Game Scoop! 840: New Nintendo E-slop Games

Summary

Game Scoop! 840: New Nintendo E-slop Games

Date: January 16, 2026
Host: Damon Hatfield
Panel: Sam Claiborne, Justin Davis, Mark Medina
Podcast Network: IGN & Geek Media

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Episode Overview

On this week's episode, the Game Scoop! crew returns from the holiday break, diving into the latest in gaming news and culture. They dissect the quality (and quantity) of new Nintendo eShop slop (low-effort, often AI-generated games), wax nostalgic about old-school classics, and discuss the state of indie puzzle games and genre evolution. The panel reviews recent games they've been playing, shares hilarious reactions to bizarre Nintendo Switch games, and fields listener questions before taking on the traditional 20 Questions gaming challenge.

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Main Topics & Key Discussion Points

"Dispatch" – Telltale-Style Superhero Interactive Series

[03:00–10:23]

• Damon has been playing Dispatch on Sam's recommendation and is pleasantly surprised by the game's high production value and script:
  • Developed by Ad Hoc Studios (ex-Telltale devs).
  • "It's like really well written. It's fun. The premise is our main character—played by Aaron Paul—is a superhero, but he doesn't have any superpowers. He just has a giant mech suit but his mech suit gets destroyed..."
    (Damon, 04:08)
  • Jeffrey Wright plays a speedster who has aged physically from running so much—a running joke in the narrative.
  • The gameplay is less “video gamey” than old Telltale titles; “more like an interactive TV show.”

    "I would say the video game elements definitely take the backseat, which, again, I would say is a good thing. Like, treat it more like a season of television."
    (Justin, 05:56)

  • Episodic release (“could’ve come out as one package, but they wanted the TV experience”), with Critical Role talent helping establish comedy and tone.
  • Contains a light dispatch strategy minigame where players assign superheroes to oddball emergencies—fun, low-stakes, silly.

"Hightail" – Early Access Minecraft Competitor

[11:05–17:21]

• Hightail is generating buzz as a polished “Minecraft 2,” though still barebones:
  • “It is far below Minecraft, obviously, because Minecraft has had so long to add stuff and this is extremely early access. ...You’ll find, like, an entrance to a dungeon… and it literally has an under construction sign that says, like, work in progress on it.”
    (Justin, 12:11)
  • Core focus is on improved building, RPG elements, dungeons—not yet implemented.
  • Quality-of-life upgrades (e.g., chests interface with crafting) are immediately better than in Minecraft.
  • Riot Games acquired the devs, then dropped them; now independently publishing.
  • Game’s quick launch likely a cash flow strategy for continued development. Community response is contingent on rapid content updates.

Retro & Indie Game Chat: Double Fine’s “Keeper”

[19:18–20:41]

• Sam has finished Double Fine’s Keeper:
  • Praises “unbelievable” visuals, slower pace, and whimsical design.
  • Hopes Double Fine keeps making “dinky tiny games”—sometimes they’re surprises.

Echo the Dolphin Returns (?)

[23:22–27:59]

• Unexpected headline: Multiple Echo the Dolphin games are apparently in development, remasters included.
  • Unanimous surprise at the return.
  • Echo remembered as “impossibly hard,” with an infamous mid-game twist involving aliens.
  • Speculation on what a remaster could possibly add, jokes about Final Fantasy-style bad remasters.

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The Nintendo eShop “Seal of Quantity” Parade

[28:00–44:47]

Exposing the E-Slop:

Damon spotlights a series of new, notably low-quality, AI-touched, sometimes surreal Switch games featured in Nintendo’s own email promos.

• Mom Life Simulator [28:33]
  • Sloppy AI art, sexist premise, and broken English in promo screenshots.

  • “This game is extremely sexist. For two. Were the dad and the kid dead? And she propped up the dead bodies...?” (Mark, 29:16)

• AAA Games Ultimate Collection [31:38]
  • Brazen title—includes nothing close to actual AAA games.

  • “I suspect that they don’t even know that that’s an industry term, AAA.” (Sam, 32:14)

  • $80 list price, on sale for $6.99.
• Battle Tanks Animal Wars [34:09]
  • Confusing product: There are no animals visible; they’re apparently piloting tanks.

  • “Where are the animals?” (Damon, 34:29)

• Clothing Store Simulator [35:13]
  • Lo-fi graphics, another entry in the “work simulator” genre.
  • Sam: “How do you get a game to look this lo-fi?”
• Need for Race: Street King [37:03]
  • Shameless Need for Speed knockoff with laughable visuals.

  • “The car doesn’t have a shadow. … Those buildings... look like twisted metal on the PS1.” (Justin, 37:52)

• Sheriff Park Ranger [38:58]
  • AI artwork features a hero whose hat grows and shrinks inconsistently; panel is in hysterics over “hat progression.”
• The End of the Beginning of Courage, Reasoning, and Seaweed 10 [41:50]
  • Incomprehensible title; listing’s icon is a blurry text smear.

  • "I appreciate that. What... what's happening under of?" (Mark, 42:30)

• Panel debates—Why does Nintendo email these to fans?
  • Damon: “I only know this exists because Nintendo emailed me about it. … Nintendo’s like, here’s a new game that you can…”
  • Mark: “How does Doug Bowser get that email?” [44:27]

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Listener Mailbag ([47:32–53:12])

Where Did All the Great Puzzle Games Go?

From “Big Tony Style”:

• Asks about the disappearance of “PopCap-style” games (Plants vs. Zombies, Peggle).
• Panel response:
  • Justin: “PopCap’s still around but yeah, they’re not making games like that anymore. Plants vs Zombies 2 was an overly aggressive monetization mess... Free to play crushed them.” [48:29–50:43]
  • Puzzle/short session games now mostly displaced by service games or mobile F2P.
  • Still hope in the indie space—look to Xbox/Nintendo indie directs.
  • Justin lists some new “gambling-coded roguelikes” that echo classic puzzle fun.

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20 Questions Stats & Community Fun [53:12–56:33]

• Listeners Greg Kelly and Matt Reed keep thorough stats on the show’s game-guessing performance, including win rates per host.
• 2025: 70.2% win rate; Sam played the most, Mark has the highest individual win rate (80%).

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Video Game 20 Questions Challenge [56:33–72:58]

Game: Advance Wars: Days of Ruin (Nintendo DS, 2008)

Highlights:

• The panel struggles to pinpoint a 2D, non-platformer, Nintendo-published, handheld game with no Smash Bros. character and no direct sequel.
• Several genre diversions (puzzle, rhythm, sim), before zeroing in on strategy.
• Sam and Mark guess “Advance Wars,” zero in on “Days of Ruin.”
• Damon provides trivia: Days of Ruin went much darker in tone, wasn’t released in Japan until 2013 (!).

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Notable Quotes & Moments

“The Nintendo seal of quantity is your assurance that literally no one at Nintendo is paying any attention to what games are being published on the eShop.”
(Damon, 28:01)

“I can’t imagine playing this on a Switch. That looks like a PC game.”
(Mark, 35:57, on Clothing Store Simulator)

“I would like to think these are all generated by some kind of video game college class.”
(Sam, 38:32)

“Damon, you don’t play either of those games. Look, it’s like Minecraft in the sense that it’s a blocky 3D world, but the art styles are different. … This is higher res and has a higher level of detail.”
(Justin, 18:30, on Hightail)

“If you put up Battlefield 6, I wouldn’t know the difference.”
(Damon, 18:21)

“The car doesn’t have a shadow. … Those buildings look like twisted metal on the PS1.”
(Justin, 37:52)

“He arrested somebody. Well, look—look at his hat right there. … The truck and the hat have issues.”
(Sam/Mark, 39:55–40:06, on Sheriff Park Ranger)

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Timestamps of Key Segments

• [03:00–10:23] Dispatch (Ad Hoc Studios) Dissection
• [11:05–17:21] Hightail Early Access Review
• [19:18–20:41] Double Fine’s Keeper
• [23:22–27:59] Echo the Dolphin News
• [28:00–44:47] Nintendo eShop Slop Parade
• [47:32–53:12] Listener Mailbag: Puzzle Games
• [53:12–56:33] 20 Questions Stats
• [56:33–72:58] 20 Questions: Advance Wars: Days of Ruin
• [72:58–end] Outro, banter, and post-show AI-avatar conversation

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Tone & Style

• Lively, irreverent, and fun-loving.
• Panelists regularly riff off each other’s jokes, especially when reviewing laughably bad Switch games.
• Deep knowledge of both modern and retro gaming history on display.

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Conclusion

This episode delivers a quintessential Game Scoop! mix: a blend of sincere games criticism, retro love, quick-witted banter, and an in-depth look at an industry overwhelmed by quantity over quality. Whether you’re here for serious game recs (Dispatch, Hightail) or for a guided tour through the depths of the eShop’s “seal of quantity,” this is a must-listen for anyone who loves gaming culture, community, and comedy in equal measure.

Transcript

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[Damon Hadfield]

Welcome back. No what's up everybody? Welcome to IGN gamescoop. I'm your host, Damon Hadfield. Joining me this week are Sam Claiborne.

[Sam Claiborne]

Hey, it's Good to be back.

[Damon Hadfield]

Justin Davis Scoop and Mark Medina.

[Mark Medina]

I'm here Damon.

[Damon Hadfield]

We've got a great show for you this week. As teased by a teaser trailer earlier this week, the Nintendo seal of quantity has returned with a fresh batch of Nintendo E Slop as Sam.

[Mark Medina]

We got a trailer.

[Damon Hadfield]

Sam.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, I saw that trailer.

[Damon Hadfield]

There was a teaser trailer for it.

[Sam Claiborne]

It said it was good. I saw it on Facebook.

[Damon Hadfield]

So that'll be coming up. And then I've read a really weird headline this week that I have to share with the class and we've got some good listener mail. But first, on Sam's recommendation, I've been playing dispatch and it's great.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

How many episodes are you in?

[Damon Hadfield]

Three.

[Sam Claiborne]

There's eight episodes.

[Damon Hadfield]

I've been in three.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, that's a great place to stop.

[Damon Hadfield]

Just. Oh, I just do one. I just do like one a night. They take like an hour. What do you mean stop?

