Game Scoop! 819: This Scoop Is Bananas

Summary

Game Scoop! Episode 819: "This Scoop Is Bananas" – Detailed Summary

In Episode 819 of Game Scoop!, veteran host Damon Hatfield and the IGN crew delve into a variety of topics ranging from retro gaming nostalgia to the latest industry news. This episode, released on July 31, 2025, features engaging discussions, expert insights, and lively debates that cater to both longtime fans and new listeners.

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1. Comic Con Highlights and Celebrity Encounters

The episode kicks off with the hosts reflecting on their recent experience at Comic Con. Damon shares his excitement about the celebrity guests who graced the IGN stage at the Hard Rock Hotel, including notable figures like John Cena, James Gunn, and Bob Odenkirk. However, the standout moment for Damon was meeting Robert Picardo, renowned for his role in Star Trek Voyager.

Damon Hatfield [03:11]: "Is anyone familiar with the work of Robert Picardo?"

Mark chimes in, recalling Picardo's iconic role as the Doctor, and shares an amusing anecdote about Picardo's appearance in Gremlins 2, where he marries the girl gremlin.

Mark Medina [03:12]: "I know him from Star Trek."

The discussion highlights the blend of nostalgia and modern pop culture, underscoring the meaningful interactions at the convention.

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2. Deep Dive into Donkey Kong Bonanza

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to Donkey Kong Bonanza, a game that has captured the hosts' attention. Mark Medina reveals his impressive progress, having accumulated 320 bananas and recently completing the Tempest layer.

Mark Medina [06:02]: "I love it. I'm 320 bananas in."

Damon echoes the sentiment, sharing his immersion in the Radiance Lair (Snake World) and praising the game's expansive layers and bonanzas.

Damon Hatfield [06:24]: "It's a lot of smashing. But I hear later like the new bonanzas are really cool."

The conversation transitions into a critique of the game's sensory overload and rapid pacing. Mark points out the visually overwhelming design and the game's relentless speed, which can be exhausting for players.

Mark Medina [09:00]: "It's very visually overwhelming and kind of almost off-putting."

Despite these criticisms, both Damon and Mark commend the game's unique mechanics and Nintendo's signature polish, likening it to titles like Mario Odyssey and Monster Train 2.

Damon Hatfield [07:30]: "It's super, you know, great 3D platformer. Feels really good to play."

The discussion also touches on the game's skill tree and the desire for more creative customization options, emphasizing the balance between gameplay functionality and aesthetic variety.

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3. Review of Shadow Labyrinth and Tales of the Shire

Transitioning from platformers, the hosts discuss Shadow Labyrinth, a Grimdark Pac-Man sequel. Sam Claiborne shares his positive experience with the game, praising its Metroidvania elements and unique mini-games like the pinball and Pac-Man sections.

Sam Claiborne [30:17]: "It's really funny. It's like it works."

However, despite Sam's enthusiasm, the IGN review assigned a 5 out of 10, citing issues with the gameplay loop and technical crashes during key moments like meal distributions.

Damon Hatfield [35:00]: "At a 4 out of 10, it's one of the worst-reviewed games of the year from IGN."

The conversation shifts to Tales of the Shire, a Lord of the Rings game developed by Weta Workshop. The hosts express disappointment over its poor reception, drawing parallels to previous low-scoring titles like Lord of the Rings: Gollum. They critique the game's execution, emphasizing that it fails to capture the essence of the beloved franchise.

Damon Hatfield [36:29]: "We haven't given anything lower than a 4 this year, but it puts it in the company of Mind's Eye and Hyper Light Breakers."

The discussion highlights concerns about the adaptation of movie-making techniques to game development, questioning the transferability of skills between the two mediums.

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4. Cross-Platform PlayStation Titles on Xbox: Future Prospects

Addressing listener questions, the hosts tackle the possibility of major first-party PlayStation games appearing on the Xbox platform. A listener named Jake from Salisbury, Maryland, inquires about playing exclusive titles like Spider-Man, God of War, or Horizon鬼ガ壇 on Xbox.

Jake's Question [60:24]: "Is there any hope for me, an Xbox lifer, that I can one day play Spider Man 2 or the upcoming Wolverine on my Xbox?"

Damon references a recent Sony job listing for a senior director focused on multi-platform expansion, hinting at potential cross-platform ventures. However, Justin Davis expresses skepticism, noting that while there might be some integration through platforms like Steam, it's unlikely that flagship titles will become Xbox exclusives.

Justin Davis [61:17]: "I don't think you'll see AAA. But also that could be referring to Xbox on PC."

Mark Medina adds that if Sony were to pursue such a strategy, it would likely involve non-traditional methods, such as utilizing the Xbox app on PCs, rather than direct console-to-console releases.

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5. Sony vs. Tencent: Horizon Copying Lawsuit

A major news segment covers Sony's lawsuit against Tencent for allegedly copying the Horizon series. The hosts break down the details of the case, highlighting how Tencent developed a game titled "Light of Motirum" that closely mirrors Horizon with similar aesthetics, mechanics, and even font styles.

Damon Hatfield [41:55]: "If anyone is on. Well, whatever, we don't need to take sides. But if anyone doesn't see it or doesn't understand where the lawsuit is coming from, look at the two games title screens side by side and tell me that it's not shameless."

The discussion emphasizes the blatant similarities and Tencent's persistent efforts to secure licensing despite Sony's refusals. The hosts compare this incident to historical instances of IP copying in the gaming industry, pondering the legal and ethical implications.

Sam Claiborne [44:08]: "It just looks like Horizon. Kind of like mobile game."

Mark Medina reflects on the improbability of Tencent's success in court, given the obvious nature of the similarities.

Mark Medina [44:18]: "It doesn't seem like Tencent will have a leg to stand on if this goes to court."

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6. Retro Gaming Handhelds: Miyu Flip and Magic X040

Shifting gears, Damon showcases his Miyu Flip, a retro gaming handheld reminiscent of the Game Boy Advance SP, tailored for 4:3 screen ratio games. He introduces a new device, the Magic X040, designed specifically for vertically oriented arcade games like Shmups and Nintendo DS titles.

Damon Hatfield [50:42]: "This is the Magic X040... built with vertical-oriented games in mind."

Mark Medina and Sam Claiborne discuss the potential of these handhelds for niche gaming genres, such as virtual pinball, enhancing the retro gaming experience with better screen orientations and emulator support.

Sam Claiborne [51:25]: "Right Layout."

The conversation underscores the resurgence of retro gaming handhelds, noting their affordability and specialized features that cater to specific gaming preferences.

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7. Nintendo Force's NES Endings Compendium Volume 2

Mark Medina introduces Nintendo Force's NES Endings Compendium Volume 2, a collection curated by Ray Esteban that explores the endings of various NES games from 1990. The compendium features original artwork, pro tips, and checks for completion, providing a nostalgic deep dive for retro gaming enthusiasts.

Damon Hatfield [52:34]: "It's an awesome little package... great ending."

The hosts praise the compendium's detailed coverage and the inclusion of insightful notes on differences between North American and Japanese game releases.

Mark Medina [54:51]: "It's available from Nintendo Forces official website. It's also available on Amazon."

The segment highlights the enduring appeal of retro games and the value of commemorating their unique endings and artwork.

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8. Listener Engagement: 20 Questions – Rocket League

The episode features an interactive 20 Questions segment based on a listener's suggestion. Liam from Salisbury, Maryland, presents the game for guessing, describing how he became a solid player through his father's influence. After a series of strategic questions narrowing down the genre and gameplay mechanics, the hosts accurately identify the game as Rocket League.

Mark Medina [71:35]: "It is Rocket League. Yes."

The segment showcases the hosts' gaming knowledge and their ability to engage with the audience through interactive content.

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9. Concluding Remarks and Promotions

As the episode wraps up, Damon Hatfield provides listeners with information on various promotions, including deals from Humble Bundle, Mint Mobile, and Babbel. Additionally, he highlights upcoming content and encourages listeners to engage with the podcast through email submissions and social media.

The episode concludes with acknowledgments to the production team and a sneak peek into upcoming content, ensuring listeners remain connected and informed about future discussions and events.

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Notable Quotes:

• Damon Hatfield [03:25]: "But there's no other way it, like, you still get hung up on geometry and stuff like a tiny little bit."

• Mark Medina [09:00]: "It's very visually overwhelming and kind of like almost off-putting."

• Sam Claiborne [16:41]: "I'm... It's exhausting."

• Sam Claiborne [37:23]: "Yeah, this is the hill you're gonna die on."

• Justin Davis [71:35]: "It is Rocket League. Yes."

• Damon Hatfield [51:07]: "I might be good on that, Damon."

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Conclusion

Episode 819 of Game Scoop! offers a comprehensive exploration of current gaming trends, nostalgic retrospectives, and significant industry news. From the exhilarating layers of Donkey Kong Bonanza to the contentious legal battles between Sony and Tencent, the hosts provide listeners with in-depth analysis and engaging discussions. Whether dissecting the mechanics of a beloved platformer or navigating the complexities of cross-platform gaming rights, Game Scoop! continues to deliver content that resonates with a diverse gaming audience.

Transcript

[Damon Hatfield]

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[Justin Davis]

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[Damon Hatfield]

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[Justin Davis]

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[Damon Hatfield]

What's up everybody? Welcome to IGN Gamescoop. I'm your host, Damon Hatfield. Joining me this week are Sam Claiborne.

[Sam Claiborne]

Hey, it's good to be back after summer break.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's good to be back indeed. Justin Davis, Scoop and Mark Medina.

[Justin Davis]

I'm also back. It does feel like summer break. I haven't been on it in a while.

[Damon Hatfield]

Well, I didn't have a break last weekend.

[Sam Claiborne]

Big break for Damon.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Working for the weekend.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yep, everybody's working for the weekend. Yeah, yeah, we took it last week off. A bunch of us were down in Comic Con, so lots to catch up on. Great show for you this week. We can finally talk about our own thoughts on Donkey Kong Bonanza now that's been out for a couple weeks and been playing a lot of that. There's a couple. There's several games that have gotten reviewed that are noteworthy that we should mention. There's this absolutely insane story about Sony suing tencent Because Cincinnat just straight up copied the Horizon games and didn't even try to hide it. It was crazy.

