Creature Kitchen Is an Alternative to Expensive Gaming

Summary

The Besties – April 3, 2026

Episode: "Creature Kitchen Is an Alternative to Expensive Gaming"

Hosts: Russ Frushtick, Chris Plante, Griffin McElroy, Justin McElroy
Main Theme:
The Besties crew dives into two standout indie games—Creature Kitchen and Scritchy Scratchy—with extended discussion on how the rising cost of hardware (specifically the PlayStation 5) is pushing people toward less expensive, more accessible gaming experiences. The episode explores the appeal of cozy and incremental games, the implications of a booming nostalgia market, and practical tips for finding affordable ways to play great games today.

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Episode Structure

• Opening Banter [00:00–02:13]
• Creature Kitchen Discussion [02:13–15:37]
• Scritchy Scratchy & Idle Games [17:19–32:58]
• Gaming & Gambling Mechanics Reflection [29:29–33:37]
• PS5 Price Increase & The State of Gaming Affordability [34:06–40:31]
• Cheaper Gaming Alternatives & Tips [40:31–51:24]
• Honorable Mentions & TV Recommendations [51:25–62:21]
• Closing Notes, Next Week’s Teasers, Recap [62:32–65:03]

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Opening Banter [00:00–02:13]

• The crew indulges in playful movie-quoting and self-aware commentary on podcast banter.
• Notable Quotes:
  • Griffin: "Maybe you don't air that side [the slop] out here on besties enough, but tuck between every Criterion edition DVD, you'll sneak a fucking Encino Man in." [00:33]

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Creature Kitchen: Indie Delight or Cozy Dread? [02:13–15:37]

What is Creature Kitchen? [02:13–04:32]

• Chris introduces Creature Kitchen as deceptively "horror-esque," but, "it's a cozy cooking game for a whole bunch of critters."
• Griffin and the group discuss the game’s PS1-style retro aesthetic—“This is nostalgia.” [03:07]
• The game’s environment and style evokes early 3D titles and indie trends.

Gameplay Loop & Mechanics [04:32–07:59]

• Chris: "The game is baby's first deduction game... you make critters food by deducing their favorites, Pokémon Snap-style." [04:32]
• Discovery is key: photographing animals tells you what dish to prepare; ingredients are scavenged, recipes collected.
• Russ: "The raccoon is like one of the first guys you see. If you feed him the three meals that he's requesting, he gives you a key." [06:29]

Tone & Atmosphere [07:03–08:59]

• The game delivers "a foreboding sense of dread"—think Inscryption, but without card mechanics.
  • Russ: "At one point...something knocks at the door...standing there is pants. And the pants run in, sit at your table, seem to want some sort of food. And when you take a picture of the pants, it adds it to your recipe book..." [07:30]
• Puzzles and escape-room elements lend depth; unlocking doors, collecting symbols, and unraveling gentle mysteries.

Who Is It For? [12:36–14:59]

• Chris: "It is a good game to play with a kid and also a good game to play if you’re just old—and for two different reasons…It looks scary and is not. It is Mr. Rogers levels of grade A material for teaching a young kid: I know this looks scary, but it isn’t." [12:36]
• Also appeals to adult nostalgia—evokes “spending time in a loved one’s home, the sound of rain outside.” [13:41]

Difficulty Curve & Enjoyment [14:59–15:30]

• Russ: “It gets harder…more opaque in terms of the puzzles…but not stuff you wouldn’t ease yourself into. I think it does a good job of easing you into that level of deduction.” [14:59]

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Scritchy Scratchy and the Ethics of Idle Games [17:19–33:37]

Scritchy Scratchy: Overview [17:19–19:34]

• Griffin: "A really fun twist on the incremental idle game genre...a scratch-off lotto ticket simulator."
• Starts with a day job ("cleaning plates"), then earns money to buy, scratch, and automate lotto tickets.
• iOS version praised as a good fit for the genre.

Idle Loops & Innovations [19:34–22:36]

• The interaction: actual physical scratching (game even warns about wrist strain).
• Upgrades and automation: “You start to get into these loops…your coin gets way bigger, now you're playing way bigger tickets, way more expensive…then you unlock automation systems…” [21:19]
• Adds risk: certain tickets can bankrupt you if handled carelessly—adds engagement even late game.

Genre Reflections & Comparisons [22:01–28:09]

• Berry Berry Berry, Clover Pit, and Wizard Tower discussed for context—incremental games are evolving into shorter, denser, more narrative experiences.
• Griffin on the genre: "There's a burgeoning genre right now of idle incremental games that are... well contained... tight. And this game has some narrative happening in the background that seems arcane and sinister." [27:13]

Gambling Aesthetics & Game Design Ethics [29:29–33:37]

• Justin: “Every single fucking video game on the planet is gambling...Every loot box, that ship done sail.” [33:37]
• On weaponizing addictive feedback loops: "If a game is going to use—I'll use this term—weaponize this sort of dopamine mechanic, it's got to reckon with that first of all in the story." [33:35]
• Griffin: “My desire to scratch-off a lottery ticket has maybe decreased since playing this game.” [33:29]
• The group discusses opportunity for richer narrative and how abstraction in games impacts culture.

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The PS5 Price Hike & Gaming Affordability [34:06–40:31]

Playstation 5 Price Jump [35:00–35:52]

• PS5 Standard: $649.99, Digital: $599.99, Pro: $899.00—a $100 increase across the board.
• "This is, from what I can tell, the first time in history where the major council's prices are going up as they get older rather than down." – Chris [35:52]

Supply Chain Woes: The RAM & Tariff Effect [36:44–38:11]

• AI-driven RAM price surge is the primary culprit, with global component shortages and tariffs hobbling game hardware availability (Valve's Steam Deck, Ayaneo, retro handhelds all impacted).

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Alternatives & Tips for Low-Cost Gaming [40:31–51:24]

Embrace the Backlog & Classic Games [38:54–40:00]

• Justin: “There are so many ways to engage with the hobby...decades’ worth of video games on devices you already own right now—don’t give your money to anybody.” [38:54]

The Rise of New “Low Spec” Games [40:00–40:31]

• Russ: “More and more games—Creature Kitchen is a good example—not aiming for top-tier graphical hardware, allowing play on lower-end or older devices.” [40:00]

PC Gaming on the Cheap & MacBook Neo [41:07–42:22]

• Chris: “My number one tip is…try to find a used [PC]... there is the new cheaper Mac, the MacBook Neo, which plays emulation games very well; you can dual boot Windows or emulate Windows games easily.” [41:07]

Linux & Technological Flexibility [42:23–45:30]

• “The more I mess with Linux, the happier I am." – Russ [42:23]
• Linux distros (like Bazzite) lauded for reliability, fast wake/sleep modes, and not forcing AI integration.
• Justin: "Why not engage with something a little different and free yourself from some of these operating systems?" [44:51]

Android, Game Hub, and Playing PC Games on Phones [45:37–48:42]

• Griffin and Justin discuss Game Hub and Game Hub Lite—Android apps that bridge PC game collections and phones/tablets. Perfect for lightweight, non-3D titles.

Emulation and Old Game Archives [49:24–50:49]

• Justin: "If you can’t buy something, I think it’s wild to say you can’t obtain it...I'd much prefer people play [my old game]." [50:15]
• Mentions Amiga’s extensive gaming archives and relaxed stance on abandonware.

Libraries Offer Modern Game Access [50:49–51:07]

• Chris: "You can go to a library to play modern stuff." [50:49]
• Ribbing ensues, but it’s a real option!

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Honorable Mentions & TV Picks [51:25–62:21]

YouTube & Engineering:

• Tom Scott’s Return: Ross highlights Tom Scott's new YouTube series, with a bell-breaking video especially recommended. [51:38]

TV Recommendations [52:16–61:20]

• Last One Laughing UK: Side-splitting competitive comedy returns, with high stakes due to returning champions. [52:16, 60:22]
• Neighbors (HBO Max): "One of the best things I’ve seen...little vignettes about two warring neighbors, [it's] a show about what happens when two people who are both big, strong personalities are forced to live next to each other." – Justin [53:22]
• Jury Duty: Company Retreat (Amazon): Real guy, everyone else is an actor. Season 2 is more improvisational, with the protagonist consistently choosing to stay and support fellow "employees," leading to hilarious scenarios. [55:00–59:29]

Gaming Picks:

• Sonic Racing Crossworlds: Chris boosts the game as a "Mario Kart alternative” with an all-star cast from Mega Man to Pac-Man and SpongeBob. [62:32]

Shoutouts & Patreon Supporters [62:51–63:36]

• Thanks to Patreon backers: Scant, Nathan H., Tom, and “Inclement Heather.”
• Patreon funds ensure the show’s continued existence.

