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Game Scoop! 838: Our Most Anticipated Games of 2026
01:27:44
Our most-anticipated games of 2026. Wolverine, Slay the Spire 2, 007 First Light, and more
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- [00:00]
Justin Davis
Foreign.
- [00:06]
Damon Hadfield
What's up, Everybody? Welcome to IGN Gamescoop, the final IGN Gamescoop of 2025. I'm your host, Damon Hadfield, and joining me this week are Sam Claiborne.
- [00:13]
Sam Claiborne
It cannot still be 2025.
- [00:15]
Damon Hadfield
It is still 2025.
- [00:17]
Sam Claiborne
That sounds impossible.
- [00:18]
Justin Davis
Yeah, I've. What was the Gandalf quote? I've fallen into darkness out of all space and time, and I have no idea what we're doing with lots of cookies.
- [00:27]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah, yeah, that is.
- [00:28]
Justin Davis
But I'm here.
- [00:29]
Damon Hadfield
That is also this week in between Christmas. Like, my kids are off school. The days are so long. It's raining. We can't go outside anywhere.
- [00:37]
Sam Claiborne
I know that's been the big punk here in California. It's like, oh, bragging about nice weather and coming. But no, we're all stuck at home.
- [00:43]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah. Not at Christmas. But we still do have a good show for you today. A great show for you this week. We're going to look at some of our most anticipated games of 2026. I've got a really good list of games, so I've got my most anticipated games also just some curiosities that are coming next year. And then there are a bunch of games that I was like, oh, yeah, I forgot that that's still on the way.
- [01:01]
Sam Claiborne
Those are the ones I'm most excited for.
- [01:02]
Damon Hadfield
I've got a coup extracurricular activities to share. But first, let's share what we've been playing over this break. I mentioned on the last episode that King was getting Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 and I was excited to play Galaxy 2 because I never had before and I did. And I don't know, I'm not super impressed.
- [01:18]
Sam Claiborne
It seems. What?
- [01:19]
Damon Hadfield
I mean, it's not. It doesn't. It doesn't like, immediately grab me. Like, it's not bad at all. But it feels very much like. Like Mario Galaxy 1. And it is annoying to me that I don't have control of the camera. It's still the janky.
- [01:30]
Sam Claiborne
How bad are those Yoshi controls?
- [01:32]
Damon Hadfield
That's the other thing. It's got the janky N64 camera. And then the Yoshi could. Can I not just press a button to use my tongue?
- [01:39]
Sam Claiborne
Like, what? You cannot. You got to point the star.
- [01:41]
Damon Hadfield
It's so stupid. Or the, you know. But the game itself, it's very. It's very fun. But it being so highly regarded and being high on our top 25 games of the last 25 years list is like, I don't know.
- [01:53]
Sam Claiborne
I just. I just didn't grab Me that way too. And I really do think it's not holding up well because of the things you just mentioned, but it is. It's a 250 level, amazing 3D Mario game.
- [02:02]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah, it is.
- [02:03]
Sam Claiborne
For what it's worth, which is a lot.
- [02:06]
Damon Hadfield
It is very clever. I don't know. Justin, do you have any. You want to say anything in defense of Mario Galaxy 2?
- [02:11]
Justin Davis
I mean, like, not without completely derailing us. I mean, I think Mario Galaxy 2 is arguably the greatest 3D Mario game and greatest 3D platformer ever made of. Every single level is just a delight of imagination with no idea repeated twice. It's so tight and so perfect and like, I don't know, I don't have.
- [02:33]
Sam Claiborne
But they change themselves to the Wii and it's. And they've never reversed that. And the Wii problems are much worse now. The same thing with the Metroid prime trilogy. Like, I like those. I don't like playing on the Wii controller.
- [02:44]
Justin Davis
Now, I will say, I have not played Mario Galaxy 2 myself since it was on the Wii. So I don't have, like a modern 2020. What year is it? 2025 take on this game. I do. I did buy it. So, you know, it is remarkable that.
- [02:59]
Sam Claiborne
You can play with the switch controllers, though. Like, that is really cool. You know, like, you don't need a sensor bar somehow.
- [03:05]
Damon Hadfield
No. Yeah. And I'm playing with a pro controller, but that's why the Yoshi stuff was really annoying.
- [03:10]
Sam Claiborne
Oh. I do recommend separating the joystick joy cons and playing like you're playing it.
- [03:15]
Damon Hadfield
I'll give that a try, but still not really how I want to play a video game.
- [03:18]
Sam Claiborne
I know, I know. But it's required. And Yoshi's a huge part of this game, and eating stuff with Yoshi is a huge part of it. Like, pulling yourself between stars, like, that type of activity is just.
- [03:28]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah, yeah, it's. It's fun. But I was expecting more. And Mario Odyssey is, in my opinion, the best, you know, 3D platformer ever.
- [03:35]
Sam Claiborne
It's surprising when you play Mario Odyssey how, like, we talked about it as revolutionary and different. It's like it's breath of the wild moment, but it's also back to basics because it drops the Wii controller stuff. And the back to basics is really important.
- [03:46]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah. But then I've just been bouncing around playing really random stuff. I'm playing something old for another episode of Is It still fun? Just like SA. I've been thinking about playing Portal or Portal 2 with Kingo, and the collection was 5 bucks for the switch. So I downloaded that and I just restarted playing Portal. Playing through that amazing game. God, that game is so brilliant. And then I'm looking forward to getting to Portal 2 with Kingo. They just updated Divinity Original Sin 2 for modern consoles, and it's sort of like a polished up. I don't know if it's a full remaster, but anyway, fired that up again. And I was enjoying that. But the presentation level is. It's not at the level that Baldur's Gate 3 is that. So it just kind of got me started thinking, well, maybe I should just play Baldur's Gate 3 instead. So, yeah, maybe I'll do back to that. That's kind of just how what I've been jumping around and playing. Sam, what about you?
- [04:36]
Sam Claiborne
Well, I got to plug in all those weird Famicom games I brought home. I did indeed fight Darth Vader as a scorpion, which was very amusing. I thought that was really funny. And just playing through Zelda and that Famicom cartridge is cool. There's a few other ones that were fun, but so I've been delving into that, doing the old game that we're playing, and then I just haven't really had a chance to talk about Metroid. And I don't want that game to end right now. Kind of just playing and getting 100% of everything, trying not to use guides, doing it that way. I've got to the point where you can reveal the secrets that you haven't found yet, which I think really shouldn't be in a Metroid game. But I'm there now. And so that's kind of interesting. I think it has this, like, interesting. It's so hard to describe what I like about it and what I don't like about it, because I don't. I really don't. There's nothing I don't like about it. Like, I like everything about it. I think there's some moments where it's like. I think it's weird that Samus doesn't talk. I mentioned that before. That feels outdated now. The desert and the motorcycle, everything we saw early, like, is exactly what you think it is. It's like kind of dull and it looks stupid. It's not cool, you know, like, it's just kind of silly. But none of that hurts the game, which is like, you're doing that and it's kind of fun to like, slide through a bunch of crystals and go to the next level and then get start backtracking and like all the all the stuff that's in my brain of like the list of things to do is like the gameplay loop for Metroid for me. And I love it. Like I love plugging in and playing that. The game looks incredible. It feels, you know, really good when you're running around some of the, you know, what is missing is like what is a good and bad thing that there's, it feels like 25% of the game is missing. Right. There's like, there's not a level of complexity to a bunch of new enemies that you encounter at the end of the game. You just kind of fight harder ones and kind of appear more and more. It's kind of silly and retro. There's also like, like, you know, you understand now what, what everything you're ever going to do in a Metroid game is you're going to get, you know, a whip or what is it called? A grappling hook. But like this game, it's a psychic grappling hook. But, but who cares? It's a grappling hook. Like it does one other new thing, you know. So there's like stuff like that where it's like, it feels a little bit retready and tired stuff but like I, I, I'm enjoying like every minute with this game. I think it's really good and I think it's kind of sad that it's probably not wasn't invested in like it could have been.
- [06:53]
Justin Davis
I don't know.
- [06:53]
Sam Claiborne
There's just so much. Why do you say that?
- [06:55]
Damon Hadfield
Because it still, it looks incredible, right?
- [06:56]
Sam Claiborne
It does look incredible. Like I think they spent all this time doing graphics and doing all this and then they just had to say like listen, you already developed half of a game and we had to put it, you know, start over. Like you need to cut this game somewhere. And I think that usually benefits games when they have like an edit. And I feel like this does a little bit benefit from it being a curt tailed, not extended out Metroid game but the padding of the desert level. I'm very conflicted about this game but I do love it and I do think it's really good and I'm impressed with how the Switch 2 handles it.
- [07:29]
Damon Hadfield
Cool.
- [07:30]
Justin Davis
Yeah, Metroid's been my biggest holiday break game as well.
- [07:33]
Sam Claiborne
Oh, nice.
- [07:34]
Justin Davis
I didn't realize you played as far as you Sam. I'm still relatively early on because we were out of town for a few days and yada yada, you know, we gave it an 8 like my personal score as of now, however many, you know, Five hours in would probably be closer to a seven. Like, it's hard. You never sound like you hate a game more than a game you think is 7 out of 10 and you're talking about it on a podcast. Like, I think it's good. I think it's the lowest score game.
- [08:00]
Sam Claiborne
Scoop'S ever given out.
- [08:02]
Justin Davis
That's true. We've never gone lower than a seven, so I don't know how much more to have to add. Like, I'm glad the franchise is back. I guess I have one thing to add, which is I think the music is incredible.
- [08:12]
Sam Claiborne
It's really good. Although, Justin, do you get annoyed now with all the duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, like, every time that happens or every time there's, like, you know, doo, doo doo doo doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo. I'm like, it doesn't work anymore. Like, we can move on from this.
- [08:27]
Justin Davis
I mean, I don't know. That does something to my brain in the same way that kind of, like, Zelda jingle does that. Like, it's not. It's not rational, but it does something to me emotionally that, like, no, I still get a kick out of it every single time. And I, like, I've actually come to kind of like the. I don't know what you would describe this control scheme, but the kind of, like, you know, I make minor adjustments by, like, tilting the controls as I kind of become very natural feeling to me now. So, you know, I like the game. I don't love the game. You know, maybe my opinion will change when I get into the back half. As of right now, it wouldn't make it onto my Game of the Year shortlist, but I'm glad to have played it. It feels like time well spent.
- [09:09]
Sam Claiborne
Yeah, I really do. Like, once you start going back and forth between the areas and doing all that, like, two things happen. One is that you're like, okay, I'm backtracking because they're telling me to backtrack and showing me I have to backtrack. And backtracking is kind of artificial, but also every area is cool after that jungle area. And it's very basic stuff. There's a fire area, there's an ice area, there's a mine area. But it's done so well. And Nintendo has just gotten, you know, like, I still look so good on the Switch 2 that it's actually shocking to me. I'm amazed. And then Volt Forge, people love that level. Like, it's a. It's a really Cool, unusual sci fi location. It's like a factory that's like run by lightning in the clouds. It's just cool. Like they did a good job with that. But what's the, what's the point of that? It's making a purple motorcycle for you, you know, like it's very, it's very goofy.
- [10:00]
Damon Hadfield
Are there, are there cool boss fights?
- [10:02]
Sam Claiborne
Yeah, they're fine, but I think the game is front heavy with them.
- [10:08]
Justin Davis
You know, the game is the game. The game is a very video game ass video game. I mean, you kind of already touched on this. Like the boss fights feel exactly like you know nothing about the boss fights and you know exactly what they're all going to be with, you know, their weak points and their patterns and like, like it's a theme park video game, which is fine, that's great. But it's, it's not really trying to be anything other than that.
- [10:29]
Sam Claiborne
Yeah, it feels like if this was like they're going to be like the start of a trilog and they rebooted the trilogy and they got everything right in this game and you're like, I can't wait to see where this is going. But that ain't happening. You know, like that's what's so disappointing about this. It feels like a, like a, you know, a wrap on the series because it just seems like it's going to be so unsuccessful and people are so wavery on it that Nintendo is going to like never want a green light. I know I keep bringing this up, but like, that's my fear is that like J.J. abrams got like a new start for a new trilogy and he knew that going in, you know, and he gets to make a movie and then everybody gets excited about the sequels and no matter what, we knew they were going to get made with this. Just, it feels like, it almost felt like this make or break thing for this type of Metroid game. And the good news is that somebody's going to make an amazing independent game that's just like Metroid prime sometime and it's going to be really, really cool and you know, do its own thing because I think it's such a good pattern for a game. But boy, I don't need to trot Samus out anymore in first person and roll rounded balls and discover Metroids were the source of everything. Which I'm not saying that that's happened. That game. There are actually very few Metroids in it.