[Mark Medina]

Yep.

[Damon Hatfield]

But first, of course, Comic Con was last weekend. We had a really good show this year. Lots of celebrities come through the Igen stage at the Hard Rock Hotel. We had John Cena and James Gunn, Bob Odenkirk, who did a really great interview with Brian Altano. You should totally go watch that. It's hilarious. But there is one celebrity who came through, only one, that I was starstruck over. And it wasn't any of the aforementioned. It was a man by the name of Robert Picardo. Is anyone familiar with the work of Robert Picardo?

[Mark Medina]

Well, I know him from Star Trek.

[Damon Hatfield]

I was gonna say. So he's in this new Star Trek show, which is like Starfleet Academy. Is that what it is?

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, he's reprising his role as the Doctor from Star Trek Voyager.

[Sam Claiborne]

How does anybody else know who he is?

[Damon Hatfield]

Well, that's him in the.

[Mark Medina]

Where do you know him from?

[Damon Hatfield]

The gentleman in the hat right in the middle there. So I did not know that's his name. And I didn't do this interview. Kim Hortry, who's much more of a Star Trek expert, did this one. But I was like watching this and I'm looking at him. I think he looks really familiar. Who is this guy? What is he from. Oh, my God. He marries the girl gremlin in Gremlins 2.

[Sam Claiborne]

Amazing.

[Damon Hatfield]

That's what. Of course, he's a little bit older now, but yeah, he's the guy that marries the girl Gremlin in Gremlins 2. Mark, you probably haven't seen Gremlins too.

[Justin Davis]

Nope. Well, move on.

[Damon Hatfield]

The gremlins get into a laboratory and they drink all these liquids and they turn into all these different kinds of gremlins. There's an electric gremlin. There's a vegetable gremlin. There he is.

[Sam Claiborne]

There's a smart guy.

[Mark Medina]

Spider Gremlin.

[Damon Hatfield]

Smart gremlin. Spider Gremlin. And there's also a girl gremlin. And there. So this is the end of the movie when all the other gremlins have been killed. There's only one left because they were hiding in the back.

[Justin Davis]

That's all the new. That's all the new Avatar movies they're making as well.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yep. Yeah, that's true. And that's him, Robert Picardo. That's my Robert Picardo. The guy that ends up marrying the girl Gremlin at the end of Gremlins 2.

[Mark Medina]

Did you show that to him.

[Damon Hatfield]

No. So I didn't do the interview. It's a good thing I didn't do the interview because I would have hijacked it away from Star Trek and just talked about Gremlins 2 the whole time.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. How's she doing?

[Damon Hatfield]

That's what I want to know. Are they still together? Did they make it?

[Mark Medina]

That's great.

[Damon Hatfield]

Also, how is there. I'll just say this again. How is there not a modern day Gremlins video game? Any game where there's hordes of enemies, like Dead Rising, but with gremlins. Right.

[Mark Medina]

That's a good idea.

[Damon Hatfield]

Just make thousands of gremlins pouring over the screen. The boss fights are against the unique gremlins. Like the Electric Gremlins. Spider Gremlin.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's an interesting idea. Like you take the gremlins to the logical conclusion where it didn't just overrun a office building or a small town, but like overran a city. Like Raccoon City style.

[Damon Hatfield]

Right, Exactly. Well, I mean, that's kind of the.

[Sam Claiborne]

First Gremlins, but each gremlin has like, you know, some kind of person. It would also be like what's, what's, what's the Xbox Zombie series from way back.

[Justin Davis]

Dead Rising.

[Sam Claiborne]

Dead Rising. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it would be like that in the sense that you could have unique bosses.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, that's. That's exactly what I was just saying.

[Mark Medina]

No, but wait, here's my idea. It could be like that game.

[Justin Davis]

So you're in a mall and you can pick up anything.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay. Robert Picardo, Donkey Kong Bonanza. Let's talk. Let's get into this. Everyone's playing this. Justin Mark's playing this.

[Mark Medina]

I love it. I'm 320 bananas in.

[Damon Hatfield]

Oh, my gosh.

[Mark Medina]

Wow. I didn't play.

[Sam Claiborne]

How do you know that?

[Mark Medina]

Because I checked before the show. Okay. And it's in my save profile. And like, I didn't. I didn't play it until like, I've gone pretty hardcore on this because I didn't get into it. I was out of town and I didn't get into it till I got back.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. Do you know what layer you're on?

[Mark Medina]

I just finished the Tempest layer.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay. Yeah. That's like the stormy world with the elephants. Yeah. So I also. I love this game. I've played it every night since it was released, except for the four nights that I was in San Diego. And I'm super deep into it. I'm currently in the Radiance Lair, which is the Snake World. And you get the Snake Bonanza. I didn't even know that was a thing. Turn into a snake. And then there's. But there's apparently four more layers to go. So I was surprised by how big the game is. You know, you're going down, down, down, counting layers and I. For some reason I just assumed that when you get to the layer 1000, that would be the end. But nope, just keep going.

[Mark Medina]

Keeps going.

[Damon Hatfield]

More layers, more bonanzas to find. Yeah, I love this game. It's not once while playing it have I thought, man, I wish this was Mario Odyssey 2. It's probably tied for game of the year for me right now along with Monster Train 2. It's super, you know, great 3D platformer. Feels really good to play. Got really. I like the destruction mechanic is super unique and I think it has some of the best music I've heard in a video game in a long time. I would probably nominate for video game soundtrack of the year. I. I want to save Sam for last mark. What do you think?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I do like it. I have not played as much as probably other people. I'm at the. The freezer layer which is like, I think probably still kind of. Yeah. Yeah. Where you. Yeah. You go to the divide and it's like which one do you want to do? I assume whatever one you don't choose, you just end up doing after which is. So I chose the freezer one because I kind of like ice levels.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

I think it's cool. I. I have unfortunately I, I say that now been hooked on trying to get the death stranding to platinum and I am completely miserable. Oh no, I don't want to do this anymore. I'm. I'm completely over this damn package simulator game. But it's a. It's a sunken cost fallacy at this point. If I don't get it, then I've wasted the last 30 hours of my life. So the plan could have spent watching Gremlins or doing anything else. I. God, I'm over this game. I love it, but God damn it's boring now. Anyways, so the plan is to then hardcore Donkey Kong because from what I've played it, it's a lot of smashing. But I, I hear later like the, the new bonanzas are. Are the like the bonanza mode things, the transformations, I hear they get really, really cool and some of the layers get very, very cool. But from what I've played. Yeah, I mean I like it quite a bit. I. I don't know if I'm as high on it. As other people are. But I do.

[Mark Medina]

I will say do better as it goes.

[Justin Davis]

And that's what I've heard. I've heard like, once you hit like a certain point and you're like, oh, okay. And then it just like gets better and better until the end. So that I'm kind of waiting to hit that point because right now it's still just like, smash everything and like beat your chest and listen to that same song over and over and over.

[Mark Medina]

I love it. I mean, the game is a real assault on the senses. I will say there's. There's some interesting. Let me. Let me share the two things I don't like about it first. Then I'll talk about all the things I need. Like, one, it's. It's very visually overwhelming and kind of like almost like off putting. And I remember saying that before the game came out, just something about the color palette and the neon is it. It. I have a really hard time kind of like understanding what I should be looking at and what I'm seeing. And like, what, like, I sometimes can't tell the big picture of like, oh, wait, that was a giant statue of like, you know, a banana or something. But it's so chaotic that I can't even like, notice that.

[Justin Davis]

Can I interject right real quick to. So I work on the video Team Obvious, and we've been having a lot of trouble with the Switch 2 when it comes to capturing, like, not. There's two HDR modes or whatever. And so speaking about what. What Justin is saying, it's been really hard because everybody's footage looks different. And I don't know what I'm looking at anymore because it's like, here's some gold coins. Here's the layer they were just showing in the B roll. I think that's lagoon layer. And I'm like, I don't know what it's supposed to look like anymore. The colors. There's so. There's so much color.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, it's very garish. And it's clearly that way on purpose because that's the aesthetic of like, you know, whenever you get one of the new bonanzas, like, the horns are going like, that's all. The vibe of the game is like, yeah, that I love. I am obsessed with when he gets the multi banana and he goes, no, no.

[Justin Davis]

No, no.

[Mark Medina]

I'm obsessed with that. That's great.

[Damon Hatfield]

But like.

[Mark Medina]

But it's very. It's like an assault on the senses, which I. Which I don't love as much. And the whole game. Like I've played bigger, faster paced, twitchier games. Like I've played shooters, I've played a lot of shmups. But like the speed of the game, it feels like when people are listening to a podcast on 1.25 speed, you know, which I'm sure no one, none of the Gamescape fans are listening to us at that speed right now. But like it just feels like everything is happening like 15% faster than I kind of like expect it to. And like it's just never like I'm like tired when I stop playing the game. Like it's like it. I'm sure if you were to do like what are they? Banandium gems. Like if you were to do banandium gems earned per minute versus like moons per minute, that just everything in this game is like just faster and non stop compared to like, compared to Mario Odyssey. And so I wish there's some layers that are the exception to that. Like the resort layer is actually one of my favorites, which is designed like narratively and they even say it like it's a breather. It's absolutely.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's actually like the first kind of fairly difficult boss fight.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean I didn't. It was. That was fine for me. Oh sure. So. So like that's been my favorite part of the game is when you do get a chance to like take a breath. So. But besides, like I said I was going to share my negatives first. Like, besides those, like, I absolutely love this game. It's absolutely my game of the year. Like, I don't like Nintendo's just styling on other developers now from a technical standpoint and from a game design standpoint. And like they. There's this Nintendo thing now which after Mario Odyssey and two Zeldas and now this of like you're gonna go into a little room and do a little mini challenge and then come out of that room and then that room's probably gonna have a second little secret secret in it. And like, it's just so good. Everything about it is like so good and so polished and like you would think like you still, you, you still get hung up on geometry and stuff like a tiny little bit. But like from any other developer, like that would be happening constantly, right? Like it, it would be annoying to be underground and digging through stuff and knocking enemies around. But like just the, the, the. The level of juice that this game has is just off the charts with like little moments of impact when you're smacking into opponents and like they clearly home like, the game helps you so much when you smack one enemy into another. And, like, if you're even remotely close to aiming it correctly, like, it'll knock them directly into them on purpose. Like, so polished, Such a joy to play. So imaginative. It's got that Nintendo thing of never repeating an idea twice. Like, we're gonna show you something really cool and off the wall. And then like, now on to the next thing. On to the next thing. Like, every single evening. I'm like, I can't wait to play more. Just there's no one else that does it like this. Love it.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's true. Yeah, I agree with almost all of that. Okay, Sam, what do you think?

