Pokemon Pokopia's Success SURGES Nintendo's Share Price - Kinda Funny Games Daily 03.11.26

Summary

Kinda Funny Games Daily — March 11, 2026

Pokémon Pokopia’s Success SURGES Nintendo’s Share Price (w/ Blessing Adeoye Jr. & Jake Baldino)

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Episode Overview

On today’s episode, Blessing and special guest Jake Baldino (Gameranx, Friends Per Second) dive deep into the world of video game news, with major focus on the runaway success of Pokémon Pokopia and its surprising impact on Nintendo’s stock, discuss fresh updates and insight on Palworld’s future, unpack a Kickstarter drama in indie RPG land, and chat about a rumored LEGO PlayStation. The episode is also peppered with lively stories, friendly roastings, and plenty of thoughts on game design, gaming nostalgia, and the changing industry.

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Main Discussion Points

1. Pokémon Pokopia’s Massive Success Lifts Nintendo’s Shares

[22:35 – 30:23]

• Summary:
  Pokémon Pokopia has taken the gaming world and retail by storm, creating widespread shortages and causing a surge in Nintendo’s share price (up 15% in two days).

• Context:
  Nintendo shares had fallen over 40% since November 2025, but the launch of Pokopia reversed that trend as retailers worldwide quickly sold out of physical copies. The game has become the highest-rated Pokémon title on Metacritic and faces shortages in the US, UK, Australia, and other markets.

• Industry Impact:
  Analysts hailed Pokopia as an unexpected “dark horse” title. The panel notes Pokémon’s power to shock with massive, viral launches—citing Pokémon Go as an example of how Pokemon can mobilize the world.

• Quotable Moments:

  • Jake Baldino [22:53]: “I’m never surprised by the strength of that vibe-type game, that chill game... It’s like a perfect storm combo, it feels like, to a point.”
  • Blessing [24:07]: “That’s the power of Pokémon, really... that game was so broken—and it also broke records.”
  • Jake Baldino [24:39]: “Pokemon as a brand, an entire franchise, surprises me... Even if the games are still just all right, that appetite is still there. It’s crazy.”

• Further Conversation:

  • Both hosts reflect on Pokémon’s “magic”—the nostalgic emotional hold it has over generations.
  • They speculate about whether we’ll ever see the fabled “AAA Pokémon” and joke about seeing Pikachu “with pores” in a hyper-realistic, next-gen interpretation.

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2. Hands-on Impressions: Toxic Commando, Yote Legends, and LeafGreen on Switch 2

[04:38 – 15:51]

• Jake shares Hot Takes on Toxic Commando:

  • A mash-up inspired by John Carpenter, Left 4 Dead, and Mudrunner physics.
  • Tons of zombies, open maps, robust vehicle and gun customization. Weak characters, but “the moment-to-moment gameplay is awesome.”
    [Jake Baldino [05:59]: “If the things I described… Left 4 Dead, Saber Interactive progression, Mudrunner physics… sounds like you would f— with it, then…”]

• Blessing Shouts Out Yote Legends:

  • Praises multiplayer for being fun but not overly “live servicey.”
  • Explains mission/class design and compares balance of replay value and contained, satisfying progression.

• Nostalgia with Pokémon LeafGreen:

  • Blessing is hooked playing the straight port on Switch 2 (“dangerous”), recounts the easy experience trading with Greg.
  • Both reminisce about being called “Gen 1ers,” with Jake saying, “It’s like being called a boomer… but I love the original Pokémon stuff.” [15:26]

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3. Spotlight on Jake Baldino & Content Creation Philosophy

[16:17 – 21:27]

• Jake’s journey from “Pretty Much It” to Gameranx to Friends Per Second podcast.
• Reflects on finding joy in being “a reviewer, producer, video game talker guy”—founding Gameranx and enjoying podcast chemistry with co-hosts (“a mini Avengers”).
• Blessing’s Compliment: Commends Jake’s “thoughtful, measured opinions,” and Jake responds by sharing his commitment to enthusiasm, positivity, and level-headed takes (“Just be normal… but I do lean into stuff that excites me”).

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4. Palworld’s Future: PocketPair on Live Service, Updates, and Sequels

[40:56 – 45:06]

• Key Point:
  PocketPair, creators of Palworld, are candid about the limits to “infinite” live service updates. They acknowledge fan hope for a “No Man’s Sky” style decade of growth, but caution that inevitably, the game will reach a “bloat point” and may need to instead look toward a sequel.

• Quotes:

  • PocketPair’s John Buckley (via IGN): “Realistically, that’s probably not on the cards for Palworld... There’s only so many times you can add 5 levels, add 10 levels until it gets to this massive bloat point.”
  • Jake [41:14]: “I appreciate the transparency. They could go the Ark/Rust route… but also, you probably want to unshackle yourself from Nintendo wanting to kill you and try and make something else with all the money you made.”

• Discussion:

  • PocketPair is showing healthy perspective by considering player approachability and retention, rather than milk the existing product indefinitely.
  • Both panelists joke about how close Palworld is to actual Pokémon design, and riff on rising “plagiarism” in monster-catching games (“they’re just gonna go crazy”).

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5. Chained Echoes Indie RPG Physical Release Drama

[45:06 – 48:09]

• Summary:
  Acclaimed indie RPG Chained Echoes’ developer is suing their publisher after the backers still haven’t received most physical editions two years after launch—except the PS4 standard release.

• Jake’s Reaction:
  “It’s a shame for most people involved... the developer thought they got into a good business deal, and at least from how it seems...they were taken advantage of.”
  Blessing underlines the heartbreak of missing the physical window on a well-loved indie hit.

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6. LEGO PlayStation Set Rumored

[48:09 – 51:33]

• Report:
  A detailed LEGO PS1 kit is rumored for December at $159.99, following the LEGO NES and Atari sets.

• Jake’s Picks:
  Multitap accessory and see-through memory cards for nostalgia. Wonders about what launch game (Crash, FFVII, Metal Gear, Ape Escape) would be represented.

• Blessing’s Preference:
  Wants a PS2 LEGO set next, with Shadow of the Colossus for buildable Colossi.

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7. Quick News – WE News Segment

[51:51 – 54:01]

• Lightning Round:
  • Fortnite Save the World goes free-to-play April 16.
  • PS Plus Premium/Extra Games for March 2026: Space Marine 2, Madden NFL 26, Persona 5 Royal, Blasphemous 2, Metal Eden, Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria, Astroneer. Premium: Tekken Dark Resurrection.
  • NCsoft acquires 70% stake in German mobile dev Just Play.
  • Temtem Down Below project and Moonlighter 2's Greed and Glory update.

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Exchanges

• Blessing [29:34]: “Like there’s a Nintendo magic, a Disney magic—I think Pokémon has its own unique magic as well.”
• Jake Baldino [41:14]: “All the money you made, you know, you kind of want to unshackle yourself from Nintendo wanting to kill you and try and make something else.”
• On Pokémon Go’s worldwide phenomenon:
  • Blessing [26:46]: “…when Pokémon Go came out, it was like the president had shown up in town. Everybody was outside.”
• Audiophile moment:
  • Jake [38:11]: “I love video game music in person… Metal Gear In Concert: incredible.”
• Roast on the “plagiarist” Pokémon clones:
  • Blessing [55:12]: “You know, just a chain—a chain of plagiarism. I love it. The developer is called Pocket Game…” (mockingly referring to the new clone Pikmon)

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Community, Super Chats & Sidebar Moments

• Listeners shout out Jake’s career, his “teacher of video games” tone, his podcast appearances, and “pizza on me” sign-off.
• Playful banter about running into fans at the grocery store “at a bad angle” and fears of a Friends Per Second “glow down.”
• Blessing and Jake share nostalgia for Pokémon’s early days, original movies, and lament Pokémon’s lack of more recent big-screen outings.
• Hilarious riffing on the potential for “powerworld” movies and Pokémon clones.
• GDC badge mishaps and how to (not) show up to industry events.

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 02:59 — Jake on GDC & 15-year career
• 04:38 — What we’re playing: Toxic Commando, Yote Legends
• 14:00 — Pokémon LeafGreen on Switch 2 & trading mechanics
• 16:17 — Who is Jake Baldino? (career & content)
• 22:35 — Top Story: Pokémon Pokopia’s Stock Surge
• 40:56 — Palworld development roadmap and discussion
• 45:06 — Chained Echoes lawsuit drama
• 48:09 — LEGO PlayStation rumors
• 51:51 — WE News (lightning round)
• 55:12 — Pikmon: The next Pokémon/Palworld clone
• 58:09 — GDC badge saga
• 62:11 — Roger & Jake, the overdue content creator meetup

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Closing Thoughts

This episode is a robust, balanced blend of immediate news, reflective industry insight, and engaging personality. Blessing and Jake’s chemistry makes for a lively, insightful ride—from Pokémon’s world-beating success, to the ongoing “clone wars” in monster-collection, to the enduring allure of physical editions and gaming nostalgia. The show is not just about headlines, but the culture, history, and passion of gaming, delivered with wit and sincerity.

Best Quotes of the Show:

• “There’s a Nintendo magic, a Disney magic—I think Pokémon has its own unique magic as well.” — Blessing [29:34]
• “I needed a place to get that out. That’s why I started yapping about games online.”—Jake [20:16]
• “If Pikachu had pores—you’re…” — Blessing [28:09]

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For more or to join the conversation, follow Kind Funny on YouTube and on Patreon. And always—Game Daily!

Transcript

[Jake Baldino]

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[Blessing]

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[Blessing]

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[Blessing]

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It's building something that serves a purpose,

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[Jake Baldino]

That's me. Yeah. Hey, thanks for having me.

[Blessing]

This is crazy.

[Jake Baldino]

We're finally, we're finally doing something. You and I specifically.

[Blessing]

Yeah. I mean I've been on friends for a second. Yeah. And so like we've done content, but I've never done like a one on one.

[Jake Baldino]

Not in person either.

[Blessing]

In person thing with you.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

It's really cool to see you in the flesh.

[Jake Baldino]

You as well. I mean I see you in the flesh enough. I'm already like, I got you for sure. But it's just kind of funny being here. It's crazy. Yeah. Fan since like before, like, like, you know, when they were. Everybody was at IGN still. Oh, it's crazy to be here and see this like insane setup. It's so cool.