[Sam Claiborne]

No, no, I don't mean stop playing personally. I'm just saying you've gotten a good. You've gotten a good taste for it.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, yeah. It's not just been doing like one a night. They last about an hour and this wasn't really on my radar. I don't know like Mark, Justin have either you check this out.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I started playing it over break and then was out of town and stuff so but like I'm excited to pick it up and finish it.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, so I'll talk about it a little bit because like I said this wasn't. This was kind of a blind spot for me. But it's from Ad hoc studios which is former Telltale Telltale devs. So it's a very telltale type game, you know, adventure. You watch a lot of it but that's fine. It's really high quality. It's made with, you know, critical role is involved somehow. I don't know what they're but it feels. I watched their show the legend of Vox Machina the animated show which is like a comedy D and D type show and very similar type of comedy here. But it's really good. It's like really well written. It's fun. The premise is our main character who's played by Aaron Paul. Oh yeah. It's a World war superhero. So it's kind of like invincible or the boys superheroes exist and they're employed by companies. Aaron Paul is the main guy. He's a superhero but he doesn't have any superpowers. He just has a giant mech suit but his mech suit gets destroyed. So he can't superhero anymore. So he goes to work as a dispatch at the company that, like, you know, sends the superheroes out to fight crimes. First of all, I don't know if you agree, Sam. It's just nice to hang out with Aaron Paul again, 100%.

[Sam Claiborne]

He's such a welcoming, great voice and a little bit, well, very different character, but just still like, has this kind of cleverness to him and a friendliness, which is interesting when he's even being a dick. I just think he's really. He's really attractive as a personality in this game. It's great.

[Damon Hadfield]

I mean, Aaron Paul's got a great voice, and you can tell he's taking it very seriously. He's done other animation work, like BoJack Horseman.

[Justin Davis]

Right.

[Damon Hadfield]

So he's great. And then also Jeffrey Wright is in.

[Sam Claiborne]

It as a completely different character.

[Damon Hadfield]

Just like. Yeah, a completely different character from anything you've ever seen him in. He's great. He plays a superhero, like a speedster who, all the years that he was running around fast, he didn't realize it was also, like, accelerating his lifespan. So he's only in his 30s, but he's an old man and he's. He's great. He's hilarious.

[Sam Claiborne]

And it becomes a point of a lot of jokes. And it's really good.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, it's super good. So it's episodic. Just like, you know, the Walking Dead or the old Telltale Games were. And you, you, you watch a lot, you know, you make dialogue choices and then, you know, so and so will.

[Sam Claiborne]

Remember that you don't move around. So it's different than Walking Dead that way.

[Damon Hadfield]

You're never control.

[Sam Claiborne]

You walk around and it's like. It's a good thing.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, it's less video gamey. I mean, whereas Walking Dead was like a video game that was sort of like a television show, this is a lot more of like an interactive television show. I would say the video game elements definitely take the backseat, which, again, I would say is a good thing. Like, treat it more like a season of television.

[Damon Hadfield]

If this were just a season of television, it would still be good if it weren't a game at all.

[Sam Claiborne]

Completely agree. In fact, I think it's a better take on this than boys. I love pools. I love the spinoff. I love Gen B. I love everything about it. But I think this universe, even in this little, like, dabbling in it and how they handle it, it's better acted, it's more interesting, and it has a bigger heart in the Right. Places and still has the gross stuff and all that stuff.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, I had like never even heard of it. And then one of my co workers was like, are you guys going to do the Dispatch finale tomorrow? And he was just talking about it like it was a TV show. I was so confused.

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, I'm a little confused too. I mean, obviously this blows past you in trailers and stuff because it doesn't look like a game. Right. That's. That's a problem for it. But it's. It was. I did see the buzz at the time. Like I was not. I was aware of it once it came out, but I did not. I was not aware of it until it came out well.

[Justin Davis]

And also the decision to release it episodically, like these episodes were so clearly done. You know, they could have just released it as one thing. And they chose to kind because like what the episodes came out either weekly or bi weekly, like very, very quickly. Like they were coming out with episode after episode. And so I think that that was smart. Like, unlike Telltale, where like those came out once a month and it's like they were making it as they went, like, okay, we need to go like finish the next episode. Yeah, but this is clearly not that. Right. This was their choice to make it more television. Like by be like come back in a week or two for the next chapter.

[Sam Claiborne]

So then it has this overlay to it. So it has this extremely high quality dramatic action superhero show that you watch. You choose consequences and the consequences matter. There's two romantic interests and like that really matters in it. I have chose of course chose the famous beautiful blonde woman, which would be no surprise. And there's another character who's like a villain that's become a good hero. That is the other romantic characters. But there's an overlay which was kind of a little bit of a real time strategy game where you. Where you're sending your dispatchees out to things and it doesn't make sense. It's not intuitive. And then once it is intuitive, by the end of the game, I really liked it enough that I would play more of it. It was really fun and I got really good. Only by the last chapter I was getting totally bad ranks because I was kind of having fun screwing up because it doesn't matter. The story's going to progress anyway. And I don't know, it was low stakes and really funny and cool. And basically you have to decide what your heroes who all have stats, that they may be a talker, they may be a, you know, a Good detector. They may be really fast. Yeah. And then you just read the description. It's like a cat stuck in a tree. And it's like, well, who's going to be best for that? And there may be a little hint, like, you know, the owner is freaking out. And, like, you can talk that to the owner about it. Right. And so you're a talkie person. But it might be like the cat turns out to be. I think this is a real instance. Like, the cat's actually a tiger. It's like, what are you doing? It's like, punch the shit out of it. If you sent a fighter, that might actually work, but if not, you're gonna get attacked and your fighter's gonna get knocked out. It's smart.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, yeah. That's the. There is an actual dispatch game sort of like in the middle of each episode surrounded by the story that you watch. And like Sam said, it takes a couple episodes to get the hang of the game. But I think once you realize it, it's clever. It's clever, it's fun. It's like a kind of a real time strategy sort of exercise. It's good.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. I think, I remember reading. I think it's been a big hit. Like, I think it's been a big success. So, you know, bodes well that hopefully.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. Sorry it's late to Scoop Nation, but better late than never. And I really think people that listen to this show will find a lot to connect with, with this game specifically. It's a good, good Scoop game. A real Scoop gem.

[Damon Hadfield]

And like I. Yeah, like I said, it was from Ad Hoc. It's their first release as Ad Hoc, but Ad Hoc was formed in 2018, so it took them a long time. They're also ostensibly working on the wolf Among Us 2, so I don't know, it's. It's taking a long time. Maybe that maybe, Maybe this is a reason why Wolf Among Us 2 is taking so long. I don't know.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. Or that this is. Took. Took precedent.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Or something.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

But do you know where is Torrance, California? Where. Where it takes place?

[Damon Hadfield]

It is my next door neighbor, where I live in Redondo Beach. It's the next city over. Oh, wow, that's another point. Yeah. So it feels I'm like, you know, solving crimes in my own backyard in this game. It's great.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is it? So they go to a bar called Sardine, which is like, that's an actual venue I played and been to, but I don't think it's the Same thing. Have you got to the episode yet?

[Damon Hadfield]

I don't think so, but.

[Sam Claiborne]

Because that's like not in Torrance and it's. It's. Yeah, it's confusing. Anyway, I can't tell if it's real locations or not.

[Damon Hadfield]

Torrance has all the best Asian food in the South Bay.

[Sam Claiborne]

Nice.

[Damon Hadfield]

Anyway, that's dispatch. I'm enjoying that. Anyone else playing anything want to shout out?

[Justin Davis]

I mean, I think Mark and I are both playing hightail.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

Which one is that? Is that the one that, like, is. Is blown up?

[Mark Medina]

That's the Minecraft one.

[Justin Davis]

The Minecraft clone.

[Mark Medina]

Okay.

[Justin Davis]

It's.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's.

[Mark Medina]

It's cool. I.

[Sam Claiborne]

The.

[Damon Hadfield]

The.

[Mark Medina]

One of the first lines in our review is that it's just Minecraft 2 and that is 100% correct.

[Justin Davis]

Y.

[Mark Medina]

Like, content wise, it is far below Minecraft, obviously, because Minecraft has had so long to, like, add stuff and this is extremely early access. It's only this survival mode. You'll go into certain places and it'll just be like, this is a work in progress. You can't do this yet. It doesn't launch with adventure.

[Justin Davis]

This game's whole main way it's going to differentiate itself from Minecraft is that it's a lot more sort of progression oriented and RPG oriented and is going to have dungeons and stuff for you to go out in the world to do. That's its whole thing. And none of that's in the game yet. Like, anytime you're in the world, and I think our review in progress talks about this, you. You'll find like an entrance to a dungeon or you'll find like, you know, some cool ruin. And it literally has like an under construction sign that says, like, work in progress on it. And you just can't go in.

[Mark Medina]

So, like, you can farm animals, they don't do anything. Yeah, you can ride a horse, but when you get off, it just runs away.

[Justin Davis]

I'm really loving it. Like, the game is really polished. It's really good. It's really impressive. It has. I actually like the building more than I like the building in Minecraft. So it's kind of unbelievable that, like, it. It almost embarrasses Mojang in Minecraft in some ways where, like, animations feel smoother and the building feels a little bit more robust and there's small quality of life features. I don't know if you saw this mark, but, like, if you're in a crafting table trying to build this, that or the other, it'll automatically pull things. The Crafting table will have access to and see things that are in nearby storage chests. And like, people have been asking for that in Minecraft for literally a decade. And like, this game that's been in early access for one day just did it. So, like. But. But it's not really much of a. It's like, it's extremely early access. Like, there's just not kind of much to it yet from a gameplay perspective.

[Sam Claiborne]

Even though it's been developing for like eight years or something.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, like 10 years. It's.

[Mark Medina]

It's like. Yeah, I watched the whole story and it's like I. It's not in development for eight years. It was just announced eight years ago and went through a little bit of a limbo.

[Justin Davis]

Well, and they like this. This developer. It's a. It's a crazy story. Like, the very short version is that they were acquired by Riot.

[Damon Hadfield]

So.

[Justin Davis]

So, like, the League of Legends developer and publisher bought the developer, they owned them and funded the game for years and years and years. And then it was stuck in, like, development hell and they were like, redoing the engine from scratch. And then eventually Riot said, now we're done. Like, we're canceling the game. We're shutting it down. And that was last year and the original developer brought it back and then six months later is just able to release it.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

Like, it seems crazy to be like.

