We Played Kirby Air Riders! - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Summary

Kinda Funny Gamescast Summary

Episode: We Played Kirby Air Riders!
Date: September 9, 2025
Hosts: Tim Gettys, Greg Miller, Blessing Adeoye Jr., Andy Cortez
Theme: The crew returns from PAX West 2025, sharing hands-on impressions of upcoming and newly released games—including big spotlights on Kirby Air Riders, Super Meat Boy 3D, High on Life 2, Pokémon Legends Z-A, and more—along with candid reflections on the PAX experience, the gaming community, and the state of some highly anticipated titles.

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Episode Overview

This episode is a lively, content-rich debrief of PAX West 2025, centering on Blessing and Andy's experience at industry events, their hands-on impressions of forthcoming titles, and spirited, often hilarious, discussions about what stood out to them—good and bad. The show covers a mix of mainstream, indie, and franchise games across Xbox, Nintendo, and PC, featuring honest critique, giddy fan moments, and the kind of banter that makes Kinda Funny’s roundtables electric.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Post-PAX Vibes & Community Energy

• Blessing’s Return: Blessing shares how stepping away for a break at PAX and visiting Seattle reinvigorated his passion for content creation.

  "It was nice to be away...when you do multiple podcasts every single weekday, it kind of wears down on you a little bit. And then you go away, you come back and it’s like, oh, I got energy now. Oh yeah, I’m ready to talk about video games." (00:28 - Blessing Adeoye Jr.)

• Seattle & PAX’s Atmosphere:
  The team reminisces about PAX West’s comeback energy versus pre-pandemic shows, noting the absence of the Indie Megabooth but celebrating the resurgence of creators and strong publisher turnout.
  • Special shout-outs to the new Summit building, the Red Bull Creator Lounge (with “Peak-a Colada” cocktails), and chance encounters with indie devs and community figures—revealing a vibrant creator ecosystem.

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2. Hands-On Game Impressions (Chronological Focus)

Super Meat Boy 3D

Timestamp: 15:29–20:54

• Core Experience:
  • Classic frantic platforming "translated perfectly" to 3D. Fast, difficult levels with tight controls, which mostly retain the floaty, forgiving feel of the originals.
• Visual Upgrade & Demo:
  • Levels are more colorful and visually dynamic than classic SMB.

  “I thought they perfectly translated the...glide...the 2D gliding feel of Meat Boy was perfectly translated to this 3D world...It was perfectly frustrating enough. And that's what you want out of Super Meat Boy." (16:30–17:25 – Andy Cortez)

• Nitpicks:
  • Some mechanics (like wall rides) feel "slippery" (Blessing).
  • Demo was short, making them eager for more.
• Notable Quote:

  "I wasn’t able to put my controller down… that’s the telltale sign…they got something here." (19:53 – Blessing)

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High on Life 2

Timestamp: 20:58–30:58

• Surprise Game of Show:
  Blessing’s top pick—unexpectedly captivating compared to the tepid expectations following the dev shakeups.
• Major Improvements/Mechanics:
  • Introduction of a first-person skateboard for momentum and combat, and a new gun with creative combat combos.
  • The humor lands—with absurd quests like ‘Parking Con’ and ‘Murder Con’, and self-aware, Rick & Morty-esque jokes.
• Memorable Sequence:
  • The boss (Muppy Doo) invades your settings menu, causing UI chaos.

  “He invades your settings menu... you go into the audio menu and he’s hovering over NPC chirps... You have to attack him, but you’re raising the chatter bar… all your weapons start chattering.” (27:15–28:14 – Andy)

• Tech State: Still very early—some performance issues, build roughness, but mechanics shine.
• Key Quotes:

  “The bit goes on for a while… you end up in like, NES Bible Adventures...It gets fucking crazy.” (28:21 – Blessing Adeoye Jr.) “So charming—honestly, surprise of the show for sure.” (29:32 – Blessing)

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Xbox Ally X Impressions

Timestamp: 30:58–32:23

• Hardware Feel:
  • Both Blessing and Andy praise its ergonomics (“pro grip”), but didn’t experience the full UI.
  • Enthusiasm muted by lack of complete hands-on and unknown price.

“The grip adds so much...I like how it feels. I would love to play on this thing long-term.” (31:16–32:23 – Blessing)

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Kirby Air Riders

Timestamp: 36:08–44:45

• First Impressions (with Nintendo, embargo lifted):
  • Visually stunning, fast, and chaotic—a “vehicle action game” with massive visual punch and wild color schemes.
  • Demo included races and the signature City Trial mode.
• Gameplay:
  • Chaotic to the point of sensory overload.

  “There was so many colors...The fastest thing...My eyes started to kind of burn with all the colors.” (37:15–38:22 – Andy)

  • Controls, especially melee, are confusing (stick-waggling = attacks), and the layout was daunting for beginners.
• City Trial Mode:
  • Real-time open-city collection of stat-boosts, punctuated by randomized minigames.
  • Critique: Minigames split the group—diluting the party vibe versus classic Mario Kart.

    “I want to jump into this and do a few city trials on a stream or with friends...but didn’t feel as, I guess, solid enough for me to be like...I’m playing City Trials every day.” (41:12–42:48 – Blessing)

  • $70 price tag seen as a barrier for non-obsessives.

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Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition (Switch 2 Demo)

Timestamp: 44:57–48:52

• Technical State:
  • Both Andy and Bless report major framerate problems, especially docked (“sub-30 FPS,” “not very smooth”).
  • Handheld mode slightly better, but still sub-optimal.
  • New starting classes with DLC-flavored weapons were neat, but moment-to-moment not “awesome.”
• Notable Moment: Bless beats Margit in the show build—the PR reps’ “first.”

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Pokémon Legends Z-A

Timestamp: 48:52–53:38

• Combat System:
  • First hands-on with real-time, cooldown-based combat—Andy loves it, Bless finds it less appealing, but acknowledges its Pokémon flavor.

  “It felt really, really cool...It was just so nice seeing it look so crisp and running at 60. This is what I’ve wanted.” (49:07–49:48 – Andy)

• Graphics & Style:
  • Andy: “Step up” from Scarlet & Violet;
  • Blessing: Still lacks inspiration—“If this wasn’t Pokémon, we’d be dunking on this.” (53:14–53:16)
• Buying Decision:
  • Andy: “Yes, I will be buying this, 100%.”

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Digimon Story Time: Stranger

Timestamp: 53:38–62:47

• Surprise Standout:
  • Blessing: “I think this game is fucking awesome. We gotta talk about Digimon more as a gaming...” (53:48–54:00)
• Core Experience:
  • Deep, lively monster-collection RPG with Persona/SMT/Pokémon influences.
  • Story is accessible to newcomers; world-building is robust, with the charm of Digimon’s quirky, communitarian world.
  • “Digi Farm” offers dense stat-training, customization, and simulation for hardcore RPG fans.
• Depth & Humor:
  • Much discussion about Digimon’s wild monster designs—“just a pistol” and frequent weaponized evolutions.
• Demo Offers: Three hours available at PAX; public demo out soon.

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Indie Spotlights & Final Notes

• Crimson Desert (Behind Closed Doors)
  • Andy: “The game is real.” Deep combat, immense freedom, impressive physics-based interactions, but potentially overwhelming complexity.
  • Withholds judgment on narrative.
• Indie Highlights:

  “Best indie game I played at the show: Rebounder...going to be all our obsession...challenge room based, super precise.” (73:50–74:25 – Andy)

  • Never’s End: 3D tactics with stunning pixel art and real physics; notable magic system.
• Onimusha, Pragmata: Also praised, but discussion is brief due to time.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• “There's nothing worse than giving a bunch of nerds Red Bull cocktails.” (05:56 – Tim Gettys)
• “He invades your settings menu...and then you see like the word ‘settings’ start to vibrate...He goes into the audio menu and is just kind of f***ing with your whole UI.” (27:15–28:14 – Andy)
• “This game feels like it’s for sickos.” (60:01 – Blessing, on Digimon)
• “The first evolution of the gun, it was a fox…and I appreciate it. I love this.” (58:43–59:08 – Andy/Blessing, on Digimon’s wild monster evolutions)
• “If this wasn’t Pokémon, we’d be dunking on this shit.” (53:14 – Blessing on Legends Z-A’s art)

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Segment Timestamps

• 00:07–05:00: Post-PAX return; community, Seattle, creator energy
• 05:00–08:03: Party anecdotes, Red Bull Creator Lounge, dev/industry mingling
• 14:59–20:54: Xbox event—Super Meat Boy 3D
• 20:58–30:58: High on Life 2—wild design, humor, creative boss fight
• 30:58–32:23: Xbox Ally X hardware hands-on
• 36:08–44:45: Kirby Air Riders—visuals, gameplay, and pricing debate
• 44:57–48:52: Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition (Switch 2) technical woes
• 48:57–53:38: Pokémon Legends Z-A real-time combat, art direction
• 53:38–62:47: Digimon Story Time: Stranger—gameplay, depth, Digimon’s identity crisis
• 66:15–71:44: Indie highlights (Crimson Desert, Rebounder, Never’s End)
• 77:23: Closing remarks and tease of next show

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Tone & Dynamics

• Candid, high-energy, and relentlessly playful: banter over cocktails, party faux-pas, and oddball gaming lore underscores deep love for games and community.
• Unfiltered criticism and giddy praise are delivered in natural, conversational language, often spiked with self-deprecating humor and affectionate ribbing.
• Notable for laughing through Digimon’s wildest monster concepts, and Blessing’s abrupt, genuine admiration for games like High on Life 2 and Digimon, contrasted with Andy’s precise, technical breakdowns.

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Takeaways for Non-Listeners

• Missed out on PAX? This cast distills all the buzz, oddities, standouts, and stumbles, serving up honest hands-on takes for anyone wondering where gaming—and games culture—is headed in late 2025.
• If you’re shopping for the next big obsession: Play Rebounder, keep an eye on High on Life 2, and don’t sleep on Digimon Story Time: Stranger.
• Want a nostalgia trip? Kirby Air Riders and Digimon both evoke the “only in games” vibe that’s equal parts baffling and brilliant.
• Expectations reset: Not everything is ready for primetime (Elden Ring on Switch 2, Legends Z-A’s art), but several surprises—especially on the indie side—signal a feast ahead.