[Blessing]

Of course you're in town for gdc.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah, my baby's first.

[Blessing]

Which is crazy to me because like I view you as an og. Like I look at Jake Baldino as somebody who's like old head. If you old head right there. Like you've been making games content for as long as I remember.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah. 15 years. I just checked actually. Oh my God, in years. Yeah. But GDC was something I just never ever considered because Game Developers Conference, I was like, oh, that's not for me. Yeah, I'm not allowed there. But more and more people suggested that I go and I was like, maybe I can learn something. There's definitely some games to check out here, so. Oh yeah, I just got here, so I, you know, I don't know how it is yet, but so far so good.

[Blessing]

Welcome to the Bay Area. You've been to the Bay though, right?

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah, yeah. It's cool here. Good weather. You got good air. It's nice.

[Blessing]

You've come during a good week.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

This is a. This is a week of really good weather in the, in the Bay Area.

[Jake Baldino]

It feels like summer.

[Blessing]

Yeah. Which it doesn't always feel like summer here. In fact, most of the time it does not feel like summer. There's always a weird chill. I've heard New York is also very nice currently.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah, it just got warm. We just had like two feet of snow.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Jake Baldino]

And it's finally all melted. So now it's like everything's coming back. Everybody's going outside.

[Blessing]

I was gonna say like two weeks ago, I remember seeing a video of Zaron mom, Donnie being like, yo, grab a Shovel. Like we're about to shovel the snow.

[Jake Baldino]

It was crazy. I had, like, pipes freezing in my house. Like, we had negative weather. Like, it was. It was nuts. But we're here. We survived. And now I'm in sunny Bay Area, California.

[Blessing]

Exactly.

[Jake Baldino]

Pretty good.

[Blessing]

How you been? What games have you been playing?

[Jake Baldino]

Oh, man. Toxic Commando. I just finished up the before youe Buy should be going live. What time is it in? It's 10 in one. The bar goes up now. Officially, it's pretty good. I like it.

[Blessing]

Oh, yeah.

[Jake Baldino]

The elevator pitch is. It's based on, like, the vibe of John Carpenter movies. It's not based on a movie specifically, but it's a Left four Dead. Like with all the Saber Interactive stuff they've done in their previous games that kind of all come together. So Left four Dead on a big open map where you drive trucks and then you deal with Mud Runner physics. So you can drive your truck through the mud and use a winch to pull yourself out, but you're dealing with hordes of zombies at the same time.

[Blessing]

Interesting.

[Jake Baldino]

And then you're. So you're. And you're doing like, the objectives and the Left four Dead type thing, that type of progression, but then you're also dealing with, like, all this crazy shit. Like the budget. It feels like an expensive game. The characters are awful, cringeworthy. But the presentation, the music, the sound design, the explosions, the amount of blood on screen, thousands of zombies on screen. Like, they have that World War Z tech where they're all running up and filling up the walls and stuff. And then it also has all the kind of saber progression stuff you've seen in World War Z or Space Marine 2, where you're just grinding and leveling up weapons and getting attachments. And it's a good loop. It's fun.

[Blessing]

That's awesome. Right before this, we were talking about all the games that are coming out right now. I somehow lost that toxic command. It was coming out.

[Jake Baldino]

A lot of people did. So I want to make sure we did a video the before you buys out on Gameranx right now, it is it. I don't think it's gonna be like the game that's gonna, like, take over somebody's life, like their next big multiplayer thing. But, like, if you got some buddies, you like playing Left 4 Dead, and then maybe you tried Black Back for Blood and shit like that. This is a good one to jump into because the car mechanic, the open environment makes a really good gameplay flow. It's like, you start out, you find a car Then you plot on the map like, all right, what weapons and what pickups are we going to get before we actually go to the mission objective? So you're doing that, you're mowing down hordes of zombies, you're pulling yourself out of ditches and it's, it's cool.

[Blessing]

What kind of mission objectives are we talking about?

[Jake Baldino]

Oh, it's a, it's very much like grab the thing, bring it to the thing, turn on generator. But it's got like those, I call them Helldivers 2 style mini games. The ones that make you go frantic where like you have everybody trying to kill you and you're like, I'm just trying to press up left, down right to activate this, you know, like, stuff like that. And it's a lot of, you know, occasionally you'll get a vehicle that is specialized for a mission, so you have to escort that vehicle, make sure that vehicle survives. Sometimes the vehicles have different capabilities. So it's cool. The personality, the characters, it just does not do it for me at all. Yeah, but the moment, the moment gameplay

[Blessing]

is awesome is the, are the characters and like the personality of the game, is it just John Carpenter esque stuff?

[Jake Baldino]

It's, it's not. I don't even know. It's like more generic than that, unfortunately. It's like you're like older soldier guy, tough soldier guy, lady soldier guy, other lady soldier guy. And they're all just kind of like, huh, looks like we gotta kill some zombies. And it's like, all right, yeah, like give me a little, you gotta give me a little something. But you can customize them. But it's really, really comes down to like in depth weapon customization and car customization. That makes it pretty, pretty friggin sweet. That's why I got a lot of good time out of it. And again, it's like on top of another, like on top of a pile of other games coming out right now. But if it's your type of thing, that's what I said in the video. I'm like, if the things I Described, like Left 4 Dead, Saber Interactive progression, Mudrunner physics, if that sounds like you would fuck with it then.

[Blessing]

I mean, honestly, this sounds like the most Snow White Mike game. Like we gotta make sure that he has this on his radar because he loves multiplayer and he loves a game that's like a streamable game that we can play with the crew.

[Jake Baldino]

I mean, look at the amount of zombies on screen, right. The only thing is the shooting mechanics are fine. It's not super tight it's not like a Call of Duty, like zippity. It's very simple, very workmanlike, but, you know, good weapon feedback, decent melee.

[Blessing]

You know what I appreciate are multiplayer games that don't feel like they have to be very live servicey.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

Because there's been like a handful that are coming out at this very moment. Last night I was talking to you about this before the show, but I was playing Ghost of Yote Legends and I was telling you about how much I love Ghost of Tsushima Legends. But even, even as I was playing Yotei, I only played about maybe an hour and a half to two hours last night because we're very busy with gdc. I wish I could just spend the whole day. I know people in, people in our chat were like, you know, are you guys streaming it today? Are you guys streaming it today? I'm like, we're going to stream it, but it's going to be tomorrow.

[Jake Baldino]

Timing of the drop, it was like, now, right now.

[Blessing]

Because it's also like, there's marathon and there's other. But Yote Legends for me was another one as I was playing where I was like, man, it's nice to just have a multiplayer thing that I don't feel like I have to dedicate my life to. And there's progression. Like they, they pace it out very smartly, where it's a gear game and with different classes. And so you're leveling up these different classes to gain new abilities or collecting like, different weapons and different, like, wearable items to like, upgrade your character. And they have practically like a light level from Destiny in there.

[Jake Baldino]

Wow.

[Blessing]

Yeah. That kind of improves your attack and, and, and defense. So there's progression there, but it's very much like, get in. Do these very curated story missions level up, and then at some point we're going to add a raid and that's going to be it. And that was what Sushima Legends was. And I love it because it feels very finite and containable. And I'm like, I can do this.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah. It doesn't ask the world of you. You know, it's not this entire thing. How is Legend so far in terms of like, classes? Like, did they change up what you're doing, like who you're playing as?

[Blessing]

It's similar to the way they did Sushima Legends. But I, I, I do like the classes they have. I, I tried. So I played four missions last night. Each mission I tried it with a different class to try and figure out what my favorite class is. I think so far I'm leaning on the Archer. So every class has a special ability and also like a special way that they level up as far as unlocking unique things.

[Jake Baldino]

Right.

[Blessing]

But you start off with like one special ability for the archer. I think you have like a stronger bow and arrow thing that you can do. And you also have like a unique ultimate also. But I love doing that. There is a shinobi that goes invisible and so you can get around and like sneak up on people and take them out. There is the. Oh, it's the warrior or either warrior or samurai. I forget which. But it's like kind of the basic fighter class, which when you activate their ability, you are siphoning health from enemies around you. That one I like a lot because it's simple, straightforward, and at low levels, which is what I'm at right now, it is very useful to like have a secondary way of collecting health from everybody. And then I think there's like the Mercenary, which plays a lot with. You played Yotei, Right. You know how in Yotei you can like find weapons on the ground, pick them up and just throw them at enemies. The Mercenary deals a lot with that in a way that I think is very interesting.

[Jake Baldino]

That. I love that.

[Blessing]

Yeah. So like, if you activate your special ability, you just get a thing to throw at people.

[Jake Baldino]

Oh, wow.

[Blessing]

Yeah. And then if you do your ultimate, like a bunch of those will fall from enemies. And I was like, damn, I have a bunch of things I can pick up and throw people. Really, really cool.

[Jake Baldino]

That's awesome.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Jake Baldino]

That's what I loved about Sushi Milligends is that it was the same thing. It was like, it just took fun aspects of the main game and then let you go like hog wild.

[Blessing]

Yes.

[Jake Baldino]

You know, with. With Yote Legends, were they doing something with like the Yote 6? They were kind of doing like a like fantastical versions of them in this mode or something. What's the deal with that?

[Blessing]

And so you basically have four series of story missions that you can do, each leading up to a boss. The bosses are made up of the different kind of like fantastical versions of the bosses of like the Yote 6. And so the one I did last night was the oni. You do like three missions that work up to like the final incursion mission. The smaller missions are two player. The incursion mission is like a four player, almost like a very mini raid kind of situation where you work yourself, you work your way to the oni and then fight them. They got the spider in there, which I want to try next. Uh, but yeah, the difference is instead of like the traditional Yotei sticks, you're fighting like these big fantastical versions. So when you see the spider, it's like, no, this is a big fucking weird ass spider. And let me tell you, like, I adore the art style of Yotei legends.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

Because of course, Yotei, fantastic looking game. Colorful, bright, all these things. I love that they take that and then combine it with like the weird mystical stuff that they get into. Like if you're watching the video right now, you can see shit floating in air. You see like the bright, like the high contrast red.

[Jake Baldino]

Their color palettes even crazier.