[Sam Claiborne]

Like, why somebody should do that with Half Life 3.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

And so, like, there's all kinds of little details. Like, just. There's more decorations and like, bits and bobs, like, sort of in the dungeons and around, you know, that you can place in your house. Like, I really like it, but I played it for two or three evenings. I mean, since it came out. So, yeah, this is like two. Two evenings I've played it and I feel like I've kind of seen. I'm like, okay. Like, well, I'll come back in a year when there's more game. Like, there's kind of not too much more for me to do.

[Mark Medina]

H. Yeah. Game gameplay wise, it feels very, like, very updated. The combat is actually fun. You can jump much higher. You vault if. If you know, like, you.

[Justin Davis]

You like that it seems to have.

[Sam Claiborne]

Numbers when you attack.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, yeah. And Justin mentioned with the storage, it's got the. The beautiful thing that I've only other. I know I'm sure it's in other games, but I've only ever seen it V Rising, where it's like the add stacks feature where you just like open a storage container and you click a button and everything that is in your inventory automatically gets added if there's already stuff in there so you don't have to like sort through it just makes everything faster. Well, Minecraft is kind of in that world of Warcraft slump, right? Where it's like it can't really change because people are just so used to how it is and it runs on everything. So this feels like an actual like update to, to Minecraft.

[Justin Davis]

I was totally impressed. I liked it more than I thought I would, but there's just, there's just not much content yet. And so for me it's really going to be like, you know, how quickly, like are we waiting months for them to be like, oh, we added new mobs and we, you know, improve the farming? Or is it going to, are they going to be able to get updates out quickly? Like that's going to determine how much time I spend in it. But so far so good. Great.

[Sam Claiborne]

You know, their numbers are huge, so they have like this like huge player base and a bunch of streamers playing it, which must make every single company on earth be like, should we have just made a Minecraft clone?

[Damon Hadfield]

What are we doing?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, this is allowed. We can just do this.

[Justin Davis]

I've heard, and again, a lot of this isn't in the game yet, but I've heard that this is Terraria, but Minecraft where like if like Terraria has like 30 some bosses in it and it's a lot more adventure oriented and RPG oriented, but it's a 2D game. Right. Whereas this is, this is trying to be that, but in a 3D sort of voxel engine.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean that sounds super cool.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I mean I hope it delivers on that.

[Mark Medina]

I like it. My only like thing and this is purely as a video guides maker for ign. This is a very unique problem is that I was like excited to cover this game and then there's just like not a whole lot to it. And my fear is that the release was bungled a little and that by the time they add adventure mode it's gonna, it's going to be really tough to get people to come back. And I'm sure that's something they thought about. But my guess is because their first like thing was like this, you know, releasing the game funded the next two years of development. It, it kind of makes me think that because they went indie they're like, we have to release something because we need cash flow to be able to do the rest of the stuff.

[Justin Davis]

That's the attitude I have as well. And that, that's why I'm going to keep an eye on it. And it's like, you know, it's January 15th. If, like, hey, the first week in February they're like, we added a dungeon and then in March they added a new enemy and then they add a boss. Like, if they able to get that stuff out at a good clip, then this will, then this will be big. But if they can't, then, then I think, I agree, interest is going to kind of fade.

[Sam Claiborne]

Remember Telltale's Minecraft story mode?

[Justin Davis]

I do. I reviewed it with Pat.

[Mark Medina]

Pat?

[Sam Claiborne]

No way.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. That was one of the last games I reviewed for ign.

[Sam Claiborne]

Wow.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

I don't look at the work in progress. Work in progress. I don't know the answer to this, Justin. Maybe you do. But like, how are they allowed to do this? Like, it's just Minecraft and they're selling it.

[Justin Davis]

I mean, there's been games that were closer copies. Like, it's, it's. I mean it is just Minecraft. But like, you know, the farming works different, the crafting works different, the building works a little bit different. Like, you know, the furnaces work a little bit different. Like so I don't think, I mean.

[Mark Medina]

There'S been closer copies, but yesterday I got stuck in a cave and I couldn't find my way out. So what I did was I chopped above me and then jumped and built under me just like I did in Minecraft. And it's like, I don't know. I'm like, huh?

[Justin Davis]

I don't know. I mean, I think that these games are as close as, like Battlefield and Call of Duty are.

[Damon Hadfield]

I was just going to say, you know, we could be talking about Minecraft and if you put this footage up, I would think it's Minecraft. We could be talking about Call of Duty. But if you put up Battlefield 6, I wouldn't know the difference.

[Justin Davis]

I mean, but you, but Damon, you don't play either of those games like this, this like, look, it's like Minecraft in the sense that It's a blocky 3D world, but the art styles are different. I would say like this is, this is higher res and has a higher level of detail.

[Damon Hadfield]

Exactly. It does look a little bit better than Minecraft does to my eye.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. When, when, like, because I. There was like rain falling and it's not, it's cute in Minecraft. So I'm not dogging. But instead of like the little like kind of, you know, blocky raindrops hitting the ground, like it actually just looks like rain going into grass type of deal.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's like Minecraft 64, man.

[Mark Medina]

I think Minecraft has Minecraft 64. This is Minecraft PS4 until you go.

[Sam Claiborne]

Back and play Nintendo 64 games and.

[Damon Hadfield]

Then you realize how far off Sam, anything you've been playing.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, I also finished Keeper.

[Damon Hadfield]

Oh, yeah. Which was Double Fine.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, yeah. And I. Yeah. I mean that game is unbelievable looking. It's very, very slow and puts me to sleep. But it's ended up being like a interesting, you know, kind of like Fraggle Rock type world that you walk through and a bunch of crazy stuff happens in it is interesting. What I like about it is it means that Double Fine can make a bunch of little dinky tiny games and every once in a while one will be amazing, which is what they should be doing.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. Someone mentioned stacking recently. That was like the nesting doll game, right? Like that was great. Yeah. And didn't they have like a mech game where they had to change the name, like Iron Assault or something? Oh yeah, it was an XP like game. But then they had to like Costume Quest.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, yeah, something like that.

[Damon Hadfield]

I was trying to think of that. What the name of that game? Iron Brigade. I don't know.

[Mark Medina]

I think in hindsight puzzles or is it just like things to interact with?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, but they're like the slowest, easiest puzzles you could ever imagine in your life.

[Mark Medina]

So things to interact with.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

Okay.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's really like a. It's almost like a scavenger's rain type thing. They like made. They made an environment. They really want to show it to you. Everything's thought of and interesting and fits in that world, but it's not, you know, it's not really gamified. Too strong.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. So flower Journey, those types of things.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

One in five Americans have learned a new language on their bucket list. If that's you make 2026 the year you finally check it off with with Babbel, the language app that makes grammar fun and is actually worth your time. Learning a language with Babbel is all about small steps, big wins and progress. You can actually track and feel. Their bite sized lessons fit easily into your daily routine and are also easy to remember. Just 10 minutes a day is enough to start seeing real results. Their courses are designed by over 200 language experts, real human beings to teach you relevant words and phrases you'll actually use so you can start speaking with confidence in as little as three weeks. Babbel lets you practice real life conversations step by step without the stress. You'll build the confidence to speak up when it matters. From ordering a coffee to chatting with new friends abroad. I've used Babbel to brush up on my Spanish before traveling to Mexico and to learn a little Dutch on a visit to Amsterdam earlier this year. Here's a special limited time deal for our listeners right now. Get up to 55% off your Babbel subscription at babbel.com gamescoop get up to 55% off babbel.com gamescooop spelled B A B-B-E-L.com gamescoop rules and restrictions may apply now that the holidays are over, you might be feeling like you've got a big spending hangover. The drinks, the holiday food, the gifts, it all adds up. Luckily, Mint Mobile is here to help you Cut back on overspending on wireless this January with 50% off unlimited premium wireless. Mint Mobile's end of year sale is still going on, but only until the end of the month. Cut out Big Wireless's bloated plans and unnecessary monthly charges with 50% off 3, 6, 6 or 12 months of unlimited. All plans come with high speed data and unlimited talk and text delivered on the nation's largest 5G network. Use your own phone with any Mint Mobile plan and bring your phone number along with all your existing contacts. If I were in the market for a new wireless plan, I'd be looking at Mint Mobile this January. Quit overspending on Wireless with 50% off unlimited premium wireless plans start at $15 a month at mintmobile.com gamescoop that's mintmobile.com Gamescoop Limited time offer upfront payment of $45 for three months, $90 for six months or $180 for 12 month plan required $15 a month equivalent taxes and fees Extra initial plan term only greater than 50 gigs may slow when network is busy. Capable device required Availability, speed and coverage varies. See mintmobile.com okay, here's a headline I read today that gave me pause. This is on ign.com ecco the dolphin creator Confirms Multiple Games in Development they're making. They're making multiple Ecco the Dolphin games.

[Sam Claiborne]

And they didn't have an Echo direct to announce them.

[Justin Davis]

Also, isn't the Echo the Dolphin creator just Sega? Am I being a fake fan right now?

[Damon Hadfield]

The guy, the actual guy, he works at a different developer. Yeah, Sega published, but the actual guy that made Echo the Dolphin back in the day. Apparently. Last summer, the creator of Echo the Dolphin pleased many fans by announcing that not only were remasters of the original games underway, but. But a third installment was also in development.

[Sam Claiborne]

There's only two.

[Justin Davis]

There's only two.

[Damon Hadfield]

There were two like mainline ones and then a couple edutainment games on the Genesis there was like a. I feel.

[Mark Medina]

Like there was like a Wii one or is that Endless Ocean? I'm getting confused.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I don't.

[Damon Hadfield]

I think there was.

[Sam Claiborne]

What about SEGA cd?

[Damon Hadfield]

I think there was a third one for the Dreamcast, but apparently not. It's not like a.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's right.

[Damon Hadfield]

Third game. I don't know.

[Justin Davis]

I. Would I spoil something about Echo the Dolphin?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, of course. I know you're gonna say aliens.

[Justin Davis]

Yes. Yes, I am. So the, the first level, that's what we're watching now. If you're watching, you may not, you know, you're.

[Sam Claiborne]

I've never got past this level pass yet.

[Mark Medina]

Is it a Metroidvania dolphin game?

[Justin Davis]

The first. The first level. So first of all, Echo the Dolphin is impossible. It's an incredibly hard game. It's one of those 16 bit games that like, it's like. It's like the Lion King where like nobody ever beat the first couple levels of it. And so. But it's gorgeous and beautiful and he controls really well. So all these kids have like fond memories of like. Yeah, I love that game. And going around on this reef and you know, avoiding the sharks and avoiding these bad guys. Like the back half of the game. I only know this because I watched a YouTube. Let's play of it. I never got there myself.