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“You give a bunch of nerds Red Bull cocktails, you get the wildest hands-on at PAX.” (Paraphrasing the spirit of the cast)

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End of summary.

Transcript

[Andy Cortez]

Foreign.

[Tim Gettys]

What'S up? And welcome back to the Kind of Funny Games cast for Tuesday, September 9, 2025. Of course. I'm your host, Tim Gettys and I'm incredibly excited to welcome back to doing shows with me, Blessing adioa junior.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Good day, Tim.

[Tim Gettys]

You in Seattle?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I was in Seattle for a long time for like a week and a half.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Crazy man. You're there for packs, you're there for fun. Just having a good old time, just.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Hanging out and I'm happy to be back. Yeah, it was nice to be away. I think I needed the break. It's nice to like have time off of content to then realize like, oh man, when you do multiple podcasts every single weekday, you kind of like, it kind of wears down on you a little bit.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And then you come, you go away, you come back and it's like, oh, I got energy now. Oh yeah, I'm ready to talk about video games.

[Tim Gettys]

Let's do. I can't wait to hear about the games because you played a bunch of packs.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yes.

[Tim Gettys]

So that's gonna be fun. That's what we're talking about today. We're also joined by another beautiful motherfucker that was at PAX West, Andy Cortez.

[Andy Cortez]

Hello, Tim, how are you? I'm fantastic. Great to see you. So, so excited to have Blessing back. And he got his magic cards and he's. I think that's what's adding to a lot of the excitement. And magic cards did a lot.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, I, I, I did the thing where I flew back on Friday. I landed at like 1pm and I went home and then came straight to the office cuz I heard that the cards delivered just so I can like I wasn't even coming to work. I was just like here to pick up the cards. I appear. I popped on stream for like a second. I was like, I'm going home with these cards though. I got to open these. I got, I got to start deck building.

[Tim Gettys]

You got it.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh man. And I'm going to Magicon later in the month.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

What a time.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh, overall, how was Seattle?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Seattle was fun. Seattle is a really good time. Pax. PAX is so dope. I'm sure me and Andy are going to just talk a lot about the event itself, but like it feels like PAX is back. Right? Like going there, seeing like, you know, I registered so I was originally just going for vacation. I have family at pax. Right. Or family in Seattle. I was going in at pax, so I was going to Seattle just to Spend the week. But when I saw that PAX was coinciding with that, I was like, well, I might as well attend pax. And then I was like, well, I'm here, so I might as well. Like, I started seeing emails for appointments and stuff. So I was like, oh, well, you know, there's a thing happening. I might as well play this Nintendo game. I might as well go to this Xbox thing. And then it just turned into a work trip at first, before my vacation. But overall, like, Seattle as a city, I so fucking love. Like, I. It's funny because whenever I talk, talk to people about Seattle, people's main complaints are the weather. And then, like, people in Seattle can be a bit depressed sometimes. Like, there's this thing called the Seattle Freeze.

[Tim Gettys]

And you're like, these are my people.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And I'm like, yo, these are my people. I fuck with Seattle lights. Like, you know, that's my. That's my type of energy. I also love the rain. I also love the Seattle summer where it's amazing. And so it was just nice to be there. But yeah, PAX itself, I think, was just super fun to be at. Andy, was that your first packs?

[Andy Cortez]

No, it was my first PAX west since I shared a sense. Yeah, since 2016, since my first password. PAX works when I PAX wex pass west when I. When I shared a pack pack. When I shared a hotel room with Kevin Coelho and he let me just sleep on the couch over there in the cup chair.

[Tim Gettys]

I remember those days so well. Like, it's insane like that. Those moments are seared into my brain like that PAX 2016, like, was such a special, special time. But yeah, man, crazy, crazy times. I'm happy you're saying it's back, though.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah. And like, to be fair, like, I think there are certain things, like the indie mega booth wasn't there. And I think that was the key thing that felt like it was missing was like, man, where is. The indie games are still in that area. But, like, the mega booth, I think really brought a different energy and a different kind of extra extravagance to the indie, like, presentation in that big area. But even without that, like, walking around, like, seeing how many people were out, seeing how many people see how many companies were like, you know, doing previews and like, you know, the energy was there. It was a really fun time. I also enjoyed, like, they had. Andy, did you visit the Red Bull Creator Lounge?

[Andy Cortez]

I did, and it was in the building that I forgot existed until the final day.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Well, and that's because this is a new building. That building only opened, I think, during the pandemic.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And so now for the Seattle Convention center, they have like the arch, which is the building that was always there. And now they've added a new building which is the summit. And so it's expanded now. And now they moved all the panels and like the tabletop stuff to the summit.

[Andy Cortez]

It was so far away, Tim.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, like, it was like two blocks.

[Andy Cortez]

But. Yeah, but like. But like, I just kind of kept on walking. Like there was. There were several buildings in between that you would think would be other stuff, but there's not. It was just like, that's fast. It was so bizarre. And when I walked over that, I was like, oh, my God, I forgot this whole thing existed. This is where the Red Bull creator lounge is. And I really just needed to, like, sit down because I had. I was in between appointments. I was like, what do I gotta, like, I gotta do? I go back to the hotel. What am I going to do in between now and then? So I went to that Red Bull creator lounge, got a little forget what the drink they gave me. Like, was it the pica Colada?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Because that's what I.

[Andy Cortez]

That's the one.

[Tim Gettys]

Pica colada.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

So the Red Bull creator lounge was. It was like a media slash content creator, like, specified area that was sponsored by Red Bull in collaboration with Peak. And so you go in there and it's just all Red Bull in Peak. If you saw any creator posting pictures with like a Peak photo op that was there, it was in the creator lounge.

[Tim Gettys]

I would have sworn it was Pikachu.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

No.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, no. Nintendo will come after them.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah. No, it is Peak, the $5 video game friend slob thing that we all love. But the Pica colada spelled Peak. A colada was a Red Bull cocktail. Because at the Red Bull creator lounge, they were making Red Bull cocktails.

[Tim Gettys]

There's nothing worse than giving a bunch of nerds Red Bull cocktails.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, my gosh. I mean, come on. You're favorite thing on the planet where everything. Every day I drink a mixture of liquid IV and water. 70% and 30% of Monster Energy drink. Like, I love mixing.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

So.

[Andy Cortez]

So like when I walked up there and they're like, well, we have Red Bull, but we also. I was like, whoa, what? What are in these little pictures right here? And they're like, well, this is lemonade. And that's whatever. I was like, oh, my God, put whatever you want in here. So they like. So they put some lemonade in the. In the Red Bull. It. It. It's what I needed. It was what I needed.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

What I needed to. Not alcoholic. So, like, it wasn't. It wasn't like that. But yeah, I ordered the pica colada, and it tasted like a pina colada with Red Bull. And it was really good.

[Tim Gettys]

Okay.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

So good that I came back multiple days after just to get my. My fill.

[Tim Gettys]

I love that.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah. Shout out to the Red Bull creator lounge. Shout out to the creators of Peak. I hung out with them for a second when I was there.

[Andy Cortez]

Shout out to also the. The Peak party. Because I meant to Daniel Mullins, creator of Inscription, hanging out there. I was like, holy, you're awesome. And it was Victoria who introduced us.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh, cool.

[Andy Cortez]

Because she was like, you want to go say, I don't know. I work next to his, like, desk every day.

[Tim Gettys]

That's awesome.

[Andy Cortez]

Victoria from Inner Sloth.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Was that. Was that Friday night?

[Andy Cortez]

Thursday night? Okay, Thursday night, I was gonna say.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Because I was also.

[Andy Cortez]

Friday night. It was Friday night.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Was that the one where I invited you to the Larian party but you're asleep?

[Andy Cortez]

That was Saturday night. And then I was texting. I was texting Blessing. Like, I didn't realize I texted him back that many times until the morning. I was like, whoa. I was like half asleep while I was texting you. Well, I was like, see you. Yeah, sounds great, man.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Where's the address?

[Andy Cortez]

And I woke up. I don't remember sending this.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

That's so funny, because I was all.

[Tim Gettys]

The Red Bull, man.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

So you. So that was at the Peak party that I had.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

The Saturday night at the Larian party, which I invited you to, but you were asleep. Victoria was also there, and she introduced me to the developer of A Thousand X Resist.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, cool.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And, like, people who worked on Astroneer as well. Which Astroneer had a gigantic booth.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, Very, very.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

You would have thought that Astroneer was like Subnautica, like, the greatest. It might be, honestly, I don't know. But, like, it was like, one of the biggest booths on the show floor. So shout out Astroneer. I didn't know they're doing it like that.

[Tim Gettys]

I know we're jumping all around here, mainly talking about your PAX adventures. We're going to talk about all the games. But a big thing happened while you were gone. Bless. A little game called Hollow Knight, Silksong came out. Have you been able to get your hands on it at all?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

No, the first time I got my hands on Silksong was yesterday and only. Only for like 10 minutes. I, I think during PAX once I saw the wave coming through of like the, the Silksong hype, everybody getting into it and like, for me just being on vacation, not having time to actually like, play it, I, I think I kind of gave up and was like, well, I didn't really vibe with Hollow Knight like the first one. And so maybe I'll just skip Silksong. And then yesterday, Barrett, I think even Roger looked at me, maybe even Andy who looked at me and they were like, you got to play Silksong like you're going to with Silksong. And so I booted it up. I've not gotten deep into it, but I want to play it. It's also the tough thing of we have Ghost of Yote, Hell Is Us is out, which I don't even think I'm going to get to touch more of that. I played that for like, like maybe an hour.

[Andy Cortez]

I can't wait to get back to Hell's Us. That game seems really cool. That game is awesome.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And then there are even more games that like, are out that I really want to play. So juggling those games is gonna be tough. But I've been convinced that I'm at the very least before the end of the year, I want to play through Hollow Knight. Silksong.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah. I'm 13 hours in and in a couple days I have a like over 10 hour flight and I can't fucking wait.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh, my God.