[Sam Claiborne]

So I think it's very similar to my feelings about Donkey Kong 64 versus Mario 64. Like, I think there's a game that is, you know, it's. It's cool that it's taking a bunch of Donkey Kong things and putting them in 3D, and it's using, in this case, a really clever amount of, you know, voxel deformation conceits and a bunch of puzzles and stuff like that. That's all great. The actual, like. Like, kind of ratio of things I want to do in the game and things that get me going to, like, explore and do other things compared to, like, what there is to do is, like, is. It's really off to me. Like, it doesn't feel like Mario Odyssey where it's like, whoa, look up there. Like, how would I ever get up there? What's gonna happen when I get up there? This is interesting. It's like, whoa, there's a. Oh, they showed me this big fossil in the distance. Like, I don't really need that for anything, so I'm just going to go deeper. And as I play through the game, I'm like, okay, well, everywhere I've gone, I've collected, you know, 30 bananas. And I'm sick of this place now, so I'm going to move on. That is not how I feel about Mario Odyssey. And so let me just say before I get any further, that I have data proof that this game is. Is fluffier and not as interesting and as challenging because nobody's using the strategy guides like they did for Mario Odyssey in the same way. Like, I can see exactly how people use stuff. And you don't know. Like, nobody wants to stick around in a level 100%, but they really wanted to do that in Mario Odyssey. And there's a small amount of people that are doing that. But, like, I can see what the Difference is I wanted 100% Mario Odyssey. I don't want 100% this game. I want to see what's next. That's fine. I'm just. That's the difference. That's the difference between this game and like, Breath of the Wild or Mario Odyssey for me, is that this is a lot more like. And not, not exactly like Mario Kart, where it's like, why is this an open world game? Like, you know, like, what. What is. What is drawing me through this open world? Because the challenges are really fun and the kind of sometimes, you know, figuring out how to get to an area is pretty fun, but then there's like, I don't know, like 500 other things to do that you just blast past you don't know about. And so, And I just like, that is not a consistent, great world for a game to be in. Like, Breath of the Wild is just couldn't, couldn't be more different in that type of design. It's like, you don't really want to blow past anything. You want to, like, figure out everything there is to do about this, and you get rewarded really well and you move on. So that's like the kind of like, meta level of what. What bugs me about this game. And I've been talking to Pair about this a lot too, because he 100% agrees. And, you know, like, what the game is, is, is fun and I like playing it for all the reasons Justin was talking about too. Like, I do feel like there's like, I, it's exhausting. I'm.

[Damon Hatfield]

I'm.

[Sam Claiborne]

By the way, I'm past the fork level, so I'm past the. Both those. I played the ice and the tree level and I'm past those. I forget what the next one was after that because everything's really, really samey, by the way, until you get to the fruit and stuff, was what people tell me that's not a ringing endorsement of a game to say that you have to play halfway through the game before it feels different, though. And that's, that's also a problem, I think, for this one. But yeah, like, I think, like, you know, it's exactly what it looked like it was going to be. I hope there's surprises. The surprises are a little bit too deep in the game. Yeah, it, it's, it's. It's a totally fine, fun Nintendo game. Nintendo's really smart and they're not gonna let you down with like a big first party game like this, but I think it compares incredibly unfavorably to our favorite Nintendo games of the generation.

[Damon Hatfield]

Well one thing I'll say about the people using a guide and or not wanting to 100% or everything is like I'm, I'm playing that way too is where I'm just, I just keep going down, down, down to the next level. But I imagine I will be going back, you know once I finish everything that that's when I'll be going back. Search through scouring levels good.

[Mark Medina]

Like there's, there's more like Nintendo's very bold and brave in their willingness. Like you know this is a very mass market mainstream. It's. You don't expect puzzles in it and like there is more Zelda like DNA. Like I've done some puzzle rooms and little puzzle challenges that felt like shrines. Like they.

[Sam Claiborne]

Exactly that. Especially the third hidden banana. Right. Like that's so shine like and including.

[Mark Medina]

Sometimes where you're using even the material like oh this is water and this is lava and how they're going to interact and like how there's even some MA simulation stuff in there which is obviously very freezing.

[Sam Claiborne]

The lava for example or you know using the lighter than air stuff.

[Mark Medina]

And I do, I really like the movement. Like I am sure the speed runs of this game are going to be so entertaining just because the sort of movement tech I guess maybe not even tech because that, that, that's like you know, actual speedrun. We're abusing the game but just what's built in. I think surfing is really fun and interesting and rolling all around. It's really fun and interesting and I remember saying before the game came out when we watched the direct that like it's fun. I, I anticipated that this was going to be a platformer where you had a verb for how you're interacting with the game other than just jumping. Right. And it totally does like the combat feels good. Like it doesn't overstay its welcome. You just kind of smack guys a couple of times and they shoot off the wall but like grabbing things, hurling them. I unlock the move or you can kind of spin around and then that gives you like an extra jump. Like I don't know. I love the way that you interact with the world in this game.

[Sam Claiborne]

I think Logan said this and maybe he didn't. He said it to me and not in their review. I can't remember at this point but like there's a skill tree and everything in the game is about that skill tree. All bananas are about that skill tree. I'm already at the point where I maxed out the important things in the skill tree except for the transformation stuff later, whatever, that's all pointless. I don't know why I'm getting bananas anymore. That's a problem. But the, the more than that, it's also a combat skill tree and nothing's difficult in combat. And I guess you just said, Damon, that you got to a harder part. But like, I don't think that's a good idea to make the game harder. I don't want it to be a.

[Damon Hatfield]

Dark Souls, like, hard, difficult.

[Sam Claiborne]

I like what Justin's saying. No, I just like, I like that it's like, you know, difficult but like that's like an incongruity that like you just don't see. And I think, you know, the more coherent Nintendo top of their game experiences or frankly Kojima top of his game experiences, like I Think Desk Training 2 is like just like a. More like as a blob of gameplay nonsense. It's just so much of it is smarter and well thought out and this is like crazier and vibe, you know, like that's fine. Like it's fine for games to be like that. But like, I'm shocked that people are like, this is Mario Odyssey's big successor. This is like the next big thing for Nintendo platforming. Like that is such nonsense. Like this is. There is so much more room to expand a platformer than what this game does. Like there's just.

[Damon Hatfield]

There's.

[Sam Claiborne]

The sky's the limit, you know, and like this is not. This is the ground.

[Mark Medina]

It does, it does. Interesting. I mean, you know, you're right that, that I think that the back half of the game, like I think I'd like each world more than the world prior. And like they start doing that Nintendo thing of like in this world, it's gimmick is when you knock an enemy like, you know, it arcs through the sky. It's building a bridge. It's building like a platform, right? And so A, that's an interesting gameplay mechanic of like, okay, I need to knock this guy over there to build a bridge up where I go. And B, it has this really funny side effect of now when I'm leaving that world, it's wrecked in the complete opposite way of every other world. Because now there's like Earth bridges that are spiraling all over the place. That same world as a thing, it's got a special rock where you pick it up and then you shoot up in the air like a rocket.

[Damon Hatfield]

And like it's so fun.

[Mark Medina]

It's just, it's got, yeah, it's got that Nintendo vibe of like there it is, you know, there it is.

[Justin Davis]

Oh wow.

[Mark Medina]

And like, and then it makes use of it in combat, it makes use of it in puzzle solving and platforming. And like we're going to show you this idea, you know, we're going to use it 10 times and then you're just not going to see it again. And then we're going to show you something else. So like I, I, I, you know, if someone's not liking the first half of the game, like your time is precious, like you know, do, do do whatever you feel like you need to do to sort of like have a good time. But like I think the game is going from strength to strength as I, as I continue getting deeper in it.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's great news. And I agree, like that's exactly my experience. I think that's pretty un Nintendo to have back half weight of a game. I just think that's kind of strange.

[Damon Hatfield]

For what it's worth, I was having fun right from the first level.

[Justin Davis]

I think those colored blocks, I think that's what I was told about is where you're like, what the heck? Also you get bananas because in the post game there's a reason to have a million bananas. And that's actually what I'm like most excited for. I think I'm gonna play the same way you guys are all playing, which is like get to the end and then go back and start banana farming.

[Mark Medina]

I mean I don't, I don't know how hard it gets, but I'll tell you, enemies start to hit really hard. Like I'm regularly losing two hearts to like one enemy hit now. And like you want. And the heart upgrades start costing a lot more bananas. So it's like, ooh. To feel more comfortable in, in the difficulty level, like I feel like I need to upgrade more hearts and then that's each each like It'll cost me 25 bananas to get the next heart upgrade now. So you know, starts to add up.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, I really like the level design. You know, Donkey Kong has like a ground pound move that he can use to collect items. But I love the mechanic how it'll also reveal hidden items under the ground and then that creates its own little, you know, puzzle or challenge. Like how do we get to this thing? Maybe it's behind an unbreakable door. I love all that. And that's a good skill tree item is to increase the distance of things that you can see when you 100%.

[Justin Davis]

It makes it where you're never, you're never walking in this game.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. You're just always.

[Justin Davis]

You're always smashing or you're just doing the hand slap.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, it is it. That's part of what makes it feel like kind of an assault like on the senses of like. It's. It's got a little bit of that Zelda thing of like, what was the design? I think they did a GDC talk where like, if you're at any shrine or anywhere important, you can see two to three other places to go.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

And like this game has a little bit of that of like, you know, ooh, treasure. Ooh, a banana. Ooh, a fossil. Ooh, a new room. And like, but. But just very fast paced.

