Game of The Year So Far - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Summary

Kinda Funny Gamescast – "Game of The Year So Far"

Date: March 12, 2026
Host: Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Panel: Tim Gettys (not present), Greg Miller (chat), Blessing Adeoye Jr., Imran Khan, Paris Lilly, Stella Chung

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Episode Overview

In this lively, insightful episode of Kinda Funny Gamescast, Blessing is joined in the studio by industry friends Imran Khan, Paris Lilly, and Stella Chung. The focus is a quarterly check-in on the "Game of the Year So Far" for 2026, but the conversation winds through GDC tales, hot new indie demos, hands-on impressions from Xbox's recent showcase, the ever-evolving state of AAA and indie gaming, and a rapid-fire rundown of the year's most buzzed-about releases. The panel brings a diverse range of tastes, deep knowledge, and infectious banter, making this a must-listen for anyone looking to get caught up on gaming’s current landscape.

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Panel Introductions & GDC Vibes

(02:04 – 07:34)

• Blessing welcomes his eccentric roster of guests, jokingly pointing out Imran Khan’s rare in-person return, Stella’s close call at a party, and Paris’ first ever GDC.
• Imran reflects on the weirdness of being back in San Francisco:

  “It feels like time has not passed at all.” (02:34)

• GDC Experiences:
  • Paris values sitting in on panels and learning about developer processes more than expected.
  • Imran laments his lack of time for panels, having been swamped by meetings, demos, and writing.
  • Stella nearly injured herself on-stage the night before (leading to a running gag about Blessing’s questionable chivalry) and is excited by XBOX’s indie showcase.
  • The group bonds over karaoke stories, party mishaps, and the unique feeling of being “flies on the wall” as press at GDC, an event fundamentally for developers.

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Xbox Showcase Highlights

(07:34 – 19:55)

At Fate’s End – The Breakout Indie

[09:00 – 12:23] Imran’s detailed impression

• Created by Thunder Lotus (Sundered, Spiritfarer), At Fate’s End is described by Imran as “legitimately the best game of the show.” (09:33)
• Premise:
  • Play as Shan, the “runt” in a family of demigod sword-wielders, each sacrificing body parts to summon their blades.
  • Narrative centers on family drama, deep dialogue pathways, and identity, echoing the emotional resonance of Spiritfarer, but rooted in dysfunctional family reconciliation.
• Notable Quote:

  “This game is about—you have a family that is fucked up, and you are trying to find a place to meet them in the middle or move on beyond them.” – Imran (11:52)

• Panel is instantly sold; Blessing: “I’ve never been so sold on a video game.” (12:19)
• Stella (joking): “Did you make the throat goat joke yet?” (12:36)

Other Notable Demos

• Echo Generation 2 (Paris, 13:56):
  • A surprise hit at the event for its challenging turn-based combat/card mechanic mix. Highly replayable, stylish, and Paris admits he played two chapters back to back out of sheer enjoyment.
• Replaced (Paris/Blessing, 15:08–17:19):
  • An indie in development for years, comparable to Playdead titles in atmosphere (Inside/Limbo), with tight Batman: Arkham-style combat, hand-crafted animations, and evocative art design. Blessing hopes for a longer, deeper demo.
• Screenbound (Stella, 17:24):
  • Mind-bending platformer where you control a 2D character "inside" a Game Boy-like handheld while exploring a 3D world—a “brutal, brain-breaking” puzzle platformer:

  “Absolutely fucks with your mind… it makes your brain think in overtime.” – Stella (17:28)

• Discussion includes recurring issues of busy booths, taking turns for demos, and humorous grievances about who took too long (Lucy James, Paris with Replaced).

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2026 Game of the Year (So Far): Personal Picks

(19:55 – 31:50)

Blessing kicks off the main topic, asking each guest for their GOTY frontrunner (or backlog confession).

Imran Khan

• Pocopia (watched, not played):
  • “It just seems like ooze quality… everyone can get on board with.” (20:45)
• Actual pick: MONSTER HUNTER STORIES 3
  • “Like a GameCube RPG lost to time—at first, overwhelming, but the further I got, the more it tickled my brain... I damn near 100%’ed this game, and I don’t do that for reviews.” (21:28)
  • Main quest: 15–20 hours; completionist: ~60 hours. Not a “10/10,” but deep, compulsive, satisfying.

Paris Lilly

• Resident Evil Requiem
  • Not a longtime RE fan, found REQ “off the charts visually, tight, didn’t overstay its welcome (12 hours), and genuinely tense.”

  “The fact that they got someone like myself, who isn’t into Resident Evil, to just jump midway… I just enjoyed the ride... I want to go back and do it again.” (23:33)

  • Blessing & Paris agree this game exemplifies the perfect AAA length:

    “We need more games like Resident Evil Requiem. 10 to 15 hours, but reasons for you to replay. More games should have that.” (24:38)

Stella Chung

• No New 2026 Game Yet
  • “I have not played any games this year that have come out this year. Working through Knights of the Old Republic 2 and Abiotic Factor (2025).” (25:38)
  • Cautiously praised High Guard but didn’t love it.
  • Wants to play Resident Evil Requiem and Mario Tennis Fever.

Blessing

• Comfort Pick: Playing Pokémon Leaf Green on Switch 2:

  “It is like coming home, the ultimate comfort food... evolving my Magikarp into a Gyarados brings me back.” (28:02)

• Is working through Copia, loves new Pokémon, and explores how backlog comfort wins out even for professionals.
  • (Imran: “We all have a Gyarados story in our hearts, 100%.” – 30:11)

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Super Chat Segment: Community GOTY Contenders & Discussion

(31:50 – 54:00)

Viewers chime in with their own GOTY picks, sparking quick-hit discussion.

• Pocopia:
  • Highest-rated game so far this year, top-rated Pokémon game ever (Imran, 33:46).
  • “All these Pokémon have individual personalities… Kyogre’s like a Jersey shore guy. Bulbasaur just wants things humid.” (Imran, 34:11)
• Horsey Game (“dark horse” pun appreciated):
  • “Is this the Mandela effect? There’s no way this existed before.” (Blessing, 33:17)
• Echo Generation 2, Slay the Spire 2, Karen (rock climbing survival), Reanimal, Mario Tennis Fever, Mugenics, Neo 3, and others.

Notable Community/Panel Quotes:

• “There’s too many video games now.” – Imran (32:55)
• “A lot of the best games ever are low 80s, high 70s on Metacritic, honestly.” – Imran (57:16)

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In-Depth: Marathon, Slay the Spire 2 & Modern Live Service Games

(37:19 – 46:04)

Marathon (Bungie’s extraction shooter)

• Paris: Improved since last year, but steep learning curve, rough onboarding, and needs a dedicated team; might struggle to find its core audience without Bungie investing for the long haul.

  “You need a good crew… and it’s an extraction shooter, super niche. Will PlayStation give Bungie a long leash?” (37:54)

• Stella:
  • Critiques misleading item descriptions (“depleted” means unusable, but sometimes not).
  • Urges for a proper training mode and fix for new player experience.

  “If you don’t understand extraction mechanics, you’re not gonna want to go back.” (40:45)

Slay the Spire 2

• Blessing & Paris: Scared to start, knowing it will “consume” their gaming lives.
• Imran: Knows reviewers with over 200 hours played.

  “It’s the MacGuffin of my life right now… the moment I boot it, it’s all I’ll think about.” – Blessing (44:45)

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The Indie Explosion & The Joy of Niche

(54:00 – 61:35)

• Massive backlog, too many games, not enough time—panel jokingly suggests an industry-wide “year off” to catch up.
• Indie games praised for filling every imaginable niche, going “full art house,” and creating space for unique personal favorites, just like modern music streaming.

  “There’s so much more that goes into the game than just the visuals… There are even text-based games that are like, nominated for IGF.” – Stella (58:04) “The thing that I’m excited about is discovering that I love something new, that surprises me.” – Blessing (52:50)

• Don’t Stop Girly Pop, Vital Shell, Hyper Beat 2—examples of offbeat new releases.

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Lightning Round: Other Notable Releases, Genre Quick Hits

(46:04 – 64:00)

• Reanimal: Resembles Little Nightmares, but didn’t resonate with the panel.
• Neo 3: Team Ninja’s Soulslike—“good, but very tough, a little short of ‘open world’ claims.” (Imran, 46:53)
• Karen: Difficult, survival mechanics, “inspired,” but possibly not for everyone.
• Mugenics: Blessing: “Competing with Resident Evil for my GOTY—deeply addictive tactical roguelike.”
• 2xKO: Riot’s League fighting game; mechanically solid, but let down by naming and lack of single-player content (Imran, 49:37).
• Esoteric Ebb, Demon Tides, High Guard, Hightail, Planet of Lana 2, Vampire Crawlers, Inscryption, Dead as Disco, and others are referenced as games “on the list,” some played, more still to play.

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Reflections on Time & Playlist Energy

(55:21 – 56:09)

• Imran nails the elusive “energy bar” of gaming:

  “Sitting down for a game can go either way: take energy or give energy. Great games don’t always gain energy; bad games don’t always take it. Sometimes you just want comfort, and you only find out after starting.”

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Closing – Hopes for the Rest of the Year, Plugs & Sign-Off

(64:53 – end)

• Stella plugs her partner’s new indie game, Dice with Death, releasing soon on Steam.
• The group jokes about fighting game power rankings for 2026 (Avatar, Invincible, 2xKO).
• Blessing opens invites for Stella (and chat) to play the recently-released Ghost of Yotei Legends mode on stream.
• Panel shares social plugs, encourages everyone to check out smaller gems, and thanks the diverse, passionate audience.