[Blessing]

Color palette goes crazier. Like when I went into one of the only missions you see like big masks just floating in the air.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

Really cool visual stuff they got going on here. And I. There's something about the combat that I really dig in multiplayer compared to single player.

[Jake Baldino]

Oh, interesting.

[Blessing]

And I think it's when you're playing single player and go see OT and Tsushima, they have the system where it is you want to switch between weapons because you know you're. If you have the Kusari Gama, that's going to be good against enemies that have a shield.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

If you have the dual blades, that's going to be good against somebody who has a spear. Right. It's like this rock, paper, scissors situation of switching between your weapons. So you're kind of like, you know, matching the enemies that you're fighting. Yeah, I like that. In multiplayer it's a bit more limited that you might not have all the weapons. And so you're kind of relying on your. The people that you're playing with to be like, all right, I have dual blades. You have a singular sword. So I got to make sure I'm going after these enemies. And if I see somebody that you're good against, I'm going to leave them for you. I'm going to get you over. Yeah, yeah. I think there's something about. I like that that's like really fun that really clicks for me.

[Jake Baldino]

And this is free, this update, technically,

[Blessing]

as long as you have Ghost of Yote DLC essentially for Ghost of Yote, but it's free. You don't to pay extra for it.

[Jake Baldino]

That's a w. Yeah, that's cool.

[Blessing]

100%. But yeah. So many good games to play right now.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah. Fuel, what's the deal with Leaf Green? How is it?

[Blessing]

Oh, it's fantastic. I mean, it's the same exact.

[Jake Baldino]

Is it just a straight port? That's it. Okay.

[Blessing]

Straight port. So much so that I went to, like, the online menu or the online area in the Pokemon center, and they're still referring to it as, like, the GBA Wink cable. And I was like, all right, you didn't touch this. You know, whatever it is cool that, like, it does work. I was a little worried with them just doing this port. I was like, is the trade system actually going to work? But then Greg, who had started leaf green as well, I wanted to evolve my Kadabra into Alakazam, But I need to do that by trading. It was so easy to just have us both go to our poke centers, link up in that room, and just trade. Oh, that's super simple.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah. Question for you. Why leaf green over fire Red?

[Blessing]

Because Greg got two codes

[Jake Baldino]

here.

[Blessing]

You're gonna have leaf green. But I think there's also something in me. I was hoping to get leaf green.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

Because I was a Pokemon Blue kid.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah. Okay, me too.

[Blessing]

And so I. Yeah. I just look at it as, like, okay, well, this is just Pokemon Blue. Even though I don't know if that's true.

[Jake Baldino]

I forget the. I forgot.

[Blessing]

I just look at Fire Red, and I'm like, oh, that's red. So the other one is gonna be closer to what I played.

[Jake Baldino]

Close enough. Yeah, totally. But I'm back. I'm glad know on Switch, too. I feel like that probably feels pretty nice to have on that handheld.

[Blessing]

Oh, yeah.

[Jake Baldino]

Good.

[Blessing]

It's dangerous, honestly, because I forget how easily I get roped into playing, like, that specific Pokemon game.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

Where I want to play Pocopia, but I boot up my Switch, too, and I see the leaf green icon. I'm like, well, let me play a little bit of that.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

And now I'm, you know, I just. I just evolved my Magikarp into a Gyarados.

[Jake Baldino]

Congratulations.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Jake Baldino]

That's huge.

[Blessing]

I just caught an Abra, which I'm really excited about. So things are going pretty good. I'm on the SS Anne. Yeah. Pretty good right now.

[Jake Baldino]

It makes me want to go back because I'm a big. Somebody said it to me like, it was like, a bad word. They called me a Gen 1er dude. Yeah.

[Blessing]

They called me that, too.

[Jake Baldino]

And I was like, fine, whatever. I guess it's like being called a boomer. Yeah. It's like, oh, it's fine. It was cool. I love the original Pokemon stuff. It's great. And now I want to get back into this, but it's like, you also have Popopia installed, right? You said it's like two completely different flavors, right? It's like vibe out or make them kill each other.

[Blessing]

Yes, and I've opted for the kill each other aspect of it. But enough about all that. Of course we got video game news to talk about. So remember, if you're watching live, you can be a part of the show by super chatting in over on YouTube.com/kind of funny games, just like Zeke Speak did. Who says it's Jake Baldino, my third favorite member of FPS.

[Jake Baldino]

That's crazy.

[Blessing]

Not Calvin Perez, right? Citizen says Jake. Been a fan since pm. Come on KF more often.

[Jake Baldino]

Pretty much it.

[Blessing]

Oh, PMI pretty much it. What is that?

[Jake Baldino]

So that was the first thing I started doing with Eric Strifler back in the day. He's like an original, like a real old head youtuber. He had a YouTube channel we kind of kind of played around towards the end of high school and then we started doing it. He had already had this channel established and he invited me on and we kind of did this kind of essentially like a new show like this. But we would talk movies and video games and stuff like that. And I was essentially the video game guy. And it was great. It was like early YouTube. So it was fun. We were like, figuring it out. But when I did that, I realized, like, oh, I can do this for like a job. Like, I can actually do this and like, for a living.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Jake Baldino]

And it took a long time to actually get there to pay my bills, but that's, yeah, pretty much it is where I started.

[Blessing]

I'm grateful, you know, I assume that everybody who's watching and listening knows who Jake Baldino is, but I should probably do like a. We should probably do a more proper. Who is Jake Baldino?

[Jake Baldino]

I don't even know. Who am I? I consider myself a teacher. I don't know.

[Blessing]

I'm a teacher of video games. I see it.

[Jake Baldino]

No, I am a reviewer, producer, video game talker guy. I help run and I help co found the Gameranx YouTube channel. So I'm the before you buy guy. I'm like the thumbnail of those spam videos. But that channel has grown way bigger than me. I'm just a part of it now, but I do that. I also run my own YouTube channel called Jake Baldino. And I just talk about whatever I want to talk about. And then the Friends per second podcast, that's, you know. Yeah, Per Second podcast is like my new favorite thing to do. Because even Though Gameranx, we are a team. You know, we're very siphoned off. We all work remotely, so we're all kind of in our own little bubbles.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Jake Baldino]

But friends per second is kind of this thing I get to do where I'm, like, with highly engaged, highly intelligent people that are operating at a higher level than me. Like, Lucy James is goaded.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Jake Baldino]

Ralph's skill up is, like, crazy.

[Blessing]

So I view you guys as three goats.

[Jake Baldino]

Thank you.

[Blessing]

Like, friends for second podcast is legit. Like, damn. Y' all gathered, like a mini Avengers team to talk about video games.

[Jake Baldino]

It was fun to kind of like, yeah, like, be like, all right, we're all going to get together and do this. Like, it's funny. I'm wearing the same shirt. But yeah, it's been interesting, too, because it kind of comes back to where I started with pretty much it. Where we were kind of like, jokey, goofy, like old YouTube guys with this podcast. Like, my main. Like, yeah, I have, like, video game opinions and interviews, but I like to try and make them laugh.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Jake Baldino]

And that's what I try and do the most. And I have the most fun doing that.

[Blessing]

That's awesome.

[Jake Baldino]

So it's been. It's been cool to expand into podcasting so long.

[Blessing]

It's cool. I want to shout out because I think the way in which you approach content and like, the. When I listen to or when I watch, I guess I'm listening oftentimes because I'll. I'll play a video of yours and put it. Put my phone in my pocket and just watch. Yeah. Washington. Dude, I'm washing so many dishes while listening to you talk about video games. But I love hearing you talk about video games. I think you. All your thoughts feel very thoughtful, feel very, you know, well laid out. And, like, you can tell that as. That you are somebody who thinks through and, like, wants to have a measured opinion on things.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

Right. I can tell that you're somebody who's like, all right, what is. What is the true takeaway I can have here? And how do I communicate that in a way that's going to resonate with you?

[Jake Baldino]

Just be normal. That's, like, what it's like. Especially, like, watching the Internet grow and people get crazy about video games. I was like, oh, we could, like, be normal. So that's what I try and do. I kind of. I do kind of lean into the stuff that excites me. So you'll notice, like, my flavor is a little different when it's, like, a game. I really like, yeah, like, that's where. That's my bread and butter. Like, I love talking about shit. I just love. And I kind of got that. Like, that's why I wanted to do this was kind of like the positivity angle that can be toxic to a point. Like, we have to call out shit. Rightfully so. But I kind of started doing this because I had jobs. I was always that guy at the retail job that wanted to talk about video games but had nobody else to talk to. Or like, there'd be one guy, you know, I worked at a grocery store, so there'd be one other guy who worked in the produce department that was like, yeah, I bought that new. I bought that new Call of Duty. And I'm like, oh, isn't it crazy? Like, and then, like, I overwhelmed people.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Jake Baldino]

So I needed a place to, like, get that out. So that's why I started yapping about games online.

[Blessing]

Oh, yeah. I want to shout out, there's another super chat. We just got in from Alexander. Alexander, who writes in and says, jake is awesome. Thank you for everything you do.

[Jake Baldino]

That's very kind. Thank you. Your community is very, very nice.

[Blessing]

Oh, yeah. As I'm looking at the chat, Chat loves you. Chat's very excited to see you.

[Jake Baldino]

I am eternally grateful for that.

[Blessing]

Yes. Speaking of our community, of course, we couldn't do this without our producers over on patreon.com kind of funny. So thank you to Carl Jacobs, Omega, Buster, and Delaney. The Psalm Twining for now, let's begin with what is and forever will be the Roper Report. It's time for some news. We have five stories today, Baker's Dozen starting with our number one. Nintendo's share price climbs 15 in two days following the success of Pokemon Pickopia. This is from Chris Scolion at Video Games Chronicle. Nintendo's share price has seen a turnaround in Fortune this week following the release of Pokemon Pickopia. The Switches or the Switch company's share price has consistently been dropping since November from a high point of 14,105 yen, that is $89.09 per share on November 6, down to a low point of just $52.74 on February 13, a drop of more than 40%. However, as reported by Bloomberg, Nintendo's share price saw a surge this week, jumping from $57.60 60 cents on Tuesday to as much as $63.65 today, a 10.4% increase, before finally closing at $62.74. Given that the share price was just $54.37 on Monday. That means since this week started, the share price has increased by around 15%. The bump is being attributed to the early success of Pokemon Pickopia, which appears to be experiencing widespread shortages of its physical version, with major retailers worldwide computer claiming to be sold out in the US Bopia, which is currently the highest rated Pokemon game ever on Metacritic, is currently sold out at Walmart, GameStop, Target, and even Nintendo's official store. It's a similar situation in other regions, including the uk, Australia and others where major retailers are already sold out. Quote the Pokemon game was a dark horse, Toyo securities senior analyst Hideki Yasuda told Bloomberg. Quote it was totally off people's radars, making its popularity a positive development. End quote. Jake, are you at all surprised by Pecopia's success here?