[Justin Davis]

I remember it was a. It was a Witcher 3, like for Cyber, not CD Projekt Red where they said that like every inch. When you're making an open world game, every interesting thing should never be more than 45 seconds away from the last thing. And in this game it's like four to five seconds.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, it is.

[Justin Davis]

I just came up with that.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's density and I don't think density necessari necessarily as bad. I don't think it's what people don't want in games. Like, I think that that's probably pretty good. There's not like a good ratio of rewards for that density and like why you would stop and do that. But maybe the end game is like that.

[Damon Hatfield]

Did any of you have to remap the jump button?

[Justin Davis]

Yes, immediately I did and then I could never get used to it. So then I switched it back and now I've screwed myself. My brain doesn't know what to do anymore.

[Sam Claiborne]

You just, you can just switch them across the.

[Justin Davis]

You could change A and B. So it's like the structure is a PlayStation controller. But it's like up, you know, forward and then down and then jump. And so I changed. I swapped. A lot of people were swapping it.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

But my brain couldn't calibrate. So then I. Because I had already played too much before I realized you could swap it. So I swapped it back and that has only furthered the problem.

[Sam Claiborne]

That means Zelda, Mario and Donkey Kong all use a different jump button, which is like, yeah, what is happening?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

It threw me for a loop at first. I understand the layout. You know, they're punching in three different directions. X is to punch up, Y is punch straight ahead, and B is to punch down. So I get that. But it was tripping me up. But just like Mark, I played with it long enough the way it was designed that when I tried to remap it, then I couldn't do it. So I just went back and I'm just jumping with B button. It's fine.

[Sam Claiborne]

The fact that talk and punch is the same button means you fuck up so many enemies or NPCs in this game. You walk up to these poor little crystal bastards and just shatter them into oblivion. And they pop back.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yep.

[Mark Medina]

They don't mind. Doesn't hurt them.

[Sam Claiborne]

Sometimes they turn it into a high five.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. They do everything but. Everything but the fractal.

[Sam Claiborne]

If it's like a chimp or an ape or something.

[Mark Medina]

I love Damon, you talked about this earlier. I like the music and I like how it's sort of English but sort of gibberish. Well, yeah, the zebra. The zebra one's my favorite because Pauline says zebra. Zebra.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

It's so good. So good.

[Damon Hatfield]

The fact that.

[Sam Claiborne]

What about when you walk up to that door and she goes.

[Justin Davis]

They could.

[Damon Hatfield]

Use a few more of those music cues because it's the same one every time.

[Justin Davis]

Screening our challenge room videos and it's just that over.

[Mark Medina]

And this is. How far has Nintendo come that Pauline is actually not jabbering. Puzzle solution. Like, hey, Mario, I think we should.

[Damon Hatfield]

Try to go over there.

[Mark Medina]

Like, it's actually not annoying at all. Like, you know, like, she's got this cute little dialogue when you go to sleep, but that's optional. She does. And she doesn't point out a banana until literally, like, you're right on top of it.

[Sam Claiborne]

Like, there's a banana.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. Like Nintendo or any other developer. Just the temptation. Like, I think you should try beating the boss this way. Like, they know. Like, they know you'll figure it out. Like, you don't need to do that.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. I'm pretty deep into the game. I don't know why she's a rock creature when she first shows up. I don't know what the point of that was.

[Sam Claiborne]

We'll find out.

[Damon Hatfield]

Maybe that'll come back around again at the end. I don't. I don't really know, but I like their relationship and I like the little dance they do together every time you.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is that from Yakuza?

[Mark Medina]

What?

[Sam Claiborne]

That dance where they. You know, that famous Yakuza dance where they're doing those. Those kind of, like, moves like do, do, do towards each other and they're all, like, each posing.

[Mark Medina]

That's. I do. Yeah. I do want to see them side by side now. Like, I don't think. I don't think it literally.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean, they might both have a different.

[Mark Medina]

Right.

[Sam Claiborne]

Origin, but I don't know what that is. That's the Yakuza gif. That's what that is.

[Mark Medina]

It does kind of seem like it.

[Sam Claiborne]

It might. Yeah. That might be some kind of, like, you know, deep cut Japanese historical, like, funny 70s dance or something.

[Mark Medina]

Like, I don't know.

[Sam Claiborne]

No idea where it came from.

[Damon Hatfield]

Everyone except Pauline speaks, like, banjo kazooie style gibberish. But I don't know, like, is it really easier than just recording dialogue because they still have to record all the gibberish?

[Sam Claiborne]

I guess just because you can use it in Japan and the US for the same amount of audio.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, I guess so. The one thing, last thing I'll say is that just like Mario Odyssey, every layer has its unique outfits that you can buy. I don't think it goes nearly far enough with those. They could be so much more creative. Like, it's like you could turn Donkey Kong's for, like, pink, but it's usually like, here's a pair of black pants. Or I don't know, here's. Here's a weather coat for Pauline. Like, why Donkey Kong should be able to wear Link's green tunic.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, that'd be cute. Or you should be able to give him, like, really long, flowing hair. Like a funny dog.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, exactly.

[Mark Medina]

Or there's also the fact that since the clothing confers gameplay benefits.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes.

[Mark Medina]

Like, I don't. I don't feel like, like I found the tie. I have the treasure of seeking tie that I got in the first world, and I'm like, I don't ever want to switch off that. Stuck with that tie for the whole game.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. Anyway, I personally, I'm loving dunking on Bonanza. Justin is too. Not. Not resonating as much with Sam, but obviously that's okay.

[Sam Claiborne]

Or Mark, you can't leave me yet.

[Damon Hatfield]

Mark hasn't played, Barely wants to play.

[Sam Claiborne]

He's playing a game he hates.

[Mark Medina]

Instead, Mark's stuck in stria trying to get him back on.

[Sam Claiborne]

I like it. I'm gonna play more. I'll definitely play it. I have so many flights ahead of me. That means I have. I have to play this. What else am I gonna play? I'm gonna cut P switches in Mario Kart. Give me a break.

[Damon Hatfield]

Oh, that's the other thing. It's insane. That Donkey Kong cost 70 in Mario Kart is $80. Like, there's so much more game in Donkey Kong. Yeah, it's crazy.

[Mark Medina]

It's Absolutely arbitrary. They're like. They're charging more because fu. That's what.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, yeah, that's exactly right.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh man.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay, Sam, I know a couple weeks ago you were playing Shadow Labyrinth. That review has gone up. This is the Grimdark Pac Man. Pac man game that's sort of also based on that secret level episode. But anyway, in our review we gave it a 5 out of 10. I just was wondering since you were playing it if you. What you had thought of it.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, what I like if it just continued the way I played it and I read the review and reviewer pans it. But I. I really liked what I had played so far because it was a. It was Metroidvania. It was in like a really, you know, a series of twisty little passages all alike. And there was some. Some fun boss dodging enemy stuff like Hollow Knight. Right. Like there was like it was building and it sounds like it doesn't build past where I got. But here's the cool thing is that just like Gyoku's Island Express, when you get to certain areas you become a little pinball and you hit the floor flippers and it turns into a pinball game. And this. The little areas you get to. You turn into Pac man and you go munch a bunch of dots and avoid enemies and kind of figure out how to get. It's really funny. It's like it works. And what I played was like, I just. I couldn't wait to keep playing this game and it was really cool and I was like, kind of like reading the review notes while they were being made and stuff and I was like, we're playing different games. Until like I was like, I ran out of time to play it and then like the year kept going and it was just sounded worse and worse. So I'm disappointed that it couldn't hold it together. But totally what I played, I was like, this is going to be a great little, you know, castle droids.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, it's too bad. It was an interesting way to bring Pac man back. Try to keep him relevant in 2025. And also in other low score, low review score news, the Lord of the Rings license continues to just be scared. Completely squandered. The latest is Tales of the Shire, which the first crime committed is that the full name of the game is Tales of the Shire. A the Lord of the Rings game.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I thought that was a typo.

[Damon Hatfield]

A the Lord of the Rings game. I would like to submit an official complaint with the Tolkien estate. Like let's let's just, let's just imagine what if the game was just called a Lord of the Rings game. What would happen? Yeah, what would happen? Would everything be okay?

[Justin Davis]

What would they do?

[Mark Medina]

Okay, but I'm going to. Look, I don't know this to be true, but I know a little bit about how the world works and it's probably the Tolkien estate insisting you have to refer to it as the Lord of the Rings.

[Damon Hatfield]

That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying.

[Mark Medina]

Oh, okay.

[Damon Hatfield]

But I would ask them, what if we did. What if we just said a Lord of the Rings game? Would everything still be okay?

[Justin Davis]

What if we showed them this ridiculous title?

[Sam Claiborne]

Damon wants to ask the state if anything would go wrong if that happened. Yeah, we know what would happen if this company did that. They would all be imprisoned. Yeah. Look at all this.

[Damon Hatfield]

Does Lord of the Rings a lord.

[Sam Claiborne]

So, yeah, this, this game, like the elevator pitch couldn't be better and it couldn't be. And like, actually I do think, like when you watch these little hobbits running or skipping around the Shire and you know, like, some of the design looks pretty good and it just looks like what could possibly go wrong? Maybe two years of, you know, in the background fixes in development will make this game amazing. But I don't know where they're going to get that money from.

[Mark Medina]

The two, the two biggest things on the planet right now are like cozy games and like base building casual. Like, you know, hey, build up your house and decorate it however you want kind of games.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yep.

[Mark Medina]

And so what a. What a no brainer. Like, or even just like, don't forget Romantasy.

[Sam Claiborne]

Justin. That's pretty big right now too.

[Mark Medina]

Like, you know, Disney Dreamlight Valley, but you're a hobbit in the Shire, like slam dunk.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. This game almost feels like watching Disney. Amanda's been playing and I've been watching her play, and yet none of the characters talk. Nobody's voice acted. So it does kind of give those Disney Dreamlight, Disney Dreamlight Valley vibes where people just go, she likes it. I'm watching her play and I could tell the frame rate. She's playing on PS5.

[Sam Claiborne]

Good.

