Game Scoop! 858: Our Favorite Video Game Spin-Offs

Summary

Game Scoop! Episode 858: Our Favorite Video Game Spin-Offs

Date: May 22, 2026
Host: Daemon Hatfield
Guests: Peer Schneider, Sam Claiborne, Justin Davis
Podcast Network: Geek Media (IGN Entertainment)

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Episode Overview

In this episode, the Game Scoop! crew dives into a lively discussion about video game spin-offs—their favorites, surprising successes, and what makes a spin-off outshine its source material. Alongside their main theme, they break down major sales milestones, dissect recent game releases, and share their ongoing gaming experiences, all peppered with friendly banter and memorable moments. Plus, they take questions from listeners and close with the ever-popular Video Game 20 Questions segment.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Gaming News & Industry Updates

[03:12–06:58]

• Warhorse Studios’ New Middle-earth Game:
  • Daemon brings big news: The developers of Kingdom Come: Deliverance are working on a AAA open-world Middle-earth game.
  • The cast is excited, noting Warhorse's strong track record in medieval realism.
    • “Big triple A open world Middle Earth game. Amazing.” – Justin [04:03]
  • Speculation about settings (First or Second Age), characters, style, and anticipated gameplay depth.
  • Reflection on past Lord of the Rings games’ struggles and hopes for something that finally “hits.”
  • Notable: Kingdom Come 2 is also in the works; Warhorse is busy!

2. Game of the Month Sales and Trends

[13:47–21:09]

• Recent Sales Data:

  • Tomodachi Life is April’s best-selling game, surprising some due to limited buzz but backed by data from IGN Playlists.
  • Discussion about the appeal and mechanics of Tomodachi Life, its generational crossover, and Nintendo's restrictions on sharing content.
  • "It's like a life sim ...becomes a sitcom of characters... and there are no filters in this game." – Peer [15:14, paraphrased]

• Other Titles on the Rise:

  • Soros (ninth best-selling), Resident Evil 9, Crimson Desert, MLB The Show 26, Pokémon Picopia, and WWE 2K26 lead year-to-date charts.
  • Celebrating the resurgence of single-player games in annual bestsellers.

• Console Sales:

  • Switch 2 overtakes PS5 as best-selling hardware so far this year; discussion of Switch’s multi-unit-per-household effect.
  • PS5 surpasses 100 million units, slightly ahead of PS4's curve.

• All-Time Best-Sellers:

  • Red Dead Redemption 2 overtakes Wii Sports with 85 million copies, noting its post-launch sales boom and sustained popularity.
  • GTA V at 230 million units: "That's like such a material percentage of all the humans on the planet." – Justin [25:03]

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3. What We’re Playing

[27:42–38:44]

• Forza Horizon 6
  • Peer and Justin discuss the Japanese setting's lack of strong identity, overall gameplay polish, addictive flow, and increasing sales—6 million copies already.
    • “It just feels like flow state the game for me.” – Justin [31:47]
    • “The festival vibe is starting to feel a little old.” – Justin [33:30]
• Mina the Hollower
  • Sam is reviewing; IGN’s glowing preview highlights its clever genre blending and sense of heritage.
• Sekitory (Indie Game)
  • Justin shouts out this improved take on Geometry Wars: “It’s so clearly Geometry Wars...it’s just that good.” [38:07]
• Recent Card Game Roguelites
  • Daemon discusses Black Jacket, a blackjack roguelite with deep Hades-style narrative integration:
    • “You’re playing blackjack in hell against some colorful characters...while you play, you’re slowly learning about your relationships.” [39:32]
    • Wish for more narrative gambling games; reminisce about the classic Poker Night at the Inventory.

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Main Segment: Our Favorite Video Game Spin-Offs

[42:48–49:49]

• Listener Prompt:
  • What spin-offs are better than the main entries?
  • Examples from the listener: Forza Horizon, Red Dead Redemption, Persona, Minecraft Story Mode.

Panel Picks & Debates:

• Super Mario Bros. spun off from Donkey Kong:

  • Peer jokes that Super Mario Bros. is a spin-off and “better than Donkey Kong.” [44:06]

• Nintendo’s Spin-Off Machine:

  • Dr. Mario, Paper Mario, Mario Kart, and the entire Mario Sports line cited; Nintendo’s “IP slop” and masterful repurposing celebrated.
    • “Mario Kart is probably the greatest spin-off of all time.” – Peer [48:37]

• Pokémon Spin-Offs:

  • Pokémon Picopia, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, Pokémon Pinball hailed as sometimes equal to core entries.

• Licensed/Indie Spin-Offs:

  • Cadence of Hyrule (NecroDancer x Zelda) is lauded for indie crossovers.
  • Castlevania: Harmony of Despair (XBLA multiplayer) gets a fond shoutout.

• Sim City / The Sims:

  • The surprising legacy of The Sims as a SimCity spin-off.

• Genre Spin-Offs & “Tactics”ing:

  • Final Fantasy Tactics, Halo Wars, Gears Tactics, Metal Slug Tactics—the golden age of ‘tactics’ spin-offs.

• Wildcards:

  • Apex Legends from Titanfall, Tiny Tina’s Wonderland from Borderlands, and Gwent from The Witcher as success stories.
  • Funny takes on failed (or just weird) spin-offs like Mortal Kombat: Sub-Zero Mythologies and Star Wars: Masters of Teras Kasi.

Notable Quotes & Moments:

• “One of the easiest ways to make a spin off of your series is just throw the word Tactics on the end.” – Daemon [48:06]
• “Mario Kart, that's probably the greatest spin-off of all time.” – Peer [48:37]

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Q&A: Listener Mail & Video Game 20 Questions

[42:28–70:17]

• Video Game 20 Questions:
  • The team fields a letter from longtime listener Nathan and his son Max, expressing gratitude and stumping the crew with an obscure Xbox title (Gun Valkyrie) before moving to the main submission.
  • The actual challenge is a Nintendo GameCube classic—Luigi’s Mansion—eventually guessed after a careful process.
    • “If you tried 2 and you didn’t love it, 3 is so freaking good.” – Peer [67:40]

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Miscellaneous & Pop Culture

[49:59–56:22]

• Star Wars: Mandalorian Movie

  • Sam provides a non-spoiler take: “It is a monster movie about monsters. And that's what I liked about it. The back half is a Jim Henson movie with puppets and stop motion… It’s all really fun to watch.” [51:25]
  • Daemon preps for his viewing, expecting to enjoy it as “a long episode of Mandalorian.”

• ‘Send Help’ (Sam Raimi Film)

  • Daemon reviews the streaming movie, torn over the unsympathetic leads but drawn in by “good, gross Sam Raimi stuff.”

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Important Timestamps

• 03:12 – Kingdom Come team making a Middle-earth game
• 13:47 – April sales data (Tomodachi Life) and console trends
• 21:12 – Red Dead Redemption 2 passes Wii Sports in all-time sales
• 27:42 – Forza Horizon 6 impressions
• 36:09 – Mina the Hollower preview
• 38:44 – Twin stick shooter Sekitory
• 42:28 – Spin-offs segment begins
• 48:11 – Tactics/strategy spin-off discussion
• 52:41 – Star Wars movie reviews
• 56:37 – 20 Questions (Luigi’s Mansion guessed)
• 70:30 – IGN Live event plug and closing remarks

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Memorable Quotes

• "That's like such a material percentage of all the humans on the planet." – Justin on GTA V sales [25:03]
• "I just completely turn off my brain and just drive ... like, it just feels so natural ... flow state the game for me." – Justin on Forza Horizon 6 [31:47]
• “Mario Kart is probably the greatest spin-off of all time.” – Peer [48:37]
• “If you try 2 and you didn’t love it, 3 is so freaking good.” – Peer on Luigi’s Mansion 3 [67:40]
• “I wish there were more narrative gambling games, you know?” – Justin [40:44]
• “It's a monster movie about monsters. And that's what I liked about it.” – Sam, on the Mandalorian movie [51:25]

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Episode Summary & Closing Thoughts

This episode delivers a packed, entertaining dive into the world of video game spin-offs, ranging from Nintendo’s franchise alchemy to the modern era’s tactical re-imaginings. Along the way, the crew unpacks the state of the industry, shares personal gaming stories, and showers love on deep-cut indie gems. The banter is lively and nostalgic, making this a perfect listen for anyone passionate about gaming history and culture.

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IGN Live Reminder:
Event runs June 6-7, 2026, downtown LA. Use code ‘Scoop’ for a free ticket at live.igen.com.

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Includes Bloodstained, Superhot, Celeste, The Witness, and more. Pay what you want at humblebundle.com.

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For questions, feedback, or to submit 20 Questions games, reach out at gamescoopgn.com.

Transcript

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[B]

What's up everybody? Welcome to IGN gamescoop. I'm your host, Damon Hatfield and joining me here in studio is Par Schneider.

[D]

What's up, Damon?

[B]

I'll tell you what's up. We're about to scoop it up. Joining us also is Sam Claiborne.

[E]

Scoop it up.

[B]

And Justin Davis.

[F]

Scoop.

[B]

We got a great show for you this week. We've got some updated sales data on the best selling games of the year and indeed of all time. We're all playing a bunch of hot new games that are out right now, but the one I'm most into right now you all may not know about. So I'll spill the beans on that. And we will also share our favorite video game spin offs. But first, Justin, you like.

