is crazy. Shining Force 3 was 1998 and that was the last time SEGA did anything with Shining Force. Like, I think they could totally bring that back today. Speaking of sequels, Fire Emblem. Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, Fire Emblem is popular when I go to Japan. I would really like to know if you can see anywhere that still has a Famicom disk system kiosk. Because you would take your discs to a place. Maybe one of the old retro game stores would just have one just for fun. But like, I would love to see that. Like, that would be so cool.

[Nick Limone]

Honestly, if you probably head to like the northern Japan, like Hokkaido, a lot of that stuff is kind of like free from the tourists grubby hands. So they probably have a lot of interesting stuff. They're. They're. They're like aftermarket shops where you like thrift shops are nuts in northern Japan where you get some really good stuff that hasn't been pillaged.

[Damon Hatfield]

Scott in SoCal also says bonus if you are in need of a video game 20 questions game. I would like to submit Redacted. It was my very first Redacted.

[Sam Claiborne]

How would that let the question be Saturn? All right.

[Nick Limone]

Is it from this entry?

[Damon Hatfield]

No.

[Nick Limone]

Okay. Retro game.

[Sam Claiborne]

Still could be Saturn. Was this issued as a cartridge first?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes.

[Nick Limone]

Is this a demi game?

[Damon Hatfield]

I. No, I wouldn't say this is a demi game.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay. I've based on. Is it based on a license?

[Damon Hatfield]

It's not based on a license, no. And I only say that a Damon game is like. Would like hits the bullseye. This game is like Demons Crush.

[Sam Claiborne]

Devil's Crush. What's it called?

[Nick Limone]

Devil's Crush.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, Devil's Crush. An alien crush.

[Sam Claiborne]

Alien Crush. There you go. Not licensed. Is this from an 8bit console?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes, that's 5.

[Sam Claiborne]

Maybe it's ALF for the master system. Nope, that's license.

[Nick Limone]

I mean is it available on the NES or Famicom?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes.

[Nick Limone]

Okay.

[Sam Claiborne]

Was this developed or published by Nintendo?

[Damon Hatfield]

That's a good question. Hold please. We're at six.

[Nick Limone]

Early Famicom. Early Famicom. Nes. I struggle with a little bit. So let's see what kind of the.

[Damon Hatfield]

Answer to your question was this? Your question was, was this developed or published by Nintendo? Yes.

[Nick Limone]

Okay, so that means there's some weird.

[Sam Claiborne]

Nintendo publishing at this time.

[Nick Limone]

Is this a. If it's his first. Is this a platformer of a sort? Okay.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is this from before 1987?

[Damon Hatfield]

No.

[Nick Limone]

The platformer of sorts. Do you play as a human?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes.

[Nick Limone]

And that is 10 bionic commando.

[Sam Claiborne]

Gyromite, maybe? No, it can't be Bionic Commando because that wasn't developed or published by Nintendo. I'd love for it to be that.

[Nick Limone]

You play as a man. It's a platformer of sorts. Published and. Or developed by Nintendo. Probably published because of the complicated.

[Sam Claiborne]

Did this game. Did this game have any two player mode?

[Damon Hatfield]

No. Single player game.

[Nick Limone]

Is this game still relevant today?

[Damon Hatfield]

No. Okay.

[Nick Limone]

It's a long gone.

[Sam Claiborne]

Let's see. I don't really know where to go with this. A platform of a story. It could be like. I mean, I don't know why you'd have to look up some of the ones that I was. I think that's what's confusing to me is because like, if it's like Wrecking Crew or Diorama, why would you have to look up whether it was developed or published by Nintendo? That's what's hanging me up here a little bit. Did this come out before 1990?

[Nick Limone]

Yes, between 87 and 90.

[Sam Claiborne]

87 and 90. That's the real NES years, right? Like big NES years. Oh, I have a funny one. You might not be able to answer this, but it's fine if you can. Did this have a cover in Nintendo Power?

[Damon Hatfield]

I can't answer that one. I don't know.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay.

[Damon Hatfield]

It was definitely. It got coverage in Nintendo Power, but I don't know if it was a cover story.

[Sam Claiborne]

Right? Yeah. Was this maybe a sports or racing game?

[Damon Hatfield]

No.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay. There's a lot of weird Nintendo published stuff like that.