[Justin Davis]

And I can tell the frame rate is running at like 15 frames. And she's just like, I don't notice it. And I'm like, well, if you're happy, you're happy. But like, then she served a meal and everybody ate it and they were like, oh. And then at the end they were like, that was great. What I was so confused. But they are hobbits after all. I don't, I don't really get it. But what I will say is that she is enjoying her time with it. She's a big Lord of the Rings fan, so I don't know. Well, it doesn't look like a game a Mark Medina would play, but she's liking it.

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, you just need to have a dig button like Donkey Kong and you can make your own hole in the hill.

[Damon Hatfield]

Your own little hobbit hole. Yeah, I think PC gamer strapline was not hobbit forming. Pretty good. Hats off, hats off there.

[Sam Claiborne]

I have like a 60s button that says JRR Tolkien is Hobbit forming.

[Damon Hatfield]

Nice.

[Sam Claiborne]

Because that's an old button. It's pretty cool. Yeah. The criticisms of this game from our review were that, you know, it doesn't, it doesn't have like a redeeming loop. It's kind of boring that. But also the reviewer, every time he'd have that meal which is, ends your day and like distributes all of the good, good rewards and everything, they would crash mainly there like full on crash. And so he have to replay the whole day and he said once he had to do it six times.

[Mark Medina]

Oh boy.

[Sam Claiborne]

So half an hour, half an hour, half an hour, half an hour or something like that. Yeah, I was like the review, it's like this crazy length of time replaying to get it to work. Now that stuff's fixable. Right. But the gameplay loop is, is apparently not great.

[Mark Medina]

I mean so the game, the game was made by Weta Workshop, obviously. It's very famous from the appendices of Lord of the Rings and you know, the special effects for a lot of movies. And there's now some kind of behind the scenes stuff coming out that's still conjecture. So I don't, I'm not, I don't need to get into it in details but like turns out that like, oh, we thought making a video game would be closer to making a movie and maybe the craft of making video games was different than what expected it to be. And there's kind of like, I just wonder if we're going to get more stories like that coming out behind the scenes of just growing pains of learning how to make art in a new medium and that some of what was transferable from movies is maybe not as transferable into the discipline of video games as they thought.

[Damon Hatfield]

Well, at a 4 out of 10, it's one of the worst reviewed games of the year from IGN. We haven't given anything lower than a 4 this year, but it puts it in the company of Mind's Eye and Hyper Light Breakers. Early access. And what's interesting is that Lord of the Rings returned to Moria and Lord of the Rings Gollum also got four out of ten from ign.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, the consistency.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Four Rings to bind them.

[Mark Medina]

Who is there still? There's still Lord of the Rings online that has a really good shire. Just go run around that shire instead. You deliver pies to a bunch of different hobbits and you have to avoid. When you see hungry hobbits, you have to go avoid them. Otherwise they take your pie before you get it done. Delivered.

[Sam Claiborne]

That guy eating cake or whatever he's eating with wheat in his mouth really bothers me every time I see it.

[Justin Davis]

You see all these people and they're like, oh, well, see, he's happy, but the lady was not happy. That's just. That's what they all did yesterday.

[Damon Hatfield]

He was just moving his spoon through the pie. No, no, no. Yeah, this looks pretty budget. Who is it Embracer that owns the Lord of the Rings license these days?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, but every time I bring that up, there's, like a qualification of it. It's like, well, they don't actually have the same rights as this and this thing. This and.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, because Amazon has the, like, streaming rights.

[Mark Medina]

Right.

[Damon Hatfield]

So it's.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's like, remember, they were divided already in a way. So, like, you could make a hobbit game for gamecube but you couldn't make a Lord of the Rings game unless it was based on the movies.

[Mark Medina]

And I don't know what I thought Embracer bought was. They just bought the Lord.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's what I thought.

[Mark Medina]

They just own the whole thing now.

[Sam Claiborne]

I think it's.

[Damon Hatfield]

What is Amazon doing with Rings of Power then?

[Mark Medina]

Well, but I think they've licensed it from Embracer owns the whole thing now, I think is my understanding.

[Damon Hatfield]

That's just wild.

[Mark Medina]

They just. Yeah, they bought the whole ip.

[Sam Claiborne]

There's a new movie coming out.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yep, yep. The Gollum one that no one asked for. And there was the anime, the War of Rohirrim that I know you like Sam, but I don't think anyone wanted to see it.

[Mark Medina]

I. So, look, I love Lord of the Rings. I love it. You know, I played the card game. I like the movie, I like the books, I like the video games. But it's like, it isn't and shouldn't be this, like, always on, like, you know. Okay, now Lord of the Rings, new movie every three years. It's not Star Wars.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, neither is Star Wars.

[Mark Medina]

The story has been told like it's complete.

[Damon Hatfield]

But that's why something like this should have been like, you know, just. Just be a hobbit, living your day to day in the Shire like that should. Yeah, that game should make itself. Yeah, just like a Gremlins game. You're just like the Sony style. You're walking around with your companion like you've just got Gizmo in your backpack. You're talking. What's up, Giz? Oh, you see something over there, Giz? Come on.

[Sam Claiborne]

What if they made a Lord of the Rings game like Dead Rising, with unique bosses in every area? You had to control the bosses.

[Justin Davis]

You could pick up anything, maybe fight Gremlins with it.

[Sam Claiborne]

I just want to point out that that, that time was a Shadow of Mordor joke for everybody who's thinking about writing us.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, the bosses could be leveled up and like change and come back and get their revenge on you.

[Justin Davis]

They'll remember you.

[Damon Hatfield]

Remember you.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. They'll remember you.

[Sam Claiborne]

Remember you.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, he killed me last time. I'll get you next time, you bloody bug.

[Mark Medina]

Greatest video gaming innovation of the last 20 years.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I'll gouge his eyes out. I will.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay, let's move on to this news item this week.

[Sam Claiborne]

Wait, Damon, did you never make. Did you never play any more Death Stranding 2?

[Damon Hatfield]

I have not played anymore since then.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, man.

[Damon Hatfield]

I don't have anything against it. I'd like to, but I have so.

[Sam Claiborne]

Many doll man jokes and I can only share them with Mark Medina now.

[Mark Medina]

I did buy, by the way, so.

[Justin Davis]

I can be the only other person at IGN who played the game.

[Mark Medina]

The original Death Stranding was $50 when I was on the show last time, and I bought it on sale. It went on sale. It was 16 bucks on Xbox.

[Damon Hatfield]

Wow.

[Justin Davis]

Excellent.

[Mark Medina]

So I will report back, but I have a backlog now because I got to finish DK and then I got to finish Zelda, and then I'll get to Death Stranding then.

[Justin Davis]

Well, the great. The great thing is Death Stranding's back.

[Sam Claiborne]

On the menu, boys.

[Justin Davis]

Death Stranding is notor short. So you'll breeze through.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

Good.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is that a joke?

[Justin Davis]

Yes, yes. It's very long.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

Have fun thinking about Death Stranding 1 after playing Death Stranding 2. Sounds miserable. So just stop, dude. You'll have fun.

[Damon Hatfield]

He has a yum. Come on.

[Justin Davis]

Well, I. I'm not, I'm not. I just.

[Sam Claiborne]

What Mark's saying is maybe don't get a Death straining tetra at this Point.

[Mark Medina]

Okay.

[Justin Davis]

Well, yeah, no, you. The. The problem with getting a death stranding tattoo is that it means you have to get the platinum for both games.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

And.

[Justin Davis]

And I'll get a. I'm so tired.

[Mark Medina]

I'll. I'll get a strand, strand type tattoo.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, sure. Okay.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay. Long time listeners and viewers know we have a recurring segment called the Nintendo Seal of Quantity.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no.

[Damon Hatfield]

No, no, no, no. We're not doing that right now. It's just that you brought it up. Yeah, it's just I'm reminded of that. I'm reminded of that with this story that Sony is suing Tencent for just straight up copying Horizon.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, that's a good one.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

And not even trying to hide the fact, like they told Sony, hey, we made a Horizon game. Is that okay? Can we have the license? And then Sony was like, no. And then they just kept making it and they're going to try and put it out. It's so crazy.

[Justin Davis]

We have the license.

[Damon Hatfield]

So Sony is suing Tencent. And what's crazy, they're the two biggest.

[Justin Davis]

That is a death shitty ghost right there.

[Damon Hatfield]

They are the two biggest game publishers in the world. Sony, number one, is suing number two.

[Sam Claiborne]

Awesome. Terminator 2.

[Damon Hatfield]

So, yeah, Tencent has just made their own Horizon game. It has a female protagonist with red hair who has this sort of like, focus, like earpiece. There are robot animals and dinosaurs and humans live in different tribes and all the environments look like Horizon. And then it's like even, like fonts. And so like everything has just been lifted.

[Justin Davis]

The key art.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, that's what's really identical. That's what. Look at the title screens for the two games. If anyone is on. Well, whatever, we don't need to take sides. But if anyone doesn't see it or doesn't understand where the lawsuit is coming from, look at the two games title screens side by side and tell me that it's not shameless.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, I mean, also Sony.

[Justin Davis]

Sony owns Destiny, so it's pretty nuts that they also have a ghost.

[Damon Hatfield]

So per Sony's complaint, Tencent allegedly knew exactly what it was doing because Sony says that Tencent began developing this game, Light of Motirum, in 2023 and approached Sony at the 2024 Game Developers Conference to ask for a licensing deal to develop its own Horizon game. Sony turned Tencent down, but Tencent kept developing the game anyway. Sony also claims it approached Tencent informally to resolve the copyright dispute once it became aware of the game. And when it did so Sony says Tencent tried once again to license Horizon. Sony once again refused, and Tencent allegedly moved forward with the game's promotion and play tests.

[Mark Medina]

It's unbelievable. I mean, a tiny bit of inside baseball here is that. This isn't. That part's not that crazy uncommon. It's like, hey, we would like to make a game based off, you know, your character. But then when they decline, what's normal is you change the art.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yep. You have to pivot.

[Mark Medina]

Okay.

[Damon Hatfield]

We somewhat.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, yeah. You say, hey, lawyers, how different do we have to make this? And then they tell you we're going.