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Notable/Quotable Moments

• Blessing:

  “I’ve never been so sold on a video game.” [re: At Fate’s End] (12:19) “There’s something special about building up my Gyarados…” (28:02)

• Imran:

  “This game is about—you have a family that is fucked up, and you are trying to find a place to meet them in the middle or move on beyond them.” (11:52) “We all have a Gyarados story in our hearts, 100%.” (30:11) “There’s too many video games now.” (32:55) “Sitting down for a game feels like the bar can go either way. It can take energy or give energy…” (55:21)

• Stella:

  “Absolutely fucks with your mind… it makes your brain think in overtime.” [Screenbound] (17:28) “All these Pokémon have individual personalities… Kyogre’s like, ‘I’m swimming here!’” (34:11)

• Paris:

  “The fact that [Resident Evil Requiem] got someone like myself, who isn’t into Resident Evil, to jump in midway… I just enjoyed the ride.” (23:33) “Don’t be attached to your gear.” [Marathon/Extraction loop] (41:39)

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• GDC stories, panel intros: 02:04–07:34
• Xbox event demos (At Fate’s End, Echo Generation 2, Replaced, Screenbound): 07:34–19:55
• GOTY picks/first round: 19:55–31:50
• Super Chat segment (community games, Horsey Game, Pokémon Copia): 31:50–37:19
• Marathon, Live Service, Slay the Spire 2: 37:19–46:04
• Rapid-fire 2026 releases (Neo, Karen, Mugenics, 2xKO, Hightail, Esoteric Ebb, etc.): 46:04–54:00
• Indie explosion & cultural shifts in taste: 54:00–61:35
• Fighting genre/later year hopes, credits: 61:35–end

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Final Thoughts

This “Game of the Year So Far” episode exemplifies why Kinda Funny Gamescast remains essential: energetic, knowledgeable hosts; deep coverage of both blockbusters and oddball indies; and a conversational tone that makes even heated debates feel like a group hang among friends.

Key Takeaways:

• 2026’s biggest contenders: Pocopia, Monster Hunter Stories 3, Resident Evil Requiem, At Fate’s End, Echo Generation 2, Replaced, Mugenics, Mario Tennis Fever
• Indie games are more vital, wild, and audience-driven than ever.
• There are truly “too many video games”—everyone’s backlog is out of control, but the panel wouldn’t have it any other way.

For anyone who missed the discussion, this episode is both an honest snapshot of the 2026 gaming scene and a celebration of why variety, discovery, and passionate conversation matter more than ever.

Transcript

[Blessing]

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[Stella Chung]

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[Blessing]

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[Stella Chung]

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[Blessing]

if you want to get our shows ad free and our exclusive shows go to patreon.com kind of funny. Yo, what's up? Welcome to the Kind of Funny Games cast for Thursday, March 12, 2026. I'm on your host blessing, Addie OA Jr joining me is a motley crew of hosts alongside me. Let's start off with the Don Imran Khan.

[Imran Khan]

Howdy.

[Blessing]

Howdy, Imran. How's it going?

[Imran Khan]

It's going all right. It's interesting to be back here. Interesting. I mean, like, man, it feels like time has not passed at all.

[Paris Lilly]

Yeah.

[Imran Khan]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

Like, you're just here yesterday.

[Imran Khan]

Yeah. Far as I had a stroke, I might have just been here yesterday. Who the fuck knows?

[Blessing]

Blame Ron. It's really nice to have you back. It's lovely to see you. Because, like, you don't live here anymore.

[Imran Khan]

No.

[Blessing]

And so it's like, whenever I see you, it's a treat.

[Imran Khan]

Yes.

[Blessing]

And it's always been too long in my heart.

[Imran Khan]

Yeah. I always, like, I should read out the blessing, invite him to Kansas City. And I'm like, that's an insane thing to do.

[Blessing]

It's not an insane thing to do, but it is always the thing where I'm like, damn, Kansas City is just. It's a little far away. But I want to go specifically for you and Reb. Yeah.

[Imran Khan]

Also barbecue.

[Blessing]

Also for the barbecue.

[Stella Chung]

I feel like we need to give them a room, you know?

[Paris Lilly]

Oh, absolutely.

[Imran Khan]

I mean, honestly, if you guys want to, like, head out.

[Blessing]

Well, yeah, because, like, it sounds like nobody here has played games in 2026, and so me and Imron can just kick.

[Stella Chung]

Oh, I'll get to you.

[Blessing]

Of course. Right there is the best voice in the biz. Paris Lilly. Morning.

[Paris Lilly]

Bless. How you doing?

[Blessing]

It sounds like you have played games.

[Paris Lilly]

I have played some games in 2026.

[Blessing]

There you go. We're going to have a conversation.

[Paris Lilly]

And this is my first gdc.

[Blessing]

Really? Yes. Wow. How are you enjoying it?

[Paris Lilly]

It's been good. It's been interesting. It's in some ways not what I expected. In some ways better, so it's okay. Good.

[Blessing]

Yeah. And of course, that over there, is that.

[Imran Khan]

That.

[Blessing]

That person.

[Stella Chung]

That's crazy.

[Imran Khan]

I was like, that's mean.

[Paris Lilly]

Wow.

[Stella Chung]

Right after Women's Day. That's insane.

[Blessing]

Right? You're right. I apologize. Even though I was going to call you the FPS. But I'm gonna call you Stella Chung.

[Stella Chung]

Yeah. Oh, and I'm gonna call you the guy who didn't offer his hand to me when I was stepping off a stage yesterday at a party and I had to jump down.

[Blessing]

Here's the thing.

[Stella Chung]

Almost collapsed, by the way.

[Blessing]

I cannot be held accountable for my actions.

[Stella Chung]

Not a gentleman.

[Blessing]

I. First of all, I. Okay, so me and you were leaving a party last night, and we were, like, on a stage that was an elevated platform. And I looked down and I was like, I'm just gonna jump down. I didn't expect you to follow suit. I thought you were gonna do the responsible thing.

[Stella Chung]

Else was, like, blocked off, so I was like, oh, I guess I'll just. And you had your back turned to me the whole time. So I was like, all right, well, here's my thing.

[Blessing]

I was also still landing. I, like, hopped down this.

[Stella Chung]

You were fully landed. Both feet were planted. NBA rule.

[Blessing]

I land and then a second later, here, Thump. And I'm like, what's just happening?

[Imran Khan]

Like a zap shooter. Like, JFK assassination. Like, slowly watching. And like. And Blessing was still landing when Stella jumped off 100%. He went back and to the left

[Blessing]

and, like, Stella's like, why don't you catch me? And I'm like, I didn't even know. I didn't know we were all jumping. I thought I was taking the risk. If I. If your friend jumps off a bridge, you jumping off a bridge sounds like.

[Stella Chung]

Yeah, I clearly did.

[Blessing]

Sounds like. Yes. Was.

[Imran Khan]

It was the karaoke party.

[Stella Chung]

It was. It was the one across the street.

[Imran Khan]

Gp, I was going to ask what you're saying, but.

[Blessing]

Oh, I sang at the karaoke.

[Imran Khan]

What you saying?

[Blessing]

I did kick Push by Lube Fiasco.

[Imran Khan]

Nice.

[Blessing]

Yeah. And the footage is on somebody's Instagram story, actually. Well, I wasn't going to reveal who's Instagram, because I don't. Because I'm a little bit embarrassed by it.

[Stella Chung]

Oh, no, go watch it. Go watch it.

[Paris Lilly]

Right.

[Blessing]

It's one of the ones where in the moment, of course, I'm. I was a few drinks in. In case you can't tell by my voice, I feel like I'm holding up well, but I was a few drinks in. And so, like, you ever do karaoke and you're a bit faded, but it's like you're in the moment and all. It all feels good. You're killing it, all that stuff.

[Imran Khan]

Do you ever do karaoke and you're not faded?

[Blessing]

Like, you know, that's a really good.

[Imran Khan]

Yeah, like, sober karaoke is not a concept that makes sense to me at all.

[Blessing]

That's 100% a good point. But I was feeling it last night, and then I woke up and I watched the Instagram story and I was like, I'm not reposting this. I'm not putting this on my story. No, I'm not doing that. But how are you guys at gdc? So, Paris, you said it's your first one.

[Paris Lilly]

Yeah, this is my first one.

[Blessing]

So what. What has lined up with your expectations and what surprises you?

[Paris Lilly]

Panels. Being able to sit in on some panels and actually hear from developers or subject matter experts on how these games are made and how they're implementing these tools and stuff like that, that was pretty educational, which was the reason I wanted to come, I wanted to better educate myself on game development. So that's been good. But the thing I realized is with a lot of these appointments, you're not on the show floor. I've spent more time in hotel rooms than I have actually in gdc, dude. Right. Yeah.

[Blessing]

It's really interesting because that was the one. The one actual appointment I had was in a hotel room.

[Paris Lilly]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

And I was like, oh, man, I'm not even at the show. This is wild. Stella, how's your GDC been?

[Stella Chung]

Good. It's been busy. You know, Almost injured myself last night. Almost died because of some kind of funny.

[Imran Khan]

So brave.

[Blessing]

All right, we're going to make the joke.

[Stella Chung]

Yeah, I tried my best. I'm lucky that I'm strong. But, yeah, no, it's been great. It's been really fun. The Xbox event was always cool. Yeah. Oh, my God, I can't wait for mixtape, dude.

[Blessing]

Oh, yeah, you got to check that out.

[Stella Chung]

Yeah, I still haven't played it.

[Paris Lilly]

How do you not?

[Blessing]

Because there's always a line.

[Stella Chung]

Well, and also, it's going to be out soon, so honestly, just keep it fresh for yourself, right?

[Blessing]

Yeah, that's the bigger thing.

[Stella Chung]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

You know, like, mixtape was at David's. It was at the Xbox thing.

[Stella Chung]

And.

[Blessing]

And it's one that always sticks out where I'm like, I know I'm going to love this game. But, yeah, partly it's because it's always a busy booth, but then also I'm like, well, I'm already sold. I can just probably wait until it comes out. How'd you get. Before I even get further, because I want to talk about the Xbox event and some of the games you guys might have played, but. Imran, how's your GC been?

[Imran Khan]

It's been pretty good. I have the opposite thing of Paris, where I do love going. The panels have not had time for. I think I've only had time for two. One of which was like, Jeff Grubb is at a panel. I figured, yeah, I know Jeff Grubb. I'll go see that. And I saw the Donkey Kong panel and, like, those were interesting. But all of my time has spent appointments, demos, writing about appointments and demos.

[Blessing]

Nice. How's the. The DK panel? Is anything cool there?

[Imran Khan]

It was neat. They. They told most of what they were talking about in the panel in public interviews. So, like, there wasn't not. There was not that much information. But also, that's the thing about GDC as press is that I feel bad for being here. These people should be here learning from each other.

[Blessing]

Yes.

[Imran Khan]

Talking to each other. And that's what that panel was about, was them working, collaborating in a video game development, like, context. And like me being like, that's not enough new information. Let me know more things is stupid.

[Blessing]

Yeah, I feel you there. Yeah. I think we're all press slash creators slash media at gdc. We're in that bucket of people, which makes it really interesting because it is the Game Developers Conference. And so it's, It's a fun. It's an interesting thing where it's so not aimed at us. But I think that makes it a bit. A bit exciting because we feel like we're on the inside.