[F]

Whoa.

[B]

You like the Kingdom Come Deliverance games?

[F]

Yeah. Who doesn't?

[B]

And you like Lord of the Rings?

[F]

Yes.

[B]

Well, have I got some news for you, Justin. What if I told you the makers of the Kingdom Come Deliverance games are making a Middle Earth game.

[E]

The first question you have to ask is, is this only about Gollum? Right.

[B]

Yeah. Once again, another character, another game about

[E]

God, a movie and a game. Yeah.

[D]

This is so cool.

[F]

Big triple A open world Middle Earth game. Amazing.

[B]

Finally from people that make really beloved medieval games.

[D]

I was just at home last week thinking in the shower it'd be so cool if Intelligent Systems took Fire Emblem and just made it a Lord of the Rings game.

[E]

That's a good idea.

[D]

All of your units are like, you know, it's like a Fellowship and a dwarf.

[A]

So cool.

[D]

But this is the second best.

[E]

I'll take.

[B]

This is the second best. Okay.

[D]

Second best.

[E]

Yeah, that would be really fun.

[F]

I mean they also announced that that they're making another Kingdom Come game. So it's like, I like that their little graphic where they announced it to is like, you know, new Kingdom Come game. You know, New Middle Earth rpg. So it's like I obviously the Middle Earth RPG is the big news. Like maybe they didn't even say rpg but like open world game. Like, but I like that for the Kingdom Come fans. They're also letting them know, okay, we're not done with this series either.

[D]

Yeah.

[E]

I have a pitch for the Lord of the Rings setting. It's in either the first or the Second Age, but it's about a group of the first settlers of Numenorean men encountering Middle Earth from coming from Numenor and not knowing about the various things that are happening there. They don't know about Orcs and Mordor stuff like that, but let alone, they don't know about, you know, Fangorn Forest. They don't know about the Dwarves and the Blue Mountains and the mines. And then that's what you're discovering in this, that everything feels new and a little bit scary because it's like, it's a. It's, you know, a weird new world that they fled to.

[D]

See, I. I want the ring to be in it. You know why?

[F]

Yeah.

[D]

Because it's quite cool.

[B]

It is quite cool.

[E]

It has a great song, it's got a great leitmotif. Right?

[B]

Yeah. That is a question. When you take the Lord of the Rings out of Middle Earth, that's just such a. An unknown quantity for most of us.

[D]

Yep.

[F]

Right. No, it's just gonna have cool dragons and swords and it's fine.

[B]

All right.

[F]

It's gonna, it's gonna. It's gonna be great. We. There's such a glow up From Kingdom Come 1 to Kingdom Come 2. I've mentioned on the show before, it's kind of like the glow up from Witcher 1 to Witcher 2. So it's like that developer Warhorse Studios, like, I think they're on a tear. So I really. I have very, very high hopes.

[E]

How long was between. How long was. Was there between the two of Kingdom?

[F]

So many years. At least I think like six years.

[E]

I'm glad because I'll have time in retirement to play this when it's done.

[F]

Yeah. For real.

[D]

What's so funny is that, you know, video games have over the years, even before the Peter Jackson movies copied everything from Lord of the Rings, right? It's either D and D or Lord of the Rings. And D and D obviously took liberally from Lord of the Rings. It's like, it's because the books have in it the snow lava level, the water level, the forest level, the cave level with collapsing columns.

[F]

Right.

[D]

And like, it's going to be interesting how, like now that we're getting more Lord of the Rings projects, like how they actually differentiate themselves from other games.

[B]

Yeah, well, there we have been getting more Lord of the Rings games. I don't think we've gotten One that's really hit yet so far. Because there's the cozy Shire one. That's right.

[D]

That didn't work out. The Golem one didn't work out. I mean, EA had one of those 20 years ago.

[F]

EA had a right.

[B]

There was a Dwarf one too. Also didn't, didn't make much of a

[E]

Moria kind of sim.

[D]

That's right, yeah.

[B]

Return to Moria.

[E]

That's it. Yeah.

[B]

Well, so Justin, I think you're the one here that spent the most time with Kingdom Come, Deliverance, and you've told us some like, great stories of your time in those games here on the show. It's like, what is, what do those games. What, how, how does that inform what you expect out of a Lord of the Rings game for them?

[F]

Well, they really, they're sort of like cyberpunk in that they really commit to their first person viewpoint and do a lot with it. Like, they're, they're very, very hardcore about that, although not to the point, like, the cut scenes are third person, so they're not as crazy about cyberpunk punk. But they, they're also, they're a little bit Kingdom Come. What I like about it is that they, they are kind of a little bit more simmy of, you know, your character is terrible at everything until you practice it and level it up. Like it's a medieval peasant simulator is how I've described it in the past of like, you can't sword fight, you're weak, you can't carry anything, you can't do anything. And like, so the game kind of feels bad for like 10 hours. But then that's just contrasted with like, as you start to get more powerful and as you start to get stronger and you start to level up your skills. Like, it just feels that much better as you work your way through it. So for Lord of the Rings, it's like, you know, I think that they're probably going to make something that's a little bit more accessible and a little bit more Skyrim. Like, I mean, the developer is definitely capable of, of, you know, they're talented enough that they can do that. So that'll be the thing that I'll be excited to see is like, you know, do they want it to be that kind of like, bracing, you know, kind of like uncompromising game design? Are they going to go for something that's a little bit, you know, broader in its appeal?

[E]

Well, I mean, the Fellowship goes through that part where it feels bad for 10 hours. Well, Tom Bombadil sings A lot. His wife dances.

[F]

Yeah.

[E]

So there's.

[D]

That's a side quest. You don't have to do that one.

[B]

They didn't even.

[E]

Apparently Stephen Colbert is writing that entire movie right now.

[F]

That's right.

[D]

That's right. Missing pieces.

[B]

I mean. Yeah. Isn't.

[E]

Wait, wait, do. You said this. I didn't realize about the cyberpunk comparison. But that's like. Because first person. Such an important part of it. Plus the beginning of the game. You wake up and then they say, well, met samurai. Huzzah.

[B]

Yes, exactly.

[E]

Where does. Where does this take place? Where does kingdom come take place? It's like Poland.

[F]

Yeah, like, you know, the ancient, like Bavaria, you know, whatever modern Bavaria.

[E]

We have a Bavarian expert right here.

[D]

Yome pretty.

[F]

Yeah. Like the Kingdom of Bohemia. So it's probably closest to like Czech Republic, I guess.

[D]

Yeah.

[E]

Interesting.

[D]

Boomin. I did not know this. Now I have to play this. I didn't know this was.

[B]

Yeah, you didn't know that was the setting.

[D]

This was. This was that close.

[B]

Okay.

[D]

I thought it was like made up England crap like everything else.

[F]

No, it's. And it's actually super historical. Like there's major characters in the game that like existed in real life and have Wikipedia pages and stuff.

[E]

Okay, well, that samurai, man, I should

[D]

have been on Game Scoop. When you talked about it last.

[B]

For the last two years, you told a story about how you like went out drinking with like a priest and you spent all night and he had like a big sermon to give the next morning, but he was too hungover in the morning, so you had to give the sermon.

[D]

It's good stuff.

[F]

That's a really famous question.

[E]

But your speech Skill is at 5 out of 100, so you can't.

[F]

Yeah, yeah, you can totally bomb it.

[D]

It came out when I was super busy and then I ignored it and fell behind.

[B]

Well, but I'm too bad. You're super busy.

[D]

I'm intrigued.

[F]

And it's a. It's a real rags to riches story. Like the main character, really, you know, he just starts out. It's like Luke Skywalker. He starts out as this like whiny little jerk, but then by the end you kind of like, really love him. Nice.

[E]

I marry Sue.

[B]

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[E]

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[E]

We've talked about this before, but you could see like Bubsy for Super Nintendo.

[B]

Yeah.

[E]

It's like four and a half copies.

[D]

The problem is that it was an industry reporting tool and you weren't allowed to report on it as. And so we had to cancel our subscription to be able to report on it. And had it leaked to us instead.

[B]

Yeah, leaked. Anyway, Circada has stats for April and the best selling game of April I was a little bit surprised to see was Tomodachi Life.

[D]

Yeah, I was.

[F]

They changed their reporting methods. Right. Where like they weren't. I don't. I think before they weren't counting digital Switch sales and now they are something

[B]

they have projected Switch digital sales.

[D]

Yeah.

[E]

Did this come out on switch 1 and 2 only pair?

[D]

I think it's a double.

[E]

Yeah.

[D]

Yeah.

[E]

Because I did. I have heard that there are like there is a younger audience that is enjoying this, which would have to be Switch one.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

So I was actually not surprised. Like if I can tout our internal tool. We use IGN playlists where users can flag what games they're playing. And Tomodachi Life was sitting at number one for like two weeks. It was at the top. And I was even doubting it a little bit. I'm like, is it really that. That big? Because you don't hear that much chatter around it. But that might just be out of our circle of people. So. Yeah, that's. That's awesome. It's really fun. I don't know if you guys tried it. No, no, no. Oh my God. Crusty old man. Yeah, it's. Look, I think Nintendo.