[Mark Medina]

To make it robot mammals instead of robot dinosaurs or something. Right.

[Sam Claiborne]

Like, maybe they assume that Sony had forgotten about Horizon like the rest of us did by now.

[Mark Medina]

Maybe they'll just forget.

[Damon Hatfield]

I don't know. It's so great.

[Sam Claiborne]

Like, they'll just forget.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's so good. It doesn't seem like 10 cent will have a leg to stand on if this, like, goes to Quarters. It all seems blatantly obvious to me. I don't know.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean, all the game is too. It's like, this is the hill you're gonna die on.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

You're gonna, you're gonna knock off Horizon.

[Justin Davis]

Well, it came out that they sold 38 million copies across the franchise, so.

[Mark Medina]

Right. None of us are lawyers. Right. And like, you can't write an idea. And there's obviously, there's a long history going back to the 90s or even earlier of like two volcano movies came out the same summer. Like two asteroid movies came out the same summer. Like, but, but so again, like the, the legal. Like, I would like to hear like a copyright lawyer's opinion on like, you know, when is it just like, hey, you shouldn't have done this because it's immoral to like. No, you actually broke a law. This is too, this is, this is too close.

[Justin Davis]

I think it depends. Yeah. On like, what they copyrighted. It's funny I being. I. I was, I was a young 18 year old working a Hollywood video and I remember a Transmore, a movie called Transmorphers came out and I was like, oh, that's funny. But like, but like, when it comes to like Palworld and Pokemon, you would think that the blatant copy is the Pals, right. Is the Pokemon. But what, what they actually went after was the use of the Pokemon, the balls, the Pokeballs. Right. And so it's like, it kind of. I. I wonder if it, like, what kind of copyrights they have. So like. Yeah, you can't call it Horizon. But also we have certain things copy written. You know, maybe the use of the. Of the robot dinosaur.

[Mark Medina]

I mean, look at this. If we were watching now, if we.

[Damon Hatfield]

Were watching a Sony state of play right now, I would just think, oh, they're announcing Horizon three.

[Justin Davis]

It looks like. It looks like Horizon for sure. Yep, it looks like Horizon. Kind of like mobile game.

[Damon Hatfield]

It doesn't look bad. Like shovelware. Like it looks. It actually looks really good.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, it certainly.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, like. Like take all the weird stuff out of it. I would probably play this game. Like this looks fine.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's funny to think of like the. You know, the very origin of video games is like knocking off movies, right? Like you just have like the NES is basically the action section of, you know, the. The VHS rental store from that time. Like Contra. I mean, come on. Like, yeah, it just. It's like Rambo and Alien. Like that's all it is, you know, like it's just Commando. Commando. Yeah, it's very funny.

[Damon Hatfield]

There's the game Commando. Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. Like it's just it.

[Damon Hatfield]

I mean, speaking of Kojima and death threatening the original box art for Metal Gear, that dude is just traced from Kyle Reese and Terminator.

[Mark Medina]

Yep.

[Sam Claiborne]

There's a lot of breath of the wild likes, right? Like where you actually float around an area and like it's a bunch of Zelda type things. Like you just have to. You we all. You know when you see it, what the distinguishing factors is. And if you are fighting a robot with antlers with glowing orange tips, then it's just. It just looks like Horizon.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yep. Yep, that's true. Anyway, that is a wild story. I can't wait to see how that shakes out. You know what doesn't belong in your epic summer plans? Getting burned by your old wireless bill. While you're planning beach trips, barbecues, and three day weekends, your wireless bill should be the last thing holding you back. That's where Mint Mobile comes in. With Mint, you can get the coverage and speed you're used to, but for way less money. And for a limited time, Mint mobile is offering three months of unlimited premium wireless service for 15 bucks a month. So while your friends are sweating over data overages and surprise charges, you'll be chilling, literally and financially. All plans come with high speed data and unlimited talk and text delivered on the nation's largest 5G network. Use your own phone with any Mint Mobile plan and bring your phone number along with all your existing contacts. If I were in the market for a new wireless plan, I'd be Looking into Mint Mobile this year, Skip breaking a sweat and breaking the bank. Get this new customer offer and your three month unlimited wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month at mintmobile.com gamescoop that's mintmobile.com Gamescoop upfront payment of $45 required, equivalent to $15 a month limited time new customer offer for first three months only. Speeds may slow above 35 gigabytes on unlimited plan. Taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details. Planning any exciting trips this year? I bet something you might not be planning is Learning the local language. Well, with Babbel, you only need a few weeks to learn this year, speak like a whole new you with Babbel, the language learning app that gets you talking. Babbel's quick 10 minute lessons, handcrafted by over 200 language experts, get you to begin speaking your new language in three weeks or whatever pace you choose. And because conversing is the key to really understanding each other in new languages, Babbel is designed using practical real world conversations. Babbel's tips and tools are inspired by the real life stuff you actually need when communicating with a focus. Focus on conversation. You'll be ready to talk wherever you go. I took a trip to Mexico last year and used Babel to brush up on my Spanish. Babel is useful for learning an entirely new language, but also for those who, like me, hadn't used a second language in many years and needed some refreshers. Need proof that Babbel gets you talking? Studies from Yale, Michigan State and other leading universities continue to prove Babel works. One study found that using Babel for 15 hours is equivalent to a full semester at College. With over 16 million subscriptions sold, Babel's 14 award winning language courses are backed by a 20 day money back guarantee. This year I want you to learn another language so I'm teaming up with Babbel to gift you 55% off subscriptions, but only for our listeners at babbel.com Gamescoop get up to 55% off at babbel.com GamesCoop spelled B A B B E L.com GamesCoop rules and restrictions may apply. Okay, show and tell time. You may remember a few episodes ago I was showing you my Miyu Flip, which is my retro gaming handheld that's built like a Game Boy Advance. SP was showing this off. Oh yeah, I was just playing a little Dragon's curse on the TurboGrafx 16. So I still like this device a lot. But of course it's got a 4 by 3 screen which is already fairly small. So one handicap of this device is that any like vertical monitored arcade games, like a lot of my beloved Shmups or Nintendo DS games, they get pretty small on this little screen. So not ideal to play them there. But whatever this is, I still like the device and it's great for all the four by three the retro home console. So that's great, no problem there. But imagine my interest when I learned of a brand new retro gaming handheld that is built specifically for vertical monitor arcade games. Shmups and also Nintendo DS games. This is called the, this is the micro, the Magic X. Gosh, I forgot it's got all these things have weird names.

[Mark Medina]

Anyway, the Magic X0, the 00:40 as.

[Damon Hatfield]

I think actually the 00:40. The Magic X040. And you can see I've got Battlegrega up here which is one of the best archeage maps. So yeah, that's it. That's it. That's the device. It has emulators for all the other nes, Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo and all that stuff too. But really it was built with the sort of vertical oriented games in mind.

[Mark Medina]

I might be good on that, Damon. I mean, I guess I don't know because I don't know how powerful it is. You'd have to. It's emulator based. But what I'm getting at is virtual Pinball would also potentially benefit.

[Sam Claiborne]

Right Layout.

[Mark Medina]

Benefit from a horizontal, excuse me, vertically oriented screen like that.

[Justin Davis]

How does it run 4 by 3 again? Does it just add black bars?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, it has like a bezel sideways. Yeah. I mean there is some sort of a landscape mode. It's a touch screen because it also supports Nintendo disc games. But this is how I'll be using it for the most part. I like it.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's good too because when you make a legal backup of something in case your original floppy disk is. Gets hurt, then it has a legal back.

[Damon Hatfield]

You know, I can't take my, my Battle Garriga Arcade cabinet with me everywhere.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, so he's backed it up and he's put it on this.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yep, exactly. That's true. We just, we've talked a lot about how we're. We're in a real golden age for retro gaming handhelds. There's so many options available now and they've become so cheap. This thing is $75 plus $10 shipping from China. So yeah, they've basically become an impulse buy at this point. So I got my two handhelds. So I got my handhelds basis covers There. I have another thing to show everyone here. You may remember a few years ago I showed you the nes Endings Compendium Volume 1 that went through.

[Sam Claiborne]

Volume 2 is out.

[Justin Davis]

Awesome.

[Damon Hatfield]

Volume 2 is out. This guy Ray Esteban is collecting the endings to all the NES games. And the first volume went from 85 to 90. So this volume alone is just games that were released in 1990. Here's little Nemo Dream Master.

[Sam Claiborne]

Wow.

[Mark Medina]

So many.

[Damon Hatfield]

So that shows you how many games were being released by the time the 99.

[Sam Claiborne]

Remember CJ promised to show us the ending of that game and then.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yep.

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, he just couldn't get to it.

[Damon Hatfield]

Well, also.

[Justin Davis]

So what is the book? Is he just like discussing the ending.

[Damon Hatfield]

Or basically just, you know, taking these. They've got really nice screenshots of the ending. This is Ninja Gaiden too.

[Mark Medina]

Well, so Mark, the thing that you need to understand is most NES games. It sounds like I'm making a joke, but I'm not. Is, you know, the sprites were little teeny tiny little things, but then the endings usually would show you something amazing in some full screen piece of art. And it would be like overwhelmingly, the biggest, coolest moment of the game would be the title screen and the ending screen.

[Sam Claiborne]

Mega man walking through the seasons.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

Cool. That's Skater D. You think it took.

[Mark Medina]

Him so long to make the second one? Cuz he had to beat all the games maybe.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, he had to play through hard.

[Sam Claiborne]

Ain't nobody ever beat Silver Surfer.

[Mark Medina]

I was going to say nobody's ever beaten Silver Surfer.

[Damon Hatfield]

So the first one was published by Limited Run and this one is published by Nintendo Force, which is an actual physical magazine, an unofficial replacement for Nintendo Power. That's run by Lucas Thomas, a former frequent contributor to ign. If you look up almost any virtual console game, he probably wrote the review for that. And now he's doing Nintendo Force and now he's getting into publishing other people's work and they published this one and he was very kind enough to send this to me. This is deja vu.