[Nick Limone]

Like does. I mean, if it's. Does it have. What question are we at here?

[Damon Hatfield]

You've asked 14 questions.

[Nick Limone]

Does it have any sort of shooting Mechanic?

[Damon Hatfield]

No, that's 15.

[Sam Claiborne]

All right. Yeah. I.

[Nick Limone]

No shooting 87 and 90. You play as a human?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. You play the human.

[Damon Hatfield]

Sam, your hint is that this game is known to this show.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

This is a game that will from time to time be mentioned on this show.

[Nick Limone]

Fester's Quest.

[Sam Claiborne]

Nintendo might have published that game for.

[Nick Limone]

Some reason or Goonies 2, but no, no, those are.

[Sam Claiborne]

Those are all licenses.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, you're right, you're right.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's what makes this. This tough. We haven't really limited Gyromite, though. I thought it was from before 87. And weirdly controlled games. Let me think, let me think, let me think.

[Nick Limone]

I mean, eliminating gyromite wouldn't be the worst because that.

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, do. I mean, does this use. Did this game require any sort of peripheral or not require, but involved peripheral equipment if you wanted it to, AKA the Zapper? No.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay.

[Sam Claiborne]

Just sitting there playing with your controller. A game that's not a sports game.

[Damon Hatfield]

You should know Jaramite's a launch game.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, well, that's a launch game in the US but not in Japan.

[Damon Hatfield]

Was it not?

[Sam Claiborne]

I don't think so. They like put out the.

[Damon Hatfield]

I always go by U.S. release dates when we were playing this game.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, I know.

[Damon Hatfield]

Gonna have to cut up the.

[Nick Limone]

Did it have any. Did it have any sequels on the nes?

[Damon Hatfield]

No, this game never got a sequel. Okay.

[Nick Limone]

Never got a sequel at all. So truly a. A one hit wonder.

[Sam Claiborne]

Mm. We got like. There's like games like this game and.

[Damon Hatfield]

Never got a sequel.

[Nick Limone]

This game never got a sequel. So it means that it did have a spiritual successor of sorts.

[Damon Hatfield]

Not necessarily. Okay, okay. It could mean there was no. Nothing in that came after this game, but maybe something came before.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay, well let me. Let me just clarify something here. I asked if this first came out on a cartridge.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay.

[Sam Claiborne]

Way back.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is that okay? Because I. Everything that's here is leaning towards an arcade game and I'm very confused by that.

[Damon Hatfield]

This. No, the answer that this is a cartridge.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay. You're stick with your answer.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yep, yep, yep, yep.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay. Was there a version of this game in the arcade then?

[Damon Hatfield]

No.

[Sam Claiborne]

This is.

[Nick Limone]

That was 18.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yep. One question and a guess.

[Sam Claiborne]

So the one boy. So this might be a sequel to something.

[Nick Limone]

What could it be a sequel to?

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean, it sounds like Mike Tyson's Punch out, but we already asked about the sports games.

[Nick Limone]

A platform. Pac Man 2 Pac Land. No, it's not them.

[Sam Claiborne]

What did Nintendo work with people in publishing and we got off the rails with the publishing stuff. This is the thing that's tripped me up the most.

[Nick Limone]

I mean, is there. What do we think? It's a waste that like, is this a critically. I'm just speculating out loud, not asking.

[Sam Claiborne]

No, no. I want to come up with all of our good questions, like a critically.

[Nick Limone]

Is this a sought after NES game? Is this a game that people will return to?

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean.

[Nick Limone]

I don't know if that would help.

[Sam Claiborne]

The Goonies is really. It's not that because of the license, but the Goonies is interesting because Nintendo published. I think. No, maybe Kylie did the first one too. I used to have the license, so. And you know, shooties. Right. A little bit of jumpies.

[Nick Limone]

Correct. A little bit of jump platform of.

[Damon Hatfield]

Sorts, but there's no shooting and you.

[Sam Claiborne]

Play as a human. And I'm thinking about like Nintendo's like, kind of like.

[Nick Limone]

And it's a known quantity to this. It's a known game to this show podcast.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

It comes up in conversation from time to time.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay. Time to time. Yeah. I don't think we're going to get this. For some reason. I thought this would be a layup for us. What's just one other question we could ask to kind of, you know, do a Hail Mary, maybe something like. I mean, it's curious that it has a game that was out before it. Maybe that, you know, it's. It's part of a series that ended on the.

