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Tim Gettys
Sponsored by Chumba Casino. No purchase necessary VGW Group Void where prohibited by law HO18 + terms and conditions apply. What's up? And welcome to a special kind of funny games cast for Friday, January 17, 2025. Of course, I'm your host, Tim Gettys. I am joined today by the taste maker, Roger Porny.
Roger
Good day, Tim.
Tim Gettys
And the master of hype, Snowbike Mike Tim.
Snowbike Mike
They saved the best for last.
Tim Gettys
Yes, they did. Let's go boys. Come on, let's go. This has been kind of funny's game of the week. We kicked it off big, real big on Monday with our overall game of the year. We did our top 10 countdown. We did not know what games they were going to be. We reacted live together with y'all. It was a damn good time with an amazing set that we're still using now. And throughout the week we've been doing Our personal top 10 lists in different combinations of people. You already got Greg in Paris, you already got blessing Andy and Barrett. And now you're getting me, Roger and Mike thrown in there. In case you missed it, Greg Miller all also got to interview Shuhei Yoshida in his first interview after leaving PlayStation, which is a very big deal. So definitely go check.
Roger
Incredible interview.
Tim Gettys
Yeah, incredible stuff. Incredible stuff. Seeing Greg in his element is always fun because like you forget. Yeah, you forget how damn good he is. And also through all the insanity, through all of the bits, through all of.
Roger
Everything, through all of torturing you specifically, you forget how good he is.
Tim Gettys
There's a talent. There's a talent there.
Snowbike Mike
And you know who else was good this week? Dumb Roger. On Tuesday we had a phenomenal stream. Roger, Nick and Joey playing what sin to nurtle. So much fun.
Roger
So fun.
Snowbike Mike
So I. I paid $8 on a plane, Tim, just to watch it via the. You would have done that. I only watched.
Roger
You could have downloaded those things beforehand. You have YouTube preview.
Snowbike Mike
I couldn't watch. I had to watch. I had to watch the video. So good.
Roger
You could still do that.
Snowbike Mike
No, I watched the live stream.
Roger
I appreciate that. Yeah, it's a fun time. Everybody you guys should watch it. Me, Joey and Nick hanging out. And Nick's in his element. Man, I've never seen Nick so cranked up. Pun intended as yesterday. The ones I've never seen Crank.
Tim Gettys
I've only seen scenes from Crank on Twitter, so one day I'm gonna see some sense of it.
Snowbike Mike
He was so cranked up, Tim, that it was my turn to play and he literally pushed me aside and just did it himself. I didn't get to guess any games. I didn't get to say anything. It was just Nick for an hour and a half playing by himself. And I was just He's a broken man.
Tim Gettys
He's a broken man. That's for sure. But everybody, this is the Kind Of Funny Games Cast each and every weekday we get together to talk about the biggest reviews, previews and topics in video games live on YouTube, Twitch and podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, support us with the Kind of Funny membership. Of course you can get that on Patreon or YouTube and now you can also get it on Apple Podcast and Spotify for a chance to be part of the show. Submit your thoughts and opinions as YouTube super chats as we go. So if you have any thoughts about our personal top 10 or any games that you're surprised maybe didn't make our personal list, please super chat them in and we'll give us give those some thoughts. A little housekeeping for y'all. You wanted some of our kind of funny 10th anniversary merch and now you can get it. Kind of funny.com store has multiple shirts. It has water bottles, it has notebooks. It also has the entire line of our basketball stuff. So check out kind of funny.com store to get some of the sickest merch we've ever made. I can't wait to wear this 10th anniversary shirt.
Roger
Yeah, it's so cool to see so much stuff.
Tim Gettys
So good on the stuff. Remember, we are an 11 person business all about live talk shows. So we're in the middle of the day, we have so much more to go. But we also had so much great stuff earlier. Kind of Funny Games Daily was an excellent conversation between Greg and Bless all about the insane PlayStation cancelizations that happened over the games that could have been. What has Blur or freaking Blue Point been working on? Now we know God of War Live Service game.
Snowbike Mike
They were cooking it up.
Tim Gettys
Mike, how much would you have spent.
Roger
On that God of War Live service?
Snowbike Mike
Oh man, easily buck 20, you know what I mean? Come in at a 60 price tag, add another 60 to look like the coolest guy around. Yeah, definitely wild stuff.
Tim Gettys
Yeah. Such. Such bummer shout out. Then after this, we are kicking off season three of kind of funny game showdown. It's going to be an absolute banger. I can't wait.
Roger
Yeah, you're not going to want to miss this one. Me and bless and Barrett have been working on something real special, real fun. Yeah. Just get ready.
Tim Gettys
I'm excited. Secrets and I don't know him. And then after that, the fun doesn't stop. Mike's going to be playing dynasty warriors.
Snowbike Mike
Dynasty warriors is out. People saying it's real good. I'm going to play it.
Tim Gettys
He's going to play it, everyone. And then of course, you also get a Greg way if you're a kind of funny member later today. Thank you to our patreon producers Delaney Twining and Carl Jacobs. Today we're brought to you by betterhelp expressvpn and me undies. But for now, let's start with the topic of the show. We're doing our personal game of the year Top Tens for 2024. Here's how we're going to do this, everyone. Every group's done it a little bit differently and the these boys here talked. We're going to do it even differently than the other two have done. We're going to start by giving one honorable mention each a game that did not make our list that we want to talk about. Then after that, we're going to go number 10 one by one, then number nine one by one and so on and so forth. If one of us has a game that someone else has on the lists, we're just going to let the people talk about it where their number is. So if Mike has a game higher than Raj, when it's higher, Mike's going to talk about it. And then when we get to Roger on the list later, Roger going to talk about it. Everybody wants to have a their time to shine their moment to kind of like speak on their games and why it's on that place on their list. So that makes sense to everyone.
Roger
Love that. I love it.
Tim Gettys
Let's kick it off then with our honorable mentions. Mike, let's start with you.
Snowbike Mike
Oo, Tim, you know, I approached you, I said, Tim, I got 30 games in my top 10. I got a lot of places I could go and I'm going to stick with my heart here because I want to go somewhere but I don't want to go there. Okay. I'm going to go with Microsoft Flight Sim 2025 because I found a lot of love in the skies. I still, to this day constantly think about turning it on and pulling out my little accessories and just flying. You know, I put on a little Nelly Furtado in the background. I'm like a bird. And I. I soar. And you know, this game has had a lot of problems since launch. It's still having a lot of problems. But I have found the fun in the career mode where I am learning to fly a plane. Everything that is needed to become a pilot. I've earned my ppl.
Tim Gettys
Ppl.
Snowbike Mike
Drizzy. And I've had a lot of fun.
Roger
Can I say something about that really quick? Is that the other day, it was insane. We're driving and then me and Leander are driving in the car and we see like a helicopter, like, on the side. Like, it's like a helicopter. You know, you can. You can learn how to drive, ride a helicopter, right? And then I look, I'm like, look at her. I'm like, hey, would you ever, like, learn how to fly or whatever? And she was like, no. But like, Mike did, right? Like, Mike knows how to fly. He has his license.
Snowbike Mike
Thank you.
Roger
And I was like, no, that's a stream where he's playing a video game. Like, he doesn't actually have his license. Like, she thought for a while that you just had a license to fly, Roger.
Snowbike Mike
What if I told you that my new dream, Roger, is to play Microsoft flight sim all year long? Like, give real good to the point where maybe I could go get my private pilot's license. So, like, keep an eye out. You never know. I just can't stop playing this game, Tim. It's so much fun. It's a blast to take to the skies and fly for as mediocre as I am. I love everything that I'm doing. And so, yeah, I'm just having a blast with Microsoft flight sim. It's crazy to say that right now. And yeah, I can't wait to play more of it. So it's my honorable mention for the year.
Roger
I love that.
Tim Gettys
Love that. Rog, what's your honorable mention Minus fields of mysteria?
Roger
It's also my pick for a game that I wish I played more this year. Right. It's a early access farming, Stardew Valley like game. It has romance elements in it. It has mining and dungeon crawling. It's a fun little time. I'm not that type of person. I'm not somebody that necessarily falls for the stardew, like video games. I'm not a Cozy gamer necessarily, but I just enjoyed my time. There's something about the art style, something about the way that they drip feed the story, how there's fantastical and magical elements in it out of nowhere. It's just a fun good time and it's one of those ones that like, I had a great time being able to talk to Lienz and being like, hey, you're the expert in this type of stuff. Like, what do I do? Like how do I, how do I get better at this game and her And I like finding out secrets and be like, oh, did you go here? Did I go here? Oh my gosh, that's awesome. And again, as I said in the smileys, everybody's hot in this game. Everybody's so goddamn hot in this game. So it's just incredible. And I love the seasons of it all and how everyone in summer they're just all slutty. Everyone's just showing a little bit of cleave. Everybody's showing a little bit of cleave.
Snowbike Mike
And I would in the winter we get to that. Spring comes out, let's close.
Roger
It's incredible stuff. But yeah, I wish I played more of it. There was a period where it just wasn't working on my Steam deck for some reason. So that hard stopped it for me. But yeah, I'm definitely checking out the new update that came out I think a month ago and 1.0. I'm hopeful for 1.0 in the next year and hopefully this game comes to Switch too because I feel like that's the perfect Switch video game right there. Yeah, Fields of Mystery. Everybody look out for maybe 2020. Yeah, 2025 game of the year. Maybe.
Tim Gettys
Wow.
Roger
Maybe up there. Maybe maybe up there.
Tim Gettys
My honorable mention is an important one. Neva. Really, really big fan of this from Devolver Digital. It's important because I, I totally blanked making my top 10. I thought that I had everything covered and somehow my note, because I keep notes for every game I play and my note for never was in the wrong folder. And so I'm so sad because this definitely deserves a place on the list. Now where would you have put it if you remembered that's my thing, I think it would have been number 10. So I don't think that it's necessarily like that high. But I really, really love this game. I think it's really special and I feel like it's the type of game that anybody can look at and if you have anything in you that's like, oh, I'm interested in this, you're going to like it. Like, I feel like I can definitely recommend it to you because they. They make the most of the very small runtime of this game. I think it's like four hours in total, and I love that it doesn't get too ambitious from a gameplay perspective. It kind of sticks to what it's good at, and it is really thrilling in a lot of moments. And it makes you really engaged with the characters and connections between the. The two characters that you got here. And it is very derivative stylistically of things that we've seen in the past, but we love those things and that it kind of takes all of that to create something that is fresh and new. And that's one of my favorite things, when you can kind of remix the familiar to create a new piece of art that hits you in a different way. And, yeah, I mean, the game's gonna you up. You know what I mean? Like, you look at it and you kind of, you know what's coming, and it's, you know, I don't want to spoil it. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. Maybe it does a way you didn't expect. But I can tell you it's satisfying and it's a good little journey.
Roger
So I put this in chat knowing that if you put it at 10, it still wouldn't have made our top 10.
