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The Besties
Sword of the Sea is Like Journey on a Hoverboard
00:52:50
Sword of the Sea is the closest game yet to a Journey sequel. The new game from Giant Squid sends a silent, heroic character through a desert on a magical sword that fills the world with life-giving waters. It’s fun! It’s beautiful! It’s… sensual? In the back half, the Besties discuss the big news from Gamescom, including updates on Silksong and Bubsy 4D.
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- [00:00]
Griffin McElroy
I am so excited to talk about Sword of the Sea. It is, I think, kind of messed up to expect me or frankly, any of us to have to talk about a game other than Bubsy40. Like, it feels fucked up that the. I see the rundown of the show. I know that we're gonna get to it later, but it seems weird to me to, like, suspend that conversation.
- [00:24]
Russ Frushtick
Sure.
- [00:25]
Griffin McElroy
Until we have talked about another game.
- [00:27]
Justin McElroy
Which is great.
- [00:28]
Griffin McElroy
It's a great game. Excited to talk about it.
- [00:30]
Russ Frushtick
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let me propose this. Here's the deal. As we all know, time is the fourth dimension. And so, in a way, we are actually talking about Bubsy4D both now and later.
- [00:42]
Griffin McElroy
That's cool. That's cool. I like that. I like that idea.
- [00:47]
Christopher Thomas Plant
There's a missing piece here. People can't see it, but Justin's face right now, I would describe it as ecstasy. I would say, hey, Bliss. Bliss. Looking into the eyes of the divine.
- [01:01]
Griffin McElroy
Yeah. No, never been.
- [01:03]
Christopher Thomas Plant
No, no, no.
- [01:04]
Griffin McElroy
Oh, shit. What's wrong?
- [01:07]
Justin McElroy
I watched Song of the South. I was so confused. I was so confused.
- [01:14]
Griffin McElroy
Oh, my God.
- [01:16]
Justin McElroy
Fuck.
- [01:19]
Russ Frushtick
You got that on 4K Blu Ray, do you?
- [01:22]
Justin McElroy
It's on my plex. It's the only thing on my plex. My name is Justin McElroy and I know the best game of the week.
- [01:48]
Griffin McElroy
My name is Griffin McElroy and I have the best game of the week. It's Bubsy Corner.
- [01:51]
Christopher Thomas Plant
My name is Christopher Thomas Plant, and I know the best game of the week.
- [01:55]
Russ Frushtick
My name is Russ Freshik. I know the best game of the week.
- [01:58]
Justin McElroy
Welcome to the Besties, where we talk about the latest and greatest in home interactive entertainment. It's a video game club, my friend, and just by listening, you have joined our illustrious ranks. Hello. What a pleasure it is to have you. This week we're going to be talking about a little game I like to call Sword of the Sea. Chris Plant. What is that?
- [02:16]
Russ Frushtick
Chris Plant. I don't care. We have more towels to sell. They're almost out.
- [02:20]
Griffin McElroy
If you want a towel, I love it.
- [02:23]
Russ Frushtick
If you want a towel that says you dried instead of you died, like in Dark Souls font, now is the time to do it. Fill your stuff. Stocking stuffers. Is that what people do?
- [02:34]
Griffin McElroy
Yeah, dude.
- [02:35]
Russ Frushtick
Cause who knows if you're gonna be able to get one for.
- [02:37]
Griffin McElroy
If you do with one of these towels, that's gonna fill up a lot of stocking.
- [02:41]
Russ Frushtick
Yeah, that's basically the whole stocking in one towel. So you're good.
- [02:44]
Griffin McElroy
Yeah. Also, what is Sword of the sea, Chris. Planet.
- [02:46]
Christopher Thomas Plant
Just Journey. But you're surfing on a sword.
- [02:49]
Griffin McElroy
Perfect.