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Notable Quotes & Highlights

• "From the moment that boot screen loads up. Now, this—this is nostalgia." – Russ [03:13]
• "The game is baby's first deduction game. And I say that as a compliment." – Chris [04:32]
• “There are so many ways to engage with the hobby and...let history do its thing and go back and play the many, many, many classic games you could just download and play now…” – Justin [38:54]
• "If a game is going to weaponize this sort of dopamine mechanic, I think it's got to reckon with that in the story." – Justin [33:35]
• “It gets harder...not stuff you wouldn’t ease yourself into. I think it does a very good job of easing you into that level of deduction.” – Ross [14:59]
• "This is, from what I can tell, the first time in history where a major console's prices are going up as they get older." – Chris [35:52]

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Episode Summary & Takeaways

• Creature Kitchen: A gentle, cleverly designed deduction/puzzle game with cozy-horror vibes, perfect for adults and kids, and emblematic of a current nostalgia wave for "indirect comfort" in gaming.
• Scritchy Scratchy: Delivers dopamine-driven idle mechanics—complete with meta commentary on gambling and the abstracted thrill loops that define modern games. Bursts of automation and risk manage to freshen up idle-game conventions while raising interesting questions about cultural normalization of gambling.
• PS5 Price Surge: Hardware is more expensive than ever, but the indie and retro scenes are thriving. The shift is inspiring both developers and players to focus on more accessible, inventive gaming experiences.
• Affordability Wins: The Besties emphasize downloadable classics, itch.io, emulation, open platforms like Linux, cloud streaming, and even public libraries as today’s best ways to play.
• Pop Culture Picks: Tom Scott’s YouTube return, Neighbors, Jury Duty, Last One Laughing UK, and Sonic Racing Crossworlds all earn host acclaim.

The episode’s message is clear: The cost of gaming’s cutting edge is daunting, but this is a golden era for inventive, affordable, and accessible play of every flavor—no matter what your hardware, wallet, or taste in weird cryptid raccoons.

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Next Week:
Preview: The Besties will discuss the Super Mario Galaxy movie and debate whether to retire or revive regular movie quoting on the show.

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[64:06] Chris Plant: "Next week we talked about Creature Kitchen, Scritchy Scratchy, last one, Laughing UK Neighbors on HBO Max, Jury Duty, Company Retreat, Sonic Racing, Crossworld's game, Hub Light, Mr. Big Song to be with you and that video. I helped break 142 year old bell. And that's okay."

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For more:
Subscribe to The Besties Patreon for monthly bracket battles, bonus Restyz episodes, and other perks!

Transcript

[Chris Plant]

Can we bring back a movie quoting?

[Griffin McElroy]

I don't know, Chris. Let me ask my wife.

[Chris Plant]

Oh, I. I love my life. But you know, you know what I love even more than my wife was? Who?

[Justin Romero]

Who?

[Griffin McElroy]

That's crazy.

[Chris Plant]

I love lamp.

[Justin Romero]

You love lamp. Oh, dude.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, dude. Fucking yeah, dude.

[Ross Frostnik]

I thought. Chris, point. I thought you were going to bring back like Unshin Andalu the quoting, where it's like, let's cut that sheep eye.

[Chris Plant]

Everybody thinks I'm like this big pretentious dude over here, but you know what?

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, Shake and bake. Yeah, he likes the slop too. Like crystal slopped down with the hogs. A lot of people. Maybe you don't air that side out here on besties enough, but, like, tuck between every Criterion edition dvd, Blu Ray that you have in your shelf, you'll sneak a fucking Encino man in. Like, you'll put some real genuine stinkers.

[Justin Romero]

I feel like Talladega Knights and Step Brothers fell into this weird, like, hole where kids are still into it. Like, I'll see. I'll see kids wearing a stepbrothers T shirt and it's like, oh, really? It peeped there for you, huh? Step Brothers?

[Griffin McElroy]

It got way damned.

[Chris Plant]

Or I think actually what you're supposed to say is wawa.

[Ross Frostnik]

We.

[Chris Plant]

Wa.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, we. You are you. I have to say that.

[Chris Plant]

You know, I'm realizing the problem with movie quotes is they don't have a lot of substance. You kind of run out of material pretty fast.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, yeah. This also isn't a movie podcast. I get so sick and tired of hearing about these goddamn uninteractive flicks taken up.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah, baby.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Ross Frostnik]

Good old boy.

[Justin Romero]

My name is Justice McElroy and I know the best game of the week.

[Griffin McElroy]

My name is Griffin McElroy and I know the best game of the week.

[Chris Plant]

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

[Ross Frostnik]

My name is Ross Frostnik. I know the best game of the week.

[Justin Romero]

Welcome to the Besties, where we talk about the latest and greatest in home interactive entertainment. It's a video game club, and just by listening, you, my friend, have become a member of that club. This week we're talking about Creature Kitchen, Chris Plant. What's that?

[Chris Plant]

Creature Kitchen looks like a horror game where you're out in the woods. But what if I told you it's a cozy cooking game for a whole bunch of critters?

[Griffin McElroy]

Are we also talking about Scritchy Scratchy or is that.

[Ross Frostnik]

We're also talking about Scritchy Scratchy.

[Griffin McElroy]

Thank God. I Got so scared that I played a game that wasn't for Job. We're also talking about Scritchy Scratchy Griffin.

[Justin Romero]

What's that?

[Griffin McElroy]

Oh, it's a incremental game about scratch off lotto tickets.

[Chris Plant]

Hell yeah.

[Justin Romero]

Hell yeah. We'll talk about that and so much more right after this. This is the kind of retro aesthetic I can get into from the moment that boot screen loads up. Now this. This is nostalgia.

[Ross Frostnik]

You're talking about PlayStation nostalgia. That's the kitchen.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, man. It's got that Crow County. Was that that game the Resident Evil? Like. Yeah, man. I love that shit. I love this vibe so much.

[Ross Frostnik]

Yeah, it is. It is a very early era 3D. I would say, like probably halfway through the PS1's life cycle. Era 3D, right?

[Chris Plant]

Yeah. They're figuring out some tricks. Yeah, they're figuring out like a perpetual flicker. The animals actually look like the animals that they're intended to be.

[Ross Frostnik]

Yeah. Outside of the just aesthetic of it, which has obviously been done quite a bit recently, it does feel like the in aesthetic in a lot of indie games. Just from a structural standpoint.

[Griffin McElroy]

Can I take a guess? Because I didn't actually play it and I watched a lot of trailers for it, and the trailers, I feel like, tell you, is it sort of like Procopia with creepy woodland creatures where you're trying to feed them and attract them and make a fun home for them? That's the vibe that the trailers give off. There also is maybe a hint of some sort of sinister twist waiting just around the riverbend.

[Ross Frostnik]

The way I've been describing it to people that don't know the game is, it is the mix of inscryption and cooking.

[Justin Romero]

Mama.

[Chris Plant]

Okay. I'm hoping and talk about how the game actually works.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Chris Plant]

The game is baby's first deduction game. And I say that as a compliment. And the way that this works is you go out and you walk into a house and you're like, what do I do in this house? It's all a mystery. There are some recipes, there's locks on almost every door. And you realize, I need to make these adorable critters some food because I am in the creature kitchen. And you get a camera, then you take photos of those animals and that will tell you what they want to eat. But it's like, when I say light deduction, it's like a taste of Italy. So you'll look through your recipe sheet and you will find various foods. Like, is that an actual sub?

[Griffin McElroy]

What animal? I'm assuming this Game doesn't take place in Italy. But what animal would have like a, a taste for Italy as part of their.

[Ross Frostnik]

I think this was one of the cryptid, it's a crypt type animals. Oh, okay. So it's not just raccoons.

[Chris Plant]

So it makes a lot more sense once you know that. Right.

[Justin Romero]

So you know they're meatball.

[Ross Frostnik]

Yeah, Cryptid loving Crypt.

[Justin Romero]

Cryptids love meatball subs.

[Griffin McElroy]

Meatball man bifid. Been to Italy?

[Chris Plant]

Yes. So there's this loop of go out and find recipes that are hidden around the environment, go out and spot Pokemon Snap style critters, get a photo of them, learn what they want to eat, and then go out and find foods. And you might find like mushrooms out in the garden or you might find some like bread and salt in the cupboard. And once you have all of that information then you can be like, well, I know this crater, I know that it's hungry for a meatball sub. And I have, I think the stuff that I need to make a meatball sub. I'm going to toss those ingredients in a magical space time oven and it's going to spit out the meatball sub and then I can go deliver that to the critter. And, and the more you do that, the more recipes you unlock, the more little areas of the house that you can get. It's a very simple, clean, effective loop.