Tim Gettys
So I think Andy can rest a.
Roger
Little bit easier now.
Snowbike Mike
Yeah, I played halfway through that.
Tim Gettys
Enjoyed it. Yeah.
Snowbike Mike
I was looking forward to be in my planet of Lana this year, where I kind of step out of my box and try something that's a little more archy than my tastes normally go with with Call of Duty, as you know. And I enjoyed it. It didn't quite capture me. I'll see if I run back the second half. But I did enjoy the first part of it of, like, okay, I see where we're going.
Tim Gettys
And the soundtrack's fantastic. Like, so moving and just, like, epic as hell. And it, like, it backs up and it sounds as good as it looks. So, yeah, that's saying a lot. But let's get into our actual list. Mike, kick us off at number 10.
Snowbike Mike
I get to kick us off.
Tim Gettys
Yeah, we got it.
Snowbike Mike
You know, I sat way over here because I was gonna go third. You know, I wanted to make it.
Tim Gettys
All about Roger, of course.
Snowbike Mike
But you know what? I'll kick it off with my number 10. Final Fantasy VII. Rebirth was on my list of put it at the bottom because I just had so much fun with it. This is a game that I had never played before. We jumped into remake last year, made a big deal out of it, playing my first ever Final Fantasy game. And I fell in love with the cast, the story where the journey was. I never really. I still to this day have not fully clicked with the combat. I enjoy it. I don't love it. It always feels like I'm trying to get the fifth gear and I just get stuck in fourth. And I want to kick it up to the next level, but it doesn't matter to me because I'm there for the most epic journey. I'm there for a killer soundtrack every time the music picks up and you're in some special spot. I love it to death. And this one really went out there, right? We were outside of being underneath the plate this time, which I really enjoyed. I love seeing more of the world than just Midgar. And it's crazy to even say those words right now as someone. Yeah, never played Final Fantasy. I know all of these locations now, and I have a connection with them and these characters. And so I had a really great time with it. You know, me and Andy collided about halfway through. He said, mike, you know, I enjoy playing the game, but on the twitch side of things, I'm just slowing down with my energy. And I said, andy, I'll gladly team up with you. I'm just kind of playing it on my own. And we made a lot of fun out of it, right? We made a good memory together. Playing it together and sharing this experience. I mean, I like Final Fantasy a lot. I love where this is going. I can't wait to see the finale of this all with a part three. I did not care for the side stuff. The open world, the moogle farm of like, I don't love it. I don't really care for the invisible beat. You know, counter. That was fine, whatever. But all in all, if you put me in front of Tifa and AITH and Cloud and we just go on this journey, you can sign me up for another 80 hours. I'll be there. I loved it.
Tim Gettys
Raj. Number 10.
Roger
My number 10 is Indica, a game that we talked about. I think it was during. We did a Crow country review and then we also did Indica. Indica is a People have been saying it's like a 24 video game kind of deal. It follows a nun and it's like very slow in the beginning. It's kind of like a walking simulator type deal. A nun who does not want to be a nun internally. Right? She has the demon, a devil inside of her that is speaking to her the entire time. And the very interesting thing about this game, it starts off and you're literally filling up a bucket of water from a well for like in real time. Like, you see it right there. It's like it takes like maybe 10 minutes to do the whole thing right. So it's very slow, very methodical, but once it gets going, it gets going. And this is a story that has really like, after I finish it, it took a while and I just keep on thinking about the story. I keep on thinking about the journey that they take me on.
Tim Gettys
Because this was a must be like, April ish earlier. Exactly.
Roger
And I've not replayed it, but I just keep on thinking about the story because it is rough around the edges. It is a small team. It is a team that actually fled from Russia in order to continue making this game and get to safety. But besides all of that, the story is, it has a lot of great themes of religion and hope and also putting too much hope into religion and maybe not enough in some places. And it has this interesting juxtaposition of. It has a very realistic gameplay style and it looks gorgeous and it looks like it's Unreal Engine, but then it also stops the game fully and then it goes into like this eight bit style and you're collecting these random little trinkets and you're leveling up. And the leveling up is like, okay, what am I leveling up for? Like, what is this? But it has kind of a meta commentary on video games and how maybe it is like religion and the, it's great. It's wild. I'm serious. Like, it is some wild stuff right here. And the, the main story is, you know, she's trying, she's going on a trek, basically deliver a message. The nunnery doesn't really like her. So like, you know, you just go do this random thing, go across the country, deliver this message. And then she meets with somebody who is on the run, a criminal who's on the run. And they kind of have this buddy cop situation. And yeah, they both are looking at religion in similar ways, but in different ways. And the ending of this game is dark, it is bleak, but it is something that I, I, I'm so happy that I played. And it definitely deserves number 10 because at least to be on my list because, man, whatever this team does next is going to be special. I hope they get a ton of budget because, because they, they have some chops here. Cool stuff.
Snowbike Mike
I hope they do. Another really striking and scary looking video game cover. Yeah cuz the COVID this game is wild looking. I'll that will probably go down as like my one of my. I'll never forget this video game art cover ever again. Cuz that was crazy.
Roger
It's incredible stuff.
Tim Gettys
My number 10 is paper Mario the Thousand Year Door remake on the switch. This is a tough one for me. We're just kind of internally and I feel like even just year to year this even can change based on the games around it it being a remake. I, I, I put it a lot lower because this is one of the best games of all time. So it's cheating to an extent. While if this was a brand new game I think it would be very very high like top five for sure on my list. But yeah putting it at number 10 just because it's a remake. Having said that it's an incredible remake. This is everything I could have asked for for the most part. There are some things where like the FPS thing like whatever. Honestly though for this game does not get in the way of it at all. I feel like that is one of those more stat comparisons as opposed to experience comparisons. You know getting caught up in all of that. And like also I respect it, I get it like this should be 60 like you know, I don't want to make excuses for it, whatever but just the reality is doesn't get in the the way of my enjoyment of this game. And also we're talking about my number 10 here, we're not talking about my number one. So having said that, amazing story, amazing cast of characters, incredibly engaging combat system that's so fun with this kind of theater audience system where you're actually like trying to entertain the audience as you're battling and they'll sometimes get involved and like kind of jump in and start fighting with you or sometimes helping you. A lot of charm, a lot of character. And this remake was obviously made by a team that has such reverence for the original source material and they're like we got to get this right. Some of the lighting in it is just incredible stuff. And it continues to remind me that Nintendo's art styles are the most important thing the video game industry has because that is the heart and soul of it all. And we can add more tech, we can add more ks, we can add more all of it. But when you have the starting place of just good style then you can remake things and have it sing even more but still feel like it's the original. And I think that's incredibly special. So Shout out to paper Mario 1000 year door. I would highly recommend it to people that haven't played any of the Mario RPGs before. If you want to jump into one, this or Super Mario RPG remake, both of them coming out very close to each other. A little weird, but both are worth playing. You're not going to go.
Roger
Also two dream games, right? Like two remakes that people are like, oh my God, we're going to do what we're going to do. And they did it so close together. Crazy stuff.
Tim Gettys
Crazy, crazy stuff. Mike, hit me with your number nine.
Snowbike Mike
Number nine. Do you hear that, Tim?
Tim Gettys
Oh, bring it in.
Snowbike Mike
That's the school band and the drums are kicking. It's EA Sports College Football 25.
Roger
I thought it was backyard sports.
Snowbike Mike
Man, I really found my groove on that one, I'll tell you. You know. I can tell you my groove on that one. EA Sports college football. It is so amazing and awesome that it's back, right? It took 10 years to get here. We had to pay those kids what they deserve. And I'm so happy. We are. And it is beautiful that it's back. It's not perfect by any means, but it is so much fun to play. We are back to the stadiums. We're back to the pageantry. And we' back to just having fun college football memories and moments with our friends. And that's what I got out of this year. I am so happy that it's returned. It absolutely plummeted the resale price of my NCAA 2014. No big deal. But like a big deal, you know what I mean? Because I was holding on to that.
Roger
That was. That was your child's college fund. That was your idea of an investment.
Snowbike Mike
But truly, honestly, I'm so happy that EA Sports brought back college football. I'm happy we're paying those kids. I can't wait to see what they do next year. Please put in a soundtrack like every other sports game because the drums were just annoying. I hope they really build off of what they did with Road to Glory. I think if you played Road to Glory multiple times, you saw the text messages get very samey and the whole story of what your character can do. But in all in all, you have Dynasty. You're drafting all the kids. Seeing them go on after four years, you have the transfer portal. They nailed college football. It was a lot of fun. So shout out to that being on my number nine.
Roger
Yeah.
Tim Gettys
Roger. Roger, number nine.
Roger
Number nine. Been a big year for Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonic the Hedgehog has been is taken over the world and it's taken over my life With Shadow Generations. I've been asking kind of ironically as a joke and as a meme for a new Shadow game. And then we actually got Shadow Generations, which is a new piece of content in Sonic Generations remaster. And I kind of expected to like, yeah, whatever. It's a fucking. It'd be fun for the memes. But whatever, let me try it out. And for some reason about three hours into a four hour game, it just fucking clicked. It just became something where I was obsessed with. I can now proudly say that I have not only s ranked every regular level, I have s ranked every single boss level. So I've went back, I was watching tutorials, I was trying to do every single thing and I will not get all the fucking, you know, the little collectibles. I refuse to do that. But S ranking is where. Is where what I fell in love with. Yeah, it's a great. It's one of those games that I had this and I am your beast where I was just going back and forth and S Ranking trying to obsessively get to the end of the level fastest and min max the entire situation. Yeah, Shadow. The Shadow Generations is. Is exactly what I want. It is the style, it is the fun and it just has that energy and it's just. It's such an easy pick up and play and then hard to master type video game. I'm watching YouTube shorts but we're like, hey, actually if you press this button at this time, it's actually a little bit faster than this time. Like I did not expect in 2024 to become obsessed with the Sonic game unironically and I am. So yeah, I'm excited to see what the future of Sonic and Shadow is. Are we going to get better than this? I don't know. I think you're very pessimistic about that. I'm potentially optimistic about it because people really love this one and I hope that they see a good thing going here and they're like, maybe we can just capitalize on that. So yeah, Shadow Generations 2 is. Would be fucking. Would be top five most anticipated games ever if we. If we announced that. So yeah, I had a great time with.
Snowbike Mike
I'm so happy.
Roger
So fun dude. So welcome, welcome. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. What is yours?