- [02:49]
Justin McElroy
We'll talk about that right after this. I can't believe there's more to say. But hey, you know, it can be tough to find the time to make food, you know, and to keep track of everything that's fresh and what's happening right now. The world of food. To keep up with the trends, you gotta take everything out. You gotta worry about the shopping, you gotta worry about your menu, you gotta worry about all that. HelloFresh simplifies it to make it easy with chef crafted recipes and fresh ingredients that come straight to your home. This summer they got a huge, huge menu upgrade. It's double the size. You got over 100 options each week with some new seasonal dishes. And they're saying their menu's even healthier now. A lot of high protein options, a lot of vegetables, and even three times more seafood on the menu. Now if you have tried HelloFresh before, maybe wanted to see with what an additional menu selection might be like, maybe that's what you were missing. I think it is well worth a shot. Give it, give it a try. The best way to cook just got better. Go to hellofresh.combesties10fm now to get 10 free meals. See 10fm. See how that works? And a free item for life. One per box with active subscription free meals applied as discount on first box. New subscribers only. Varies by plan. That's hellofresh.com besties10fm to get 10 free meals and a free item for life.
- [04:19]
Russ Frushtick
So this is basically Journey 2, right?
- [04:22]
Christopher Thomas Plant
Okay, okay, okay, okay. I want to pop in here and clarify yourself. Giant squid.
- [04:29]
Griffin McElroy
Yes.
- [04:29]
Christopher Thomas Plant
No, somebody else. Giant squid makes this game. Right. And I feel like they've been chasing the journey to dream day one. Right. There are some people, I guess involved who made Journey and then giant squid forms and then they make Abzu. Right? Remember that one?
- [04:46]
Russ Frushtick
Yeah.
- [04:47]
Christopher Thomas Plant
The one that we didn't play as much with the birds.
- [04:51]
Griffin McElroy
Yes.
- [04:51]
Christopher Thomas Plant
Right.
- [04:52]
Griffin McElroy
I think it was called Bird Party.
- [04:54]
Christopher Thomas Plant
I think it was called Bird Party 2.0 or the days.
- [04:58]
Griffin McElroy
But it may have been Bird Party.
- [04:59]
Christopher Thomas Plant
Yes. They were like, no, no, no, no. What we're gonna do this time is we're gonna make a perfect game. And like I said, just think they should have tried that from the beginning. But hey, take the time.
- [05:10]
Justin McElroy
Hey, listen.
- [05:11]
Christopher Thomas Plant
And that is. Yes. I think that is how we get to what feels deeply like Journey 2 unofficial edition. Yeah.
- [05:19]
Griffin McElroy
If you're familiar with the. It was that game company, right? Was the Name of the dev behind.
- [05:24]
Christopher Thomas Plant
And they still make stuff. They made sky, which is great.
- [05:26]
Griffin McElroy
Yes, of course. It's all very contemplative, beautiful. I don't know how to categorize it. It's not quite an adventure game. It's an experience.
- [05:39]
Justin McElroy
Yeah. I mean it's interesting because it kind of. If you think about what you would normally get from a video game and you think about like different sliders. Right. In terms of like the visual inputs of the game and the like the challenge or the difficulty that you're getting and that sort of thing. It's sort of like backing off of challenge. It's reducing that I think so that you are never. It wants to be. I think it never wants to put you in a place where you're like doing the same thing over and over again. It's very much not about frustration. I think it's very much just about keeping it.
- [06:13]
Russ Frushtick
But it's not like fully. It's not so hands off that it feels like a roller coaster. There are moments where it is that, but for the most part you are interacting with the thing, but it is propelling you forward at all times. You're not gonna get stumped on a plane.
- [06:28]
Justin McElroy
This is the biggest difference.
- [06:30]
Christopher Thomas Plant
Are we talk. Are you talking about Journey or are we talking about Sword of the Sea right now? Which one are we talking about?
- [06:33]
Griffin McElroy
We're talking about Sword of the Sea. I wanted to bring that up because this game does definitely slot into that archetype a lot. If you're familiar with that game company stuff. I think this has much bigger flower vibes in that you are going around a world and instead of turning everything from ruined cityscapes into flowers, now you're turning the desert into the ocean and you're doing it on a fucking hoverboard.
- [06:56]
Russ Frushtick
That's true. You are turning things into things. So in that way I do very Flower.
- [07:01]
Griffin McElroy
I think the Journey comparisons are umph. This is wet flour.
- [07:05]
Justin McElroy
Yeah. Also it's kinda like Burger Time. Cause you're taking the parts of the burger and you're turning it into a burger. So you're taking things and you're making them into a different thing.
- [07:12]
Griffin McElroy
So it's not unlike Burger Time. I didn't vibe with Abzu a lot and I also didn't play Bird Party. But this one I think succeeds where a lot of those games kind of leave me a little bit cold in that it's also a kick ass hoverboarding game. It is also like. It's like Flower, by way Of SS Tricky.