[Ross Frostnik]

Yeah, yeah. The animals. If you, for example, the raccoon is like one of the first guys you see. If you feed him the three meals that he's requesting, he gives you a key. And that key might unlock a door in your house, it might unlock a cabinet, and in that cabinet might be cheese or flour or whatever, some new ingredient. And then you can use those ingredients to feed additional animals, et cetera, et cetera.

[Griffin McElroy]

This sounds great. This sounds right up my alley. I'm not hearing the inscription side of things. And I imagine maybe some of that is some vibe. Tonal shit.

[Ross Frostnik]

Yeah, it's tonal. It's not, it's not a card based game. You're not doing that level of it. But tonally there is a foreboding sense of dread. I'll give you an example. At one point, pretty early on, you've done like three or four animals and you're like cooking. You're facing your oven and you just hear a knock behind you and you spin around and you open your front door and there standing at your door is pants. Sending pants.

[Griffin McElroy]

Okay.

[Ross Frostnik]

And the pants run into your house, sit at your table and seem to want some Sort of food. And when you take a picture of the pants, it adds it to your recipe book. And it says the pants want something in particular. But you are not given any clue as to what you need to give the pants. So I made the pants ice cream just shot in the dark. The pants did not care for ice cream and ran away. That's part of the mystery.

[Justin Romero]

Okay.

[Griffin McElroy]

Fucking A. All right.

[Chris Plant]

There's actually maybe a slightly closer inscription comparison here in that it also has mild escape room vibes because, again, you're in this room and you're trying to figure out how to navigate the space, how to unlock these doors. And there are little puzzles that allow you to do that. So an early one is that you under the little bureau that has the Polaroid camera that you need, you'll find a puzzle box. And there are three symbols on it or four symbols on it. And you need to figure out where those symbols relate to elsewhere in the house. And that's going to help you get another recipe and maybe another food item. I am curious, Hoops, you played this, right?

[Justin Romero]

Yeah.

[Chris Plant]

Looks like a spooky game. It looks like a horror game is what they're going for. What was your impression of the mood that it actually. Did you get scared?

[Griffin McElroy]

He's trying to ask if you got scared, like a little bit.

[Chris Plant]

I'm trying to ask you a little baby scaredy cat.

[Justin Romero]

I was really, really scared. No, I think that it actually was a nice counterpoint to. There can be things that. There's things that I like about the cozy, for lack of a better term. I like methodical things. I don't mind that. I like the sense of, like, slowly building your ingredient collection. I found that very satisfying. And so like it not looking super cutesy and not feeling super cutesy to me. I found it a little more palatable because of that. Like, I found it a little less because it can get a little grating. I think the super soft aesthetic that a lot of these games tend to adopt, I think this would blend into the noise a lot more. I think if it looked a lot cuter, a lot more cutesy.

[Ross Frostnik]

They also do a very smart thing with ingredient stuff where as you're going through the house and you're finding new ingredients in or even outside if you find a mushroom, things like that, you will discover that ingredient. And anything you've discovered goes into your pantry. And your pantry is an infinite, well, infinitely repeating hallway where, like, you never run out of stuff, but you could just like, keep walking and walking and walking and there Are like little puzzles in that infinite hallway as well. But I like the fact that like, there wasn't this element of where the fuck did I leave the flower, right? You always know where the flower is because you've already discovered it because it's in the pantry.

[Justin Romero]

I went into the pantry without clocking what it was, and I. So I just kept walking and I was like, this isn't like the first 30 seconds of playing the game. So I was like, I guess there's a really fucking long hallway. It's crazy. And then in another tab, I had previously accidentally opened Emulation Station and it had gone into screensaver mode and started playing Mr. Biggs the next to be with you. I did not realize this had happened.

[Griffin McElroy]

Why does Emulation Station have that functionality?

[Justin Romero]

It's like, I don't know. I don't know why that was like a part of it.

[Griffin McElroy]

But were you emulating Mr. Bigsby now?

[Justin Romero]

It might have been a screensaver from a game that had that in it. Like one of those, like, mix up video things. You know what I mean? I know Mr. Big did the themes. Anyway, it doesn't matter. The point is, I'm walking down this hallway I don't know is endless. And I've been out for two minutes, I'm about to stop, and then I hear I'm the one who wants to be with you. And I'm like, holy shit. How did the game think you another three minutes to down the hallway just. Just waiting for the next to be with you to change or alter in some way or the lyrics need to come more centric.

[Griffin McElroy]

It famously has the most powerful key change in song.

[Justin Romero]

That would have been the moment, right? All the shit falls off Smile with

[Griffin McElroy]

like the gates of heaven open, man.

[Justin Romero]

Yeah, yeah. So that took a little while to un. To unspool that puzzle. That was a bit more of a puzzle than they meant it to be, I think.

[Griffin McElroy]

I don't know if the developers of the games we talk about ever listen to, to our show. If you developed this game, that's a pretty primo Easter egg. I feel like if you pick up the ingredients in the right order, it will just start blasting.

[Justin Romero]

Hold on, little girl.

[Griffin McElroy]

Just like, oh, shit, that's good. That would be a good achievement. This sounds cool. It sounds like the game you maybe shouldn't talk too much about. Like, what is it surprising sort of the shit that comes down the down

[Chris Plant]

the more you play. One thing I want to hit is like, it is a good game to play with a kid and also a Good game to play if you're just old and for two different reasons. One, you're playing this with a kid. It looks scary and is not. And it is like Mr. Rogers levels of grade A material for teaching a young kid. I know that this looks scary. I know it feels. Feels scary. It actually isn't scary. Like, this is. These creatures are actually just as hungry. They're hungry for food. This is, you know, when it rains outside, it is not menacing inherently. In fact, it can itself be cozy. And I think it's doing something that I find very nice of like, subverting the expectations of what this like, scary environment should be. I found it really fun to play with my kid who can get very overwhelmed by thunderstorms because we just don't have them a lot in California. It's also, I think a good game

[Ross Frostnik]

with there is thunder. That wasn't an issue.

[Chris Plant]

No, that's what I'm saying is because it's like creating a safe. It feels very cozy and safe. Right. It's taking a thing that normally would be scary and isn't. And then also for playing with a kid, the deduction is so simple that it's like a fun thing to just talk with your kid through of like, hey, what. What do you think that this crow wants? They really like cheese, they really like crackers. What are we going to get for the adult, though? Because I don't want to like, limit this to like, oh, this is a kid's game. It hits a very specific type of nostalgia. And I think in gaming we think of nostalgia as like, indirect nostalgia, where I'm nostalgic for Mario, but really what I'm nostalgic for is being six and like, having no problems. And this has that vibe of like, oh, I'm going over to grandma's house and I am making food there. It feels much more one to one with like, the things that we're actually nostalgic for, which is very simple chores, spending time in a loved one's home, the, like, sound of the rain outside. I just found it very transportive. And how it brought me back to, I don't know, I just felt like a little kid playing it.

[Ross Frostnik]

I would also say it is. It gets harder. Like, I wouldn't say hard, but more opaque in terms of the puzzles. Like, the first few are like, incredibly on the nose and like, it requires a little more deduction, but not stuff that like, you wouldn't ease yourself into. Like, I think it does a very good job of easing you into that level of Deduction to the point where, you know, it might take a little bit before you figure out the next step of the puzzle. And that's cool. Like, that's what I wouldn't want to spoil for people because that's the magic of it.

[Chris Plant]

I'm starting to get the Scritchy Scratchies to want to hear about Scritchy Scratchy, but I do want to hear hoops thoughts before we do that.

[Justin Romero]

I was just noticing what Griffin was sort of hinting around at. And I wonder if games like Animal well and. And Inscryption and others have, like. I feel like it's tough for a game like this that is a little bit mysterious because I feel like there's now kind of an expectation of like, maybe this entire thing changes.

[Griffin McElroy]

You know what I mean?

[Justin Romero]

And nobody wants to talk about it, but there's a lot of games that I think are playing in that space of like, you know, don't ask too many questions, don't talk about it too much because there's like a lot more layers that you don't want to spoil for yourself. And I wonder if games like that have put out. That's a really tough expectation to fight back against.

[Chris Plant]

Right?

[Ross Frostnik]

Yeah.

[Griffin McElroy]

If you play the whole game thinking like, it's a game within a game, it's a dream.

[Justin Romero]

Right.

[Griffin McElroy]

This is a computer.