[Paris Lilly]

You're a fly on the wall.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Paris Lilly]

Getting those conversations.

[Blessing]

Exactly. But we all went to an Xbox event the other day. Seller, you bring up mixtape. Were there any other standouts for you guys at that event?

[Imran Khan]

Yes. At Fate's end is I think the game of the show.

[Blessing]

Dude, that's the one that people kept telling me I needed to check out. And it was a similar situation where there was always people at the booth. I could not make my way in there.

[Imran Khan]

So that was the same thing with me is like, I'm going to call out Lucy James because Lucy James was there for like a fucking hour. And like, good on Lucy James for taking that time. But, man, there was a lot. I really wanted to play that game. So I ended up emailing Thunder Lotus, who the developers of Sundered and Spiritfarer, after me like, hey, can we do a private demo later? So they did. I got a chance to play that game privately yesterday. Amazing. Like, legitimately. I think the best game of the show.

[Blessing]

Wow.

[Paris Lilly]

Yeah, that's high praise. But I didn't. I didn't even interrupt. But it was like you said, I never got a chance to get in there. It was always somebody.

[Stella Chung]

Well, yeah, because you were too busy playing replaced for like an hour. He's the one that I was waiting on.

[Imran Khan]

Are we just like bitching about people now?

[Stella Chung]

You started it.

[Blessing]

So I was like, oh, this is the same thing. It's the GDC Airing of Grievances episode.

[Stella Chung]

No, it's fine.

[Blessing]

Totally fine.

[Imran Khan]

Well, let me tell you on the premise of this game.

[Blessing]

Yeah, please.

[Imran Khan]

So you play as this girl Shan. Shan is in a family of demigods, but she is like the runt of the family. And she's like, not the strongest one. They were all given these special swords. Her sword is well known in her family as the weakest. When her mother Died. She was told she is actually supposed to be the princess of swords and she is supposed to have all the family swords and take care of them and wield them.

[Blessing]

I'm going to pause you right there and tell you that's the coolest shit of all time. Get the princess of swords.

[Imran Khan]

It gets cooler. So she has to go to her family. So some of which she gets along with, some of which she doesn't. And then like claim their sword to meet her destiny. Her first person she meets is Camilla, her one, her sister. Every time they use their weapons, they have to give up a part of their body. So Shan's sword comes from her throat. Her sister Camilla's comes from her arm. So Camilla, not happy about the fact that Shan is the princess of swords, gets into a battle with her. Camilla goes way too far, knocks her out, and decides to take care of her in Camilla's own castle. Yeah, which is when the. The actual, like adventure portion of this game begins. Because that was a boss fight. This is like a deduction adventure game now. Oh, you now you go through her castle and you go through the surrounding village of which she's the demigod of it, and you start finding out stuff about her. You find out that one time she got way too drunk and caused a storm that killed a bunch of people. You find out that her castle is in a dilapidated place and like, monsters have slowly invaded the castle. So she is not doing a good job of taking care of this place. So when you do go fight her again and you do get through that phase in which she like knocked you out before, you now have these dialogue options of like, hey, I hear things are not going well for you. Yeah, what's like, you can also be more aggressive, like, what the fuck are you doing? Like, what? Why is this why the one of the people of the village hate you? And if you do that, you will probably not move the boss fight on. But if you, like, try and understand her a little bit, if you try and like get to where she meet her in the middle, like the boss fight, move on. And then you could slowly start getting to a place where you two talk as family. And during the boss fight. And like, that's what this game is about in the way that Spirit. Spiritfarer is about grief and moving on. Yeah, this game is about you have a family that is fucked up and you are trying to find a place to meet them in the middle or move on beyond them.

[Blessing]

Oh my God.

[Imran Khan]

Yes.

[Blessing]

I've never been so sold on a video Game.

[Imran Khan]

No.

[Blessing]

Seriously? Yeah. That sounds fucking awesome.

[Paris Lilly]

Looks really good.

[Blessing]

Also. I know, I know that that was a good experience for you playing the demo because that sounded like you were just spilling tea.

[Imran Khan]

Yes.

[Blessing]

Like for a second I forgot you're talking about a game and I thought you're just talking about regular tea. And I'm like, oh yeah, please say more, Please say more.

[Stella Chung]

Did you already make the joke about because the sword comes from her throat. Throat goat. Did we already make a joke?

[Imran Khan]

I did not make that. To the person who made Spirit fairer, I feel like I would have been like, okay, well, yeah, I'll just leave the demo Now.

[Blessing]

I want to keep talking about the Xbox thing, but before we get there, I want to shout out, of course, 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. Of course, you got an all star cat. This is like the kind of funny like Avengers of people that have worked with kf. Right. And so super chat in. Let's have some good conversations. Remember, we couldn't do this with our producers over on patreon.com kindafunny so thank you to Karl Jacobs, Omega Buster and Delaney. The song twining for now. Let's begin with topic of the show. The original topic I had. The original topic I had was Game of the Year so far. I'm going to shelve that for now. Maybe we'll get back to that. I want to keep hearing about the best games you've played recently and it could be at the show, could be outside of the show, but hearing about At Fate's End is what it's called. I got to write that down. Hearing about that, that sounds fucking awesome. What else? Paris, is there a game for you that is stuck?

[Paris Lilly]

Stella already fricking blew it. But I mean replace, but honestly, not even replace. If we just go by at the Xbox Showcase. The game that surprised me the most and it's a sequel was Echo Generation 2.

[Blessing]

Oh.

[Paris Lilly]

Because I played the first one. I really liked the first one. But I liked playing that demo so much at the thing because there was two chapters. There's one demo I guess which is out on Steam Next Fest or whatever already. But there's a chapter two that was just there. I played both chapters because that's just how much I was into it. And Echo Generation is kind of turn based rpg and you're picking up these cards and you, you, you get different weapon types, shields, health benefits, things that you can stack on top of each other and different enemies that you're coming. They have their own different power techniques, shields, like effects to. To burn radiation, all these things. So you have to figure out what cards work best in the. The right combination to be able to take down these enemies. And I got all the way to the boss of Chapter two. I didn't defeat him. And I guess the guy that was there was saying only one person actually was able to defeat him. But it was really tough and I love the challenge of it and it makes me want to play more. So I think of the things that I hadn't already played. That was the thing at that Xbox showcase. I really. Or the is really. What was it called? The ID at Xbox.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Paris Lilly]

Was. Was really good.

[Imran Khan]

I never played that first game. Did it look like that? Because that game is mesmerizing looking.

[Paris Lilly]

Yeah.

[Imran Khan]

Okay.

[Stella Chung]

Wow.

[Paris Lilly]

Yeah. And you know, obviously you see all the different characters here. They're. They're showing in the different enemy types. But then secondarily replace which I had already played the demo but as.

[Stella Chung]

So you didn't need to be sitting there for an hour.

[Imran Khan]

I love.

[Paris Lilly]

I have been anticipating. I was getting excited for what like four years at this.

[Blessing]

Paris has picked this game. Yeah. For the fantasy critic for like three years in a row.

[Paris Lilly]

Greg stole it from me this year. I thought I was gonna be slick and get it in the waiver wire and Greg got it. So I don't have it.

[Stella Chung]

I would have been fine with you taking up that space if that was the first time that you played.

[Paris Lilly]

Oh no. I just. I just love it. I love that art style. The combat in it for what it is is really, really good. I mean the story seems pretty intriguing for what we know so far.

[Blessing]

That's for me.

[Paris Lilly]

And we pass this along and yeah. I think Replace has the potential to maybe not anymore after what you just said. But it'll definitely be up there for indie game of the year. It'll be right up there with.

[Blessing]

I checked out the demo that came out around Steam next Fest.

[Paris Lilly]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

I'm sad that the demo felt kind of short because. And maybe that was a good thing because it left me wanting more. Do you know what it reminded me of? It reminded me of like a Play Dead game. Right. Like a limbo or an inside. As far as how the moment to moment feels as you're working your way like through the world. Because you're going through this 2D space. You are like climbing over things, hiding from like guards in the background. The light source is trying to Chase you. And it reminded me so much of an inside. But then it adds on that combat layer over it as well, where you get into these fights that feel like Batman, Arkham. Right. It is like these. You're fighting groups of enemies and you are pressing the Y button to counter when you see the icon flash above their head. Like, it's that type of game, which is interesting in 2D. I don't know how I feel about it, about that specific thing yet. Because of the 2D. Right. It kind of gives a different sort of feel to it compared to like what you get out of a Batman, Arkham or Shadow of Mordor. But I think it's interesting because the animations look so good.

[Paris Lilly]

Yes.

[Blessing]

I think this game is all handcrafted too. Yeah. I think this game is going to be carried a lot by like the strength of the animations, which inside had that as well. When you play inside, I think every interaction that you have, like for solving a puzzle and jumping over things, they all feel unique and handcrafted. And I think replace is gonna have a lot of that energy as well.

[Paris Lilly]

Oh, yeah.

[Blessing]

So very much looking forward to that game.

[Imran Khan]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

Stella, what's your top game?

[Stella Chung]

Finally. Okay, cool.

[Blessing]

I'll just work my way down the thing.

[Stella Chung]

So mine was something that I didn't really think about at all. It's called Screenbound. It's this game where it absolutely fucks with your mind. Because you were playing, you get sucked into this video games. So it's like it's set in the 90s or something like that. So you're playing on a handheld. Right. Like the old. It looks like a Game Boy, but they're not calling it a Game Boy. So you get sucked into a game and you're in this platformer world and so you're holding the device and the whole time you need that device on your screen, like in the very bottom, because you're in a 3D world, but you need the 2D. You're also playing 2D at the same time. Like that. Exactly. It's actually so wild because there's some things in the 2D universe that you can see, but you can't see it in the 3D. So it actually makes your brain think in overtime.

[Imran Khan]

That's breaking my brain to look at.

[Stella Chung]

No. It took me so long to get used to. Took me like 10 minutes to understand it and finally get into a rhythm. But it is so cool. And the amount of content. I got to talk to the dev about this, but the amount of content that they've already put into the final build that they've already got. They actually had it at the Xbox place. So behind the screen, you could play a little bit more of it. And you got to see what they have. What is it? Tape one and tape two? Because tape two is like the old Legend of Zelda games where it's top down. So now you're in 3D and top down. It's really fucking cool. So my mind was blown. I don't know how, like, I don't know how smart they were to do this. Like, I. I could not. I could barely play the game. So this. This absolutely blew my mind.