- [07:36]
Justin McElroy
Yeah there's definitely a like you're I think in comparison to a lot of these games that feel like you're kind of like proceeding through a three dimensional painting. This feels much more like a playground. Like a big expanse they want you to sort of zip through and like experience but not spend too much time in. But you are like the tricks that you're doing and the sliding and the momentum you. It feels much more like kinetic. Like you're much more in touch with the things that you are seeing around. You're not just kind of like on rails. I guess it feels right your feels.
- [08:11]
Russ Frushtick
More connected and it also like I think when you're playing through games like Journey and Abzu exploration is not really. I mean there's a little bit of it, a tiny bit of it but largely speaking you're like moving from area to area very quickly. And here what I found like and even in the first few areas but this continues later on. If you go off the beaten path there are like extra things to find. Whether it's the currency that you're finding or. I found like a fucking Tony Hawk score challenge for doing like tricks. There's like genuinely side. Side things. I wouldn't say there's a ton of.
- [08:46]
Griffin McElroy
There's not very many. I only found one of those Tony Hawk I didn't like dive In I think 100% to explore every nook and cranny of the map. I only found one of those Tony Hawk score challenge areas but it did crack me up because I it. It's so unexpected of the genre to have an area where it's like fuck yeah man. I chained together Ollie Kickflip into a Christ heir.
- [09:08]
Christopher Thomas Plant
If it sounds like we have not explained what the campaign or like the overarching goal of this game is. It is because it's very thin in a great way, in a way that I like. But it really is a go from point A to point B and there are different areas where you have a locked door where you're going to have to solve the slightest puzzles to get that door open and then continue to move from point A to point B. We're talking about all this like tricks and stuff like Tony Hawk. There is a scorekeeper. It's in the pause menu. It doesn't show up on the main screen except for in very specific times. So like it is truly just a. We have given you the lightest amount of an objective and then we just want you to feel good in the.
- [09:54]
Griffin McElroy
Meantime puzzle isn't the word I would even use to kind of describe it. It is like you're going to. You need to follow this chain, follow these subtle environmental clues to go to this place where you will press the interaction button after, you know, surfing over a bunch of rad sand waves to turn this area into water. And then some fish will appear. Sometimes you'll climb on the fish and you'll ride them around and there's a level where you're. Now you're a shark. It's not brain teasers, it's not puzzles.
- [10:25]
Christopher Thomas Plant
In the three, if you can guide a cat to its food bowl using a laser pointer, that kind of means that you're ready for this game.
- [10:34]
Justin McElroy
Yeah, it's cool too, because the lack of story, it's almost like anti narrative or anti real. Like buildings and other structures like that are used in this game as geometry, but they're very clearly not meant to represent buildings that people are living in. Right. It's a very abstract sort of idea.
- [10:54]
Russ Frushtick
I mean, I got the impression that like people lived in them at one time. Here's my read of the story and again, it's very light. There is dialogue. You can find like tablets and things that kind of like give you poems about whatever the fuck happened. I didn't fully absorb it, but my read of is like you play as this being who is basically revived by the last drop of water in the world or something, and you are trying to bring life back to this valley that has turned into a giant desert. And to that end you basically find these points around the world and create oceans and then the fish come back and then you're riding fucking dolphins and stuff and it's like turns into a paradise.
- [11:31]
Christopher Thomas Plant
So like Fantasia short, it's about as much story as you would find in.
- [11:34]
Russ Frushtick
A Fantasia, which honestly is not far off. That's more. It's more story that was in Journey, which had no language whatsoever and really just a few pictures. So it is interesting that they're slightly moving in that direction, but I prefer it because it just simplifies and directs what they're trying to do. Which is again having this very cool feeling, experiential thing that isn't mired by we're gonna send you down dialogue trees and shit like that.
- [11:59]
Justin McElroy
It's also the thing that I really dug about this as compared to other games that like, I think experiential, like this is a genre at this point, right? Like it's a small subgenre. But like there's other things like this. I think it's in other perspectives or whatever. But what I think is, makes this work for me is that I never feel like I am being forced to slow down and look at everything around me at a pace where it's being dictated to me. Right. Like, it's like, I feel like in a lot of games like this, it's like you have to slow down and really appreciate all of the work that we put into this art. Because we made all this art for you. We're gonna say, and this game will just let you freaking truck through the art in a way that feels. It feels magical. Like it doesn't feel like someone made it. It feels like, holy shit, this is all happening around me and I don't even need to slow down to look at it because I know something else awesome is gonna happen around the corner.
