A Great Game for Every Genre

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Besties – "A Great Game for Every Genre"

Release Date: August 8, 2025
Hosts: Chris Plante, Griffin McElroy, Justin McElroy, Russ Frushtick
Description: Join four of Earth's best friends as they rank and review their favorite video games across various genres, blending the camaraderie of "King of the Hill" with the competitive spirit of "Game of the Year."

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1. Introduction and Overview

The episode kicks off with the hosts sharing a light-hearted conversation about their friendship and the bonds that tie them together, particularly centered around their shared love for gaming. Griffin McElroy emphasizes the importance of "hoops" (a nickname for their collective bond) as the thread that binds them, setting the stage for an engaging discussion on diverse video games.

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2. Game Reviews

2.1. Primal Planet

Timestamp: 06:17 - 12:20

Overview:
Chris Plante introduces Primal Planet, a unique blend of survival and Metroidvania genres. The game draws inspiration from classic 2D platformers like Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis titles, offering pixelated graphics and side-scrolling gameplay.

Key Points:

• Survival Mechanics: Unlike traditional survival games that might feel grueling, Primal Planet integrates resource collection and crafting seamlessly within the exploration framework. Chris highlights how materials act as in-game currencies to unlock new upgrades, enhancing the Metroidvania experience without the typical grind (08:14).

  "Once it clicked for that, it stopped being stressful and became more about exploration." – Chris Plante [08:14]

• Storytelling: The game conveys its narrative without dialogue, using pixelated characters and interactions to depict heartfelt moments, such as reuniting with family members through simple animations like hugs (10:37).

  "Pixelated characters interact with each other in really sweet ways." – Chris Plante [10:37]

• Aesthetic and Soundtrack: The vibrant pixel art and an engaging soundtrack contribute significantly to the immersive experience, making Primal Planet both visually and audibly appealing (11:10).

2.2. Grounded 2

Timestamp: 12:26 - 25:21

Overview:
Griffin McElroy delves into Grounded 2, the sequel to the popular survival-crafting game where players are shrunken down to miniature sizes and must survive in a sprawling backyard environment.

Key Points:

• Early Access Release: Grounded 2 launched in Early Access on July 29th, featuring a map three times larger than its predecessor, set in a community park. About a third of the map is available during Early Access, alongside new story and quest content (13:31).

  "It's going to be three times larger than the map in Grandin 1." – Griffin McElroy [13:31]

• Gameplay Improvements: The sequel introduces an Omni tool, streamlining inventory management by eliminating the need to manually handle tools and repairs. Combat mechanics have been enhanced, offering players the choice between first-person and third-person perspectives with more intuitive blocking and combat strategies (18:45).

  "The combat feels great. It's all about survival elements that make every fight count." – Griffin McElroy [18:45]

• Mounts and New Features: Grounded 2 adds mounts—bugs like soldier ants and orb-weaver spiders—that players can ride to traverse the expansive map more efficiently and assist in resource gathering and combat (20:31).

• Reception and Future Expectations: While the Early Access version shows considerable improvements, the hosts express excitement and anticipation for the full release, though they acknowledge it may not be available this year due to the developer's ongoing projects (24:21).

  "For Grounded fans, it seems like a no-brainer." – Griffin McElroy [24:21]

2.3. System Shock 2 Remastered

Timestamp: 26:56 - 33:18

Overview:
Russ Freshwick and Griffin McElroy discuss the remastered version of System Shock 2, highlighting its significance as a precursor to modern immersive sims like BioShock.

Key Points:

• Remastered Details: The remaster stays true to the original mid-90s aesthetics with upscaled graphics and quality-of-life improvements, ensuring compatibility with modern systems (27:39).

  "It's the same game more or less before, but with up res graphics and some quality of life changes." – Russ Freshwick [27:39]

• Gameplay Mechanics: System Shock 2 features challenging survival mechanics and a skill system that requires careful resource management and strategic leveling. The remastered version adds a co-op mode, although the hosts note mixed opinions on its effectiveness (31:43).

  "The co-op mode, in theory, is a nice solution, but this game was not made for co-op." – Christopher Plant [31:43]

• Legacy and Influence: The game is acknowledged for laying the groundwork for titles like BioShock, with similarities in plot structure and immersive storytelling techniques. However, the hosts critique its dated mechanics and argue that newer games have surpassed it in execution (32:19).

  "This release is just for the hardcore fans who don't want to run the game on their device currently." – Russ Freshwick [32:19]

2.4. The Drifter

Timestamp: 33:50 - 41:32

Overview:
Griffin McElroy introduces The Drifter, a traditional point-and-click adventure game developed by Powerhoof, known for their previous title Crawl.

Key Points:

• Gameplay and Controls: The game features innovative controls designed for handheld devices, allowing seamless interaction akin to classic LucasArts adventures. Players navigate through a sci-fi conspiracy narrative, solving puzzles and uncovering the protagonist's personal tragedies (34:41).

  "It works so fucking well, I played the whole thing on my Rog Ally." – Griffin McElroy [34:42]

• Story and Themes: The Drifter centers on Mick Carter, who becomes entangled in a dark mystery after stowing away on a train. The narrative explores themes of loss and coping, presented through engaging storytelling and impactful character development (36:06).

  "The acting and the writing and the storytelling are all absolutely top-notch." – Griffin McElroy [37:06]

• Visuals and Immersion: The game boasts stunning pixel art, fluid animations, and dynamic lighting effects, enhancing the immersive experience. Despite some clunky puzzles, the overall polish and design receive high praise (40:02).

  "It looks phenomenal. Just all the pixel art and the animation and the lighting effects...looks really tremendous." – Griffin McElroy [40:02]

2.5. Teenage Mutant Ninja Tactical Takedown

Timestamp: 41:39 - 55:44

Overview:
Russ Freshwick presents Teenage Mutant Ninja Tactical Takedown, a turn-based tactics game featuring the beloved Ninja Turtles.

Key Points:

• Game Design: The game employs a board game aesthetic where characters and enemies are represented as pieces on a tactical grid. Unique mechanics include action points for special moves, such as leaping over enemies on skateboards, adding strategic depth (43:15).

  "It uses things that you've seen in turn-based tactical games to like use this ability." – Russ Freshwick [43:15]

• Time Mechanics: A distinctive feature involves a time element where the map changes or disappears after a certain number of turns, encouraging players to strategize efficiently and maintain momentum (43:55).

  "You are racing through these maps, killing Foot Clan members. The area behind you starts disappearing." – Russ Freshwick [43:55]

• Developer’s Approach: Developed by Strange Scaffold, known for creative titles like El Paso Everywhere and I Am Your Beast, the game stands out for its innovative mechanics and faithful representation of the Ninja Turtles' universe.

  "They did a really cool job, reminds me of Cadence of Hyrule in that way." – Russ Freshwick [43:55]

• Reception: The hosts commend the game's smart design and effective use of licensed IP, making it accessible and enjoyable without compromising on strategic complexity (44:49).

  "It's a smart design approach. They did a really cool job." – Russ Freshwick [44:49]

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3. Honorable Mentions

3.1. Castle Crashers – New DLC

Timestamp: 53:28 - 57:12

Christopher Plant highlights the latest DLC for Castle Crashers, featuring the first new playable character since 2011. The update introduces "Painter Boss Paradise," allowing players to design custom characters, adding fresh content to the beloved co-op hack-and-slash game.

"They have a new playable character that's like new stuff. There is new content in Castle Crashers." – Christopher Plant [53:28]

3.2. Pipistrello and the Cursed Yo-Yo

Timestamp: 47:36 - 48:20

Russ Freshwick shares his ongoing experience with Pipistrello and the Cursed Yo-Yo, praising its art style, controls, and smart upgrade systems. He likens its gameplay to the GBA-era Zelda titles, noting its ability to provide a relaxing yet engaging experience.