[Jake Baldino]

I'm. I'm never surprised by the strength of like that vibe type of game that, like chill game. Like, we've seen the success of things like Animal Crossing and this is like a perfect storm combo, it feels like, to a point, but damn. Also, can I just say what a killer job reading a bunch of insane numbers back to back. Like, you were just like, boom, boom, boom.

[Blessing]

Thank you. I appreciate it.

[Jake Baldino]

I was like, just watching in awe.

[Blessing]

Let me tell you, six years of reading news articles online, this show will. You'll gain a skill or two.

[Jake Baldino]

You're hitting yen conversions, share price. Yeah.

[Blessing]

Appreciate it.

[Jake Baldino]

The energy is definitely there. I was in a Best Buy the other day and I was stuck waiting online for a long time because I had an issue with what I ordered and multiple people kept coming up to the counter just off the street and asking about it and being turned away. Like, I felt that energy. I was like, oh, it's one of these, you know, and that's, that's something that I didn't totally expect, honestly. Like, Pokemon Go, like, once it started to build up, you could immediately be like, oh, I get why that's popping off. But like, I guess, yeah, it's just people like the cozy, cozy vibes with classic, you know, classic Pokemon characters, a little Dragon build, Dragon Quest Builders action. It's a good combo.

[Blessing]

Yeah. I think the thing that I have to get reminded about whenever this happens is that you can't count out Pokemon to have a viral success.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

You know what I mean? Like Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, the last big mainline Pokemon game. If I'm not counting Pokemon. If I remember correctly, I think the numbers for that one in three days was like 10 million units, which was which made it the fastest selling first party game of all time or something like that. Right. And that's, that's for a game that underwhelmed, by the way. Like, that's for a game that came out buggy and broken and like I loved it for a lot of reasons, right? But like that game was so broken in. That game also broke records. That's the power of Pokemon, really.

[Jake Baldino]

Even like to this day, Pokemon as a brand, an entire franchise surprises me. Like growing up playing Pokemon Blue, like, did I ever imagine like billionaire youtubers buying Pokemon cards and making it like this hype thing. But then also just the resurgence of collecting coming back with the cards and you know, the game still being just. All right, like no offense, no offense. But like, you know, they still haven't done that big crazy transition like that some people want, but like a big AAA type Pokemon thing. Like. But yeah, the fact that it's there, the fact that that appetite is still there is crazy. But this specifically is cool because again, it's a nice mix up of genres that I think maybe some casual Pokemon fans that are picking this up may not have previously been exposed to. Like, you know, like a Dragon Quest Builders type thing. And like that's a very addictive loop. So it's cool that people are getting into it. But yeah, Pokemon, like why didn't they make more copies? That's just like, it's Nintendo.

[Blessing]

It's Nintendo. And it's also, it is a weird thing that you can't predict. Like somebody mentioned that Spin offs usually don't sell this much, right?

[Jake Baldino]

Is it Koei Tecmo that worked with them? Who was it?

[Blessing]

The same people that made Dragon Quest Builders.

[Jake Baldino]

Okay, yeah.

[Blessing]

Which I don't, I'm not sure off

[Jake Baldino]

the top of my head.

[Blessing]

It's like a square somebody in chat mentioned, I guess I would imagine a studio under Square. Maybe it's a studio they partner Omega Force. Omega Force.

[Jake Baldino]

Okay. Yeah, yeah. So maybe like they were like, oh, different team, you know, like they outsourced a little bit. Let's see how it goes. And then it popped off.

[Blessing]

Then it popped off. Yeah. And like I, you know, to the chat about mentioned, right. Like spin offs usually don't sell this much. Where again, we're talking about Pokemon. Right? Like one of the biggest moments of man we might get close to world peace was 2016 when Pokemon Go dropped.

[Jake Baldino]

Oh, straight up, you know, I mean, like the amount of stories from that,

[Blessing]

like the amount of stories I remember I had just moved to Seattle at the beginning of 2016. And then by. By the time summer came around, I went back home to Illinois to visit family. And while I was there, there was a group of friends of mine that were like, yo, Pokemon Go just came out. We're going to go to the park and catch some Pokemon. You want to come with? And I was like, yeah, let's go.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

And we get to the park, and this is a park that I've been to like, countless times. It was the park that was down the street from my high school. We would go there for lunch all the time. I've never seen this park full of people before.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

But when Pokemon Go came out, it was as if, like the president had shown up in town. Everybody was outside. Yeah, Everybody was trying to catch, like, Vaporeon or whatever Pokemon was like, available at that time. It felt like a movement. And I think Pokemon is one of the only IPs that can do that to people.

[Jake Baldino]

And it can stick around. People are still playing Pokemon Go like crazy. But also Pokemon Go, it's still like a hotspot thing, completely shout out to Port Jefferson, New York, town that I live near. Every weekend you go, anyone you look at on the sidewalk, you see them looking at their phone, you glance over, it's always Pokemon Go.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Jake Baldino]

It's just like there's still these bubbles of places and people that are just so down with it. And it's awesome. Yeah.

[Blessing]

Now, you mentioned people are still waiting for like, that Triple A Pokemon.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

Do you think we'll ever get it?

[Jake Baldino]

No, because they're making that other game wins and wins. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, they're making. Game Freak is making that.

[Blessing]

Oh, Beast of Reincarnation. Yeah, yeah.

[Jake Baldino]

Excuse me. Yeah, Which I don't know, but I do think that there is. And this might be like a, you know, kind of tourist opinion or like a very surface level opinion, but I really do feel like the resurgence of Pokemon, especially with like 30 plus year olds that, you know, at least have some expendable income and want to buy this stuff, they can strike with like this big, massive, crazy Pokemon game that's like the original Pokemon again. But imagine it's in like 4K. Like, Pikachu has pores now.

[Blessing]

Oh, dude, if Pikachu had pores, you're.

[Jake Baldino]

Oh, oh.

[Blessing]

Like, let me, let me tell you.

[Jake Baldino]

But there's something there. Like, there's totally like a slam dunk there. I like how they're doing it. Like, they're still just doing it. They do what they know. But I'd be curious.

[Blessing]

It'd be.

[Jake Baldino]

It'd be crazy to see like a big ass Pokemon thing that like blue like essentially like how. How Harry Potter fans got their Hogwarts legacy type thing where it's just like here's this thing. It's everything you've ever wanted. You imagined a Harry Potter world video game. Like give some 30 year old Pokemon fans that, that are, you know. And again the hardcore fans, they're down with these games. But I know there's a massive casual audience that would buy into some big crazy thing. Like they go out and buy a console for it.

[Blessing]

Yeah. I think now as a, as a gen 1er, like how much do you keep up with new Pokemon things?

[Jake Baldino]

It's hard. But I dive into roughly every mainline new release still. None of them have really clicked with me recently. But Winds and Waves does look promising. Like that reveal. I was like, oh, I think this one might get me. Yeah, it's cool. I like the starter Pokemon. I like the vibe. I like the, you know, like a Delfino island type vibe to it. Like I'm.

[Blessing]

Yeah. Though, like. Yeah, everything's water, like going underwater, hanging out. Yeah. There's something about this and maybe it is. I think it's just Pokemon is a feeling, you know, a bit. Right. Like there's that nostalgia factor. There's the. When we're getting into this trailer and the music swells and like there's something magical to happen.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

Like there's a Nintendo magic, a Disney magic. I think Pokemon has its own unique magic as well.

[Jake Baldino]

It's a good way to describe it that.

[Blessing]

That pops up and it's like, damn, I can't wait to play this game. Even though I'm looking at it and I'm like, it looks fine.

[Jake Baldino]

Like it's still a Pokemon game.

[Blessing]

Yeah. But I think it's prettier than the last Pokemon game so far. From just, just a trailer.

[Jake Baldino]

Also. Just a trailer. But it does feel like they. The music up a lot because the music immediately grabbed me. I was like, hello, what do we got going on here? It just felt like so epic and sweeping and I, I'm a sucker for, for that 1,000%.

[Blessing]

But yeah, I'm looking forward to this. But yeah, I hope, I hope one day we get what you're talking about. Yeah. One day we get Pichu with pores. We get Ray Traced Shadow.

[Jake Baldino]

We want HDR Onyx, like you know.

[Blessing]

Yeah, I want, Yeah, I want Onyx to look the way that Onyx looked in the Detective Pikachu movie. Yeah. Right. I Want everything to have crazy ass. Like, realistic, definitely.

[Jake Baldino]

But there's a world for both. Like, I mean, the fact that like, this type of game, this weird Pokemon offshoot, Copia popped off. Anything can happen.

[Blessing]

1,000.

[Jake Baldino]

That's. That's the magic of Pokemon. Like you said.

[Blessing]

Before we move on, I want to read a few more super chats from 8bit2.now writes in and says, huge shout out to Jake. Hashtag BCVG Gang, gang. What's bcvg?

[Jake Baldino]

Podcast I did with Andrew Gabbia. Shout out to the OGs out there, video games.

[Blessing]

And then Zeke Speak writes in and says, jake, the worst part of watching FPS is that you're all really. You're all really indifferently hot. Have you all thought about a glow down to appeal to the modern gamer?

[Jake Baldino]

A what?

[Blessing]

A glow down. You know, down. Yeah, glow down.

[Jake Baldino]

That can happen.

[Blessing]

Trust me, it can happen.

[Jake Baldino]

They should catch me on a random day, like at a bad angle.

[Blessing]

Yeah. Catch me outside at the. At the Safeway.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah. Catch me outside at the gas station getting coffee.