[F]

Is it a game?

[D]

Yeah, it is. It is. It's like. It's like a life sim. So, you know, like you build a town, you expand things, you feed people, you get people together and then it sort of becomes a sitcom of characters interacting and saying really the worst things because you are in control and there are no filters in this game. But that also Means you cannot share any gameplay footage with a built in tool, like with every other Switch game. Which is. Is a bit of a bummer. But, you know, obviously they didn't want, you know, they didn't want real life historical characters doing things that they maybe hadn't done in real life.

[B]

Wait, they. Nintendo disables the share button in this.

[D]

It's one of the only games where you cannot. Even though you cannot a gameplay clip and share it. You have to use your phone.

[E]

What Tom's been doing with his Yoshi, naming characters. You can see why they disable it. So you established that this is a video game. Also, I had a question. Did they pay too much money for their licensed music? So that couldn't possibly be.

[D]

Oh, look, it's me. It does not have licensed music. Why is everybody harping on that like Harmonix was an indie dev and famously created Guitar Hero?

[B]

I'm like, it's the mixtape joke.

[E]

I know, but part of the mixtape. I get it. But like extended universe of conspiracy.

[D]

I'm not saying I'm confused by it. I'm confused by why.

[E]

Okay, okay, you got the joke.

[D]

No, I got the joke.

[E]

But you're not laughing. You're not laughing at the joke.

[D]

It's become painful, man.

[B]

It was so funny. We forgot to laugh. Sam.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Wow.

[E]

That ganon's amazing.

[F]

That was good.

[D]

Oh, the creation tool. This is like. It really makes you lament the passing of the MII creation tools because they, they upgraded them. They got. You can actually draw on the faces now. So you can. You can really create like just the silliest and best looking characters.

[F]

It's great.

[B]

Thank you for flushing. They're saying, well, you can make anything

[D]

a topic of discussion, right?

[B]

So it's seems like a weird little game from the.

[D]

Just a lot of talk about pooping with most people.

[B]

Yeah, I get. I get it.

[E]

Was this full price?

[D]

I don't know what is full price. It wasn't. It wasn't as cheap as Star Fox.

[E]

I believe it's a hundred and twenty dollars.

[D]

It is at least $400 for this game. Yeah.

[F]

I think it's so funny where some people like this. There's this GTA 6 price debate of like, what's it gonna be priced? I'm like, guys, Mario Kart was $80.

[E]

I think that's true.

[F]

GTA going to be.

[E]

Yeah, but Mario Kart was worth it. We're all still playing that, right?

[D]

Look at the Logan plant. Me.

[B]

Yeah, it's a good look.

[F]

That's pretty good.

[D]

Yeah. You also cannot share your M. Like, they are so protective of it, which sucks. So you have to like send people your stuff. I mean, you can't just send it to your friend.

[B]

Well, Toma Live bestselling game in April. We've talked a lot. A little bit about Soros, how it was sort of struggling to find too much of an audience, but it still cracked the top 10. It was still the ninth bestselling game of April. So what does that tell us? You can sell 300,000 ish copies and still crack the top ten.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Cool. Not terrible. So top five of the year so far are Resident Evil 9 and number one, Crimson Desert mov the show 26 Pokemon, Pocopia and WWE 2K 26.

[D]

So three pretty good.

[B]

Three good single player games in there.

[D]

And Pocopia was awesome. If you didn't play.

[B]

I did play some Pocopia. It's very good.

[D]

That's a great one.

[F]

Yeah. Copia. I was reflecting on this. I think it's my game of the year. Front row.

[D]

Okay.

[F]

For what I've played personally. Keep in mind I'm not a big Resident Evil guy, but like out of the stuff that I've played, Pickopia was incredible.

[D]

Yeah. It's nice to have post apocalyptic games again.

[E]

I don't agree that's my game of the year, but it's incredible.

[B]

Resident Evil is my game of the year so far.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

But Tomodachi is already at number nine for the best selling games of the year. Ninth best selling game of the year. The Switch 2 is the best selling hardware of the year.

[D]

Let's see what happens now with the price going up.

[B]

Well, yeah, but they gave people such a long Runway. It's not till September. Right.

[D]

Maybe by choice. Right. They want a positive story. But yeah, everything else got so expensive. I wasn't surprised to see Switch to reclaim the throne there after PlayStation was catching up.

[B]

And then PS5 is getting really close to 100 million units.

[D]

It's incredible, right?

[E]

It is.

[D]

It doesn't seem right.

[B]

Its current lifetime sales are a little bit ahead of where the PS4 was at this point in its life. So it's doing a little bit better than PS4, which I think is probably

[D]

because we had three in my household. I switched to a pro, but we had two before because one was for the kids so that they don't bug me.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

So it's probably mostly me.

[F]

I do think about that. I think about these console install bases. Well, mostly the original Switch because they had the original. And then The OLED model and then the sort of handheld only model and it's like. Yeah, the Switch Lite. And so it kind of. There's like an asterisk next to console install data.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

But.

[D]

But the reality is that the handheld machines like the, you know, Switch, obviously being a hybrid, are just more likely to be multi multiple units per household devices. Right. Because.

[F]

No, for it like, I mean the older my kids get, it's like I can't take my Switch with me on work trips anymore because my children lose their minds.

[D]

You kids don't have switches, huh?

[F]

Not a switch. 2.

[B]

Wow.

[D]

But they have Switch ones or.

[F]

Well, look, I don't mean to even know where.

[D]

I don't mean to. I'm not saying you're a bad dad, Justin.

[B]

He's just asking questions.

[D]

I'm just doing research. Okay.

[B]

He did, he did his own research.

[E]

Just asking questions. Yeah.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Well, we also have breaking news. This just went up moments before we started recording. Red Dead Redemption 2 has overtaken Wii Sports in best selling games of all time. It just leaves. Yeah.

[D]

Which is more notable than it just it. I mean Wii Sports was a packet.

[F]

Right.

[D]

So that is. That's a little different.

[B]

I think Red Dead has sold more copies in the last year than in any 12 month period since launch. It's like it's first year. Yeah. So I don't know why it got a big bump over the past year.

[E]

Yeah.

[D]

Especially wouldn't the numbers go down Unless

[B]

people are just getting excited for GTA 6 and they're like this is their last big game from Rockstar.

[D]

Like I remember when it first came out there was all this like drama chatter about it being boring and all that.

[B]

And like, I mean I think people. I think it's pretty much pretty universally beloved. I personally am in the camp. I don't think the game feels that great to actually control. I don't think has great game feel. But that's just.

[D]

Yeah, it's heavy.

[B]

It is heavy.

[D]

Right. Like the character. It's not nimble.

[B]

It's a little too acrobatic. Too far into sim simulation for me. That's just me. I do think it's one of the best video game stories I've ever experienced.

[D]

Now I can see that feel wise. But I just think the sort of freedom of what you can do and the, the, the realism of watching it when you're playing it is just unparalleled. It's so good. I love this game.

[E]

It's really good at making the gameplay problems melt away.

[D]

Yeah. Now.

[B]

Well, it's at 85 million copies now.

[D]

Amazing. Well deserved, though.

[F]

That's. That's a lot.

[D]

But by the way, just imagine like what a hard sell it was to say, hey, kids, don't watch westerns on TV and in the movies anymore. Let's make a western game like this is. It is. It is very notable that these games blew up to this degree.

[F]

It's crazy, but just the conviction to like, you know, just make this game with just an almost endless budget.

[B]

Yeah.

[F]

You know, it's just. And then, and then. I mean, look, it was never a failure, right? But like, it didn't, you know, it wasn't that crazy of a success in its first year. But it just, you know. You just said it, Damon. It's just never stopped. It never stopped selling. So.

[D]

Yeah, it didn't have that universe universal appeal at gta as everybody loves crime.

[F]

You know, I keep wanting to go back to Red Dead 2, but I wanted to wait for like the native next gen versions and then they just never happened.

[D]

It'll happen. They'll get remade. I'm sure it would be nice to get.

[F]

It's almost over.

[D]

It would be lovely to get late, late story dlc.

[B]

Yeah.

[F]

And jump back in, man.

[D]

Or some zombies, you know, after such.

[F]

Not such an easy one to do story DLC for, I guess. No Undead Nightmare.

[E]

It could really work for this one.

[B]

I wish they would have done,

[F]

but with a Twist.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

After DJ6, you think they'll do Red Dead 3? It's the third best selling game of all time.

[E]

I'll be dead table tennis.

[F]

I don't. Yeah, I don't think so. Only because Red Dead Online didn't pop. I think Rockstar, you know, Rockstar secretly made. You know, like, we talk about live service games and we talk about Fortnite, but it's like secretly, GTA Online is the live service game.

[E]

They could do it. They need more people. They need another studio. They need to expand.

[D]

I always wanted them to do another alien invasion game, like an open world Body Harvest.

[B]

That was like DMA design, right?

[D]

It was. That's Rockstar.

[B]

Yeah. Well, who's. Who's still there that made Body Harvest?

[D]

All of them.

[B]

Everyone.

[D]

Because that team was probably 20 people. Yeah, but it would be great.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

Like you're just a dude living out in the countryside and then the. The aliens arrive and that's your entire open world adventures to reclaim the Earth.