"It feels as close to that GBA era of Zelda as I've seen from an indie developer." – Russ Freshwick [47:54]

3.3. Final Fantasy VI – ROM Hack

Timestamp: 52:30 - 56:31

Griffin McElroy discusses a ROM hack for Final Fantasy VI that significantly improves the audio quality on the Game Boy Advance version. The enhanced soundtrack and visuals breathe new life into the classic RPG, making it a must-play for fans.

"I did my first ROM hack by finding this project that fixed the terrible, grainy audio." – Griffin McElroy [52:30]

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4. Hardware Discussion

4.1. Ayaneo Pocket Micro Classic

Timestamp: 48:20 - 52:10

Griffin McElroy reviews the Ayaneo Pocket Micro Classic, a horizontal handheld gaming device praised for its solid build quality, ergonomic design, and impressive display. Despite its higher price point compared to competitors like Anbernic, its performance and form factor make it a top recommendation for retro gaming enthusiasts.

Key Features:

• Design and Portability: The horizontal layout makes it comfortable to hold, contrasting with many vertical handhelds. Its full-metal construction ensures durability, and the device fits seamlessly into pockets (50:07).

  "It's like a Game Boy Advance Micro, but scaled up... feels really great in my hands." – Griffin McElroy [50:07]

• Performance: Runs Android, allowing access to a wide range of emulators and Android games. While Griffin prefers a Linux-based front end, the device handles classic game emulation smoothly, particularly on his Rog Ally X.

  "It runs Android, which is not my favorite, but I love the form factor." – Griffin McElroy [50:45]

• Value: Priced around $220, it offers premium build quality and features, making it a worthwhile investment for serious gamers despite being pricier than some alternatives.

"Buttons all feel really great. It's full metal, so it feels really solid, really sturdy." – Griffin McElroy [50:04]

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5. Community and Patreon Highlights

Throughout the episode, the hosts acknowledge their Patreon supporters, giving shout-outs to new members like Mike, Charles, Johnny, and Cliff with a cat. They encourage listeners to join their Patreon community at patreon.com/thebesties for exclusive content, including bracket episodes and additional game discussions.

"Thank you to everybody who supports the show directly there. Go get yourself a membership." – Russ Freshwick [56:31]

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6. Conclusion and Teasers

As the episode wraps up, the hosts briefly mention upcoming content, including interviews and demos of new games like Ambrosia Sky—a blend of Power Wash Simulator and System Shock. They also hint at future episodes focusing on classic titles like Donkey Kong Country.

"Join us again next week for the Besties. Because shouldn't the world's best friends pick the world's best games?" – Chris Plante [57:15]

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Notable Quotes:

• "Once it clicked for that, it stopped being stressful and became more about exploration." – Chris Plante [08:14]

• "It's going to be three times larger than the map in Grandin 1." – Griffin McElroy [13:31]

• "The combat feels great. It's all about survival elements that make every fight count." – Griffin McElroy [18:45]

• "It works so fucking well, I played the whole thing on my Rog Ally." – Griffin McElroy [34:42]

• "Buttons all feel really great. It's full metal, so it feels really solid, really sturdy." – Griffin McElroy [50:04]

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Final Thoughts:

In this episode of The Besties, the hosts provide an insightful and entertaining exploration of a diverse array of video games, from remastered classics to innovative indie titles. Their camaraderie and in-depth analysis make it a valuable listen for gamers seeking recommendations across various genres. Whether you're into survival crafting, tactical turn-based games, or nostalgic point-and-click adventures, this episode offers something for every type of gamer.

Transcript

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

You got any gross food stuff? Fresh?

[Griffin McRoy]

Oh, I'd really rather not.

[Russ Freshwick]

I don't. I don't. I don't.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

That's too bad. I mean, what do we even talk about without hoops? We don't got gross food stuff we don't got.

[Griffin McRoy]

I think we can all agree hoops is the. Is the thread that binds us together.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

It truly is.

[Griffin McRoy]

Like, you guys have always felt more like hoops as friends, and I know that, like, to you, for me, it's like I'm hoops little bro.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Griffin McRoy]

And, like, I come over sometimes to, like, watch you guys skateboard or whatever. But, like, he is kind of the middle ground that we all kind of meet on, and I'm glad we have a safe space to, like, finally just kind of air all this stuff out.

[Russ Freshwick]

I'm so fucking good at skateboarding. You have no idea.

[Griffin McRoy]

Russ can do 10 kickflips. And even when Chris was my neighbor, it still was sort of like juice was the spirit in the room. That was always kind of like, the topic on our lips.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah. Well, we did have, between the two of our houses, a little kind of hoops mural place where we could, you.

[Griffin McRoy]

Know, and there were houses between ours. But, like, if you were driving fast enough down our road before they put the speed bumps in, it would sort of blend in.

[Russ Freshwick]

Yeah, it's like that MAD magazine. If you fold the page at the end, it kind of makes it into one.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah, that's probably why that car drove into my house as they were trying to see the hoops mural by going at the top speed. And then they just lost control and, you know, crashed into my room.

[Griffin McRoy]

As they came just sort of barrel rolling into your bedroom, they were like, sorry, Chris. I really wanted to see the mural of hoops in the way that it was intended. And you were like, no, no, for sure. I get it. I get it. I understand.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

The only way I could do it was by having a blood alcohol percentage of 90%.

[Griffin McRoy]

Being struggling, it helps get the hoops mural together. Cause otherwise you're like, well, there's. It looks like a really lovingly painted picture of Justin with his hand up. But if you don't see your house with Tony Hawk on the other side holding his hand up for the high, it's like, what's it all mean?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Why'd you even bother? Right?

[Griffin McRoy]

Yeah, I mean, it is.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

The best way to go is, you know, 150 miles per hour, seeing Hoops giving a high five to Tony Hawk before you.

[Griffin McRoy]

Chris, I know this was A terrible, terrible, traumatic thing that happened to you. I do feel like every time you tell us about it, the speed increases, the size of the car increases.

[Russ Freshwick]

Yeah, it does feel like you're kind of blowing out of proportion.

[Griffin McRoy]

You put a little extra mustard on it every time. My name is Griffin McRoy. I know the best game of the week.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

My name is Christopher Thomas Plant, and I know the best game of the week.

[Russ Freshwick]

My name is Russ Freshwick. I know the best game of the week.

[Griffin McRoy]

Welcome back, everybody, to the Besties, the show where we talk about the latest and greatest in home interactive entertainment. It's the game of the year club. And just by listening, you, my dear friend, are a member. This week. We are Sans won Justin McElroy. But we are whatever the opposite of sans is. We are pro. So many games and we're gonna talk about all of them in just a little bit. I guess a quick rundown, quick teaser of what we're gonna be discussing this week. Grounded two, Chris. Like three words. What's that?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

A small survival game.

[Griffin McRoy]

Cool. Teenage Mutant Ninja Tactical takedown. What is that?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

It's a tactical takedown. Ninja Turtle tactics.

[Russ Freshwick]

Oh, you're doing it.

[Griffin McRoy]

System Shock two Remastered. Huh?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

System Shock.

[Griffin McRoy]

More. The Drifter. I'll do this one. Australian adventure mystery and primal.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Planet Survival. Metroid, Castlevania.

[Griffin McRoy]

Amazing. Why don't we only do it this way from now on? Because it gets the people what they need and it gets them right out the door. We're going to talk about all those games and more coming up just after this short break.

[Justin McElroy]

Hey, guess what I did this week. I made cold brew coffee.