[Blessing]

Like, have you ever thought about that? Because, like. Like I'm not getting all dressed up to go, like to go to, you know, do groceries or go to do laundry.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

You thought about, like, what if I run into somebody here?

[Jake Baldino]

They see me. Yeah. It hasn't happened, but I have thought about that. It's a weird thing to even think about.

[Blessing]

I know.

[Jake Baldino]

But yeah, like, here I am, it's me. I'm always just wearing like a Resident Evil.

[Blessing]

It's like I look like a monster, you know? I mean, JBC writes in and says Pokemon should really get back into the movie business. Given the Mario movie success. They could get $3 billion. They can get $3 billion movie easy is what they write.

[Jake Baldino]

Absolutely. I mean, the original Pokemon movie was essentially like, what if. What if Mewtwo was Frieza? Like, it was just so sick. It was like a Dragon Ball Z movie. Just do that again.

[Blessing]

Yeah. I mean, have they stopped? Like, I'm not. I don't keep up with the anime. I don't know what the vibe is as far as Pokemon movies, Barrett. Well, they did remake Mewtwo Strikes Back as like, the like, cool 3D CG animation. I never checked it out, but, like, at least the trailers was like, this is really sick to see mewtwo, like in 3D, not with pores, but me too. With pores would be cool, though. I mean, we saw him, Detective Pikachu. I'm pretty sure he had pores.

[Jake Baldino]

YouTube with abs, like, dripping abs and like crazy biceps. Yeah, definitely.

[Blessing]

And like actually, never mind.

[Jake Baldino]

We're gonna go into the light.

[Blessing]

Let's talk about the glutes.

[Jake Baldino]

He's all glutes.

[Blessing]

I mean, me too's thighs are insane. And then we'll bring in one more before we move on from Rhino. Hey. Who writes in and says been watching KF since 2018. Thanks my little bro. Shout out to him and his indie team Galactic Bicycle showing off their game Wilds of Realm Walker at gdc. Nice. Hell yeah. Shout out to it. Wilds of realmwalker. That sounds really cool. Yeah, Jake, we're gonna move on to story number two. But before we do, I want to tell you about patreon.com kind of funny and YouTube.com kind of funny games where you can go and get the kind of funny membership which allows you to get shows ad free. And speaking of ads, let us tell you about our sponsors. This episode is brought to you by Shopify. When we started kinda funny in 2015, boy, let me tell you, I had a harsh lesson in what it takes to run your own business. We were the hosts, writers, producers, art department, tech support, garbage men and so much more. We needed help. And that's exactly what Shopify does for millions of businesses right now. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and 10% of all e commerce in the US from household names like Aviator Nation, Chubby's and Death Wish Coffee to brands just getting started. Shopify is your commerce expert with world class expertise in everything from managing inventory to international shipping to processing returns and beyond beyond. Start your business today with the industry's best business partner, Shopify and start hearing. Sign up for your $1 per month trial today at shopify.com kindafunny go to shopify.com kindafunny that's shopify.com kindafunny I had to look up Kyle Chandler because we got a super chat from Samson XP who says, I thought we got Kyle Chandler on the show.

[Jake Baldino]

That is probably the nicest thing anyone's said to me. I wish that's our new Hal Jordan. I hope, I hope that show's good. Look at him. Look at that mug.

[Blessing]

I'm not. He's the new how. Oh, hell yeah.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah, he's in the lantern show. Lanterns show.

[Blessing]

What's the vibe on that?

[Jake Baldino]

I was not really into it, but when they cast Aaron Pierre, I think he's awesome. Yeah, always him in one movie, that Rebel Ridge movie. But I was like, hell yeah. As a Jon Stewart.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Jake Baldino]

And then when Kyle Chandler was Hal Jordan and they were, like, doing a detective buddy cop, like, on the ground thing, I was like, I don't know. But then when I saw the trailer, I was like, that's a good trailer. I'm in.

[Blessing]

Oh, yeah. I'm somebody who loved the.

[Jake Baldino]

What they call it?

[Blessing]

The Arrowverse show.

[Jake Baldino]

Oh, nice.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Jake Baldino]

Okay, cool.

[Blessing]

I was super into those. And Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. like, those are, like, my two. Touch one of those guys.

[Jake Baldino]

Oh, yeah.

[Blessing]

Agents of S.H.I. is so good.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

I forget what I think was season four whenever they introduced the, like, clone shit. So, so good. But, yeah, I have, like, a weird soft spot for a lot of superhero tv, but it's been a while since I dove in. I think the Marvel, Disney plus stuff.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

Kind of, like, broke my. It kind of broke me on.

[Jake Baldino]

Try Wonder Man.

[Blessing]

I like Wonder Man.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah. Wonder man was cool. Wonder man was totally different. Energy, like, completely different, but it was cool.

[Blessing]

That brought me back a bit.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

And also, I like Daredevil. I love the Netflix stuff, and I like what they're doing currently with Daredevil.

[Jake Baldino]

I think season two is going to be. I'm hoping season two is a step up, because it's going to be like, they got their shit together.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Jake Baldino]

Because the first season was them trying to, like, do their own thing, but then they were like, now we need more of the old team back. So it's kind of like a mishmash.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Jake Baldino]

Apparently season two is going to be way more, like, cohesive, consistent, and I'm excited.

[Blessing]

I hope so. Because season one, even knowing that, like, they had kind of that weird stuff, it was still. Still pretty good.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

Actually, you know what I'm looking forward to, though? Punisher. I love Punisher on Netflix.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

I feel like that one wasn't one that got as much, like, praise as the other stuff. Yeah.

[Jake Baldino]

I'm curious. I hope they bring back Jigsaw. I like that actor.

[Blessing]

Oh, yeah.

[Jake Baldino]

And I thought they kind of, like, did him dirty in season two, so I would love to see them, like, continue to do that.

[Blessing]

See, that's how I feel about. Is his name Boomerang? The guy who throws things in Daredevil.

[Jake Baldino]

Oh, Bullseye.

[Blessing]

Bullseye, yes. They brought him back.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

I don't want to get into spoilers, even though this is episode one, but they bring him back, and I feel like we kind of move past him pretty quickly. And I'm like, I like this character.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah. And he was so great in season three.

[Blessing]

He was crazy.

[Jake Baldino]

And nobody watched season three. And I was like, season three was the best.

[Blessing]

It's the best season of that. Yes, exactly. Him and Kingpin fucking kill it. Yeah. So good. I. I might be the only person that watched both Jessica Jones all three seasons and Iron Fist season two.

[Jake Baldino]

Oh, nice.

[Blessing]

And let me tell you, y' all didn't give Iron Fist season two a shot. And I understand it. Like, season one was terrible. I get it. Season two. I'm not saying it was that good, but, like, it was getting better.

[Jake Baldino]

All right.

[Blessing]

That's all I'm gonna say.

[Jake Baldino]

Okay, the thing I want to address.

[Blessing]

You're telling me there were three seasons of Jessica? There were three seasons.

[Jake Baldino]

Yes, there was. Yeah. Jessica.

[Blessing]

And I watched it all. The only. The only one of those I didn't get around to, and I probably still could, is Luke Cage Season 2. I think that might have been the last one.

[Jake Baldino]

I forgot they made a season two. I like season one.

[Blessing]

I love season one. But season two came out, and I think that was around the time where everybody had already given up on it. And I was like, okay, well, I'm not gonna waste my time watching a season of tv that I'm not gonna get anything.

[Jake Baldino]

But they're all coming back. Maybe the rumors are saying that, like, Danny Rand's gonna show up in Daredevil, so why not?

[Blessing]

Oh, really?

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

Interesting.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

Why?

[Jake Baldino]

I don't know.

[Blessing]

That's hilarious. Good for them. And then I'll bring in a couple more super chats, right? Jigglypuff tutorials writes in and says, is the Dark Souls review still happening? Blessed. Listen, that's a good question. It's been like, we're in March. I beat that game early January. I don't know if I could act. I don't know if I could give you a good review of Dark Souls right now, but I'll give it to you. I'll give it to you the best I can in the next 10 seconds. All right, here we go. Dark Souls is a fantastic video game. That's my review.

[Jake Baldino]

Put it on the box.

[Blessing]

Put it on the box.

[Jake Baldino]

It.

[Blessing]

Hold it. Relevant. I'm sure we'll do an episode because we have a lot. We have the top 100 coming up later this year. I feel like Dark Souls will be a topic of conversation, so stay tuned for that. And then one more from jbc, who says, nintendo Orchestra tonight at Grace Cathedral for gdc. Really exciting.

[Jake Baldino]

Oh, I didn't even. I wasn't even aware of that. That's cool. I love video game music in person.

[Blessing]

What's your. Oh, in person.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah. It's so great.

[Blessing]

Do you have like a favorite concert that you've been to?

[Jake Baldino]

Metal Gear.

[Blessing]

That was a Metal Gear concert.

[Jake Baldino]

Metal Gear in concert. Incredible. That's awesome. Incredible.

[Blessing]

That's cool. My favorite one. And this is gonna be very stereotypical me, Sonic the Hedgehog. It was a Sonic the Hedgehog wasn't

[Jake Baldino]

too long ago, right?

[Blessing]

No, it was maybe like, maybe like two years ago.

[Jake Baldino]

Okay. Yeah, I remember you. That was a big deal for you.

[Blessing]

It was a big deal. Me, Roger and Tim went together.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

Oh my God. Some of the most, most fun I've had with them.

[Jake Baldino]

That's great.

[Blessing]

Fantastic.

[Jake Baldino]

Expedition 33, they have a European tour that is sold out and they just added like two more in Europe. Sold out instantly. And I am waiting for them to announce something for the US they got to. Because I'm going to do like, I'm going to do like the Ticketmaster like day one, like locked in. Like I'm buying sneakers. Like I'm getting it right away, front row.