Tim Gettys
My number 9 is Tekken 8. What an amazing product. This game is so much fun. I am a very casual Tekken fan. I would say Tekken 3 was probably the peak of my interest in the whole thing. I. But I remember when four was coming out I was hyped for it. Like it was a game that I would look forward to. I had pre ordered like I was very much like oh man. Like Tekken is, is my thing and fallen off of on it for many, many years. I feel like in the last five or so years the Mortal Kombat games have got me really into fighting games from a single player story perspective. And I really love what netherrealm does over there with like they're very Hollywood esque portrayals of a story in a fighting game. And you know, you don't really need to be good at the game to have fun with the game. Tekken has that in a way. More if Mortal Kombat is Hollywood, this is anime. Like high budget anime production values and presentation and so much great single player stuff that does an amazing job of introducing you or refamiliarizing you with this cast of characters that's been going on for decades at this point with such a history and lineage and it's so ridiculous, but it's so ridiculously fun. Like it's. Every time you hear something you're like no way that like are they really about to do this? And every single time they are going to do that. But yeah, I feel like the single player campaign in this was so special to me because there is the big story mode that's awesome. But there's also these character episodes that allow you to kind of like learn a lot about the character's history but then also like see their individual stories go forward and reminded me a lot of old school fighting games of playing through street fighters, different characters just to get that final screen with one line of dialogue. That's like their story. But this is the 2024 version of that. That is. No, we're actually going to have full on cinematics and like crazy stuff going on. And I've said this before, but there's nothing that hits harder than the Tekken 8 menu music on the PS5. When you're just blading over and this hits. It's like, oh, we're having a rave party right now.
Roger
Yeah.
Tim Gettys
Shout out to Tekken 8. There's a reason I use that twice.
Roger
In our game of the Year show.
Tim Gettys
It's just so good. It's just good. Let's get to Mike's number eight.
Snowbike Mike
Number eight. Real special. Tim. In 2024 we rode the high of playing Pokemon Fire Red with one Nick Scarpino and Pokemon had taken over my life for about two and a half months. And because of that, I got really lucky because Poke Rogue dropped, which is a roguelike Pokemon battler. And it was so much fun. It fed that addiction that most roguelikes do for many people. Similar to Balatro, this is just Pokemon battles non stop from level one all the way to 200 endless modes and beyond. It was awesome. And so this Rog like was really special because it has the touchstones of all your favorite Pokemons. You would pick starting Pokemon at the beginning. You get 10 points. You can pick any starter evolution within from Gen 1 to Gen 9 and put them on your squad, depending on what points they were to make out 10. And then you would jump in and you would go from level 1 to 5 to 10. You would battle other trainers, you'd battle your rival, you batter, you battle special monster Pokemon at the, you know, 10 and 5 level that were much bigger, the Ex will call them stuff like that. And it was awesome to have to think about the different styles of Pokemon. What? What, what are they? Are they steel? Are they grass? Are they fire? Okay, my team is leaning towards water. I should go to a Biome because at after every 10, you choose a new Biome. So it's like what would play better to my style? And of course, after every single time you go to a shop, you can buy special speed Exs, you can buy other things that will upgrade your Pokemon, and then you can also catch Pokemon as well to add to your starters at the beginning. But this was a blast to play, especially right in the high off of our Pokemon Nick Nuzlocke to then just jump in an only battle. Have to work with the chat to figure out where I am, what I'm good at, where I should be, and just keep going from level one to 200. I, I loved every moment of this and I'm glad that so many people played this. Whoever created this, shout out to you, great game and thank you Nintendo for not taking it down while I was playing it.
Roger
That's insane. That has not been taken down.
Tim Gettys
It really is insane. It's. It's awesome. And dude, I, I didn't play it, but I loved how obsessed you got with it, Mike. And I love it because you were saying, like, there's that, that quality of these Rog lights where it's like, oh man, I'm interested in this. Like, I get the gameplay loop and it's great. But then there's also the Pokemon side of the original early gens of Pokemon, like all the way up through Gen 5 even I would say, like they are such comfort food for five generations of gamers. Like, it's like it's crazy to think about how many people go back and it's like, you know, a lot of us have like emulator devices or ways to whatever. And it's like, what games does everyone get? It's whatever their first Pokemon was, right? Like they're the most downloaded ROMs in history. It's like for the early Pokemon games. So it makes a lot of sense that like the hacking community and all that are so invested in this. But looking at it like, I love that it's. It has the Pokemon all the way UP through Gen9 and it's based on Gen5 of having the animation of the pixels there. Like, looks hot.
Snowbike Mike
I love it, man. It was fantastic. I recommend everybody jump in. Actually, you can still play it to this day. I turned on the web browser today and played it. It's on your phone as well. That was a blast. That's a great game.
Roger
Super cool, man.
Tim Gettys
Next up, Raj.
Roger
My number eight is one that you and I were obsessed with in the beginning of the year. And that's Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom. It is a platformer where you play as a Yellow Taxi. There's no jump button necessarily. You can do some flips and some weird backwards stuff. But man, such a fun art style. The music is insane. And yeah, it has this PS1 type, like art style, but also like PS2 vibes with it. Also Game Boy advance vibes. Like, I don't know, it just feels like my childhood in one video game and it is just so bizarre and weird. And I was pleasantly surprised every single level by how they just change up the formula. Right? Certain levels of course are like, oh, it's just, you know, get to the ending, get enough of these little collectibles, little gears in order to finish the world. And some are like, hey, it's a top down kind of stealth situation. And some are just playing with the formula. So yeah, it's very creative, very interesting. And this team is already on like one of my to look at every single time. Every time they're like, hey, we're doing this other type. They're doing like a, what was it? Like a roguelite, like where they're doing like a first person horror game now where it is just the whole gameplay is slot machine or something like that. I'm like, I don't know what the fuck that is, but they're doing some weird stuff.
Snowbike Mike
That game looks rad.
Roger
Yeah, man, it is. It is really cool. And this game specifically is a fun time. And yeah, this is. That was my Steam deck game for four months. And that's crazy because like I am very much like I start a game, I don't finish it, I move on to the next thing. I was just, I just kept on going back consistently for like four months. Just keep on toiling at this game. Say I had a great time with Yo Taxi Ghost. That end up on your list?
Tim Gettys
It is okay, it is high but yes it is on my list. My number eight is the Legend of Zelda. Echoes of Wisdom. Really, really, really love this game. Even though I don't think it is even close to being the best Zelda game. But that's the problem. Zelda games are incredible. So I do feel like it's kind of that double edged sword of you know, some people might look at it as like oh well if it wasn't Zelda, would you like it much? But then also it's like well it's all. I expect more from it, you know what I mean? So it kind of like is a catch 22 there. But this is a really great game. I think I gave it an 8.5 if I remember correctly. Maybe an 8. Either way, that's kind of where I'm at with this. I love 2D Zelda games and I was incredibly excited to be getting another one in this art style because I really love what Grezzo did with the Link's Awakening remake. And I was very shocked to to play through this game and see that it was a lot more styled after the Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom, big kind of open puzzle solving type stuff than it was the more traditional top down 2D things. And I think that it worked really well. It's not what I would have wanted ideally from this game just because like I really do miss the traditional more action focused top down Zeldas. But in terms of dungeons and what I miss from those, this game I think does a really, really good job. It has some of my, maybe not my the best of all time dungeons, but some very memorable. Some of my favorite in recent memory for sure it's going on where I think they did a much better job. I would say probably the best job in a 2D game for sure of making the surrounding world cast of characters matter more. Like every time we're in one of the regions, the vibes of the region, kind of the culture of the region really stood out to me in a way that is usually traditionally only in the 3D games that you get that. So I feel like this game is much more than it seems on the surface, but I don't think it necessarily meets the heights of, like, oh, this is one of the best games of all time, but definitely worth your time. It's not that long either, which I think is nice. Like, it doesn't overstay. It's welcome. But, yeah, this is a great game. Love playing a Zelda. The soundtrack's fun, too. Yeah, shout out to this game. It's just I. It's always to me, telling for who I am and the type of games that I like. If Nintendo proper puts out a game and it's not in my top five, that just means it didn't quite hit where I needed it to, you know? But, hey, shout out to the number eight for me.
Roger
Yeah, I could have actually seen this going to my top five if I finished it. It was just this or metaphor, right? Like, it was like I was just like, I have to choose one right now, and I'm gonna choose metaphor. But, yeah, I had a great time with the time that I played with Echoes of Wisdom Mike.
Tim Gettys
Number seven.
Snowbike Mike
Number seven. Oh, Astrobot.
Roger
Okay.
Snowbike Mike
It was kind of funniest game of the year. Of course, as many people know and you all know, my top 10 is always, hey, clear your mind and think about the games that brought you a lot of joy and that were just the most fun to play. What was that experience? And that was Astrobot. Astrobot is pure fun. It's just a great time. They nailed this console, mascot, platformer that you can get to know and love. Of course, he's had other games, but this is the breakout game. This is the one that put this jabroni on the map for me, and I loved every single minute with it. I still think about the sound of when he ice skates and just the blades clanking and clicking onto this, the ice and drawing little hearts. Every single time I ice skated, I put hearts on the ice, and it was just like, oh, you nailed it, y'all. And, yeah, the boss fights were fun. I loved collecting different, you know, PlayStation bots. I wish that they did put a name on it, but it was always fun to try to guess. Oh, who is this? Why don't I know this one? Oh, why are we doing an Ape Escape level? I've never played Ape Escape. And then falling in love going, okay, this is cool. That's a great time. And so, yeah, Astrobot. Just a fun game to play. So you get my number seven spot Love that, Rog.
Roger
Play Ape Escape. Play Escape too. My number seven is UFO 50. Again, I talked about on the Smileys a little bit, but it is published by Moss Mouth, the developers of Spelunky. It is developed by a lot of people because there's 50 real full video games inside of this one package. The whole idea is that it is kind of like an alternate universe. Nintendo competitor that from 81, I believe, to 89, we're producing video games. So, yeah, in this lore, you can go from, in chronological order from the first game to the last game, and they increase in technical prowess and gameplay design. And also, like, there starts to be like an intro and like a logo. Like there's a storytelling Mechanic throughout all 50 of these games. But, man, there's 50 games in here. And some of these are really incredible. And I would not say that any of these are bad. Like, that's the crazy part about this. Like, a lot of these are not for me, right? Like, inherently, there's some that are like, aping off of like a civilization. I'm like, okay, that's not for me necessarily, but there's some here that I'm like, oh, like, this is absolutely my. Like, there's one that is a kind of. It's called, I think, Lords of Dystonia, which I, I finished. Which I loved. Which it is. I don't know how to explain it. Basically the whole mechanic is you have these pawns that you are going up against, and the combat is that you flick your pawn like that right there against the other pawns. And the damage is based on. I'm not explaining this. Right. Basically pool. It's basically like pool with, uh, with these little, uh, different types of enemies, whatever. There's a lot of different games in here. And I can go to Party House, I can go to Lords of Dystonia, I can go to anywhere. But there's something here for everybody. And I want each of you, if you're interested in this, boot it up and try it out, right? You're going to find something. And I had such a great time going from the first game in chronological order to the last game in chronological order and just booting it up for 5, 10 minutes and finding the ones that I boot up for literally one minute and finding the games that I boot up for four hours, right? And there's even an idle miner in here, which is insane, right? There's a game that you can just go in there and then you, you mine some stuff and then you boot out of it and you play other games, then you come back into it and you've already gained some. Some coins and stuff in the background. So it's. It's a really fun time. And yeah, if you are interested in it, try it out for sure.