[Tim Gettys]

I'm just kidding. This is all I'm doing. I'm gonna have my fucking X reels. Oh, my God, baby. It's gonna be fucking awesome.

[Andy Cortez]

Dude on deck. Oh, yeah. Oh.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh, yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

It's clicking. Better for you than the first holiday.

[Tim Gettys]

It very much is. And mainly because, like, it's a Metroidvania. From the jump, like it feels way more, you know, where you're going and maybe that'll change throughout the game. Like, I'm not that far into it. It's brutal as plus. Yeah, it's brutal, but you could do it.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, brutal. Like I, I, if I'm enjoying the experience, then I'll do brutal all day. Yeah. Hollow Knight 1 was one where I was like, I'm just getting lost. I'm getting a little frustrated. And then the brutality on top of that.

[Tim Gettys]

It is very much though, make me want to complete this and then go back to the first one.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh, hell yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

So it's selling me very hard. Loving it. Bear beat the game. Very impressive.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

43 hours. Yeah. I was stuck on A fight for like nine hours. Well, the game just came out.

[Tim Gettys]

He was sick.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I don't know. Yeah, I was sick on Thursday and Friday.

[Andy Cortez]

I was sick on launch day and Friday and so. And I was still in bed most of Saturday. So it was just laying in bed, having Andy stream on and playing at the same time.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Hell yeah. That's awesome.

[Tim Gettys]

And you have, do you have any updated thoughts on it? I know you've been talking a lot about it, so we don't need to dwell.

[Andy Cortez]

No, I mean, I just played a little bit more last night, you know, discovering kind of going back to certain areas now that new abilities have been unlocked and going, oh, that was a place that I didn't have a wall grab. And now I do. So let me see what's up here. And just all that stuff is really neat. And again, it's one of those things where coming across NPCs that you spoke to early on in the game and then you go back and things have changed. And so it's like I, I love when, I love getting the update on. Like, oh, you got divorced now. Damn. Damn, dude, that's tough. Like, sorry I asked you about your wife or whatever. Like, I just love hearing that sort of. And then seeing the items that they may give you now because of certain conditions that were met. Like, really, really awesome.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, good stuff. Remember everyone, 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, please support us with the kind of funny membership. It gets you the shows ad free and it gets you a daily exclusive. Greg Way. Today's Greg Way is kind of fun. It's me and my brother talking about he beat a video game. His first video game since Concrete Genie.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Wow.

[Tim Gettys]

Goosebumps. Oh, and the something of something. It's a very cool Greg game, but you can check out the Greg Way for the whole experience there for it. But like he loved it so much he's going back. He's trying to. What do you, what do you call.

[Andy Cortez]

What a Xbox Platinum.

[Tim Gettys]

You know what I mean? The thousand gamers, like whatever, 100% not cool, man. We got to figure that out also.

[Andy Cortez]

Tim, please. It's Goosebumps.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Terror in Little Creek.

[Tim Gettys]

Terror in Little Creek. There we go. Yeah, check that out. If you are a kind of funny member for a chance to be part of this show, submit your thoughts and opinions as YouTube super chats. As we Go. A little housekeeping for you. We're an 11 person business all about live talk shows. Games daily already covered the Hollow Knight Silk song patch. That's making the game a little easier. After this games cast, it's going to be Alien Romulus in review once again. Returning to avp. It's going to be a great time. You're going to hear your favorite song. Come on, rejoice. Then the stream is going to be Mike revealing the real truth behind NBA 2K micro transactions. Oh, I swear to God. He was just right there.

[Andy Cortez]

He was too long.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

We were going to play Garfield Cart.

[Tim Gettys]

Tim got it. Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And then he realized that that game's not out.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, sick.

[Tim Gettys]

Okay. Yeah, yeah. He also grabbed me right before the show started. He was like, Tim, I got housekeeping for you. I'm going to do this. I'm like, just come out and say it. I think we just took too long. But he has a fun thing planned. I don't, I didn't fully understand what he's saying but it's Mike and there's a calculator and there's NBA 2K. So I think he's trying to figure out how much. I'm not sure. But it's going to be a fun stream. Stay tuned. Mike's up to something.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

You know, it was a, it was a funny morning because as I was prepping khd, right? Like it was Mike, Roger, Barrett and Greg that were in the office. And I think it was Barrett that came out and was like, hey, the Digimon file's too big. And we're like, ah, damn. All right, cool. Well we just. And Roger's like, what the fuck is happening? What do you mean the Digimon files is too big? And like right off of that, Mike comes out of the fucking streaming room and was like, garfield's not out, guys. I was like, only in this fucking office are these the random chirps.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh my God.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Thank you to our fake chirps. We're good at GTA conversations, aren't you?

[Tim Gettys]

Thank you to our Patreon producers, Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster and Delaney the Psalm twining. Today we're brought to you by Shady Rays and Factor, but we'll tell you about that later. For now, let's start with the topic of the show. It's Blessing and Andy's packs roundup. We're about a week removed from PAX we had on the wait till Bless was all back and gamed in, gamed out. So we had some things to say starting with the Xbox event. Just giving you all a little, like, kind of top level here. Y' all got to play Super Meat Boy 3D, high on Life 2 and a little bit of Hollow Knight Silk Song on the Xbox Ally X. So that's mainly what I want to hear.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Those are my two things. Andy. I don't know what else you had to play the Xbox thing or.

[Andy Cortez]

Same things. I played the same stuff as he did.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah. Nice.

[Tim Gettys]

And then at the Nintendo event y' all got to go to, you played Kirby Air Riders, some Elden Ring, Tarnished Edition, some Pokemon Legends are.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah. And then more Silk Song there too.

[Tim Gettys]

Digimon Story Time, Stranger as well. You got to get to. And then some other things that. Oh, the. The Capcom games. Randy.

[Andy Cortez]

Whole.

[Tim Gettys]

Whole bunch of stuff that we're going to touch on today. Let's start, though, with Super Meat Boy 3D.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Andy, did you play this one?

[Andy Cortez]

I did.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Nice. I also played this one.

[Andy Cortez]

Very cool.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Really fun video game. It's. It was. It's exactly what you expect from Super. Super Meat Boy 3D. And like, I think it's the exact quality expect at the same time. I think that's the big thing for me where you hop in. It is the fast pace of Super Meat Boy. It is you trying to hit these perfect, perfectly timed runs, doing the precise jumps, the precise, like, wall jumps and stuff to get to the end of the level. The levels. The levels are very, like, quick, you know, like, if you on a successful run, you might finish a level in like 15 to 20 seconds. Right. It's that kind of thing. I had a really fun time with this. My only. I only have, like, two small nitpicks slash complaints. One, being there is, like, a mechanic. That's a wall ride thing where you can kind of like glide against a wall. That. That feels weird. They're. They're doing it right here in the video. If you're watching the. The video version, I thought that felt kind of like slippery in a way that I didn't love for. For a platformer that needs to be, like, as precise as possible.

[Andy Cortez]

You're wet meat, though. But. Yeah, I. I know what you mean. Yeah, exactly.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Like. Yeah. And then. Oh, well, it was there. I didn't see many of the replays where you would see all your different little meat boys.

[Andy Cortez]

I didn't see any of that either. I'm not sure. Maybe that was a feature that wasn't on. Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah. Maybe it was like off the menus or it wasn't ready for the build, but it looked like they did in the trailer. So maybe that's not a thing. But aside from that, I had a blast playing this.

[Andy Cortez]

I thought they perfectly translated the. I don't want to say floatiness, because that's always. That's kind of a pejorative. I would go with, like, feel of glide. Yeah. The 2D. That sort of 2D gliding feel of. Of Meat Boy, I thought was perfectly Translated to this 3D world. You're dealing with an extra dimension, and it's a little bit tougher to kind of not only hit the things that are above and to the right of you, but now you got to see where your little drop shadow is. Wherever you're going to be landing down. It is. It was perfectly frustrating enough.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

And that's what you want out of Super Meat Boy.

[Tim Gettys]

What's cool about. I mean, I'm so stoked about this. This looks awesome in here. You guys say that it plays the way that it should. That's all I need to hear. But something I really love about it compared to Super Meat Boy, the original ones is just the kind of, like, color set even of the stages. Like, I feel like super meat boy, the 2D version, for the most part, the worlds are very, like gray and concrete, and there's just like a lot of that, like, dull. And you're the red standing out. This is very colorful. Like, there's. There's a lot more, like, astrobot looking areas here, which is cool.

[Andy Cortez]

I thought a lot more visually interesting, for sure. The color palettes being used in the different levels, whether it's super lush green forests that you've seen in a lot of different video games, just great saturation on those. But then some kind of more lava factory levels that you would see in the old school games, but with a lot of, like, good lighting and. And, you know, of fire, like forges and things like that. I thought. I thought the game looked really.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah. It's funny seeing the footage of the original there because. Yeah, the original looks, I think, even more drab based off of the. The or compared to the vibrancy of Super Meat Boy 3D. Like, I. I think you guys hit the nail on the head as far as. Especially how the. The lighting, I think, elevates, like, how good everything looks. This is one there. I didn't want to put my controller down. The demo was only, I think, 10 minutes.

[Andy Cortez]

They cut you off.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, they cut you off. But also, I liked that in the demo because that created this feeling of I want more. Yeah. Like, I want more. But Then also I got to get to the end of this level. I got to maybe, I don't know, level six or level seven. And it was a level that was so fucking frustrating. But it did the super Meat boy repetitive play thing of, oh, I'm getting further and further. Oh, I'm figuring out the timing. But there was whatever first jump was on this level. They were like, they had like projectiles, you know, coming towards you and you had to like jump and land perfectly in like this box that would take you down and then you would have to like do it again while there's like saw blades and shit coming at you. And when I tell you that shit killed me maybe like 15 times in the course of like 30 seconds, like, I just kept up that first jump over and over and over again. But it's the perfect, like. All right, what's the adjustment? I know these levels are made for speedrunning, so there's something I got to do in the first, like, you know, first second of how I position myself that's going to get me that perfect thing and I found it. And then it's a race to. Okay, how do I beat this before this fucking demo expires?