[Blessing]

I'm going to be there 1000%. But also I bet you the clear obscure concert in France probably goes crazy. It probably hits that probably is like they're probably mosh pitting in there. Probably going crazy. Let's move on to story number two. Pocket Pair suggests a decade of continuous massive updates is probably not on the cards, but teases. It wouldn't rule out a Power World 2. This is from Vicki Blake at IGN Power 2.0. I should say they say a point zero, which is important. Power developer Pocket Pair has revealed that while it accepts the survival games, most devoted fans may want a decade of continuous massive updates. There's only so many times you can add in new levels and content before the game gets bloated. And that's a quote quote. A lot of our hardcore fans and players would love for Power World to be this no Man's sky situation where it's like a decade of continuous massive updates. But realistically that's probably not on the cards for Power World. Not only because of engine limitations, but also it's a survival crafting game. That's publishing head John Buckley. He told Games Radar plus quote, I think there's only so many times you can add 5 levels, add 10 levels until it gets to this massive bloat point. Even World of Warcraft had that stat squish years ago. He added Power World is linear progression. I think if Power didn't have that progression, you could do it forever like no Man's Sky. But it's going to have to stop at some point and then we can think about what comes after and that's exciting for us. He also stressed that with the long awaited 1.0 release on the way, quote greatly expanding the content at some point it could feel like a chore to play, especially for newer or more casual players. Quote how much more can you stretch that until it gets to the point where more casual players feel like it's a chore? That's where it gets tricky with 2.0 and we get into the big debate of do you continue to expand Power World and find a way to mitigate those problems and or do you start thinking about, I won't say the word because I don't want to speak into existence, something beyond Power World. End quote. Buckley did, however, tease that he wouldn't rule out a Power World 2.0. Quote I wouldn't rule out a Power World 2.0. It really depends on what we can do with the game at the moment, how we can expand it without it feeling boring. Not only boring, but how we can expand it while also being approachable. We still have to start thinking about what comes next eventually. End quote. There you go.

[Jake Baldino]

I appreciate the transparency. Like, I'm glad that they're being kind of upfront with it because I do feel like they're at a crossroads now where they could go either the kind of like an ark Survival Evolved where it's just like the game existed for Aura Rust. You know, it just existed forever and they kept adding to it. They can do that even though they're saying like stat squish and stuff. I think they can really squeeze a lot of juice and length out of this one. Or they go the complete opposite other way. And I've gotten the sense from Pocket Pair just like from hearing about them and like, I think they're starting to dive into publishing.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Jake Baldino]

So I feel like they do want more. So I wouldn't be like, this makes sense if they want to eventually piggyback up from Palworld. Also, you probably kind of want to like, you got your success now you kind of want to unshackle yourself from Nintendo wanting to kill you and try and make something else. All the money you made, you know,

[Blessing]

it doesn't make me think about Power World 2.0 and what that is. Like, do you. Do you double down? Do you keep making pals that look exactly like Pokemon or do you try to like change the art style a little bit?

[Jake Baldino]

The double down would be funny.

[Blessing]

Double down would be hilarious. I Mean, they did put out. Oh, didn't they do like another thing that was basically Animal Crossing?

[Jake Baldino]

I think so I'm gonna have to

[Blessing]

look, look into play in that game.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah. Or just add like more guns and more like, like Pokemon animal slavery. Like. Yeah, that's what that game. After a while you're like, wait, are we just like putting these things to work? This is kind of messed up.

[Blessing]

But.

[Jake Baldino]

Oh yeah, but people, people like the game and like the all the like weird shit you can do in it. So they could totally keep tripling and doubling down and yeah, 2.0 could be pretty sick.

[Blessing]

You know, Pocket Pairs is a weird company to me because like I very much like the fact that the PAL designs look so close to Pokemon to me. To the point where I look at that and I'm like, that's just Lucario. You can call it Anubis or whatever you call the pal, but that's Lucario.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

Right.

[Jake Baldino]

Like ridiculous.

[Blessing]

There's a lot of stuff in there that like very much toes the line of this is basically plagiarism.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

And I've always given them the side eye for that. But outside of that, they seem like a really cool company.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

You know, like you talk about them publishing games and if you go to their page on Wikipedia for like the games published by, by Pocket Pair, like they published Dead Take. Yeah, Dead Take was a really cool game. Came from the homie Abu.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah, it's like that, that's like, you know, that's an industry game essentially. That's like you're not into that unless you're like a nerd paying attention in this field.

[Blessing]

Yes.

[Jake Baldino]

So like they, they have that passion clearly if they're publishing something like that,

[Blessing]

that Cassette Boy as well. And they have like a handful of other smaller games that they're publishing. They're them talking here about their ethos around this. Right. I think they're 100% right. Like how many games have I played where GT Online will be my example, even though it's an infinitely successful game. But GTA Online is my example of a game that I was so into GTA Online, I was logging in daily, I was doing the heist, I was locked in forever. And nowadays I log back into GTA Online. I'm like, I don't know what I'm doing. Yeah. There's so much bloat here. And like that works for them because they have a built in install base of players that are going to keep coming back and they know how to extract money from that thing. But when you're playing this live service game. Yeah. After a while, there will be bloat that does alienate certain categories of players. So I think it is a smart thing to go, hey, before we get there, let's put out a power world too.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

Or theoretically maybe put out a power role too, and not try to, you know, try to make this thing last longer than it needs to last. We're not going to milk this thing.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah. And it's also like a, you know, walking the tightrope of goodwill because you don't want to lose people, you know, you want, you have the people. Like a GTA online is a perfect example where you still have people like, I know people that have been playing that for 10 years straight.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Jake Baldino]

And then you have people like you who played it a lot. You fell out, you come back, you're like, what is this?

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Jake Baldino]

So it's like, how do you still keep both of those people as customers, so to speak? So that's a tricky tightrope. But I'm glad that they're just being upfront about it.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Jake Baldino]

That's big, like transparency in this industry. And just like, even just like, ah, this is what we're kind of thinking like that, that still goes a long way. Like when fans hear just something like that, just a vague inkling of what they're thinking, that helps.

[Blessing]

Let's move on to story number three. Acclaimed RPG Chained Echoes creator is suing its publisher because this physical edition still isn't here two years later. I'm pulling from Chris Golian at Video Games Chronicle. The creator of critically acclaimed RPG Chained Echoes says he's suing the company that was supposed to release the physical edition of the game. The 16 bit inspired RPG's Kickstarter campaign was launched in February 2019 and easily surpassed its funding goal, with more than 4,500 backers pledging €130,409 to fund the game's release. The digital edition of the game was released in December 2022, with a physical edition set to be released later by First Press Games. In an Update posted in June 2024, the game's creator, Matthias Linda, told backers that the physical version of the game was approved by Sony and Nintendo at the end of 2023, and that the physical editions would eventually be released later in 2024. However, in a new update posted today, Linda informed backers that he has still only received the standard PS4 edition and that none of the other 13 products, including regular retro and collector's editions across PS4, Switch and PC, as well as the Japanese themed Switch version and CD soundtrack have been released. Quote it's been a bit over two years since the physical versions were supposed to be released by First Press Games and so far in 2026, nothing has arrived except the regular PS4 edition. Linda wrote to his backers, quote, because of that, I had to make a decision. I am terminating my business relationship with FPG and I am preparing a lawsuit. This decision wasn't easy and came after careful consideration. Please understand that for legal reasons, I cannot go into further details. End quote. Linda says Kickstarter backers have two options. They can either keep their pledge and wait for him to produce a new physical edition with a different publisher, or they can get a refund. Crazy story here.

[Jake Baldino]

It's a shame.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Jake Baldino]

Shame for like, you know, most people involved. For the backers who purchase something, they will promise something, they want something. And then also this developer who thought they got into a good business deal and at least from how it seems like it's shaking out, they were taken advantage of, kicked around. And that's a shame because, you know, you only have some when you're a small developer. You only have so many shots and this could have been his biggest shot.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Jake Baldino]

And it was partially squandered because of this physical deal. Like that's such a shame for a

[Blessing]

game that's very highly regarded.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah. I don't know too much about it.

[Blessing]

I, I only booted it up for a little bit just to check it out because I remember when it launched it felt like this was a possible game of the year contender situation, at least for like the JRPG fans. People who are like, who like the classic.

[Jake Baldino]

Is it a retro style jrpg?

[Blessing]

It's a, it's a retro style jrpg, great art style. And I know people who loved Chained Echoes. And so when you got something that's like this is catching fire, you don't want something like the physical editions to, you know, to fumble. Like.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

You know, you want to get these, this game into people's hands, especially when it's good enough.

[Jake Baldino]

Like there's demand where people want the cool additions like they a physical but they want like all these fun versions of this game because they like the game enough. The game is that good.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Jake Baldino]

To squander that sucks ass 100 for lack of a better word.

[Blessing]

So hope they figure this out. You know, good luck to the developer. And let's close out with story number four. A Lego PlayStation is reportedly coming later this Year. This is Chris Golian at Video Games Chronicle. A LEGO recreation of the original Sony PlayStation is reportedly on the way. That's according to Instagram user LEGO Minecraft Goat, who has a lengthy track record of leaking upcoming LEGO sets and their pricing. According to the Insider, the Lego PS1 will be released in December and it will be aimed at adult collectors, much like Lego's other console themed sets. The cell will reportedly cost $159.99 and will consist of 1911 pieces, including at least the console in one controller. That isn't as many as the Lego Atari 2600 which was 2532 pieces, or the Lego NES which was 2646 pieces. Though the former did include three other models based on classic Atari games and the latter included a television playing Super Mario Brothers. So it's likely that the PS1 will at least be similar in size to the base consoles in those sets. Are you a LEGO person?

[Jake Baldino]

Pack it up, wrap it up. That's it. I'm in like day one, pre order. Yeah, I did the, the Game Boy, the Original Game Boy 1 recently.

[Blessing]

Yeah, loved it. Really.

[Jake Baldino]

I got my friend the NES one for Christmas. It was awesome to see that come together. I'm like a casual LEGO guy, like only here and there because I only have so much space. Lego, LEGO are expensive. And then also when you're finished with it, like if you don't have room for it, what do you do?

[Blessing]

What do you do with this?

[Jake Baldino]

But like I very tactically choose like which ones I'm going to do and PlayStation. That's easy. I would love to see accessories though because again, not the most pieces and then it's also, you know, it's a square console. It's pretty like pretty straightforward.

[Blessing]

What's your go to accessory that you would choose for this?

[Jake Baldino]

Multitap? Oh, definitely. Multitask would be cool. Multi tab memory card. Like it'd be fun if they had like a, like you know, like the off brand ones like the clear plastic blue memory card, something like that. That would be good. I love those little, little extras like that. But I'm curious to see if they do the thing that they did with like the Nintendo stuff where they have like a game, what game would they include? That's the big question. If there was a Lego PlayStation 1, like they're suggesting what will be the game? I mean like, because it would probably pack in two games, right?