[Blessing]

When I tell you I played this demo as well. And the amount of times I accidentally walked off a cliff.

[Imran Khan]

Yes.

[Blessing]

Because I'm, like, looking at the 2D. Like, I'm looking at the Game Boy.

[Stella Chung]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

And I'm like, oh, that's the thing over there. And I walk forward and I just fall off a cliff because I'm not looking at the 3D space anymore. Yeah, it does break your brain a bit, but it's a really cool concept.

[Stella Chung]

It's so cool. And I was asking about the programming and all that. He was like, yeah, no, it was really tough, but we love making this game. And I'm like, yeah, I can tell. There's so much here that shows you how passionate they are about this project. Yeah, this is absolutely a labor of love.

[Blessing]

A really cool thing, too. Like, one of the things that just happened in the video, in the 2D Game Boy screen, you can see the balloons in the. In the sky, but you don't see it in 3D. But if you notice in 2D, you can, like, hop to a balloon and it will let you float a distance. Yeah. And so, like, I was stuck on that puzzle for a while until I figured that out. And once I did, I was like, oh, that's cool, right? Yeah. And so shout out. What's the name of this one again? Screen bound.

[Stella Chung]

Screen bound. Yeah.

[Blessing]

All right, enough about the games we played this week. Let's talk about the games that we've played this year. Of course, topic of the show is our 2026 game of the year so far. Emphasis on so far, because, of course, we're only in March. We're only three months into the year. And so this is like kind of our quarterly check in. I think it's a fun one to do with guests to kind of get a different perspective on what 2026 has been so far in video games. So I want to go down the line again and ask, what is your current game of the year so far? Imran.

[Imran Khan]

Let's see. Okay, so we had to separate this, I think into two categories. One is I did not play this yet. I did watch my wife review it. Pocopia.

[Blessing]

Yeah. I mean that's the. I think that's the re. The most recent for sure. Contender.

[Imran Khan]

Yes. So, like that, that game, it just seems like ooze quality. It seems to be like the kind of game that everyone can get on board with. Like, no matter what kind of genre sicko you are, you can be like, okay, this is just like one of those put a little snow cone in my head and just enjoy myself for a little bit kind of game.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Imran Khan]

If we do not include that because I've not actually put my hands to the controller on it, I will probably say my game of the year is probably Monster Hunter Stories three. Really?

[Blessing]

Yeah. How's that?

[Imran Khan]

So I was on the lower end of reviews of that game, but lower end means we were at three. I put it on three stars. We are now since that gate review came out at a three and a half star system. So I would put it like the three and a half stars.

[Blessing]

I.

[Imran Khan]

That game is like a GameCube RPG that is lost to time. Interesting that like, at first it has a. It has a story that I did not necessarily. I was not digging a world that was like, really wasn't feeling it. And like, there were so many systems that just like cascading over and over at the beginning of that game that I was like, this is. I'm just not enjoying this game right now. But the more you play it, the more you start getting to the checklist gameplay of it of like, okay, I want to raise the ecology of this habitat up. And by doing doing that, I go find eggs of certain monsters, raise those eggs or let them out into the wild. And then I've raised the rank of, say, the Wrathian in this habitat. Then suddenly I've raised it to s rank and now it mutates into a pink Rathian. So now I can raise that up. And this is like just watching bars fill essentially, as I'm just doing more and more like things. And I've. I put about 60 hours in that game. I don't 100% games for reviews. Like, that's insane. Like, there's no reason to do that. Yeah, I damn near 100% of this game, really, Just because I was having so much fun doing all this like, side stuff.

[Blessing]

So, like, that's awesome.

[Imran Khan]

Yeah, like the game itself is never going to be like anyone's 10 out of 10.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Imran Khan]

But it is one of those games that just kind of like keeps tickling my brain a little bit.

[Blessing]

And you're like, you. You're almost 100% in this game at around 60 hours. Yeah, I mean that. That sounds awesome. That sounds great to me. So then what would you say is mainline length for this?

[Imran Khan]

I think if you mainline it, you'd probably be done in like 15 to 20.

[Blessing]

Okay.

[Paris Lilly]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

Okay. And you mentioned like, you know, this is not going to be anybody's 10 out of 10 necessarily. I remember seeing the reviews pop for this.

[Imran Khan]

They were really high.

[Blessing]

The reviews super high. Like so much so that I'm kind of sad I didn't get this for the fancy critic that we're doing because, yeah, it's at an 87 on Metacritic right now.

[Imran Khan]

Yeah, Catcom is really popping off this year.

[Paris Lilly]

Capcom's doing their thing.

[Blessing]

Oh, dude, of course. Capcom is doing the thing. Of course. If you, if you want to talk about it, I'll talk about mine real quick. Right. I won't be super long on it, but Resident Evil Requiem, you know, that's up there for me. Is that. Is that the one for you?

[Paris Lilly]

Yeah, it's the same.

[Blessing]

Oh yeah. I mean, you can go ahead and talk about it.

[Paris Lilly]

Oh no, I'll just. I'll just jump in to say that I'm not a Resident Evil guy either. It's not like I'm big on that franchise, but playing this one, I mean, obviously the visuals are off the charts on it. I played it in the dark. Headphones on, the jump scares were great in it. I felt the tension in that. I think the action combat with Leon felt very satisfying. The store, like, my thing is it didn't overstay its Welcome. I probably 12 hours, did it? But there's some replayability there to go back and find certain things and all that. So I definitely want to go back again and play it because that's just how much I enjoyed it and to just to the point so. So you can get your bars into. Yeah, I think Capcom has just been doing some amazing work lately. The fact that they got someone like myself who isn't into the Resident Evil franchise to just jump midway into this. Half of the references I understood, half I didn't. But still I just enjoyed the ride that it took me on and I want to go back and do it again. So yeah, right now this would. This would easily be my game of the year.

[Blessing]

Yeah, you talk about it not overstaying its welcome. And then that's one thing that I, I think, really, I. I really resonate with that as well. Mainly for the reason of last week, after playing the game, I put up a. A Blue sky post that's a BSIM that was essentially like, man, we need more game. We need more AAA games like Resident Evil Requiem. And I mean that in terms of, like, length. I think that 10 to 13 or to 15 hour range is so great for this game. And one of the replies I kept getting from people is like, well, you know, Resident Evils are meant to be replayed. You replay them, right? That's how you get the lane. I'm like, listen, when I say 10 to 15 hours is great, I mean, I. I mean that as a. I mean that as the fullest compliment. And I think more games should have that idea of like 10 hours. But, like, we have reasons for you to replay, right, 10 hours. But here's a new game plus that makes it exciting. 10 hours. But here's like, here's a different gameplay route that you can do. You know, I want to see way more of that. And I think Capcom really takes advantage of that idea for Resident Evil, and it works for the audience. Bella, what about you? What's your game of the year so far?

[Stella Chung]

Actually, I saw in chats, I'm not alone. I have not played any games this year that have come out this year. So.

[Blessing]

Yeah, been in your backlog.

[Stella Chung]

Yeah, actually, which has been great. I actually started Knights of the Old Republic 2 because I've never played that. Yeah, so I've been working through that. But also abiotic factor, because that came out last year and I've been trying to get through that as well. Yeah, it's. I don't know, it feels very early. I was also very busy February and this month, so I haven't been able to play a lot of the games and I wasn't sure about Popopia.

[Imran Khan]

You sound like someone who's come in like, okay, here's why I don't have my homework.

[Blessing]

To be fair, I didn't tell you guys this topic until we sat down, so. But I mean, that's valid, though. I mean, if your game of the year so far is a game from previous years, I think that's valid if you want to make it Knights of the Old Republic 2. But I also know you played High Guard, so, like, technically.

[Stella Chung]

Yeah, and I gave that a six at Gamespot, so. Which I do explain why I don't think it was a bad game. I think mechanically it was sound. There were a few things that did come out in updates after it launched, but I feel like it should have been in a better place when it did launch. So I don't know. It wasn't bad. I don't think it would be my game of the year. I don't know. I do really want to play Resident Evil Requiem.

[Blessing]

I think you'd like it.

[Stella Chung]

Yeah, I'm. I'm just such a coward with horror games. Oh, I think you horror movies just fine. Yeah. I played the demo and the part where the sneak past the, oh, dude, my hands are sweating. And I was like, I don't know how I can do this. So I know people would like watching me play it. I don't think I would like playing it, but I really want to play the story because it looks good.

[Blessing]

So you stream a lot. I think Resume Requiem would be a banger stream game.

[Stella Chung]

Oh, no. I just don't want to turn off the lights. Did Mario Tennis fever come out this year?

[Blessing]

Yeah, Mario Fan fever. That was February.

[Stella Chung]

Okay. Because I want to play that too. And that might be if I really enjoy it. Because did you know it has a ranked system? It has competitive. And I'm like, I'm all about that. So that might be my new main game.

[Blessing]

So are you still in those like. Like online? Not as much. I was. I really was for the first two weeks. But it's been the deluge of games now where if I'm picking up my Switch 2, funny enough, I really want to play more Procopia. I'm about three hours into Copopia, but the thing that's dominating my Switch 2 time is Pokemon Leaf Green. And I love it, but I hate it because for this job, there's always the, you know, the feeling of, oh, I want to keep up with the new thing. Oh, there's new game releases. I got to play this so I can talk about it for work because people are expecting me to play the new thing or whatever. And my mind wants to play Copia. My mind wants to play all the new games. My heart just wants to play Leaf Green. Because when I tell you it is like coming home, it is the ultimate comfort food. There's something special about, you know, I bought the Magikarp from the guy in the route between Pewter City and Cerulean. And then I also bought or I caught an Abra with a great ball. Right. And it's like, now I'm just trying to evolve those and, like, evolving My Magikarp into a Gyarados is like such a. I don't know, it, like, brings me back and it makes me happy, it makes me excited. And I think part of it, part of it that especially excites me is the idea of I have myself convinced that I'm going to be into Pokemon Champions, which is the competitive Pokemon battler that's coming out later in the year. And so I'm like, oh, what if I assemble my Pokemon team so I can take them into Champions and make that a thing? And I know this is just all a pipe dream. It's not going to work probably the way that I want it to work, but I don't know. I'm preparing for the future right now. I'm building up my Gyarados. And so you also have to hope that they bring home functionality to leaf green before Champions comes out, because I don't think it's available right now. But I mean, they confirmed that they'll at least bring it later. So even if it's not at launch by Champions, you know. I know, I know for sure. Eventually I'll get my gear. My Gyarados.