[Tim Gettys]

Love that.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I wasn't able to do it again for you, the meta games for me, and I wasn't able to beat that level.

[Tim Gettys]

But she'll be back.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

That's the thing is I was like, I was like, should I come back and play this demo again just so I can beat this level? And for me that's the telltale sign of. Okay, no, got something here. This is a fun game.

[Tim Gettys]

That's awesome. Barry, can you bring up the trailer one more time? Because one thing that I really love, that this game's doing that a lot of modern 3D platformers have started doing, is where you are going to land on the floor, there's like a circle that, that is showing you like your landing point, which I is so important, especially for these kind of like semi isometric 3D platformers. Just because it's. You never fully know where you're going to land. And that was always a big problem during like their PS1 and PS2 days of things. So I love that this has been, I feel like a fairly standardized thing these days. So.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, yeah, it's usually in the form of a drop shadow, but if there's no ground beneath you, then you don't have a drop shadow. So this thing is just kind of a ring for audio listeners. It's just a lit up color ring that Is, I would say, like two units below you, based on however you're measuring the. The way the world design is. Yeah, I think it looks awesome.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

And it felt really, really neat.

[Tim Gettys]

Moving on from Super Meat Boy 3D. High on life two.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Tim.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I think this is my game of the show.

[Andy Cortez]

Wow.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And I wasn't expecting this.

[Tim Gettys]

Remind me about you with High on Life one.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I really liked High on Life one. I. I like. I'm somebody who. I'm not, like, the biggest Rick and Morty fan by any means, Right. I'm not out here doing, you know, dances in McDonald's over the Szechuan sauce or whatever. But, like, you know, I like Rick and Morty and I like that type of humor. In High on Life one, I liked Fine, right? Like, if I was to give it a score, I'd probably say, like 7.5 or something like that. Right. Like, it's in that realm of. Okay, I enjoyed that. I played this. I laughed at this. I like the improv style, like, dumbass meta humor here. This works for me. But I. When they announced High on Life two, I wasn't like, over the moon one, because I didn't feel like I really needed more High on Life. But then also, I just found it really interesting of a decision because Justin Roiland isn't back working on this one, and I'm like, okay. Well, I felt like he was the voice and, like, the vision of what.

[Andy Cortez]

This series is squanch games, you know.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Like, he's part of the identity of, like, I think what has made their games that. And so I figured if they're going to continue making games, maybe you see a different direction. Maybe you see them do a different series, them announcing High on Life too. I was like, oh, okay, cool. They're sticking with it. Let's see what this is. And what we got here was something that I thought, in many ways, I think is leveling up on what they did with the original High on Life. Like, the talk about it mechanically, first they introduce a few new things. One of the things, one of the big things that I like that I didn't realize was, I guess I didn't internalize during the original reveal of it, was that you have a skateboard in this game. And it's one of the core mechanics of, like, you press the sprint button and it immediately activates you skating on this.

[Andy Cortez]

Skateboarding. Yeah, yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

In first person. And you can, like, if you're skating on it and you press, like, the melee button, you'll, like, kick the Skateboard. Skateboard up at whatever opponent that you're aimed at. They have, like, grinds and, like, you know, walls that you can grind on for platforming challenges and stuff. And it feels really fun in first person. Shockingly, the. This demo starts you off at. I think it's called Parking Con, which is a convention for people that love parking.

[Tim Gettys]

And so you give this to Nick.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Scarvino, you skydive into Parking Con, and you are met with hordes of enemies that are taking up parking spaces. And you have to take. You have to take out the enemies that are on those parking spaces. So you can find a parking spot.

[Andy Cortez]

For your homies who are trying to park. Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And every time you do, another car pulls up real quick and steals the spot. And so you had to then go to the next spot to hear the.

[Andy Cortez]

Guy be like, oh, damn it. I was just about to get in there.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

It was like three or four times. It was funnier each time. Like, that shit really worked on me. But then, like, after you get through. Through that, you're then learn that you're trying to kill Muppy do, who is a senator, and there's, like, a pharmaceutical company that's turning people into pills and shit.

[Andy Cortez]

Muppy do, voiced by Richard Kind.

[Tim Gettys]

No.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Shit.

[Andy Cortez]

It's the Richard Kind. It's amazing. Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Everybody's live with John Mulaney, and, like.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

You want to talk about voice acting, right?

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, my goodness.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

You. You also come across a new gun in the game called Sheath, who is voiced by Ralph Innison, who.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Okay. So they're going for it.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yes.

[Tim Gettys]

All right. Hell, yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Who's, like, fucking awesome, too. Like, he's like a bounty hunter who's also looking for Muppy do to take him out, which, by the way, recently.

[Andy Cortez]

Learned his name is pronounced Einson.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Einson.

[Andy Cortez]

Einson. Because he pronounced it in a video where he was doing, like, a Bloober Team fucking Chronos sponsored thing, right? He was like, hello, I'm Ralph Einson. And I was like, oh, damn.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And if you don't know Ralph Einson, he's. He's in Final Fantasy 16. He's Galactus. Oh, yeah, that's a. You know what? That's a. He's also Galactus. And so, yeah, you get him as a gun and, like, he has, like, a cool harpoon move where he will magnetize the enemies and then we'll blow them up all at the same time. And that was really fun.

[Andy Cortez]

That move is so much fun. Bless. Like, I had such a blast. You throw this like pike at an enemy and it sticks in them. And if you see another enemy, you throw a pike at that enemy and the first enemy sticks to them. And then you'll see a third dude throw the other pike and th. Those two dudes will then magnetize to the third guy. And you get them all grouped up, explode them with that little. There's like a target in the front that's like a big red balloon. You shoot that, it explodes, hurts them all. It's. Man, it was really fun.

[Tim Gettys]

That's cool.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Like just as a first person shooter, I was like, I'm having a blast with this.

[Tim Gettys]

What you just said kind of sounds like a first person ratcheting clank almost of just like, like weird ass weapons like that you're using in fun ways. Like.

[Andy Cortez]

That's a good comparison.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I think that's a great comparison, honestly. You then end up at Murder Con, which is a convention for people that love murder.

[Tim Gettys]

Okay.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And you go there and like, it's fucking awesome because yeah, you go there and everybody fucking loves murder. And then they start this like, arena situation where everybody's trying to kill each other to then level up on a leaderboard.

[Andy Cortez]

It looks like laser tag.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

It looks like laser tag.

[Andy Cortez]

All neon and everything, but almost kind.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Of feels like unreal tournament to an extent where you're just going around killing people and then you see your name go like higher and higher and higher. And like, that was a really fun segment. Just an extended, hey, let's just kill everything. And like your weapons were arguing over like, no, I want to kill. No, I want like, you're Ralph Einson INN bounty hunter dude is like, oh, I want to kill. And then your knife is like, no, I want to murder. And so you would get more points based off of like, which one you were using. Yeah. All in all, I had a fantastic time. I was laughing. There's like a lot of funny bits. The final boss fights that you do in this demo, you fight Muppy Doo and he has this thing where he shrinks down and he has like a, like a. Is it like a shield where if you shoot him or. No, it's not even a shield. I think he like uses his like minions as defense where you would shoot him and like his like little minions would like pop out or whatever. It was kind of weird.

[Andy Cortez]

He kept on Ant man shrinking.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yes.

[Andy Cortez]

And eventually he jumps into you, the player.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh no.

[Andy Cortez]

And your AI that's controlling you is like, holy. He's breached in. He's into our systems. And then he Invades your settings menu. So you have to go to your settings menu to find him and locate him. And it is so cool and creative. And you end up. And then you see, like, the word settings that's above quit to menu will start to kind of vibrate. You're like, oh, that's where he is. And you hear him talking, so you go into that menu. And then, dude, at one point he hops into the audio menu and. And then he's just kind of fucking.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

With your whole ui, changes the language.

[Andy Cortez]

He goes into your audio menu and goes. He's hovering over NPC chirps. Like, the amount that maybe you don't want your NPC guns to be talking a lot. The chatter bar. So you could lower that. But he goes to the right of it, so you have to attack him. But you're raising the chatter bar. And then Ralph Einson's like, oh, it's a great day today. Here I am. And Ralph Einson is just, like, talking and chattering.

[Tim Gettys]

Really cool.

[Andy Cortez]

It was so damn creative. I was really kind of, you know, surprised by the depth they went into.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And this bit goes on for a while where you're starting off in the pause menu. You see now that he's in the PC menu. And it goes so far that you end up in a different game. You end up in, like, NES Bible Adventures.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh, wow, that's. That is quite the call out.

[Andy Cortez]

Yes, yes.

[Tim Gettys]

It's only, like, an angry video game nerd legend.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, it gets fucking crazy. And, yeah, like, this was one where I came out of it and I was like, okay, no, this game is in good hands. They also had this demo build was. They put work in it where the, I believe, the audio director of the game, they had interstitials where they're like, all right, we want to jump you forward to this other part. And so he would come through in, like, a little cut scene as, like, a little guy. And he's kind of doing, like a Morty impression, but not really Morty. He's, like, doing the Morty impression in all but, like, the voice doing, like.

[Andy Cortez]

Kind of any NPC in Rick and Morty, the TV show. Yeah, yeah. It's really, really cool. Oh, I hope you enjoyed that part. So this next part we're hoping you liked. But that last part, if it wasn't funny enough, we'll cut it. You know, it's. It's no problem if you don't like it. Yes. It was really. It was cute. Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Surprise. The show.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

So charming. Honestly, I'M surprised at the show for sure.

[Andy Cortez]

I enjoyed it. Even though they, you know, they're like keyboard or mouse and I looked at the keyboard mouse and it's like this just gear ain't what we need to be playing on. And also there was just like a lot of input lacks. So I decided to just play on controller because like these are like that's my dad's keyboard and mouse from back home. Like I like. Let's get the setup so let's show off your game the best way possible. And I do think the build was early on enough to where still very, very early in development. I. I feel like it's maybe a year away maybe. I'm not sure.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I think they've announced early 2026. Yeah, I think, I think we're getting in the next six months or so.