[Blessing]

Are we talking about Tricky with Crash Bandicoot?

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah, it does, of course.

[Blessing]

Yeah. Because like if we're, if we're throwing out licensing.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

There are three options, I think. Final Fantasy 7.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

Crash Bandicoot or Metal Gear Solid.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

But if we're talking, like, if it has to be a Sony thing, because they're partnering with Sony on this.

[Jake Baldino]

Ape Escape.

[Blessing]

I was gonna say Ape Escape.

[Jake Baldino]

Ape Escape with bang.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Jake Baldino]

Do weird shit. Do, like, Jet Moto. Jet Moto 2.

[Blessing]

Wow. He'd be brave. Fancy Musashi.

[Jake Baldino]

There you go. Yeah, exactly. People are like, what is this?

[Blessing]

I don't remember this.

[Jake Baldino]

That'd be awesome. That'd be good. I would be in.

[Blessing]

Yeah. I want the PS2. That's my thing, is, like, I'm. I actually. I'm not. I'm not a LEGO person at all. I don't hate legos. Except for, like, when they do LEGO characters, I think they look weird.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

Like, they do. Like the Nintendo. Like, oh, here's Donkey Kong. But, like, the curves are in the wrong place. I don't like how they look.

[Jake Baldino]

But you don't trust them.

[Blessing]

I don't trust them. So that's the only time where I'm like, okay, I'm anti LEGO here. Other than that, I don't really care. That said, I love a PS2.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

And so, like, if you were to give me a. Like that. Plus. See, now we're getting into what game? Because then I'm like, give me Shadow Colossus.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah, that's my first thought. Shadow of Colossus.

[Blessing]

But then at that point, it's like, also, give me a. Give me a buildable Colossus. That's why I started.

[Jake Baldino]

You just like. Yeah.

[Blessing]

And make it a bionicle. Like, let's just go all the way

[Jake Baldino]

from the island of Mata Nui itself.

[Blessing]

Exactly.

[Jake Baldino]

That's great. Yeah. I'm excited for this, though. Put me in, coach. I'll take one. I love that one, please. Definitely.

[Blessing]

Well, Jake, you really wanted to get your hands on this LEGO set. That's big news.

[Jake Baldino]

Yes.

[Blessing]

That's huge news.

[Jake Baldino]

Yes.

[Blessing]

But if I wanted something smaller, say the tiniest news I need us to know about, where would I go?

[Jake Baldino]

You'd go to our last story, the WE News Channel, where we cover all the small news items you need to know about.

[Blessing]

Absolutely. Nailed it. Proud of you. Story number five is WE News. Fortnite Save the World is going free to play on April 16th. Crazy. PlayStation plus premium extra games for March 2026 have been announced. For extra, you're getting Warhammer 40K Space Marine 2.

[Jake Baldino]

Good.

[Blessing]

You're getting Madden Madden NFL 26. Mid you're getting damn. Really?

[Jake Baldino]

I just. I don't like football.

[Blessing]

I was like, was it this specific Madden or is it just Madden in general? Persona 5 royal mid.

[Jake Baldino]

No, I'm just kidding. I'm kidding, I'm kidding.

[Blessing]

Both Blessing and I were about to jump you right there. You remember what I explained to you before that I was going to do the handshake? So don't get scared.

[Jake Baldino]

If I like you now, you're going to actually come get me.

[Blessing]

If you were going to stand on that, then I would have actually leaped it. You would have had to actually be scared. Blasphemous 2? Hell yeah. No opinion.

[Jake Baldino]

Do I keep it going?

[Blessing]

Yeah, keep going.

[Jake Baldino]

Great.

[Blessing]

Metal Eden. What? Metal Eden. You don't know about that one? No, I think that's a first person doom like game. But it's like futuristic.

[Jake Baldino]

Oh hell yeah.

[Blessing]

Maybe like cyberpunk vibes.

[Jake Baldino]

Boomer shooter.

[Blessing]

Yeah. Lord of the Rings, return to Moria.

[Jake Baldino]

100%.

[Blessing]

And then what kind of game is that?

[Jake Baldino]

It's like the mining one. Yeah, it's good.

[Blessing]

And then Astroneer.

[Jake Baldino]

I don't know about this one.

[Blessing]

I think that's like a no man's Sky.

[Jake Baldino]

Okay.

[Blessing]

Type game if it's the one I'm thinking of. This is Metal Eden, by the way. Oh yeah. So there's a cutscene if we get into gameplay. It's.

[Jake Baldino]

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Man.

[Blessing]

This game always looked cool to me, but it came and went a little bit.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

So I never got a chance to try it out, but it looks really cool.

[Jake Baldino]

Totally powerful.

[Blessing]

And then for premium you're getting Tekken Dark Resurrection, which for me I'll put that as a thumbs up. It's good right there. Definitely more re news for you. NCsoft has acquired a 70 stake in Germany based mobile developer Just Play. Temtem project down below has been announced and Moonlighter 2's greed and glory update is now available. And that is it for WE news. Let's hop back into super chats, see what people are saying. Jet244 says quick shout out to skate season three. Dropping yesterday. It replaced Spider man as my go to chill podcast. Time Locomotion gameplay this month. There you go. Did you ever pick up skate?

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah, it was hard for me to get into the new one, unfortunately.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Jake Baldino]

But I've been hearing good things about season three, so maybe it'll be the time.

[Blessing]

Hell yeah. Finally, hopefully they. They bring it back. Zeke Speak writes in and says blessing. Don't forget you're gonna play all the bionicle games on stream, remember? And read aloud some steamy AO3 bionicle fanfic. You promised. First of all, Zeke, speak. I never promised that. Secondly, I didn't even know that AO3 bionicle fanfic existed.

[Jake Baldino]

That's. You know, you learn something new every day.

[Blessing]

What does that consist of? They're just putting their parts together.

[Jake Baldino]

Like you don't want to know.

[Blessing]

Like how does that even.

[Jake Baldino]

I don't gotta ask them.

[Blessing]

I can't even imagine what that looks like. Big cursmd says the first game, the first press games lawsuit is a good step. But anyone who bought direct, not Kickstarter are left out in the cold and get no compensation. That is in regards to the lawsuit we were talking about earlier.

[Jake Baldino]

That's no bueno.

[Blessing]

Change echoes. Yeah, Oscar Navarro says you guys should look into Pikmon. It was just announced and seems. He seems to be ripping off both Pokemon and Power World, if you can believe it.

[Jake Baldino]

Pikmin.

[Blessing]

If you can look up Pikmon, it's P, I C K M O N. So I'm curious. Okay.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah, definitely. I want to know what's going on with that because why not?

[Blessing]

Yeah, you know, just a chain. A chain of plagiarism. Yeah. I love it. The developer is called Pocket Game.

[Jake Baldino]

Oh my God.

[Blessing]

That's like really good. Yeah. This just looks like Power World. And that's Link. Is that Pikachu?

[Jake Baldino]

Just straight up Link. The fact that it's Pocket Game, the developer too, that's like the quadruple piss take. Like it's just. That looks like a. That looks not like a Pokemon. That looks like a Pal World Pokemon.

[Blessing]

Y' all are going to make Nintendo crash out. Yeah, this is. This is like Nintendo. You're gonna push them to the edge and they're gonna like they're gonna go buck wild and all between.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah, between this and then just like AI rip offs. Like they're just gonna go crazy like

[Blessing]

they've already started suing the government. Like it's.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah, it's crazy.

[Blessing]

Don't. Yeah, we got one more from Gogo Monster Truck who says shout out Jake and that's pretty much it. Fun. I like that.

[Jake Baldino]

Pretty much it.

[Blessing]

I like that.

[Jake Baldino]

Thank you.

[Blessing]

That's so funny. We got a separate one actually from EJR RPG G E J rpg who writes in and says if you think pals are copies, wait until you see Pikmon, which we just saw.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

Scorpion Brew says, Jake, you're awesome. I've been watching Gameranx since 2018. I love your content.

[Jake Baldino]

Thank you. Wow, what took you so long? We've been around for longer than. No, I'm kidding. No, thank you. That's great. I'm glad we can help. Honestly.

[Blessing]

That's it all day. Wong10 says Big shout out to Jake on KF and Pokemon first generation. Love the bless slash Jake combo. And Barrett behind the scenes made by day. Love me some video games. Pizza on me. See ya.

[Jake Baldino]

This is good.

[Blessing]

You're a sign off, right?

[Jake Baldino]

Yep. Pizza on me.

[Blessing]

And then I think that might be it for super chats. I'm doing one more scroll. Oh, we got one at the very beginning of the show. This one is from Goldfish Boy who says, last year I set. I set my remind. Let me say again. Last year I set a reminder on my phone for today to remind Bless to get his badge for gdc. You're welcome. Blessed. I've done my duty. Here's the thing, Goldfish Boy, you're too late. Next year I need you to look at like what the GDC dates are. In fact, they're already out. I think it's March 1st. Hit me up like the last day of February because I thought I had, I thought I had requested a GDC badge. I don't think I did. And so I looked at my emails as the week was coming up and I was like, all right, let's see what I'm going to do for gdc. Maybe I'll go to the awards or something. Just nothing in my emails.

[Jake Baldino]

Wow.

[Blessing]

And so I definitely forgot to tell Greg or something.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

Because I looked at Roger, I was like, roger, like did Greg forget to do our thing? And Roger's like, no, I have a GDC badge. And so I'm like, oh, well, you're blessing.

[Jake Baldino]

Just walk in and be like, I am the mayor of video games.

[Blessing]

You would think.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

But last year, last year I tried to go to the GDC awards and they're like, you and like. Because I had, I think I had like requested as media or whatever. Like they had like a media section. Yeah. I was like, oh yeah, okay, I'll do that. Turns out you still need a badge. No matter what, you still need a GDC badge. And so like I'm.

[Jake Baldino]

Wait, really?

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Jake Baldino]

Oh, you're not, I guess.

[Blessing]

Oh no, Jake.

[Jake Baldino]

Did I take the same mistake?