- [11:28]
Justin Davis
That's what they'll have J.J. abrams make the movie, don't worry. Yeah.
- [11:38]
Damon Hadfield
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- [13:10]
Sam Claiborne
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- [13:29]
Damon Hadfield
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- [14:14]
Sam Claiborne
New Horizon, New Horizons.
- [14:16]
Damon Hadfield
Animal Crossing. New horizons for Switch 2.
- [14:21]
Justin Davis
Maybe. I mean, we. My. My daughters discovered Animal Crossing and so. And then that's when I really discovered. I kind of poo pooed the complaint about, like, you can only have one save and one island per Switch, even if it's a completely different profile. Like, they can't have their own island. They have to move into my island. And now it's actually kind of messed up, that game for us. Like, it's my island and there's limits on, like, what they can do because.
- [14:49]
Sam Claiborne
I know other parents that experience this. It's. It's a big mess.
- [14:52]
Justin Davis
Yeah. And so, you know, on the one hand, like, yeah, it's a nice opportunity to recontextualize. Like, I'm excited to go back to Animal Crossing. I want to get back into it, but it's just left a little bit of a sour taste in our household's mouth.
- [15:05]
Sam Claiborne
Yeah. The poll for Animal Crossing for me is getting every bug and Fish and then getting my house to where I want it and then showing it to a bunch of people. Those things are not really possible anymore. I did all that. So the draw for me has to be, you know, at least social. So it's like if my nephews are playing or something, I'll get drawn back into it. No matter what, though, I'm covering this for work, so I'm already, like, steeped in it. I did all of our coverage of the. And I'll get to the thing I'm excited about in a second. I did all of our coverage of the kind of, you know, making sure that we're ready to update our strategy guys and stuff for this. So in doing that, I got pretty Excited about the Nintendo set of stuff. I actually did the pages for that. And I'm going to do that. Like, I'm going to get in there and mine. All that, that, that cool Nintendo stuff and get it all and make a Nintendo room. Like, that's a goal. So I can set that goal and then be like, that's what I want to do with this. And it's cool. Like, remember, they're adding the ability. You know, it's a little silly, but to play NES games. But they also have a bunch of like. But to play the NES games, you're just playing the ones you can already because you have to subscribe to the service. And so that's not, that's not the draw. The draw is that, like, they put, you know, the toys back in and the before Mario type stuff and whatever they put in for Zelda. Seems cool. I'm like, I don't know. I'm into that.
- [16:21]
Justin Davis
I'm looking forward to. Well, you know, I don't know. I just. I don't think I played the game for a full year before, so I don't think I did much in winter. And so I think that people think about Animal Crossing in a lot of these games as they have to be forever games. Like, it's just a game that you check in on. But it's like, if my experience with this DLC is like, I'm back in it for two weeks and I get to make a snowman and get to do some of the snow stuff and some of the winter holidays and I dip back out. Like, that's a completely legitimate way to enjoy this update in this dlc. So it's like, that'll probably be the way. Like, I don't think I caught any of the winter fisher bugs. So, you know, I have some stuff that I can work on.
- [17:01]
Damon Hadfield
Cool. All right. Well, another returning old game on February 5th is Dragon Quest VII Reimagined, which is interesting. I never played the original, but it came out at a weird time because I think it was a very old school JRPG that came out around the same time that Final Fantasy X did.
- [17:16]
Sam Claiborne
Yeah. And then the big leap came with Dragon Quest viii. So that one felt really old school.
- [17:21]
Damon Hadfield
You know, Square Enix has been doing really cool stuff with sort of reviving their older games like Final Fantasy Tactics last year and Dragon Quest. What they did, they started with three, and now they've got one and two coming. So I'm interested, but I don't know. We have a preview of this on ign. And our previewer is obviously a huge Dragon Quest fan and knows this original game inside and out and. But they're using a different art style. It's kind of like a diorama kind of puppet art style with these things. And the preview wasn't completely sold on that.
- [17:50]
Sam Claiborne
But I think they look goofy too. They look like. What's it called? Thunderbirds? Marionettes.
- [17:55]
Justin Davis
Yes.
- [17:56]
Damon Hadfield
Yes. Or like the World Police Team America. World Police Team America.
- [18:01]
Sam Claiborne
Right. That's not the intention. It's just. And the animations look really good and stuff. It's just they have these big old noggins with little features and they look like Mr. Potato Head. It's just weird.
- [18:09]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah.
- [18:10]
Justin Davis
Yeah. I mean, I played. I played Dragon Quest 7. You know, I don't know how long the game is. Dozens of hours. Yeah. And like. But I've completely. Memory. Hold it. Like, I couldn't tell you one thing about it. Like eight, you know, that was the one where the franchise really.
- [18:24]
Sam Claiborne
I like that.
- [18:25]
Justin Davis
You know, sort of came. Came back into. Back into the sort of mainstream popularity. So, you know, why isn't there a.
- [18:33]
Sam Claiborne
New Dragon Quest game coming out?
- [18:35]
Damon Hadfield
There is. There's 12.
- [18:36]
Sam Claiborne
Where is.
- [18:37]
Damon Hadfield
Long Time Coming.
- [18:38]
Sam Claiborne
Yeah. Seriously.
- [18:40]
Damon Hadfield
I don't think we've gotten an update on it in a while.
- [18:42]
Justin Davis
Yeah.
- [18:43]
Sam Claiborne
It's so hard for me now because there's new JRPGs coming out like Octopath Zero and then there's these remakes of these Dragon Quest games and Live Alive and there's The Final Fantasy 1 through 6 stuff that came out. It's like, I want to play all that stuff. That'd be great. But this is an 80 an hour investment. I played a lot of them already, so it's a little bit of waste of my time. Even though, like, they're all desert island. Like, that's the desert island collection for me. Like, I want this as like a Encyclopedia Britannica book set of every JRPG that came out in the 90s in the best form and the original form. And then I'll play them before I'm dead, you know. But like, when is that going to happen? Got a backwards plan for my death.
- [19:26]
Damon Hadfield
Got to work backwards. Yeah. This is neither here nor there. But we were just talking. My family. This in the year 2100, Kingo will be 81 years old.
- [19:39]
Sam Claiborne
I'm just like, what?
- [19:40]
Damon Hadfield
It's so crazy. It's gonna. It's gonna go into the next century.
- [19:44]
Sam Claiborne
Yeah. That's crazy. Cool.
- [19:49]
Damon Hadfield
Okay, moving right along on February 12th is Mario Tennis Fever.
- [19:55]
Sam Claiborne
I Don't know that one.
- [19:57]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah. I love the Mario Golf games. I've never really gotten into other Mario Sports games, but I'm at a time now when if Kingo is interested and wants to play something, that's something like, I would play with him if he's into it.
- [20:09]
Justin Davis
Yeah. Yeah. It's been a while since they've been good. I mean, look, like I'm gonna say the same thing that everyone's gonna say is, like, if this game has a really cool story mode and, like, RPG mechanics and, like, you know, if it's sort of meaty in that way, then cool, I'm into it. And if it doesn't have that and it feels a little bit more bare bones, like the last couple Mario Tennis games are like, they. They felt like they kind of ran out of steam and have been a little bit lazy lately, so we'll see which it is.
- [20:35]
Sam Claiborne
My problem with these tennis games is that when they. Is that the enemy, it's not like golf, where you're, like, playing against, you know, yourself, basically, and try to get better, and it's this kind of relaxing thing. It's like, it relies on enemy AI, enemy opponent AI, and they get really cheap. It doesn't. It's not super fun. So it's like, you know, that's a tough tuning thing, but I get playing against your friends is pretty fun stuff like that. And then the other problem is that the perfect tennis game was already made for Virtual Boy, and they never need to make another tennis game after.
- [21:07]
Damon Hadfield
Correct. What's the name of that? Well, they are bringing the Virtual Boy back, right?
- [21:11]
Sam Claiborne
It's just called Mario Tennis.
- [21:13]
Damon Hadfield
I forgot. I forgot. That's coming sometime next year.
- [21:16]
Sam Claiborne
Yes. Must be pretty soon. I got to go. Oh, I have to go to the Nintendo store. They have some special Christmas stuff, and I want to see, you know, I'll grill them about the Virtual Boy. Yeah, I want to go buy one there. And that's available, though, on the day.
- [21:29]
Damon Hadfield
After Mario Tennis Fever. Re Animal comes. And this one is interesting. I was checking this out at Gamescom this year. This is from the team that did Little Nightmares 1 and 2, but not, I think, 3.
- [21:39]
Justin Davis
I believe so. Yeah.
- [21:41]
Damon Hadfield
So this is another cooperative horror adventure game.
- [21:44]
Justin Davis
A lot of buzz out there. I mean, Little Nightmares I knew was a hit, but I didn't realize how huge it was. Right. And so then Reanimal, sort of a spiritual successor. Not a successor in name. You know, this is. This is one of those franchises that sort of grew and grew and grew and snuck by me. But is is just gigantic and has become a real phenomenon. And I am actually super excited about Reanimal.
- [22:10]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah, I am too. It's, you know, it's another kids in horrific, dangerous situations kind of game. I think people were a little bit disappointed with Little Nightmares 3, so there's a lot of excitement for this one. This one being the original team that created these games.
- [22:24]
Sam Claiborne
It's the vibe of a limbo type game and that type of gameplay.
- [22:28]
Damon Hadfield
Right, cooperative 3D limbo. Yeah, that's a good way to put it.
- [22:32]
Sam Claiborne
And that's. Yes.
- [22:32]
Damon Hadfield
Okay, cool. So that was good. And then finally on February 27th, first really big, hotly anticipated game for me would be Resident Evil Requiem. Of course, we're all big fans of that series. Don't think there's a lot more to say about that game right now, but.
- [22:48]
Sam Claiborne
Well, I think the last thing we talked about was the revelation that you. There's kind of a split between the played horror character and then the action played character.
- [22:59]
Justin Davis
And I think it's smart.
- [23:00]
Sam Claiborne
So cool.
- [23:02]
Damon Hadfield
There's supposed to be a presentation dedicated to Resident Evil Requiem soon, so it has to be coming in January, I would think, since it's. The game is out in February.
- [23:11]
Sam Claiborne
It is funny that the cycle for Resident Evil has been spring for so long now. It's like, I think maybe it works for them because I think they do DLC around Halloween, but it's just like it is weird not to have this as like your annual spooky season game.
- [23:24]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah. Yeah. I don't know why Capcom has decided spring is the time for new Resident Evil, but that's fine.
- [23:30]
Justin Davis
It's working for them.
- [23:31]
Sam Claiborne
It is.
- [23:32]
Damon Hadfield
And then getting into a march, another very anticipated game for myself is replaced on March 12th. I can't believe this game is finally coming out. Speaking of limbo, this one is, you know, a cinematic platformer along the lines of Limbo and inside with just absolutely incredible pixel art. Of course, the developers are in the Ukraine, so understandably it's been taking some extra time because it looks so nuts. Looks good.
- [23:55]
Justin Davis
Yeah, yeah, Gorgeous.
- [23:57]
Damon Hadfield
I'm so happy it's finally coming out. And you know, Ryan McCaffrey, host of podcast Unlocked is also. He's been following this game for a long time. He's played it and he came away very impressed.
- [24:06]
Sam Claiborne
Okay. So he did a hands on and.
- [24:07]
Damon Hadfield
He reviewed Inside for us. So someone who liked Inside a lot is happy with the way replace is coming together. It's a good sign.
- [24:14]
Sam Claiborne
Yep.
- [24:18]
Damon Hadfield
So I talked about some curiosities that same day as replaced a couple curious games. There's r Type Tactics 1 and 2. So Archetype Tactics was a PSP game.