[Sam Claiborne]

Do you only get past this octopus by going slow? I never do that.

[Justin Davis]

I don't know. And like it turns out that it's aliens and the plot goes completely off. It goes completely insane and Echo gets like teleported into an alien spaceship.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

And that's, that's the plot of the game is that aliens sucked up all your. Part of everything and you have to rescue them. It's great.

[Mark Medina]

Sounds like we need a gritty reboot.

[Justin Davis]

Oh boy.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. This the reason why I was surprised by the headlines. I would be surprised if there was demand for one new Echo game. But they're making three Echo games and. And what does it mean to remaster a 16 bit game? What are they going to do to it?

[Justin Davis]

Make it worse.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's what they did with Final Fantasy, right? Like they made a bunch of. Before the pixel. Before pixel remasters. I mean even they did like really clean flash graphics for them.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, but they looked not good, I think.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, people were mad about them.

[Mark Medina]

The Steam ones.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

But the Pixel remasters look good. This game would be an amazing Pixel remaster with like a super pixelated, in depth scrolling, you know, parallax background.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

Maybe when they do that, they can make the game good.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, maybe. Yeah, that's.

[Justin Davis]

I'm being. I'm being such a hater. I don't know why.

[Mark Medina]

Tell me what to do.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean, this hurts my thumb just thinking about me playing this on the Genesis controller. It was so, so lame.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. I mean, for. As. For as much as I sort of make fun of Sonic the Hedgehog off and on over the years, like I was a Genesis kid growing up, so I had to. I had to defend Echo on the, on the, on the playground.

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, they.

[Mark Medina]

I love how they talk like it's a silent movie. Like they go to talk and then.

[Damon Hadfield]

It'S like, yeah, we have a whole other screen.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

They put.

[Sam Claiborne]

This person is kicking ass. I'm learning so much about Echo the Dolphin. I would wish I would have known 1993.

[Damon Hadfield]

They what?

[Sam Claiborne]

That's a good move. I remember doing that one.

[Damon Hadfield]

They put Echo on XBLA in like, I don't know, 2010 or something. And Hillary Goldstein reviewed it and his review just says, this game sucks, basically.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

You can do any of this stuff. You can put move things downwards and then use them to open areas. Like.

[Mark Medina]

This is a blow in my mind, right. Is Echo actually moving it or.

[Justin Davis]

It.

[Sam Claiborne]

It would be a good Metroidvania, but the reason it's not is that it's kind of like these instances of like adventure game areas where you have to like do a bunch of things and then you go to the next area.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

I don't understand this whole like speed scrolling thing.

[Justin Davis]

It's. It's level.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's blast processing, Mark.

[Justin Davis]

It's level.

[Mark Medina]

That's right. That's right. SEGA does what Nintendo.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. Levels are just huge and impossible to understand.

[Damon Hadfield]

Is there no map? There's no map here. Like, how do you get anywhere?

[Sam Claiborne]

I don't remember the root of that, but there's a great map in EGM too, I'm sure.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, yeah, you're right. Okay. Anyway, please be excited for three Echo the Dolphin games coming. Apparently. All right.

[Mark Medina]

I don't think I will be.

[Sam Claiborne]

That made my week.

[Damon Hadfield]

The Nintendo seal of quantity is your assurance. It is your assurance that literally no one at Nintendo is paying any attention to what games are being published on the eShop. We've got a new crop of great titles to highlight this week. And let's kick Things off. Gilbert, if you're. If you're ready. Are you ready, Gilbert? Do we need to stop down? Okay, we're just going to go down the list. First game we want to point out is Mom Life Simulator. And the first thing you'll see is just a real beautiful piece of AI Slop. Has the key art that they used here.

[Mark Medina]

No, all these are just going to be that same AI face.

[Damon Hadfield]

Now, a lot of them do Mom Life. A lot of them do have that AI face. Yeah. So Mom Life Simulator, conquer chaos, unlock upgrades and rule the family empire. That's what. That's how they're selling this game. Welcome.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is that how it works?

[Damon Hadfield]

Welcome.

[Mark Medina]

Oh, my God.

[Damon Hadfield]

Welcome to the daily life of the most caring, yet incredibly busy mom. In this game, you take on the role of a mother who tries to manage it all, caring for her family, keeping the house cozy, and still finding a little time for herself. Oh, my God. Baby looks dead for one.

[Mark Medina]

This game is extremely sexist. For two. Were the dad and the kid dead? And she propped up the dead bodies because they were just sitting there. She's like, here, drink your whatever.

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, it looks like the scene in Weapons.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, that's. Yeah, it does look like that scene in Weapons. You can tell on the screenshot. There's even a typo. It says place plates won the table. Place plates won the table. The screenshot before that, she's making. She. You have to put the beef on the frying pan to make dinner. This is Mom Life Simulator, everyone.

[Sam Claiborne]

Great.

[Damon Hadfield]

Oh, it's on sale for 40% off. It's only six bucks, but sale ends in nine hours. So I'll try to get this episode published as quickly as possible. So Scoop Nation knows about this? Okay.

[Justin Davis]

I mean, at least. At least this one looks like a real video game.

[Damon Hadfield]

It.

[Mark Medina]

It kind of does. It kind of has that, like, what are the, you know, like Power Wash sim kind of graphics where it's like kind of ultra realistic.

[Justin Davis]

But House Flipper.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, House Flipper was the one I was trying to think of.

[Sam Claiborne]

They could. That is. It does look like that. They could. They could rebrand this as Trad Wife Simulator and sell off our.

[Mark Medina]

Looks like Trad Wife like the COVID just is already.

[Sam Claiborne]

If you take that idea I want. She's some of those products in the kitchen.

[Damon Hadfield]

I've said this before. When we look at these games, you know, I would think if you want to make video games, it's because you like video games already and you've played great games and, like, you have to know that what you're making is not a great game. But also why you don't want your. Whatever your game is. You don't want to have cool original artwork. No, just slop it up with chatgpt. That's fine. Throw that up there.

[Justin Davis]

Just slop it up.

[Damon Hadfield]

Slop it up.

[Mark Medina]

We're going.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, we're going.

[Mark Medina]

Swapping boys.

[Justin Davis]

You can't stop us from ordering a steak and water.

[Damon Hadfield]

That's what it is. Okay.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, that fridge looks rough. That was great. All the cooked food in the fridge. Oh my God.

[Mark Medina]

This is already cooked. It's the best fridge ever.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

All right. So that was Trad Life Simulator.

[Mark Medina]

The meat is just out. There's so much cross contamination happening in this one picture. Not a very good mom. I'm just going to say it. Sorry.

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay. We all like Triple A video games. Scoop Nation loves AAA video games. Isn't it so annoying that you have to buy AAA video games individually?

[Mark Medina]

Well, it's so annoying.

[Damon Hadfield]

Good news.

[Mark Medina]

It's so annoying.

[Damon Hadfield]

The AAA Games ultimate collection is now available.

[Mark Medina]

Finally. Every game you can.

[Damon Hadfield]

Just once with one simple purchase. You get all the AAA games. It's the ultimate collection. You know, games like World of Solitaire, Knights and Guns. Trash Punk, Pixel Cafe, Train Traffic Manager. They're all here together.

[Justin Davis]

I love Trash Punk.

[Sam Claiborne]

I. I suspect that they don't even know that that's an industry term that AAA Games. And they're just trying to get to the head of the alphabetic list.

[Justin Davis]

Yep.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, yeah. Plumbing company.

[Sam Claiborne]

Or it's ah Games. Because they're saying, open up. We're going to shovel this.

[Mark Medina]

Shuffling down.

[Damon Hadfield]

Eat your slop.

[Sam Claiborne]

Say ah.

[Mark Medina]

Okay, okay. I'm gonna say something controversial.

[Damon Hadfield]

Oh, here we go.

[Mark Medina]

These don't look that bad, to be honest with you.

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay.

[Mark Medina]

One of them looked exactly like Nuclear Throne or Bro Force.

[Damon Hadfield]

I think that was Trash Punk.

[Mark Medina]

Like the. Yeah. I mean these honestly don't look that bad. Look at those animations.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean, basically one of these games was like the top selling thing on Wii. Remember that? It came with a controller and it had a bunch of crappy games in it and everybody bought it.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, yeah. What is. What. How. What does AAA games cost?

[Damon Hadfield]

It is. Is going for a steal right now, Justin. Usually it costs $80. Usually costs $80. But it's on sale for 91 off. Just 6.99.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's a good idea.

[Justin Davis]

These are all. I quickly googled one. These are all like. These are all available on the Eshop individually. Yeah. This is their compilation.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. Joe Go Back to the. The title, the key, the main key art that has the title on it. For some reason, just the outline of the title really bugs me. How each individual A is outlined and then the rounded edges around the G and the S. It just. Yeah, it just bugs me.

[Sam Claiborne]

So which of these games has mild blood at that ESRB rating?

[Damon Hadfield]

It's gotta be trash.

[Justin Davis]

Do you think it's probably trash?

[Sam Claiborne]

Maybe solitaire.

[Justin Davis]

Solitaire?

[Mark Medina]

Yeah. World of Solitaire, motorcycle game, trash punk. Even get ran over by the train.

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay, this next game I just. I selected because of the whiplash that you get from the title. This game is called Battle Tanks Animal Wars.

[Mark Medina]

Oh, I loved Battle Tanks back.

[Damon Hadfield]

Battle Tanks Animal wars is this one.

[Mark Medina]

They didn't spell it with an X.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, missed opportunity there. Save the animal kingdom from mole fueled doom.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay, moles.

[Mark Medina]

I don't see any animals.

[Justin Davis]

No.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, it's got a Minecraft style look.

[Damon Hadfield]

Where are the animals?

[Mark Medina]

How do they do this?

[Damon Hadfield]

John Travolta and Pulp Fiction. Gif. Where are all the animals? Yeah, some of these.

[Mark Medina]

Is it four players? Co op, Single screen. Co op. That's cool.

[Damon Hadfield]

Oh, this was just released yesterday too. This is brand new.

[Justin Davis]

You just found it.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is it already on sale?

[Damon Hadfield]

Oh, yeah. 40% off. 3 bucks. 3 bucks.

[Sam Claiborne]

I'm sensing a tactic and discounts similar to Amazon.