[B]

That's what I want. Red Dead.

[E]

You bully them.

[D]

Big tripods walking around.

[B]

Okay, so 85 million copies for Red Dead 2. But GTA 5? 230 million copies. Yeah, it's just stupid. It's like what?

[F]

Yeah, 230 million copies of GTA 5. How many?

[B]

Like what?

[F]

That's like such a material percentage of all the humans on the planet.

[B]

I know, I know.

[D]

But Justin, surely you have one for yourself and two for your kids.

[B]

Yeah, the kids need to have their own copies of GTA 5.

[F]

Yeah, I tried to play GTA 5. It was on Game Pass recently and I was like all excited to go back through it again and I bounced off it after like three or four hours. That game has a slow on ramp.

[E]

You drive around and talk a lot.

[D]

See, I always feel like when it slowed down for me I'd switch to a different, different character and like it would get me going again. Like, I love that.

[F]

That setup.

[D]

That was really cool.

[C]

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[D]

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[B]

Okay, lots of games out now. Forza Horizon 6. Perry, you haven't, you haven't. You haven't voiced your opinion on that here on the show yet.

[D]

Well, I started it. I have. Last game I had, I was going on to like 300 hours on the last one. Like 280 hours on Forza on 5. I've played every game in the series. I play all the Forzas, but the Forza Horizons are my favorites. It feels like Forza Horizon and it feels like Forza Horizon 5. It's very pretty. I starting off, lamented that it didn't feel very Japanese.

[B]

That's exactly what I said.

[D]

I think some people.

[E]

The question we're going to ask you, how Japanese is it?

[D]

And it's like, I get it. Maybe they didn't want the sort of stereotypical like, you know, you're the foreigner. Everybody speaks with Japanese accents and they didn't want that. But it's like, literally, you know, they. It like I get to pick a GMC Jimmy at the start as one of the options. I'm like, I took the Sylvia, of course. But no, it's just like, I don't know what I was expecting because the world is realistic. But it didn't sort of. And, and a lot of really, you know, a lot of games that are set in Japan obviously play up the sort of either feudal Japan factor or the super like hyper Shibuya Harajuku kind of vibe and, and, or Shinjuku neon or something. And like this is. It just. It just looked like going back to Australia. I gotta, I gotta say.

[B]

And everyone that talks to you has a British accent.

[D]

That's the other thing is that you don't meet this Japanese group that basically welcomes you to Japan. Japan. And says, you know, don't mess with things. Don't. Don't climb into Punch the Monkeys cage.

[B]

Here is the extra tourism tax you have to pay.

[D]

Yeah.

[E]

So don't even look at the monkeys. Don't look them in the eye. I mean, bring any food near them.

[D]

Two dudes just got arrested. Su Foreigners, of course, got arrested for climbing down to Punch the Monkey to do like Instagrams or something or tick tocks. No, but it's like, then you start playing it, obviously it feels really good, looks good. The cars look beautiful. There's, you know, there's Japanese radio stations. So you get your J Pop and all of that and I'll see how it unfolds. I don't know if I'm going to do 280 hours again.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

Because the last loop was all about. I wanted all the cars and so it was like tune in programming for me where I had to play it on the weekends. And I was upset when I was on vacation that I missed a couple of cars. I don't know if I'm going to do that again, he said. And then it was 300.

[F]

Yeah, I'm already getting a little bit stressed out. So I'm. I'm absolutely addicted to it. I think it's excellent. I agree with all the feedback you said. Pair doesn't feel. I actually gave Mark a little bit of a hard time on the show last week where he's like, yeah, when I'm flying down the roads, like it feels like Mexico, it feels like Australia. But that's totally true. Right. There's not enough kind of like strong Japanese flavor in it. And so. Love the game and I'm in complete alignment with Luke's kind of like 10 out of 10 review score. Tokyo is like a little bit disappointing.

[B]

Yes.

[F]

It just doesn't have a lot of personality. But I just like the moment to moment. This is just like. I think the soundtrack is really good and I think once you end an event, it pops up a thing that gives you like four recommended events to do next and you pick one and it routes you to it. And so it's like I have a very. I'm like kind of stressed out at work right now. And so this game is like I just completely turn off my brain and just drive and I drive and I do the event and I have it set one notch above ease of above normal difficulty. So above average is the difficulty. And I've. I've played a lot of Forza so I never lose. I just come in first place every single time. And then I ride to the next event and then I come in first place and then I drive to the next event and come in first place. So it's just like. It's just like flow state the game for me.

[E]

And.

[F]

And so does it say sound?

[D]

Does it say, do you want to bring up the difficulty level? And you go, no.

[F]

Yeah, well, so it was unnormal. It was on normal and I notched it up once and then I kept winning and it was like, do you want to notch it up to like highly skilled or whatever's next? I'm like, no, I just want to keep winning.

[D]

That's great.

[E]

Great progression and says that In a funny way, it's like you're winning a lot.

[F]

Yeah.

[D]

Yeah.

[E]

Are you sure you don't want to change this?

[F]

It does. Like, this is such a tiny detail, but it does matter to kind of that flow state that I'm talking about of, like, the song. Whatever song is playing, like, when you go into the menu and you start the next race, like, it just keeps playing. So, like, the game just keeps. It just. It just, like, I just zone out. It's been so nice to, like, zone out and just not think for a while and just race. It's just perfect.

[D]

I did this thing yesterday where my wife said, hey, we gotta go. We gotta go get some groceries. And I'm like, yeah, I'm just gonna finish this race. And then the race ended, and I just drove to the next one and immediately started it because, like, it just feels so natural and, like, it's not, like, conquesting. Well, maybe there's a little bit to that, but, like, it just feels. It's. It's relaxing. That said, I remember when I did ratchet up the difficulty, I actually got a backache from, like, being so, like, really straining to win, to win the races. I think one of the issues. Why it doesn't look that Japanese, by the way, like, at first sight, is when you go to the Japanese countryside, a lot of the houses have, like, blue shingle roofs that look like nothing on earth.

[F]

Right.

[D]

Like, you know instantly in Japan. You're in Japan, when you sit in the car, you cannot see any of that. You see the sides of the buildings that usually look the same. And so I think that's one of the issues. It's. It's a car game set in Japan, not a game where you're flying through the air or you're, like, exploring and getting close to things.

[B]

Yeah, it is a great gameplay loop that just.

[E]

The foliage looks like it's from somewhere else.

[D]

Yeah, it looks pretty Japanese, though.

[B]

Yeah. It is hard to get out of when you're playing it because, like, you say you finish a race, and then it recommends another one. It's like, okay, one more. All right, let's just do another one. It's hard to sort of get out of that loop.

[F]

Yeah, they need to. I think that this is the last time for me that they can get away with. I think that. I think that the whole, like, music festival, slash, car festival, that kind of horizon, like. Like, it feels very kind of, like 2016. It does not feel 2026 anymore. They've been doing it for two or three games now of like, you know, you're the celebrity and the, and the, and the, you know, that festival vibe is starting to feel a little old and some of the UI and UX is also starting to feel, you know, a little bit old and a little bit cheap. So I want the game like, you know, the car racing like that, like, you know, they've got it perfect and they have a winning formula in their hand and just keep it that way forever. But I'd like some of the wrapping around it to be kind of refreshed for the next one, I think.

[D]

Yeah, it's. It's funny because obviously Japan is in the news a lot because of over tourism and, you know, there's some friction between, you know, Japanese nationals and visitors because. And I could attest to that. Like, last time I went, it was so freaking packed. It was, it was before their prime minister pissed off China. But, like, it was, it was super crowded. And so I'm half glad that didn't play up. This sort of, you know, foreigners coming in and like taking pictures of everything and like conquering all the areas. Like, I think the festival thing is a safe approach, but I agree with you. Like, it just, it feels like there should be a new element. It's feeling a little bit like all those games that did climb on a tower to conquer, to unlock the map area.

[B]

Right.

[D]

Like, that's what it's feeling like. But if all this sounds negative, it's like it's just the moment you drive, it just feels great, right? Yeah, it's so much fun.

[F]

It's perfect. It's a perfect racing game.

[D]

Yeah, it's wonderful.

[B]

And I think they just announced Today it's sold 6 million copies already.

[D]

Yeah. And by the way, just a game

[B]

that's in Game Pass.

[D]

That's great, Justin. The one thing when you ratchet up the difficulty, the rubber banding is getting a little annoying and the games have always done that to a certain degree. But it feels worse now where it's like you can literally see another car just speed up next, next to you and you're like, I what? How did you do that?

[F]

Yeah, yeah, they don't have to, they don't have to break around corners. Yeah, yeah. The, the New Horizon Festival, like its version of the Battle Pass, starts today. Paris. So you have to decide whether you're going to be on that treadmill or not. Like, I'm already, like, pretty stressed out about how I'm out of town for a week for IGN Live and other stuff. And I'M like, what about, what am I going to do about my cars?

[D]

Come over, bring your Xbox. You can plug it into my tv.

[B]

And Sam, we can't get into this game yet, but I think you can share what game you're reviewing right now.