- [24:26]
Sam Claiborne
Right. I missed that. But it looked so good. I really wanted to play it. At the time. It was like a perfect combination of our type and then going around a tactical rpg, right?
- [24:34]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah. I mean it's. Yeah. So it's, it's Imagine Final Fantasy Tactics, but it's art, it's in space, it's our type. We gave it a seven. IGN gave it a seven.
- [24:42]
Justin Davis
Yeah.
- [24:42]
Damon Hadfield
Some other outlets scored it a little bit higher and then there's a. There was a sequel that only came out in Japan. But these are, you know, two PSP games. And I just wonder who's the audience for Archetype today? Yeah, me.
- [24:55]
Justin Davis
Yeah. Because like who?
- [24:57]
Sam Claiborne
Just for Damon.
- [24:58]
Justin Davis
Like what if every single person interested in R type Tactics bought it? Like what's the cap on like the commercial appeal of a game like this? And I say this is someone that like I'm interested. Right. I like our type and I like tactics games. But like in that era on the PSP there was this weird trend of like tacticifying. Like there was Metal Gear Acid where they turned that into like a top down card game, board game and well there was Doom RPG was they turned that into a first person dungeon crawling role playing game. Not on the PSP but like around that same time frame. Maybe it did come out on the PSP eventually but you know, and they made our type Tactics. I know there's more but like that was just a weird trend that went around for a while. Make it turn based.
- [25:44]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah, like I'm not, I'm not hating. I like our type.
- [25:47]
Justin Davis
Yeah.
- [25:47]
Damon Hadfield
I'm glad it's happening just for you know, preservation's sake. But I just from a business standpoint, it just seems like a hard sell because this is not the only R type release coming this year. This is only the first of three R type releases coming next year. Please be excited.
- [26:03]
Justin Davis
Also it's the year of.
- [26:05]
Damon Hadfield
Yes.
- [26:05]
Sam Claiborne
In this game you do play an action based R type game. Right. You don't just do like there's two games.
- [26:12]
Damon Hadfield
I don't think so.
- [26:13]
Sam Claiborne
No. You just do the tactical stuff. See the appeal for me would be if they had like an Act Razor type thing going for it where it's like you had your, you know, kind of tactical game or a sim game or something and built on it, you'd go into the level and do a shooter level. Like that would be. That's a perfect game right there.
- [26:27]
Justin Davis
You know, it would be cool. I don't think it's sad.
- [26:31]
Sam Claiborne
Let's make it Mini Shoot Adventure was a really good game by the way.
- [26:34]
Damon Hadfield
Mini Shoot Adventure?
- [26:35]
Justin Davis
Yeah.
- [26:35]
Damon Hadfield
Was that another PSP one?
- [26:37]
Sam Claiborne
No, that was just the one that from. I played it on Steam last year. It's just a PC.
- [26:41]
Damon Hadfield
Oh, that's right. That's right.
- [26:42]
Sam Claiborne
It was a Zelda one.
- [26:43]
Damon Hadfield
I remember it's the Zelda one.
- [26:44]
Sam Claiborne
Genres.
- [26:46]
Damon Hadfield
Okay. And then also that same day, finally, apparently John Carpenter's Toxic Commando is finally coming out.
- [26:53]
Justin Davis
Wow.
- [26:53]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah, man.
- [26:54]
Justin Davis
I didn't realize that. I guess. I guess I knew it didn't come out, but I hadn't really thought about it in a while.
- [26:59]
Damon Hadfield
That was announced a couple years ago. It's a. It's a four player cooperative first person shooter. We're just running around shooting monsters. We'll see.
- [27:07]
Sam Claiborne
I don't know, it feels like every quarter there's one of those that gets really popular then goes away. Like it's well timed.
- [27:12]
Damon Hadfield
That's true.
- [27:13]
Justin Davis
Yeah.
- [27:14]
Damon Hadfield
All right. Sorry to jump away right as you get the B roll Up Joburt on March 19, Crimson Desert is coming out. And I don't know this will be my kind of game, but I know that these, all these trailers absolutely do huge numbers for us.
- [27:27]
Sam Claiborne
It's going to be a big, big popular game because this is the follow.
- [27:30]
Damon Hadfield
Up to Black Desert.
- [27:30]
Sam Claiborne
Right.
- [27:31]
Damon Hadfield
Black Desert Online.
- [27:33]
Sam Claiborne
But single player action Y But not.
- [27:36]
Damon Hadfield
An mmo I don't believe.
- [27:39]
Sam Claiborne
No, no. This is just like a cool big action game. That's hard.
- [27:42]
Damon Hadfield
I mean I like those games. If it's like a dragon's dogma, is it playing in that wheelhouse? Because I like those games.
- [27:50]
Sam Claiborne
Yeah, that might be a good comparison. I'm not sure.
- [27:53]
Damon Hadfield
That same day as Mouse PI for hire. Yeah, that one's been coming a long time.
- [27:57]
Sam Claiborne
So that's the first person shooter in the kind of. With the cuphead style, but everything's a rat.
- [28:01]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah. The rubber hose sort of 30s early Disney Animation style.
- [28:06]
Sam Claiborne
So that one's hard to predict. Like I don't know if it'll be good or bad or whatever. I think we previewed it. You can check that out. But every time there's footage of that it kind of does really well. Everybody wants to watch because it's just eye catching and looks neat on YouTube. But I don't know if that game. I don't know much about the game. So.
- [28:22]
Justin Davis
That's exactly it. Those games are. And well deserved. Right. But like it's deservedly getting a lot of attention and a lot of praise for how it looks. And it's very eye catching and gorgeous and beautiful and unique, but that doesn't necessarily translate into like, is this going to be a 10 out of 10 video game experience? But it definitely translates to like, you know, when this appears at a PS showcase or whatever, it definitely catches everybody's eye. Right?
- [28:46]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah. When I first saw it, I was a little dismissive that it's just first person Cuphead, but I actually think it looks pretty fun and clever and lots of fun weapons. I like how it's a little bit gory and there's some blood or ink splatter happening. I think it's definitely something I will check out.
- [28:59]
Sam Claiborne
I mean, I know Cuphead, I like Cuphead and has a lot of fans, but like, I wouldn't wish that game on my enemies. Like that game's really, really annoying to play sometimes. Right. Even though you want to keep playing it. And in my case, because I like old school games like that, like it's not accessible. This one looks like at least first person shooters are generally just kind of. Just kind of. They can be mindless. You can just go through them and see all the cool stuff, which is maybe a better way to experience this type of style.
- [29:25]
Damon Hadfield
Somebody was confused though, because PIs private investigators don't really come in guns blazing, everybody down.
- [29:32]
Justin Davis
Yeah, it's not much of a PI.
- [29:34]
Sam Claiborne
Maybe it stands for something else.
- [29:36]
Damon Hadfield
Maybe. And then apparently in March, according to Justin and Steam slate, Aspire 2 has a release date. What was that date in March 22nd.
- [29:45]
Justin Davis
It just says March.
- [29:46]
Damon Hadfield
Okay, March.
- [29:47]
Justin Davis
March 22nd is all that's on the. Or March 2026 is all it's on the Steam page.
- [29:51]
Damon Hadfield
Okay. Finally.
- [29:53]
Justin Davis
Yeah, I mean, looks amazing. Like I've seen some. I mean, I don't even know that I would call it criticism, but just a common piece of feedback is, boy, it sure looks a lot like Slay the Spire one which. But it's like, gosh, like that was the perfect game. Right. So it's like if they made that game, and I hope I'm not saying it is that, but if it were that, but 20% better and bigger and different. It's like, well, okay, like, you know, you can't. There's only so much you can do to improve on perfection.
- [30:23]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah. I mean, at a glance you can tell it has much better animations.
- [30:27]
Justin Davis
Yeah.
- [30:27]
Damon Hadfield
You know, I love Slay the Spire. My. If I have a critique, I don't super love the art style of it and then there's very little animation.
- [30:34]
Sam Claiborne
The characters is this changed art style or is this the same?
- [30:37]
Damon Hadfield
It's kind of the same art style but it's a little bit more of a cartoon look to it and the characters have a lot more animation going on this time around.
- [30:47]
Justin Davis
Yes, it feels a lot higher budget probably because it is right of like the characters are moving more and doing more and a lot more active. And I believe we talked about this on Scoop once. Like I don't. I think I saw a trailer or an interview or something that Slay the Spire 2 is going to be a little bit more story forward and that that excites me. Actually I'm interested in digging into a little bit more about that world.
- [31:12]
Damon Hadfield
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- [32:20]
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- [34:17]
Damon Hadfield
Getting into April. April 24th is Pragmata another long time coming game from Capcom.
- [34:22]
Sam Claiborne
Yeah. I didn't realize you had mentioned this before. I didn't realize that they had announced Pragmata so long ago because I just think of it as something that was announced like last year and we saw for the first time.
- [34:30]
Justin Davis
But no, years ago it was at.
- [34:32]
Damon Hadfield
The like announcement of the PS5.
- [34:35]
Sam Claiborne
That's so crazy. I have no memory of this.
- [34:38]
Damon Hadfield
Somewhere around 2023 it was delayed indefinitely. And now, I mean, so they didn't give up on it.
- [34:45]
Sam Claiborne
This being a secret Mega man game is the only thing that interests me about it.
- [34:50]
Damon Hadfield
We should clarify. That's just Nick Limone's wild fan theory.
- [34:54]
Sam Claiborne
It's so good.
- [34:56]
Justin Davis
Yep.
- [34:57]
Sam Claiborne
Why would she have a blue coat if she wasn't Mega Man?
- [35:00]
Damon Hadfield
She is an Android, right? Yeah, we know that much. I know.
- [35:05]
Sam Claiborne
Well, and that's always the 20 questions conundrum, right? Is Mega Man a man or a boy or a robot? Which is it? Robot dogs? Are they robots or dogs?
- [35:18]
Damon Hadfield
There's also some kind of a demo on this for this available now. That's kind of like the kitchen demo for Resident Evil.
- [35:23]
Sam Claiborne
Yeah. Mark loved it.
- [35:24]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah. So I think this is looking at, you know, we talk a lot. Capcom rarely misses these days, so 100%.
- [35:30]
Sam Claiborne
And speaking of missing, there's like a little like puzzle. Each time you fight an enemy where have to shoot the right quadrant of it. It's cool.
- [35:37]
Damon Hadfield
Cool. On April 30th, Seiros will arrive for PS5, the first exclusive PS5 exclusive of the year. And I'm excited for that game. I liked Returnal. I didn't finish Returnal. I'm not that tough of a gamer, able to finish Eternal, but I liked a lot what I played. I'll play Returnal with a different color palette.
- [36:00]
Justin Davis
I mean, Housemarque's never made a bad game. Returnal was not my thing, but. But it seems like they listen to feedback and this is. This is Returnal and fixing the elements that cause people like me to. I shouldn't say fixing, but, you know, going in a different direction with the elements of the game that people like me bounced off of it. Right. And so, you know, a little bit more permanent upgrades, you know, a little bit more ability to power yourself up, but you're still looping through the game like, sounds awesome. Sounds amazing.
- [36:27]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah, I'm into that one.
- [36:29]
Justin Davis
Yep.
- [36:30]
Damon Hadfield
And then 007 first light was supposed to be out in March, but it was recently delayed into May 27, which is funny because that was the window Left open by GTA 6.
- [36:39]
Sam Claiborne
Big old games that month now.
- [36:41]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah. So, man, IO Interactive, I love all their modern Hitman stuff. Hitman 3 was so good.
- [36:47]
Sam Claiborne
Oh, my gosh.
- [36:48]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah, I'm really excited for this one.