[Mark Medina]

Okay, so it's like Bomberman. I don't know. There's no animal.

[Sam Claiborne]

Hold on.

[Mark Medina]

There's animals in the portraits there.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

Monkey and a raccoon.

[Justin Davis]

I think they're in the tanks.

[Mark Medina]

Oh, the animals are the tanks. Got it.

[Justin Davis]

Okay, well, they're in the tank.

[Mark Medina]

Got it. Right. Okay.

[Sam Claiborne]

They're driving them with a little paws.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay. I really like this next one. This next one has really high production values. This is clothing store simulator. And you're gonna love the. The key art for this. It looks so good.

[Sam Claiborne]

Jesus.

[Justin Davis]

Simulators are everywhere these days. TCG card shop.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, that gradient.

[Justin Davis]

That was a real video game.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, it's, you know, build the boutique of your dreams clothing store simulation.

[Justin Davis]

This seems fine, Damon. I think, I mean, look like, does this look like a good video game? Like, no, but I feel like I'm. I'm like the last couple times we did this, this seal of quantity, it's like they were literal scams. So the fact that you're showing us actual video games this time is like. I'm like, this doesn't seem too bad.

[Damon Hadfield]

What?

[Mark Medina]

I just can't imagine playing this on a switch. Like that looks like a PC game.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, like I What I'm confused about is how do you get a game to look this lo fi?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

Today it's a style. Like it's a trend, right?

[Damon Hadfield]

This is a trend. I just think it looks bad.

[Mark Medina]

They should run it through the Unreal Engine 5. No processor.

[Justin Davis]

There's all of these, there's all these simulator games that are like everywhere now, right?

[Damon Hadfield]

Well, yeah, yeah.

[Mark Medina]

This one looks just like the grocery store one.

[Justin Davis]

Yep, yep. Grocery store simulator.

[Mark Medina]

Except for that God awful logo that.

[Sam Claiborne]

But they're not jokes. They're like really rote boring simulators.

[Justin Davis]

It is interesting. Like work like these work games. Like, you know, but they're like, should we make it fun? They're like, no, just make it. Just look at that store.

[Sam Claiborne]

There's two, there's two outfits in that entire store. So you can, you can tell they're going to roll it out that way. They're like, well, first to start your business, you're all going to have one sweater and one white belted long sleeve black shirt. Sell them. And then they're like, now you can put out three dummies with three outfits. I can just feel the rollout.

[Damon Hadfield]

All right, this next one, let me know if this title reveals what the inspiration for the game might have been. This game is called need for Race. Need for Race. Street King.

[Mark Medina]

Street King.

[Justin Davis]

Wait, that name is too obvious. Let's call it Want for Speed instead.

[Sam Claiborne]

The Slop Artist.

[Mark Medina]

Sounds great. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like is he killing an animal? Oh, it doesn't look anything like the COVID No, no. His car's still covered in blood, but.

[Justin Davis]

You know, here we go. This is, this is more what I was hoping to get.

[Sam Claiborne]

Do you think these companies sell one copy of these games?

[Damon Hadfield]

That's what I wonder that too. Do they sell even one?

[Sam Claiborne]

One?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

Who knows?

[Mark Medina]

Car doesn't have a shadow. The sun is. I don't know where the sun is.

[Sam Claiborne]

Melting has a shadow.

[Justin Davis]

I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that that cityscape, you know, first of all, those buildings are made out of four polygons and they look like twisted metal. On the PS1.

[Damon Hadfield]

Mm.

[Sam Claiborne]

Uh.

[Mark Medina]

Oh yeah. This looks like GTA 3, but like.

[Justin Davis]

Yep, even worse.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, but there's infinite variations of this lo fi racing game. You know, it's like it's not even an attempt at like. Well, this one has ducks in it. Aren't ducks funny? Like it's just nothing. There's nothing to it.

[Damon Hadfield]

And what's interesting on the listing, there's a publisher listed but no developer. So maybe it's just. Maybe the whole thing is just AI generated.

[Mark Medina]

The publisher developed it by going make me a racing game with fast and furious cars.

[Sam Claiborne]

I would like to think that, like, this is the gen. All of these are generated by, like, some kind of video game college class. Yeah. And they're like, well, here's how you can actually publish something on a Nintendo platform. They don't care. Nobody's watching the gates.

[Justin Davis]

Just.

[Sam Claiborne]

Just slop it up. And then you get to do that for your. Your class thesis. That would be the positive.

[Mark Medina]

Look at that Nissan Z though. I wanted one of those forever. Now I can in need for race in virtual form.

[Damon Hadfield]

All right, two more here before. Two more here to show off. So the next one is. I've picked this for two reasons. Sheriff Park Ranger. And this one actually, like, just was saying the gameplay doesn't look terrible here. But I picked this because we have another just magnificent piece of AI slop that they've used for their cover art here. But also, I'm pretty sure park rangers don't have a sheriff. I don't think that's the real thing.

[Justin Davis]

Sheriff Park Ranger. They made a. They made a whole video game. A whole real video game. And then, like, should we pay somebody, you know, 200 to make us a logo and a piece of COVID art?

[Damon Hadfield]

Like, no, I'm just gonna slop it up.

[Justin Davis]

Yep, yep.

[Mark Medina]

Made the game.

[Damon Hadfield]

But listen to the. Listen to the tagline for this game. Patrol deeper. React faster. Protect harder.

[Justin Davis]

What is the gameplay of this?

[Damon Hadfield]

Drive your patrol truck. Flash your lights and keep ordering the wild.

[Mark Medina]

Is his hat getting bigger?

[Sam Claiborne]

The truck and the hat have issues. I think that this may be a. A mod for Sneak King.

[Damon Hadfield]

He arrested somebody. Well, look.

[Mark Medina]

Look at his hat right there. Joker, can you go back to where he was in the car that looked normal? And then there's the shot of him in the car.

[Sam Claiborne]

I thought it looked too small.

[Justin Davis]

No, it gets.

[Mark Medina]

Well, it probably is, and they'll fix it very soon.

[Justin Davis]

This is wearing a big hat.

[Sam Claiborne]

The truck is his Hummer in the front and pickup in the back.

[Mark Medina]

Well, it's being generated as he drives. So.

[Damon Hadfield]

Look at that. Look at that.

[Mark Medina]

That is not how it looked in the rest of the scenes.

[Damon Hadfield]

You might be right.

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, maybe that's the progression. Yeah, there you go.

[Justin Davis]

Okay, man, I'm on team. Team Hat. Now, I was not on board with this, but you're absolutely right.

[Sam Claiborne]

At the end of the trailer, it's tiny again. So it's not telling you. Like, if you Play this game. You can have wide hat.

[Mark Medina]

It might just be. You see it grow as he drives away. It might be a.

[Damon Hadfield]

Look at it.

[Justin Davis]

Look at it.

[Mark Medina]

Look at it one more time. Gilbert, look at.

[Sam Claiborne]

It's ready for. For a day. Day at the beach. His wife is going to love that hat.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, he goes from patrolling the forest to gardening like real fast.

[Justin Davis]

I think you're right. I think it's a south bar. I think you're.

[Sam Claiborne]

Look how little that is. Look at this dinky new noob forest ranger with his tiny hat putting out their campfires.

[Mark Medina]

Okay, I can't fish here. Where's your license?

[Damon Hadfield]

That's sheriff park ranger.

[Justin Davis]

I kind of want to play this one.

[Mark Medina]

That was the best one so far. Okay, that was good. I'm crying.

[Damon Hadfield]

All right, I only have one more job. Hold off because the. The key art to this one is the best. The key art to this one is truly unbelievable. So let me just read you this title first. Okay. This is the end of the beginning of courage, reasoning and seaweed 10.

[Justin Davis]

I'll say again the first nine.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

Are we gonna recap the end of the beginning of courage, reasoning and seaweed 10. Now, Joe, let's show everybody what the key art for this is. This is real. This is on the Eshop right now.

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, they used the Oxford comma.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, I appreciate that. What.

[Mark Medina]

What's happening under of.

[Sam Claiborne]

What are we doing?

[Mark Medina]

Like they just smeared it and then show.

[Damon Hadfield]

Show them what this game looks like. Joburt.

[Mark Medina]

It's SimCity.

[Damon Hadfield]

It's just. It's probably a visual novel.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, but nine other ones.

[Damon Hadfield]

I don't know. I didn't bother to look.

[Mark Medina]

I know what the first nine are.

[Damon Hadfield]

But also it says on the list supported languages Japanese. It doesn't even support English.

[Sam Claiborne]

Everything's empty except the title.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Maybe that's what's happening.

[Mark Medina]

I think this seems post apocalyptic.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, maybe it's post apocalyptic. Maybe that's the end of the beginning.

[Damon Hadfield]

Of the beginning of courage and reasoning and courage.

[Justin Davis]

I mean maybe that title screen is better than like, you know, it being AI Slop.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, I was trying to think what is better. Just a really low res image of the. Of the. Just the plain text title or a slop. Yeah, I don't know.

[Justin Davis]

This is. This is probably more attention getting. It's probably more eye catching.

[Damon Hadfield]

So joker click out of this. You see how it actually looks on the listing page? Yeah, that's how it looks.

[Justin Davis]

What?

[Sam Claiborne]

What's not even. Why is there a smear?

[Mark Medina]

I really don't understand the smear did.

[Sam Claiborne]

Like somebody like accidentally in Photoshop after, for some reason putting text on this and clipping it out, like, smear the paint thing over it.

[Justin Davis]

I don't.

[Mark Medina]

This one's only a buck fifty, though.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Wait till it goes on sale.

[Justin Davis]

If you.

[Mark Medina]

I'll wait. I'll wait until it's 91% off.

[Justin Davis]

If you're listening to this show, you can find us on YouTube and you can watch. You can see what we are seeing.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Sam Claiborne]

Battle of morality. It says the battle between Yuki and the dread begins.

[Justin Davis]

Good.

[Damon Hadfield]

The end of the beginning.

[Justin Davis]

I've been waiting.

[Damon Hadfield]

I mean, I don't know what's worse. Just the fact this is really on the Eshop right now and you can pay money for it or that. I only know this exists because Nintendo emailed me about it. I get a Nintendo download email every third night.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, my God.

[Damon Hadfield]

When they refresh the Eshop, Nintendo lists out all the games, links to it. So Nintendo's like, here you go, Nintendo fans. Here's a new game that you can.

[Mark Medina]

Here's your game scoop segment.