[Andy Cortez]

It felt very kind of like buggy and and you know, framing in some moments and they kept on saying like, damn it. The build earlier was not doing the shader compilation as much as as this one is. So I was dealing with some issues here and there.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

February 13th is.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh damn, it is dated.

[Andy Cortez]

I enjoyed it despite like the tech issues and despite playing on controller. I could tell it's going to feel like a really fun game to play on keyboard mouse with how twitchy it can be and just it just kind of felt like an on. Not an on rails shooter like because you're grinding a lot.

[Tim Gettys]

But yeah, just experience the movement of.

[Andy Cortez]

It all felt so much fun to be like, let me, let me go up this ramp, land on that grind to do the shoot. You shoot, jump down, shoot the skateboard out. Very, very active.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, very cool. Moving on from that. The last thing y' all saw at the Xbox event to talk about is the Xbox Ally X itself. Andy, I know you talked a little bit about it already and your experiences. I don't know if you have anything more to add, but bless. What were your first thoughts on playing this new handheld?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, sadly I don't have much to say about it because it was available with just Hollow Knight Silk Song playable and Hollow Knight Silksong is out. So I can't even say anything as far as like, oh man. Well, you guys know what that game is, but holding it, I like how it feels. I think the grip adds so much as far as how ergonomically nice it is to hold and play.

[Tim Gettys]

Now we have two people that are pro grip.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh, on this thing for sure.

[Tim Gettys]

Love this.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, that's a. That's a huge upgrade. But sadly I didn't get time with like the UI or booting up other games or whatever. And so I don't have much to say, but I first blush impressions. I really liked holding it. I like the Asus Rog ally as a machine. And so like, I like the ideas that they have as far as the Xbox integration and making it like more, I guess, Xbox central. As far as if you're somebody who is that is your ecosystem being able to make that, the centralized thing I think makes sense. And if that's something that appeals to you, then I think this is recommendable. We don't know what the price is. And so maybe that's the one thing still. And that's the one thing where I'm like, maybe the price is what really brings this thing down. I'm pretty sure it will be. But holding it, I was like, man, this seems fantastic. I would love to play on this thing long term.

[Tim Gettys]

Anything else, Andy?

[Andy Cortez]

No. It all just depends on, you know, me making the criminal mistake of not checking out them back paddles. I didn't check out those back buttons. I just didn't even think to do it. And also this experience was not us seeing the Xbox ui. It was just play the game. That's it.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

And we know that people at Gamescom got more of the Xbox ui, like kind of, you know, here's a walkthrough of how everything works. But yeah, I gotta recheck to see how those back battles look. Feel free to send me one if you all want to.

[Tim Gettys]

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[Tim Gettys]

Joey Radstone in the chat says, I remember in middle school, my computer class just consisted of kids taking the trackballs out of the mouse and throwing them at each other. That's awesome. I never heard of that.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I've never heard of that. But that reminds me of a question I heard posed the other day of Is there anything that you feel like with a golf club you could hit further than a golf ball? Like, is there, like. Like, is the golf ball the furthest thing you think you can hit with a golf club?

[Tim Gettys]

Because I think by design, right?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I don't think. Yeah, I was thinking real hard about.

[Tim Gettys]

I was like, yeah, yeah, the balls are like made to do that.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

What?

[Tim Gettys]

Did I just bounce those?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I feel like a PC trackball. I feel like that thing can go far. I don't know. I don't know.

[Tim Gettys]

We'll have to test it. Everybody, let's get to the next section. Nintendo, y' all did something I'm very jealous of. You have played Kirby Air Riders. I need to know what you thought.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

You were the first people at Pax west who got to play Kirby Air Riders behind closed doors. I don't know if that's even true. I'm just saying things, but like, for our session, we were. You know what I mean? Like, Nintendo invited us out at like. I forget the time was it 9:00am Yeah, 9:00am we showed up and like, me and. And we were part of, like, group A. It was us two. Logan Plant, I think, was in our group as well. And it was fun. We went in. Our demo was done in two parts, but actually like, kind of three parts because we had technical issues. The first part was us doing the. The like regular race mode. We did a race across two tracks. Is this track that you see here, which was like the first one they showed in the Nintendo Direct. And then also the other track where you had like the. The water splitting like Moses in the Bible. Those are the two tracks we got to do. And then afterwards we did city trials.

[Andy Cortez]

And we thought, waddle doo is Moses in this game? Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Kind of crazy. Let my people go. And I want to start with the Indy, because I'm curious on what you thought about it.

[Andy Cortez]

I really enjoyed my time, but I was awful at it.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I.

[Andy Cortez]

There was also. Tim, there was so many colors.

[Tim Gettys]

It's fast, man.

[Andy Cortez]

It was furious. It was the fastest thing. Also, do not ever pick fucking meta Knight if you want to turn your vehicle ever. Dude's the slowest piece of shit on the planet. Like, God damn, I hated this dude. The game was really tough and very chaotic, and it was a lot for me that early in the morning, just there was so much happening. The. My. My eyes started to kind of burn with all the colors that were happening, all the turning, the explosions. It was the. It was like an overabundance, and you'd get the overwhelming feeling of like, oh, my God, there's so much happening right now. I don't know what to concentrate on. But that being said, I want to. I want to play more and I want to get into it and I want to see what the actual Strats are because I was driving around. Good Lord knows what buttons I was hitting. I was hitting, like, every wrong one possible at every possible time.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

But it was. It was still, like, super intriguing and I enjoyed mid match selecting the certain challenges you want to do that are maybe only, you know, maybe good for you because it's like targeting. You know, you could do that target practice thing.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh, for sea trials.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. The. The. The city trial itself was a. In my opinion, the. The star of the show. Even though it was. I was somehow worse at that than I was at the racing.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah. I. I think I echo a lot of what you say. One of the things that the. My. One of my first notes here is that just that it's chaotic as shit right like there's so much happening on screen. That said, I think this game is absolutely gorgeous. Like whenever I see the Moses water splitting the sea, let my people go. Right. It looks so good to just look at. I think it's a beautiful video game, but then playing it is so chaotic. I do think it's fun though. Like I, I kind of like how different and weird it is. They at the, at the demo described it as a vehicle action game, which I'm like, okay, cool, you guys are sticking with this. You're not saying Kart racer. It is a vehicle action game. And I understand why they say it like that. Right. Because City Trial is being a big thing. It's not about racing. And then also, even when we are doing the racing, there is something that's way more, I think just about like the moment to moment chaotic shit that's happening as opposed to like picking up an item and then throwing it at somebody else. Right. Like you are sucking up the enemies that are on screen. You are, you know, activating your special abilities. You are, I think, being a bit more active in like, I don't know if strategic is the right word, but like there's a difference.

[Tim Gettys]

You have time to be strategic.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, there's like a different level of interaction here that I get out of the traditional kart racers that, that I would play. Right.

[Andy Cortez]

I'll tell you what I was real bad at bless, was the, the melee of just moving the left stick.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

That didn't make sense to me.

[Andy Cortez]

Hated it.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

You waggle the left stick, like, which.

[Andy Cortez]

Is what you're using to melee, which is what you're using to race. Like, I was so bad at it. I hated the concept of it. If anything, I just wanted to waggle the controller like how you in Super Mario Galaxy you waggle the control and all the little star bits come to you. I just wanted to do that or something. But like the stick you're using to control your character, when you see an enemy in front of you, you go left and right, left and right, and it does the melee and it just didn't feel right. I hated the feeling of it. And my left thumb just didn't feel like. That's the thumb that should be doing this. It should have been the right, I think. Yeah, yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And so super chaotic. Even with the two races that we did, I was like, man, I might need more time with this to really understand the depth of this video game. Like what you're doing moment to moment. It just feels like a lot.

[Tim Gettys]

Yes. So you guys didn't play the original one. I know you guys traditionally aren't necessarily the biggest Kirby people, and this type of game isn't going to necessarily speak to the two of you. Maybe now that you've played it.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Knowing that we're probably only gonna get one Nintendo code for. For this.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Right.

[Tim Gettys]

Did you enjoy it enough to be like, I'm gonna buy this?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh, absolutely not.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And that's the thing is, like, I think this game is fun. I would buy this at like, a $30. I would buy this at like a $40 even. I think after playing City Trial, which we should talk. Talk about a little deeper, I came out of this mode being like, damn, that was really fun. I really want to play more of this. But I wasn't, for me, I wasn't actually completely sold on, like, on it conceptually as being something that would last me a long time that I'm playing. Right. Like, I want to. I want to jump into this and do a few city trials on a stream or with friends or online. I don't know if this didn't feel as, I guess, solid enough for me to be like, oh, dude, I'm playing Sea trials every day for the next two months, or anything like that. And I think for me, it is the thing of I. For CD trials, I like the open zone. We're racing to collect the stat boosts, the stickers that you see on screen. And then we're doing the, like, live events that happen in the moment, Right. Where, oh, shit's falling from the sky, or, oh, there's a. You know, all the stickers are gigantic now. Like, I liked City Trials when you're in the city, but then when you go into the mini games and it's all right now, choose which minigame you want to do. I. I was thrown off by the fact that we're not doing the minigames together. That was actually a thing that really surprised groups.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Like, there's four choices, and whatever choice you make, that's the minigame you're doing. And so for us, we're playing with. I guess that's the thing also is, like, we're playing with four people. There's 12 NPCs over, or there's 12 players overall, I should say, for this thing.