- [36:50]
Sam Claiborne
I have a lot to say about this one, so I'll keep it short. So we just like the idea of taking a license now and making the best possible game with it is, I think, being realized because Indiana Jones just happened and we had machine games like, take this, like, amazing, you know, like, difficult license to get right, and just absolutely exquisitely nail it. And they turned out to be the perfect company for that. But I wasn't expecting them to be for this. This is the perfect company to make this game. I already know that. Right. Like, this is. This couldn't be better. So that's one thought I have about it. Like, how great is it to pair somebody that's made an incredible series of games with. With a license to do something that they could rip on. So that's one thing. The other is that they. That Hitman is the. The character Hitman. Even though they try to make movies about Hitman, it's supposed to be a stand in, like a dummy, like something that's like, not developed. Like, this is James Bond. So they're doing the exact opposite they're taking like a magnetic central character and making a game around that. And I think they might be, you know, that's new for them. And I'm like, that's where I'm like, oh, is that going to work out? But then, then again, like, James Bond just exists already and has already developed. What do you need to do? You need to pick a cool car and a bunch of cast of characters and then set up your set pieces. And every time I see a set piece in this game, it looks really good. That airplane level, I watched that twice. I thought it looked really cool. I was like, oh, there's a lot going on here.
- [38:07]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah, man.
- [38:09]
Justin Davis
Yeah, I hope it's good. I mean, I interact. Like, Hitman games are not action games. They're kind of puzzle games. And the few kind of punctuated actiony moments are sometimes a little bit clunky. Like, that's just the way the games worked. And so, so I hope that, like, I, you know, I believe in IO Interactive. They're a really, really talented studio and I hope they manage to pull off those set piece moments. But I'm not quite. It hasn't gone over with me yet. Like, I hope that those action moments play as well as sort of like the infiltration, stealth, explore. These big open environment moments like that I'm not worried about at all. But like everything that every, all the rest that stitches it together, you know, I, I'm, I'm in a little bit more of wait and see mode.
- [38:51]
Sam Claiborne
If this game's amazing and we just got Indiana Jones and a few good Star wars games recently, what are we doing with Batman?
- [38:59]
Damon Hadfield
Well, that's funny you mentioned that, Sam, because two days later is Lego Batman Legacy of the Dark Knight.
- [39:04]
Sam Claiborne
Yep. That's crazy that these are on top of each other now in May. I think that's really bad for everybody involved.
- [39:09]
Damon Hadfield
Well, they're pretty very different games.
- [39:11]
Sam Claiborne
I mean, I want to play both of them.
- [39:12]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah, I do too.
- [39:15]
Sam Claiborne
It's going to make applicant, but I.
- [39:16]
Damon Hadfield
Don'T think a lot of the kids are going to want to play seven first.
- [39:19]
Sam Claiborne
Well, Batman will probably be fine.
- [39:20]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm really excited for this game. Lego Star wars the Skywalker Saga is like, is one of like three games that Kingo plays just all the time. We're going to play the heck out of this game.
- [39:35]
Justin Davis
The improvement and evolution to LEGO formula, you know, from game to game, they've been making them, you know, TT Games has been making for 20 years now. Right. It's just been so Amazing to behold. And they've gone from, you know, oh, these are good and fun and inoffensive enough for kind of like a LEGO game to like. No, like Lego Skywalker Saga, you know, was like them. We can just actually make a big AAA co op game and it doesn't need to have some asterisk next to it of like, oh, it's just good for kids or families or whatever. Like they made this kind of all ages, you know, all sexes thing that anyone can enjoy and love. And you know, the parody is always on point. So I just, I don't know, like, I'm really excited about it.
- [40:19]
Ad Read Announcer
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- [40:21]
Damon Hadfield
And then I mentioned R Type Tactics 1 and 2 is the first of three R Type releases this year. In May we're supposed to get R Type Dimensions 3, which is a remake of our Type 3, which Sam helped me out. Our Type 3 was a Super Nintendo game, I believe.
- [40:36]
Sam Claiborne
Yeah, it was. Yeah.
- [40:37]
Justin Davis
I thought four was three of us. Maybe three was okay.
- [40:40]
Damon Hadfield
One of them went okay. Instead of arcades, it went straight to Super Nintendo. But so again, I'm glad this exists, but I just wonder how much of an audience there is.
- [40:51]
Sam Claiborne
We've talked about this before, I think probably multiple times. But R Type was published by Nintendo in the arcade. So there was an arcade machine that Nintendo made for our Type, which I think is really interesting.
- [41:00]
Justin Davis
Yeah. Oh, I didn't remember that. I was always. I mean, I. Whatever. I like our type just fine. I like all shmups. But if I was forced to choose, I was always a grottius man.
- [41:09]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah, I would. I play Life Force specifically for me.
- [41:13]
Sam Claiborne
Hell yeah. Did you know that this had a subtitle called the Third Lightning?
- [41:17]
Damon Hadfield
The Third Lightning.
- [41:18]
Justin Davis
That's cool.
- [41:20]
Damon Hadfield
That is a good subtitle.
- [41:21]
Sam Claiborne
Well, look at Toy.
- [41:23]
Damon Hadfield
That's the collector's edition. How many of those do they make?
- [41:27]
Sam Claiborne
I mean, I think maybe Archetype has some kind of persistent fan base in Japan that we are unaware of. Because all these things I think are just like. Yeah, just port them to America too, you know.
- [41:38]
Justin Davis
Yeah, yeah.
- [41:41]
Damon Hadfield
Okay, here's what's interesting. That's May. That gets us up to May. The next game with a release date is on September 9th. So it's this huge window. June, July and August. No games are coming out this summer, Sam. Sorry. I know you like summer games.
- [41:54]
Sam Claiborne
I like summer games. But the May games are pretty good though, right? So like that can carry us a little bit.
- [41:58]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah. September 9th is Phantom Blade Zero sort of a character, martial arts character, action game. It's got a lot of buzz.
- [42:06]
Sam Claiborne
Before we get too far, you did skip over Pokemon Pocopia, which is.
- [42:10]
Damon Hadfield
Oh, yeah, I did.
- [42:10]
Sam Claiborne
Yeah. A cozy Pokemon game. And Witch Haven. Witchbrook. Is that what it's called?
- [42:17]
Damon Hadfield
Does that have a release date?
- [42:18]
Sam Claiborne
No, but it got delayed from this year. So I'm presuming there's going to be some cozy games besides Animal Crossing in the spring. I just want to show you I.
- [42:25]
Damon Hadfield
Have a whole selection of games that are supposed to come but don't have a release.
- [42:29]
Justin Davis
Right, Got it.
- [42:30]
Damon Hadfield
Anyway, Phantom Blade Zero looks cool. I'll at least check it out.
- [42:34]
Sam Claiborne
Yeah.
- [42:35]
Damon Hadfield
And then what do we got next? Oh, yeah. And then November 19th, a little game called GTA 6.
- [42:43]
Justin Davis
Interesting that that's the farthest out, you know, big game with a release date.
- [42:47]
Sam Claiborne
Yeah.
- [42:48]
Damon Hadfield
Yep.
- [42:48]
Justin Davis
And so I think I'm going to say it now. I think it's going to come out that day.
- [42:52]
Damon Hadfield
You think so?
- [42:53]
Sam Claiborne
So, yeah.
- [42:55]
Justin Davis
Yeah. I never believed the spring date.
- [42:58]
Sam Claiborne
Oh, I see.
- [42:59]
Justin Davis
I think the spring date was always code for November 2020. I see.
- [43:02]
Sam Claiborne
So you called the bluff and now you're. You're doubling down the reality.
- [43:06]
Justin Davis
And now I think that they're gonna. They're gonna hit November. Right. As the consoles are getting old again. Just like when GTA 5.
- [43:13]
Damon Hadfield
That's exactly what happened with GTA 5. Yep. And then everyone will double dip and buy it again.
- [43:19]
Sam Claiborne
Well, at the end of a console generation, you can make a game, they run amazingly on those consoles. You know, everything that could possibly go wrong, right?
- [43:28]
Justin Davis
Yeah, boy, we'll see.
- [43:31]
Sam Claiborne
Except for Cyberpunk.
- [43:33]
Justin Davis
Yeah.
- [43:34]
Damon Hadfield
I will say this, I'm very excited for this game. I'm not the world's biggest fan of GTA 5, but I love Vice City and I'm happy to return to Vice City. And everything I've seen about this is looking great.
- [43:44]
Justin Davis
I mean, I absolutely loved GTA V. I mean, like everybody else, you know, 10 out of 10, one of the best games ever made. And then I went back and replayed, you know, probably the first third of it sometime when it was on Game Pass and was not nearly as impressed the second time around. Yeah. So it's like, ooh. Well, you know, it just felt very. And it wasn't the game's fault at all. Just like everything that felt so new and amazing and revolutionary. It's like, well, you know, games have been doing this for the last 12 years now.
- [44:08]
Sam Claiborne
You know, I think about GTA 6 all the time. And one thing that I've been thinking about a lot recently is like I'll probably find something in this game that I like doing because Rockstar just makes 100 games. Right. And like every something in there, it's probably like the best possible, you know, version of like hockey or something in the game that's going to be out that year.
- [44:28]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah.
- [44:29]
Sam Claiborne
And then you can just play that in this game. You know, like it's a platform basically. And that's like for me, I really like the stunt jumps from the previous games. I like, you know, just the idea of, you know, heists, like if they do like heist, like side quests or something. Like there's things that I like about GTA and then I usually just like watching the storyline. Right. But then there's other parts that I just don't care about. Like the, you know, like the stock market and stuff from the last game. So we'll see.
- [44:53]
Justin Davis
It's probably gonna have, it's probably gonna have a whole series of like jet ski races that are like better than Wave race. Like it's gonna be incredible. And there's gonna be 24 of them in the game.
- [45:02]
Sam Claiborne
Yeah. And they're just like, wow. That was actually the best racing game this year. Yep.
- [45:08]
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- [45:45]
Damon Hadfield
All right, now we've got a bunch of games that are due out this year that don't have release dates. And this is the segment where there'll be some games in here that I think you may have forgotten about. For example, Bloodstained. The Scarlet Engagement.
- [45:57]
Justin Davis
Yep, forgot about that.
- [45:58]
Sam Claiborne
That's.
- [45:59]
Justin Davis
Yep.
- [45:59]
Damon Hadfield
Equal to Bloodstained.
- [46:00]
Sam Claiborne
I'm fine with it. Keep on making Bloodstained.
- [46:02]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah, I mean sure. I like, I liked Blood stained a lot. Very good Castlevania. Like made by the Castlevania guy. I don't know what his involvement is in this one, but it's looking good. And remember this time around there are two characters but it's a single player game and I think you can swap back and forth and then the NPC just controls the other one.
- [46:20]
Sam Claiborne
It has like a total visual upgrade. Like this looks crazy good.
- [46:24]
Damon Hadfield
Yes, it looks really good. A lot more outdoor environments, daylight areas. Oh my gosh, that boss looks great.
- [46:31]
Sam Claiborne
Maybe this is The Metroidvania of the year.
- [46:33]
Damon Hadfield
Maybe it is. Okay, Deus Ex Remastered is on the way and that's cool. I've never played the original Deus. Exactly. Hope they do a good job.
- [46:41]
Justin Davis
It's not a. I'm curious.
- [46:42]
Sam Claiborne
Remastered, though. Like, it doesn't.
- [46:44]
Justin Davis
It looks a little.
- [46:45]
Damon Hadfield
It's not a remake, it's a remaster.
- [46:48]
Justin Davis
Yeah, look, I say this with love. No, look, I like Deus Ex. I love Deus Ex. I think it's a game that's hard to go back to. Some games are easy to go back to and go down smooth, and some do not. And, like, you know, I think that Deus Ex is going to be a challenge for gamers with modern tastes and modern sensibilities.
- [47:11]
Damon Hadfield
I mean, they had to say they have overhauled controls and stuff.
- [47:14]
Sam Claiborne
So.
- [47:15]
Justin Davis
Yeah, I mean, it's the first game I can ever remember playing where, like, you just had choice. Right. Like this thing that's. That's very. It's very commonplace now. But, like, do you want to sneak in or go guns blazing or talk your way in or. Like, I'd never seen anything like that in a game before. Like, you know, so I have a lot of nostalgia for it for that reason.
- [47:36]
Sam Claiborne
I just think whenever they do that pass to show how Remastered is, it looks exactly the same. It's just not. Not. It's not. And that's. I think that's good because for people that love this game, it's going to look. It's going to look how you remember it, which is, like, always a fun thing to do. But I need something. I need. I think this would need a remake for me to play.
- [47:57]
Damon Hadfield
Next year. Xbox should finally deliver Fable.
- [48:00]
Sam Claiborne
Yeah.