[Sam Claiborne]

How does Doug Bowser get that email?

[Justin Davis]

I guess I never.

[Mark Medina]

Doug Bowser sends the email.

[Justin Davis]

That's why he quit. I guess I didn't realize. Damon. I thought you were just finding these on your own. They're in Nintendo's email.

[Damon Hadfield]

Nintendo release emails these to me every Thursday.

[Justin Davis]

Good.

[Mark Medina]

Anyone who signed up for the email, never, never unsubscribe. These are great.

[Damon Hadfield]

I will not. And that, my friends, is the Nintendo seal of quantity.

[Sam Claiborne]

Hey, you know we have like, super fans that track our stats for 20 questions. The real super fans for this would be people that play these games and report back to us with a review.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, a couple of them seemed okay.

[Mark Medina]

I would play the AAA one.

[Sam Claiborne]

I'm only into that seaweed one.

[Justin Davis]

That's like a real. That's a real, like, you know, like Polish developer. They're making at least real video games.

[Damon Hadfield]

Nintendo.

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[Mark Medina]

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[Damon Hadfield]

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

[Justin Davis]

Hey listeners.

[Damon Hadfield]

Listeners and viewers. Remember you can always reach us at the email address gamescoopigen.com just like.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh no.

[Damon Hadfield]

Big Tony Style Tony Style. Big Tony Style says time is flying and Little Tony Style is about to turn three years old. With a toddler around the house, my game time has dropped pretty significantly and I'm finding myself leaning more on games that have a solid quick loop to them. My recent go to is the re release of Plants vs Zombies, one of my all time favorites. While I was playing last night it made me wonder what happened to those old style popcap games. I think about Plants vs. Zombies 2 and wonder if these types of games fell victim to mobile gaming monetization. Or is it that I'm not looking hard enough for similar popcap style games? One can only hope that one day we'll see the release of a Peggle.

[Mark Medina]

3 such they got EA, right?

[Damon Hadfield]

They got EA.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, yeah.

[Justin Davis]

And I mean pop popcap's still around but yeah, they've not been. They're not making games like that anymore.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, Plants vs. Zombies 2 was an overly aggressive monetization mess. And then they started doing like, the Garden Warfare games. They did two of those at least.

[Justin Davis]

I think there's a third one, isn't it?

[Mark Medina]

Maybe they're not.

[Justin Davis]

Nobody knows.

[Sam Claiborne]

And then, well, they remade plans for Zombies last year.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's good.

[Damon Hadfield]

That was good.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

Well, also, I agree, I'm very much into, like, you know, games that I could just play for 20, 30 minutes. That's why I've been playing so much Hades and Ball Pit and stuff like that, so. And I don't even have kids.

[Justin Davis]

I was going to suggest Ball Pit. Like the whole Survivors like genre, although it's interesting is like, you know, the runs in Vampire Survivors start out as being 30 minutes, but you pretty quickly unlock a hyper mode and like a double speed mode. And like that's. That's kind of becoming a thing in these games is like they start out slow and then they eventually give you options of like, just do everything twice as fast. Like Ball Pit does the same thing.

[Sam Claiborne]

People like that. Megabunk.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

Megabunk.

[Damon Hadfield]

Is that a puzzle game?

[Justin Davis]

No, Megabunk is a survivor game.

[Sam Claiborne]

Survivors, like, it's a 3D version of the Garlic.

[Justin Davis]

Like, okay, so very fun that. I mean, that doesn't quite scratch the same itch. I mean, look, those games are not as good as like, popcap at their peak, to be honest. Those are some like, genuinely incred, incredible video games. But they're good from like. Like, I just want to zone out and just like play something short for a while and make progress and feel good. Like. So, yeah, I mean, Ball Pit would be a good candidate for that.

[Sam Claiborne]

When, like, didn't those games kind of get clobbered by Clash games and Cookie Kingdoms and stuff like that?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I mean, I mean, Big Tony Styles, absolutely right. That those games went away because they're like, well, we could release a really, really great game and sell it for 5 or 10 or $20. Or we could like make the same game and we could sell people $20. Like bullshit things just forever. And we would will and then. And then Zynga, you know, then will be billionaires. So they're still out there on Steam, you know, like, they're still not impossible to find on platforms like Game Pass. But that's, that's why they went away. Sadly. It's free to play. Free to play. Crushed them.

[Damon Hadfield]

But is there really no appetite for. So you Think about the, the old popcap Plants versus Zombies, Peggle, even like Zuma, Bejeweled, Bookworm. I loved all those games, like single screen simple, you know, puzzle games. Nintendo used to make games like that. Nintendo had a bunch of puzzle games like Dr. Mario and Tetris Attack and all this stuff. Like even on console Candy Crush now that. Yeah. But like I would play these games. Like if Nintendo made a new puzzle game on Switch too, I would absolutely play it. I just. I don't know why that. I don't know why, you know, console developers stopped doing it as well.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I mean they made. So it's like, you know, I, I really like Bloons. Tower defense is a really good tower defense game. So like that stuff is still out there. And there was. What was the Peggle RPG that. I mean, it wasn't made by PopCap. What, Peglin? Is that what it was called?

[Damon Hadfield]

Oh, maybe.

[Justin Davis]

But there was, there was. I mean there's been a few. There's been a few like sort of roguelike Peggle RPG like experiences like bounce around and kill the enemies and level up and, you know, go on runs. Um, so. Yeah, so I think a good place.

[Sam Claiborne]

To, to look is when Xbox or Nintendo does their indie directs. That's where you can see a lot of the stuff that like doesn't end up getting a lot of hype behind the trailer in that. And they're usually smaller games.

[Justin Davis]

There's a lot of. There's a lot of kind of like, I don't know, they're not quite Balatro likes, but these like gambling coded roguelikes where. But they don't have free to play garbage in them. It's just in the roguelike there's slots and daggers. Yeah, slots and daggers.

[Mark Medina]

Pick Clover Pit.

[Justin Davis]

Clover Pit. And then there's an upcoming one that it's basically like Balatro, but it's a coin pusher.

[Mark Medina]

Oh, fun.

[Justin Davis]

Called. Called Raccoon.

[Mark Medina]

Dude, those coin pushers stress me out.

[Justin Davis]

Yep. And there's. There's actually a different coin pusher rogue like too, which is funny. So that's, that's where a lot of that stuff kind of migrated to, I think.

[Damon Hadfield]

Well, I miss puzzle games.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Damon Hadfield]

Nintendo should make the last one. Nintendo did Dr. Luigi, right?

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, they do Picross games. They do stuff like that.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

They need to bring back pushmos. We say this every episode.

[Justin Davis]

Yep.

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay. Justin, Last week we went over some video game 20 questions stats from Matt Reed, but it didn't include the win loss ratio stats. So I asked if that could be added as well. Kill death. But I was confused. There's more than one person collecting all these stats. So Greg. Greg Kelly writes in to say, ha. After listening to the most recent episode, I know it's confusing. There are a few fans who love both their scoops and stats. And funny enough, both Matt Reed and I are from Massachusetts. So here's a quick summary of the two different stats we each cover. Me, I maintain Greg Kelly, I maintain the video game 20 questions dashboard and keep track of the win, loss ratio, quickest win, et cetera. And then Matt Reed has been sending in his crazy cool stats where he specifically tracks all the games mentioned during each segment throughout the year. So our stats are different and I think complement each other nicely. Matthew and I have actually been coordinating over Facebook messenger to send in our different stats too, around the same time. Anyway, I hope all my stats. Below are the missing pieces that you are looking forward to read when Justin is back. So here we go. 2025.

[Sam Claiborne]

He's right though, that what confused us there is that they're both from Massachusetts.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, that's.

[Justin Davis]

And they don't have to fight to the death.

[Damon Hadfield]

That's true.

[Justin Davis]

So that's good.

[Damon Hadfield]

So in 2025, you guys, we played a total of 47 games of 20 questions and won 33 of them. Which leaves you with a win rate of 70.2%.

[Justin Davis]

I think that's a pleasing win rate. Like, you don't want it to be too high or too low.

[Sam Claiborne]

That is the most C minus answer I've ever heard to a C minus rate.

[Justin Davis]

Well, if you always won, it'd be a boring future.

[Mark Medina]

You could tell I'm on 28% of the episodes per year.

[Sam Claiborne]

How about 90? 90.1 would be nice.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

At least get the A. Yeah, I.

[Damon Hadfield]

Think a 70 is a very appropriate number. You guys are parents. IGN.

[Mark Medina]

But with this, with this group, 70 is not bad.

[Damon Hadfield]

It is down a little from 2024. In 2024, your win rate was 80.9%.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, I did feel that.

[Damon Hadfield]

So last year, your average questions for a win was 17.6 questions, but that was down from 2024. 17.2 questions. Your quickest win this year was eight questions. Episode 809, Hollow Night. Your longest winning streak was 10 episodes in a row from September 17th to November 20th. And your longest losing streak was only two episodes in a row.

[Justin Davis]

Okay, okay.

[Mark Medina]

10 episodes. I was in the hospital.

[Justin Davis]

A 10 streak's really good.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, that's. That's very good.

[Damon Hadfield]

Crosses over three months. So Sam Played the most number of games last year, 45 games. He had a win rate of 71.1%. Justin played 35 games, had a win rate of 74.3%. And Mark only played 20 games and had a win rate of 80%.

[Justin Davis]

Wow.

[Mark Medina]

See, look, There you go. You gotta be per capita. I'm the big winner.

[Justin Davis]

You gotta be kind. Kind to yourself, Mark.

[Mark Medina]

Oh, boy, Here we go.

[Damon Hadfield]

None of you have the highest win rate.

[Justin Davis]

It's got.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, I'm sure somebody played once and it's 100%.

[Damon Hadfield]

No, it's Nick. Nick Limone played 16 games and he has 81.3%. Wow.

[Sam Claiborne]

Somebody played one game. Come on.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, that doesn't count.

[Damon Hadfield]

Para only played four games. He has a 50% win rate.

[Sam Claiborne]

Wow.

[Mark Medina]

Yikes.

[Sam Claiborne]

These are not good stats.

[Mark Medina]

Nope.

[Damon Hadfield]

Anyway, thank you for the clarification, Greg Kelly, and the very fun stats. And that brings us to this Week's video game 20 Questions, which comes from Danny from Colorado. And Danny says, I've been getting really into redacted games recently, and I'm currently replaying redacted. I've always wanted to try redacted and thinking about picking up redacted. Anyways, I thought this would be a good 20 questions game.