[Justin Romero]

Is there another shoe? You know?

[Griffin McElroy]

Right.

[Chris Plant]

This is what we're telling you. It is to set your expectations. This game.

[Griffin McElroy]

That is very helpful.

[Chris Plant]

Exactly what we're telling you.

[Griffin McElroy]

I truly think it's the Inscryption comparison that immediately, like Juice said, like, sets my mind to, like, oh, damn, Is there another game? There's nine Metaphysical Layers.

[Ross Frostnik]

It's just a tone thing entirely.

[Griffin McElroy]

I like that too.

[Ross Frostnik]

It's also worth noting that this game has, like, been massively popular on Steam. It's found a real audience. It is at present. Might not be the case when this actually publishes, but at present the highest rated game on Steam for 2026.

[Justin Romero]

Wow.

[Ross Frostnik]

Higher than any other game.

[Chris Plant]

Good for them.

[Griffin McElroy]

Well, congrats.

[Ross Frostnik]

I'm sure it helps. It has a lower price point, which I'm sure helps. But also it's a fun game. Like, they did a really good job. So grats to them.

[Griffin McElroy]

Is it Scritchy Scratchy Time?

[Ross Frostnik]

I think it is.

[Justin Romero]

Scratchy. Scratchy Time. Scratchy Time.

[Griffin McElroy]

I feel like Scritchy Scratchy is a really, really solid, really fun twist on the incremental idle game genre. It is a little. I did feel a bit overstuffed since we did Just also do Berry Berry Berry, which is very much a kind of like novel, incremental style game. I feel like I almost wish Itchy Scritchy Scratchy came out like a month later. So I had a little time for a palate cleanser. It is a scratch off lotto ticket simulator. You start off and you have a day job cleaning plates, I guess at a restaurant. You click a button to make a plate appear and then you have to use your mouse to wipe off the plate or your touchscreen. I didn't realize this until today, but it's also on iOS, which is probably kind of a better place to play it, maybe on a tablet or something like that. But then you unlock the ability to spend the money you are earning on this day job on a lotto ticket. So you buy that one, it's a simple lotto ticket. And you start to win those. You start to make more money. Now you can afford some upgrades like increasing your luck or increasing the strength or width of your coin. Get those huge chunky JFK silver dollars. And now you're scratching with intent. You jackpot. You get points, prestige points for when you restart your run over again with increased earnings. And there's a whole skill tree that you can get into. And so you start doing that, your coin gets way bigger. Now you're playing way bigger tickets, way more expensive, but you got your luck up to the point where those are turning a profit for you now too. And then you start to unlock automation systems. Uh oh. Now all of a sudden you can have a little robot that will scratch off the tickets for you. Now you got a little guy who's gonna claim your prizes for you. He can be upgraded so he gets rid of bad tickets. So that's the thing that I think is very novel about Scratchy. Scratchy, all that shit is so rock solid. Fucking right over the plate. Incremental game stuff.

[Ross Frostnik]

I mean, would you say. Yeah, I was gonna say like, where's the novel part?

[Griffin McElroy]

Because so the novel part, the novel part of this is one. The sort of whole scratch off ticket.

[Ross Frostnik]

Yeah, that's canning.

[Griffin McElroy]

Which I will say up front, I thought about you instantly, Juice. Because the first thing you do when you start playing the game is it's like it warns you like, hey, this is going to be repetitive. A hand, wrist.

[Justin Romero]

Yeah, I got. Yeah, I played like the first 20 minutes of it.

[Griffin McElroy]

I thought that was deed. I've never seen a game ever, ever do that where it's like this game' to be sort of physically strenuous. If you're doing the scratching off, there's two other options. One where you can just kind of hold it over your cursor over the thing. I don't know how that would work on iOS, but on computer, you just sort of move your mouse over. And then there's one where you can like, click in to hold. So it's like changing the option. You either don't have to hold your finger down to click, or you don't have to, like, move it. It'll sort of auto move it. But I actually ended up switching to that because I also found the repetitive motion of scratching very cool at first, but then less cool as time went on. What is cool is you start to get into these loops, right, and you're, like, earning more money and you're increasing your speed with which you're moving through the same shit every time you prestige the new tickets you unlock. As you reach certain price tiers, they start to have sort of risky elements to them. Like, this ticket is gonna have, like, a huge prize. It costs more money than any other ticket you've gotten. So you have to be, like, smart about how you spend it. It has a huge jackpot. Huge jackpot. But it also will sometimes have a symbol in there that will make you lose a lot of money. And if you start feeding those through your automatic robot machine and clicking through them, you will go fucking bankrupt in 10 seconds. And so with those, it becomes a sort of, like, balancing act of, like, okay, I got my easy money down here going into the machine. I can't put these guys in the machine yet because they'll scratch off the bad stuff. Whereas when you're doing it manually, you can start to see, oh, there's that goddamn worm again. And if you don't finish scratching them off, it no longer counts. That element alone I found to be really interesting because the whole sort of process through which you move through Idle Games is you are repeating an action. A click, a tap, a whatever, a manual action, so that you can, like, increase your ability to, like, automate that manual action. And this one kind of gives you a reason to, like, still think about that sort of half of the. Of the experience. I know if you don't play incremental games, that sounds like an insane sort of. Like, this one makes you interact with it still.

[Ross Frostnik]

Yeah, there was Barry. Barry Berry actually did something similar where you had to, at one point make Shakespeare, and you needed, like, specific berries for the shakes. So it does.

[Justin Romero]

I thought Berry, Berry, Berry did an

[Griffin McElroy]

excellent job of this idea. I never felt like that. I almost hesitate to call that an incremental game just because, like, it is to me. It feels so manual and it feels so like you have very active.

[Justin Romero]

You're very active.

[Griffin McElroy]

You're always moving around, sucking up barrier. It's not an idle incremental game is fair for that. It is not an idle game sort of at all. Whereas this, like, you can set up a pretty rock solid automated system and, you know, kind of just have it on.

[Ross Frostnik]

Does this do the like, go away for three hours, come back and you have money?

[Griffin McElroy]

No. So this doesn't do. Yeah. So. So maybe that is like the modifier, the technical thing that makes it an idle game. This is still like more interactive than that. Like you are. Until you get far enough in the game to get the machine that subscribes to a certain lotto ticket for you and buys them for you. Like, then you are going to be like clicking in there from time to time. Time to. To. To do it.

[Justin Romero]

I. Oh, sorry.

[Griffin McElroy]

No, please, go ahead.

[Justin Romero]

I really struggled metaphorically with this one, man. Like, it does hit that. It does rough. It's like it really. There's not a layer of abstraction you can get to where it's like, I'm running a factory. You're not. But you're a monkey. You're a monkey. It is like so far removed Griff from the feeder. It's like so close.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's like a really, really, really hair's

[Justin Romero]

breadth away from like. I worried I'd play this one for a million hours and at the end I'd have a script for Hamlet. You know what I mean?

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, for sure. No, I will say that it does not overstay its welcome. I finished it in like a few hours of playing it and so it is not. This is not a. There's one, I think on iOS called idle revolution that does kind of like do that where it puts you through this gauntlet of like incremental progress and then you get to the end of it and it's like, you're wasting your fucking time. You have wasted your goddamn life. We're going to give you one upgrade point if you want to do this whole fucking thing again. You can, but you are absolutely blowing it, dude.

[Justin Romero]

Well, look at Clover Pit as a really interesting counterpoint. Right. Slots are gross in a very similar way, but in Clover Pit. Sorry, go ahead. Yes, please, Josh.

[Ross Frostnik]

For people that aren't aware Clover Pit was a slot machine based roguelike.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Ross Frostnik]

Where you could like modify the odds as well.

[Griffin McElroy]

For sale In a bundle with Scritchy Scratchy.

[Justin Romero]

It looked more like our last game.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah.

[Justin Romero]

Played more like this one. But the difference with. With that, with Clover Pit is you were in hell, you know, like it made it clear. It's like, this is hell.

[Ross Frostnik]

Yeah.

[Justin Romero]

But it's like, I don't know. I don't feel like Scratchy. Scratchy doesn't sound quite as self aware.

[Griffin McElroy]

Clover Pit is is way I think Clover Pit is. It is a much deeper game. I'm still playing Clover Pit from time to time, guys. It's on iOS now. And I'll just like get in there and I'll be like, yeah, there's a lot of these memory card runs I have not finished. Would love to fuck around with Clover Pit. This doesn't have that. You're not buying. You're not drafting like relics. Like, it's not. It is not quite that roguelitey. But yes, like Justin said, I'm also going to talk a little bit about Rat Coin, I think this week. And so playing a lotto scratch off ticket game and a quarter drop game at an arcade together, it really told me a story about myself that I wasn't really.