[E]

That's right. I'm reviewing Mina the Hollower. And we just put up a preview of it that is glowing. If you want to look at that preview, I recommend checking it out. It talks about all of the games that Mina is kind of drawing from and it talks about how that works in tandem. And I think it's a really good indication of what you can expect from it. And I can't wait to tell you more about it.

[B]

Yeah, we'll be able to talk about that on a future episode in the not too distant future. Justin, you're playing, you're playing an indie game.

[F]

Yeah, quickly. I wanted to shout out Sectory. It came out on Steam last year, but I'm playing it. It came out on the Nintendo Switch too. It's awesome. It's a Geometry wars, like, and it's just absolutely, you know, relentless. And it fixes one of the big problems I had with Geometry wars, which is Geometry wars took a little bit too long to kind of ramp up. Like if you lost around, it's like, okay, well ten more minutes of sort of like this. This gets you into it much more quickly. And it does have the downside of that makes it more hardcore. Like the runs are kind of brutal and short, but it's a top down twin stick shooter. It's got a bunch of different modes in it. It's so clearly Geometry Wars. Like it even has that mode From Geometry Wars 2 where you go through the gates. Like you can't shoot, but you go through the gates to kill things. So time attack mode, campaign mode, you know, Boss Rush, other stuff like that. Super rad. It's made by. I don't know if it's literally made by one guy, but like the, the bullet point that I read is it's made by one of the guys that worked at Housemarque and worked on Super Stardust.

[E]

So Justin, are you gonna play Lego Batman on your list? You have to complete the list.

[F]

Well, I got about 11 other Lego games I gotta get through first. So, yeah, eventually I'll get to Lego Batman.

[D]

Oh man.

[F]

Yeah, but that's coming up. Sector is rad. Check it out.

[D]

That looks really good that. I mean, it looked like it would be a Geometry wars game.

[F]

Yeah, I mean, I think it's a 2025 game, but it would. It's legitimately good enough to be like. Like, on my game of the year shortlist. It's just. It's that good.

[D]

Cool.

[B]

Yeah. Lego Batman. And then next week is 007, first light.

[D]

So much coming now.

[B]

It's already here. Anyway, what I've been playing, you know, in this post, Balacho World by law. By law, every card game and parlor game has to have a roguelite video game of it. I told you about the chess roguelite I was playing last week. Gom. It's called GOM Bonanza, which is a. A bad name, but it's very good. Although with that one, I have a little bit of an issue with its theme. Like, we've talked about how Balatro. There's no story, no lore, no nothing. And yet it has kind of an uneasy feeling that it gives you.

[D]

Yeah, it's got that weird joker, serial killer vibe to it.

[B]

Yeah, kind of like that. But the Gom Bonanza, you play, like four levels in a row. It's just chess. There's no characters, no nothing. No dialogue, no nothing. It's just chess. But then every five levels is a boss fight against this monster, a named monster. It's like, what?

[E]

But is the monster like a big horse or a big castle? It's just.

[B]

No, no, no, not even that. So the theme is a little bit weird there, but I think it's very good anyway. But the new one. Go ahead. No, the new one that I was really enjoying is Black Jacket, which I can tell which is black. Oh, you know this one? Justin, you played this?

[F]

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I've seen people talking about it online.

[B]

This is Roguelite Blackjack with, you know, the. The card breaking rules of Bellachro where you can do all sorts of crazy stuff, but it's also mixed with the deliberate narrative progression of Hades. So you're okay, you're playing blackjack in hell against, you know, some colorful characters. You're having conversations while you play, and you're slowly learning about what your relationships are to these people and why you're in hell and why this is all happening. And it's. It's really well done. The acting is good. One of the voices, you know, I looked it up. I tried looking it up. It's an indie game. I don't think they could afford him. But one of the voices sounds exactly so much so I was convinced it was him. It sounds exactly like Josh Brolin doing Thanos. It sounds exactly like him, but it's like there's no way Right. This is not Josh Brolin doing this.

[D]

But that's funny.

[B]

Anyway. Anyway, it's really good.

[D]

That looks great.

[B]

This is what I'm enjoying. Like, you know, blackjack, try to get as close to 21 without going over, but you'll get, like, negative value cards. So you can go. If you're. If you're currently at 25, you're still in the game because you could play a negative value and keep yourself in there. You can play cards against your opponent sometimes that messes them up. It's great cards that can burn other cards away, called Black Jacket. This is the game I'm playing the most right now. The one I'm most into.

[D]

Looks neat.

[F]

I. Narrative. I wish there was more narrative gambling games, you know? Like, I don't know. There's a weird connection to make, but, like, remember how good poker night at the inventory was from Tesla

[E]

did it?

[B]

What? I think they just re. Release it.

[F]

I. I remember you got me some.

[D]

I remember when I was. I don't. I don't think I've ever told this, but when I was covering N64, back in the 1800s, there was a company making a Golden Nugget licensed video game. I think it was Virgin or something. And they came in, they presented the design documents and some early footage to us. And it was set in the casino, but while you were gambling, there was a murder. And so then the game was. The game would turn into, like, a narrative story about finding the murderer. But you also need to gamble, of course, because why. Why stop right when there's dead people around?

[E]

For the Nintendo 64.

[D]

Yeah. And I remember it's. It was called Golden Nugget 64 was the working title.

[E]

Hell, yeah.

[D]

That concept never made it out. I think the whole thing got canceled. But, like, at the time we asked him, we're like, wait. And they. The casino lets you do this? Like, it's got a violent murder in the middle of the casino.

[F]

They're like.

[D]

They're like, yeah, they haven't complained about it yet. We're like, like, yes.

[F]

They didn't know.

[D]

Yeah, yeah, but. But I love that.

[F]

Exactly the kind of game I'm talking about. Yeah, yeah.

[D]

No speaking.

[F]

And like, it never like it in the case of, like, poker night. Right. Like, it didn't last. Like, just this feeling of like, I'm playing poker with Glados and Brock Sampson from, you know, Venture Brothers. Like, eventually the lines start to repeat and you sort of see the. You know, you see behind the curtain. But, like, it's a really magical. Like few hours in the beginning.

[B]

Okay, let's check in with the listeners.

[D]

Hey, listeners.

[B]

Hello, listeners. Remember, you can always reach us at the email address Game Scoop G n dot com. Just like our friend Charlie Gadson in San Diego did. Says hello, Scoop. It was great to hear Justin's voice again last week after his four week hiatus. He may be pleasantly surprised to know the crew stepped up and only failed once at video game 20 Questions during his absence.

[F]

What?

[B]

No.

[F]

Because then that makes my stats work worse.

[E]

That doesn't even sound right. I think we failed a lot more than that.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Onto my question. Last week I learned. I learned. This is Charlie Gadsden talking. Last week I learned Forza Horizon is a spin off of the Forza Motorsport series. What are some of your favorite spinoff franchises or games and when do you consider them better than the main entries? Some that quickly come to mind are Red Dead Redemption. Is that a spin off from Red Dead Oliver? I don't know. Persona from Shin Megami Tensei and Minecraft Story Mode.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

And then he says, while I'm here, here's my video game 20 question submission. This is not one I would pick.

[F]

He.

[B]

He suggests tales of Destiny 2.

[D]

Oh, yeah. That would have taken us four years.

[E]

I know what that is.

[F]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah, maybe. I mean, Justin knows the Tales games. Maybe he could have gotten there. I don't know. Probably.

[F]

No, that's not one of the Tales games.

[D]

Fun fact.

[F]

I know. I know the trails games.

[B]

Oh, Trails games.

[D]

Fun fact. I used to play Destiny with listener Charlie Gatson.

[B]

Is that true? Yeah. Well, you.

[D]

And then maybe not anymore. And then fell off and now rip Destiny 2. Yeah.

[B]

You can still play Destiny. Anyway. Spin offs.

[D]

I got one.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

There's this little known game that spun off from a huge arcade hit and it's called Super Mario Brothers and it's based on Donkey Kong.

[B]

Oh yeah.

[D]

If you guys have ever heard it. And I feel like Super Mario Brothers is better than Donkey Kong.

[E]

Even though Mario Brothers. Mario Brothers is based on Donkey Kong. Super Mario Brothers is based on.

[D]

I see. I see. That's a spin off. Okay, you got me there, Sam Claiborne. I would have said Persona. Like there are smt to Persona. They're very, very different. Persona is absolutely my favorite.

[B]

Yeah. But Nintendo is kind of the master of doing spin offs.

[D]

Everything.

[B]

Dr. Mario, paper Mario IP slop.

[D]

Dr. Like even super Paper Mario is a spin off of Paper Mario and Super Mario Brothers.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[F]

I feel like. I feel like Pokemon is a franchise that like over indexes on surprisingly good spin offs that like match or sometimes. I mean the mainline games, like. Yeah, well, I mean Pickopia recently, but even Pokemon Mystery Dungeon back in the day. Pokemon Pinball was back in the day.

[E]

It was a strategy one.

[D]

Remember that?

[F]

Yeah, yeah, that. Well, the Mystery Dungeon. Do you mean something else?

[E]

Is that a strategy game?

[D]

I can't remember Stadium Coliseum.

[B]

This is a roguelike, like, you know,

[E]

their turn DS2 screened, turn based.

[F]

Oh, yeah, Strategy game.

[D]

And then there's Link's crossbow training, which vastly.