Tim Gettys
Incredibly cool concept.
Roger
Yeah.
Tim Gettys
And. And also they pulled it off.
Roger
Yeah.
Tim Gettys
Like, it's just. It's nuts to see what they. They did their UFO 50. Incredibly special game.
Roger
Yeah.
Tim Gettys
My number seven is Sonic Cross Shadow Generation. Big platforming year for your boy. Tim Gettys platformer is one of my favorite, if not my favorite genre. It's weird where I feel like after Prince of Persia, I've cemented Metroidvanias are my favorite genre. But I think a lot of that. What is the difference between a platformer and a Metroidvania in terms of like, I think Metroidvanias are just kind of like the big kid platformers, you know what I mean? Because like, like you look at Prince, it's like, all right, cool it is. Or Hollow Knight. Like, it's just very dexterity, like platforming challenge mixed with a little bit more combat and some puzzles and stuff. But like, overall a lot of overlap there. This is a huge year for platformers. For me though, there was many of them made my list. I have been a Sonic the Hedgehog fan my entire life and through the good, through the bad, but Generations was always the highlight for me up until Mania, where it really did try to make the most of the good and bad of Sonic's history and to try to make it as good as possible. So to have Generations come back, but then also have this new adventure with Shadow that very much just feels like the most modern version of Generations possible was such a. A very welcome surprise. To see this announce and see it actually be way more of a new game than I even expected when they first talked about it. And I don't think that there's ever been set pieces as cool as the Shadow campaign for. For this game. And I'm all about it. It's just pure hype. It leans in all the way and yeah, I love it. I. I hope that they can continue this, this run because Sonic's killing it right now. I feel like it's just been win after win after win. So let's hope that keeps going. But yeah, very special game. Happy it exists. I'm happy to go back and play this every couple years just like I have with Generations for the last decade.
Roger
Did you play the dlc?
Tim Gettys
I did. Oh yeah. And it's freaking sick as hell.
Roger
Good.
Tim Gettys
Keanu Reeves is Shadow. You kidding me, Mike?
Snowbike Mike
It's crazy that I played it. Can you believe that I turned it on? I can't believe it. I cannot believe I turned that game on and I played it. And I had so much fun playing as Shadow, getting to know it and. Yeah, going through that journey, you know, becoming a squid thing sometimes trying to float on water.
Tim Gettys
What a time, what a time, what a time. Get to your number six.
Snowbike Mike
Yeah, number six for me. Call of Duty Black Ops 6. Blop 6. I've said it many of times. I know. Roger and I have really praised this one. Call of Duty Black Ops 6 is one of the best entries into the Call of Duty franchise in quite some time. It will go down as one of the best, right? I know it is very difficult in, you know, today's age to deal with hackers. Cheaters bring that quality of life that the players expect in a live service game at all times. Right? Then, of course, that's where we currently stand, is this game is just plagued with hackers and cheaters. And it's not fun. It's very difficult to play. But when I get down to just the core moment to Moment of Call of duty Black Ops 6, I loved every moment of it. I had so much fun with the COD campaign. I thought they nailed that. It was stellar. It was the ultimate popcorn movie, action movie. It had the blockbuster set pieces. They tried new things with open world missions. They tried things with different branching narrative missions that you could do and see, they had that dumb little home hub home where you talk to everybody and you're like, I don't want to talk to you, fool. Let me shoot this gun. He's like, well, let me tell you a story. You're like, fine, tell me the story, dude. I don't care. And yeah, then they had the scary missions. Of course, many of you, if you haven't played this, you should check this one out. It's that good. Of course. Multiplayer. Nailed it, right? I think stakeout 24, 7, we all love stakeout leveling up guns, bringing back the traditional prestige was fantastic. Gunfight, I love the 2v2. Roger. That is my favorite game mode that Call of Duty has ever created. The intense, very highly competitive 2v2, where every single round is a new gun. We put you on a small map and you just battle each other and whoever kills whoever first gets the point and we go off around. I think gunfight is fantastic. Adding prop Hunt is a fan favorite, of course. We all love that. And then to Zombies, right? Like we're continuing to build out this package. I'm not even done yet with Call of Duty Zombies, which nailed it, right? It brought back that old school Call of Duty Black Ops 3 Call of Duty Black Ops 2 Zombies mode that everybody loved, right? Because if you remember, previously, they went with an open world zombies that wasn't really as loved as just the normal tight round based zombies that everybody is used to. And so the full package was there. And then adding on to Call of Duty War zone with Area 99, right. You have to have that new map that matches the tone and the setting of the new game you're putting out at that time. And they nailed it. Of like, let's get on that right away. Let's make sure we add this to the free to play War Zone and have that interconnected feel. And I, I think of Call of Duty and like even to this day my friends might have hopped off because of how frustrating it is, but I still play, right. I go, I go into solo War Zone now because I'm highly competitive and I don't care about losing my mind and getting gray hairs. I just can't stop playing this game. And so this year for Call of Duty is one of its best. I'm really, it's crazy to say that after a couple of years of being like, you missed the mark there. This team absolutely nailed it. And I will continue to play Call of Duty. I can't wait. I hope that verdance comes and maybe we can really get a hold of the cheaters and hackers later this year. But like, when verdance drops, it's going to be crazy once again. So. Yeah, and Omni Movement was such a great touch, right? Omni Movement was just that little slight elevation of like, oh, it really clicks right now, right? And there's the movement Demons. That'll embarrass me. But like, I, I, I'm a jabroni. I'll get after him too. So I loved this game. Great job.
Tim Gettys
Roger, what's your number six?
Roger
My number six chat. It's finally happening. Someone at Kind of Funny is talking about Silent Hill too. This is something that came out of nowhere again for me. Where I never played the original Silent Hills. I of course was aware of them. But of course there was that, that, that feeling in the air of like, is Bloober gonna fuck this one up? Like, the trailers didn't look too good. The graphics in the first one was like, oh, I don't know what this is. Is this kind of Be like a Resident Evil 4 ripoff type deal. What is this gonna be? But they nailed it. Shout out to Bluebird. Like, this is a very technically impressive video game. The stuff that they do towards the ending, which I will not spoil. It's hard to talk about this game without spoilers because the first four hours, which they show are kind of the lowest points for this game. For me, once they start getting some insane stuff outside of the mist, outside of the fog that you see in all the trailers, like, the game gets fucking nuts. But yeah, the stuff they do later on in the game is so impressive and the story was really compelling. Especially once you get past those first four hours, it starts to ramp up in a way that I did not expect. I love the nature of this game. Feeling like a true nightmare, right? Like, as I'm playing this game, I continuously felt uneasy. It felt like I was in a dream. Like I'm doing things that I'm. I don't know why I'm doing it, but I just have so much conviction. I'm just going forward. I'm putting my hands in holes for some reason, and my characters. My character's just not thinking about it and I'm like, oh, what's going on here? And, oh, it all makes sense by the ending. I also really enjoyed, like, kind of playing this game and being like, oh, this is where all of, like the fun stuff of Alan Wake two that I love, this is. This is where it originated. This is the origin of all of this. And yeah, there's a lot of. There's enough negatives in here, though, that put. Put it away from not being my number three number two. I could. I could have seen it being there. But I think, again, this first few hours are rough. I don't love some of the visual treatment of, like, the way that they deal with fog. Like, there's two modes in the game, right, where it has the normal, like, natural mode or whatever where I just think it's a little too bright. And then they have like a classic mode that just adds a vignette around everything, which makes everything a little too dark. And it's just like Goldilocks. Yeah, it's just like this weird in between. And that's a very small nitpick. But it's also not especially when you get hit in the game and then you're trying to find some type of health and then the whole game is vignetted red. And it doesn't stop being vignetted red. So you have two vignettes on Top of each other in the classic mode. I don't know. There's just enough little nitpicks there where I ended the game and I had an amazing time, and that story is really incredible. But I just was not engaged necessarily with the combat or some of the visual treatments to keep it from getting to the top three or four. But either way, this game is fucking awesome. You got to play it if you're into horror games. If you're into survival horror games, you got to try it out. I've been trying to get Greg to play it because it's tough. Those first four. Four hours, you're like, what am I doing? Why am I here? I can be playing any Resident Evil game, but once you get past it, it's more art house than. Than I think some people let on. So, yeah, Silent Hill 2. Awesome. You guys gotta play it.
Tim Gettys
My number six. Once again, you're the platformer for me. Yellow Taxi goes. Roger put me onto this. And he was like, tim, this has you written all over it. And my God, you know me well, my friend. This game is such a damn joy. It is a fever dream of a video game clearly made by people that love a certain era of video games. And that era being the Nintendo 64 all the way through to game or Dreamcast. I would even say so many different inspirations because it's like, you can talk about this and be like, oh, It's a Mario 64 ripoff, but then you can also say it's a crash team racing ripoff. You could also say it's a crazy taxi ripoff, but then it's all of those at the same time. And how does that make sense? But it does. The chaotic, frenetic energy that this game has at all points is just noise and filters and just. It's everything, but somehow it pulls it off. And I think it's because it has a unique gameplay style of there is no jump button. How do you have a platformer without a jump button? How does that even make sense? And they make it make sense with drift boost mechanics that you are used to finding in a kart racer. So combining those elements together really creates something special. And I was obsessed with this game. It is so much bigger than you would ever expect. You talking about playing it over four months? I had to play it over probably eight months. Like, it was always a joy to go back to. It's not the type of game that you're gonna forget where you're at and not know what to do. You can just hop Right back into it. And I love the creativity of each level. It reminds me a lot of playing Mario 64 for the first time and then all of a sudden you're on a snow mountain and you're going down this slide and it's like, whoa, this is different. And then you are in a level and the gimmick is, oh, like if you jump here, the level's big. If you go somewhere else in the painting, the level's small. This game has that energy where every level has some gimmick or something about it that's just totally different. Like all of a sudden it's a top down stealth Metal Gear type rip off and it leans into it being a Metal Gear ripoff. Like with the characters they introduced and like the music and stuff, Elon Musk is essentially the big bad guy. And like they lean into that in a very fun and creative way. Like it's yellow. Tactico's room is entirely worth your time. Incredible Steam game. The visual style of it is awesome. I. I think that they, they did a lot with this and they. It deserves, I think a lot more love than anyone would give it. But shout out to Raj for always finding those little hidden gems. We have number six for me.
Roger
I just want to go off of what you said really quick of like you were saying, has all this stuff and it feels so authentic. It's like always on the precipice of like if you wrote all these things that are in this game. There's a poop level in this game. Like there's so much random in this game that it's like, oh, could this be cringe? Like, could this be like trying to hard XD roar narwhal random? Like it is that, but it's not that because it is so genuine to itself and it creates a world there you can have. They have a rat update which is a bunch of rats going on and it's just like, yeah, yeah. Like this is, this is the world. Yeah, dude. Like I'm so hype. Like, yeah, they're, they are true to the. The source material. The source material. The material that they're creating. And they commit to it so hard that it's not like winking at the camera. It's just like, no, this is the crazy insane world that we're making. It's awesome.