[Griffin McRoy]

I know.

[Justin McElroy]

I was surprised too. It's something I didn't think I was going to do anymore because it was just a big pain in the butt.

[Griffin McRoy]

When I tried to do it previously.

[Justin McElroy]

But trade made it really easy to make cold brew at home. So they sent us like pitcher. You put some water in there, you put the coffee in there, you chilled overnight, you got delicious ice cold cold brew coffee the next day. You know, it's the number one coffee destination in the US for hot and cold coffee drinkers. Trade is and they are going to provide you the expertly curated equipment that you need. But also coffee that is balanced perfectly for cold brew. It's really delicious. I really enjoyed making it smell great. It tasted great. And you know what, when it's hot like this, it is really nice to one not have to wait for coffee but also not have to drink a hot coffee if you don't feel like it. You Know you get the ice stuff right there in the fridge. It's as strong as you want it. It's your coffee and it is fantastic. For a limited time trade is giving away a free Hario cold brewer when you sign up for a cold brew subscription or when you go to drinktrade.combesties. that's drinktrade.combesties to get your free cold brew maker with select cold brew subscriptions. That's drinktrade.com besties.

[Russ Freshwick]

Why didn't I not play Primal Planet after that pitch?

[Griffin McRoy]

Yeah, I know. Well, he didn't give you the three power words behind it.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

If only somebody had handed you a code and said literally this and said fresh, this is your thing. But somebody's a real big shot now. Somebody's gone full Hollywood, full Holly weird and doesn't have time for old Chris Plant.

[Griffin McRoy]

He says I. He says I can only play the games. The kind of funny guy says I'm allowed to play. I'm like, damn, Russ.

[Russ Freshwick]

What kind of fun Frank has to approve them.

[Griffin McRoy]

What kind of deal did they give you? Man, that's crazy.

[Russ Freshwick]

Emphasis on kinda.

[Griffin McRoy]

Yeah.

[Russ Freshwick]

Here we are. We're here to talk about some video games.

[Griffin McRoy]

Yeah. Can we start with Primal Planet? Because I am actually sure I have this one downloaded and it is next on the list. But I was playing a lot of stuff this week. What am I in for when I tune into Primal Planet? Chris?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Not sure why I picked this one because I'm not a big survival game or a Metroidvania person. But it turns out when you put those flavors together, you get something delicious. It looks like the Super Nintendo Sega Genesis 2D platformers of your Sam and Mac. I think. Bonk.

[Russ Freshwick]

I'm go way back and say my immediate thought was like Abuse. You ever play that game Abuse with the aliens and the 360 aiming?

[Griffin McRoy]

No, sir. It sounds made up and it sounds like a bad dream you have.

[Russ Freshwick]

There's going to be an old person listening. That reminds me.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Okay, describe the game a little bit more just so we don't leave on. Have you ever played Abuse?

[Russ Freshwick]

It's got Dino. Oh wait, you want to know about Abuse? Sure.

[Griffin McRoy]

Just specifically the dinosaur game.

[Russ Freshwick]

Oh, just like art wise. It's kind of of that era. It is like between NES and snes.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Okay, I'm looking at this kind of. I see what you're saying. So yeah, the way of thinking about it is pixel graphic games, side scrolling. But you are gear gated or doing the Metroidvania shtick by collecting materials and then crafting it. So for me, it really helped once I started to think of it as, oh, all the materials are just different currencies that I spend to buy the new upgrades that I'm going to need to go further into the game. And once it clicked for that, it stopped being, oh, this is stressful. Like so many survival games, which feel like work to me and feel like a bit of a grind, where this is much more about exploration. As you're exploring, you're going to find the materials that you need to progress through the game. It's just kind of more of an aesthetic hook for it structurally.

[Russ Freshwick]

Did you play Subnautica? Sounds like that.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Oh, even lighter in terms of the survival expectations here because, again, it is a 2D metroidvania game. So you start out and it's like, well, you need to create a spear to be able to fight certain enemies, and then you can light that spear on fire to create a torch. And torches create kind of like save points or community points. And then you need different types of poisons to fight bosses. So you're just getting different unlocks that are going to make it so that you can actually get past the different barriers in the Metroidvania type of world. And then there is a little bit of. Of like, build a hut where your characters can live, but really what that's doing is closer to the Assassin's Creed did this where you would, like, build out a city and then you get like.

[Griffin McRoy]

It's not like you get to choose where to build the hut and, like, design it yourself.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

It's already there. You just put in the resources and it's gonna give you some different rewards. There's a bunch of.

[Griffin McRoy]

So it sounds pretty light on the survival craft kind of stuff. It seems like that is a.

[Russ Freshwick]

It sounds like Terraria level in terms of like.

[Griffin McRoy]

Well, no, because in Terraria, you can pretty much build whatever the fuck you want, wherever you want, but this is like you are getting the stuff you need to build the house that is already there.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yes, yes. It is definitely illusory. The survival bins, which I like.

[Russ Freshwick]

I like that too.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I find that I don't like survival. Stressful. Yes. But on the flip side, it made me enjoy the Metroidvania stuff, which fresh. I know you enjoy these games much more than I do, but it felt less rote for me. Sometimes Metroidvania feels like, okay, I'm running from one end to the next to get the thing so that I can progress. And it feels like a bit of A chore list to do. Because I can see the mechanisms of the game in Cheer. It felt much more like exploring. Even though once I kind of zoomed out and could look at the map, I was doing the exact same thing. A thing that I surprisingly really enjoyed about this game is the way it conveys its story. It is dialogue free, but these pixelated characters interact with each other in really sweet ways. So you are a, I guess, like caveman or whatever.

[Russ Freshwick]

Sure.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

And you are separated at first from your family, your wife and I think, your daughter. And once you reunite with them, the characters will just hug each other if they're standing still.

[Russ Freshwick]

Hugging's been around for so long.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

It's been around for so long, but rarely a feature in a video game, is it? It has just.

[Russ Freshwick]

I feel like huggings been in games.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Oh, come no. You're telling me that you went back and played Joe and Mac or whatever it was back then, and they're just hugging each other?

[Griffin McRoy]

No, I don't think there's much caveman hugging representation.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

There just isn't. The other thing that I enjoyed about the game, great soundtrack. And there are space aliens. That's right. Couldn't just have enough with the dinosaurs. They said Eunice needs. It needs aliens with giant, powerful laser guns.

[Russ Freshwick]

Are the cave people surprised about the aliens or is that just part of their day to day?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

You know, I think it's.

[Russ Freshwick]

I don't want you to speculate. This is not an improv. I'm like, genuinely curious.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

No, I'm not trying to be funny. No, we saved that for Hoops and he's not here. And Griffin's smudging.

[Griffin McRoy]

I wouldn't get it. I wouldn't get the jokes. Guys, thank you. Too young, too little.

[Russ Freshwick]

Mostly. I'm asking.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I know I'm giving you a real answer here, which is like, no, they're not surprised because everything is a fucking surprise. They're cave people. They look at the stars and it's a miracle.

[Russ Freshwick]

What I'm asking is, is this a dinosaur world that eventually gets invaded by UFOs or when you arrive, is it like a half dinosaur, half UFO world?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I think we're supposed to believe that it is a dinosaur world that is being invaded by UFOs. And I'm glad that you got that clarification.

[Russ Freshwick]

Okay.

[Griffin McRoy]

Yeah, Very important. This looks really great. I love the pixel art style a whole bunch. Me too.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I'll include some music in the show notes because it is my new background music for like working and chilling out. It is such a Good vibe. So, yeah, I enjoyed it. But speaking of survival games that are way more survival.

[Griffin McRoy]

Sure.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I want to hear about Grounded 2.