[Justin Romero]

I don't mind to admit that sometimes I'm a nasty piss bull. I just need the game to recognize that I am a nasty piss boy and I'm wallowing in my own filth. Like, that's what I need to be treated like. I need a DOM situation to show

[Chris Plant]

how much it knows that you are the nasty piss boy. The actual Steam page. The first screenshot is dirty dishes and the words tired of your day job. The second screenshot is a photo of a yet to be scratched scratch off ticket. The third screenshot is Jackpot. The fourth screenshot is a robot. And the final screenshot is Super Jackbot. It is literally telling you like, yeah, are you sad?

[Griffin McElroy]

But here's the thing, okay. Obviously I think that is off putting, generally speaking. I also think it is like if you look at fuck, open up the iOS app store, click the games tab, go to Top Unpaid games and then take your finger and go like this and you're gonna see goddamn 49 of the 50 games that pop up are exactly this. Right? But this one is also like five bucks and it doesn't.

[Chris Plant]

I agree with Hoops of like the fact that it is literally gambling as the aesthetic is a choice. But I am.

[Ross Frostnik]

But like, so is Palatro. Arguably.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah.

[Chris Plant]

Let me. Well, yeah, well, very, very different thing. But just to finish that thought, just

[Ross Frostnik]

as the aesthetic I don't think it's actually to finish.

[Chris Plant]

To finish the thought. I agree with Griffin. I much prefer this where it is a. You pay one price. It is not here to bleed you of money and it is not really here to like mega bleed you of time. I feel like the games that we used to play of these that we got really into were like you could lose 30 or 40 hours and for sure this.

[Griffin McElroy]

No, I appreciate. I really truly. I don't know that I've played a ton of games. The last one I can think of is like, I think it was called Mage Tower or Wizard Tower and that. Oh God, the Wizard Tower. Wizard Tower.

[Ross Frostnik]

Dustin is flashbacking at the moment.

[Justin Romero]

That one kicked ass.

[Griffin McElroy]

What was the corp. That one kicked

[Justin Romero]

ass because you had an incredible Wizard's tower.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, you know what I mean? The Norp. Norp. Norp. It was Norp.

[Justin Romero]

Oh, the Norp analog.

[Griffin McElroy]

The Norp analog. That one kick ass Creating life.

[Ross Frostnik]

Odd Norps.

[Griffin McElroy]

There is this like, I don't know, I feel like pretty burgeoning genre right now of idle incremental games that are short, like they are well contained. They are three four hour things that are just like tight. And this game also has some narrative happening in the background that seems arcane and sinister as well that also kind of has a payoff sort of at the like there's other stuff happening other than the get rich monkey scratch off ticket sort of, I don't know, lizard brain stuff. But it's. I really enjoyed it for its like brevity and its density a little bit where it just gets in. You get the good feeling you.

[Justin Romero]

Have you seen, you guys see the commercials on tv, usually midday and it's like, hey, I'm Barry Williams from TV's Brady Bunch. And when I'm not up on stage singing to my fans, I love royal slots.

[Griffin McElroy]

And then he's on like a huge

[Justin Romero]

pile of gold coins. It's like every single pull there's a million coins. And then you're watching, it's like, you know, it's not gambling. So. So what are people doing? And it's like you're just pretending to play the slot machines. I feel like we need to be. You can be so chin stroke y. When you abstract out the dopamine extraction mechanism, you can only be so like, hmm. It really makes you think before you're like, no, you're just doing the thing like, you know what I mean?

[Chris Plant]

It's just that the problem is I now want that video game in which I am watching TV and then a former Brady Bunch man is my narrative guide through Scritchy Scratchy. You see, you tried to make a great point, and what you did is you pitched.

[Griffin McElroy]

You sold him even fucking harder. Now we see who the real people.

[Justin Romero]

My own fucking diseased mind. The Norp analog rude me cooked me so bad that's the only way I can think anymore, is incrementally. I don't even know what I'm gonna say next. Guys, it's word by word.

[Ross Frostnik]

How do we feel about using things that are like, largely predatory, Scratch off tickets or slot machines, whatever it is, to convey something else?

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, no, that's fair. Like, I don't.

[Ross Frostnik]

I'm not saying it's. I don't know.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's a good question. I'm not entirely sure I would say sort of authoritatively one way or another. I don't think that Scritchy Scratchy is necessarily telling that exact story. Like, the story stuff is like quite, quite light. You don't sort of run into it a lot. So it's not like, you know, the game wraps up with you kind of like, you know, throwing all your tickets through a big steel fan and then leaving your house and stepping out in the sunlight and saying, I beat. I beat gambling.

[Justin Romero]

Fuck off.

[Griffin McElroy]

Call she or whatever it's called. It's not exactly doing that, but there is like something to that loop that is also kind of present but way more cloaked in almost every video game that comes out now. The like, you know, feedback loop. Hooky. How can we make our game, like, pull in as many. Like, that's so inherent to the thing now that, like, I don't know. I don't. I'm not worried about Scritchy Scratchy contributing to the larger problem. I think it is more kind of seeing what it can explore in those mechanics without, you know, bleeding you dry or making you sink 10,000 hours into it.

[Chris Plant]

I don't love it personally, but, like, I have to be like, very real with myself here. We play first person shooters and we don't go out and shoot people. Like, I'm always very hesitant.

[Griffin McElroy]

I don't think that's the. Yeah, yeah.

[Chris Plant]

To draw a connection between that and. I know what like the logic here could be like. Oh, we have just so fully normalized gambling culture that this is not. It's not like a game like this gets everybody to go get on Kalshi, like Griffin mentioned. But it's like yet another thing.

[Griffin McElroy]

That's two, by the way, guys. Just. That's our two Mentions of call sheep.

[Ross Frostnik]

Yeah, we can have to get up

[Griffin McElroy]

to five or else they are not going to give us our trillion dollars.

[Justin Romero]

I just feel I. You can also. It doesn't have to be necessarily like a negative or like a. This is hurting you or making you like more inclined to gamble. It's just like there's a wide range of different things you can engage with. And I think that if a game is going to use, I'll use this term, weaponize this sort of like dopamine mechanic, I think it's got to reckon with that first of all in the story of the game. Like it's got to recognize like this is what it's doing and it's also got to I think deliver on something more meaningful or more useful or something with a little more toothsome than just like boy, it's easy to get addicted to stuff. Because I feel like there have been a lot of these types of games that have made that point really elegantly. And if you're going to start talking about like, especially like scratchers and what they mean in areas of like really obvious income equality and like the. The sort of like what they represent and how sort of like, I don't know, loaded they are for a lot of people. I don't know, it's just like if you're going to get into that, you're going to make do the scratching thing. Like I feel like you can. If you're using these mechanics that are very clicky and addictive and you know, stick with you, then I think that you owe it to the audience or the player to like give them something more enriching.

[Griffin McElroy]

I think it's a missed opportunity for sure. And I think that there were probably elegant ways for the story to be a little bit beefier and touch on some of this stuff. I think that is a perfectly fair criticism.

[Ross Frostnik]

There is also an interesting read on it which is if you were to play this game a lot and basically unlock a bunch of upgrades, whatever it is, and then go and play a real scratch off ticket with its real odds.

[Griffin McElroy]

You can't upgrade luck irl.

[Ross Frostnik]

Yeah, a little discouraged. Like it might be like, fuck this shit. I'm going.

[Griffin McElroy]

It could be a smoke a pack of cigarette situation. I will say this. My desire to scratch off a lottery ticket has maybe decreased since playing this game.

[Justin Romero]

I'll say also y', all, it's not about gambling for me because every other single fucking video game on the planet is gambling. I mean everything, every loot box that's like that Ship that ship done sail.

[Griffin McElroy]

Right, let's take a break and then talk about other

[Chris Plant]

monetary things in the world.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, I tried to think of a good way to bridge that gap, but that's it.

[Ross Frostnik]

Point. You want to take it in?

[Chris Plant]

Yes. I just want to pull up the PS5 price increase so I get the prices right really quick. One second. The price is right.

[Justin Romero]

The price is wrong, Bob.

[Chris Plant]

The price is wrong, Bob. Wah wah wee. Wow. Welcome back everybody to the best.

[Justin Romero]

That's what you wanted. I gave you what you wanted, you dirty dog. The price is wrong, Bob.

[Chris Plant]

You got me. But let me tell you, it's merely a flesh wound. Anyway, we are right.