Tim Gettys
Yeah. Like one of my favorite levels is this like bowling alley essentially. And then you like, you're. You're kind of like driving around, platforming around this bowling alley that's very 80s 90s theme bowling alley. But then you burst through the the pins and then all of a sudden you're in like an 80s arcade. Like a giant 80s arcade with like a bunch of challenges that are themed after like just experiences that we've had as kids like throughout our lives. It's very, very cool stuff, like constantly being rewarded with something that makes you go, whoa.
Roger
It warms my heart that like Ben's playing this game or has played the game in the past. Like the fact that kids could be playing this game and like this could be one of their first games, like that's so awesome.
Tim Gettys
So cool.
Roger
Makes me so happy.
Tim Gettys
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Snowbike Mike
Demo currently out. You know, bids are out. I think they closed this afternoon. So just, you know, maybe you might want.
Roger
Not true.
Snowbike Mike
I believe they're Fridays.
Roger
Sunday.
Tim Gettys
No, it's Saturdays.
Snowbike Mike
All right, well, I'm just letting you know that maybe people put down bids. Maybe you have 24 hours to start putting down bids. You never know.
Tim Gettys
You never know.
Roger
See what I picked up?
Tim Gettys
I didn't.
Roger
I picked up. Here's War E Day. You know what I mean? That's good. We're gonna get a date.
Snowbike Mike
Roger, I want you to know I was gonna get a date.
Roger
Well, yeah. Yeah. But then I get to drop it, right? So, I mean, just in case it is.
Tim Gettys
Yeah.
Roger
And then I picked up Talos Principal Reawakened, which is the remake of Talos Principle 1 huge bro. That's huge, bro. Watch that.
Tim Gettys
We'll talk about this. Mark Lopez says College Football 25 would have been my game of the year if it didn't have its quirks and issues. I have at least 250 hours in it. Astrobot, Balatro, and College Football 25 take my top three.
Roger
Yeah.
Snowbike Mike
So back. College Football.
Tim Gettys
So back then, Scoopy5 says my top five are Concord, echoes of Wisdom, Dragon Age, Bill Guard, Astrobot, and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.
Snowbike Mike
Man, we lived through Concord.
Tim Gettys
We did.
Snowbike Mike
We will get to talk about that for the rest of our lives. We witnessed, yeah, a good game that just came out and the people said no. And I was like, all right, well that game is dead now. That was crazy that we lived through.
Roger
That part of the friends we made along the way. That's beautiful.
Tim Gettys
Mike, what's your number five?
Snowbike Mike
Number five.
Roger
Same way to say that.
Snowbike Mike
That's how it went, bro. Just so you know, my number five is Balacho. Hey, Balatro. Wow. Stole my time, stole my energy, stole my love. I love this game. They made a stuck up, boring game like poker so much fun. As someone who has walked many of casin floors in their life, the poker room is always the smelliest, boring looking spot. You could be in all of the casino, the craps table's always electric, roulette's always cheering. You look over at poker, you're like, man, those people look like they're gonna die over there. That doesn't look fun at all. Somehow they made this so much fun. So shout out to. Of course this was created by one person over there. This game is so much fun the way you play it. Of course, building off of just the traditional poker that a lot of, you know, maybe some of you had never played poker before and you learned through this game that was so much fun. Having the jokers and the celestial cards, having those all play in to different multipliers and then of course adding on to your scores where you have to beat the small, the big, and of course the. The final blind at after every single turn was so much fun. I loved this game. Like I said, it made something to me that I hated, was never interested in in poker, something that I couldn't get enough of and I wanted to play all the time. So shout out to Balatro.
Tim Gettys
Yeah, shout out to Balatro. Raj, what's your number five?
Roger
Number five. Add a one to that. That is Black Ops 6. Black Ops 6 is my number five game of the year. I gotta be honest, if I were to redo this list, I'm dropping this lower. Not, not higher, lower. I'm dropping this down to like maybe an 8 or 9 because I'm mad at that them. What is going on with Free for all? I only played free. All I do is play free Fall. For some reason, it is broken for me. Please help me. I'm so sad, dude. Last night, I'm. I'm. I'm awful.
Tim Gettys
I'm.
Roger
I'm just. I'm just. I'm literally bottom three somehow. Victory. I'm top three. What the is happening? What is it? There's no rhyme or reason. It's broken, everybody. I don't know. I digress. I have a great time with Black Ops 6 when it isn't broken outside of that. Because the. This is called every Call of Duty every year. I'm like, man, maybe this is the one. Maybe I get back into it as much as I got back into Call of duty in 2019 for Modern Warfare, right? And just year after year, just like, nah, nah, almost there, almost there, almost there. Fucking click click. This is the one. For some reason, I think it is a mixture between the amazing campaign, which I finished every campaign since 2019, Modern Warfare, but this one just takes the cake with how weird it is, right? There's so many moments where I'm just like, are we. Are we actually going to go this direction? Like, I didn't even know this was possible. Raven software did amazing job with that campaign. The multiplayer, as much as I can talk about it right now, and it's very specific place. It has everything I want out of a Call of Duty in terms of noob tubes, people running around with knives, insane, insane skins. But also it just feels good, right? It has the. Has the gun combos that I'm looking for. The gunplay is great. The maps are great this time around. Like that's the big thing here. Like, the maps are really incredible and the Omni Movement is fucking awesome. I talked about that in the game of the year. But like the Omni Movement is a game changer in the right ways, but not a game changer in the wrong ways, right? Like it's not going to a newcomer's not going to pick up Call of duty Black Ops 6 and be like, oh my gosh, this is not how game should feel. Like it just feels right. Like that's the cool thing about Omni Movement. I do hope this is the future for Call of Duty, right? We're setting up a lot of great baselines for the future of Call of Duty. And also it was just a great personal experience because all my friends are playing it because of Game Pass, right? This is the first time I could look at all my friends, be like, pay the $1, get the month or whatever of Call of Duty, of Game Pass on PC. Right? And all my friends are playing it like it was a great situation. So I think it's a nice mixture of this was a great game, but also a great timing situation with Game Pass and where everyone was just open to Call of duty Black Ops 6. So yeah, I want to play the zombies more. So that's one thing that I'll put out there.
Snowbike Mike
I felt like they cut out a lot of the fluff too. They got away from the big team battle mode that just was never quite right. And they were like, let's focus on what we're good at. Let's know. And it's also shows you right when you look at the landscape of around them on the first person shooter side. Battlefield gone, right? Halo not here right now. So like Call of Duty is still that number one juggernaut that's holding it down. Now we're in a different world of of Fortnites and battle royales and extraction shooters all trying to get up in here and now with Marvel Rivals as well. But like, crazy to think that here we are in 2024 call of duty releases and you don't look over and see a titanfall, a battlefield, a halo like we used to a decade ago where it was, they were all competing all the time for you to jump in there. And now Call of Duty has stood the test of time and is still there.
Roger
Yeah, we got Squid Game two, Squid Game two in it.
Snowbike Mike
Oh, man. Dude, I played that squid game mode. Red light, green light. And like you think to yourself, oh, it's just red light, green light. Until someone comes up, stabs you in the back and you go, ah. Then you die.
Tim Gettys
My number five is Nico Deo the Magical World. The worst game name. That's so fun to say. Sent his list and I said, Tim.
Snowbike Mike
You can't just make up games for your list.
Tim Gettys
You can't do that. Here's the thing, man. This game is, I think the most under the radar of any game on any of our lists. Just because it is just such a. What the hell? Like, what the is that? It is a Donkey Kong country returns. Like if you want to go that far. But it's all. I mean, it should be a Genre. I want so much more of this, but it also mixes in the best of Crash4. And here's the thing. Donkey Kong Country Returns HD just came out today. I. I think don't buy that. Buy this. I mean, no, I think that that is the easiest, easiest sell I could ever give it it. This game is. Is so much better than Donkey Kong Country Returns. And I. I love Returns, but I. I keep saying this. I reviewed Returns a couple days ago. Returns hd. Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze is where you should go on the Donkey Kong side. This is up there with Tropical Freeze. Incredible platforming, incredible soundtrack by David Wise, who is the composer of the Donkey Kong country games, who did not compose Returns.
Snowbike Mike
Wow.
Tim Gettys
So inherently this game is better.
Roger
Yeah.
Tim Gettys
But, yeah, the. The title of this game, not great. The looks of the characters, not great. Everything else about this game, incredibly great. I can't believe what they were able to pull off. They straight up just stole the style. And like, how did they not get sued for this? I truthfully do not know. But you can play it on PlayStation. You can play this with, like, great graphics, something that you can't do on the Nintendo Switch. So really, really great stuff to see. Even their gimmicky levels, I think are better than with Returns. Fresh in my mind with the. Some of the rocket barrel stuff and the minecarts. So much creativity in this incredible boss fights. Seamless transition between 2D and more 3D platforming, the right difficulty level, the right levels of collectibles and all that. Truly love this game and I hope it gets a secret.
Roger
I was gonna say you're never. No, right.
Tim Gettys
I hope somebody plays it. I don't know. It's like they've been porting it to, like, every system, so I think it's everywhere now. So check it out, man. It's good.
Roger
I have it downloaded on my computer and I keep on forgetting about it. And I go to my desktop and I see a furry. I'm like, the. What the.
Snowbike Mike
I got.
Roger
Got to hide it from Le. I gotta be like, yeah, it's Crash Bandicoot.
Tim Gettys
Yeah. So if you like Tropical Freeze, which you should. Here's the thing, everybody. Oh, I gotta say it. I gotta say it, because Donkey Kong Country Returns HD just came out. Play Tropical Freeze. Play that first. It deserves it. It's the best. And it's. If not the best, it's the original, original best. Because it's not Returns Tropical Freeze then Nico Derico. If you love those, then you jump to return. Sorry, Bear, Will you agree me? What were you Saying there I was.
Roger
Clapping for you for Tropical Freeze. I can't say here nor there, if.
Tim Gettys
Not Rico Scottish sauce, especially with those character designs. But yes, but I'm telling you it does. I'm telling you it does. But Tropical freeze is the one.
Roger
And then Donkey Kong 64.
Tim Gettys
Yes, everybody loves unrelated stuff. Let's get to number four.
Snowbike Mike
Number four for snow. Mike. Mike. TCG Card Shop.
Roger
I was gonna download this the other day. Yes.