[E]

Why does Logan bring up all the time?

[F]

Does he actually like it?

[D]

He really likes it. He really likes it.

[E]

It's not a troll.

[D]

No, it's not a troll is good. It's just like.

[B]

Is that limited? Right?

[D]

Is that what you want to do when you've got Link on a horse is to ride in a line and go. That's literally like a part of any open world game now. You can do that.

[E]

Yeah, I like it when indie companies get to do a spin off like the. The Necro Dancer. People that got to do that.

[B]

I was gonna say. I was gonna say. Yeah, Cadence. Cadence of Hyrule.

[F]

Yeah, that was a sick.

[B]

That was a really good one. That was cool. Yeah, there was a one that. I was gonna say, there's one that people never talk about, but Sam and I actually played this together back in the day. And that was an Xbox Live Arcade game called Castlevania Harmony of Despair. That was like the big multiplayer Castlevania game where you cooperatively explored a level and the levels were huge.

[E]

And it zoomed.

[B]

It would zoom out to keep everyone on screen even if they weren't together. And then we could zoom back in and then you all had to take down a boss together. It was actually really cool.

[D]

That's pretty neat.

[F]

Yeah, I remember that the Sims is spun off of Sim City.

[B]

Yeah, that's true.

[E]

That's crazy.

[D]

So that's pretty good.

[F]

There's so many like, Sim City's not around anymore. Right.

[D]

And simcopter.

[F]

Yes.

[D]

They tried to do so much sim. Yeah. Yeah.

[E]

There's so many fighting games that have spun off that have been terrible, like the Star Wars Masters of Taras Kasi and stuff like that. But now some of those fighting games that are spinoffs of like, or just, I guess themed things are pretty good ones. But it's always been the anime.

[F]

Right.

[E]

Like, it's like, are those the spin offs or those. The actual games? Yeah, I guess those are just licensed titles.

[F]

That's true. Yeah, kind of. What's the order of what came first. There's a. I mean, I'm gonna butcher this history because A, I don't know it very well and B, like it's not my thing. But like the, like Dota and League of Legends and that entire genre, that entire billion dollar industry, those were all like mods and add ons for like Warcraft 3 and StarCraft back in the day. It's like, you know, users kind of modded. You played as one character that had special powers and defeated waves of enemies. And then that eventually turned into, you know, Dota spun out of that and became its own thing.

[D]

Dawn of the Ancients. Yeah, there's a lot of stuff like that. And then, I mean, Smash Brothers is. Is basically. You take the original Mario brothers, the. The two player one, you can draw a direct line to Smash Brothers 2, like this sort of platform fighter.

[E]

But remember the Mortal Kombat Sub Zero spin off? That was funny.

[D]

The. Yeah, yeah, that's right. Yeah. The.

[E]

They included in the recent collection and I played it a little bit and it's very bad.

[D]

They're so bad. Like, it's a lot of like, I don't know if I can make this jump. And I'm like, the designers don't know either. It's like you just gotta jump and maybe if you make it then they meant you to do that. Yeah, it's really bad.

[B]

One of the easiest ways to make a spin off of your series is just throw the word tactics on the end.

[D]

Yep, they did do that.

[E]

Totally.

[D]

I mean, Ogre Tactics from Ogre Battle. Ogre Battle was real time strategy. I miss those games.

[B]

Metal Slug, Metal Slug, also Tactics, obviously Final Fantasy, but even there was Gears Tactics.

[F]

Yeah, Gears Tactics was pretty good.

[D]

It was Halo Wars.

[B]

Halo War, they did two of those.

[D]

Yep. I like those.

[B]

Not turn based, but really all Kart

[E]

racing is a spin off from Mario to Sonic to everything. Everything. The kart genre is a spin off.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

Mario Kart, that's probably the Mario Kart is probably the greatest spin off of all time.

[E]

It's pretty good. Yeah, it's pretty good.

[D]

Pretty good.

[F]

Apex Legends spun off of Titanfall.

[D]

Yeah, good point.

[B]

Yep. That's true.

[E]

Mario Sports, all of them.

[B]

And another one, another Konami from the XBLA days was Hardcore Uprising, which is great. From Contra.

[E]

Oh, should have been sequels.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah. I don't know why they.

[D]

Nice.

[B]

Didn't sequelize that one. A couple more to shout out, Gwent.

[D]

Yep.

[F]

Oh yeah.

[D]

That's like an export.

[B]

Yeah. Okay.

[D]

Yeah, it is like just Literally spun it out. Yeah.

[B]

Is Gwen still popular? The people still play Gwen, right? I think at one time, you know, he got his standalone grants, I think.

[D]

Still popular.

[B]

I haven't played Hearthstone in a long time. I'm a Marvel. Snap. That's a Snap guy. This. These days.

[D]

Yeah.

[F]

Wow.

[E]

Weird, Weird.

[B]

And then Tiny Tina's Wonderlands. Okay, Pretty good. I mean, it's border. It's just more. Very similar to a Borderlands.

[D]

More to lands.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, more. More the lands, exactly.

[F]

That's pretty good.

[B]

Okay, extracurricular activities. Right after this. Tavi, I'm going to see the Mandalorian. Sam has already seen it. Now Saturday. No, no, no spoilers. But you know, viewers, listeners, you've probably seen it's kind of getting clobbered in reviews. But Sam, I think you, I think you liked it, right?

[E]

Let's just spoil it.

[B]

No, no, no, don't spoil it for me. Let's just do it. No, let's not spoil it.

[E]

No, no, let's just do it. Let's just do it. So, Logan. I'm not Logan. Tom Jorgensen gave it a five and he actually made a really cool comparison to the X Files where there was the kind of plot driven episodes that moved the overall story of the alien invasion along. And then there's the monster of the week, right? This is a monster of the week. So why is it a movie? And a lot of people are like, well, this makes for a bad piece of cinema. It makes for an expensive Disney show. Those are all things to get mad about about this, right? But if you look at it as the monster of the week, there's some good monsters, and I mean, like literal monsters in this. It is a monster movie about monsters. And that's what I liked about it. The back half of the movie is a Jim Henson movie with like puppets and stop motion and like all this stuff that should not be in a movie these days. And then it is just. It works. It's all really fun to watch.

[F]

So I think I'm going to like it.

[B]

Hopefully I've got my expectations in check and like I said, I can enjoy it as a long episode of the Mandalorian.

[D]

That's, I think when you get sort of this negative critical reaction, then you go in, you're probably going to like it better just because you're ready for a disaster. To me, like, when I saw the trailers, I'm like, I'm hooked on the Star wars machinery, right? Like, honestly, anything with an in it, I'm already interested. I love the Two huts. I'm already. I'm already into that.

[B]

Is it just the movie? Why are we.

[D]

I mean, I'm impressed playing right now. I'm impressed that they could speak English the entire time, though.

[E]

It's a little bastine, but no, dude, no. It's really kind of bad how they switched to the English. It's great when Hatties for a little while, then you're like, why did we do this? It's almost like a little, you know, a switch up for convenience, but it's really noticeable. Like, that's how I handle it.

[D]

Is it like Hunt for Red October where it's like, you know, Trovia tomorrow.

[E]

Exactly.

[D]

What are you doing here? Come on.

[E]

About, like, what. What was I most worried about going into this movie? It's like the huts, like the. The Phantom Menace, you know, Not Phantom Menace, the.

[D]

The.

[E]

The New Hope special edition. So bad.

[B]

So bad.

[E]

Right? It's just. It's so bad. And, like, am I going to see this whole movie, first of all? And then also, there's a character voiced by Jeremy Allen White. Right. That we know about. That was. That was what I expected to be the worst part of the movie. It might be the best part of that. The movie. And I'm not saying that the rest of the movie is terrible. It's legit good. Like, the Hut stuff is gross and interesting and fun. It's cool.

[B]

All right, well, I'm going to see it in.

[D]

I'm interested. But I'm. I was watching the trailer. I was worried this was going to be like Han Solo where it's like, I don't think Han Solo is a bad movie at all, but it's sort of like existing or not existing doesn't matter to the canon sometimes. That's cool. I. I actually think the monster of the week episodes in X Files are way better than the alien invasion stuff. The. The sort of conspiracy stuff.

[E]

Yeah, yeah.

[D]

A great.

[E]

Well, don't you want to hear where the Kessel Run came from? It's an off. Off. It's a line they just tossed off. And now do you want to see the whole backstory of the Kessel Run?

[F]

Oh, yeah. You're by yourself. We'll call you. Han Solo.

[D]

That was so bad.

[B]

One of the worst parts.

[D]

I'm really excited for Jabba Fit.

[E]

So. Right.

[F]

Yeah.

[D]

Yeah.

[E]

This is the stop motion stuff. Like, it's actual miniatures. Stop motion. It's crazy. So coming out of this movie, the people that saw it at IGN were asked to kind of take a look for the future we're talking about. How do we rank this with the Star wars movies? We'll probably put this in a piece about where we put it. And the take, because the movie got a really low score from the person that reviewed it, was that this would be placed pretty low on a list. Right. But I looked at our list after that, and I'm like, I saw the prequel trilogies. I'm there that they're funny and ironic now. And that, like, Phantom Menace is, like, really nostalgic to me. Those movies are awful. They're awful, awful movies.