[Andy Cortez]

But if two people pick the same minigame, then don't they go together?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Okay.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Okay. So basically, between those four mini games, that's dividing everybody up. And for the minigames that I was in, I was like, I guess with the four of us Right. I was like, okay, cool. Like me, Andy, Logan and I forget the fourth person but we, our fourth person all chose different mini games. And so I was like, all right, cool. Now I just feel segmented from like a portion of the people that I was playing with.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, that seems, that seems to be common criticism from the people that played at Gamescom as well.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Really? Okay.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. I would have loved for, for it to have been a mix. You do one group, one. Because I also, I didn't mind the, the solo thing because it did feel kind of cool to go, all right. I, I popped off in my minigame. I want to see how everybody else did there. There was that kind of cool like mystery nature to figuring out where everybody is going to be on the leaderboard after you come out of that. Those minigames. But I agree that I, I feel like at least one of them should have been with everybody because the way that this video made it seem. And I don't know if maybe I'm the only one who, you know, was com. Confused by the, you know, how they were describing it, but it did feel like, well, you want to go for this mini game because maybe that's bad for your teammate. And I was like, oh, I see the strat there. Like maybe everybody votes for this minigame based on speed and if that one guy is based on, you know, weight and power, then that's going to screw him over. But then he wouldn't even go in that minigame if he chooses something else. So it kind of. I don't know that that threw me off for sure.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah. That said though, like again, it's fun, like it's quick fun. It's almost like arcade fun. You know what I mean? Like when you go to an arcade and it's me and my friends are gonna play this game in the moment and it's a really good time. It just didn't feel like depth filled fun and I think that's just the kind of game this is. And that's fine. But also, yeah, to your question, I wouldn't pay $70 for this.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah. Which is what it costs.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Moving on from Kirby Air Riders and you have already talked about this as well, but we got at least touch on it. And bless. I don't know if you got your hands on Elden Ring tarnished edition on the switch too.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. Running rough, not great. Played on the tv. I probably should have played on handheld as well or maybe gone for handheld first but wasn't a very smooth experience. Definitely didn't even feel like I was averaging 30 frames per second. It really felt like I was, like, 25 and below. It was pretty damn rough, especially in a game that requires such quick reflexes. And the more frames you have, the faster the game recognizes your button input, because there are more opportunities to recognize your button input. And, yeah, it was. It was a rough time. I think that they were maybe going for, let's. Let's go for better visual quality, and maybe they need to tone that down to then try to get us more frames.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Possibly.

[Andy Cortez]

I'm not sure exactly. Nobody knows what's happening with FromSoftware and their technical team because their games rarely ever come out, you know, and. And run perfectly on any device, the. You know, regardless of how strong your machines are. But, yeah, wasn't an awesome experience. But it was still, you know, I was like, I played this game a million times. I'm just gonna try to take down the Tree Sentinel with the new class. So they have a couple new classes that start off with Erdtree weapons, which was. Which is the dlc, which was kind of surprising. One of the new classes they introduced that you could start off with was kind of like a knight character. And you start off if you. If, you know, ball starts off with a Milady, which is a kind of like, this sword that you eventually hold out. And it's just, like, really fast and awesome to use. Couldn't be the Tree Sentinel with it, but I was getting close. If you gave me, like, 10 more tries, I would have gotten there because I was getting, like, below 50 health. It was just really tough to kind of. I was like, I hit dodge there. It just didn't read it in time, unfortunately. So I needed you to go after.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Margit, because that was the thing where I. I did the demo and I did it on TV first, and I came back later and tried it a little bit on the handheld. But I. As I was playing the demo, I was like, well, I might as well go for Margit. And as I was doing it, the Nintendo/Bandai PR reps that were there.

[Andy Cortez]

Did you get in the horse? Did you get on?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh, did I. I think I did. Yes, I did. I did get on the horse.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

They were like, oh, nobody's ever, like, beaten Margit in this demo build. Because the demo build, it's another timed one where it cuts off after 15 minutes. And so as soon as it said that, I was like, all right, bet. And then I, like, I beelined for Margit, and I beat Margit with, like, Two minutes to spare. And they're like, damn, you're the first. And I was like, I gotta get Andy to like, do this too so he can like claim that crown. But like, you know, Tree Sentinel, it's cool too.

[Andy Cortez]

Try to do Tree Sentinel. You know, that's cool too.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

You know, not all of us can, you know. Yeah, I'm just kidding. But yeah, I echo everything Andy said. I think I was expecting it to be worse, though.

[Andy Cortez]

Did you do handheld or tv?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Tv. Okay, TV first. Then I came back and did handheld a little bit. Handheld, I think felt better than tv. I think because of the smaller screen. Some of the visual stuff just didn't feel as aggressively bad. But even on TV, the frame rate for sure felt sub 30. But I, I think I expected it to be worse. Based off of the Gamescom previews, I wouldn't be surprised if this build was like, was like slightly like tweaked or slightly better based off.

[Andy Cortez]

I had heard rumors from people that this was an updated build from the Gamescom build, but you could have fooled me. I would have assumed this. Like, to me, this was as bad as you can have a game this big from a company that large running on a, you know, one of the biggest companies consoles. Like, it was just not very, very subpar. Not what you want. Yeah, I would say hate that.

[Tim Gettys]

Let's move on to Pokemon Legends. Zah. Did both of you play?

[Andy Cortez]

Yes.

[Tim Gettys]

I imagine you both played the same 10ish minute demo that Greg did.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, it's the same exact one. It's two segments, both about 10 minutes long.

[Andy Cortez]

And I loved it.

[Tim Gettys]

Tell me more.

[Andy Cortez]

I loved it. I mean, I just love the active sort of, you know, everything being cooldown based and not turn based necessarily. And I wonder how that progresses and if you can make certain moves have a faster cooldown. It just, it just felt really, really cool. And you know, say what you want about the art style, I. I don't mind the art style of the newer Pokemon games. It was always just the art style and the hardware it's running on that was the biggest drawback. But man, it was just so nice seeing it look so crisp and running at 60. It. It's just like, oh, this is what I've wanted. Like, finally we have. We've kind of. We've hit the summit. It feels like we're almost there.

[Tim Gettys]

Tim, you said I love it so quickly gave me chills. I'm gonna be honest with you, because I didn't expect that coming from you at all.

[Andy Cortez]

No, man, I mean, like what again? Like we're grading on a curve based on where we're coming from and what we've seen in the past and just how this game has looked in the past. And I, I'm grading it on expecting, hey, this is what a Pokemon game looks like and what I've seen it look like in the past. Those, you know, those, the lows can go real low. They're abysmal. Yeah. And it, it can be really, really disappointing. But I just, I just loved how crisp everything looked and the fact that it was running so smoothly in 60 and yeah, I just really enjoyed the, the active running around, dodging the attacks that you need to pulling out the Pokemon and throwing a new one out. Like all of it just, it felt cool and it felt so like you're in the moment right there.

[Tim Gettys]

Very cool. And you said that you might have some hesitancy towards it long term. Like, do you think that they'll figure it out and there'll be something there or are you surprised they're going with this active style that is very different than anything they've ever done?

[Andy Cortez]

Well, I think this combat style will very much just be the Legends combat style. I don't know if I'll see. I don't know if I don't know.

[Tim Gettys]

It's different than, than the last Legends game, Arceus.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Arceus.

[Andy Cortez]

Well, the last Arceus game was not like, it wasn't cooldown based. Right.

[Tim Gettys]

Like it was a turn based.

[Andy Cortez]

The first time we've seen this. Right?

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, exactly.

[Andy Cortez]

I would see, I, I would expect future Legends games to go with this thing, to go with this style. And then the mainline games just be their own sort of classic. The, you know, classic to what Scarlet and Violet had. I, I enjoyed it. It's different enough to where, you know, again, I don't love the atmosphere of the only being all city based, but I'm still super stoked to play this whenever it comes out. Like this is one where, hey, if you're not. If they only sent us one code, will you buy it? Yes, I will. I will be buying this 100.

[Tim Gettys]

Yes.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I wish I liked it more and I, I don't think it was bad by any means. I think the active combat here just isn't like my taste as far as like what I look for out of these games. That said, I do think there is a Pokemonization to what they're doing with the active combats. That is kind of nice. You know, when we go in and it is like, you know, you recognize the Moves, hey, do growl, do quick attack or whatever. And it's snappy, and it's quick. And, like, you know, I'm not somebody who plays many, I guess, like, MMOs with comparable battle systems where it's more active, command based. That said, I think this game did the Pokemon thing and condensed that battle system down in a way that's. That is easy to understand and is easy to jump into. But, yeah, by the time I finished the demo, I wasn't like, oh, man, that was really fun. I think I was kind of like, all right, cool, that's different. But I don't know if, like, I'm excited for it now. And I think on the flip side of Andy, right, like, this game does definitely run smoother and sharper than Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. And so that was a nice adjustment, but I think I'm over this art style. Like, I look at the environments and I'm like, man, if this wasn't Pokemon, we'd be dunking on this shit. Like, this shit does not feel like. Should stand alongside what we view as, like, the other, like, you know, main staples of either JRPGs or Nintendo games. Right.

[Tim Gettys]

Or just video games. Anything.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah. I think on Grading on the Curb, Andy's completely correct as far as, like, oh, yeah, this is a step up. And it's kind of nice to play something that doesn't hurt my eyes necessarily, but I look around in these environments and these characters, and I'm like, man, I wish. I wish this was more inspired. Like, I wish I could be like, man, but this looks. Not only does it look serviceable, it looks good. Like, I wish that was what I was saying about it.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, agreed.

[Tim Gettys]

Well, jumping from mon to mod. Bless you. Did something I never, ever thought I'd see. You played three hours.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yes.

[Tim Gettys]

Of Digimon Story time?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Stranger. Yes. And I think this game is fucking awesome. I. Whoa.

[Tim Gettys]

Go.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

We gotta talk about Digimon more as a gaming.

[Tim Gettys]

Finally, Barrett, our time has come.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Our time has arrived.

[Andy Cortez]

Tim chat, everybody get the goggles.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Games, media. When we have our conversations about games coming out and JRPGs and just fucking games to look forward to and all this shit, we. We got to make sure to add Digimon games to the equation, because why didn't. Why did I barely know that this game was coming up and, like, why is this game so fucking good? I. Here's my thing, right, Barrett, you got to check this shit out, because this is the most Barrett coded game I've played that I know that you're not, like, that you haven't gotten around to checking out. Right? Because it is. I know you like Digimon, and of course with Digimon. This is Digimon. Yeah, but it's Digimon that is filtered through like a monster taming slash monster collection game. Right? It feels like it has so many hints of Persona, Shin Megami Tensei and Pokemon. But then tonally, it doesn't feel. It doesn't feel anywhere as near as kiddie as Pokemon. But then also it's not as demonic as smt. And so it hits this nice, like, young adult vibe of. Okay, cool. This is a nice, chill, relaxed story. I think the story elements that are there that I experienced are fun. So to break it down, I. They gave me like three hours worth of gameplay here for me to play. They gave us like four hours, honestly, of time to play the game. If we wanted to just hang around with the demo and play for the four hours, we could. I played the three hours and I was like, okay, I'm good. But the three hours were segmented into like two 90 minute portions. The first one was the beginning of the game. And like the first kind of like dungeon they get you into, which starts off fairly quick. Like the game kind of snaps you in there fairly quickly, which is nice. And then the second portion is further on in the game and they give you like a specific, like, contained story chapter to play. And story wise, honestly, the way they set up everything, I'm so out of the loop on Digimon. I didn't watch Digimon as a kid. And so like your main character that you play as. It also isn't like a. This isn't a known character.