Snowbike Mike
As many of you know here, kind of funny. Of course, with our streams and our crew, we love the simulation games. We love those sim games that you can jump in with your friends or even solo and run your own gas station, run your own power wash simulator, it doesn't matter. But this year we got TCG Card Shop sim. And oh my gosh, this game is incredible. It is the I, I, I, I dare to say it might be the best sim game that I've played yet. And I've played a lot of them. And you know what? I won't say it is the best sim game. You have all the fun of running your own card shop. So you get to stock the shelves, interact with customers, hit the cash register. Of course, sometimes customers are going to come in stinky, so you spray them down with deodorant, which is so much fun. And then you upgrade your shop. You can hire employees to run the register for you. You can put down tables and run your own card tournaments. But most importantly, what the addicting factor was is it is a TCG card shop, which means you get to buy your own Pokemon like cards. And you can sell them. You can open up packs. You can then take the singles and sell the singles. It was crazy that they had multiple generations of cards that you unlocked through the leveling system that I would shut down my shop late at night and I would just start ripping packs. I would sit there all night long and I would rip packs looking for the big hits. And then I try to sell those for triple the profit. It was so much fun. This game is the perfect sim game. You should be jumping on that if you're ever looking for that. They just came out with Fast Food Simulator. That's up to six. Six players. Can't wait to play that.
Roger
But the same team or just.
Snowbike Mike
No, just another game. I mean, I'm turning another game. You gotta shout out. You gotta shout out the good ones, Roger.
Tim Gettys
Shout out the good ones.
Snowbike Mike
And so, yeah, TCG Card Shop sim was that good this year. So much fun. They even had people modding it where they actually put in Pokemon cards into that instead of just the made up characters they had. And you would go crazy for that one. This game is so much fun. You got to play that, play that game.
Roger
Mike, I'm buying it for you tonight.
Snowbike Mike
12 bucks.
Roger
I'm gonna buy it. I'm gonna buy it.
Snowbike Mike
Why don't you open up a fast food sim with me as well. I'll buy that for you and you come in and be one of my employees with me. Give me a great time.
Tim Gettys
Roger, what's your number four?
Roger
My number four is like a dragon, Infinite wealth, an early contender of last year's. Yeah, in last year where I thought, oh, there's nothing. This is the game to beat, right? It was, I think in January this game came out. I fell in love with it. I'm a new Yakuza fan. I played Yakuza 0 jumped into like a dragon and then like a dragon, Infinite wealth hyped as hell for Yakuza. Pirate Yakuza coming out early this year. But like a dragon, Infinite wealth got me in the feels, right? I mean, it's a. It's a dual protagonist video game. There's so much going on here. You have two different lands. You can go over here. You have Kiryu's story, which is a such a tenured character in video game history. And you're potentially dealing with one of his last video games. And then you have Ichiban, this new character in the Yakuza franchise. And somehow they merge both of those stories perfectly. And it is just insanity, right? Like you see the turn based system, which I gotta be honest, I think is the best turn based system I've ever. I've ever played in a video game. For me specifically. Right? Because you can cheese it, right? You're running around and you can. It has this circular situation where you can in real time walk around an enemy and get close to an enemy and then throw things at them, and then throw the enemy at an ally and then that person gets a free hit. There's just so much insanity you can have with that. Just pure gameplay of it all that kept me engaged through about the 60 hours that I played. I do wish that I played more of it because there is so much more, right? There is so much side quest. There's a whole Pokemon side quest situation where you can go and you can battle people call Sujiman. There's a whole Animal Crossing ripoff that I just did not have enough time to get into during the review period. So there's a lot there that I Just still haven't touched the issue with this game. It's a very small issue, but it was an issue that I ran into when I was going back and making this list is I wanted to try new game plus that's behind dlc. That is, I think the. The collector's edition of this game. I think it's like 20 bucks or something like that, which I think is so stupid. And that really kind of screwed it when I was like, oh, let me try out this game. Let me go back and see all the things I missed. No, I have to reboot the entire game or spend 20 bucks. So, yeah, other than that, this game is incredible. God, it's insanity. And yeah, I love the gameplay of it all and I love the story. Man, Ichiban, what an incredible, incredible character. Makes it makes you feel. And he is Snow Bike Mike personified, right? Like, he is. He is the good in the world. He is an anime protagonist that just wants the best for everybody. And it is a true power of friendship. And it's an insane situation where you have so many games that they're making studio rgg so much such high quality and also such much innovation within the franchise that they pioneered. So, yeah, shout out to like a dragon. Infinite Wealth.
Snowbike Mike
What did I put there, Ranch?
Roger
The games I wish I'd play in parentheses. More of like a dragon. Infinite wealth is number one.
Snowbike Mike
I bought it on two consoles just so I could try to play more of it. Of course I failed, Roger. I tried my best.
Roger
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Up.
Tim Gettys
God. Shout out to that, though.
Roger
What's your number four?
Tim Gettys
Well, we got some super chats I want to get to real quick. Lucy and saying my personal game of the year is Silent Hill 2. The original was the first PS2 game I ever played and I'm glad that Bloober knocked the remake out of the park.
Roger
Fuck yeah.
Tim Gettys
Hell yeah. And then Demon Hacker says, does Tim like the art of Nico de Rico or Astrobot better? Honestly, my criticisms are the same for both. They're just like. It's just incredibly generic and like, that's it. I don't necessarily think that they are bad. It's just they're generic. And I mean, both deserve better, but Astro deserves a lot better. So Nico de Rico's better. Everybody suck.
Snowbike Mike
I like that, Tim. You got the eye, Tim.
Tim Gettys
Jim says, Nico de Rico's Walmart brand. Donkey Kong Country. Let's be honest, just. It is like. I mean, that's kind of exactly what I'm saying here in terms of like the look of the characters and stuff. But in terms of the quality of the game and level design and all of that, it's like, I'm telling you, it's better than Returns. Like, I'm not saying it's better than Tropical Freeze. I think an argument could be made for that. And I wouldn't be upset at you if you said it was, but someone's.
Roger
Got to develop a mod where you could just swap out the main character.
Tim Gettys
Make him donkey.
Roger
Just make him Donkey Kong.
Tim Gettys
Make him crash.
Roger
Make him a Sonic with.
Tim Gettys
Yeah, make it Roger.
Snowbike Mike
Oh, that would be fun.
Tim Gettys
That's what I want. My number four, Hades two. Hey, my God. Fell in love with Hades many years ago when they put out the early access. Even the demo of the early access for Hades 2 drop like 12 hours into that over the weekend. And then when the actual early access came out, like, I am like, what, 70 hours into it now. Love this game so much. I've said it many times recently and I will continue to that. I think that when all is said and done, Hades 2 is going to be one of my forever games that I. I will never get sick of, will always come back to. And I think that this is one of Those like top 10 of all time type situations. Love how versatile the game is. It is incredibly fun. I feel like the advancements that 2 has made so far, even with the. The main playable characters gameplay feel is so impressive. I love how much faster it is. I love the. The differences of the. The cast system or whatever it's called and just the. The level of story and love the amount that I care about. Every single thing in this game is, I think, a testament to its quality where I want to hear every line of dialogue. I want to walk up to every support character in between runs and make sure that I know what's going on with them because it feels like it matters. Every single thing in this game matters. And I love when you are of course doing the one more run. One more run. Like that whole thing when you get into a run and a combination of perks and weapons and everything hits in a way that you haven't experienced before and you're just like, I am unstoppable right now. It just creates this new level of fun that I didn't know the game had. And how is that possible? 70 hours in, right? This game's not even finished. I get that what's here is so damn good that it is in my top four of this year. And if the game was done, it might have been number One, baby. Yeah, it might be number one.
Roger
That's beautiful.
Tim Gettys
But it's not done. So it's number four. What's your number three, Mike?
Snowbike Mike
I like that, Tim. You know what? My number three is a special one. I loved it so much. It's Power World, Tim.
Tim Gettys
Hell yes, Mike. God bless you.
Snowbike Mike
Love Po World, ladies and gentlemen. I mean, let's talk about it, right? Talk about the survival crafting games. You talk about the dream Pokemon game that we've always wanted, and Pal World absolutely delivers. There are moments this year that we look back on and we talk about the hype of Helldivers, and we talk about the hype of Pal World and how that took over the world for about a month and a half, and everybody, they mama was playing this game. It's one of the best survival crafting games that has come out. Each one is unique. Every single one has its own touchstones. And this one being a Pokemon, like where you go out in the world and you can go catch and battle these creatures. I'm just gonna call them Pokemon for now. Roger. To make it easier for people, we battle Pokemon, we catch Pokemon, and we have a ton of fun. It was an absolute blast. And then coming back in base, building and working with your friends and also having the Pokemon work on the base was insane, right? What a wild time. Yeah. This is crazy. That's pal World, bro.
Tim Gettys
Yeah.
Snowbike Mike
They had world bosses that you'd go fight the larger pals. They had raid bosses where you would fight other trainers that had their pals at these different ones. Ones. They had a crazy story going on as well in this, and the world is beautiful. The survival crafting mechanics were right on the money with any other survival game. The use of the Pokemon, being able to catch these pals, use them at the base to help you build different resources, and then come back out and battle with you. This game was a blast. I wish I. I wish we played more of it. I know I played a lot with my friends. We rented our own private server and had eight of us jamming in there, a bunch of pals working at the base. It looked like mayhem, but, man, was it a blast. This game, so much fun.
Roger
J man in the chat said that Nintendo's gonna use this in the walls. Just calling it Pokemon.
Snowbike Mike
I'm just gonna call Pokemon Pokemon for today.
Tim Gettys
Raj, what's your number three?
Roger
My number three is Astrobot. What a lovely time. I talked about on games on the Game of the Year podcast, where I kind of took this one for granted. Just how fun and how beautiful this game is. Like, it is such a. There's no friction with the fun, right? You just pick up this game and you are just smiling ear to ear. It is like a 4D experience when it comes to the controller and every way that it uses the dual sense and yeah, just effortless fun. So by the end of the year, I was like, I don't know, what am I gonna do? Like, maybe this game is like number eight or something. Eight, seven. I picked it up for the speedrunning levels and the holiday level that they put out there. And I was like, oh, wait, no, this game is on another stratosphere, right? It is just so much fun. It is gorgeous. And I, I know I'm a little biased. Biased, right, Because I went to, you know, the team of Sobeys headquarters, right, and talk to them in person, right? But I can't get out of my head the fact that there's 70 people working on this game, right? I can't get out of my head that there's eight animators on it, right? Where every single thing has a. You have an action, you have a reaction with the environment, with the characters, with just. Even these bots, right? Going up to every single bot in this game, every specialty, bottom hitting them, and they have maybe 1, 2, 3, 4 potential animations, right? Sometimes like that you can do, right? Like going up to Kiryu and he's dropping every single thing that he's had from. From all of the history of the Yakuza games, right? Like these so much deep cut, so many deep cuts, so much love to the franchises and also just creating something new, right? It's not just a love letter to PlayStation, it is Astrobot, right? Astrobot is something new, something special, and I'm looking forward to what they do next. I'm just, just. I'm blown away by Astrobot and I, I'm so happy that I got to play it and play it with Lanza by my side because, yeah, that was a fun one of. Even though we're not passing it off every level, like, I can just look at her and be like, you take the controller now. And that's. That's very rare in our household, right? We're different, different types of gamers, so it's exciting to have that and. And meet it there. So, yeah, Astrobot is my number three. Tim, how about you?