[Mark Medina]

We. I'm a Nintendo Force Patreon member. So I get the physical magazine every other month. And it was mine for a long time. And now my daughter has declared that it's just hers now. It's like, you know, and then she reads it and like she knows I work at ign, but she's like, dad, did you know that they're like making a new Splatoon game? I'm like, yes, yes. Like you're not gonna like, I'm Happy to discuss this with you. I'm glad we have Scoop, but. Yeah. You're not gonna share anything with me that I don't know.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. What's cool is that he rates the ending for each game out of five stars. So example, for example, Double Dragon 2 has four and a half stars rating.

[Mark Medina]

Wow.

[Damon Hatfield]

And then he goes through any differences there are between the North American and Japanese releases too.

[Mark Medina]

That's good.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's full of just like lots of really fun little fun facts and details and everything. So it's an awesome little package. This is the special edition. It comes with. Or like the collector's edition, it comes with some other goodies. These little, little cards that have little pro tips on the back. So for they all have original artwork on the front. This is Super Mario Brothers 3. Then there's a pro tip for how to beat Bowser at the end of the game there.

[Sam Claiborne]

You just gotta move out of the way.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, get out of the way. This is the challenge checklist, which I have to admit, I don't really understand what it's for. This is every game that's covered. And each game has a box for a D pad, a dollar sign and then a check mark. I don't know what all those challenges are supposed to mean.

[Mark Medina]

I think the D pad has played it, the dollar signs owned it. And then the last one is Eat it.

[Damon Hatfield]

Oh, okay. Well, you are a wiser man than I. There's a nice little poster that it comes with featuring some of the original art for the games here. Oh, yeah, I like that. Double Dragon 2 right up there in the corner.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, that's great.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Art is great.

[Damon Hatfield]

And this would be Castlevania iii.

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, it's a little bit of an amalgamation because that's also the Final Fantasy 1 art.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, well, that's not in this. I don't think that's in this volume.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, that's 1990 in the U.S. it was.

[Damon Hatfield]

It also comes with a bookmark. Anyway, it's available from Nintendo Forces official website. It's also available on Amazon. But not just not the collector's edition. You are correct, Sam. Page 130.

[Sam Claiborne]

I don't mess around.

[Damon Hatfield]

Final Fantasy.

[Mark Medina]

Yep. The game has a great ending.

[Damon Hatfield]

The end.

[Mark Medina]

It also has probably the latest title screen drop. It's up there with Wolfenstein or whatever crossing that bridge. Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

I also just love like this is Formula One. Built to win. I would never play this game, but here I go. Now I know what the ending looks like.

[Sam Claiborne]

So I have Bonanza has a late title screen surprisingly, yeah, you're right, it.

[Mark Medina]

Does have a very late title. Screen SCREEN.

[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?

[Damon Hatfield]

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[Sam Claiborne]

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[Justin Davis]

Melt away your dairy free expectations with so delicious Dairy Free frozen desserts.

[Damon Hatfield]

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[Sam Claiborne]

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[Damon Hatfield]

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[Damon Hatfield]

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[Sam Claiborne]

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[Damon Hatfield]

Visit sodeliciousdairyfree.com I forgot to tell you something about my Magic X040. So I was looking for a random button like pick a game at random for me because my old retropie used to do that, but these handhelds don't have that for some reason. So I asked my good friend chatgpt who I just talked to now because Google search is completely useless, so I just use ChatGPT to search the Internet. So ask is there, is it possible, is there a way on Magic 0X or Magic X040 to pick a game at random? And this is what ChatGPT said to me is that no, unfortunately it doesn't include that with the out of the box firmware which is called Dawn. So chatgpt had a couple.

[Justin Davis]

It's a hard thing to say.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, couple suggestions. First it offered to walk me through setting up a more custom firmware and then it said or you can close your eyes and hold down on the D pad and when you open your.

[Justin Davis]

Eyes, the robots are smart.

[Damon Hatfield]

It's so stupid. It sounds like a human. Like how can a robot be that stupid?

[Mark Medina]

Well, because it just plagiarized that answer from human sources.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, exactly. Also because how many EM dashes were in that?

[Damon Hatfield]

It's just, it's just, it's so desperate to like help, be helpful and please you. ChatGPT is like you could ask it what's five plus five? And it'd be like, good question.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, it's a Little. It's a little bit, it's a little bit thirsty. It's like it's. Simmer down.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, of. What if I don't have fingers?

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay, let's check in with the listeners.

[Mark Medina]

Hey listeners, listeners.

[Damon Hatfield]

Remember you can always reach us at the email address game scoopgn.com Just like Jake from Memphis, Tennessee did. Jake says, been listening for years. Absolutely love the team and scoop nation. Question. Do you guys think we will ever see major first party PlayStation games on the Xbox platform in the future? It seems Xbox has completely abandoned the exclusive first party side of their business which as an Xbox adopter and fan, I'm completely okay with more games for more people. However, because I am financially locked into the Xbox platform and ecosystem, I have never been able to play a lot of games. I would love to play like Spider Man, God of war, Horizon Ghost, etc. Is there any hope for me, an Xbox lifer, that I can one day play Spider Man 2 or the upcoming Wolverine on my Xbox?

[Sam Claiborne]

Scoop.

[Damon Hatfield]

Well, Jake.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, there's a scoop, right.

[Damon Hatfield]

Where was Mark going?

[Justin Davis]

I don't know. Are you referring to the job listing?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yep, yep. I was just gonna say.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I. The job listing that was amended to say smaller titles, but.

[Damon Hatfield]

Oh, I don't know, I just looked at it earlier. I didn't, I didn't see that it had been amended. Sony. Sony has a job listing right now for a senior director, multi platform and account management. And the job description reads you will play a critical leadership role in shaping and executing the global commercial strategy for PlayStation Studios software titles across all digital platforms beyond PlayStation hardware, including Steam, Epic Games Store, Xbox, Nintendo and Mobile. And that this person will be leading a high performing team focused on multi platform expansion and platform partner management.

[Justin Davis]

I think that that can mean a lot of things. For one, I do think it can. They've already said that live service will expand, right. Which. Which Helldivers 2 is now coming to Xbox next month and so I, I think it'll continue to be live service. I also think it could be smaller titles. I don't think you'll see AAA. But also that could be referring to Xbox on PC. Which is.

[Mark Medina]

Which is PlayStation on PC or.

[Justin Davis]

Well, I, when they specifically say Xbox, they could be meaning the Xbox app that's on PC that you can already launch PlayStation games from.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, but hold on. It says switch to.

[Justin Davis]

Sure. Which, which like Horizons on Switch. I don't know. I. Yeah, a lot of people took that to mean that they're going full third party and I, I guess I Just don't really see it yet. I don't.

[Mark Medina]

They, they list everything.

[Damon Hatfield]

They're hiring someone for this role.

[Mark Medina]

It's, it's going to be that person's job to say, no, we're not putting these games on Xbox. Yeah, job complete, like. But no, a game X, Y and Z on Steam.

[Justin Davis]

I just, I can't. So like, like the, just to be clear, I don't, I don't actually care if, if Spider Man's playable on Xbox. I'm just trying to like think if Sony. So Xbox has always been kind of tied with PC, right? Because Windows. Okay, so if Sony goes full third party, they're really going to kill their own hardware market, which is where they make most of their money. Xbox didn't care to kill their hardware market because they also own, you know, the biggest PC platform, which is, which is Windows. But for PlayStation, I just don't see the full and I don't see the incentive on them porting something like Spider man over to a platform that's only sold 30 million units. Like, not to say that that's not very many, but like when you, when you look at like something like Astrobot that only sold, you know, 2 million copies on a platform that has 70 million units, like, what hope did they actually have to. They would be diminishing their own platform presence to get what could end up being 300,000 copies of Spider man sold? Because it's like they're not going to go on game pass. So Xbox peoples would have to. Xbox players would have to buy them. And I don't know, it just to me doesn't make logistical sense for them to do it. But I'm not a businessman.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, no, the answer is no. Those games are not going to be playable on Xbox. If, if I forget that his name, who wrote in, like, what's possible is more and more of these games are going to come to Steam. I mean, Spider Man 2 is on Steam, Horizon's on Steam, and then Steam is probably going to have some native baked in to the platform, like streaming option down the line, I would say. I would guess. So that's going to be your best hope. Like if you don't want to buy into the PlayStation ecosystem and you want to have access to single player games, like the game streaming is going to get better and better and there might be an option that doesn't force you to buy a $500 PlayStation.

[Justin Davis]

Right now they've integrated the Xbox app with other apps, right. So through the Xbox app you can launch Spider man, you can't buy it through the Xbox app because you're getting the Steam version. So what you're doing is you're. Is you're launching the Steam version. It's not an 8. So the new upcoming handheld Rogue Ally X is technically going to be. Which is. Has the Xbox button is technically going to be able to play any PlayStation game that's on Steam. But you're not playing an Xbox version. You're playing the Steam PC version. Right. But if the Rog Ally X is where Xbox is heading with their console market, meaning that is basically just a pre built PC with a Xbox HUD that starts up when you, when you start it, then sure, then yeah, you'll absolutely be playing PlayStation games on your Xbox because you'll be playing them through Steam. But like there's no world where you're playing Wolverine or, or anything like that. Day one. Probably not even year one.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, yeah, no, and I don't think anyone that's.

[Justin Davis]

That's. Yeah.

[Damon Hatfield]

You know, maybe that maybe they brought Ghost of Tsushima over to Xbox. That's relatively easy for them to do and they sell another 2 to 3 million copies. I could see them wanting to do that.

[Sam Claiborne]

Maybe they'll do a tradesies.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, they could trade them. Yeah, give you Trade for what?

[Justin Davis]

Xbox is already giving them everything.

[Mark Medina]

That's true. That's a good point. But I wish they were. I like the idea, like just a child's understanding of how the video game industry works where like the two presidents get in the room at E3 and they're like, you give us Master Chief and we'll give you Crash Bandicoot. He's like, throw in Spyro and you got yourself a deal.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I don't know. I don't know.

[Damon Hatfield]

Definitely. The times are changing.

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, so my solution to anybody who's stuck in the Xbox ecosystem is to wait a few years and then those systems, the system that you want to play will just be free on the street.

[Damon Hatfield]

The what now?