[Tim Gettys]

No, no, this is all. This is its own kind.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

This is all its own thing. And so like the world that you're jumping into is a world that's like, you know, they're. They're not like expecting you to know anything prior. They're kind of introducing you to all to a lot of these concepts as if you're a new entry level player here, which is nice. But also I was kind of like, all right, I have no idea what the fuck is going on. But then for that second 90 minute portion that they, they threw us into, I thought that was a good presentation of, oh, wait, I really like what they're doing with story and characters and writing because basically in that second further on section, they drop you into like this beach community of Digimon. And Tim, did you know that Digimon, they talk and hang out and have Communities.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, dude, that's their whole thing.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

They're chill like Digimon. Be like, hang out, man. They got their own world and shit. And so you go and like you're in this community of this like beach community of Digimon. And then you have this, this Digimon who's like a healer or like a doctor in the community or whatever. And he's taking care of this one named Divermon, who is from this community of Titans. Do you guys know what Titans are? They're like these under Eddie George. I'll say that. Well, remember the Titans, they're like these underwater like sea based Digimon. And the Titans are like known for invading this like this beach community. And like they're like, they antagonize them essentially. And the healer Pokemon, Digimon, Sorry, the healer Digimon was taking care of like one of the Titans that just washed up and the Titan like awakens and he's like, damn, y' all actually kind of chill. Like, let's, let's.

[Andy Cortez]

What were we fighting for?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Basically he was like, dang, you guys saved me. You guys took care of me. Like, we got to squash the beef. Like, let's figure out how to like mend the relationship between the Titans and like this nicer community. And so like you then go through, you like enter the water, you go under the water and like you're fighting Digimon on the way in. Like kind of like a dungeon scenario that does fuel akin to a Persona or a SMT where you go through, you do the battles. And the battles feel like a Pokemon. They feel like an SMT you're throwing out. You're switching out different Digimon that are on your team. And it's like element based. Plus there's like another rock, paper, scissors system that is. It's virus. Hold on, I wrote it down here somewhere. It's virus data and vaccine. That's like the rock, paper, scissor system that they have in there as well. But you get into the battles. Battles are fun and snappy. One of the Digimon I had was a cool like dinosaur looking dude that had like two cannons on his arm and then a cannon on his face.

[Andy Cortez]

Dude, I love that. Digimon always just felt like, you know, when a four year old draws anything, what if I put a jet on a Raptor? And then you would always see like on Twitter where it's like, hi, I'm a professional artist and my son drew this jet on a Raptor. Let me make it look like you know, let me upgrade it with my art skills. It's just. They just throw together. It's the best.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

It's the best.

[Tim Gettys]

But yeah, I'm gonna send you a video to assets that I would like you to bring up for us to watch.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

A lot of guns and cannons in. In Digimon. A lot of weaponry.

[Andy Cortez]

No, no, second amendment.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Like they really just out there carrying and playing in Digimon, I guess full.

[Andy Cortez]

On second amendment rather.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

But yeah, I really like the underwater section because you go through, you then meet the boss and you get in the fight with the boss. That's the whole thing. I won't spoil it. But that section was super fun from a story perspective. But then also this game just has a lot of RPG depth to it. That really impressed me. Like, this game feels like it's for sickos. Like if you're an SMT or you, you know, you like games where you can build a party of monsters and really adjust how you stat them and like create the most hardcore perfect team. This game feels tailor made for that kind of player. One of the things that one of the Bandai team members, they were really excited to show me was the Digi Farm, which exists in like, you know how Clear Obscure, has the mansion that appears randomly, they go into. Or like Persona has the Velvet Room. Basically. It's that kind of situation where there's a door that shows up and you go into that door, it takes you to. Oh, there's a word for it. It's like a space between spaces. You know what I mean? It's like a Digi realm between realms kind of thing. You head in there, it looks like a hotel lobby. You talk to a guy and you get access to the Digi Farm where you can place Digimon into to like hang out, chill, adjust their like social stats and then also allow them to level up over time. Kind of like leaving a Pokemon in a daycare situation and you come back.

[Andy Cortez]

And the Digimon's like beefing with the other ones. He's like, won't fucking wash the dishes, dude. I don't know.

[Tim Gettys]

I'm gonna fucking shoot him with my arm.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And you can customize the Digifarm. You can like give Digimon different, like traits. Like they can become like amicable or like different. They have different kind of personalities, natures and stuff. Natures that then adjust how they level into certain stats. Shit's deep. This shit seems like it has a lot of depth to it. And I came out of that demo super impressed. Had A lot of fun with it. And I was like, man, bears got to check this, this thing out.

[Andy Cortez]

Do you know when that game comes up?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Soon. I can look it up, but I'm pretty sure.

[Andy Cortez]

No, I, I know, I know when it comes out. Day after Ghost of Yote.

[Tim Gettys]

Wow.

[Andy Cortez]

It is a little under two weeks before Pokemon Legends. And that's just like, that's a lot.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Here's what I'll say, Barrett.

[Tim Gettys]

That's a lot of money.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Let's try it out. It's October 2nd is when this game comes out. And I'll say is like, you ain't got to commit to it, Barrett. Just play a little bit of it, see if it's to your liking. That's all I'll say. The game gets you in quick. It gets going quick. I was very impressed in the first 90 minutes I finished like, I pretty much finished a dungeon. And so 90 minutes.

[Andy Cortez]

My, my hesitation was more so the length of the game.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Just because all the things that you're talking about.

[Andy Cortez]

I'm like, okay, this is gonna be a 60 hour ride.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Possibly question mark.

[Tim Gettys]

Probably.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

I played Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth on a Vita.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

I was like 60 something.

[Andy Cortez]

So it's one of those, like, I know Pokemon Legends is probably going to be like 15 to 20 hours.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

You know, here's what I'll say. And Chat's saying it too. Demos out this week.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, maybe.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

But here's the thing is like, I, I, I. Even though I beat Silk song, I feel like there's a lot, a lot more songs. So go to 2C. Later we're playing Digimon.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Demo's not gonna devil, like, gonna be like, what, an hour at most?

[Tim Gettys]

Who knows, man, these RPG demos, those.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Demos are always like, here's a bunch.

[Andy Cortez]

Of story stuff and you're barely going.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

To play the game, you know?

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, fair enough. The metaphor we find Tazi done was like three hours or four hours.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Timmy, do you want me to bring up.

[Tim Gettys]

Please, please play this video right to bear arms.

[Andy Cortez]

Yes.

[Digimon Enthusiast/Commentator]

What if we gave that Pokeman a Glock?

[Andy Cortez]

Yes.

[Digimon Enthusiast/Commentator]

Ah, Pat him on the little loaf of bread with wings. Have it evolve into the herald of the heavens, into God's most feared executioner. He shall evolve into giant wolf and then giant werewolf and then into cybernetic mechwolf that shoots missiles out of his chesticles.

[Andy Cortez]

Yes.

[Digimon Enthusiast/Commentator]

Now that you mention it, I want everyone to shoot missiles out of their chesticles. Pokedex. Preposterous. That really how it is for their digital destinies yes. How shall we end each of their names? What if WarGreymon was the coolest character ever designed? What if WarGreymon was exquisite? The only thing cooler than WarGreymon will be Dark WarGreymon.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Digimon Enthusiast/Commentator]

Defeated by the power of friendship.

[Andy Cortez]

Yes.

[Digimon Enthusiast/Commentator]

I yearn for this little creature to evolve into a cannon. Yes. Ah, first official film, a comprehensive narrative. No, thank you. Splice up three random episodes, smash them together, and it will be exquisite. This enemy is incredibly powerful. However, shall we defeat them? Friendship. What if Ash was really into goggles?

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. Oh, yes.

[Digimon Enthusiast/Commentator]

Grant him the leadership goggles.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I thought he was doing.

[Andy Cortez]

I thought he was doing a Jordan Peterson impression.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I can't figure out the name. This might be. I saw Digimon that was straight up just a gun. Like, just a pistol. And I, I, I, I Google searched Digimon. That's a straight up gun. And I'm pretty sure this is a different Digimon that's also a gun. Like, they really just be putting guns and cannons and weaponry on these things.

[Andy Cortez]

The first evolution of the gun, it was a fox.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And I appreciate it. I love this.

[Tim Gettys]

Okay, since we're here, Barrett, we got. I know we're running long, but I need to show blessing Gatomon.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Okay. And then my main critique. I don't like that they all end with Mon.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, but that's. It's what it is.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

It's doing too much.

[Tim Gettys]

It's, It's.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

It was also a Digimon back at this point.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

There was a Digimon in my preview that I'm pretty sure was just a straight up child, by the way. And I don't know if that's a story thing.

[Tim Gettys]

I mean, things get, Things get weird.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I thought, I was like, I thought you were just a homie. And then she. And then they entered the battle and I was like, oh, you're doing attacks. What is happening?

[Tim Gettys]

If you could bring up Gatsomon, please.

[Andy Cortez]

I know where you're going with Box.

[Tim Gettys]

Box in the chat says Gato man. Awesome. So Gatomon, for those that don't know, was there was seven digidestined in the original show. But then, of course, there's actually an eighth Digi destined. Think about the Green Ranger and Power Rangers. They had to go find Kyrie, Ty, Goggle Boy, his little sister. We eventually get from the digital world to the real world, and she has a partner, Digimon. Gatomon. What do you think Gotoman neck turns into in its ultimate form?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I bet you something that doesn't make sense because that was the other thing I noticed. There's no rhyme or reasons. These digivol. Did you. Digivolutions. What do they call them?