Tim Gettys
My number three is Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. Getting into my top three this year was very difficult because between the three of them, I feel like one is a 10 out of 10, one is the most Tim game ever. And one is just. I can't believe it exists. For how ambitious and big and how well it pulled off everything I needed it to. And that is Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. This game, to me, is incredibly special in the same way that Spider man, no Way Home is special. How did it happen? How are we here? How did all of these things that I love so much come together and be more than they used to be? And all of that. That Final Fantasy 7 rebirth, moment to moment, just made me smile so much, made me feel so happy to be able to revel in the nostalgia of the things that I love. But being presented in a way that is so beyond what I ever even saw in my mind. They care so much about this. I don't know that anyone making a game ever cared about source material more than the team that made this game. And it shines through in every single battle, every single line of dialogue, every single nod and wink at the camera. Like. Like there's. It's impossible for me to choose my favorite moment of this game. And I think that that is so impressive for a game that has. That's built on moments, like Final Fantasy 7 is built on moments and storylines and things. But it's like Rebirth in particular, I think, took it up a level for me where I was, like, screaming at the TV the entire time. Whether it was joy or shock or even being upset with some of the. The decisions that they made, I. I can't believe we have one more adventure left in this world. I can't wait for it. Rebirth was so damn good. And I'm gonna be thinking about it for a. The rest of my life.
Snowbike Mike
I'm being Dio. Him coming on, man, was so cool. So Brody coming back, you're like, no way. He's taking it to the red line. Oh, my gosh, dude.
Tim Gettys
That's it. That's what it's all about.
Snowbike Mike
It was fantastic. When he fired the cannon. Roger. And you're like, no way. And they had the big parade. It was a beautiful.
Tim Gettys
Never forget.
Roger
Pizza slice.
Snowbike Mike
Pizza slice.
Tim Gettys
Come on, man.
Snowbike Mike
Like you said, it's just like these moments where you just go, oh, wow. And the characters that come back, the new characters, the cast and crew, it was special. What a special time.
Tim Gettys
Let's get to your number two. Number two.
Snowbike Mike
Elden Ring. Shadow of the Earth Tree.
Roger
Huh?
Snowbike Mike
The perfect dlc. It was fantastic. It was a journey. It had everything that I wanted in a from software game. And it was unbelievable that it came out and they Just nailed this DLC I a bigger open world. You know, we didn't know what DLC could really look like. Felden Ring. They're like, you know what? Here's a big slice open world again. We're gonna just do that. We're gonna let you explore. We got new touchstones, we got new mechanics in here, we got new weapons and we have new fun for you to go out and engage with. And the boss fights were fantastic music hits. The idea of them trying to add in a crazy stealth section in the swamp was nuts. Love. Like you were supposed to run from bush to bush and hide from these scary monsters that would come up and just blow your head off. Which was crazy stuff. That was crazy as well. To just every moment sharing it with Andy throughout our co op experience was a blast, right? Getting invaded by NPCs, fighting the golden Hippo, getting up and fighting Mesmer. I mean, all of it was so, so good. I mean, it was the perfect dlc. I loved every single moment of it. Shout out.
Roger
It's beautiful.
Tim Gettys
Rogue hit me with the two.
Roger
Number two is Animal. Well, and this is one that I think could have been one on any day and it ended up in two. But animal. Well, I gave 10 out of 10 masterpiece. And I stand by that wholeheartedly. A game that again, like a lot of this list was a year of Roger exploring, right? Came out of nowhere. Not a Metroidvania guy, not somebody that gravitates towards that genre. Picked it up on a whim. And it blew me away with how different everything was, right? It felt like I was transported into a world right? For specifically one that does not really tell you much. You just are able to from the sheer will of just the amazing game design that Billy Basso was able to create. Find yourself in this land of predators, right? Like you are just trying to outsmart these huge animals and kind of figure out where your place in the world is, how to get around them and using these interesting items, these household items in order to get around them, right? So you have. Have balloons, you have some. You have a yo, yo. There's a bunch of little things, ones that I don't even want to spoil for you. But yeah, it was the sense of discovery that I got from this, which I thought was really incredible. Being able to, by the end of it, map out the entire world and be like, oh, shit. They want me to do this very specific thing where I have to go from this room to this room to this room to this room and having to Practice for hours, essentially, in order to pull off this. It felt like a heist. It was a heist, right? This heist moment where it's like I'm stealing something and it's like a Mission Impossible level shit. Like, it's incredible. And. Yeah, no me in bed playing this and like Lianza right next to me on her phone. And then just the, like, the, like the. The guttural, like, relief that I had when I. When I made it happen. Like, top five gaming moments of all time for me. It's incredible stuff. Yeah, they. They really killed it. Billy Basso, one man developer, made the entire engine for this. It is like something like 12 megabytes. Like, it is super, super small and one that everyone at least needs to try, right? Because if it's not for you, that's all cool, that's fine. But if it is for you, holy. Like, that's gonna unlock a part in your brain that you're not gonna think, you're not gonna stop thinking about. I can see a lot of younger people playing this game, like 12, 13, that are like, oh, it's like one of my favorite games of all time. Like, I could see unlocking that because I know myself, if I played this when I was 13, I'd be like, oh, fuck. Like this. A new side of my brain is unlocked now. Some great, really amazing stuff.
Tim Gettys
My number two is kind of funny, is number one, Astrobot. Hey, like Roger was saying, on any day, this could be my number one. This is, to me, a 10 out of 10. This is a masterpiece. This is pretty much as good as video games can get. It is from every perspective, whether it's production, presentation, gameplay, sound design, everything. It's just freaking good. I. I think it's so funny that people get caught up in the. The PlayStation nostalgia of it all. It's like, like I. It's. It almost makes me feel like, did you play the game? Cuz, like, that stuff does not get in the way of it at all, period. And like, if you look at. If you play that, like this is the PlayStation commercial. It's like, all right, I kind of feel like you need to remember to enjoy video games. Cuz, like, there was just so much heart put into every single part of this. And at no moment does it feel like it's like winking at you. Like, hey, buy other stuff. It's like, no, this is just freaking a celebration of things that we love or things that we might not know that we might love. There's so much history here. There's so much future here. Like, I think the Astrobot represents and what Team Asobi's done represents such a hopeful shift in PlayStation. And I feel like with all the bad news about PlayStation happening right now and all of the good news around Astrobot, I hope that we get more things like this and that other teams are able to kind of get a little bit more creative with smaller projects. This is, to me, exactly what I want to see from PlayStation Studios. Not all of them, but multiple of them. And from studios that aren't just PlayStation as well. Like, there's. This just gives me so much more hope in video games. Not that I was losing it, but this is a reminder of like, oh, we still got it. Yeah, we still got it.
Roger
I totally feel that.
Tim Gettys
Mikey.
Snowbike Mike
Number one, number one, big deal. The game I had the most fun with this year, Roger, Tim, you know me. I like one thing, one word, competition. I love being the best. I love competing to be the best. I love battling to be the best. I love seeing who's the best. And that's why my number one game of the year is Deadlock. I love. Wow.
Tim Gettys
I love you so much, Mike.
Roger
Good for you.
Snowbike Mike
Can't play enough deadlock. I have 80 plus hours going into the hundreds and I have never. I. There's. There's many games in my life that I found like this, but this year, this was the game that time melted. Time stood still when I played, but it passed by very quickly each and every night as I screamed, one more game, one more game. And whatever this team is cooking up over at Valve to make this game, you are on the right path. Now. This game is very early access. This game isn't even early access. And so this game is so special because it's that good, it runs that well. This game could be released tomorrow and it would shake the industry of people jumping onto this and probably getting turned on to MOBAs. Multiplayer online battle arenas have been seen as just really Dota, League of Legends and Smite and some other smaller titles that have come and gone. But I think when you hear the word moba, your mind goes to those big three. And a lot of people get turned off by that because it's very competitive. It's very toxic with how people treat each other, unfortunately. And it is a game that is hard to master. It takes a lot of time to understand everything that's going on into it. But when you put it in a third person shooter, it's a little more welcoming and you can understand a little bit easier than the Point and click. Like a league of legends where now you just know, hey, I have to aim at the enemy, I'm just gonna shoot. And hopefully that will do well. And you can do that as a beginner and learn and then you'll start to, you get better when you have the balance of abilities and the different heroes, of course, working with your team and synergizing. And so this to me is the game of the year that I just can't play enough of. I can't get enough of. I want to play this every day with my friends and get better. I want to try different techniques and battle strategies of all five of us rushing one lane, right? Or yeah, all, all five of us, all five of us rush in one lane. Or having someone play a jungle, there's not really a jungle in this game and that's that person who plays the middle and bounces from lane to lane, providing help and trying to get that one pick to maybe sway the tide of battle. They don't really have that, but you can do that in this game through communication. That's what MOBAs are. It's about communication and working as a team. And I love working as a team. Right. I love winning as a team and I like games that make people come together and say, hey, how do we overcome this obstacle? How do we be better? And that's what this game was to me this year was playing with Andy, Chris, jd, Washy, Roger who I broke, Kevin Maddock, everybody of like, hey, let's all play different heroes. We had people in the chat like Average John and send nuggies and more who got really good at this game and joined us each and every night. But I loved the different heroes that they had. I was impressed with the lineup that they had for a game that's not even released, as Barrett said, or not even a pre alpha, right? They had like 12 plus champions that were all well thought out, well utilized on the battlefield, that all had their own unique style, gameplay, look and feel and they added more to that as we played. They even have an area where you can see the pre released heroes that they're still working on and test them out and help them with that. They added a small ranking system, but yeah, Deadlock to me is that game where it's like, like, oh, I can't get enough of that. I want more of that. Now I'm playing League of Legends in 2025, trying to rank up in that because I just can't get enough of that competitive multiplayer that I seek out from. So Many games and that was deadlock to me. So yeah, I loved this game. I had to put it as my number one because one more game, hours gone. I, I, I don't even, I was in a blur all the time. Tim. Living and playing in this game.
Roger
Yeah. Every single day when you come home, when you come back to work on the next day you'd be like, like regaling us with tales with you and Andy about one more game. One more game. The small amount that I played with you, I loved. I had such a good time. I mean it reminded me of what I liked about League of Legends until I hit that toxic mentality of like I would play with people and they would just be so mean. So beating you down this had that energy. I don't know if that is just because it's new.
Tim Gettys
Right.
Roger
People are getting used to it. I don't know if it's just, it is a little bit more beginner friendly because it is a third person shooter right at the heart of it. But, but I'm interested to see where it goes because yeah, I could totally see this rising the ranks and you know, becoming something that I, I go back to and play.