[Imran Khan]

Can I just say, like, I'm building up my Gyarados is like a great stealth affirmation. Like, you'd have that on a T shirt. I'm building up my Gyarados.

[Blessing]

Yeah, yeah. Listen, I was thinking about this yesterday. I was thinking about Pokemon Go because me and Jake. Jake Baldino was on the show and Pokemon Go came up and, like, the fact that, like, Pokemon is such a, I think, inherently nerdy thing, when you think about what it is, like, you're going on adventures to catch your little monsters and get into little JRPG battles. But the. It's the biggest thing in the world. Like, not even. Not even, like, anecdotally the biggest thing. Yeah, legitimately, numbers wise, the biggest thing in the world. We're all in that, like, a shirt that says, I'm building up my Gyarados. I can expect that. Like, there's gonna be a good amount of people that are like, oh, yeah, I get that. Yeah, I'm right there with you. Yeah, that's universal. That's great. I love folk.

[Imran Khan]

We all have a Gyarado story in our hearts, 100%.

[Blessing]

Yeah, we got a lot more to talk about. I want to talk to the audience. Guys, super chat in. If you have a Game of the Year contender so far, I have a list of games that have come out this year that, you know, could be on the list. So we're going to make our way through that. But I also want to read your super chats. But before we get there I want to tell you about patreon.com kind of funny and YouTube.com kind of funny games where you can go to and get the Kinda Funny membership which allows you to get shows ad free. And speaking of ads, let us tell you about our sponsors.

[Barrett]

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 kinda funny go to shopify.com kinda funny that's shopify.com kinda funny

[Blessing]

this episode is brought to you by White Claw Search Great podcast pick friend. No surprises there. After all, you're all about finding the tastiest flavors out there. Just like White Claw Surge. And with big bold flavors to enjoy like blood orange, BlackBerry, cranberry and more. It's time to go all in on taste. Unleash the flavor. Unleash White Claw Surge. Please drink responsibly. Hard seltzer with flavors 8% alcohol by volume. White cloth seltzer works Chicago, Illinois and we're back. Let's get into some super chats real quick. S' mores and Orioles writes in and says serious game of the year contenders so far. Mugenics Slay the spire 2 Karen okay, first of all, they're just spoiling the list I'm about to get into. Karen Esoteric ebb all so good. Show some sweet indie love. We had one that just came in from mellow fellow who says horsey game on PC. The dark horse of this year. Surprisingly deep mechanics with breeding and open world wrangling for horse racing. Sumo, etc. Bear, can you bring up footage of horsey game?

[Imran Khan]

Dark Horse is a good joke.

[Blessing]

That's a really good joke. Have you heard of this horsey Game. Has anybody heard of this?

[Stella Chung]

Nope.

[Paris Lilly]

No.

[Imran Khan]

In my defense, too many horse games now.

[Stella Chung]

Oh, my God, this game.

[Imran Khan]

Oh, yes, I have heard of mine.

[Paris Lilly]

Like a Tari 2600. This is awesome.

[Stella Chung]

It's so stupid because, like, these, you. You can pick up horses in the world, but then you don't really know. You can kind of test out in field what their stats are like, you can see how they run, and then depending on whether or not you want them, you can just toss them back into the world.

[Blessing]

I've. This is one of those ones where I'm like, the Mandela effect is real, man. There's no way this existed before right now. Like, I felt myself. Shit. As Barrett brought up the gameplay, I felt myself shift into the next dimension where this game has existed. We just got a super chat in from Greg Miller who says game of the year so far is Pacopia by a mile. I'm curious, with the fervor behind Pecopia right now, do you guys think there's a chance this ends up in, like, the nominees at the end of the year for, like, game awards?

[Imran Khan]

It is, I think, the highest rated game of the year so far.

[Blessing]

Yeah. Yeah. Highest rated Pokemon game of all time.

[Stella Chung]

But what does it do mechanically that is different from the other, like, Nintendo crafting games? That would really set it above anything else that came out.

[Imran Khan]

Have you ever played Dragon Quest Builders?

[Stella Chung]

No, but that's what I keep getting this compared to.

[Imran Khan]

Yeah, it's the same team. It is a, I would say, life sim in the form of, like, you are creating habitats for Pokemon.

[Stella Chung]

Okay.

[Imran Khan]

And like, in that sense, it is sort of a minecrafty crafting style thing. But I think where it excels is the fact that, like, all these Pokemon have, like, individual personalities. And I think that, like, they are extremely well written, actually, and, like, well, well translated. Like, it's funny to, like, meet Kyogre, the legendary sea Pokemon, and he has like this Jersey accent. He's basically like, hey, I'm swimming here kind of thing.

[Blessing]

That's so funny because I saw a TikTok joke about that and I thought they were. I didn't realize that was an actual thing.

[Imran Khan]

No, it's. It's very much real. And like, I don't want to spoil, like, I'm sure people play, but at this point, like, there are legendary Pokemon that do not sound like how you think they think they would. They're regular Pokemon that like. Like Bulbasaur just walking around going like, let's make this place humid. Like, it's stuff like that. That I think I like. The playing this game is just kind of a joy of just like.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Imran Khan]

Think, oh, this is a world come alive.

[Blessing]

That's really awesome. I love that.

[Stella Chung]

Yes. Thank you.

[Blessing]

Didn't you.

[Stella Chung]

So determined.

[Blessing]

I think you sent this to me. Oh yeah. The other day.

[Stella Chung]

Because I was like this is something blessing would. Absolutely.

[Imran Khan]

So you have to get. You have to get his habitat humid because he. That's the only way he wants to live.

[Blessing]

I mean that is how I can

[Imran Khan]

just stop it around going like that.

[Blessing]

Bring in another one from Jose Cortez who writes in and says, I love this panel. I'm so excited to play these games on my Xbox. Rog Ally just got the gaming pillow for my birthday. Thanks to my. Thanks to my lovely wife Megan. Keep up the great work, everyone. Stella squat. Bless. Maybe later. I don't know. I need to recover from the hangover first.

[Stella Chung]

Oh, no. Sudden movements. Got it.

[Paris Lilly]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

No, I cannot do that right now.

[Imran Khan]

You remember when yousef like squatted Greg

[Blessing]

and then the power went out.

[Imran Khan]

The power went out. Yeah.

[Blessing]

I can see the same thing happening. Stella squats me right now. All of a sudden everything goes dark.

[Stella Chung]

There's a gif of me doing that with you on my back.

[Blessing]

Oh, yeah. That was the studio opening.

[Stella Chung]

Yeah, it was. It was.

[Blessing]

Oh, my good. Inverted X soul writes in and says Katama and Academy Citadel anime style. Metroidvania has a super nice Perry. Also does time travel in a unique way for puzzles. 100% yesterday. I've not heard of that one either.

[Imran Khan]

Either.

[Blessing]

Yeah. Kotama in the Academy, Citadel.

[Imran Khan]

There's too many video games.

[Blessing]

They really are. Yeah. High voltage writes in and says, I'm a big RE fan, but I genuinely think Requiem is a 7 out of 10. Lack of puzzles, a weak second half, lackluster replayability, a cool clone villain that you never fight. Linear level slash, map progression, etc.

[Stella Chung]

7's still a good score though. That means it's good.

[Paris Lilly]

Everyone is entitled to an opinion.

[Stella Chung]

There you go.

[Blessing]

Nate writes in and says, this might be my favorite cast of people. Enjoy gdc. Robert is really excited about Paris. Says Paris Lily live in the studio. Wow. Dexter Schwarzler writes in and says shame on bless you owe Stella 50 push ups. I got you on that later. Aron Ruble bartender writes in. It says shout out to Imron. Best puns in the biz.

[Imran Khan]

Hell yeah.

[Blessing]

Stella is literally the best. Paris blessing the voice of a generation. It's crazy. And then we have one more from send nuggies that says no Floating heads Game of the Year in parentheses Games cast of the year.

[Paris Lilly]

S Nuggies is wrong.

[Blessing]

Now I have a short list of games. I was looking through the Game Informer 2026 calendar and I picked out the ones that are like, okay, yeah, these are the stands out standouts of this year as far as the games that I know a lot of people are talking about. So going from most recent, working our way back, Marathon just came out. I feel like the reviews have come out. Of course we had a review earlier this week led by Snowbank Mike Paris. Were you on that?

[Paris Lilly]

I wasn't because GDC stuff, but I would have been. So I didn't get a chance to give my opinion on it.

[Blessing]

But do you want to give your opinion right now?

[Paris Lilly]

Yeah, I mean I'll say this now. And I watched a little bit of it, you know, with him. Him and Fran and who am I blanking? Oh, Jerrica Jericho was on. Yeah, I like Marathon. I think it's really good for what it was a year ago to what they've improved it to now. But the problem I think with Marathon is the onboarding it. It takes you a while to get it because once you get it, you love it. It's fantastic. And that's my worry with it long term. How many people are actually going to give it a chance to give it enough time to get it. Plus because you got to spend 40 bucks then you're going to have to spend probably at least a good five to maybe eight hours getting it. And then you need a good crew.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Paris Lilly]

And it's an extraction shooter, which already is a niche genre, so it's not for everyone, you know, right off the top. I, you know, I know there's all the weird stuff with the Steam numbers and all that, but I think Bungie did something really good here. I think if you give it a shot and it's worth the investment. But let's see how long PlayStation gives them. Yeah, I don't know that that's kind of the big thing right now. I think if they give them a long leash, that game, what it is today will be vastly different and better a year from now. But I don't know if it's going to get a year. That, that's. That's my worry.

[Imran Khan]

I would say like my. My guess is that place you need the live service win of some sort. I Helldivers. Well, it needs light source win right now. Hell Divers is a win but like it's a two year old win at this point.

[Stella Chung]

But People still play it.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Stella Chung]

Spend money.

[Blessing]

I spend money in it, for sure.

[Imran Khan]

Like, I think they need something that will make somebody up there look not embarrassed.

[Stella Chung]

I get it. They need. They need a more monetizable game.

[Paris Lilly]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Imran Khan]

And, like, this game is not even that monetized. Like, it's. They sell microtransactions. But, like, the. The. I think ideal thing for this, for Marathon, is it brings people into the PlayStation ecosystem. It gets them accounts, it gets people who are on PS5 to start paying for PS Plus. Like, if it can do that, then I think that game is a win. And I could see it probably going in at least a year.