[Blessing]

Chad is quick to point out this is very much a snow bike mike move, by the way, for you to just like kind of show up and just assume like I'm good. Right.

[Jake Baldino]

And then you're not.

[Blessing]

I need to double check because Greg will usually put up a thing, like, months ago or whatever, and it's like, all right, who wants a GDC badge? And so we reply to Greg, and then Greg will reach out, and then we'll make it happen. Right. I need to go back and see if I replied to Greg, because in my head, I thought I did. But the fact I don't have an email, I don't think Greg's. Greg usually doesn't slip up like that. And so it's probably a me thing, but I want to double check because there's a small chance, you know, I can shift blame here to Greg. All I'm saying is I don't remember being reached out to you for a GDC badge as well. I feel like it's usually, like, a slack thing. Like a general slack.

[Jake Baldino]

Well, if you guys are, you know, catch me literally outside gdc, because they won't let me in.

[Blessing]

That's so funny because, yeah, literally, like, it was me talking to the guy, being like, well, I'm in media. Like, here's the email. They're like, that's what I have. Yeah. And they were like, well, we need a badge or what? Because, like, it's like a security measure. You can't just let anybody. I'm like, well, here's the email. And then it was so funny because it was. It got to the point where they started calling other people. They're like, oh, well, you know, let's call our manager over here. Like, it kept escalating. And I'm there for probably, like, 20 minutes.

[Jake Baldino]

And you're just like.

[Blessing]

To the point where I'm like, it's not that serious. I can go somewhere else. But they're already getting the people, and other people are walking in, like, Josh Sawyer, the. The man who made Fallout New Vegas.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah, Legend. It's like, hey, what's up, man? Anyway, I'm going in. I'll see you inside.

[Blessing]

Hey, bless. What's up? And I was like, oh, what's up, man? He's like, you coming inside? And I was like, yeah, we'll see. Josh Sawyer. Famous Johnson Josh Sawyer. It was a whole.

[Jake Baldino]

That's gonna happen to me now.

[Blessing]

Yeah, that might be you this year. All right, Jake. We're gonna close out the show with kindafunny.com. you're wrong. That's where people write in. They let us know what we got wrong as we got it wrong, so we can correct it. For those watching later on YouTube and listening later on podcast services around The Globe Cabal strikes in with a missed WE News. This is a good one. I almost put this in yesterday, but I was waiting for a little bit more to come out. SAG AFTRA has ordered a do not work order on the upcoming Mega Man Dual Override game. Announced that Game awards. I saw this and I was like, what's the context? There was no context when I first saw this put up, get put out. I then saw a follow up from the person who was going to voice act in this game say that they're no longer going to voice act because Capcom or the team that's doing Mega Man Dual Override wanted him to work under the condition of not having the protections of a union contract.

[Jake Baldino]

That's brutal.

[Blessing]

Super brutal. That's for.

[Jake Baldino]

For twofold. Because number one, you have like a gig of a lifetime and you're so excited. And then also like, yeah, Japan. And like a lot. A lot of them are like, they don't with the union thing.

[Blessing]

Yeah, it's.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah, man. Hopefully, hopefully that voice actor can find another cool gig though.

[Blessing]

Yeah. You know, hopefully this gets settled in some way.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah, definitely.

[Blessing]

Like, it'd be cool if they were to reverse this, but. Yeah, I don't know how. I don't know how flexible companies are. Yeah.

[Jake Baldino]

I mean, at the very least, like, hopefully it doesn't delay Mega man forever. Like, hopefully they can get this all figured out.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Jake Baldino]

And we'll see.

[Blessing]

We shall see. And then we have one more from Kebabs who says there hasn't been a new Pokemon movie since 2020's Secrets of the Jungle, which is the third movie in an alternate universe trilogy where Ash goes on a completely different journey after spotting ho oh on his first day. There were 19 movies in the original anime continuity before that and four TV specials. But I thought the remake of Pokemon the first movie was like, after 2020.

[Jake Baldino]

I guess that doesn't count because it's not new, it's not canon. I mean, if we're doing alternate universes now in Metaverse, like, what if Ash had a gun?

[Blessing]

I mean, that's basically Power World.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah. And it's great.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Jake Baldino]

People love it. So just more of that Nintendo.

[Blessing]

Well, like, I can imagine the squint in Nintendo's eye when they announced Power World the first movie follow up with Power World 2000 and they're like, it's not even 2000.

[Jake Baldino]

Like, like, you guys are copying us so much.

[Blessing]

There's an evil mewtwo in Power of the first Movie that's like making all the Pokemon fight each other or the pals.

[Jake Baldino]

He's all biceps, though, not thighs.

[Blessing]

Exactly. It's like, bro, you got it. You cannot skip leg day. Bro, you got. You cannot skip leg day. Jake, thank you so much for joining me on this episode of kfcd. It's been so wonderful to finally, like, have a one on one. It was great piece of content with you just vibing. This is good. Let's do it again sometime.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah. And Barrett, everybody involved, like, it's great. Thank you for the opportunity. Thank you to your community for even humoring me being on here.

[Blessing]

Yep.

[Jake Baldino]

I. This is. This is awesome.

[Blessing]

What's a piece of content that people should check out if they're watching or

[Jake Baldino]

listening to this right now? YouTube.comgameranx tv we just put out the before you buy for Toxic Commando.

[Blessing]

Nice.

[Jake Baldino]

I'm proud of that one. I spent a lot of time on that one one. And then also on my channel, YouTube.com Jake Baldino. Today I'm putting up a video. I still haven't done a spoiler video for Resident Evil 9. I'm cooking on that. But I'm doing a video that's just yapping about the future of Resident Evil. Like, it sold 5 million copies. The DLC. Like, what's next for the franchise? So check that out on my channel.

[Blessing]

That's awesome. Also, somebody asked in chat. Jordan in chat says, did Roger finally get to meet Jake?

[Jake Baldino]

It was great.

[Blessing]

I got to witness it.

[Jake Baldino]

My heart, like, dropped.

[Blessing]

Like, my heart, like, I was like,

[Jake Baldino]

oh, there he is.

[Blessing]

Can you tell the quick story behind Roger and Jake Baldino?

[Jake Baldino]

Roger, we knew Roger through pretty much it.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah. He watched an OG fan and he was an OG fan and he was out there and he was great. And then I kind of ended up becoming like a fan of him. He would do his own content. He would. He dabbled in a bunch of different things over the years, but I always just kind of, like, liked what he did. I liked his vibe, I liked his mindset, his approach to content. And. And then he ended up here. He had a long journey here too, but he ended up here. And, yeah, we've always, like, almost met up. And it's always been like my biggest regret of my life. And now we are finally united.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Jake Baldino]

And he is great in real life.

[Blessing]

And if you want to see stuff with both Roger and Jake, you could always check out the kind of funny screencast Better Call Saul review.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah, that's right. That was my. That was the first kind of funny collab, I think, which Is crazy.

[Blessing]

Like, I feel bad that, like, I was a part of your first kind of Funny collab.

[Jake Baldino]

No, not at all. No, it was great. You guys are great. I wouldn't have any, like, Greg, Tim. Overrated. This is. This is.

[Blessing]

Hell yeah. This is the group I'm talking about. This is the real kind of funny right here. You heard it and yeah, Shout out Roger. Roger, I think, is an example of somebody who is, like, destined to make it. You know what I mean? Like, you talk about you being a fan of him kind of funny. I know was a fan of Roger from, like, his video.

[Jake Baldino]

He just got a good, like. Like creative eye.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Jake Baldino]

Like he's got a good mind.

[Blessing]

Good creative. Good creative mind, for sure. And I remember watching his video essays back in the day too.

[Jake Baldino]

Yeah, like, he would do like, like rap albums and stuff too. Yeah, it was incredible.

[Blessing]

Super creative, dude. Shout out Roger. And also shout out Jake Baldino. Thank you again for joining us on Kind of Funny Games Daily. Of course, if you love what we do, support us with the Kind of Funny membership on Patreon or YouTube to get all of our shows ad free and get a daily exclusive show. We got a banger gamescast coming up after this. Because me and Mike are doing a March Madness bracket. We're deciding the best video game sequel of all time.

[Jake Baldino]

Ooh, that's fun.

[Blessing]

Have you seen the bracket?

[Jake Baldino]

No.

[Blessing]

Bracket's insane. I'm gonna show you after this. I mean, I think to just tease it for the live audience, I think can bring it up. So.

[Jake Baldino]

Oh, I put.

[Blessing]

I put out a poll to the audience asking them what the best video game sequel was. I compiled a lot of the most popular answers. And then me and Mike decided on some of the later entries where. Where there was no consensus. I then seeded it by Metacritic score and divided the four regions into Modern Games, HD Games, Memory card, and then the classics just based off of years released. Yeah, and we got some crazy matchups. We got Red Dead Redemption two versus Near Automata. We got Allen Wake two versus Hades two is gonna be a fun one. The entire HD section.

[Jake Baldino]

All of it. Yeah. God, I'm looking.

[Blessing]

Kingdom Hearts 2 versus Halo 2 in the first round. Like, did you do that just to with Mike? No, that's Metacritic. That was all. This is all the Metacritic seating. Soul Caliber 2 versus Smash Melee is gonna be tough.

[Jake Baldino]

Soul caliber. Soul Calibur 2 is incredible. Also Silent Hill 2, Resident Evil 2. That's crazy.

[Blessing]

That's not.

[Jake Baldino]

That's hard for me personally. It's Resident Evil 2 yeah. And I'm not mentioning Metal Gear Solid 2, because I think the first one is better, but.

[Blessing]

Damn.

[Jake Baldino]

That's. That's fine. I'm also.

[Blessing]

I mean, that's not so.

[Jake Baldino]

No, it's not crazy.

[Blessing]

Yeah. I mean, any Metal Gear is one of those ones where any Metal Gear could be your favorite Metal Gear, and

[Jake Baldino]

it's like, yeah, yeah, let's do a whole podcast about that.

[Blessing]

Come back.

[Jake Baldino]

All right.

[Blessing]

Literally fly back. We'll do that. We'll do that podcast.

[Jake Baldino]

Lock it in.

[Blessing]

Hell, yeah. Well, until next time. Game Daily. Great episode. That was great.