- [48:01]
Damon Hadfield
Which I would be excited.
- [48:02]
Sam Claiborne
One of the big Xbox games next year.
- [48:03]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah, I would be excited for it. The only trepidation I have is that it's just taking so long. That's. Who knows how it ends up.
- [48:12]
Sam Claiborne
Funny voice acting and stuff. They got in there.
- [48:14]
Justin Davis
And I know that Peter Molyneux has become kind of like, you know, the butt of some jokes over the years, but, like, I don't think he's making this right. So it's like he's also an unbelievably, you know, joke all you like. He's still an incredible, talented, you know, game director and talent overall. So, you know, and not to take anything away from the team that is making this, but it makes me, on a personal level, a little bit less interested than I would be. But, like, you know, a big fantasy, high budget fantasy Role playing game that doesn't take itself too seriously. It's like, I don't know. Sounds like a good time.
- [48:47]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah.
- [48:47]
Sam Claiborne
I just hope the lessons that Fable needs to learn from are the Open World Witcher and Skyrim games. That's what will. Like, if this is really like the big open world fantasy game this year, instead of the kind of channeled down paths that Fable can feel more like, then it's going to be incredible because they've had extra time to work on it. And you know, like, that's a good sign if it's like a huge game. If it's a kind of narrow game, it means they had to probably reset a whole bunch and then that's not as interesting.
- [49:15]
Damon Hadfield
It's Playground, right?
- [49:18]
Justin Davis
Yes.
- [49:18]
Damon Hadfield
Forza. Is it Forza Motorsport or Forza Horizon?
- [49:22]
Justin Davis
Horizon.
- [49:22]
Sam Claiborne
Which I think implies that it's going to be more of a, you know, a single open world type game. I hope so. Right? That's what they're good at.
- [49:30]
Justin Davis
Maybe it'll have Baja Races in it.
- [49:32]
Sam Claiborne
Maybe this and GTA will both have have cool Wave Race clones in them and we'll see which one's better.
- [49:37]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah, cool. Okay. Nintendo will have Fire Emblem, Fortunes Weave. That's cool. Always happy, happy to have a new Fire Emblem, like my tactics games. And then of course. Oh, also Xbox will have Halo Campaign Evolved, Another Halo remake.
- [49:52]
Sam Claiborne
Just played through the last one.
- [49:53]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah, you just played it.
- [49:54]
Sam Claiborne
It was great.
- [49:55]
Damon Hadfield
I mean, will you play it again just to like see it looks good.
- [49:57]
Sam Claiborne
Graphics, I mean, look incredible.
- [49:59]
Damon Hadfield
It looks really good.
- [50:00]
Sam Claiborne
I have no problem with playing Halo and Legendary by myself. I'll just do that. It's always fun.
- [50:04]
Justin Davis
I mean, this is them. This was their, you know, a rumor is that they're not using their own. Well, this game is Unreal Engine. Everybody knows that. But the rumor is that this is them getting to know Unreal Engine because they're not using their own engine anymore for mainline Halo games. So let's remake the original game using Unreal and like, you know, get our arms around that and then they're going to use that tech going forward for future Halo projects.
- [50:28]
Sam Claiborne
This is like, I'm sure the answer to this is really obvious, but I don't know if any of us will know it, but is there an Unreal current shooter right now? Or did everybody use their own engines for Battlefield and Call of Duty and stuff?
- [50:42]
Justin Davis
I mean, what runs on Unreal like a shooter?
- [50:46]
Sam Claiborne
I'm just trying to think of a multiplayer shooter. Do we know if Unreal can power a Multiplayer shooter. I don't even know.
- [50:54]
Justin Davis
I mean, I'm sure it can, given Fortnite Big.
- [50:59]
Sam Claiborne
Yeah, that's true.
- [51:01]
Justin Davis
But not Battlefield, for example. So I guess I would have to think about it.
- [51:08]
Sam Claiborne
Yeah. But hey, if Fortnite's the platform that they build a Halo around, I'm sure it'd be fine.
- [51:15]
Damon Hadfield
And then moving on to some PlayStation stuff, I don't. This one was on a PlayStation State of Play, but I don't know if it's gonna. It's a timed exclusive. It's Marvel Fighting Souls.
- [51:25]
Justin Davis
Oh, man.
- [51:26]
Damon Hadfield
Which is the Marvel fighting game from the Guilty Year, folks. And it looks just great.
- [51:30]
Justin Davis
Yeah, I know. I mean, I'm not even a big. It did exactly what it's supposed to do, or I'm not a gigantic fighting game guy. And I'm like, okay, I'm on board.
- [51:38]
Damon Hadfield
I love that they're leaning into. It's a Japanese game. All these Marvel characters are speaking Japanese. I love it. It's great.
- [51:44]
Sam Claiborne
Yeah. My team here at IGN has some of the big fighting game folks audit. And this is like. Like, just. This is just the biggest deal, you know? I think it's so cool that people are getting this, like, perfect game in their. In their genre, you know? Yeah.
- [52:01]
Damon Hadfield
Really, really excited for that. And then, of course, Wolverine finally.
- [52:06]
Sam Claiborne
Dude, my. That's my single most anticipated game.
- [52:09]
Damon Hadfield
It might be mine, too. Might be mine, too.
- [52:12]
Sam Claiborne
Once I saw them ripping apart those cyborgs, I was like, oh, yeah.
- [52:16]
Justin Davis
I mean, Insomniac. And I know people are a little bit down on Spider Man 2, but, like, not. Not in any kind of, like, oh, it's not game kind of way, but just, like, they wished it went a little bit farther. Did a little bit more. Like, when was the last time Insomniac made a game that wasn't incredible? 20 years ago? Maybe never. They kind of quietly have one of the best track records in all of video games across multiple decades.
- [52:41]
Sam Claiborne
This is another example of a company that's taking a license that I wouldn't expect them to be good at, but I trust them to be really good at it. I think Wolverine is going to feel different enough from Spider man and be maybe more of that kind of like, you know, maybe not about traveling through a city as much as, you know, combat, you know, I think they should be really good at that.
- [53:02]
Justin Davis
I did forget we're watching this B roll. I forgot how goofy the Wolverine character model is.
- [53:07]
Sam Claiborne
Well, we always have to get used to that.
- [53:08]
Damon Hadfield
That doesn't strike me as goofy games.
- [53:10]
Sam Claiborne
When they're not. But then by the end of the game, you're always used to it.
- [53:14]
Justin Davis
Yeah, I guess I don't want to end on a negative note. I just. I'd kind of forgotten. I don't. I don't like the Wolverine character design in. But there's. It's an easy enough thing for them to have tweaked between now, at least.
- [53:27]
Damon Hadfield
Interesting. I don't think I have a problem with it, but let's try to work backwards. Insomniac's work. They did Spider Man 2 and then Ratchet and Clank and then Miles Morales and then Spider Man 1, and then what was before that.
- [53:42]
Justin Davis
They did.
- [53:45]
Sam Claiborne
Well, Sunset.
- [53:46]
Damon Hadfield
It's like a. I know they did three Resistance games, but it's been a long time since a Resistance, so.
- [53:51]
Justin Davis
So they did Sunset Overdrive.
- [53:53]
Sam Claiborne
That's.
- [53:53]
Damon Hadfield
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Another great game.
- [53:57]
Justin Davis
And then one of those things that in hindsight, obviously led them directly to Spider Man. Right. But you know, you don't make that connection till after the fact. I mean, so like, if we go way back, they did like Spyro 1, 2, and 3, right? Yeah. And then they did. They did a bunch of Ratchet and Clank games, and then they did Resistance. Yeah, I think that's the majority of their outfit.
- [54:19]
Damon Hadfield
So they're a little. Well, okay. Yeah. Okay. Anyway, they have a great track record.
- [54:24]
Sam Claiborne
Yellow suit, Wolverine. Look at that.
- [54:26]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah, I love it.
- [54:26]
Sam Claiborne
Very funny.
- [54:27]
Justin Davis
Classic.
- [54:28]
Sam Claiborne
Have you been keeping up on the Marvel not leaks anymore, but just like the trailers that I Jin's been covering for.
- [54:33]
Damon Hadfield
Like Doomsday.
- [54:34]
Sam Claiborne
Yeah, for Doomsday. Like, there's an X Men one now.
- [54:38]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah, yeah.
- [54:39]
Sam Claiborne
It's completely crazy. It's like the X Men universe being destroyed in a trailer. Like, what. What is happening with that movie?
- [54:46]
Justin Davis
Yeah, Cyclops is going completely ape.
- [54:48]
Sam Claiborne
Yeah. Yeah.
- [54:49]
Damon Hadfield
So wait, in the X Men one, something actually happens because nothing happens.
- [54:52]
Sam Claiborne
Yeah, that's the difference. Something actually happens.
- [54:55]
Damon Hadfield
Nothing happens in the Steve Rogers movie.
- [54:56]
Sam Claiborne
It's like a fight in the X Mansion and it has Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart in it. Like, it's crazy. And then. Yeah, then Cyclops goes Nova with a sentinel.
- [55:08]
Justin Davis
Okay, yeah.
- [55:09]
Damon Hadfield
All right, well, that sounds good. They need to start getting people excited because one would think when Infinity War came, there had been 10 years of excitement building up, and there's no excitement that's been building up to this movie.
- [55:22]
Justin Davis
So.
- [55:23]
Sam Claiborne
Yes, I feel like I've been ranting about this to just relatives for the past week. I really miss work when that happens. I'm like, why are they building this up this way? But they've had to abandon all plans. Right. They had to abandon all of Kang and then completely pivot. And then. And the pivot is looking more like the JJ Abrams D. Rian Johnson pivot.
- [55:41]
Damon Hadfield
Which is like, oh, you're exactly right. Bring the old Avengers back.
- [55:46]
Justin Davis
I know. They're like, steve Rogers will return. He's back, everybody. I'm like, he was never gone. This is the next Avengers movie and he's in it. So he never left. Yeah, I don't know.
- [56:00]
Damon Hadfield
Anyway, get back on track to games. Capcom has Onimusha Way of the sword, which looks cool. I've never played an Onimusha game, but this game looks cool.
- [56:08]
Justin Davis
That was another one that was cool at Gamescom. Yeah, I'm surprised. I guess I'm not surprised you didn't play in Damon, but like, they're. They're like ancient Japanese horror Resident Evil action games. Like you. You'd love them.
- [56:18]
Damon Hadfield
I mean. Yeah.
- [56:19]
Sam Claiborne
But a modernization of one is going to be the way to jump in for sure. Right? Like, this is a good opportunity.
- [56:24]
Justin Davis
Yeah.
- [56:25]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah. This looks really, really good. Really fun. What do you think? What are the odds Ubisoft's Prince of Persia Sands of Time remake makes it out in 2020?
- [56:36]
Sam Claiborne
Why are you bringing this up?
- [56:38]
Damon Hadfield
There's just no chance? No, it hasn't been canceled.
- [56:43]
Justin Davis
That makes me sad. Yeah. Do you remember how amazing that, like when that game came out, it's like, oh, like you don't die if you fall in a pit. You'll just rewind. And everyone was like, whoa, yeah, man.
- [56:56]
Damon Hadfield
The original game is great. Yeah.
- [56:58]
Justin Davis
And then they made the Warrior within and a third one.
- [57:02]
Sam Claiborne
I mean, the remake looks out of date now, which means that they're never going to catch up and make this an amazing game.
- [57:07]
Damon Hadfield
I mean, this is also announced like back in 2020, so.
- [57:10]
Sam Claiborne
But the last Prince of Persia game was so good that I hope there's some kind of continuation of that team and that series, but I think that.
- [57:19]
Damon Hadfield
That team has been.
- [57:19]
Sam Claiborne
They broke up the studio, so it's like they'd have to do something.
- [57:22]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah. You're talking about the lost crown, right? The Metroidvania one.
- [57:27]
Justin Davis
Yeah. Yeah. I had a real soft spot for the last 3D reboot. I feel like I'm sometimes the only person that liked it. The cel shaded one.
- [57:35]
Damon Hadfield
Oh, yeah. Just Prince of Persia.
- [57:37]
Justin Davis
Is that what it was called? I like that game a lot.