[Stella Chung]

Yeah, that was my complaint with Marathon as well. And it's why I didn't buy it, why I'm not playing it first. Okay, first of all, Bungie, if you're watching this depleted means that you can't use it anymore. Nothing is in the charge. It took me forever to figure out when I picked up, like, depleted health kits or whatever. I was like, oh, that means it's trash. Why would I. I can't use it depleted. Nothing in it. No, you can use it if you have gray shields. It fills up just enough. I was like, are you kidding me? Oh, flavor text. Please fix that.

[Blessing]

Yeah. No, you can't do that.

[Stella Chung]

I felt so stupid then.

[Blessing]

That's on them.

[Stella Chung]

Yeah. Yes. So the menus are. Oh, my God, they're jarring.

[Paris Lilly]

Yeah.

[Stella Chung]

Yeah. The onboarding is really bad. I think that what they should do with the different characters, because you don't want to go into a match just to test out character abilities and then be like, oh, I actually don't like this character.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Stella Chung]

I think what they should do is do trials, right. So you can have, like, a little training room where you can, like, try the different abilities. And it's like, oh, kill x many robots with this ability or do heal this many teammates on your team. Right. And it's like a small, little room where you do that, and then you get rewarded with, like, five full health kits. I think that could be a really great system to onboard players because Marathon is a really difficult game compared to Arc Raiders, where you do use the prox chat. You do make friends in the game, as opposed to Marathon, where, yes, you might have those matches where you do make friends, but ultimately it is a bungee FPS game where it is very competitive. And so. And especially with the stability or the stamina system and the different gun play and all that, it's. It's very specific. So if you're not good at FPS games. If you don't understand the core mechanic of Extraction shooters, especially with what Marathon introduces, then you're kind of fucked and you're not going to want to go back and play again.

[Paris Lilly]

Two things you said difficulty. It's not. It's not an easy game that. I think that's. That's one thing right there. But it's also, I think part of what that Bungie needs to get in people's heads early on is don't be attached to your gear, you know, whereas you come from playing Destiny or something like that. That's the whole loop of the game is getting all this awesome gear and building up your character. You might do that in Marathon, have a few good runs, like, oh, I'm feeling good, man, that is gone. And you got to start all over. But you'll be able to recoup that pretty quickly because that's the loop of the game. And I don't think everyone goes into to Marathon understanding that and that. That's where I'm saying they got to look. If I was smart enough, I'd be there probably. But they got to fix onboarding somehow, right. And like you said, the menus and the UI definitely need some tweaking.

[Imran Khan]

That's kind of Bungie's problem overall, right?

[Paris Lilly]

Yeah, it wasn't Destiny.

[Imran Khan]

Don't get onboarding like, then they make the problem. Destiny 2, at least they made the problem worse by vaulting stuff.

[Blessing]

Yeah, yeah.

[Stella Chung]

I think it's a fine game. It's very sound mechanically. I do think, like you said, it's going to suffer from the problem of just dwindling down to the hardcore audience. I mean, in the server slam alone on like day two, I noticed that the difficulty ramped up because a lot more people understood the way to play. A lot of people who could spend so much more time in the game than other casual players. Right. So jumping in, you're like, oh, I lost my gear immediately. Keep losing, keep losing, keep losing. I like the free kits they give you. That's very nice. And I know it's very standard of Extraction shooters, but the power creep on players who have stocks of options, especially with the upgrades, the chips specific to each class. It is so apparent when you come up against a team like that. And so I do think there needs to be a little bit of balancing. I understand that there is supposed to be that like powerful feeling of like, oh my God, all this good gear I got, I got all the rare stuff and it's like yes, that's good. But also you need to make it fair enough that new players who have to use the sponsored gear don't feel overwhelmed and like they're losing all the time. So anyway, sorry, that's just. I have a lot of opinion.

[Paris Lilly]

I mean that's where matchmaking some, you know. And again there's all the back end stuff trying to get newer players, less equipped players matched up against that same type versus throwing them against these super advanced people. Because yeah, you're going to be dead immediately.

[Blessing]

Basically.

[Imran Khan]

Take your time. It's a marathon, not a sprint.

[Paris Lilly]

There you go.

[Blessing]

That's a perfect place to transition into another very recent game, Slay the Spire 2. Speaking of, we got a super chat in from Snow 13 writes in for me it's Slay the Spire 2 but I'm also really enjoying Marathon. Just got Monster Hunter stories 3 and Pacopia yesterday and Solosta 2 early access today. So lots of tough choices for Game of the year so far. Slay Spire 2 is one that I'm scared of booting up because like I mentioned, I'm juggling a lot of games right now and with the amount of concurrence that Slay Aspire 2 has and the kind of game that it is and for how much I really enjoy Slay Inspire 1, I'm scared that the moment I boot up Slate Aspire to, my life is over.

[Imran Khan]

Yeah, like review code for that went out. Like I'm not sure if it went out day of release or a little bit before, but I know someone who was reviewing it and they already have 200 hours on their account and I'm like, wow, I can't do that.

[Blessing]

I can't do that right now. I like it's one of those things where it's like the MacGuffin of my life right now where as soon as I, as soon as I hit that boot up button, it's going to be all I think about. It's going to be all like it's for me, Mugenics is kind of like my current one of those where I'm. That's another Game of the Year contender for me. Like that's right beside Resident Evil for me. Oh, for sure. Yeah. And it has that thing that, that loop that keeps me coming back that keeps me addictive. I'm scared that Slay the Spire 2 is going to be a bigger version of that for me and I can't handle that right now. Are any of you guys actually playing Sleep Spire 2 or playing a booted

[Paris Lilly]

up the same exact reasons you're not playing it.

[Blessing]

Yeah, Yeah. I got to see.

[Imran Khan]

It'll.

[Paris Lilly]

It'll consume me. I can already tell.

[Blessing]

Well, before that, we have Pokemon Prokopia. Already talked about it. We got Resident Evil Requiem. Already talked about it. I pulled in Demon Tides because I know a lot of people enjoyed Demon Tides. I know Roger was playing it and was talking to him about it. Reanimal is another big one that came out this year, although I feel like conversation came and went a little bit.

[Stella Chung]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

Did you guys check out Reanimal?

[Paris Lilly]

I didn't.

[Imran Khan]

I played it enough to be like, yeah, there's like, little nightmares but new. And I was like, all right, cool. I probably should have given it more time, but it is cool that it is what it is. Like, it's cool that that studio is doing what it does best and gets to keep doing that.

[Blessing]

There's also Mario Tennis Fever that we talked about for a second. Mario Tennis Fever. Probably my number three. Like, right. Right. Under Resident Evil and Mugenics. Absolutely adore Mario Tennis Fever. And then there's me Genics, like I talked about. Neo 3 is another one.

[Imran Khan]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

Where I think kind of funny is like, in a weird place with the Neo games is not resonating with us, but. Imran, I know you. You like Neo.

[Imran Khan]

Yeah, I remember.

[Blessing]

I remember doing a let's play of Neo with you.

[Imran Khan]

I think literally the last video we shot pre Pandemic. Yes.

[Blessing]

Yeah. It was Neo too.

[Imran Khan]

It was Neo too. Yeah. I've been. I'm playing three. I've been plugging away at it. Neo. Neo is interesting to me because every single game. Every single game, consistently what it has been is me starting that game going. This is not too hard. This is actually fine. I'm pretty good at action games. I'm pretty good at Soulslikes. Then I get to a boss that I am stuck at for several hours.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Imran Khan]

And I did get to and pass that boss this time. So I am enjoying that game. This one is a little bit more open world, but not quite an Elden Ring open world. So it's like, I understand just saying, hey, make it open world is a lot for a developer, especially one the size of Team Ninja. But, like, I kind of wish they went full hog as opposed to not quite going far enough.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Imran Khan]

But I am enjoying this game. It is a. Is a good, good one of these. But I do think for most people, it'll probably be too difficult for them.

[Blessing]

I just need them to get back to stranger paradise, you know, give Me another one of those.

[Imran Khan]

You want to know a hot take? We're not doing the actual. I think I started playing Stranger paradise recently because, like, I got made me to the forest last time and I, like, picked it back up.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Imran Khan]

I think that game is better than Final Fantasy 16.

[Blessing]

Okay, well, that's. I did not expect you to say that. That's crazy. That is a hot take. I thought you're gonna say it's like the best team ninja game in, like, recent time. Which I might have been on you with that. Because I do time.

[Imran Khan]

Yeah, actually, I agree with that too. Yeah.

[Blessing]

Because I love Stranger paradise, but I almost. I almost love it in like a little bit of an ironic way, but also, like, it comes back around where I think the writing is so bad and nonsensical that it comes back around to being entertaining.

[Imran Khan]

Right. It's so confident in its nonsense. Sickleness. Yeah, nonsense.

[Blessing]

That's the word for it.

[Paris Lilly]

Yeah.

[Imran Khan]

So confident is nonsense that it's just like, yeah, okay, I'm. I'm with you on this ride.

[Blessing]

Yes.

[Imran Khan]

I will go wherever you want to go.

[Blessing]

100%. I also have Karen written down here. We do. Got any Karen people? Any rock climbers?

[Imran Khan]

I have that game and I've not played it yet. No.

[Blessing]

I unfortunately, Rage quit. I just couldn't do it. I. I could have. So for me, it was the survival mechanics, like keeping yourself full, drinking water, all that stuff. They have an option to turn it off, but my pride wouldn't let me.

[Stella Chung]

Oh, I know.

[Blessing]

Yeah. I'm a toxic gamer in that way where I'm like, I'm not turning off the systems that you put in the game. We're gonna do it all. And I'm gonna hate it. But I love the rock climbing. I think it's such an inspired game for what it goes for. And I totally like. I think there's something special there. If it's the kind of. If it's the kind of game for you. And then the last three I have written down here are MIO2xko and Hightail. Do they speak to anybody?

[Paris Lilly]

I played any of them?

[Imran Khan]

I played a little bit of two sko. I think the fundamentals are there. I think one, they should not have named that game two xko because, like, the news is already out there about, like, they did some layoffs of the team. I don't think they're going to suddenly replenish it and that game is going to get, like, get a revival. But that they should not take scale. They should name It League of Legends Fighting. Honestly, even though it has nothing to do with arcane, they should have named it Arcane Fighting or something.