[Justin Romero]

I was wrong. This actually kicks ass. Cause it's so much easier. I work so hard to come up with new things to say. It's exhausting.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah, for sure. No, this is much better. It really flattens the playing field. It allows me, the unfunny one, to really step up. The PlayStation 5 has gotten a price increase.

[Justin Romero]

Wawa wewa

[Griffin McElroy]

wewa rules.

[Justin Romero]

They should have made other movies besides Borat in our defense.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah. On April 2nd, which is like after you are listening to this, the PlayStation 5 will cost $649.99.

[Justin Romero]

Fucking crazy.

[Chris Plant]

Digital Edition cost 599.99.

[Ross Frostnik]

Do you think it was originally April 1st and then they were like, oh fuck, we need to move.

[Chris Plant]

We can't do it. I 100% think that is correct.

[Ross Frostnik]

Yeah.

[Chris Plant]

And the PS5 Pro will be $899.

[Griffin McElroy]

What? Okay, so can you. I don't follow this shit nearly as closely as I used to. What was, what were those prices before this?

[Chris Plant]

Everything went up $100, I believe.

[Justin Romero]

Okay.

[Chris Plant]

Is that right?

[Ross Frostnik]

That is my understanding as well, yes.

[Chris Plant]

So it is now considerably more expensive to buy a PlayStation 5 all these years later than it was to buy one at launch. This is, from what I can tell, the first time in history where the major council's prices are going up as they get older rather than down.

[Griffin McElroy]

What did they say about. I mean, I assume the obvious, like tariffs and RAM and flash becoming like impossible to source.

[Chris Plant]

So they obvious are very cautious. So the statement says, with continued pressure in the global economic landscape, we have made the decision to increase the prices of the PS5, PS5 Pro and the PlayStation Portal globally. Because these prices, they went up everywhere. Yeah, yeah. Do we any of you want to do a quick explainer of why this is happening or should I?

[Ross Frostnik]

I mean, my understanding is RAM prices are through the roof right now, mostly driven by AI demand And so you're running into a situation where all these manufacturers just have to pay more for the components. So the only way that they can make up the difference is by increasing the price. You've seen companies like Valve for example. Valve is not at this very moment selling Steam decks. You can't buy a Steam deck. Valve delayed the release of the Steam machine.

[Griffin McElroy]

All that new, I think was supposed to be out like first half of this year.

[Ross Frostnik]

Yes, correct. And they announced that it's. It was delayed. They might make it in 2026 but who knows. And it's all because of this RAM shortage which is directly impacting basically everything.

[Griffin McElroy]

Anecdotally this, this is. I think probably most of us are kind of familiar with this but the extent to which it has impacted the retro handheld market is genuinely across the board. Everyone super duper duper significant. I think it's Ayaneo that has had insane fulfillment issues not able to ship out the consoles that people have.

[Ross Frostnik]

And that's in addition to the minimum tariff increase that basically hit all those companies as well.

[Griffin McElroy]

So yeah, production is also down. You can't pre order the production of those has gone so late, far down that stock is impossible to find and there's a whole ecosystem of ebay scalping happening. It's affected just pretty much everything, man.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah, so exactly what Gerfriend said. This is much bigger than games. I mean basically everything has RAM in it now because comically before this period was the rise of the smart home and the smart car and the smart everything. So everything's going to be affected. We can't help you with that, but we can help you with the video game side of things. So what I wanted to talk about with the rest of the show just a little bit is what y' all think this means for what people should be playing or maybe where their interest should go or what are some cheaper options that they can pick up or how can they dig into like their old hardware? What are options as kind of the top of the line just gets more and more and more expensive.

[Justin Romero]

I have enjoyed video games the most in the past 12 years. Sorry, 12 months I would say in like a non monetary fashion. I. There is so many, there are so many ways to engage with the hobby and like engage with games from gaming's history and like so many different ways to engage in it that are like free, I mean free. So to me I feel like this presents a really great opportunity to eschew the latest and greatest. Let it pass you by, let it do its Thing you don't need to scratch off lotto tickets. Just wait, wait here. Let history do its thing and you go back and play the many, many, many, many classic games that you could just download and play right now. Play decades worth of video games on many of the devices you already own right now and don't give your money to anybody.

[Ross Frostnik]

I would also say like I think more and more games, and Creature Kitchen is a good example of this, are not nearly aiming for that top tier.

[Griffin McElroy]

Like these are new releases for sure

[Ross Frostnik]

that allow you to play games on devices that are not nearly as powerful as you would see on a high end machine or even a medium tier machine. So I'm encouraged by that because I think if the goal is to reach a mass market and do some in addition to like making something cool, make some money in the process, they're going to start making games for devices that can actually run those games.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah, yeah. I mean My number one tip is if you are not into PC gaming yet, you should be. And when I say PC gaming, I don't mean go out and buy a $2,000 machine. I mean if you truly do not have a PC in your house, just a machine with Windows, try to find a used one, whether that is at like a garage sale or an estate sale or companies offload these things constantly. Or there is the new cheaper Mac, the MacBook Neo, which I think is going to be very interesting.

[Justin Romero]

What's going on with that?

[Griffin McElroy]

I keep seeing like, like emulation people talking about it and it looks insane to me. This device. Yes, it looks like an iPad with a tablet on it, which is exactly what it is.

[Chris Plant]

It is. And power wise it's like a high end iPhone with a keyboard and it plays emulation games very well. But the thing about modern MacBooks is you can dual boot windows on it pretty easily. You can even emulate Windows games on it pretty easily through a thing called Whiskey or Wine or other tools.

[Justin Romero]

Yeah.

[Chris Plant]

But being able to access these, these games, games that are either free, like there's a great stuff on Itch IO every week, or being able to play these games that cost five or six bucks and are some of the like highest rated games of the year. Both of the games that we mentioned this week are extremely beloved by their audience. They're also just tend to be more exciting than a lot of the stuff that we talk about. Like I don't think it's an accident that most of what we talk about on the besties these days falls in this category versus like the large Scale AAA category. It's just where the most interesting stuff is happening.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, I would agree with that.

[Ross Frostnik]

I'm also gonna say maybe this is too far down the rabbit hole, especially for newcomers. But like the more I mess with Linux, the happier I am. It's just so much nicer than playing games on Windows.

[Justin Romero]

What distro you're running baby Jesus,

[Ross Frostnik]

I'm using Bazzite for my handheld. But it's. I don't.

[Griffin McElroy]

But you got that on your laptop.

[Chris Plant]

I wish people could see who's right.

[Ross Frostnik]

Now you want the actual number of the distro that.

[Justin Romero]

I know, man, I thought we were going to talk about Linux. Not Linux based architecture. I'm talking about Linux. I want to get in. I thought you were going to run an arch. I thought you were ripping down to the Chrome. I thought we were going to talk about Linux.

[Ross Frostnik]

No, no, no, I'm not trying to make a garage door opener.

[Justin Romero]

This line is intended.

[Ross Frostnik]

I just like the fact that it goes to sleep and wakes up when I want it to.

[Griffin McElroy]

That's really the only thing that's really it guys, if it can't do that, why did you make it?

[Ross Frostnik]

Genuinely, I have a PC in my. I have a PC in my room because I live in a New York City apartment and space is a luxury. The PC for like a week straight was turning on at 4am and I could not figure out why. I would spend hours debugging it just to figure out why it was doing that and couldn't figure it out to the point where I just fully shut it off every night. That's fucking terrible. Like guys, that's fine. And I know they're working on it. I know they want to get Windows in a better place. They are making concessions, especially with the Mac neo because the Mac NEO is doing everything that all those Windows netbooks were doing in a much smoother way. But it's going to be a couple years before Windows maybe gets its shit together.

[Justin Romero]

Hey listen, don't get a MacBook Neo, for God's sake, just learn one Linux distro. Get a very cheap laptop, put Linux on it. Learn Linux. Linux is open and you can use it and you're not going to get hemmed into these fucking crazy architectures. You can put Windows on there and you can put Mac OS on there. You know what they're going to start doing? Trying to jam AI down your throat instantly. And both of those as time goes on are going to become more bloated and more bogged down with trying to get you to sign up with shit. Just swallow the pillow. What color is that? Minutes.

[Griffin McElroy]

Just real quick. What color is the pill? What color is the pill? What color is the pill?

[Chris Plant]

You're really trying to remember which one's the good one, right?

[Griffin McElroy]

What color is.

[Justin Romero]

What color. No, no, no, no, no, no. It's fair.

[Chris Plant]

Which one's the good one?

[Justin Romero]

It's a fair. It's a. No, no, no. I know what Griffin is saying. Griffin is saying that I'm dawdling on the edge of manosphere.