[Nick Limone]

But end. But published and developed by Nintendo as a human.

[Sam Claiborne]

Just published. What's a video game, Rygar, that was published by Tecmo that had Arcade before it.

[Nick Limone]

And you were. You are human.

[Sam Claiborne]

Mm. Yeah. It seems really obscure. I don't. I don't know where to go. I. I think we have to give up. So.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, I mean, is this a game that. Is this some. Is this like a. A beloved game?

[Damon Hatfield]

This people like this game. People who have played it like this game.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay.

[Damon Hatfield]

That is your final question. You can make a guess. I think you should have tried to hone in on, like, setting.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay, I'm gonna. Should I reveal it?

[Nick Limone]

Yeah, let's. Let's do it.

[Damon Hatfield]

If you would discover that it had a medieval setting without it helped you.

[Nick Limone]

Is it ghosts and goblins?

[Damon Hatfield]

No. Okay.

[Sam Claiborne]

No. If it was, what's. What's the first Square Enix game or the square game. It's called like, Kings. Whatever. Okay. Medieval setting, like Myelin's secret castle or Tower of Druaga. Was it wizards and warriors?

[Damon Hatfield]

No, this game is Fazanadu.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, Nintendo had a hand in that one, huh?

[Damon Hatfield]

Nintendo published it in North America.

[Nick Limone]

Yeah. I never would have gotten in Europe. I've. I've never played Faxanadu. But that's always like, maybe one day when I'm like, I need to play some Old NES games.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's a cool, like, platforming rpg.

[Nick Limone]

Is this the one that had the instruction manual that you had to dip in the water? Which one was that?

[Sam Claiborne]

No, I don't think so.

[Damon Hatfield]

That might be startup, but it's startropics.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's confusing af. And it did have a really cool spread of Nintendo Power.

[Damon Hatfield]

Not a demonstrate. Yeah, yeah. And this was developed by Hudson Software.

[Sam Claiborne]

Wow.

[Damon Hatfield]

And it has.

[Sam Claiborne]

So weird that Nintendo published.

[Damon Hatfield]

It has a banger soundtrack. I like the Xanadu is a color palette. What's it called? A portmanteau? Is that what they call it? It's a Famicom in Xanadu. And Xanadu was. So it's kind of a. A follow up to a game called Xanadu that was only on Famicom.

[Sam Claiborne]

Interesting. Okay, okay, okay.

[Nick Limone]

Well, damn.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is that guy smoking?

[Damon Hatfield]

I think he is smoking. That's pretty good. Yeah. I always called it Faxanadu. I think it sounds funny. I think it's supposed to be Fazanadu. No one would ever know that Fanatu wasn't released in the US So that makes sense.

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, nice is an awesome, awesome suggestion.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Well done.

[Damon Hatfield]

Well, yeah. So Scott had said that this was the first cartridge he ever owned. That's. That was his.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, that's great. Yeah. Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

Which. That's kind of a random selection of the pantheon of games that most people get when they get an nes. I don't think most of them are Fazana do, but that feels like one of those games.

[Nick Limone]

A kid back in the day would be like, I got this game. Facts andity. Here you go. All right. Thank you.

[Sam Claiborne]

I remember the reason I got this game was because I liked Final Fantasy and Nintendo Power. I think compared it favorably to it, which it really isn't like, it's more like Zelda 2.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, yeah. It's more like. Yeah, but without the overworld areas of Zelda 2. Well, thank you for the suggestion, Scott in Southern California. Viewers, listeners, if you have your own suggestions for video game 20 questions, email them to me at the email address gamescoopgn.com and that is all the scoops that we have for you this week. Next week is gonna be Comic Con. We won't be recording an episode next week, but we are gonna do an episode later this week to publish next week. But also, you should tune into our Comic Con coverage all next weekend. We have our live show. Nick is going live Friday and Saturday.

[Nick Limone]

Saturday, yeah. We get a live broadcast on Friday and Saturday. So it's Gonna be a good time.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yep.

[Nick Limone]

We got a lot of really fun stuff. I don't know what allow what I'm allowed to say on camera currently, but you'll want to tune in.