[Griffin McRoy]

Yeah, man, I played quite a bit of this. The early access version of Grounded 2 launched on July 29th. I've been really looking forward to this one because I. I don't know if it was earlier this year or later last year, but I just played through all of Grounded one sort of after giving it a shot right after it came out of Early Access and then not playing it when they added like a bunch of shit to it. And Grounded 1 is one of my favorite games in this whole, you know, open world, Survivor survivalcraft genre, which if you're not familiar, like Chris and Russ kind of suggested earlier. It's a genre where you are able to collect resources and build and upgrade tools and armor and weapons and you build a base and you outfit that base with everything you need to survive.

[Russ Freshwick]

And it had the stuff the plant was talking about, right? The Metroidvania exploration. You need this unlocked to explore in this area.

[Griffin McRoy]

So there were story beats. And through those story beats you would unlock new kind of systems in the game. One of them was a zipline that would allow you to quickly traverse from one area to another. And I would not say it was remotely sort of like Metroidvania focused, but there was a critical path through the game insofar as like, well, in order to beat the game, you have to do this underwater lab. In order to do the underwater lab, you have to kill this one bug to unlock the blueprint for the diving mask. And then you would need to. So like that is kind of like how the whole genre handles that. Same with your Subnauticas, the forest, I mean Minecraft, not to put too fine a point on it. Anyway, Grounded 2, it's in early Access now. What is out is a lot. When Grounded launched in Early Access, it was pretty heavily criticized for being fairly bare bones. This is a lot. What they have said is that Grounded 2, which takes place in a big sort of community park this time around, rather than the backyard of some disgraced scientist, is going to be three times larger than the map in Grandin 1. And there is about a third of the map available in the early access stuff, as well as a bunch of story, quest content and a bunch of other stuff. I know this is always like a big. I don't know, it is a big hang up for me playing Early Access games now that I know I'm going to play the shit out of once they are fully Featured and released. But I do also think that is going to be a while before that happens. And I'm glad that I dipped into Grounded 2 because it's doing some pretty neat stuff. How much of Grounded? I know. I think we all played Grounded at some point together. But did you guys, like, get particularly deep into it? Because I don't know where to start. Sort of like explaining the.

[Russ Freshwick]

No, I.

[Griffin McRoy]

The system.

[Russ Freshwick]

I didn't. I remember.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah.

[Russ Freshwick]

When we played together, but I didn't play a ton of it. But every time you've talked about it, like, previously, your time with it sounded very enticing because I think what scared me off was like, what scares a lot of, like, me off from a lot of these survival games is even though I feel like I'm progressing, it's like, oh, my house is bigger and I have a silver sword instead of a bronze sword, whatever the fuck. Whereas this had, like, narrative hooks to it. You were seeing more new stuff. Like, that's really the beat. And then the other thing I think was I found really impressive was just like, the building I thought was like.

[Griffin McRoy]

The building is pretty next level. Really great. The whole game. If you're not familiar at all listener with Grounded 1, you play as a teenager who has been shrunken down. Honey, I shrunk the kids style. And you basically have to figure out what happened, where you are, how to undo the shrinking process. And you go on this great big miniature adventure fighting against a bunch of bugs and harvesting their components and building bases at certain landmarks around the map. And those landmarks will be like a grill that has toppled over or a picnic table. And I don't know. That whole aesthetic is so rad. And by the time that game was fully, fully, fully finished, it had so much great stuff going for it as far as like making a base that looked really cool. All the gear felt really different and gave you certain special abilities. So it wouldn't be just like, well, now my sword is silver. It would be like, well, I just crafted a magic fire staff out of a shard of spicy candy and I'm using armor that gives me this benefit and this benefit. Anyway, Grounded 2 very much sort of pitching the same pitch, right? It's. You're a miniaturized teen. The same four teens from the first game. I was wondering. Yeah, they very quickly get through. Like, and here's why you've been shrunk again in this new place.

[Russ Freshwick]

Oh, you do actually get unshrunk in.

[Griffin McRoy]

The first game, I guess. Spoilers. I think there's multiple endings. But yes, it is possible. The ending I got involved being unshrunk and what they have added is I think it comes in a form of like. And this is not obviously reinventing the wheel as far as sequels go, but a lot of quality of life stuff, as well as a few, I think tentpole features that all seem very fucking cool. Quality of life stuff includes. So a big part of the first game is you have tools like an axe and a shovel and a hammer. You use those to chop down this big weed so that you can get the components from it. And you use this hammer so you can smash up a pine cone, but. But you need a certain strength of hammer to do it. And all that stuff you had to keep in your inventory and you had to keep repaired so they didn't break while you're out in the field. In this game, there's none of that. You have what's called, I think an Omni tool and you can upgrade that specifically at little science stations or whatever, but it doesn't even show up in your inventory. You just run up to a collectible interactable item and there's a single button and you automatically do the thing. It's pretty fucking cool.

[Russ Freshwick]

Yeah, that's great.

[Griffin McRoy]

The game feels a lot better. Combat feels great. It's all. The first game I think was only first person or only third person. You have your choice in this one. It is made by Obsidian and so the combat feels kind of like Elder Scrolls a little bit like it's a lot of hold. Right click to block, left click to.

[Russ Freshwick]

Does it feel like the game they just put out, what was it in Avowed?

[Griffin McRoy]

I mean. Yeah, I guess so. I didn't play a ton of Avowed that one really.

[Russ Freshwick]

Evolution of the Oblivion combat engine.

[Griffin McRoy]

That one didn't super click for me. It is not the deepest combat in the world. What makes it work is the survival element of it. Of like, oh shit, I'm pretty far from base and I've got some pretty good stuff on me right now and I just got jumped by a scorpion and I really need this fight to go well for me. Like that sort of thing makes the somewhat simple combat of like you block. There's perfect blocks if you do it like right before you get hit. And when that happens, you don't lose any stamina and you can stun your opponent so you can get in a few hits. They have made this idea of specialties much more surfaced and a lot more accessible. So whenever you craft a piece of equipment, a piece of armor or whatever, it will show you this is warrior armor and that will give you this benefit. And then usually if you're crafting fighter armor or whatever, it will give you a little bit more health, a little bit more whatever. Then there's like rogue armor, ranged armor. It tells you pretty much on the tin, like, if you want to play this playstyle, this is how you do it. And that was not quite as easy to kind of understand in the first game. And it seems like they're putting a lot more emphasis on that, which kind of dovetails with the sort of co op focus of the game a little bit.

[Russ Freshwick]

Can you turn off the survival like you need water?

[Griffin McRoy]

I don't know if you can do that in this early access. In Granted one, you could do whatever the fuck you want to. Any of the options, which I really did appreciate a lot. I do like some of that stuff. Like, I like the economy of having that hunger and thirst. And then all of a sudden, once you build a machine that can harvest dew drops in the morning, like that feels like a big deal. As artificial as that is. Maybe mechanically, like, I do enjoy some of that stuff. I didn't look actually in Grounded 2 Early Access, but I would be completely shocked if it was not in the game at some point.

[Russ Freshwick]

I imagine they also have the arachnophobia mode, which I also.

[Griffin McRoy]

Arachnophobia tells you right at the top of the game as you turn it on, like, hey, if you don't like spiders, this is gonna be a rough fucking ride for you. But we have a thing that's going to. I didn't click it. I think it just like blurs them out.

[Russ Freshwick]

No, I've used it before, so in the first game. I'm sure it's probably similar. In this one, the first game, the more you turn it, the closer they turn into just like big 3D circles.

[Griffin McRoy]

I love it. That's great. Awesome.

[Russ Freshwick]

They made those fucking spiders heinous in the first game, so I'd imagine.