[B]

I can concur.

[E]

You go to the theater to sit through one, it's bad. And this is easy to sit through.

[B]

Okay. No, you're right about that, because I. I have to watch those prequel movies all the time now because Kingo loves them. We just watched Attack of the Clones this week. Like. Yeah. And I. I don't hate the movies, but they're really bad. But. So, anyway, that's enough talk about Star Wars. I also watched Send Help. Okay. It.

[D]

Oh, yeah, that's. I saw it streaming.

[B]

Sam Raimi movie. It's on. It's streaming now, and I can't decide if I liked it or not.

[D]

Okay.

[F]

Oh, it's.

[B]

It's. It's. I like the Sam Raim of it. It's. So you know the premise. This is a. Two people stranded on a desert island. They knew each other going into this.

[E]

They.

[B]

She worked for him, and he's a. And he passed her over for a promotion that she deserved for a much less qualified dude. Like, that's their relationship on the island. And yes, she was screwed over and deserved that promotion, but she's also super unlikable and just obnoxious.

[E]

That's what it seemed like.

[B]

She has terrible hygiene. It's like. So none of these. Neither of these people are likable. So I don't know, you kind of just watch these people make their way on this island and some gross stuff happens. And then at the end, I was just like, well, okay. Yeah, all right.

[D]

But isn't that how Beef is? It's like people. You don't like getting into it.

[B]

Yeah, I guess it has some similarities. There's some good, like, gross Sam Raimi stuff, but there's also.

[E]

I think the characters are likable in Beef. I didn't see the second season.

[B]

I haven't seen the second season either.

[D]

Yeah, Yeah, I think. I think you get to like them more as they explore their beef.

[B]

I will say I didn't. I was always you know, I wasn't.

[D]

You're a big Raimy fan, though.

[B]

No, Yeah, I. I really like Drag Me to Hell. That is, I think, is a very good movie. This is not on the level of Dragon Hell, but I. You know, I was engaged. I was. I wasn't bored, and I wasn't ever really sure what was going to happen next. So I just.

[D]

It's so. It's a. It's a. Okay, I'll watch it when my wife is on a business trip.

[B]

It's gross.

[D]

There's gross. She was so mad at the boys.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

She doesn't.

[B]

She doesn't want to see that.

[F]

No.

[B]

All right, that brings us to the welcome to video game 20 questions. Now, first, I have an email here I'd like to share. It's a very nice email and I'll explain something here. This comes from Nathan Evans, who says, dearest Omega Cops, I just wanted to take a moment to thank you all for the joy you have brought me over the last several years. I have been a devoted listener for the last seven years and I know Mark thinks this is weird, but I have gone back and listened to most of your back catalog from before I discovered you. It's actually Justin that thinks that's weird.

[F]

Yeah, Mark's catching strays for something I said.

[B]

Nathan says. What began as a way to pass the time on a very long commute during a busy and difficult time in my life has become one of my favorite weekly rituals. Game Scoop is my favorite thing about Friday. Think about that, you guys. You guys compete with the end of the work week and win. At least for me. I am an old and I've been playing video games obsessively since my childhood in the early 80s. Gaming has become something I have shared with my five children and have special memories gaming with each of them. My youngest son, Max, watches GamesCube with me every Friday. What's up? Max has been nudging me to send this email for several months. He adores older games, loves to collect classic consoles. Over the years, I have thought about several suggestions for video game 20 Questions. But in my heart, I knew that there was only one game that would be the perfect submission for me. Viewtiful Joe. And then I did a quick search today and you already did that one in 2019, right before I started listening. So did you guys know that it is getting pretty hard to find a game that feels fair that you haven't already used in video game 20 questions? So this one may be too hard, but I'll throw It in the ring anyway, because I have such fond memories of it. And yes, I wanted to share the email. It's a very nice email. But his game was Gun Valkyrie on Xbox.

[D]

Okay.

[B]

So I don't even know.

[D]

Yeah, I don't know I played it, but I would have never guessed it,

[B]

but he says either way. I just wanted to say thank you for all the fun happiness you bring me. Each week means the world to me and Max. We are proud members of Scoop Nation. We are lucky to have you both, Nathan and Max.

[E]

Awesome.

[B]

So that moves us on to our actual pick this week, which comes from Ethan. But you don't get any backstory about Ethan. Ethan. So let the questioning begin.

[E]

At least we got a story.

[F]

Where's Ethan from?

[B]

Unclear.

[D]

That doesn't count as a question.

[F]

No.

[D]

No.

[F]

Okay. Did this game come out in the 70s, 80s, or 90s?

[B]

No.

[F]

Well,

[D]

a newfangled game,

[F]

relatively.

[D]

Is this game on current played hardware?

[B]

No.

[D]

No, no.

[E]

Is it an exclusive to a platform at launch?

[B]

Yes. Ooh.

[F]

Okay. Okay, okay. Was it exclusive to a Sony platform?

[B]

No.

[D]

So we're talking about GameCube, Xbox or crazy handheld phones and all that stuff. 70s, 80s, or 90s. So 2000s, not current hardware. Is this game on a Nintendo platform?

[E]

There's a pretty big gap between 2000 and current hardware.

[B]

Yeah, that. That's five questions.

[D]

And yes, it is on a Nintendo platform. Okay. Okay, so it's. Is it on a. Is it on Nintendo hardware that came in purple?

[B]

Yes.

[D]

Okay. That could be Game Boy advance and GameCube.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

There's no purple Wii.

[F]

I'm going to assume that it is a gamecube game. I forgot about the purple gba. I had the glacier blue one. Okay. Was this game developed or published by Nintendo?

[B]

Yes.

[F]

Okay.

[D]

Is this. Yeah, I was thinking Medallion Wars 2. That's hilarious. Is this a. Is this game series still in active development today that we know of? Announced?

[B]

No.

[D]

No. So that could still be Battalion wars, because it is not officially Advance Wars. It was announced as an Advanced wars game.

[F]

Yeah. Yeah, it was. Battalion wars would also have been a valid shout out during our spinoffs segment.

[D]

Yeah, it's actually a good game, but so is ExciteBots.

[F]

Yeah, Excite Truck. What did you say, Sam?

[E]

Do you play as a human?

[B]

Yes.

[F]

Developed or published by Nintendo on the GameCube. Probably play as a human. Not. No sequels in development.

[D]

Yeah, there's not a lot. I mean, that is literally. Well, it also rules out Excite Truck and Excite Bots and all of that because they weren't on the GameCube. And no human in there.

[F]

Well, I'm thinking about.

[D]

I like that. We're stuck on Battalion wars now.

[F]

Yeah, I am kind of stuck on Battalion Wars.

[E]

Yeah.

[D]

But there's also.

[F]

As a human in Battalion wars, who are you in Battalion Wars?

[D]

There's also Star Wars, Rogue Leader. GameCube was a big game. Obviously that's not developed by Nintendo, though. Barrel. That's factor five.

[F]

But did they publish it?

[D]

They did publish, yeah.

[F]

Did they publish Eternal Darkness? I was just gonna say did. Did the Nintendo publish?

[D]

Yeah, but didn't you say published and developed?

[F]

No, I said or.

[B]

Or.

[D]

Okay. Yeah, because that's a Silicon Knights game. That's Eternal Darkness. That's a good one. Is this a military game?

[B]

No, that is 10.

[D]

No. Battalion Wars.

[E]

Would you say this game was geared at adults?

[B]

No.

[D]

Okay, that rules out internal.

[F]

Yeah, it's definitely. Definitely not Eternal Darkness.

[D]

That was horror. Okay. Published and developed.

[F]

What about, like. What about, like a sports game? Like. Well, there was that. Well, like, there was a 1080 on the Gamecube.

[E]

1080.

[D]

Snowboarding is not in active development. Wave Race. Wave race. Blue Storm is the other one you play as a human in that. Both of them, yeah.

[F]

What was the 1080? 1080, whatever it's called on the GameCube. I can't remember the name of it now.

[D]

It's 1080p. Snowboarding, freestyle, a 480p. What was the sequel? Was it. No, no, it was some storm. What was it?

[F]

Avalanche.

[E]

No.

[D]

Bluestorm. Avalanche. That's it. Yeah, yeah. 1080.

[F]

1080.

[D]

Avalanche.

[E]

Is this a sports game?

[B]

No.

[D]

Oh, for Christ sakes.

[F]

Gosh, I still thought we were on to something there.

[D]

Yeah. Okay, let me go through the slate of Game GameCube Cube. We don't know if it's GameCube, by the way. We just know it's purple.

[E]

Is this a GameCube game?

[D]

Yes, we know it's a GameCube game. Correction.

[F]

Do you remember? I think it was made by Sega, but I always liked Beach Spikers on the gamecube. Okay. Underrated volleyball game.

[D]

Do you.

[F]

It's not Chibi Robo because you're a robot. You're a robo.

[D]

That's a Bandai game.

[F]

Right? That's it.

[E]

What about Chibi Robo?

[D]

Yeah, it's not.

[F]

Nintendo published it, didn't they?

[D]

Yeah, but they didn't.

[E]

Yeah. Why is there amiibo for it?

[D]

They didn't make it. Oh, there's a amiibo for Damon Freaking Yacht Club.