- [57:40]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah. That had a really cool look to it. Also, Xbox 360 PS3 era Prince of Persia.
- [57:47]
Sam Claiborne
I think it looks really funny when he's backwards running on a wall and it's always looks funny. Yeah, it's like he's doing a little dance.
- [57:56]
Damon Hadfield
Remember they did a Jake Gyllenhaal movie?
- [57:58]
Justin Davis
Yeah.
- [58:00]
Damon Hadfield
Okay, I promised, as promised, the third R type release of the year. R type DX Music encore. Okay, you with me here? R type DX was a Game Boy color release. This has its own. It has its own Steam page. It's its own release, not part of a package. And it just says have you ever wanted to play R type DX with unique music for each stage?
- [58:22]
Sam Claiborne
Yes.
- [58:24]
Damon Hadfield
So I guess the DX original just played the same song in each stage and now they're re releasing it with unique music for each stage.
- [58:31]
Sam Claiborne
Okay, I'm getting a little bit concerned that these are being targeted only for Daemon and that how many human resources are we putting into creating games just for one man?
- [58:41]
Damon Hadfield
How can we get.
- [58:42]
Justin Davis
We gotta get on Game Scoop.
- [58:44]
Damon Hadfield
How can we get on Game Scoop? You've put these out. I guarantee you Daemon will not be able to resist talking about these games for an entire episode.
- [58:53]
Sam Claiborne
So it's like, it's like you, like you 10 years ago you did an episode where like ah, I love our this archetype for Game Boy, but it's so annoying. It's just one song playing. And then 10 years ago they like work, start working. Back from GamesCube 2026.
- [59:05]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah. Okay. Our anticipated 2026 Games is starting to get a little bit long in the tooth to wrap up their Scott Pilgrim ex, which you know, it's a sort of spiritual successor to the original Scott Pilgrim Saves the World. Beat him up. Which is great.
- [59:22]
Sam Claiborne
Love that game. Plus it is a more interesting version of a Beat em up. Right. It has like elements to it that are not just walk around. But it's not a full castle crashers type thing, right?
- [59:30]
Damon Hadfield
No, it's more like there's the different levels are interconnected and you can unlock things in. In one level that'll open up things in a different level.
- [59:37]
Sam Claiborne
Things like that River City Ransom.
- [59:39]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah, it'll be good. Okay, here's one of the games I thought, I think everyone forgot about that's supposed to be coming next year. Star Wars 0 company. This is the Star Wars XCOM game.
- [59:54]
Justin Davis
Yeah, you're right. Definitely forgot about this one.
- [59:56]
Damon Hadfield
They have a whole trailer announcing this game.
- [59:58]
Sam Claiborne
Oops, forgot.
- [59:59]
Damon Hadfield
Yep. But that's cool.
- [60:02]
Justin Davis
I mean, yeah, that's a great idea for a Star Wars Game. I'm excited to get excited about it all over again.
- [60:08]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah, Respond. Bit Reactor. Star Wars XCOM coming next year. Still says 2026 on its Steam page. There's Super Meat Boy 3D, which we previewed at Gamescom and came away very positive on. I don't know, Super Meat Boy is such a weird like that. It was like 2008, a big game that I covered in my early years at ign. I reviewed it, lots of preview coverage because it was, you know, Xbox Live Arcade was so new and exciting. And this game was also coming to WiiWare at the time.
- [60:37]
Sam Claiborne
Yep.
- [60:39]
Damon Hadfield
But it's not a game. The original Meat Boy is not a game I want to really revisit today.
- [60:43]
Sam Claiborne
Yeah, I like the blood path. So it was always funny in it. And remember it was like bringing back an old school mentality. So it should have felt good to you if you played these certain platformers on PC back then. If this feels good to you because you played a lot of Mario 64, then I have certain people again on my staff who will very much like this game.
- [61:02]
Justin Davis
I mean, I think that the positive previews, like, this is a game. I mean, I guess you could describe every game this way, but like, it's going to live or die based off of how it reviews. And like, I was very skeptical. I was not very interested. But then the previews have been universally positive. Like, nope, they completely nailed it. It feels great to play. Like, it's a joy to move around in. I'm like, okay, well then I'm on board. Like, they, they seem to really have understood what made the 2D game tick and actually managed to translate it to 3D, which was not a guarantee. Like they could have just as easily botched that. So. So, you know, I'm into it.
- [61:40]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah, it looks great. I'm gonna play it. Tomb Raider Legacy of Atlantis just announced the game awards remake of the original Tomb Raider. Cool. Awesome. Can't wait for that.
- [61:49]
Sam Claiborne
All in.
- [61:50]
Justin Davis
Yep.
- [61:50]
Damon Hadfield
And then the final two one or final three, Druxten Extreme is apparently still coming. Truxton being a very cool SEGA Genesis. Shmup Extreme was supposed to be out 2024. Supposed to be out 2025, now apparently coming 2027. Oh, also, maybe I'm. I've been pronouncing it wrong. Truxton, because on its. On its webpage, one of the taglines is, it's on like Truxt on. I guess it's Truxton. I've been saying Truxton all these years.
- [62:18]
Sam Claiborne
I don't know. But now that they heard you say that, they'll work really hard to change the name to be how you pronounce it before these episodes.
- [62:26]
Damon Hadfield
It's fun. Like Truxton. The new tagline.
- [62:28]
Justin Davis
There you go.
- [62:30]
Damon Hadfield
Another game I'd forgot about. Vampire Crawlers, the Turbo Wild card from. From Vampire Survivors. That's the official name of the game, by the way. Vampire Crawlers. The Turbo Wild card from Vampire Survivors.
- [62:40]
Sam Claiborne
That's fine.
- [62:41]
Justin Davis
Yeah, they're really leaning into the Turbo like it's a trademarked term. On its Steam page, it says master the Turbo Turn. Tm.
- [62:51]
Damon Hadfield
Obviously we love Vampire Survivors. This is a first person, pixel art, roguelike dungeon crawler with cards. Yep.
- [62:58]
Justin Davis
I mean, it's more than just like a meme or joke game. Like the. There's. And I'm not. I haven't played the game. I don't know if it's good or not. But the concept, the premise of like you're playing cards in sequential order. Like one that's worth costs one, one that costs two, one that costs three. And if you play cards in the right order, your turn could just keep going forever. So you have to kind of like plan your turnout the right way and build your deck the right way. And it's going to evoke, they're trying to evoke with cards that feeling in Vampire Survivors of just like, ah, I did everything perfectly and now I'm having a God turn. Like, it seems really clever. I'm really into it.
- [63:34]
Damon Hadfield
It's gonna be great. And finally from Nintendo will be Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, which looks like a kiddie Yoshi game, but, you know, it'll be fun to play with the kids.
- [63:46]
Sam Claiborne
We need like a year of Nintendo announcements to come so we know what's coming out next year because this is just clearly just the tip of the Nintendo iceberg. Yep.
- [63:54]
Damon Hadfield
Sam, you think in this game you can just. I'm going to swear for emphasis. Parents, do you think in this game you can just press a fucking button to use your tongue?
- [64:06]
Justin Davis
Yeah.
- [64:06]
Sam Claiborne
I mean, I think just because you're saying that they're going to add a tongue button to R type games coming up this year just to please you?
- [64:13]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah.
- [64:15]
Sam Claiborne
The wrathful God of the R type universe, Damon Hatfield. Is Marvel Rise of Hydra coming out still next year?
- [64:23]
Damon Hadfield
I mean, maybe. I think it's floating out there in the ether. I only didn't include it just because I don't know what the odds are of it actually coming out.
- [64:31]
Sam Claiborne
Okay.
- [64:32]
Justin Davis
It looks, looks rad though. But you Know, may end up being 2027. Making video games is hard, y'. All.
- [64:39]
Damon Hadfield
So Sam said Wolverine. This is most anticipated, mind you, that or Slay the Spire two. Justin, how about you?
- [64:44]
Justin Davis
Yeah, maybe slay the Spire two for me as well. Maybe. I mean, out of the stuff that as a, you know, it might be vampire crawlers.
- [64:52]
Damon Hadfield
I mean, sure, like that's totally, totally valid.
- [64:56]
Justin Davis
There's different most anticipated, like look for a big aaa, like, you know, the equivalent of like summer blockbuster. Like James Bond looks incredible. A lot of these games look incredible. But for like the, Me personally, like the Justin Davis, if there's some, if there's a Justice Award, like the Damie's Award, then yeah, it would be Vampire Crawlers.
- [65:15]
Sam Claiborne
I think if there is a Sammy's Award, it would be our Type two on Game Boy, but with different music.
- [65:22]
Damon Hadfield
Now, finally. Have you ever wanted to play R type DX with different music on every stage?
- [65:28]
Justin Davis
I think about it all the time.
- [65:30]
Sam Claiborne
I think about it more than Rome.
- [65:33]
Damon Hadfield
What's the madman line? I don't think about you ever.
- [65:36]
Justin Davis
Yeah, I don't think about you at all.
- [65:43]
Damon Hadfield
Okay. Extracurricular activities. This Christmas with my family, I watched a movie I'd never watched before. We watched the 1996 Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle, Jingle all the Way.
- [65:53]
Sam Claiborne
Oh, man. I was just thinking about that movie and was like, I've never seen it. But I, I, somebody was talking about it like it was a really, really bad, you know, 90s action movie. I've never seen it. What is it? What do you think?
- [66:05]
Damon Hadfield
It is bad, but I'm very glad I watched it. I had fun watching it. It's a bad, fun movie. There he is. That's what I wanted to point out.
- [66:11]
Sam Claiborne
Oh, look at that. No.
- [66:12]
Damon Hadfield
Jake Lloyd is in this movie. He's Arnold Child's son. I had no idea. I thought Phantom Menace was the first thing he had ever done.
- [66:19]
Sam Claiborne
Is he a better actor in this than he is?
- [66:22]
Damon Hadfield
The saddest part, Sam, he's totally good and totally cute. He's exactly what a child actor should be. Oh, no, it just makes it. It's entirely George Lucas's fault.
- [66:34]
Justin Davis
Oh, what a bummer.
- [66:36]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah, actually, it was a bummer. He's totally good and cute in this movie. He could have gone on to have, have a great child actor career. Oh, it's the one. Anyway, I liked Jungle all the Way. It was fun. The other movie I saw was Marty Supreme.
- [66:51]
Sam Claiborne
Yeah.
- [66:52]
Damon Hadfield
Anyone see it?
- [66:53]
Sam Claiborne
No, I can't wait.
- [66:55]
Damon Hadfield
It's very good. I went into it Just knowing it's the Timothee Chalamet ping pong movie.
- [67:00]
Sam Claiborne
You knew it was the Safdie situation.
- [67:02]
Damon Hadfield
I knew them, but I haven't seen Uncut Gems.
- [67:05]
Sam Claiborne
Oh, I hate that movie. But I, I think this looks better.
- [67:07]
Damon Hadfield
So I, I can't, I can't say whether you like this or not. It is a very stressful watch.
- [67:11]
Sam Claiborne
I, I think it'll be different. I know it's a stress watch to you.
- [67:13]
Damon Hadfield
It's a stressful watch. It's a good sort of like 1, 2. It'd be a good double feature with one battle after another because we're both very tense, stressful movies. So I liked Marty Supreme a lot. My wife liked it, but her sister did not like it. She doesn't, she doesn't like stressful movies, so it has divisiveness to it, but super well done.
- [67:31]
Sam Claiborne
I watched the, the third Knives out movie, Wake Up Dead Man.
- [67:35]
Damon Hadfield
Oh, yeah, you both watched. So Justin liked it. What did you think, Sam?
- [67:38]
Sam Claiborne
I loved it.
- [67:39]
Damon Hadfield
Okay.
- [67:39]
Sam Claiborne
I thought it was great.
- [67:39]
Justin Davis
Yeah.
- [67:40]
Damon Hadfield
All right, then I will watch it. Even though I did not like Glass Onion.
- [67:42]
Sam Claiborne
Oh, really?
- [67:43]
Justin Davis
It's, it's better than Glass Onion.