[Griffin McRoy]

Yeah. And they're just as scary. The same bugs are back in this one. There's new bugs. There's scorpions this time around who are just fucking awful. Really, really terrible. So, like quality of life stuff is what makes me kind of excited. The big sort of tent pole stuff. The biggest thing of all is now there are mounts and the mounts are bugs. And the first one you get access to is a red ant, like a soldier ant. You find its egg. You have to go on this mission where you go into a red ant hill, you get the soldier egg and you have to like make it back to your base before every other ant in the whole park kills you. And then you can ride around on this ant. He's fast as hell. You can use him to fight, you can use him to harvest resources. You can like switch him into basically vacuum mode and he'll just kind of like slowly trot around and absorb up everything and keep his own little inventory slots. And then there's like a, you know, you can build your own like barn essentially for your bugs where they will live and you can call out whenever you need them. And then there's other mounts that are. I think you can ride one of those big orb weaver spiders too. And then they're talking about adding more stuff to the game. I have honestly, to be perfectly blunt, the timing of this is not great because I just played the shit out of Grounded one and I know I'm going to play a lot of Grounded two. So I did hit a point where, I don't know, maybe after 10 hours or so in Grounded 2, the Early Access, I was like, I think I'm good, I think I've seen what I need to see and I'm going to hop back in as soon as.

[Russ Freshwick]

Do you try to get to a point where it's like, okay, things are relatively stable, I would be able to pick it up from that point in the future.

[Griffin McRoy]

I don't actually know because I'm usually one where if I go a year without playing a game, I'm not gonna want to hop back into the same save that I had. But I am very, very, very much into like, I spent a lot of time in Grounded 1 building this like treetop base that I had like scaled my way up to with like these leafy, slanted roof pieces. So I had this incredible vis. I spent hours and hours and hours on that. And I don't want to do that if I know that I'm going to not finish it on this save or whatever. But I do really, really like what is there. I played it mostly on my Rog Ally X and it works great on there and it seems to be not performing as well on my PC, which I don't know what to make of that. But there have been some complaints about optimization and stuff like that. But yeah, for me, if you are a grounded fan, it seems like a no brainer. I guess the big question is, do you want to wait? And I don't think they've given a timetable for when the full game is going to come out. But I do assume it's going to like it probably won't be this year.

[Russ Freshwick]

If I were to wait. Usually it's like a year is the typical.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yeah, they also just released two games. I mean, well, they released one already Avowed and then they have Outer Worlds 2 coming out.

[Griffin McRoy]

So it's like they got a lot cracking. This whole sort of franchise just really, really works for me. I just really love the idea of a, you know, honey, I shrunk the kids survival game and I love like finding some big real world thing and then figuring out like wait, is that actually gonna do any. Can I use that in my war against the spider folk? That stuff I think is really, really. I don't know, it hits really good. And they've also done a lot of very smart changes to sort of the grounded formula that I don't know. At the very least this has got me frothing at the mouth for the full release of this game because I know that it is going to have a pretty big impact.

[Russ Freshwick]

Yeah, it sounds great.

[Griffin McRoy]

I love it.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Should we take a quick break?

[Griffin McRoy]

Yeah, let's take a quick break and then we'll come back and talk about the rest of the stuff we got. Hey listen, I get it. You're trying to have some hot fun in the summertime, but you got the kitchen cooking blues cause you're spending all your time peeling potatoes. Well, save yourself some time and also eat some tasty chef prepped meals with factor Factor couldn't be simpler. They've got a menu with over 65 weekly meals that they rotate. You find what you want, what fits into your diet, what fits into your preference. You pick it, they deliver it right to your door and you've got that thing heated up and you're eating it real, real fast. They've got premium stuff, seafood for the stars, salmon, shrimps, no extra cost. Don't even worry about it. You watching your macros? They can help you out. They got tasty protein packed food that's just gonna treat you right, get you huge. I've used factor in the past and it really is super duper easy to get started and start getting food that is just right for you and truly save yourself some time in the evenings where you're not cooking dinner and you can do other funner stuff instead. Eat [e-mail] besties 50 off and use code besties50OFF to get 50% off plus free shipping on your first box. That's code besties50OFF@factor meals.com for 50% off plus free shipping. Get delicious ready to eat meals delivered with factor.

[Russ Freshwick]

Okay, we're back. So the initial plan was to do an entire episode on the game that I'm about to talk about. But I'm pretty glad that we didn't because I thought.

[Griffin McRoy]

I was certain everyone was gonna get so mad at me because I played it and I didn't get it. And it's such a classic and it was one of those like, oh, moments.

[Russ Freshwick]

Well, okay, so the game we're talking about is System Shock 2 Remastered, which is, it's worth noting, not a reimagining, not a reboot. It's not like Metal Gear Solid Delta where they totally like modernized the whole thing. It is the same game more or less before, but with like up res graphics and some quality of life changes, broadly speaking. But like the enemies you're facing, the environments you're. You're in, are gonna look like a game that came out in the mid-90s, more or less.

[Griffin McRoy]

In the last millennium.

[Russ Freshwick]

Yeah, for sure. I think the big draw for this is the original game became increasingly impossible or at least very difficult to run on modern devices. So I think for fans of System Shock 2, of which there are many that are probably very old at this point, you can now run it on basically anything. I've played it on a Steam deck or you can run on PC, whatever. What I find about. What I find interesting About System Shock 2 is a lot of the team that worked on this would go on and work on more, I think currently relevant or at least quasi relevant titles like Bioshock, for example.

[Griffin McRoy]

This was the precursor to like when Bioshock came out, it was, hey, the System Shock team is making this new thing.

[Russ Freshwick]

Yeah, correct.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Which was an interesting thing because BioShock was a console game or it was targeting console gamers.

[Griffin McRoy]

Right.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

System Shock 2 was hardcore PC back.

[Griffin McRoy]

When that distinction fucking meant anything at all.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Yes. But at the time it was like having people. You almost needed somebody to translate why it was exciting that BioShock was being made.

[Russ Freshwick]

Yeah. With System Shock 2, I think it's interesting because it does feel like the progenitor to BioShock. And not just in terms of plot. Like the plot is very similar as well. You basically land on a space station in this case and you're arriving after shit has popped off. In this case, an AI named Shodan caused some fiasco to go off in the first game, whatever. And it has progressed to the point where she has a major threat and you got to take her out. And so Once you arrive, the ship already has, like, fucking zombies running around and psychic monkeys running around, and things are really bad.

[Griffin McRoy]

Also, find bio regeneration pods that are your checkpoints if you die. Yes. Which is pretty much right. Right across the bow by bioshock.

[Russ Freshwick]

I mean it. In many ways, it feels a little bit like a prototype of what they would later do in BioShock. You're finding notes, you're finding audio logs, you're finding, like, little keypad codes to type in this game. When I first played it originally, many, many years ago, I remember it being incredibly, incredibly difficult. And I was like, I've since played so many of these immersive sims that I'm gonna be fine. And, man, I was not.

[Griffin McRoy]

No.

[Russ Freshwick]

I think a lot of the issue is that you start and, like, your only weapon for the most part, is this wrench that you have. You do get other weapons, but ammo is such a valuable commodity that, like, using them on a rare out of, like, a random zombie that's running around is a total waste.

[Griffin McRoy]

Shooting a bullet feels bad.

[Russ Freshwick]

Yeah.

[Griffin McRoy]

It feels like you're fucking up with every shot you take.

[Russ Freshwick]

Well, and part of that is because they have a skill system where you're investing the resources that you find throughout the world to level up different skills. And one of those skills is standard weapons that you would pick up, like a pistol or whatever. And. But to get to, like, a high enough level where shooting a gun feels okay, requires probably seven or eight hours of, like, getting through these very difficult levels, so you're just having to min max every tiny little thing. It. I think it.