[F]

Side question. Out of. Out of game question.

[B]

Okay.

[F]

Do. Would you consider a racing game, a sports game?

[B]

Well, it depends, because I think.

[D]

Because wave race, like, F1.

[B]

I would say yes.

[D]

But Wave. Wave Race is a sports game.

[F]

Yeah. Okay. But I guess that what I was thinking about was F0GX.

[D]

Yeah. That's Sega. That's Amusement Vision made that.

[F]

But it could also be Super Smash Brothers Melee because there is no sequel announced. Well,

[D]

that's true. There's also custom Robo. Do you guys remember that?

[F]

No.

[D]

Oh, man.

[F]

Is this a fighting or racing game?

[B]

No.

[E]

What if it's Animal Crossing?

[D]

Animal Crossing does not.

[F]

Bro. Yeah, bro, I got it. It's Metroid Prime. There's not a sequel. There's not an announced sequel in development.

[E]

Don't you think that's geared at adults?

[F]

Oh, I don't. Yeah. Okay. Maybe.

[D]

All right, I'm gonna ask. Is it a first person shooter or first person adventure game?

[F]

Okay.

[D]

One of the two.

[B]

No, no, that's 15. But. Okay.

[D]

You.

[F]

What?

[B]

You just know. You know who made this game, right?

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Okay.

[D]

Well, published.

[B]

Okay. That's why. That's. Yeah, I see your line of thinking now.

[D]

Yeah, yeah. Retro is still gotcha.

[E]

Yeah, but he just gave away that it's developed by Nintendo.

[D]

That's pretty good. Well, there's Wind Waker.

[E]

Can it not be Animal Crossing?

[D]

There's. There's Wind Wake, and we don't know that there's.

[E]

Link is not a human.

[F]

Yeah, Link is a. Link is an elf.

[E]

He's a Hylian.

[F]

Yeah, you're right. Yeah. More accurate or. You're definitely right, Sam. It could be Animal Crossing.

[D]

Is that a human?

[F]

Yeah, you're a human. That's. And then everyone else.

[D]

Ragdoll.

[E]

Everyone's an animal.

[D]

He's a villager.

[F]

Yeah. Yeah.

[E]

But maybe it is. Maybe it is a Zelda. Is this set in the Mario or Zelda universes?

[B]

Yes.

[D]

That's not.

[E]

It's an early one.

[F]

We should ask. But it's gotta be. No, but it's gotta be Mario because. Yeah, because you're a Hylian. You're not human.

[E]

But maybe Damon made a mistake here, too. We don't.

[F]

He would correct himself because he's a man of honor. I like to think that if Damon makes a mistake, he just pivots to a whole new game.

[B]

Think of a game that aligns with all the answers so far.

[D]

That's so good.

[E]

Is it? I mean, if it's Super Mario Sunshine, that could be possible.

[F]

Hold on, hold on, hold on. How many Questions do we have Damon? We gotta be smart.

[B]

Three questions and a guess.

[F]

We know with relative confidence that it's a Mario Universe game. What about like Luigi's Mansion?

[D]

That's a good one. Yeah. There's Mario Super Mario Sunshine.

[F]

We know it's not any of the sports spinoffs and it's not kart because those are racing games. Obviously. Could technically be spinoffs.

[D]

We could ask, was there Paper Mario? I was trying to remember. There was.

[F]

We could, we could ask if it's a spin off. Do you think Luigi's Mansion counts as a spin off or is it just its own thing?

[E]

Yeah, that's a spin off. But I don't know what Damon thinks.

[D]

Well, you're kind of leading him now to.

[F]

Do you bust ghosts in this game?

[B]

Yes, you do. Luigi's Mansion, the first one.

[D]

That's good. Good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, man. But there probably is a Luigi's Mansion in the works. We just don't know.

[B]

That's why when you ask, is there a known seagull? You know, that was one of Logan's predictions for the next.

[D]

I will again state for the record.

[E]

Oh, really?

[D]

Two, Luigi's Mansion three has finally sold millions and is doing well. But there's still millions who have not played Luigi's Mansion 3. And if you tried 2 and you didn't love it, 3 is so freaking good.

[B]

It is incredible game.

[E]

Yeah, I'm glad it's better.

[D]

Some of the best animations on any Nintendo platform.

[B]

I was gonna bring it up so I bought the Mario Galaxy movie on Tuesday when it was available on digital. I've already watched it twice at home. And when I think about what Nintendo should do next with its animation, I think a Luigi's Mansion movie could be awesome.

[D]

It's the perfect sort of self contained story, especially if they go down the route like just if, you know, for people who haven't played three, the mansion has all these different biomes in it because it's complete nonsense. Of course. Right. So there's liter a room where you open the door and it's haunted and it's filled with. It's filled with sand and you have a vacuum cleaner. It's so good. Yeah, it's so good.

[B]

It's got all the Guigi stuff.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Plus great game.

[E]

But you can have Mario on the rescue mission, right?

[B]

Yeah, yeah, you can have that too. Yeah. But this game, the first Luigi Mansion I never played. I think some. I think at the time a lot of us were disappointed that we weren't getting a New like Mario platformer, yet it's super compact. This is like what was here for launch at gamepube and I was like eh.

[D]

Well because you also wanted something that lasted you like 20 to 30 hours. And it's a under 10 hour campaign on this one. It is a really good game. And like just a. From a. Like as a tech demo for the gamecube. It excels like the lighting system. You know they faked a lot of stuff but it just looks fantastic. And then the physics model around vacuuming and all of that.

[E]

Except it's.

[D]

It is a fun game. I think we gave it a seven which is completely fair.

[F]

Yeah. The more discerning gamers got Monkey Ball as their launch game.

[D]

That I would say. Monkey Ball is actually the better of the two. And both really super cool action games centered around like a McGuffin. Like a. Like something that feels good like tilting of the landscape. And here it's the. The vacuuming stuff. You. You should. You should probably go back and play this.

[B]

This is it. Is it on Nintendo?

[E]

Was Monkey Ball really a launch game?

[D]

Yeah, well no. 2. Two got remade and. And came out so you'll. I'm sure you'll get it.

[B]

I think I'm good.

[D]

I'll just.

[B]

Luigi's Mansion 3 is very good. I can stick with that one.

[F]

It.

[D]

Luigi's Mansion 3 does everything the first one did.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

And so fair. You don't have to go back. But the music is also awesome. The whole din. Din. Din. Din D is so good. And Mario, Mario, all that stuff is good.

[F]

Mario.

[B]

Well, nicely job. Thank you for the suggestion, Ethan. Viewers, listeners, if you have your own suggestions for Video Game 20 questions, email them to me at the email address. Gamescoopgn.com Pair IGN Live is right around the corner now.

[D]

Yes, I will be there. I'm excited.

[B]

AIR will be there. Sam will be there. Justin will be there. I will be there. Most of us will be there. It's gonna be so fun. It's June 6th and 7th here in downtown LA. Live game scoop. Live NVC. Get your hands on unreleased games. Check out some presentations of unreleased games. It's a really, really good.

[D]

Sam and I are curating a little museum corner.

[B]

Yeah, there's that too.

[D]

Like rare items. Yeah, yeah. It'll be fun. And we'll hang out. We'll hang out there and if you ask us a question, we'll talk to you for 30 minutes about the Apple Pippin.

[B]

We have an Apple Pippin.

[F]

We'll actually. Until they're like until they want to go. Walk away.

[D]

Yeah, yeah, you guys will. You will walk away because we will not stop talking. Talking about.

[B]

Anyway, go to live.igen.com and use the code Scoop for a free ticket. There you go. Doesn't get any cheaper than that. Also over at Humble Bundle, our friends, they have a Humble Indie Icons showcase which is live now, celebrating 15 years of humble Bundle. It's got a bundle of our favorite indie games. It's got bloodstained Superhot, Celeste, the Witness. That's one of Justin's favorite games of all time and more. It's a $200 value, but you pay what you want. Go to humblebundle.com and check it out. And that's all the scoops that we have here this week. Thank you, Pear.

[D]

Thank you.

[B]

Thank you, Sam. Thank you, Justin. I am off to a galaxy far, far away. My name is Damon. This is IGN gamescoop. And we're out.

[D]

Damon, he wants to eat his own poop.

[B]

Well, they'll do that then. They want to lick your face.

[D]

Saves you money. Exactly. It's like the whole dog is smelly. No, we're usually too fast for him. Like, like he like poop and he spins around.

[E]

We're like, no, you can like he's a single link dog. Centipede. Just let him be.

[D]

Oh, God, I look really short. Jobbert, look at how giant Damon is.

[E]

Yeah, it's the force perspective. This is what we use to. We're going to shoot the hobbits and Gandalf at this desk. I'm trying to help you.

[B]

Full of adoption. Throw yourself in next time and rid us of your stupidity. I probably shouldn't make this the after credit scene.

[D]

No, let's not do this after credit scene. Sorry.

[F]

Yeah, yeah. None of this can be in the show.

[D]

Talk about something else. So I walked by Gilbert's. I walked by Gilbert station and it was showing this from a side view the footage and it. I thought it was a video

[B]

trials.

[E]

Should we not use this because we're breaking embargo or should we not use this because we're a.