[Blessing]

Oh my God. Yeah, that would have been sick.

[Imran Khan]

But like, I don't. I think what that game's quote unquote failure. It didn't fail, it just did not succeed. It tells me. Is that even like a free to play fighting game, you need single player content. Like you can't just rely on the sickos.

[Blessing]

100%. I agree with that. I have the Metacritic up for the highest rated games of the year. Bear brought this up a second ago. So I think this will help for a little bit of cleanup here because one that I didn't bring up that I should bring up is a very recent release called Esoteric Ebb. Have you guys heard of this one?

[Paris Lilly]

No.

[Imran Khan]

Heard of it in passing.

[Blessing]

It's like a, like a Disco Elysium, like crpg. It has like dice roll and I think maybe some like light like DND mechanics there. Don't quote me on that part, but I've seen quite a few people talk about this one being special.

[Imran Khan]

Yes. This seems like the kind of game that if you get into will be like will tickle that specific part of your brain real well.

[Blessing]

Yes.

[Stella Chung]

They even use the DND font.

[Paris Lilly]

Yeah, yeah.

[Blessing]

Oh yeah. There you go. Yeah. And even like the logo that looks like this specific. Yeah.

[Stella Chung]

I do remember seeing this and thinking it looked really cute and very approachable. As opposed to Disco Elysium, which looked a little bit more daunting to me. I think it's just like a darker story. So I'm like, okay, I gotta be in the right headspace for that. But for this, it feels like an adventuring tale. Like you do in D and D, right? Yeah, that feels way more approachable.

[Blessing]

Yeah. This is when I definitely want to. I want to hopefully make the time to get to what I'm worried that I'm not going to do because there's so much going on.

[Stella Chung]

Yeah.

[Imran Khan]

Time just stopping for like two weeks would be so great.

[Blessing]

Oh my God.

[Imran Khan]

Catch up just for two weeks. That's all I need.

[Blessing]

My hot take is that I want us to like pick a. Pick a year coming up, let's say 2027. No new games. This is no new games for a year. We're all just playing. We're all just playing catch up for that.

[Imran Khan]

That might, that's not an impossible.

[Blessing]

It might actually like we are, we

[Imran Khan]

are at Ramageddon at the moment. There could be a time where everyone just goes yeah, we're. We got to hold off for a bit.

[Paris Lilly]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

2028, 2029 with the next gen was going to be planned. They're like, actually.

[Paris Lilly]

Well, I mean, just. Just think about the rest of this year. I know we're talking about games that have already out, but you look at the rest of the calendar year of things that we know about are coming out, and then it all culminates at the end with GTA 6. It's. Yeah, we could take 2027 off, I think. I think we'd be perfectly fine with plenty of games to play.

[Imran Khan]

Like, someone was asking me, what games are you looking forward to the rest of the year? And I just sighed. I'm not thinking past pragmata at this point.

[Paris Lilly]

I know.

[Blessing]

Well, that leaves me.

[Paris Lilly]

Oh, by the way, I just saw this in the chat and it just reminded me I have planet of Lana 2 is out.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Paris Lilly]

And I have not played it and it's killing me, so I got to play that too.

[Stella Chung]

Blessing, can you check is Vampire Crawlers out this year? Because that might be the only. I believe it is game that I've played. Like the demo.

[Imran Khan]

There was a demo?

[Blessing]

Yeah, yeah.

[Stella Chung]

Fucking loved it.

[Imran Khan]

Yeah, that demo was great.

[Stella Chung]

I. I'm still playing Vampire Survivors. That's like my nighttime game. So I saw Vampire Crawlers and I was like, oh, shit. I'm not. I've never done, like a deck builder game. So. Slay the spire. I was really nervous about doing that. So playing this, I was like, oh, it's like baby's first deck builder game. I fucking love.

[Blessing]

We talk about this game called Inscription.

[Stella Chung]

I know, I know, dude.

[Blessing]

My favorite games of all time.

[Stella Chung]

Hey, man. Part of adulthood is realizing, oh, I do like these other kinds of games that I didn't think I liked as a kid.

[Blessing]

Can we talk about that? Because, like, that's become one of my favorite things in video games, in gaming in general. Because I think this extends to magic, the gathering for me of discovering that I love something. Like whenever I play something me Genics is probably the latest one where I'm like, oh, I like this tactical game. I usually don't like tactical games, but something about this one is really resonating with me now. I can't wait for Fire Emblem the next one to check out. Right. I love that.

[Paris Lilly]

Can I admit something right now? Everybody live, please. How do you pronounce it? Is it ball pit or ball X? Pit.

[Imran Khan]

I say ball X. Pit, because.

[Paris Lilly]

Yeah, ball X. Yeah. I say ball.

[Blessing]

I say.

[Stella Chung]

I think that's how it was announced at Dice. I don't remember. It was.

[Imran Khan]

You were. You were hosting, weren't you?

[Stella Chung]

Yeah, but I didn't say it. I wasn't the one listing it, so I don't know.

[Blessing]

I pronounce it bald times. Pit. It's actually. It's actually ball cross pit.

[Imran Khan]

Cross pit.

[Blessing]

Yeah. Nobody knows. I'm pretty sure it's just ball pit.

[Paris Lilly]

Yes. Yeah, that's what I keep hearing.

[Stella Chung]

But I was, like, such a nice ring to.

[Imran Khan]

But also. It doesn't make any sense when you talk, like, think about it.

[Blessing]

It's like, Hunter. Hunter. Yeah.

[Imran Khan]

Yeah.

[Stella Chung]

Oh, yeah. Okay, fine, fine.

[Blessing]

Spy Family. Think about it. Yeah. Although Spy X Family, I feel like,

[Stella Chung]

cooler. Whatever.

[Imran Khan]

Although when I want to go back to when Stella mentioned Vampire Survivors being a thing. Blessing. If you played Vital Shell. Vital Shell, you would like this game.

[Blessing]

Is that the. It's a. Describe it.

[Imran Khan]

It's a 90s mech anime survivors game.

[Blessing]

Bring up Vital Shell.

[Imran Khan]

Mowing genre, I think is the term I've been using.

[Blessing]

Yeah, I've seen this. Yeah.

[Imran Khan]

It looks like the kind of game you would find on a demo disc. Yeah. Just play the fuck out of. For like, 300.

[Blessing]

I love the art style, so it's so funny because I actually hate the. The Vampire Survivors art style, which is why I tried Vampire Crawlers and I just can't do it. There's something about it that's like, I understand what it's doing, but it just doesn't. It looks ugly, which is purposeful, but also doesn't work. This has a similar thing of. It very much is going for a certain era. It looks ugly, but it looks good to me.

[Paris Lilly]

Right, right, right.

[Blessing]

Like, I think it. This is where I think the age thing comes in of my. I came into consciousness with an N64. Right. And my friends having a PS1, which. This looks more PS1 to me. So. Yeah, this is giving me a feeling. This is giving me the nostalgia that I want. Yeah. I want to check this out.

[Imran Khan]

That was my game on the plane on the way here. I'm like, actually, this game rocks.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Stella Chung]

Okay, I'm gonna have to play that.

[Blessing]

Let's hop back into super chats before we get out of here. Chased8628 says esoteric ebb is really fun and great comedic value. I'm gonna. I really want to get around to it. I can't promise that I will, but I really want to. I'm gonna try to. Is what I'll say.

[Imran Khan]

That's the thing you're talking about. Like sometimes you go to a game and like you just end up playing Pokemon. Like sitting down for a game feels like the bar can go either way. It can either take energy or like, yes, energy. And a great game doesn't necessarily, like gain energy and a bad game doesn't necessarily take energy. It just. Yeah, it just sometimes you have a feeling of what you want to play and like, it sucks to be like, I don't know which game this is going to be and I don't want to risk it.

[Blessing]

That's such a beautiful way to put it, Imran, because I've not been able to put words to it. But yeah, like I. There are so many times where I'm like, I want to play this, but it's taking energy from me. But then, yeah, Leaf Green just gives me energy. Yeah, that's such a great way to put it. I never thought about it that way. Plazookas writes in and says every kind of funny panel should have this diversity. Hell yeah.

[Paris Lilly]

I agree.

[Blessing]

If you're an audio listener, you know, turn on the video real quick. Just take a. Take a gander.

[Imran Khan]

Let's run a coup on Grug.

[Blessing]

It's a hot cast right here. Let's see what else we got here. We got one from Kebabs that says discussion 88 on Metacritic feels real low for the best rated Pokemon game in history. I totally thought Heart Gold, Soul Silver or Black and white two got 95 plus. You know most.

[Imran Khan]

I know some of mini credit doesn't break 90 these days. Like generally things that do are things that are both agreed upon to be good and don't have that many reviews because you have so much diversity of opinion that you're going to generally settle around the 80s. And like the degree in which you said around to the 80s is like a good indication of quality. But like the highest rated games last year were Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. Switch two versions because not many people bothered to review them and they are generally agreed upon to be quality games.

[Blessing]

Yes.

[Imran Khan]

But like for the most part, anything new that's going to get a review is going to get like some highs, some lows and kind of settle into the middle.

[Blessing]

Like so far there's nothing this year that has hit 90 on Metacritic.

[Imran Khan]

But also 88 is a great score.

[Blessing]

So like 88 is a fantastic, like Resident Evil Requiem. So many people are like, man, this is one of the best Resident Evil games. It's sitting at an 89.

[Imran Khan]

Yeah, there's a lot of the Best games ever that are like low 80s, high 70s, honestly.

[Blessing]

Yeah, yeah. Bringing in another one from. I already read this one from Snow 13. Shout out to you, Snow 13. Let's do this one from Phantom Tempest who says somehow it's 2026 in fire red is my game of the year. No regrets. And then one from Darth Anslow who says, play hyper beat 2 dev team out of Seattle. Ooh, I'm going to look up Hyper Beat. Have you guys heard this one? No. Where you say everyone.

[Imran Khan]

You are Day of the Devs, right?

[Blessing]

I was at Day of the Devs, yeah.

[Imran Khan]

Did you play Dead as Disco?

[Blessing]

No, but I played it. I played Dead as Disco at a. They had a demo like a year ago that I checked out. It might be better now.

[Paris Lilly]

But this is Hyper Beat.

[Blessing]

Yeah, this is Hyper Beat. This looks cool, dude.

[Stella Chung]

The art is. I love the style. This is really cute.

[Blessing]

Yeah. I mean, this is another like, you know, vital Shell esque thing, but like, it's more.