[Sam Claiborne]

And with that, what was not a good 20 questions game was last week when nobody listened to a single answer, and then we just had to repeat it the entire time suggesting.

[Mark Medina]

And then we still got it.

[Sam Claiborne]

Help me this week.

[Justin Davis]

Got it.

[Damon Hadfield]

You got it on 20 last week, right?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

We didn't get Kung Fu, though. That was a brutal week.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, that was tough. What was the redacted stuff from that email?

[Damon Hadfield]

Oh, it was. Oh, you almost got me.

[Justin Davis]

Excellent. Okay. Is this a. Is this a role playing game or platformer or shooter?

[Damon Hadfield]

No.

[Justin Davis]

I thought those might be things that he was getting really into.

[Sam Claiborne]

Does this game have 3D graphics?

[Damon Hadfield]

No.

[Mark Medina]

I bet it's a roguelike because I've been getting into roguelikes.

[Justin Davis]

Is it a roguelike season? Is it a roguelike or card game or. Or. Or garlic like.

[Mark Medina]

No, this is why I can't remember the answer.

[Sam Claiborne]

We're never gonna get this one. Is it from before the century?

[Justin Davis]

No. So a 2D game, but not a platformer and not a roguelike from the last 25 years? And also not that other stuff, but that was more likely to be 3D.

[Sam Claiborne]

Did Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo publish this game?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes. That's five.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, that's so good. Did Sony publish this game?

[Damon Hadfield]

No.

[Justin Davis]

Did Nintendo publish this game?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Justin Davis]

Wow.

[Sam Claiborne]

We've Got a lot of Nintendo.

[Mark Medina]

He's into Mario games.

[Justin Davis]

But it's not a platformer. 2D. 2D Nintendo game from the last 25 years.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, like Mario Wonders, but it's not.

[Mark Medina]

But it's not a platformer.

[Justin Davis]

No.

[Sam Claiborne]

Wait, when did we. Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

Well, okay.

[Sam Claiborne]

That makes sense.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay.

[Mark Medina]

Justin, our Metroidvanias platformers.

[Justin Davis]

Yes.

[Mark Medina]

Nick could have used your help last week.

[Justin Davis]

I mean, are you jumping around? Do you have platforms that float in the air in this game? That's not. I'm not asking, Damon. I'm just saying if the answer is yes, then it's a platformer. There's platforms.

[Mark Medina]

Nick could have used us. He could have used a friend last week. Let's see here. Okay, so was this game.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is this game set in the Mushroom Kingdom or Hyrule Kingdom universes?

[Damon Hadfield]

No.

[Justin Davis]

It could. It could be. It could be like Donkey Kong, March of the Minis. It could be a puzzle game. Damon was just saying he wants Nintendo to make puzzle games.

[Mark Medina]

Oh, okay.

[Justin Davis]

I guess maybe that's set in the Mario Universe, though.

[Mark Medina]

Well, but.

[Justin Davis]

No, but you said Mushroom Kingdom, and I think those games are in New York.

[Mark Medina]

I don't know.

[Sam Claiborne]

He's a Mushroom Kingdom.

[Justin Davis]

Okay, man. What is this?

[Mark Medina]

Is the main character of this game on the Smash roster?

[Damon Hadfield]

No, and I actually know that because I've been playing a lot of Smash Brothers with King of recently.

[Sam Claiborne]

Nice. That's awesome, huh? Okay, not on Smash.

[Justin Davis]

I mean, I don't know.

[Mark Medina]

Who do you main? Damon?

[Damon Hadfield]

I don't think I've settled on a main yet. I like to pick random, and Kingo hates that. He hates it when I do random. He wants me to pick a character.

[Mark Medina]

He needs to know how to counter you. Yeah, maybe you never let him know your next move.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's interesting.

[Justin Davis]

That is interesting. I'm just. I'm very. Now I'm absorbed in that.

[Damon Hadfield]

And then he wants me to, like. He wants me to pick his character. He's like, who should I be, Daddy? I don't know. Whoever you want. No, tell me who to be.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay.

[Justin Davis]

Mario Yoshi.

[Damon Hadfield]

There you go. Yeah. No, I don't want to be Yoshi.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

So he wants you to pick the character he's thinking of.

[Sam Claiborne]

There's not a lot of games that Nintendo publishes that don't have Smash Stars. There's, like, you know, 100 great books type stuff.

[Justin Davis]

I mean, it could be. It could be like. Like stadium games or NES Remix and not have a person that you are, like a main person that you are. I mean, it Could. Or you know, a meat. Like, you know, I know it's not Wii Sports because this is a 2D game, but like something like that.

[Sam Claiborne]

Did this come out before 2012?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes. That is 10.

[Justin Davis]

Maybe it's a big difference. Maybe it is smash.

[Sam Claiborne]

Because the. Can you play as the. What are you? The hand. What is that what you are in that game?

[Justin Davis]

Wait, it was the 2012? Yes.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, it's before 2012.

[Justin Davis]

Okay, so it's a weird Wii U. Yeah, but it. Yeah. Oh, well. Or GameCube.

[Mark Medina]

Oh, that's right.

[Sam Claiborne]

Or Game Boy. Or DS would. I think it's a handheld game. That's what I'm thinking.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

Could be picross. Something like that.

[Mark Medina]

Is this a handheld game?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes. Hey.

[Justin Davis]

Okay. Could be. Could be Meteos is.

[Sam Claiborne]

Maybe it's Dr. Kawashima. Is the character okay?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, it could be brain training.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, the brain. Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Is this game mainly controlled with a stylus? Well, you had to think about it. So we know it's NDS now.

[Damon Hadfield]

Well, if you can, it would just be an option. You don't. You don't have to use it.

[Justin Davis]

Okay. Is this a. Is this a puzzle or adventure game?

[Damon Hadfield]

No.

[Justin Davis]

So it's not Hotel Dusk, it's not Meteos, it's not Sudoku, any of those.

[Mark Medina]

What am I allowed to ask to hear his note one more time? Because now I have so much more context. I want to hear the notice.

[Damon Hadfield]

Sure. I've been getting blanks. I've been getting really into redacted games recently and I'm currently replaying redacted. I've always wanted to try redacted and thinking about picking up redacted. Anyways, I thought this would be a good 20 questions game.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah. I mean that doesn't plan at brain training, that's for sure.

[Justin Davis]

No, and we know it's not a role playing game or puzzle game or platformer. And it doesn't star somebody on the Smash roster. And Nintendo published it on.

[Mark Medina]

On the DS or 3DS and it's 2D Nintendogs.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, but it's 2D.

[Mark Medina]

Oh no. But. And you have to use the style.

[Sam Claiborne]

Maybe it's Animal Crossing.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Can you can play as Villager?

[Mark Medina]

New leaf.

[Justin Davis]

Villager is in. Well, but you don't play as Villager.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, yeah.

[Justin Davis]

You do play as Villager. Yeah. It's weird that you're the only human in Animal Crossing and everybody else is an animal.

[Mark Medina]

What is Apple.

[Justin Davis]

With a cat?

[Sam Claiborne]

Maybe something 2D game, probably DS, not 3DS. Maybe 3DS though, man.

[Justin Davis]

I mean there's a lot of like, you know, 2D but like. So. Okay, can't be Kirby. Can't be. Can't be.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yoshi, did this game come out as a cartridge?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Sam Claiborne]

Okay, so it's not like a downloadable only weird ass Nintendo game we're never going to remember. This is. I, I think it's going to be more of the lifestyle sim, like Tomadachi life type things, something like that. Knees, sports.

[Justin Davis]

I mean what about like, why would.

[Sam Claiborne]

He ever want to revisit it though?

[Justin Davis]

But it's not. So it's not, you know, it's not like Ace Attorney because those are adventure games and Nintendo didn't publish them. But like not even any, you know, any visual novel.

[Mark Medina]

And we, we said no platformers too, right?

[Justin Davis]

Yep.

[Sam Claiborne]

Jeez. I don't even know where to go. This, we have enough questions to get it. I just don't know where to go. Does this game have a sequel?

[Damon Hadfield]

This game does not have a sequel. And that's 15.

[Justin Davis]

You know, it could be a rhythm game and it could be like Elite Beat Agents or OO and Dan.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, Elite Speed Agents is a really good one.

[Mark Medina]

Or that. What was that Guitar Hero game?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Mark Medina]

Unplugged or whatever it was.

[Sam Claiborne]

That's not published by Nintendo.

[Justin Davis]

But yeah, probably not. I. The only thing about Unden and I don't like to metagame Damon's answers, but I think that that might be stylus only or at least it's heavily styled.

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, it had a Wii version too. Well, that one didn't. Elite Beat Agents didn't. But the other game.

[Justin Davis]

Are there more genres eliminate? Well, we could just ask rhythm game, but if there's more we could try to get a twofer.

[Sam Claiborne]

WarioWare. You don't play as Wario in Wario. Yeah. So this would be like.

[Justin Davis]

Is this a. Is this a rhythm game or puzzle?

[Sam Claiborne]

Did we ask puzzle?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, we did ask puzzle. That's not a puzzle game.

[Sam Claiborne]

I would keep. I would throw some other genres in.

[Justin Davis]

I can't think of any.

[Mark Medina]

What's the. What's the warioware genre?

[Sam Claiborne]

How about this rhythm sports sim or mini game collection?

[Damon Hadfield]

No.

[Mark Medina]

This is not a game. I mean, Maybe it's the 3Ds chat.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, maybe it's. Maybe it's not a game. Maybe it's like the Louvre app that you could like.

[Sam Claiborne]

You just wondering. Because 100 novels would be.

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay. You've got three questions and a guess.

[Sam Claiborne]

Electroplankton's rhythm Right, Yeah.

[Justin Davis]

Well, music. What about like.

[Sam Claiborne]

You didn't ask RPG yet. It could just be an RPG game.

[Justin Davis]

And we did ask rpg.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, we did.

[Damon Hadfield]

Okay.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. That was like one of the first genres that I eliminated.

[Sam Claiborne]

Dang.

[Justin Davis]

What about like racing?

[Mark Medina]

Did we eliminate strategy stuff like Advanced wars and stuff?

[Justin Davis]

No, no, we didn't. No. It could totally be Advanced Wars, Dual Strike, or. I don't. I port the fourth one. Ruin, whatever it's called.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, yeah. It must spell something with ds, right?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, that was Dual Strike. And then they made another one that ruined Days of Ruin. That's right.