Snowbike Mike
Yeah. It's interesting to think of like where this will be. Right. Of like MOBAs are already a very difficult place to jump into. It has people who are on the fence. More like, ah, I've heard about those and I don't want to play that.
Tim Gettys
Right.
Snowbike Mike
But it's approachable with the third person shooter. It has the valve back. Where does this go when it does come out? How high can it really reach? Right. And so yeah, I love this game. This will, you know, I know we've had a lot of talk about early access games here, kind of funny on our list. But this will be the only time you will hear Deadlock for my top 10. I am a first impression only Jabroni. This is it. And I've given it the love. Yeah, I'll play it, but I won't have it on a top 10 next time when it fully releases.
Roger
You're saying that now? I'm saying and then they change everything about it. And the game looks gorgeous and has a 1.0.
Snowbike Mike
The game's the game.
Roger
I'm just saying it's gonna look, look gorgeous. It's gonna do all this things. It's gonna have a whole Steam page. Everyone's gonna be playing it and it's gonna be on your number one.
Snowbike Mike
This game's so good.
Tim Gettys
The beauty of how we do our list and how we do our individual. This is like, yeah, Mike.
Roger
Yeah.
Tim Gettys
This is Mike's list. And now he gets to talk about.
Roger
I'm saying he should. He should.
Tim Gettys
This is your number one. Yeah. Mike like clearly backed it up, done it before. Cuz in 2021 you did have Sea of Thieves on your top 10.
Snowbike Mike
Shout out to Sea of Thieves.
Tim Gettys
Shout out.
Snowbike Mike
Yeah, but we did Sea of Thieves because Sea of Thieves had the big Pirate's Life DLC and we had to put that on the map because me and, me and Greg, we got lost in the pirate life.
Tim Gettys
I'm just saying with Deadlock, new content.
Roger
Updates and stuff, I'm just new heroes.
Tim Gettys
Never say never, Mike.
Snowbike Mike
Don't start with me.
Tim Gettys
Don't start with them, everybody. Roger, start with me. What is your number one metaphor?
Roger
Refantasio filling out the arc of Roger trying things that he would never try before. Right. I started up an Atlas game and I've started a bunch of them before. I put like eight, maybe 10 hours, 15 hours here and there, 80 hours in this one. Finished it and I had a blast. What an incredible experience. What a group of characters that I, I really care about, man. Like I, I again getting choked up looking at the gameplay, right? Because these are my characters, these are my guys. It is a full anime all in one. It feels, it does not feel like a season. It feels like an entire show. And I had a great time, especially with all the twists and turns and they, they just got me when it came to it. And this, that's saying all those things on top of the fact that I'm not really a turn based guy, right? Like that's not my, my, my stuff, but the way that they connect it with the actual story of it. All right? Like the fact that the archetypes are things that are connected to the characters and they are awakened after a very important part of the story every single time. It is so hype. Like that's such an amazing hype moment is every single time you have a follower and then they have that awakening of here's my archetype. And it's like, oh my gosh, your, your heart's pounding, your, your eyes are welling with tears. Like it is gorgeous. And the way that they make you care about every single one of these characters. To varying degrees of course. Right. But I was so surprised constantly the game does have 15 endings, you know, just constantly is ending. I'm like hour 60, I'm like, oh, we're about to wrap up. We'll just keep on ending. I think that's my only negative because I did have to put this game at my number one before I finished it. Right. But just because of the way that it was, I was like, man, this is so strong. I do think it is still my number one. I stand by that. But yeah, it is, it is definitely a toss up between animal and metaphor. But I'm so happy I played metaphor. I'm so excited for the future of that team and I'm so excited to continue to evangelize this game, talk about it, think about it and what it means for me is like a gamer as a person, right. Like this story affected me emotionally in a real way. And I look at this list and a lot of these, these, these games are really incredible. But this game had such an impact, impact on my personal life that I just can't it not put it number one. So yeah, metaphor me to Fantasia was absolutely my number one and yeah, had an incredible time.
Tim Gettys
Hell yeah. Love that. So cool. I think it's so cool like that. Not only did you play, but it ended up as your number one. Like shout out to the team, man, they, they pulled it off. They really did something.
Snowbike Mike
I can't believe it. I thought Yakuza was going to be it all the way through for Roger. And yeah, it's awesome to hear Roger's list and to see this so high on so many people here kind of funnies list. Right. I mean I even tried the demo know because of how much Hype Bear was bringing to it, right. Of like people stepping out of their boxes and trying new games and having it resonate with you is really cool to see. I love that beautiful stuff.
Tim Gettys
My number one, no surprise to anybody, it is Prince of Persia, the Lost Crown. A game that is very special to me. And it's one of those games that every time I think about, every time I talk about it, I'm like, I want to play it. Like I want to go back and play this game again. It is so, so great. An incredible feeling. Metroidvania, I feel like this is earlier I was saying like what's the difference between platformer and Metroidvania? And I think that this game is a great example of that, of just how fluid the movement all is, which is a core element of every Prince of Persia in the past, whether it was the OGs or the 3D ones or now this. It is just so fun to move around in this game. The level design being based around not just platforming challenges, but also ability challenges, but also combat challenges. It just is so seamless and God, it's so creative. I mean even what we're at right here. Can you rewind just like 5 seconds? Like 1 of the. The biomes you're in is this. This time frozen ocean where there's like a pirate battle happening. So ships are mid being blown up by cannonballs and you're. What you're walking on is time frozen waves. How cool is that? You know? And that's just one example. There are dozens more of things that like I don't even want to bring up because I was just so wowed by not expecting from the different environments in this game. I. I can't believe how hype it all gets by the end of just how you become this overpowered God. And it just feels so damn good. Some of the most creative, if not the most creative abilities I've seen in a Metroidvania. The every single enemy encounter feels like a boss fight and the. The combat feels. I've said this a couple times, but I. I really think it's important like playing this game moment to moment feels like a thrilling 1v1 Smash Brothers game when both of you are equally matched and like that is just so damn cool and you feel like a badass killing just a random little dude. So then when you face off against a bigger enemy or one of the bosses and you. You finally understand what it takes to take him down, man, it's rewarding as hell. Love the DLC as well. I 100 of this game, but due to a couple dumb issues, I didn't platinum it because I was playing across multiple systems. So my safe file on switch me up so I can't get some trophies. It's very upsetting. I think I might need to go back and so I think. I think I might have to, man. But yeah, this game's incredible. Definitely play it and it runs amazing on everything, right? Runs amazing on everything. Yeah. Say that last part point again and what's up? Yeah, it's also now on Steam Deck, so play please play it there. But Ubisoft straight the upper up. This game was incredible. Obviously it's very special to me and very special to others the fact that like this isn't just a Tim being crazy thing, right? Playing this game like I know I'm way higher on it than a lot of people are. Prince of Version Lost ground won multiple outlets. Respectable outlets. Game of the year.
Snowbike Mike
Yeah.
Roger
Yeah.
Tim Gettys
And I if I so Giant Bomb gave a game of the year and if I read correctly, Min Max as well gave it Game of the Year.
Roger
I don't think that's right.
Tim Gettys
Then I read it incorrectly. But somebody else did. But what was Max's Game of the Year? I believe they were Astrobot as well. Oh, well, hey, they have taste too. Okay, we're talking about a great year of Video Games 2024. We are finally putting it behind us after an amazing week of content here. Talking about our top tens, doing the Smileys last Friday, doing our big Game of the Year on Monday. If you haven't seen any of those, please check them out. This has been an absolute blast. Can't wait to do it again next year. Stay tuned. The day is not over. We still have kind of funny games showdown right after this. And then after that we got Mike playing some Dynasty Warriors. Tim Origins, everybody. So till next time. Love you all.
Roger
Goodbye Pirate Yakuza Game of the year 2025.
Snowbike Mike
Pirate.
Detailed Summary of "Tim, SnowBikeMike, and Roger's Top 10s 2024 - Kinda Funny Gamescast"
Podcast Information:
In this special episode of the Kinda Funny Gamescast, hosts Tim Gettys, Roger Porny, and SnowBike Mike delve into their personal Top 10 video games of 2024. The discussion is structured to highlight each host's favorite games, provide honorable mentions, and offer insightful commentary on why these titles stood out over the year. The episode is rich with enthusiasm, detailed analyses, and memorable quotes, making it engaging for both regular listeners and those new to the podcast.
Before diving into the Top 10 lists, the hosts share their honorable mentions—games that didn't make it into their main lists but still left a significant impression.
SnowBike Mike: Microsoft Flight Simulator 2025
Roger Porny: Fields of Mysteria
Tim Gettys: Never
The hosts proceed to their Top 10 lists, each presenting and discussing their favorite games of 2024 in descending order.
SnowBike Mike: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
Roger Porny: Indica
Tim Gettys: Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door Remake
SnowBike Mike: EA Sports College Football 25
Roger Porny: Shadow Generations (Sonic the Hedgehog)
Tim Gettys: Tekken 8
SnowBike Mike: Poké Rogue
Roger Porny: Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom
Tim Gettys: The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
SnowBike Mike: Astrobot
Roger Porny: UFO 50
Tim Gettys: Sonic Cross: Shadow Generation
SnowBike Mike: Call of Duty Black Ops 6
Roger Porny: Silent Hill
Tim Gettys: Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom
SnowBike Mike: Balatro
Roger Porny: Call of Duty Black Ops 6
Tim Gettys: Hades 2
SnowBike Mike: TCG Card Shop Sim
Roger Porny: Dragon Age: Infinite Wealth
Tim Gettys: Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
SnowBike Mike: Power World
Roger Porny: Metaphor - Fantasia
Tim Gettys: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
SnowBike Mike: Elden Ring - Shadow of the Earth Tree DLC
Roger Porny: Animal
Tim Gettys: Astrobot
SnowBike Mike: Deadlock
Roger Porny: Metaphor - Fantasia
Tim Gettys: Astrobot
Throughout the episode, the hosts engage in lively discussions about their favorite games, offering deep dives into gameplay mechanics, story elements, and personal experiences. They emphasize the importance of innovation, emotional connection, and gameplay quality in determining their top picks. The enthusiasm and camaraderie among the hosts highlight their genuine passion for gaming, making the episode both informative and entertaining.
Final Quotes:
The episode wraps up with anticipation for future content, including upcoming game showdowns and other exciting segments, leaving listeners eager for more gaming insights and discussions in future episodes.
Notable Quotes with Timestamps:
These quotes capture the hosts' excitement and key points about each game, providing a flavorful glimpse into their discussions.
Final Notes: This episode serves as a comprehensive guide to the best games of 2024, as perceived by three passionate gamers. Their insights offer valuable perspectives on what makes a game stand out, from storytelling and gameplay mechanics to emotional resonance and innovative design. Whether you're a seasoned gamer or new to the scene, this Top 10 countdown provides excellent recommendations for your gaming repertoire.