[Ross Frostnik]

Nonsense.

[Justin Romero]

Dude, you're fucking. You're sitting. You're wrong. I'm just saying if you, if you took the time to. If you take the time to engage with, why not. You're not going to spend money on video games for a little while. Why not engage with something a little different and free yourself from some of

[Chris Plant]

these operating systems on the game level too? For Linux you can look on YouTube of ways to make your own Steam machine basically since they're not selling them right now and there are people who will help you do that. If you hear Linux and you're scared, but you hear a Steam machine and you're excited, it's okay. Just chase the words that help you get to where you need to be.

[Ross Frostnik]

That's what I did.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's all the same.

[Justin Romero]

It's all. It's. Well, I also.

[Griffin McElroy]

All Linux distros are the same.

[Justin Romero]

It's really impressive. Go for it. Griff Gough. I've had a really. It's really impressive to me the Game Hub and Game Hub Lite situation on Android devices right now. I feel like that has really freed a lot of those games to like Mugenics I can play on the Fold seven.

[Griffin McElroy]

I want to hear about that. I've been shopping around specifically for a lighter weight. I want to play Mugenics for a long time device because the Rog ally X I have trouble sort of. It's a big beefy boy.

[Chris Plant]

It's a big boy.

[Justin Romero]

Yeah, but I mean I don't think this is like a good. This is not a thing to get for gaming obviously because it's a folding phone. But like as an aspect of that it's great because what. The way I have it set up basically is you. The Fold seven is a square once you unfold it and then I have Game Hub on there and Game Hub, if you don't know, is an Android app that is basically a gateway between you and your Steam collection and also a gateway to like run those games on the device. It's basically Creating a, a little envelope around the game that allows it to run on that device. And lighter weight games, non 3D games are obviously a lot easier on that setup. What's cool about games like Mugenics and like Mouse first games like that is it renders in the square. The top like three fourths are the screen and the bottom is just black and it's space to use as a trackpad. So you're basically like you can use your thumb to guide the mouse and interact with everything on the screen. One finger and it like you can create a shortcut on the home screen of your phone. So it's like very, it's a very short bridge between that and your Steam collection. And it is a little bit like janky. It's a little bit, you know, because it is not, you know, it's. I've had issues officially supported a lot of. It's community run and stuff like that and there's a lot of concern. Game Hub is run by a company called Game sir and because you have to provide your login details. Oh yeah, there's some privacy concerns with that. So Game Hub Lite is a community run version of that which is just a little bit behind usually.

[Griffin McElroy]

I think the shit you can do with Game Hub and Game Native is another one that I've messed around with a little bit. It's like really impressive. They do have issues with sleep restore mode. I feel like if you have it off for a certain not particularly long amount of time it will lose connection to your Steam account and then the

[Justin Romero]

game, whatever weird thing it was doing,

[Griffin McElroy]

it just forgets that it was doing. And so like it's not like picking up a Steam deck or a rock word. You pick it up, you press the power button and it's like happening instantly which is. I don't know, I don't. I hope they can get that. I mean I hope fucking steamos just comes out.

[Justin Romero]

There's also occasional weirdness just to be fair on the, on that front with like the saves and cloud saving sometimes where it doesn't like necessarily like the container of the game doesn't exit properly. And so for example with Mugenics if you leave, if you're playing on a Game Hub, if you quit out of a match, you don't get the Steven penalty. It doesn't realize that you've done it. Like you just go back into the game as normal which is, you know, non ideal. But you're playing on your phone. It's cool.

[Chris Plant]

Yeah, cool.

[Ross Frostnik]

Yeah. It's interesting Things are pretty dire, but you can play cheap games pretty easily if you just.

[Justin Romero]

One other recommendation, by the way, if you're looking for a big suite of games that you may never have checked out, there's really great stuff for, like, Amiga, like Amigavision and Amiga Gold and the Exodus program, where they have, like, a large amount of gaming history that you can download and kind of dig through. And, like, I understand the legal issues surrounding this, but, like, I mean, I personally just. This is where I'm coming from as a person, I think that it's not right to. If you can't buy something, I think it's wild to say that you can't obtain it.

[Griffin McElroy]

That's wild. You're saying you can't walk down to the Amiga store at the corner to grab all these hits on carts like God intended.

[Justin Romero]

Yeah, I think if I made a game back in 83 with me and my buddies, I think that I. If I. If someone said to me, hey, Justin Romero, would you prefer people not play your game and not give you any royalty, or play your game and not give you any royalty? I think that people would say, Justin Romero would say, yeah, I don't get any fucking money from that. Regardless. The thing I made, nobody does. I don't know what happened to it. Steal it, please. I'd much prefer people play it. Thank you.

[Chris Plant]

Also, you can go to a library to play modern stuff. Ironically, the issue that just.

[Justin Romero]

If you want to get a fucking turbo wedgie by everybody else in the library.

[Chris Plant]

What do you mean, get there? The library is. You're already.

[Justin Romero]

Who's the biggest dork in the library? It's the guy playing video games.

[Chris Plant]

I love the library.

[Ross Frostnik]

Should we dive into honorable mentions? I had one thing to call out, but before I do, I do want to call out this more important piece of data. The Colors of Modern Rock came out in 1993. It was on the Sega CD, and it features the song To Be with youh by Mr. Big.

[Justin Romero]

Yes. That had to be what it was.

[Griffin McElroy]

Thank you, Dan.

[Justin Romero]

Automatically.

[Griffin McElroy]

That's from our researcher, Derek, who's in the studio with us. And this is the first time we've used Derek's services.

[Chris Plant]

He's been.

[Ross Frostnik]

He's been here for five years and finally it paid off. So thank you, Derek.

[Justin Romero]

Huge.

[Ross Frostnik]

You're welcome. I also wanted to call out Tom Scott, who is a YouTube luminary, made many videos for, like, many years about random engineering and city design. Things has returned to YouTube with a new video about how he broke a 142-year-old bell, if you like weird, interesting design engineering videos.

[Griffin McElroy]

I know this guy.

[Ross Frostnik]

Tom Scott's dynamite. He makes good shit. And I think he has a new series on Nebula. But the videos are also on YouTube, so if you want to watch that, we'll have a link in the newsletter.

[Justin Romero]

Y', all, TV is so good. Television is great right now. I have three quick television recommendations that I can provide more context on as necessary. The last one, Laughing uk, is back for second.

[Griffin McElroy]

I. Did I bring that up yet?

[Justin Romero]

You mentioned it last week.

[Griffin McElroy]

Jesus Christ.

[Justin Romero]

Excellent, Justin.

[Chris Plant]

You did a solid Sam Campbell run earlier in the episode. You had, like, his intonation perfectly, and it made me want to go watch this right away.

[Griffin McElroy]

He's the best.

[Justin Romero]

Yeah, it is. We've been watching a lot of it. And also, I'm much older than him and he more likely has listened to me for years.

[Chris Plant]

Oh, no. To be clear, he rep.

[Justin Romero]

It's much more likely that he has patterned himself after me.

[Chris Plant]

It was an echo of an echo

[Justin Romero]

bouncing off the back of the game for two decades. That one's really good. Neighbors is a show on hbo, Max. It's one of the best things I've seen. If it weren't for my third recommendation this year. Absolutely. It's little vignettes, little mini documentaries. Each one is about two warring neighbors, and they're almost all, to a person, maniacs. And it's a show about what happens when two people who are both big, strong personalities are forced to live next to each other. And a lot of the episodes devolve from, like, Love to Hate. We watch the relationships between the neighbors. But it is a show about what it means to be a neighbor in America. In a way, it reminds me a lot of, like, Errol Morris stuff. It's. It's still very humane. It's not, like, as nasty as it seems it might seem on the outset. It, like, it definitely is searching out really bizarre stories. But it is a.

[Ross Frostnik]

It's a doc you should mention.

[Justin Romero]

What?

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, yeah.

[Justin Romero]

It's a documentary. Yeah, yeah. Yes. It's a documentary about where each story follows, like one pair of neighbors, or each episode will have like two sets or one set of neighbors. But one is about just, for example, a man who has a problem with a woman who has built a 8 foot high privacy wall around her entire property because all of the neighbors say it makes them look like a drug compound has been built. So all the neighbors rally against this woman who is also, in her own way, a maniac. And we watch all of them fight with each Other it's fantastic. Third thing is Jury Duty was one of the best things to come out a long time ago. And it's back for Company Retreat or Jury Duty.

[Griffin McElroy]

What are your thoughts on that? What are your thoughts on that?

[Justin Romero]

Have you watched it?