- [67:44]
Sam Claiborne
Okay. It's very different. Like, it's got a you. I, I, I'm going. And not knowing about it is worth. It's like, it's usually something I wouldn't like. It's like, set in, like, a heavily church based, you know, setup and, like. But it's good. It's really good. It has, like, both elements of, you know, this kind of like the good and badness of, like, being part of a church community in it. It's awesome. Like, it's just, oh, man, what a great movie.
- [68:11]
Damon Hadfield
All right, I will check it out. And then Sam, well, both of you, but Sam in particular, have you watched the new video from the Video Game History foundation? The, I think it's called the Untold Story of the NES on the, it's on the YouTube channel.
- [68:23]
Sam Claiborne
No, I'll check it out.
- [68:24]
Damon Hadfield
It's great. It's Frank, Frank Savaldi, whole toast. It. It's like a half hour long and it focuses on, like, Nintendo of America deciding how to bring the Famicom over.
- [68:37]
Sam Claiborne
To the US The VCR era. It's great.
- [68:39]
Damon Hadfield
It's really, really good. And it's all, like, new information. It's not the same old stories you've heard.
- [68:43]
Sam Claiborne
Oh, I can't wait to check that out, recommend it to you and to.
- [68:45]
Damon Hadfield
All of Scoop Nation.
- [68:46]
Sam Claiborne
That information doesn't get to me. Until Damon tells me it on a podcast. So did you finish Pluribus?
- [68:55]
Damon Hadfield
Oh, yes, yes, yes.
- [68:56]
Justin Davis
Yeah, I finished that. Yeah.
- [68:57]
Damon Hadfield
Purpose is great.
- [68:58]
Sam Claiborne
I think it's the best show of the year, like, easily. Although there's maybe some close. Close. Maybe it's not easily.
- [69:04]
Damon Hadfield
Don't forget about Andor. Andor also exists.
- [69:06]
Sam Claiborne
Yeah, I liked it a lot better than Andor. Frankly. I just thought it was a lot.
- [69:09]
Justin Davis
Of good television this year. I also finished Blurbus. I think people goof on the show because it's very. It's like, you know, it's like 20 minutes of plot stretched over like nine episodes. Like, it's very slow paced, but it's also just gorgeous and interesting. And I like that it's taking its time to really explore or, you know, like all of these conundrums that the world has gotten itself into.
- [69:32]
Sam Claiborne
I thought the slowness take was interesting because I feel like I'm so used to that from watching Better Call Saul.
- [69:37]
Damon Hadfield
It's exactly the same way. It's very show. Don't tell. You just watch the characters doing things instead of talking about doing things.
- [69:43]
Sam Claiborne
And I like thinking about what's happening in the show while it's happening and having that time to process, like, why this is interesting that they're showing a supermarket being restocked. I think that I know it works for me, so I like that Stranger Things is now working for me. So. Well, I think it's been fine and I want to watch the ending of it, but it's really hard to suspend my disbelief about the ages of the kids. There's just a lot of things happening in that show that they kind of like, were like. Well, there's still 1580s movies we haven't made yet within the, you know, the bookends of Stranger Things, let's get them all into season. It's like endless references and. And Stephen King things and sci fi things and TV things.
- [70:21]
Justin Davis
People really hate that second batch of episodes. The first batch people like, okay, oh, really?
- [70:26]
Sam Claiborne
I didn't realize that. So there's a distinction between the batches.
- [70:30]
Damon Hadfield
I bounced off Stranger Things back in season two. Oh, boy. So like Avatar. Stranger Things is just not something I'm interested in.
- [70:36]
Sam Claiborne
Oh, man. I watched the second Avatar movie, but I haven't seen the third one. Yeah, I didn't think it was too bad. It was bad, but it wasn't too bad.
- [70:45]
Damon Hadfield
In any case, Pluribus is great. Hopefully we don't have to wait. I'm sure it'll be two years. We have to wait for season two.
- [70:52]
Sam Claiborne
I mean with Apple though, you always double it. So if you think it's going to be two years, it's going to be four. And then severance will be the year after that.
- [70:58]
Damon Hadfield
But I mean back in the day, they got a new Game of Thrones season out every year. They got a new Breaking Bad season out every year.
- [71:03]
Sam Claiborne
I know there used to be a Castlevania game like once a month.
- [71:06]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah, once a month.
- [71:09]
Justin Davis
I watched F1. Oh, is that good movie? It's good. It's good. But it's a movie where I'll give you one anecdote from the movie and it tells you everything you need to know about the movie. Is Brad Pitt is like the veteran that's coming back to the sport and he's kind of butting heads. He's rivals even though they're teammates with the young hotshot. And the young hotshot is training with all this tech where he's got like an oxygen monitor on and it's sprinting on a treadmill and he's in this high tech gym doing all this high tech shit. And then Brad Pitt is running in like sweatpants on the track itself. And then they have an argument about like, like you're over the hill, old man. He's like, oh, I was racing before you were even born. And like that's the whole movie.
- [71:48]
Damon Hadfield
Okay.
- [71:49]
Sam Claiborne
You know, did he kill his wife? Get away with it?
- [71:53]
Justin Davis
But it's great, right? Like that's just know that that's what you're getting into, right? Is that like, you know he's training by like he's training his hand agility by like bouncing a tennis ball against the wall and catching it real fast. Like just stuff like that.
- [72:07]
Damon Hadfield
Is there exciting racing action?
- [72:09]
Justin Davis
Yeah.
- [72:09]
Damon Hadfield
Okay.
- [72:10]
Justin Davis
I mean it's, it's the Top Gun Maverick team, right? So you know like they, they basically remade that movie somehow. But it's F1.
- [72:19]
Damon Hadfield
Find and replace Brad Pitt for Tom Cruise.
- [72:22]
Justin Davis
Totally. Totally stupid. Totally.
- [72:24]
Damon Hadfield
Macro's in it.
- [72:26]
Justin Davis
Totally Good watch.
- [72:28]
Damon Hadfield
Mike's daughter in law from Better Call Saul.
- [72:30]
Sam Claiborne
Oh yeah, yeah.
- [72:32]
Damon Hadfield
She pops up in random stuff all the time. Okay, that brings us to the final video game 20 Questions of the year. We look forward in January to hearing from our. What's the word for it? Not stenographer. Someone who keeps track of all of our stats. Your win loss stats for the year.
- [73:04]
Justin Davis
Oh right, the superstition.
- [73:06]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah. Our suggestion this week comes from Matthew in Brooklyn. New York does have an anecdote, but it's a little spoilery so I'll save the anecdote until afterwards. And with that, let the questioning begin.
- [73:19]
Justin Davis
Did this game come out in the 70s, 80s, or 90s?
- [73:22]
Damon Hadfield
Yes.
- [73:25]
Justin Davis
Awesome.
- [73:25]
Sam Claiborne
That's good news.
- [73:27]
Justin Davis
Yeah.
- [73:28]
Sam Claiborne
Does the world of this game contain Brooklyn, New York, to the best of your knowledge?
- [73:34]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah, I'll say yes to that.
- [73:37]
Sam Claiborne
This is a new question I'm going to throw in there. Just to waste a question each day. No, it'll come back and be like.
- [73:42]
Justin Davis
Well, he doesn't want to have. But remember, Brooklyn takes place on Earth, most likely some version of Earth that we would recognize.
- [73:51]
Sam Claiborne
And it's not before the existence of the New York City Brooklyn.
- [73:56]
Justin Davis
So it can't be too historical.
- [73:57]
Sam Claiborne
Yeah.
- [73:59]
Justin Davis
Can't be like the Ming Dynasty. Yeah. It's not Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
- [74:05]
Sam Claiborne
I think we know this game. I think we're choosing Yo Noid because that takes place in a very Brooklyn.
- [74:10]
Justin Davis
Like I was gonna say, it's also definitely not tmnt. The Hyperstone Heist, which is a very New York coded game.
- [74:17]
Sam Claiborne
It's New York coded.
- [74:18]
Damon Hadfield
Why would it not be tmnt?
- [74:20]
Justin Davis
Because you were a little bit.
- [74:22]
Sam Claiborne
You would have known.
- [74:22]
Damon Hadfield
You'd be like, yes, okay, okay.
- [74:26]
Sam Claiborne
Exactly. Because the pizza style. So is this game based on a license?
- [74:36]
Damon Hadfield
It is in one territory, but not in others.
- [74:41]
Sam Claiborne
Oh, I love games like that. It's probably Chubby Cherry.
- [74:45]
Justin Davis
Yeah, that was California Raised something. Oh, boy. What does that mean?
- [74:52]
Sam Claiborne
Was this game available on the Nintendo Entertainment System?
- [74:55]
Damon Hadfield
Yes.
- [74:57]
Justin Davis
Yeah. I think you're pitching a softball. Right, right. Just on this one.
- [75:06]
Sam Claiborne
Okay, so there are some games like this, like Mick kids and Mickey Mouse games that were remade over here, like Kid Clown, and those are too deep cuts, so it's going to be something more obvious, but it should be interesting.
- [75:20]
Justin Davis
McKids is a pretty good guess.
- [75:22]
Sam Claiborne
There's like.
- [75:22]
Justin Davis
Is that on Earth? That game's not. McKids is in a fantasy land, isn't it? I don't know.
- [75:28]
Sam Claiborne
Well, it depends on where the kids come from in the McDonald's fantasy universe. Do they live in that universe or do they visit it? Just hang out with Grimace. Somebody will know this and write in for sure. Okay.
- [75:41]
Justin Davis
He's the one you want to avoid. Yeah.
- [75:43]
Sam Claiborne
A Hamburglar, too. So where we need to go with this. Was this developed in Japan?
- [75:50]
Damon Hadfield
Yes. That's five.
- [75:54]
Justin Davis
You can just run away with this one. Sam, Is this a cap?
- [75:57]
Damon Hadfield
No.
- [76:00]
Justin Davis
Okay.
- [76:03]
Sam Claiborne
Is this an Ultra or Konami or. Yes, those two companies came.
- [76:08]
Damon Hadfield
No.
- [76:09]
Sam Claiborne
Okay, then that's going to be a little bit harder than I thought. Do you play as a human?
- [76:13]
Damon Hadfield
Yes.
- [76:16]
Sam Claiborne
Did you play as a human in the other version of this game?
- [76:21]
Damon Hadfield
In all versions of this game, you play as a human.
- [76:24]
Sam Claiborne
Interesting. Okay, that should be all we need to know, right? Based on license somewhere, but not here. Wasn't Little Nemo because that's Capcom game. This is really interesting. Probably some anime game that kind of got paved over, you know?
- [76:46]
Justin Davis
Yeah, I don't know, man.
- [76:48]
Sam Claiborne
Was this game from before? Did this game have an arcade iteration?
- [76:52]
Damon Hadfield
Yes. That's 10.
- [76:53]
Sam Claiborne
Okay. Was the arcade game from before 1983?
- [76:56]
Damon Hadfield
No.
- [76:58]
Sam Claiborne
Did the arcade game use a joystick?
- [77:00]
Damon Hadfield
Yes.
- [77:04]
Sam Claiborne
Man, my brain is mushed. It's still going to be hard. But these are great clues. And you are human, right? Yeah.
- [77:13]
Justin Davis
That's not another question though.
- [77:15]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah, I know, I know. I didn't count it.
- [77:16]
Sam Claiborne
Yeah. So joystick, human game. New York exists, is on the nes, not from those big companies. See, what could this be? We gotta figure out what's some good combat questions that would help with this.
- [77:36]
Justin Davis
What about what if it's like a. What if it's like a car game and then it was licensed in one territory and not in another or something.
- [77:43]
Sam Claiborne
Yeah, Days of Thunder here, but it was just some crappy game somewhere else.
- [77:47]
Justin Davis
Yeah, exactly. Something like that.
- [77:51]
Sam Claiborne
Is this a side scrolling game? Yes. That's interesting.
- [77:55]
Justin Davis
Okay, So why can't it be McKids?
- [78:02]
Sam Claiborne
I mean it could be or tiny tunes or something like that. That does match up. I mean, I don't know what McKids was though. I don't know if that was actually a game. Is the license, this game based on something that's more, you know, food or consumer culture than. Than book or TV or movie culture?
- [78:30]
Damon Hadfield
No.
- [78:33]
Justin Davis
I don't want to, I don't want to fumble this one at the five yard line. Yeah, okay. And. And that also means that I'm back.