[Griffin McRoy]

You are not told, by the way, what any of the stats do or. Or mean, as far as I can tell. And then there's skill stats as well. And so, like, you start the game by making all of these choices of what branch of the military you're going to go into and what different training regimen you're going to do. And I was like, okay, I guess I'll just do, like, all tech and, like, hacking. I'll go like specialized. I'll just take the things that make me hack better. And then like, the first handful of machines I came up to was like, you hacking skill's not high enough, man. I'm like, well, then why the fuck did I just do all that? Why did I do that then?

[Russ Freshwick]

I think they more or less, in later games, BioShock, whatever, streamlined all the things that, like, were impossibly obtuse or difficult and just made those choices feel more meaningful. The second you were Making them where you'd instantly know like, oh, I'm better at aiming, or, oh, I'm better at hacking. And it would like feel palpable. And that was like a big change from this original game.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

They did add a co op mode, I should say, for this.

[Griffin McRoy]

Yeah.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Which is, in theory a nice solution where you could have somebody who knows what they're doing guide you through, show you around. Yeah, I guess what's happening, right? I mean, Griffin, you did that for me with Grounded one. Like, that's a great way for me to get into those survival games that I'm otherwise terrible at. But this game was not made for co op. And if you look at the reviews or especially just the general player feedback, this is a buggy novelty more than it is a real way that you're going to want to play this game. Yeah, yeah.

[Griffin McRoy]

I don't know. I didn't dip into the co op mode. I played the single player story until I just. I really. I want to think I gave it a fair shot because I know that this is a game that, like, if I'd played it in 99, would have blown my fucking gourd. But there's a lot of games that came out in 1999 that I would still happily play to completion. And I didn't. I just didn't get it, guys. Like, I just didn't. I thought everything was so clunky and unbuttoned, unpleasant to interact with, and I feel like I gave it a shot but just could not hang.

[Russ Freshwick]

Yeah. I would unfortunately agree. I don't think it's aged well. I think there's just a ton of other games, Prey and Bioshock games that do what this game is doing, just in a much better way. And not just. I mean, I appreciate the groundbreaking nature of this title, but I think this release in particular is just for the hardcore fans that don't want to have to go through the hoops of running this game on their device currently.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

So I would, you know, earmark this game if you're curious about it though, because there is such an intense fan base around the system shock games. And even before this remaster, they were doing a ton of modding to do all sorts of cool stuff with it. And I think we will see a similar push from the modding community with this game over the years. But that's more of a.

[Russ Freshwick]

That's assuming they don't die before they finish the mods because they're very old. Yeah. Wow.

[Griffin McRoy]

150.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Jesus.

[Griffin McRoy]

I would love to Talk about my next game, because it came out of nowhere, blew me the fuck away. And I think it's one of the better games I have played in the year 2025. And that game is called the Drifter. The Drifter is a very traditional point and click sort of adventure game. I say sort of because one of the big kind of selling points is that they have also the developers, powerhoof, who I believe is just two guys in Melbourne, Australia. Their last big game, as far as I can tell, is Crawl, which came out in 2014. You guys remember that one? It was like a co op, competitive multiplayer. Yeah. So one player would control all the monsters and traps. And if you killed one of the adventurers, you got to take their body and take their place. It fucking rules.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

It's so good.

[Griffin McRoy]

And the soundtrack is great. I didn't realize that until today when I was trying to look up more about the studio and was like, oh, shit, I remember that game. That game rules. So the Drifter is the point I didn't finish making. They included a special sort of like controller control mech, like design where you use one stick to move and one stick to kind of look around and then kind of just like point at things you want to interact with. It all works so fucking well. I played the whole thing on my rog ally, but it is very much in that sort of traditional lucasarts, Monkey island, the Dig, that whole kind of milieu. It is about a man named Mick Carter who travels home after stowing away on a train to attend his mother's funeral. And he gets embroiled in this, like, wild sci fi conspiracy where people are going missing and there's been a string of murders of other drifters, you know, living out on their own. And he starts. He realizes that when he dies, he flashes back in time, which is kind of how they get around. Like, oh, no, you fucked up. In adventure games, if you mess up and then you die, then you whoosh. Fast forward back in time.

[Russ Freshwick]

Did they animate the gory death before you? Whoosh.

[Griffin McRoy]

Oh, God, yeah. Yeah, No, I mean, Crawl was pretty gnarly. Like there was a lot of impaling and evisceration. And in this game, Mick gets like, absolutely destroyed a lot. And it is dark as fuck. You need to be ready to hang with that if that is your interest. I would suggest you watch a trailer for the game. Cause it definitely touches. Mick is a dude who is running away from this horrible personal family tragedy. And a lot of the story is sort of about him and how he ran away. Instead of kind of dealing with the aftermath of this tragedy. And the game really does. I mean, it hits that stuff really, very, very, very hard and also has some truly gnarly deaths and stuff like that happening. But the acting and the writing and the storytelling are all absolutely top notch, fucking amazing stuff.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

How does it not fall into the adventure game, the point and click adventure game, traps.

[Griffin McRoy]

So I think it does. I think that there are a couple of sequences where there's a lot of investigating that you're doing, right? There's a lot of trying to get to the bottom of this big conspiracy, trying to figure out what is happening to you. Trying to figure out like at one point, one of your family members gets kidnapped, you're trying to figure out what happened to her. And so there's like some sequences that you're kind of bouncing around a map, like getting something from here, taking it to here, trying to figure out the other sort of trap that it does fall into. But it does so in a way that I think is kind of cool, is you do hit these moments of tremendous peril where it's like there is a group of soldiers who are storming this office where I'm holed up or I'm handcuffed to this hospital bed and someone is coming to kill me. And if you don't do it exactly right, you get killed. Right. But then those sequences are so short because it can only flashback in time, like a certain amount of time. And so while you do have that frustration of like, okay, I know the game wants me to do something here, I know it's going to involve, you know, reaching to get this remote and then hitting this button. And I know I need to distract the this guard so that I can do this, but I feel like I keep fucking up what the order is. But because it's hitting you with it in such a short, easily repeatable burst, it actually kind of works. It kind of feels like you are kind of stumbling into the solution of, oh, okay, so I definitely need to do this first so that I can get this and then do this. Those sequences, there's only a handful of them in the game, but they end up being pretty exciting because you are, I don't know, you try very desperately not to get killed and you will over and over and over and over and over again. It is, I don't really know because it is so traditional in its styling. Like, I don't know that there's like a lot more to explain. If you look at it, if you Watch a trailer for it and you have played any of those old LucasArts games. Like I do think it is going to, you know, resonate with some deep part of your core memories. Yeah, I will say it looks phenomenal. Just all the pixel art and the animation and just the lighting effects and just everything looks really tremendous. Yeah, it looks gorgeous, but just it is a really, really, really polished thing. And this is not. I have a really hard time hanging with adventure games I didn't like. I don't know, I feel like I didn't really click with a lot of the double fine stuff, a lot of the other telltale stuff. Like some of that worked for me, some of it didn't. I find the genre to be kind of just like what is the cheapest and easiest and laziest way that we can like tell a story there is the most humans.

[Russ Freshwick]

Like the only recent one that I've.

[Griffin McRoy]

Which one?

[Russ Freshwick]

There is no game Wrong dimension. That one.