[Imran Khan]

This looks like it came off a PS1 demo disk.

[Stella Chung]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Stella Chung]

Okay. Have you guys seen. So I saw this at Gamescom last year. It's called Don't Stop Girly Pop. It's like this high speed movement based a movement tech based FPS, but you can.

[Imran Khan]

It looks like a 2000s cell phone commercial.

[Stella Chung]

Yes. It's like Y2K aesthetics and stuff. It's so cute. That's kind of what it reminds me of. I love that we are getting all these different artsy games. And here's the thing, I love that we're. Thank you, Barrett. You're the best. I love that we're at this point in games where most people are understanding that, oh, indie games, like, they're awesome even if they aren't like hyper realistic. Like Unreal Engine 5 typical things. Right? I know there were. There was one person in YouTube chat who obviously was like the. The. The type who was like, oh, my God, this. It looks so. It looks so cheap. It looks so basic, you know, and it's like, no. You have to understand that there's so much more that goes into the game than just the visuals. I mean, there are even text based games that are like. There was one that was nominated IGF last night. So it's great. And this is so cool because like, when I first saw this, I was like, oh, this is very overwhelming. But as soon as you play it, it's such a different experience when you're actually in control. So it's super cool. I love this. I love that we're in this resurgence of indie games and expression of art, especially in a time where I feel like we really need it.

[Blessing]

Yeah, 100%. Yeah. This looks really cool.

[Paris Lilly]

Don't Stop.

[Stella Chung]

Girly Pop is the name and the music. Oh my God, it's so good. It's like hyper pop and. Oh God, dude. Yeah, yeah.

[Blessing]

You know, one of the things that I think gets brought up a lot, especially for me, is that there's too many video games. But to a certain extent, the thing that I'm. I think we'll start to see, and we already see a lot right now, are games that are very much tailored for that specific audience. Where to relate it to music. You know, in the. I guess before, let's say the 2000 and tens, we all had the thing of we all. We listen to radio, right. You ask somebody about their. The best songs from 2007 and we might all list very similar songs because we were all listening to the radio in 2007. But if I ask you about your favorite music right now in 2026, we might all have very different lists because we're all choosing like what we're playing or what we're listening to.

[Paris Lilly]

Right.

[Blessing]

We all have like that autonomy to go, oh no, I'm firmly into this artist, this genre, this whatever. And there's such a vastness because of the Internet of options out there that we all kind of have our own tailored thing. I think video games are the same thing where, you know, Stella might be playing Don't Stop, Don't Stop. Girly Pop.

[Imran Khan]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

Imran, you know, might be over here playing Vital Shell.

[Barrett]

Right.

[Blessing]

Paris might be playing his own thing. I might be playing Easter Eric Ebb. And then we come together and we're like, yo, yeah, no, I love this game for this thing. Paris is like, yo, there's this other game over here that I'm playing. And like we all have these vastly different things. I think that's going to continue to happen because I think indie is only thriving more and more. Maybe on the financial side it gets wonky.

[Stella Chung]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

And that might continue to happen for a little bit, but I think when you compare it to AAA and all the shit that's going down in AAA as far as how hard it is to. To fund games or at least like how much money shareholders are looking for and trying and asking for versus the autonomy that a lot of these studios have. When you look at the studio that made clear Obscure or a studio like Supergiant or like you have so many indies that are very much like, all right, we can do whatever we want. We don't have big Microsoft or big PlayStation or big Activision breathing down our necks. Be like, we have to make this thing. I'm going on a rant, but I'm just saying, indie games are cool.

[Stella Chung]

And to add on that, like, we are extremely privileged to be a community where we can complain about games not being for us, because that means there's just that many titles.

[Paris Lilly]

There's something.

[Stella Chung]

That's incredible. Yeah, I think, again, I think it's just this online culture of, like, you expect your algorithm to be tailored to you. It's not perfect, though. So when people see something and it comes across their timeline, they're like, why isn't this for me? Make it for me, fix it. When there's so many other things that could be your style you just haven't explored outside of your box. So this is why I love that a lot of the, you know, the devs, the mix, they show off all these games that may not resonate with you, but to someone else who's watching at home, they might be like, wait a minute. That looks like a game that I played, like, years and years ago. Let me. Let me look this up.

[Imran Khan]

So, like, when I was a kid, you either liked Castlevania or you kept playing Castle.

[Blessing]

Yeah. 100%. 100%. That is going to bring us to the end of this kind of funny games, guys. I wish we could do an extra hour. That's so fun. I know.

[Stella Chung]

Talking, dude.

[Imran Khan]

Honestly, I didn't bring up the avatar fighting game because I know we would talk about 20 minutes.

[Blessing]

I was about to bring up the avatar fighting game, but we're doing a what have we played this week? Episode tomorrow, as I was keeping that in my pocket for tomorrow. But let me tell you, that avatar fighting game is awesome.

[Imran Khan]

Another hot take for me. I've played both that game and Token. I like it better than Token.

[Blessing]

I agree.

[Paris Lilly]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

Yeah, I played both as well. And yeah, I enjoy the. The Avatar game better. You know, Barrett never beat me in it. I mean, I think there's video proof of exact opposite. Not if I go on the into the back end, make sure nobody ever. I think we did it live in front of a couple thousand people who now all know that I am the true. I can get a thousand people to lie for me.

[Imran Khan]

So it was like Target leaked some shirts of the. The adult team avatar things for the new show, our new movie. And like they said for top, they had the word like top in the picture. The word Toph. Zuko. Zuko. All that for Aang? It just. It has a picture of Aang and just says air.

[Paris Lilly]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

That's awesome.

[Imran Khan]

So that's his new name. It's Air.

[Blessing]

Air. I mean, the Airbender. Yeah. That makes sense. Yeah. This game is gonna be awesome. Yeah, this game is gonna be incredible. It's. I swear it looks better every time I see it.

[Imran Khan]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

Like, I think even the art looks like. When they first revealed this game, I would have told you it looked like a flash game. I was like, all right, cool. Whatever.

[Imran Khan]

Flows so well. We're doing the thing. I said we're not. We're not gonna do.

[Stella Chung]

Wait real quick, because you guys are the fighting game people. What about the Invincible game?

[Paris Lilly]

I played that.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Paris Lilly]

At idx. Yeah. Fun.

[Blessing]

Yeah, a lot of fun. I think it's cool.

[Stella Chung]

Okay, cool.

[Imran Khan]

I. I didn't play it.

[Stella Chung]

Okay.

[Imran Khan]

I don't know what Invincible. Like, I don't have watched it, so.

[Barrett]

Oh, sure.

[Stella Chung]

That's fair. Okay.

[Blessing]

If I'm doing my power rankings on 2026 fighting games right now, like, I got avatar number one. Surprising. Which I would not have told you coming into this year.

[Stella Chung]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

But Avatar Marvel. Oh, Invincible.

[Stella Chung]

Okay.

[Blessing]

To actually invincible to X scale might be, like, tied a little bit. Because 2x 2x, I think, is a good fighting game. It just isn't, like, exceptional in a way that makes me want to, like, move the move games over to get to it.

[Stella Chung]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

Invincible versus I'm in a similar place where playing it. It's fun. I think it's cool. I like the characters. I like Invincible.

[Paris Lilly]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

Right. So, like, all that's there, but when it comes out, I' ma play it if, like, if I got the time for it. Like, unfortunately, it's not like, one where I'm not gonna move sorrows or anything else that might be in the way of it.

[Stella Chung]

Okay.

[Blessing]

I also don't know if it has a release date, so I have no idea when this is coming, but we'll see.

[Stella Chung]

Cool.

[Blessing]

Let's go down the table. Where can people find you guys? So they want to continue to support your content.

[Imran Khan]

Imran, you can find me on bluesky, imrancon bsky.com you can find me at Restart Run, which is where I'm writing right now. I did an article the other day that was like. Because they have the list of what bioweapons cost in Resident Evil 9. I did that. Like, what would video game acquisitions instead be if they said bought, like tyrants or lickers.

[Paris Lilly]

Yeah.

[Imran Khan]

I thought it was really fucking funny. But everyone who would have laughed at that is at GDC this week. So no one read it. So go find that article and read it.

[Blessing]

Go check that out.

[Paris Lilly]

Paris, you can find me on social media at vicious696, my personal YouTube channel, which is Paris ML. Just look it up, find it. I'm lazy. The content, all that. And then obviously Gamertag Radio and of course, when I get a chance right here.

[Imran Khan]

Yeah, don't Google just the city, Paris. You will just find.

[Blessing]

You want two Rs, not the one R. Stella.

[Stella Chung]

Yeah, you can find me everywhere at Parallax. Stella. I've been really loving diving into, like deep dive of news and such. The latest one was the. Oh, oh, my God. I can't remember, but okay. It was a lot of the Xbox. It was Xbox. And it was the new. The Maverick Games racing game that's being worked on that Amazon dropped. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So that was on that. I do love doing the deep dives. But also, real quick, I did want to shout out my partner. He is releasing his new game on Steam on Monday, this coming Monday. It's called Dice with Death. If you guys could check it out, that'd be amazing. It's only like it's under $15, and if you like dice building games, that's what it is. So it's really cool.

[Blessing]

What's funny is I made the joke earlier that, you know, I don't know if I'll move Sorrows out the way to get to Invincible Versus and I threw out just a random AAA game. Sorrows does come out the same day as Invincible Versus and so I don't know. Literally, I don't know. I don't think I'm going to move Sorrow out the way of Invisible Versus. But y', all, thank you so much for coming through. Thanks so much for coming down to the studio hanging out. Of course. I know the audience loves whenever you guys come through and I love whenever you guys come through. And so it's fun to have us all together on one panel, talking games, kicking it. Right after this we got a stream, actually. Is that right, Barrett? What's that we got in review? We're taking it back to Pixar in review for Hoppers.

[Paris Lilly]

Ooh.

[Blessing]

All right, we'll hop on over to that if you want to check that out. And then after that we got a stream. Right, Barrett? Once we got something else. Yeah. The stream will be gamescast plays with you and Roger playing Ghost of Yotei Legends, which I'm really excited about.

[Imran Khan]

All right, that's out this week.

[Blessing]

I mean, Stella, you want to stay, play some with us?

[Stella Chung]

Oh, no, I have an appointment. But, like, when I get home. Can we play, please? Okay, great.

[Blessing]

Let's do it. Yes. All right. Till next time. It's been our pleasure to serve you.