[Griffin McElroy]

I've watched a couple of. We've watched three episodes now and it is. There are moments of delight in there. But I don't know, maybe I am comparing it too much to the first season. But the first season I could not put down and this one, I don't know, hasn't necessarily hooked me quite as much. But again, I worry that this show, because the first season was based so much around this like surprise twist. Maybe it's fighting against that in my head.

[Justin Romero]

Let me very quick backstory. Jury Duty was a show on Amazon Prime. It was also a documentary and the premise was a guy is on a jury and everyone on the jury is an actor and everyone in the proceedings is an actor. In fact, everyone there is an actor except for this one guy. So they're Truman show, the show and Jury Duty made sense because it's very procedural, right? Like you, you are sort of corralled. It's very guided as an experience, right. If you're on a jury, someone's telling you where to go. So it's easier to like stage. This second season is completely separate. It is called Company Retreat and it is. A man is hired as a assistant to an HR director of this family owned hot sauce company. And they're headed out on their company retreat. And on the first day of the company retreat, this HR director does something so humiliating he has to leave the retreat and he leaves it in the hands of his assistant and he says, I'll tell you what to do, I'll run the whole thing by you. I'll tell you what's happening, but I can't be here physically. So the company is currently in a time of transition where the son, the owner, his son is taking over. And his son's a real. Seems to be a kind of a lovable dolt. But he is at risk of running the company in the ground. Maybe they're going to sell the company, but it is all staged around this one guy who is the most affable, sweet, kind hearted on board with every single thing that happens and supporting everyone around him to a point where it's like you want this guy to get some sort of huge payday at the end or something because he's like so game. And what's amazing about the show that I think Is really fascinating is they keep giving him opportunities to bail.

[Griffin McElroy]

Incredible. Incredible.

[Justin Romero]

There are scenes where people. The HR director looks him in the eye and says, if you don't want to do this, you leave with me right now. And the guy says, no, no, no, I can handle it. It's like he. He chooses. He chooses it. And that's his, like one. His. If he has this, like this. His hubris that is bringing about this fate. It is that this man does not have the sense to say, I cannot deal. I cannot handle the situation.

[Ross Frostnik]

Do you think they have not. If he bailed, like, that's a big expense.

[Griffin McElroy]

I will say this season feels so much more improvisational than the first because like you said, like, the first season of Jury Duty was very gag, gag, gag, gag, gag. In a good way. They all hit. James Marston is one of the jurors, and it's fucking hysterical. He's not playing anyone. He's just playing himself. And it's just the douchiest.

[Justin Romero]

That's their justification for the cameras.

[Griffin McElroy]

Right.

[Justin Romero]

So that's why it's all being documented is because he's also really smart.

[Griffin McElroy]

This guy on season 2 is so down that there are things that he has, like, suggested that they do to solve some problem that then they go and they actually do that and they film like a whole scene around it which is like, feels. So it's not as. It doesn't feel as like tightly packed. You know, each episode is going to have like a series of wild things that this guy's going to run into. Yeah.

[Justin Romero]

The first, second episode, a huge crate. The second episode, a big crate of Doritos goes missing. Like a huge crate of snack sauce Doritos. And they all launch into an investigation as they team building exercise because he suggests that. He suggests, yeah, we should go to everyone's room. You hear him say it on camera. You know, maybe as a team building exercise, we should all look around for the Doritos. And so they are having to. I have no idea how they did this, but they're having to follow this man's insane hunt for the Doritos. And they're like individual scenes.

[Griffin McElroy]

It's really.

[Justin Romero]

Did you get to the hypnosis?

[Griffin McElroy]

No, I don't think so.

[Justin Romero]

Hypnosis. There's a group, they have a hypnotist come as a team building thing. And everyone in the company is hypnotized almost, except for this guy. And he starts getting them to reveal things about themselves and about the company that everyone else has been hypnotized for and has not heard or processed. And he is the one, like living with the weight of all the things that people are. It's incredible. It's really incredible. That's on prime as well. Jeffrey Bezos sucks ass, but, you know,

[Griffin McElroy]

but he makes a killer show.

[Justin Romero]

What can you do?

[Griffin McElroy]

I think the Last one Laughing is also.

[Justin Romero]

Yeah, it's all Bezos.

[Griffin McElroy]

Sorry, I didn't mean to make. I have been enjoying this new season of jury duty. I will say the competition is kind of fierce with Last One Laughing and I don't know, there's a lot of really funny shit.

[Justin Romero]

I've heard something fascinating about Last One Laughing. Just as like an aside about that on the Rest Entertainment. That show did so well in the uk. The first season that Bob Mortimer won did so well in the UK and they invented this idea which has not been a ver in the. In the many, many other international versions of that. They have not had a returning champion, but Bob Mortimer returns as the like defending champ. And the show has become so popular and takes six hours to shoot and is so lucrative that they were saying the stakes are actually quite high because if you can win, you are guaranteed another big payday on one of the biggest shows. So it is like it is now. The competition has even bigger stakes because you're playing for your role to stay on this incredibly lucrative TV show.

[Griffin McElroy]

That's incredible. I never even thought about that.

[Justin Romero]

So that's like, you see how many plays are escalating. That's. That's what.

[Chris Plant]

Have you seen how many versions of the show? There are like you go on Amazon and you search last one laughing. There are like 30 last one laughings from across the world because Griffin and

[Justin Romero]

I have been watching since this was called Documental and came from Korean.

[Griffin McElroy]

I don't know if that's like a branch off or.

[Justin Romero]

Documental was the first.

[Griffin McElroy]

Yeah, I hope we got paid for

[Chris Plant]

it because there are a trillion of these now.

[Justin Romero]

I am almost positive that. And we'll have Derek check this. But I'm almost positive that Last one Laughing does credit and. And those different versions. Credit, credit. Documental is like original concept, but I, I just. They're there. I mean, it is. It is not. It is very. It is identical. I mean, it's the same show.

[Griffin McElroy]

I do want to say, I do think that the Chris Gethard Shows Night of Zero Laughs event was even predated Documental. If we're just sort of like, I

[Justin Romero]

mean, confronted, I think that it's worth confronting Griffin.

[Ross Frostnik]

Derek just tried to sell Me his stable coin, so I don't think he's a good reason.

[Justin Romero]

Yeah.

[Griffin McElroy]

Get out of here, Derek. This is the last straw.

[Ross Frostnik]

Oh, okay.

[Chris Plant]

He finally shows up and we have to let him.

[Ross Frostnik]

Okay.

[Chris Plant]

Hey, very quick on mine. Sonic Racing crosswords. Y' all gotta go. Play it, everybody. You didn't get into the Mario Kart world. Sonic Racing crossworlds. It's waiting for you right there. They added Mega man to it. They added Pac man to it. They added spongebob man to it. Everybody's in this game.

[Ross Frostnik]

Finally, Steve gets a moment to shine from Minecraft.

[Chris Plant]

Minecraft. Steve does have his glow.

[Ross Frostnik]

Thank you, Chris. Plant. Thank you to everyone else. We have some members of the Patreon I wanted to call out. We have Scant. We have Nathan H. We have Tom, and we have Inclement Heather, which is a funny name. I like that one. Good name. Thank you everyone over at the Patreon for supporting the show. We have new bracket battles every month. We have Restyz episodes to a month. And we greatly, greatly appreciate it that Patreon allows this show to exist. Literally, it would not without it. So thank you so much for all your support there and to people that have joined, we greatly appreciate you. I think that's it. Plant, you want to recap?

[Chris Plant]

Yeah. Very quick though, with fresh out next week, how y' all feeling about maybe bringing back movie quotes? Think we can just keep that going?

[Ross Frostnik]

Derek says no.

[Griffin McElroy]

Derek says no. And he does still have voting power today, even though it's his last day. I mean, I think next week we're going to be talking about the Super Mario Galaxy movie. And I'm sure it's going to have a lot of great quotes like here we go.

[Ross Frostnik]

Oh, yeah, you can quote some shit out of that.

[Chris Plant]

You're telling me there's a chance? Okay, next week we talked about Creature Kitchen, Scritchy Scratchy, last one, Laughing UK Neighbors on HBO Max, Jury Duty, Company Retreat, Sonic Racing, Crossworld's game, Hub Light, Mr. Big Song to be with you and that video. I helped break 142 year old bell. And that's okay.

[Ross Frostnik]

He broke the bell.

[Griffin McElroy]

To be fair, he didn't make it.

[Justin Romero]

Thank you so much for joining us. Be sure to join us again next week for the besties. Because should the world's best friends pick the world's best games.

[Griffin McElroy]

Besties.