[Mark Medina]

Those seem like games that you could use a stylus, but that you probably would.

[Sam Claiborne]

And they also are. Are also not in Smash Brothers.

[Justin Davis]

I bet that's what it is.

[Mark Medina]

And they're more relevant. Like. Like people could be playing.

[Sam Claiborne]

Only has a remake.

[Justin Davis]

So. And then there's also. But then there's also Fire Emblem.

[Mark Medina]

Fire Emblems.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, but that has lots of sequels. Direct sequels. I don't think there's a spin off.

[Justin Davis]

Oh, wait, did Damon ask? Damon said this one doesn't have.

[Sam Claiborne]

And maybe. Maybe Fire Emblems. Not sequels. I don't know.

[Justin Davis]

I don't. But it's definitely part of. And then. And then Days of Ruin was the last. Last Fire Emblem game. Although they did remake. They did Advance.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean, I guess we can just go with this.

[Justin Davis]

Is this an Advanced wars game?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes.

[Justin Davis]

So then is this Advance Wars? Days of Ruin?

[Damon Hadfield]

Yes, it is. Nicely job. Yep. 2008 on Nintendo DS. Days of Ruin.

[Sam Claiborne]

Great stuff.

[Justin Davis]

Good job. Who? Mark, you're the one that said it, right? Yeah, man, that was.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. You went through a lot of genres for yet to say.

[Justin Davis]

I mean, I love Advance Wars.

[Sam Claiborne]

I said Days of Run.

[Justin Davis]

Thank you. Thank you, thank you.

[Mark Medina]

I just said advance wars because I don't know what any of them are called.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, no, that was.

[Sam Claiborne]

Why did you decide to roll the dice on this and not Dual Strike Meet.

[Damon Hadfield]

Who are you talking about?

[Justin Davis]

Because this is.

[Damon Hadfield]

This is the last one.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, Damon said there's no sequel and this is the last one.

[Sam Claiborne]

Oh, so this was a sequel. I didn't realize that. I thought they were all the spin offs.

[Justin Davis]

No.

[Damon Hadfield]

Well, I mean, it's the fourth one in the series.

[Sam Claiborne]

No, no, that makes sense.

[Justin Davis]

It.

[Sam Claiborne]

I totally. I totally see the logic.

[Justin Davis]

But. But so. So it's both, right? This game, the. The four Advance Horse one and two, and then Dual Strike and the Days of Ruin are direct sequels to one another. But then they're also. I mean, you know, but there's no.

[Sam Claiborne]

Sequels now because the recent ones are a remake of 1 and 2, so that doesn't really count as.

[Justin Davis]

And then advance wars was the first one released in the United States, but that franchise had been. There was Famicom wars back on the nes and like those never came out here.

[Sam Claiborne]

I wonder what that's like. I've never played that.

[Mark Medina]

Famicom Wars.

[Damon Hadfield]

Probably not great.

[Mark Medina]

Yeah, that's a funny title.

[Justin Davis]

Well, the Nintendo was the Famicom in Japan.

[Mark Medina]

No, I know. So it's. That's when it's just Nintendo wars is really funny.

[Justin Davis]

It's like Advanced Wars. This is why it's a little bit weird, because it was, you know, like Super Nintendo Wars. Nintendo Wars. But then advance wars was the first one to come out in the United States and it was on the Game Boy advance and then that name stuck even when they weren't on the Game Boy advance anymore. Yeah, nice.

[Damon Hadfield]

And this, this one went dark and gritty. It doesn't have like the cartoonish art style, which in my mind was like, this was a low point. But I looked back at the reviews and it totally got good reviews at the time. So I don't know.

[Justin Davis]

Well, it did kill the franchise.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah, that's true.

[Mark Medina]

Oh no.

[Damon Hadfield]

It's a big, big fun fact I just learned today. So this is out in 2008. It was not released in Japan until 2013.

[Justin Davis]

Wow.

[Damon Hadfield]

Nintendo did not really put this out in Japan until 2013.

[Mark Medina]

The Famicom, the Famicom wars fans, they had to wait.

[Damon Hadfield]

They had to wait time.

[Sam Claiborne]

So maybe this was adapted to be like kind of a targeted our region. But then like, why is it an anime? Like it's, it's all very.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, it's funny that this is. I mean it is, it is much darker and grittier than the other Advanced wars games, which are very bright and very cheerful. But looking at this footage now, I'm like, yeah, this is still pretty bright and cheerful.

[Sam Claiborne]

Do you remember though, like you're like Jim from the office, commanding the army. Like he's like a total totally cool like, you know, like kid. That's, that's the plot of these games. So frequently it's like this one, this 18 year old's gonna run the military, but he's kind of cool. Like it's so. Doesn't feel right.

[Justin Davis]

And now I can't remember. I mean, this is by far my least played advance wars game. So it's like I said that this was a direct sequel to the other three and I actually can't even Remember, if it is now, it might not have been.

[Damon Hadfield]

Did you catch who the developer was on the screen?

[Justin Davis]

Yeah, it's Intelligent Systems.

[Damon Hadfield]

Yeah. Which is not Nintendo. Even though they work almost exclusively with Nintendo. It's not even owned by Nintendo in any way.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, yeah, that's why. Game freaks. Making some rando ass game now.

[Justin Davis]

I mean intelligence. Intelligent Systems is such a strange company because they, you know, they made these. They make Fire Emblem, they make a. They made warioware. You know, so it's like weird. I don't know, just like a weird, weird catalog of stuff they've put together.

[Damon Hadfield]

They go all the way.

[Sam Claiborne]

Game freak game that's coming out.

[Justin Davis]

Which one?

[Damon Hadfield]

I know the one. It's like a 3D.

[Mark Medina]

Something of reincarnation or. I forget what it's called.

[Sam Claiborne]

Yeah, it looks strange.

[Mark Medina]

It looks dope though. It looks cool.

[Damon Hadfield]

Intelligent Systems was created in 1983 to develop games for Nintendo. And the original group worked on Mario Brothers, Wild Gunman, Duck Hunt, Hogan's Alley, Donkey Kong 3. But they've always been completely independent from Nintendo. It's wild, man.

[Sam Claiborne]

Where would Hogan's Alley have been without their help? Can you imagine?

[Damon Hadfield]

It's true.

[Sam Claiborne]

That would have been the real Days of Ruin, man.

[Damon Hadfield]

Danny from Colorado was just saying he's really getting into strategy games and he's replaying Fire Emblem. Three houses always wanted to try advance wars, thinking about picking up Days of Ruin.

[Sam Claiborne]

Well, I'm sure he liked our torturous answers to our questions.

[Justin Davis]

I think. I mean, I'm on. I had forget like we were Intelligent Systems made pushmo and crashmo. That's them.

[Damon Hadfield]

And they made a bunch of wires.

[Sam Claiborne]

Why do we have to bring this up? It's an open wound.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah. And Paper Mario, they're just a weird, like. It's just like. If you look at their game library, it's just kind of bizarre. Like, I don't know, like they're all really good, but just really unique. I don't know. What an interesting development house.

[Damon Hadfield]

Well, also what a weird and like successful line of work to choose to go into just to make games for Nintendo and do it for decades. Right.

[Mark Medina]

I mean, isn't that kind of common? Is Retro owned by Nintendo?

[Justin Davis]

Yes, but. I know what you mean. But Nintendo does.

[Mark Medina]

Sakurai doesn't technically work for Nintendo.

[Sam Claiborne]

He does.

[Justin Davis]

Well, yeah, there's a lot of. You're right that Retro is owned by Nintendo, but they do a lot of stuff like Intelligent Systems and.

[Sam Claiborne]

Wait, you're looking at their Wikipedia page.

[Justin Davis]

Yeah.

[Sam Claiborne]

Did you see that? They made end of the beginning number nine, which is called seaweed minus one.

[Mark Medina]

So that's the origins. It was these guys. They're still cranking them out today.

[Damon Hadfield]

All right, well, nicely job. Thank you for the suggestion, Danny from Colorado. Viewers, 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 heads up right now at Humble, you can get Humble Choice for just 14.99 and score a curated bundle of PC games for January, including Sonic Frontiers, Tomb Raiders 4 through 6, Remastered, Hunt Showdown 1896, Etrian Odyssey 2 HD. Nice day for fishing, Metal Slug Tactics, Settlement Survival, and Wizard of Legend 2. This month's choice is available through February 3rd. So head to humblebundle.com and start playing today. And that is all the scoops that we have for you this week. Thank you, Sam. Thank you, Justin. Thank you, Mark. Thank you to Gilbert, working behind the scenes to make this episode possible. My name is Damon. This is IGN gamescoup. And we're out. Family vacation 1995. 1995 Change the station Now I can drive Now I can drive My girl is waiting for me at home she's moving with me yeah, she's moving with me she hates it when I leave her alone I'm all she can see I'm all she can see dad turned 40 that year we got him CDs we got him CDs. His reaction was pretty severe. The smithereen, the smithereen and now we're playing games in the dark how many can we get? How many can we get? Not everybody has that spark no one was upset no one was upset. We drove Colorado to get me to my show. It was at the news girl's house, the one I told you about. She thought we were on a date, but that was a mistake. Everyone sat on the stairs. All of our friends were there. A stick sticker on the back of your car? CGC9. CGC9 proves what a big fan you are. This is the sign. This is the sign. And now a plan. Shows in the dark Everyone a friend Everyone a friend not everybody has that spark. The band is dead. The band is dead. We drove Colorado to get these on my show. It was at that girl's house, the one I told you about. She thought we were on a date, but that was a mistake. Everyone sat on the stairs. All of our friends were there. There, there, there. Sam, did you see Razor's AI Game help Avatar thing?

[Sam Claiborne]

I only heard about that.

[Mark Medina]

Oh, wait.

[Damon Hadfield]

Sits on your desk.

[Mark Medina]

You're an anime girl.

[Damon Hadfield]

Well, you can. There's, like, four different AI characters you can choose from, and the idea is that they're just there while you're gaming, and you can ask them questions while you play. It's weird.

[Mark Medina]

So an Alexa.

[Justin Davis]

I don't like that.

[Sam Claiborne]

I mean, one of those will be built into the next consoles.

[Damon Hadfield]

You know, that's interesting.

[Sam Claiborne]

You should call that team in Massachusetts.