[Tim Gettys]

Digivolutions. Yes. Can you please, please show a picture of Anju Woman.

[Andy Cortez]

Anja woman. Because there's Anjemon.

[Tim Gettys]

Anjumon and Anja Woman.

[Andy Cortez]

Wood.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Wow.

[Tim Gettys]

Everybody, let's move on. Just. We've got a couple other things here. Where do you guys want to go? What do you want to say?

[Andy Cortez]

I really just want to say that we can skip Pragmat and Onimusha because those are awesome. Those are cool. Those are going to be great. Played Pragmata loved it and lived up to the hype of everybody else's previews. I thought it was awesome. Onimusha reminded me a lot of Ghost of Tsushima's combat. Like the. The way that you're pairing stuff. That's where. That's the closest analog I would give it. I had a lot of fun with that one as well. Crimson Desert. The game is real. The game is not this sort of fever dream that everybody thinks is gonna, you know, never run or look the way it does when it comes out. Got it. Got a Behind Closed Doors demo for Crimson Desert, but did you get your.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Hands on the controller?

[Andy Cortez]

Yes, I play. I played about 45 to an hour, 45 minutes to an hour or so. It's awesome. It is so convoluted. Greg mentioned being very confused with a lot of the button inputs. This is definitely one of those. You control the buttons. You press situation. You can be as expressive as you want. You can just hack and slash and hit the same damn buttons. But there are so many things happening in this game combat wise, like triangle and circle. You do an RKO if you do triangle circle at the same time. If you're running while you hit triangle and circle.

[Tim Gettys]

Every game you just have an rko.

[Andy Cortez]

But you just like tackle the dude. If you. If you do hit like the back button and. And rko, you, like grab them and toss them. And again, the way that this game is built out is that everything is physics based. Everything is meant to interact and affect something else. So if you throw an enemy at the wall, the enemy takes impact by hitting the wall, then also takes impact if there's a long fall or something like that. Large enemies, you can't lift them up because they're larger and they're heavier. So I asked like, can I. Could I have RKO the boss that you showed me? And they're like, no. Because he's a larger human being. But there will be other bosses that are of your size that you can do whatever the hell you want with and use the full kit. The. The kit that you use in this game, combat wise, just felt like a fighting game. Everything was just so nuts in the amount of depth that there is to the combat. It ran great. It. You know, I. There were some frame jobs here and there, but I expected, you know, a buggy mess based on this game's not coming out until next year. And it was awesome. It looked awesome. The it. It's living up to the hype so far. It's got that sort of system where, hey, if you see a torch on the wall, you can bust out your bow and arrow. Put the arrow into the torch and the arrow will light on fire. If you see a big wooden door that's blocking your way, you can light the door on fire and eventually the wooden. The wood will break down into charred wood and then that's breakable. Because normal wood, you can't just kind of crack through these gigantic logs. You have to wait till they're breakable. They do are. They're doing so much with just the way physics work and the way normal properties in the real world work, where if something's on fire and it goes into the water, it'll kind of like splash and get put out of fire. It was crazy. It was cool. The amount of chaos, the amount of NPCs on screen, it. It's a real game. It works, it functions. So, like, all that will work. We don't know what the. I know they have like their tech specifications of what they, your PC should have on in order to play it. I feel like they're maybe under, you know, maybe they're kind of undershooting what the actual tech requirements will be. Maybe there'll be a bit more. I have no idea. But so far it's like, oh, this is something I want to play and kind of get lost in, because that's cool. The amount of. The amount of like, just freedom you have in the game, they have this crazy max pain move where if you load up Your arrow with L2, you and you jump while like, if you just load up your. Your bow and arrow with L2, I think you can go into like a slow mo mode, but if you're running and diving, you can do that as well. And if you dive while you bust out your bow and arrow, then you R1 a bunch and it shows like a bunch of R1. This is where the arrows are gonna go and so you could put them all on one enemy, then you let go of the slow mo then. And they all shoot out at the enemy. And. And dude, it's like the amount of combinations of stuff that can happen in this game are insane. And I think at first there will be complaints about why is. Why are these normal ass, you know, commands so complicated? I think you will. I think hopefully they can make some of that stuff less complicated. And I think the gamers will eventually kind of get the hang of things quick. But it's. It's wild what they're doing this. It's. It's crazy that it was running and looking as good as it did. Granted that it got delayed till next year.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Hell yeah, I gotta play this. Like, the more I hear about Crimson Desert, the more I'm like, I. My brain doesn't comprehend, like, how this game exists.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, the. It's. It's wild the amount of stuff and simulations that they're doing. But I think it all comes down to will the story hit. And that's what remains to be seen. I haven't seen anything based on what I've played that's like mind blowing. But I think you could do the same for something like the Witcher 3 and just show somebody, you know, an hour gameplay and maybe not get the sense that this could be one of the best narratives ever told. Like, I. That remains to be seen. And hopefully with this game being as large as it is, hopefully it has enough cool story beats to supplement how awesome the gameplay.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I want to ask a very, very loaded question. Sure. But on the critical side, I guess I'll go back and use 2013 as an example. Right. Of like, we got GTA 5 and last was in the same year. And I feel like on the critical side and game of the years and stuff.

[Tim Gettys]

Right.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Like, Last of Us really held its own. And like, I don't want to say it outshined gta, but it kind of outshined GTA in some regard. Like in the critical conversation. Do you think Crimson Desert has a shot of like outshining GTA 6 in like any ways where it comes out and really impresses?

[Andy Cortez]

I don't. I mean, it would have to do it on the narrative side, because if you could couple an amazing narrative with amazing NPCs and wild story turns and cool twists or stuff, that'll really kind of blow you away. And if you couple that with this gameplay, I think it would be like, that sounds like goatee material, but I just I don't know if it could really kind of hit at that level. But I will say I think this game will be massive for a while for like social media with just the amount of things that can happen and the amount of freedom that the player has. I will be in the demo that recently was shown off. You run up to a boss fight and you're fighting through a bunch of hordes of enemies. You go through the front gates. I went to go fight some enemies on the side of the building. And the person running the demo was like, you. You could shoot an arrow through that window, break the window and enter the boss side from there. And it's like, that's the sort of level of freedom we're looking at where it seems like this will be kind of breath of the wild tears of the kingdom level of ways that you can speed run things and kind of forego certain things that they want you to do because the freedom is there. And it's like, well, why. Why run through those hordes of enemies and go to the front door? You could break that window from there. Like there's seeing that little glimpse. It's like, oh, how will this be extrapolated amongst, you know, among 20 hours or whatever? Fair enough. And I. I also want to talk about these two indie games that I played. Go for the best indie game I played at this show game called Rebounder. This game is going to be all of our obsession. This game is a platforming game where.

[Tim Gettys]

What the. That's so cool.

[Andy Cortez]

An insane art style. Amazing sort of like halftone cool color schemes. It's just got the sauce for days when it comes to style.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Holy.

[Andy Cortez]

But you are picking up these little orbs and it's very like challenge room based where, you know, they got the sort of strawberries and Celeste where you have to land in order to collect the item and. But you are picking up these orbs, tossing them off of walls, jumping off of them, bouncing, being super precise. It blew me away. I was like, this game, how is this.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

How is this out there? And we didn't know about this was.

[Andy Cortez]

At the mix and it like, oh, this is the one that I feel like everybody at this office in some. In one way or another is like, oh, wow.

[Tim Gettys]

When we saw like the big like half screen, like the face, like talking. Is that during gameplay or is that like cut scenes?

[Andy Cortez]

There are stuff I didn't see that. That face thing happen. But there are moments in gameplay, especially during the tutorial, that will have you running and then it'll kind of cut into show you like a little diagram of what.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

God, that's so super cool.

[Andy Cortez]

It was amazing. Yeah. You can sign up for a play test on Steam right now. Awesome. It really, really blew me away. And I feel like we're all gonna find an obsession with it if they. If they can figure out like leaderboards or something like that. Like this game will really, really kind of blow us all away gameplay wise.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, I'm wish listing that right now. That's Rebounder.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

And then what was the next one?

[Andy Cortez]

And then Nevers End, which is not my style of game. It's a tactics style game, but it is all 3D and it looks like such. It looks like such legitimate pixel art that it just looks like a 2D game, but it's a 3D world where you are rotating and stuff. And they're not kind of fake. They're not faking like pixel counts to, you know when. Whenever games try to pretend that their game is like a pixel art game, but then they'll have a sprite where the pixels are like larger than the other ones. You're like, oh, that doesn't look like it fits in this world. They're just using really cool rendering techniques that make the game look like an awesome pixel art game. But it's 3D. And if you can remove our camera Barrett, to kind of show the. The text underneath because. And maybe like rewind a little bit because the, the way that it all works, they're doing very much like magic physics system like simulation type stuff where you know, if you. If there's low heat, you can freeze stuff. If you. If you create heat that'll create like a wind current. The. They were just talking to me about how much they. They love like when fantasy IP do like hard magic or it's not just you could just spawn magic whenever. It's like you. You have to have the elements kind of around you and everything, everything physics based works the way you think it should when it comes to fire, burning grass or fire being put out by water, anything like that. It just seemed like really cool and innovative for such a small team working on this. And I, I thought that it was much smaller but like PlayStation put this up on their YouTube channel. So it was really, really awesome. But I was just kind of really blown away by the presentation and the art style of it. Kind of having this cute chibi art style with this pseudo pixel art 3D look to it. Just super impressive stuff. And that was another reminder of like man, there's just a lot of talented people doing amazing things.

[Tim Gettys]

And you can find it all at pax, everybody. Hey, thank you for hanging out with us for this episode of Gamescast. We're about to do Alien vs. Predator in review for Alien Romulus. I know y' all have been waiting a long time for this one, so very excited to talk about it. And then after that, Mike is doing a calculator stream, so stay tuned to find out what that looks like. But until next time, welcome back. Bless. Love you all. Goodbye.