[Damon Hatfield]

I have a list of what we can talk about. Predator Badlands is gonna be there, Alien earth, Peacemaker, Season 2, Toxic Avenger, Twisted Metal and more. So it should be good.

[Nick Limone]

Hell yeah. Cannot wait.

[Sam Claiborne]

We always do like fun stuff where there's like a crazy toy on the floor that just has to be brought on the live show. Or like you see like what, what are you know, is kind of around that. That's always my favorite part.

[Damon Hatfield]

I also know that I don't know if this has been public, but there's going to be something, some something cool to see that has to do with what's on my T shirt. Also at Comic Con too. So please be excited for that. And also now is a great time to score some incredible games. Through Humble live now through August 5th, you can grab Warhammer 40K, Rogue Trader, Daemon Ex Machina. I always liked that game for some reason. Death Store, Carquest 3 and more. Plus every purchase supports a good cause. This month, your Humble choice membership supports Covenant House. So get a curated mix of PC games every month, all for just $14.99. Or use code July 25th and get it all for just 10 bucks. So whether you're building your backlog or discovering something new, it's the perfect time to pick up those fan favorites. Thank you, Nick and Sam for joining me this week. We'll have Mark Medina on for our second episode that we're recording this week. Thank you to Jobert and everyone working behind the scenes to make this episode possible. My name is Damon. This is IGN gamescoop and we're out here. Here we go. Girls are finally here performing for you. If you know the words, you can join him too. Put your hands together if you wanna clap every day you through this monkey rap. Monkey Tom. He's the leader of the bunch.

[Sam Claiborne]

You know him well.

[Damon Hatfield]

He's finally back to catch some tails. His coconut gun can fire in spurts.

[Sam Claiborne]

If he shoots ya, it's gonna hurt.

[Damon Hatfield]

He's bigger, faster and stronger too.

[Sam Claiborne]

He's the first member of the DK crew.

[Damon Hatfield]

This episode of Game Soup was produced by yours truly, Damon Hadfield and Gilbert Atienza. Technical direction is handled by Jobert Atienza. Technical production is by Marian Franzen and Amir Raqib. Audio engineering is by Amir Raqib and post production editing is by me. Graphic design is by Nicole Kagempun Game Scoop is an IGN production and part of the Geek Media Network.

[Nick Limone]

For all the latest news and discussion around the always busy and always changing.

[Sam Claiborne]

World of Xbox, be sure to check out Unlocked.

[Nick Limone]

It's IGN's weekly Xbox show, hosted by Ryan McCaffrey, who's been covering Xbox professionally since 2002 Miranda Sanchez, an Xbox expert and super fan who's been playing Xbox since she was a kid and Michael.

[Sam Claiborne]

Hyam, an RPG guru whose Xbox roots run deep.

[Nick Limone]

New episodes of Unlocked drop every Thursday.

[Sam Claiborne]

On Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever you.

[Nick Limone]

Get your shows with full video versions.

[Damon Hatfield]

On IGN.com and YouTube.

[Sam Claiborne]

Unlocked is produced by IGN and part.

[Nick Limone]

Of the Geek Media Podcast Network.

[Damon Hatfield]

This is Steve Downs, the voice of.

[Sam Claiborne]

Master Chief Sierra117, and you're listening to.

[Nick Limone]

Podcast Unlocked, the world's number one Xbox podcast.

[Sam Claiborne]

Now finish this fight.

[Nick Limone]

Master Chief out.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's an incredibly exciting year for Nintendo fans. The Nintendo Switch 2 is finally here and there's so much to dive into. That's why we record Nintendo Voice Chat on Thursdays to catch all the big news from Nintendo's regular announcements, then release new episodes every Friday morning. For the latest Switch 2 updates, first impressions and lively discussion, tune in to.

[Nick Limone]

NVC, IGN's weekly Nintendo show hosted by me, Logan Plant. I'm thrilled to lead the show into.

[Sam Claiborne]

The next generation alongside an amazing panel of Nintendo experts Rebecca Valentine, Jada Griffin and Seth Macy. NBC is part of the Geek Media Podcast Network with new episodes every Friday morning on Apple, Podcasts, Spotify and wherever you get your shows with full video versions on Ignition and YouTube. Join us and get the thing this Friday on Nintendo Voice Chat.

[Damon Hatfield]

Hey, listen.