[Griffin McRoy]

There is no game Wrong dimension is a great example of not doing that right. Because like it is a fairly traditional game but they do it in such a brilliant, like a constantly evolving way. This doesn't even do that. This is just like. This feels like a golden era point and click adventure game. It's just done so fucking well. And all of the production aspects of it are so top notch. And I not only I'm surprised, not only that I finished it, but I finished it fairly breathlessly over three or four days whenever I had free time. It was the thing that I went back to. Cause I was so desperate to figure out what was going on and figure out how to get past this sequence that seemed like this impossible death trap. There's a few clunky puzzles, but they are offset, I will say, by a few really, really great and exciting puzzles. And yeah, this one came out of absolutely nowhere. And I really, really, really liked it a lot.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I just checked, it is playable on Mac too.

[Griffin McRoy]

So like, oh, is it real?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Oh, that's cool.

[Griffin McRoy]

Immediately my laptop. I will also say if you have friends that you play games with locally, get Crawl also, because not very many people played that game, I don't think. And it handles this hack and slash dungeon crawler genre in a way that I think is really, really, really novel and fun.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

I feel like that game, it was just at the tail end of the local multiplayer boom and maybe missed out on its moment in the sun. But I completely agree. Fresh, you got one more game.

[Russ Freshwick]

Yeah, one more game. I was trying to remember if we talked about this game or not. It feels like something that Justin would talk about and might have talked about in honorable mentions, but I just wanted to call it out. I think we have. The game is Teenage Mutant Ninja Tactical Takedown. It came out on PC in like May, but it just got a re release on consoles. I believe it's on Switch and maybe one other console. It is a turn based tactics game featuring obviously the Ninja Turtles. What's interesting about it is it uses things that you've seen in turn based tactical games to like use this ability. It costs this many action points to whatever leap over someone on a skateboard and it has this effect. But all of this is presented in as like a board game. Like the Turtles themselves are like board game pieces and the like Foot Clan that you're fighting are like board game pieces. And it gives it kind of whole like its own kind of vibe in that way. It also allows them, I think, to scale the project in such a way that they're not having to animate every single attack or movement that the characters are making. But I just think it's like a smart design approach. There's also this element of time, which is weird in a turn based game, but you have to progress through these maps. So you're kind of racing through these maps, killing or I guess beating up Foot Clan members. And the area behind you will actually start disappearing after like a certain number of turns. So if you're not keeping the pace up, where you're constantly moving forward, you will actually lose and you'll like lose a life.

[Griffin McRoy]

What did you play this on?

[Russ Freshwick]

I played this on Steam Deck. So it works great with a controller, but it presumably works well on everything. It's not exactly pushing the hardware too hard, but I do think it's a good example of just like an interesting, unique approach to this genre that I haven't seen before. It's made by the team at Strange Scaffold, whose games you might know as they made El Paso elsewhere, which was that like Max Payne Vampire dope game. And they also made I am your Beast. So they've been putting out a lot of like really creative games that aren't necessarily what I would consider to be like mass market. And this is.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You're saying that click holding a game about cucking through clicking is not mass market.

[Griffin McRoy]

That feels pretty mainstream.

[Russ Freshwick]

I found it very interesting that they were able to get a studio to agree specifically like a studio as big as Warner Brothers, whoever owns Ninja Turtles these days, to agree to like control Their IP for a project and they did a really good job with. Reminds me of Cadence of Hyrule in that way where like, oh man, this indie developer got hold of like a huge property and let's see what they do with it. And they did like a really cool job. I was pretty pleased with it.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

If you want to hear more about Strange Scaffold and all the stuff they're doing, I actually did an interview with Xalveir Nelson Jr. Who oversees that entire.

[Griffin McRoy]

Studio over at Post Games.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Over at Post Games, brought to you by Podcast Cereal. It's just like that. It's the Post Malone of podcasts.

[Griffin McRoy]

Looks like we got a piece of reader mail here calling me out, dragging me out to the middle of town for a good old fashioned stand. Standoff.

[Russ Freshwick]

Yeah. So I wasn't here last week, but I guess you had a strong take on Donkey Kong Country.

[Griffin McRoy]

Oh, I shit talked. Donkey.

[Russ Freshwick]

No, Bonanza.

[Griffin McRoy]

Yeah, I love Bonanza. But I did. Yeah, let's get into it.

[Russ Freshwick]

Okay. This letter comes from Bryduck. It's an interesting. It's interesting. My take on Donkey Kong is very different from Griffin's. I find the solo mode much more compelling than the pure chaos of co op. I also think Bazing. I almost said bazinga.

[Griffin McRoy]

You almost said bazinga, didn't you?

[Russ Freshwick]

But Manzingas overall design is superior and at least rivaling Odyssey. My big problem with Odyssey is the vast majority of moons in that game do not utilize Mario's awesome movement at all. The capture mechanic is fun, but most of the capture movesets are not nearly as fun as moving around with Mario.

[Griffin McRoy]

I agree with that.

[Russ Freshwick]

Whereas the majority of Bananas are in some way utilizing DK's core moveset, digging and surfing and platforming. And the Bonanza abilities are an additive to his moveset as compared to the restrictive capture abilities. I think in this way DK is a refinement on this formula.

[Griffin McRoy]

I think that's a fine point. I would agree with everything that you said. I think it's just a question of, I don't know, design philosophy, puzzle and collectible design philosophy where it feels more footloose and fancy free for most of the time in Donkey Kong Bonanza, like just smashing your own way to the thing as opposed to hitting this very specific line. It's the difference between like having to, you know, having a Tony Hawk challenge where you have to clear this gap, versus like a skate challenge where it's like, just get this. Get this score or whatever. Like, it is a question of they're both doing the same thing. It just, I feel like being able to, I don't know, know exactly what I'm supposed to do is something that I felt like was missing in Bonanza. And that's not the worst thing in the world. It's just why I think the co op mode worked better for me is because playing it with my son in that way was very, was very rewarding. I imagine it is harder to, you know, jazz together some bullshit solution to get a banana if you don't have a, you know, bazooka wielding toddler on your shoulder.

[Russ Freshwick]

But yeah, yeah, it was also a big co op hit in our household as well. Yeah, I like the, I like the middle ground because they do have those challenge rooms that feel very, like, sectioned off and they allow you to, like, have a very specific challenge. But just having the fuck around big areas felt really, really good to me.

[Griffin McRoy]

Yeah. And to make it clear, I love Donkey Kong Bonanza. I think it's doing two, two different things. What do we got? Some honorable mentions.

[Russ Freshwick]

I've continued to play Pipistrello and the cursed Yo Yo. That game rules. I, I, it does. I just.

[Griffin McRoy]

How far? I think I got to the third, like, battery or whatever.

[Russ Freshwick]

Yeah, I'm in the, I'm at the third battery area, which is, like, inspired by, like, a Comic Con thing.

[Griffin McRoy]

Yeah.

[Russ Freshwick]

And I think I'm pretty close to the end at this point. But it's the game that, like, if I need, like, a good 20 minutes of, like, chill out, not think about anything and just, like, have a fun time, I keep going back to that. I just love the art, I love the controls. The, like, upgrade systems are very smart. It just feels as close to that GBA era of Zelda as I've seen from an indie developer, which is pretty impressive.

[Griffin McRoy]

Yeah, I'll probably return to that one. It's definitely one I'm keeping installed because I really liked what I played of it. What are you doing here? Are you copying my thing so you can paste it into a browser?

[Russ Freshwick]

I wanted to see what it was.

[Griffin McRoy]

Okay.

[Russ Freshwick]

I think I've used this, and I think I even talked about it.

[Griffin McRoy]

Did you really?

[Russ Freshwick]

Yeah, many, many moons ago.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Y' all have too many handhelds. You don't even know which ones are.

[Griffin McRoy]

We do, man. I actually just dug some out of, like, my office closet to, like, put them on some shelves that I have in the back here. And it really sunk in. Like, I haven't.