[Sam Claiborne]

Because right now I just see PlayStation 4 is free in boxes on the street already. So you just have to wait.

[Damon Hatfield]

Interesting.

[Sam Claiborne]

I remember 15 years ago I saw an Xbox 360 on the street. I was like, oh my gosh, I can't believe this has already happened. And then now, you know, there's PS3s and PS4s on the street.

[Damon Hatfield]

So that 360 probably.

[Justin Davis]

It's also tough.

[Damon Hatfield]

The Red Lab desk.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, it probably like develop development costs are, are just so high now that anything is like precedented. I Guess you would say at this point, obviously, like, Gears of War is coming to. Is coming to PlayStation next month. And so it's like, if PlayStation is like, you know, looks back at something like Ghost of Tsushima and goes, you know what? We still. We, you know, to fund the next game, we do need to make another. Whatever. Like. Like, who knows? Who knows what's gonna happen?

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay, that brings us to video game 20 questions. Our suggestion this week comes from Liam, who says, hi, my name is Liam from Salisbury, Maryland. I have a suggestion for 20 questions. I used to watch my dad play this game, and with years of practice, I am a solid player in this game. And with that, let the questioning begin.

[Mark Medina]

It's a good hint.

[Sam Claiborne]

I bet it's a good game.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, we know it's a dad game.

[Sam Claiborne]

And you can play for a while and get good at it. Unlike, say Yo Know it, which nobody could ever get good at.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Was this game an arcade game at some point?

[Damon Hatfield]

No.

[Sam Claiborne]

Swinging a miss.

[Justin Davis]

Is this game, like, competitive at all?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes.

[Justin Davis]

Okay. Solid player. It's Fortnite.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. Halo. Halo 2. Is this. Is this a multiplayer game?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is it a violent game?

[Damon Hatfield]

No.

[Justin Davis]

All right, fall, guys.

[Sam Claiborne]

Was this ever available to play on a phone?

[Damon Hatfield]

I can check. Don't know about that.

[Justin Davis]

So sorry. The hint was that her dad introduced her to the game and now she's a solid player at it.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes. I think Liam's probably a guy, but, yeah.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, sorry. I, like, spaced out for a second there. I'm good. Okay.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay, I can answer. I can answer the phone question if you'd like. What was it? Has it ever been playable on a phone? No. And that's five.

[Mark Medina]

It's not Angry Birds or Flappy Bird. Or Fortnite.

[Justin Davis]

Or Fortnite.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

Or Roblox.

[Sam Claiborne]

Trying to eliminate Fortnite. So that's good.

[Justin Davis]

Okay, let's see.

[Mark Medina]

Not violent, competitive, has multiplayer. Is it helpful to know if it also has single player, or do we just assume?

[Justin Davis]

Oh, yeah, that could be good. Yeah. Like, can't. Can you play this offline by yourself?

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. Does this game have, like, a single player offline mode?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is this in the sports, racing or puzzle genres? Yeah, I think it's a sports game. It could be racing.

[Justin Davis]

Could be racing.

[Sam Claiborne]

Maybe puzzle.

[Damon Hatfield]

Let's see.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is this a sports game?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. Yes.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, but racing is a sport.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's okay.

[Justin Davis]

Okay, so it's not a puzzle game. Okay.

[Mark Medina]

Could be Gran Turismo.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

That has a pretty robust single player offline mode.

[Sam Claiborne]

Does this involve a ball? Yes. Sports balls.

[Mark Medina]

Oh, I was thinking super monkey ball. Oh, that your thing makes way more sense.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is the ball spherical?

[Mark Medina]

Hold on, wait, don't answer that.

[Sam Claiborne]

Have you guys ever heard of American football?

[Mark Medina]

Okay, that's true. That's a good point.

[Damon Hatfield]

Okay, okay.

[Sam Claiborne]

We're not a sports group here. Not a sports group.

[Mark Medina]

I was. I was not with you for a second. I'm like a Frisbee is clearly not a ball, but we don't need to picking up what you're putting down. I think it's Rocket League.

[Justin Davis]

I was gonna say, I want to know if there's like anything.

[Mark Medina]

It's got to be something that's been around long enough that a kid, you know, has practiced and gotten better at it.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is this a fantastical sports game?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, that's 10.

[Justin Davis]

Okay.

[Mark Medina]

I think. Yeah, I think it's Rocket League. I think so.

[Justin Davis]

It probably is.

[Sam Claiborne]

Did you drive a car in this?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes.

[Justin Davis]

Does the car hit a ball? We already established the balls in a soccer like fashion.

[Sam Claiborne]

It has balls and cars. That's all we need to know. We got this.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, that's probably true.

[Sam Claiborne]

Go for it.

[Justin Davis]

Probably it. I'm not asking.

[Mark Medina]

Is it Rocket League?

[Damon Hatfield]

It is Rocket League. Yes. Yeah, I just thought that was an interesting pick because it's 10 years old. It was out in 2015 and Liam says used to watch his dad play and then he had years of practice. So maybe, maybe Liam is on the younger side.

[Justin Davis]

I remember we have one of the first flags in that game. I remember being happy.

[Mark Medina]

I remember that now too. I forgot about that. I have a nephew that is in town. There's some family in town. And he's 21 or 20. And I'm like, oh, do you play any video games? And you know, he said, no, he's not a gamer at all. But he plays Rocket League every night. That's. That's it. Like, that's his. That's his game? Yeah, that's his.

[Damon Hatfield]

But not.

[Mark Medina]

And I told him, I'm like, did you know that there's a new Rocket League game where you're running around on foot? That's. That's Rematch.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, rematch. Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

He was not aware.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah. Fun fact. You know, this is actually a sequel to a game.

[Justin Davis]

I did know. Yep.

[Damon Hatfield]

I didn't know.

[Mark Medina]

Super battle, whatever.

[Damon Hatfield]

Supersonic, acrobatic, rocket powered battle cars. It was out in 2008. We reviewed it, gave it a 6.5.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, yep.

[Mark Medina]

I remember that now. What a rebrand, right?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

And I'm sure everybody was like really mad, like, oh, this is so generic, doesn't have any personality and it's like, well, if you want your game to be a decade long platform. Yeah, that's what you got to do.

[Damon Hatfield]

Don't hear as much about Rocket League these days, but I'm sure it's. I'm sure it's still popular.

[Mark Medina]

I mean, it's owned by. By Epic now, right?

[Damon Hatfield]

It's Epic.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, I think so. So isn't it just like in Fortnite? I don't even know.

[Damon Hatfield]

I mean, you're probably right since everything is just in Fortnite anyway.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

Are we in Fortnite?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yes.

[Mark Medina]

Is this is our we does is game scoop all just in Fortnite now?

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

Yep, that's fine.

[Sam Claiborne]

Dead Rising in Fortnite.

[Damon Hatfield]

Well, nice job. Thank you, Liam for the suggestion. Viewers, listeners, if you have your own suggestions for video game 20 questions.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, I have a suggestion. They should port this to mobile.

[Damon Hatfield]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. They probably should figure that out. I was surprised to see that is not available on mobile. It's available on everything else. Email your suggestions to me at the email address game [e-mail] and that is all the scoops that we have for you this week. Let me, let me give. Give you a spiel before I say goodbye to everyone. Now is a great time to score some incredible games through Humble live now through August 5th. Grab Warhammer 40K, Rogue Trader, Daemon X Machina, Death Store, Cat Quest 3 and more. Whether you're building your backlog or discovering something new, it's the perfect time to pick up these fan favorites. Plus, every purchase supports a good cause. This month, your Humble Choice membership supports Covenant House. Get a curated mix of PC games every month, all for just $14.99. Skip a month or cancel anytime and know that 5% of your membership goes to charity. And a special bonus, Humble is actually running a deal on this bundle. So use code July 25th to get this month's selection for only 10 bucks. Thank you, Sam. Thank you, Justin. Thank you, Mark. Thank you to Jobert. Everyone working behind the scenes to make this episode possible. It's good to be back. My name is Damon. This is IGN gamescoop. And we're out. Okay, Gilbert, we can switch back. Okay, Banana.

[Sam Claiborne]

There's one of those, like, Pauline things where she just is like. Yeah, you know, like when you're going through a doorway, there's one where she just, like, legit. It's like the voice actor is just chuckling because something goofy happens.

[Justin Davis]

It's pretty funny.

[Mark Medina]

She's like.

[Damon Hatfield]

This episode of Game Soup was produced by myself, Damon Hatfield and Gilbert Adienza. Technical direction is handled by Gilbert Atienza. Technical production is by Marianne Franzen and Amir Akib. Audio engineering is by Amir Akib and post production editing is by yours truly, Damon Hatfield. Graphic design is by Nicole Kagempen. Gamescoop is an IGN production and part of the Geek Media Network Jr.

[Justin Davis]

Yes sir, CineFix Top 100 is back.

[Mark Medina]

It's time to pick up our quest to watch 100 of the greatest movies of all time. If that sounds good to you. No.

[Damon Hatfield]

Good.

[Justin Davis]

Fine.

[Damon Hatfield]

Good.

[Mark Medina]

And Season four is taking some time to appreciate family. This season we're diving into movies about all the crazy things we do for.

[Justin Davis]

Family, about reconnecting, about fighting, and about.

[Mark Medina]

Finding family in unexpected places. I am your father and what better place to start than with a movie.

[Justin Davis]

That does a little bit of all.

[Mark Medina]

Of that, starring our favorite archaeologist who.

[Justin Davis]

Named himself after the family dog. You are named after the dog.

[Mark Medina]

And stay in touch with your Cinefix family every Sunday for more of our biggest list yet.

[Sam Claiborne]

See you little brother.

[Damon Hatfield]

Not a worry in the world.

[Mark Medina]

Tune into the CineFix Top 100, part of the Geek Media Network on YouTube, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.

[Justin Davis]

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 NVC Ignition Weekly Nintendo show hosted by me, Logan Plant. I'm thrilled to lead the show into the next generation alongside an amazing panel of Nintendo experts Rebecca Valentine, Jada Griffin and Seth Macy. NVC 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 IGN.com and YouTube. Join us and get the thing this Friday on Nintendo Voice Chat. Hey, listen.