- [78:40]
Sam Claiborne
This seems really obscure.
- [78:42]
Justin Davis
I mean, what about the Bible games? But that wasn't made in Japan.
- [78:47]
Sam Claiborne
No, no, those are all made also.
- [78:52]
Justin Davis
Okay, so it's based off of a.
- [78:54]
Sam Claiborne
I mean there's like a whole catalog of these games. It's like, oh, that was a license error. But not here. I mean, even Nintendo ones, there was a Nintendo. Maybe we should go down that route.
- [79:04]
Justin Davis
I mean there was, there was Mario. It's Mario 2. It's probably Mario 2 because Doki Doki Panic was licensed.
- [79:09]
Sam Claiborne
Yeah, that's a good one.
- [79:10]
Justin Davis
Yeah, but that wasn't in arcades first. Yeah, yeah, the arcades first. That's a pretty good clue.
- [79:21]
Sam Claiborne
Did Nintendo have anything to do with. With publishing or developing this?
- [79:24]
Damon Hadfield
Yes. That's 15.
- [79:28]
Sam Claiborne
Okay. So I'm trying to think of what the game is.
- [79:32]
Justin Davis
I mean, they didn't do that much in arcades.
- [79:36]
Sam Claiborne
Yeah, Popeye. It's a license game.
- [79:40]
Justin Davis
Popeye.
- [79:42]
Sam Claiborne
But here it was licensed, too. I don't really get why it would be unlicensed.
- [79:48]
Justin Davis
What do we got? So they did.
- [79:50]
Sam Claiborne
But they also did some game. I don't know. It's on the tip of my brain. I cannot remember what it is. They did a game in Japan where, like, there it's like a very obvious, like, stupid licensed game, but here it wasn't. And I just don't know. There's some, like, arcade thing that happened like that. All right, where should we go with this?
- [80:11]
Justin Davis
I mean, I'm just thinking about Nintendo arcade games. There's not that many of them. You know, there's like, punch out.
- [80:17]
Sam Claiborne
I think Nintendo might have taken a game like. Oh, I think it's Balloon Fight is what I'm thinking of. Balloon Fight had a licensed version over there.
- [80:31]
Justin Davis
Is that true?
- [80:32]
Sam Claiborne
Yeah.
- [80:33]
Justin Davis
I didn't remember that.
- [80:35]
Sam Claiborne
Yeah, well, it's. There's a hello Kitty balloon fight game over there.
- [80:39]
Damon Hadfield
Whoa.
- [80:39]
Justin Davis
I didn't know that. That's cool.
- [80:43]
Damon Hadfield
I will say there are certain eras of the NES where if you narrow down to that era, all everything becomes.
- [80:51]
Sam Claiborne
Is this a black box game?
- [80:52]
Damon Hadfield
Yes.
- [80:53]
Sam Claiborne
Yeah.
- [80:53]
Justin Davis
No. Excite Bike. It's Excite Bike licensed in Japan.
- [80:58]
Sam Claiborne
Wrecking Crew. Excite Bike.
- [80:59]
Justin Davis
Wrecking Crew.
- [81:00]
Sam Claiborne
Ice Climbers, Ski.
- [81:03]
Justin Davis
Yeah.
- [81:04]
Sam Claiborne
Maybe one of arcade games, though. Clue, Land Devil World.
- [81:12]
Justin Davis
I mean. Yeah, Mario.
- [81:14]
Sam Claiborne
Have I mentioned this game yet?
- [81:15]
Damon Hadfield
No.
- [81:16]
Sam Claiborne
All right, that's your problem. Oh, Mike Tyson's Punch Out.
- [81:21]
Justin Davis
That's what it is. Oh, it is.
- [81:23]
Damon Hadfield
It is.
- [81:23]
Justin Davis
It is.
- [81:26]
Sam Claiborne
That was a stupid, stupid, stupid route to get to. Is this Mike Tyson's Punch out or just Punch Out?
- [81:33]
Justin Davis
So please, please accept both.
- [81:34]
Sam Claiborne
Yeah. Is this game about punching?
- [81:38]
Damon Hadfield
Nope.
- [81:39]
Sam Claiborne
Okay.
- [81:39]
Damon Hadfield
Whoa, whoa. I'm sorry. Is this game about punching?
- [81:42]
Sam Claiborne
Yeah.
- [81:43]
Damon Hadfield
Yes.
- [81:45]
Sam Claiborne
So it could be Urban Champion. It's a side scroller, so it's not punch out.
- [81:52]
Justin Davis
Oh, yeah, you're right.
- [81:53]
Sam Claiborne
Can flower pots fall on your head?
- [81:59]
Damon Hadfield
I'm not sure about that.
- [82:00]
Sam Claiborne
Okay. Is it a brawler?
- [82:01]
Damon Hadfield
Yes. And that is. You have one question.
- [82:03]
Sam Claiborne
Okay. Is it Urban Champion?
- [82:05]
Damon Hadfield
No, not Urban Champion. Kung Fu.
- [82:11]
Sam Claiborne
So what was the license that it's based on?
- [82:13]
Damon Hadfield
So this was made by IREM for arcades. It was based on. It was called Spark Spartan X in arcades. Based on, I think a movie Called Spartan X. Jackie Chan movie, I want to say.
- [82:22]
Sam Claiborne
Oh, wow.
- [82:22]
Justin Davis
Whoa. Yeah.
- [82:23]
Sam Claiborne
I didn't even know that.
- [82:24]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah, so I didn't know that until today.
- [82:25]
Sam Claiborne
That's really cool. That was a good 20 questions.
- [82:28]
Damon Hadfield
And then. Okay, Nintendo poured it. They actually developed the NES version themselves.
- [82:33]
Sam Claiborne
Okay. So they poured it from the arcade and they're just called it Kung Fu.
- [82:36]
Damon Hadfield
Kung Fu, Yeah.
- [82:38]
Justin Davis
In hindsight, yes. If we would have followed any other line of questioning, we would have gotten to Kung Fu on the nes in like 14 questions. But that's fine.
- [82:49]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah. Is it based in a world where Brooklyn is. Yeah, I think this. I think it was contemporary. Even though there's like some.
- [82:56]
Sam Claiborne
That's the right answer to this question.
- [82:57]
Damon Hadfield
Things happening there. Yeah. Interesting. Interesting situation where it was. Ari Rim made this arcade game and then Nintendo ported it over. According to Wikipedia, working on this side scrolling game is what gave Miyamoto the inspiration to make a side scrolling Super Mario Brothers.
- [83:11]
Sam Claiborne
You know, we really have to include the question, do you walk like a little dork in a game?
- [83:14]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah, it's funny.
- [83:16]
Justin Davis
Look, a two frame walk animation.
- [83:18]
Damon Hadfield
It's funny. Looking at this footage. Matthew from Brooklyn says it's the first game I really remember ever playing. I don't know why, but I used to be terrified when those little kids came running after you. I never thought of them as little kids myself. I don't know, fighters, little people.
- [83:32]
Justin Davis
He's kicking the shit out of those kids for sure.
- [83:34]
Damon Hadfield
Look at this guy. I had this game, it was a very early NES game for me and it was really fun. Yeah, it's a game that loops. You make it all the way to the top. You fight Mr. Mr. Big or Mr. Bad or something and then you just start all over again.
- [83:47]
Sam Claiborne
So if we had done all those questions and then got into Urban Champion, was that. Could it still have been Urban Champion or did we forget something in the process? I guess it wasn't.
- [83:56]
Damon Hadfield
Lord Urban Champion doesn't scroll.
- [83:58]
Sam Claiborne
Scroll.
- [83:59]
Justin Davis
Really?
- [84:00]
Sam Claiborne
Oh, did we ask. We just asked. Suicide scrolling. Yeah.
- [84:03]
Damon Hadfield
So yeah, it's a single screen game.
- [84:06]
Justin Davis
Killing me in the butterflies.
- [84:07]
Sam Claiborne
Yeah.
- [84:08]
Damon Hadfield
I don't know if a flower pot falls on your head. It might.
- [84:10]
Justin Davis
Yeah.
- [84:10]
Sam Claiborne
I don't remember, but that just happened in the 80s all the time.
- [84:14]
Damon Hadfield
Yep.
- [84:14]
Justin Davis
Yeah, that and Quicksand were really big theories. Was a real threat.
- [84:19]
Damon Hadfield
Good thing we solved that quicksand problem. A fun fact. So this is out in 85 in arcades and the NES. In 85 it was ported to the Atari 2687.
- [84:30]
Justin Davis
Yeah.
- [84:31]
Sam Claiborne
I mean you can See that, that probably wasn't too difficult.
- [84:34]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah, but you kick that guy's head off.
- [84:38]
Sam Claiborne
But he's fine.
- [84:39]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah, he's fine. Five thousand points, Kung Fu. Nicely attempt. Thank you for the suggestion, Matthew in Brooklyn, New York. Viewers and listeners, if you have your own suggestions for video game 20 questions, email them to me at the email address gamescoopgn.com and that is all the scoops we have for you for 2025. Thank you for hanging out with us all year long. We love everyone out there in scoop Nation. Please be excited for much more scoops in 2025. 6. Thank you, Sam. Thank you, Justin. Thank you to Gilbert. Working behind the scenes, make this episode possible. My name is Damon, this is IGN gamesu, and we'll see you next year.
- [85:29]
Justin Davis
Sam.
- [86:09]
Damon Hadfield
The other night I watched the Rise of Skywalker with Kingo, and obviously that movie is a huge mess. And yet when the music's going and I'm just answering questions about Star wars for Kingo, I'm still having fun.
- [86:21]
Sam Claiborne
Which is that second or third? That's the third.
- [86:23]
Damon Hadfield
The last one.
- [86:24]
Sam Claiborne
I was thinking about watching Force Awakens, but then I was like, ah, probably is a little bit boring to rewatch that now because I got all these pictures that were, like, seeing it at the premiere, you know, like 10 years ago. Exactly. Which is crazy.
- [86:34]
Justin Davis
I don't. I don't hate the third one. I hate. I think the premise is stupid. You mean the clone returned is stupid? Yeah, Palpatine coming back is stupid and the end is stupid. But what I like. What I like about it is the three of them are together going on an adventure.
- [86:50]
Damon Hadfield
At least they're together. Who's that? They do two dumb fake outs with. Oh, we're erasing C3PO's memory. Oh, no, it's back. Oh, Chewie's dead. Oh, no, he's back.
- [86:59]
Sam Claiborne
Really? I don't remember the C3PO part.
- [87:02]
Justin Davis
And he's like, oh, I just want to get one last look at my friends.
- [87:05]
Sam Claiborne
So was that the one? What happened? It was like Rian Johnson did the middle one. Then J.J. abrams came back into the third one.
- [87:10]
Damon Hadfield
Yeah, like, ah.
- [87:11]
Sam Claiborne
But the foundation of the. The Rian Johnson one kind of screwed up what J.J. abrams would have done, which would be just to remake Star wars over and over again.
- [87:18]
Damon Hadfield
Again.
- [87:19]
Justin Davis
I mean, I think Last Jedi is incredible, but there's no denying that it completely undid and unmade. It's like Kylo Ren has this cool mask and he's like, nah, your mask is stupid. Destroy it. You know. And then, like. And then. And then kill.
- [87:32]
Sam Claiborne
They never do the Knights of Ren backstory ever.
- [87:35]
Damon Hadfield
Nope, nope, nope.
- [87:36]
Justin Davis
Yeah, so. So Rian Johnson did screw a little bit. Like, I already forget his stupid name. Whoever the villain is, like, kills him.
- [87:43]
Damon Hadfield
Snoke.
- [87:44]
Justin Davis
You know? Yeah, Snoke. So they were kind of written into a corner a little bit. I don't know. I don't think it's, like, a good movie, but I don't have this hate for it.
- [87:56]
Damon Hadfield
Like I said, I had a perfectly fine time just watching it with Kingo.
- [88:00]
Justin Davis
I think with a different 20 minutes at the end, that movie would have hit different.
- [88:05]
Damon Hadfield
And even though it's dumb that they brought Palpatine back, Ian McDormand's performance is really good.
- [88:11]
Justin Davis
Yeah, it's creepy.