[Russ Freshwick]

It's a problem. I take good Russ advice, which is I hit A certain threshold and then I just give them away to people.

[Griffin McRoy]

I think I'm done, right? I like having one small pocketable one and one powerful that I can play whatever the fuck on. Right now, for me, that is either the Retroid 5 or the Flip 2, both of which I have kitted out to play basically whatever I want. Arguably, I could probably do this much, much better on my Raw Ally, like set it up with some suite of emulators or whatever. But I wanted a new small one because all the ones that I have that are kind of pocketable are all vertical orientation. Like your trim UI brick is like, great. And one that I would fully recommend. I wanted a horizontal one, though, so I got the Ayaneo Pocket Micro Classic. Ayaneo makes great handhelds that are pricier, I would say, than an Anbernic or a lot of the other sort of competition, but you pay for pretty great build quality. And this thing feels fucking great. I've got it right here. It's horizontal layout. Imagine sort of like a Game Boy Advance Micro, but scaled up.

[Russ Freshwick]

Scaled up to the point where you could actually use.

[Griffin McRoy]

Where you could actually use it. Yeah, it fits in my hands really great. It's got this sort of rectangular design, but the edges are all rounded in a way where it feels pretty great, actually, in my hands. They originally Ayaneo made the Pocket Micro that had two thumbsticks on it that were okay, but it's not the most powerful of the handhelds. It can only run up to a Dreamcast sort of thing, sort of unreliably. But I just kind of wanted something that I could play SNES and Game Boy advance and Genesis and other sort of games on. And so I didn't need the sticks. They made this new version, the Classic, that doesn't have the sticks, which is like perfect because now it just slides right in and out of the Pocket so easily. Runs Android, which is not my favorite. I would much rather have a Linux dedicated front end that I could kind of tweak and not have to fuck around with all of the other Android stuff that comes along with it. But I can play some Android games on it, which is cool, but I just love the form factor. It's full metal, so it feels really solid, really sturdy. The screen looks amazing. Buttons all feel really great. But it's also like, I think it was 220, which is a trim UI brick you can get for like 50, 60 bucks. So it's considerably more expensive.

[Russ Freshwick]

Do you know the internals? Are they the version that I played. That's why I'm remembering. It was the one with the analog stick. So it was a little while ago.

[Griffin McRoy]

I think it's the same. I think it's the same internals. I think the only thing that's different is just they had a lot of reviews that said, like, this thing is great, it feels great, the size is perfect. It's just what I want in like a horizontal. If you're not like in the scene, like there's a lot of. It's basically like Elvis versus the Beatles, pancakes versus waffles. Like, do you prefer a vertical old school Game Boy DMG style thing or do you prefer a horizontal, like original Game Boy advance style? And I do think I prefer the horizontal just because it fits in the hands a little bit easier and you don't have to.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Let's take a game gear, if you will.

[Griffin McRoy]

Game Gear is the worst example because it actually is horizontal, but it's unholdable because of how large it is. But it's my new off court buddy. It's my new. Like I put it in my pocket and I can actually take it places because it fits really well. I've been playing Final Fantasy 6 with the sound restoration.

[Russ Freshwick]

Oh, good. I was worried.

[Griffin McRoy]

I did my first ROM hack by finding this project that people had made of fixing the terrible, really, really grainy, hissy compressed audio that they took from the Super Nintendo version of Final Fantasy, I guess three in the States. When they put it on Game Boy advance, just the audio quality sounded absolutely like dog dirt. But I do love the Game Boy advance version of that game. I think it looks great and has some extra stuff. So I downloaded this ROM hack that made the sound sound marginally better. And it's been a while since I've replayed this one and it is truly, truly a staggering achievement.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Final Fantasy vi I inadvertently have two things that are both recommendations and plugs. The first one is Castle Crasher's new dlc, including the first new character that you can play as since 2011.

[Griffin McRoy]

When you say new, I mean how new new?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Like today Painter Boss paradise came out and it lets you add your own characters that you can design. It has a new playable character that is like new stuff. There is new content in Capsule Crasher.

[Russ Freshwick]

That is fucking crazy.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

That's today, my friend.

[Griffin McRoy]

That is. I guess listeners maybe haven't heard that. I don't know if that episode has come out yet, but we discussed this game at length as part of our most recent Besties Bracket episode.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

It is out that is also out right now. So if you want to listen to an entire episode about co op games, you will hear about Castle Crashers in quite a bit. So that's fucking, you know, they wanted to time it with us. They've been sitting on this for probably at least 10 years, you know, waiting for a good moment. They saw that the besties was out here and they said, let's put it out.

[Griffin McRoy]

I love it.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

The other one I want to shout out is last week on Post Games I talked with one of the writers of Ambrosia sky, which. Have you all been following this game?

[Griffin McRoy]

No, I don't think so.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

So Ambrosia sky is basically what would happen if you merged Power Wash simulator with System Shock.

[Griffin McRoy]

Yeah. All right.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

It turns out sick that it's a great, great, cool thing. There's a new demo that just went out on Steam. So once again I think that we are just inspiring people to make things available to the world. This is, I believe, the same demo that was shown at Summer Game Fest. It was kind of a hit demo of that show. The story is so grim. You are basically a cleaner of mass death incidents on off worlds in like the far distant future. And you are using your different Power wash tools to clean up these toxic scenarios and recover bodies.

[Russ Freshwick]

I fucking love that. That sounds awesome.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

It's such a cool, cool, cool game.

[Griffin McRoy]

This game's nasty.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

So yeah, you could check out that game. And if you want to check out an entire podcast about how video games help us process death, you could also go listen to Post Games. Those two things are just waiting for you right now.

[Griffin McRoy]

Definitely gonna get over there. Gotta get my Post games. Hey, thank you so much. That's gonna do it for us this week on the Besties. Chris, do you wanna try and summarize all the games we talked about this week?

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

Oh, we talked about so many games, but the way I put it is a little bit for everybody. We talked about the System Shock two remastered, the Drifter, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Tactical Takedown, Primal Planet Abuse, the video game grounded two, and also PPistrello, the Ayaneo Pocket Micro Classic with Final Fantasy 6 that's been modded and kitted out, Castle Crashers, new DLC and Ambrosia Sky. The demo is now available.

[Russ Freshwick]

That blows my mind that there's Castle Crasher Shield. So crazy.

[Griffin McRoy]

Haven't thought about that game in years. Talked about it extensively for our Patreon listeners. By the way, patreon.com thebesties thank you to everybody who supports the show directly there. Go get yourself a membership. You can gift a membership too if you go to patreon.com thebesties gift but we do bracket episodes every month and there's episodes of the besties that go up there. If you like our show, there's a lot more that you are not hearing if you're not a patron of ours.

[Russ Freshwick]

A couple quick shout outs for new members. We have Mike, we have Charles, we have Johnny, and we have the cliff with a cat.

[Griffin McRoy]

Thank you all so much. Again, patreon.com thebesties There are like 60 episodes now. There's a lot.

[Christopher Thomas Plant]

It's bonkers how much stuff you get.

[Griffin McRoy]

For signing up for a month of that next week. Join us again. We are going to be discussing, I think, the old Country. Now let me take you behind the scenes, listener. This is one of those where before we started recording, there was a lot of wringing of hands about whether or not this was gonna be the the one. And we don't want to lead you down some primrose path. If this is not the game we end up talking about next week, we will find ways to tell you via the social channels. Right now, the plan is the Old Country, a game I don't know anything about. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised. Find out by joining us again next week for the besties. Because shouldn't the world's best friends pick the world's best games? Samuel Besties.