- [12:56]
Russ Frushtick
And there are moments where like, they will take control of the camera and like, make sure you see the dope ass thing, whether it's the giant tower that you're going towards or the fucking dolphin. Whatever dolphins showing up, whatever the dope thing is, they'll disappear.
- [13:09]
Griffin McElroy
Don't dismiss the dolphin. I got so excited every time I saw that dolphin. I knew I was in for a good time. Whenever that rascal showed up. It's really, really sidesteps. And this is gonna sound really dismissive and I genuinely don't mean it that way, but I struggle with games even at the height of the genre, even at a journey where it feels like plotting, it feels like, oh, okay, I'm really having to work to get through this beautiful experience that they. And in this game, I mean, shit, man, you hit a point where you unlock like a boost button and then you also learn how to dive straight down into a ramp or a half pipe and it becomes like wipeout, like you are going through it. So I think I finished the game in a few hours and I even went around and collected some of this stuff because there is like a currency you can find that you spend to unlock abilities like tricks or grabs or, you know, dives are completely optional, not particularly, you know, game assisting abilities. And I got through it real, real fast. And I never felt a moment of like boredom or frustration with the pacing of the game.
- [14:23]
Russ Frushtick
Yeah, usually in these games they'll have the moment where it's like you've been sapped of your powers and you're gonna walk slowly for five minutes and then you're gonna feel really fucking good when they give them back to you. And here you just basically start with the dope ass powers.
- [14:37]
Griffin McElroy
Right, yeah.
- [14:38]
Justin McElroy
Something that probably bears mentioning because of the name of the game. You're not actually, like, hitting much stuff. There's not much hitting going on from the name Sword of the Sea. You might expect it to be sort of.
- [14:49]
Russ Frushtick
There's no combat.
- [14:49]
Justin McElroy
There's no combat. Which maybe we should kind of clarify it up top because the sword is very prominent. As soon as you get the sword, dude steps right on it. He's like, yeah. It's like this idiot's never seen a sword before. Every time a big monster comes, this guy's looking at the sword like, help me, sword. It's like, dude, you have to ring swords.
- [15:09]
Christopher Thomas Plant
Let's go ring some bells.
- [15:10]
Justin McElroy
Why don't you go to the heroic Zelda and ask that guy, like, what? You know, what?
- [15:15]
Russ Frushtick
He jams it into the ground a lot.
- [15:17]
Griffin McElroy
There's a lot of jamming that's out.
- [15:18]
Justin McElroy
Of frustration because you can't figure out what to do with it. Put the business in a man and.
- [15:25]
Griffin McElroy
It'S to make things wet. And when it's wet, when the ground is water, it goes faster. And that's really nice.
- [15:32]
Justin McElroy
Oh, yeah, that's very satisfying.
- [15:34]
Griffin McElroy
It's fun that we focus so much on not the art and music and just how the game looks and sounds.
- [15:40]
Justin McElroy
I hate that it's pretty. I don't have any vocabulary.
- [15:43]
Russ Frushtick
We can do it.
- [15:43]
Justin McElroy
We can do it.
- [15:44]
Russ Frushtick
I'm trying.
- [15:45]
Griffin McElroy
So beautiful.
- [15:46]
Russ Frushtick
Okay, so I'm gonna give you fish.
- [15:48]
Justin McElroy
Watch a video of it. Seriously, you should watch a video of it.
- [15:51]
Russ Frushtick
But I'm gonna paint a word picture to you.
- [15:54]
Griffin McElroy
Cause he's good at it. This is our job.
- [15:55]
Christopher Thomas Plant
Word pictures.
- [15:57]
Russ Frushtick
You're skateboarding across a desert and you go up a giant dune and jump high into the air and do a kickflip spin. And when you land in the desert, instead of it just going thump, it leaves this ripple of sand around you and then you zoom off and ride a fucking dolphin.
- [16:14]
Griffin McElroy
It's really good. It also has a dynamic soundtrack, like those, you know, the best of that game. That as you, like, bring this world to life and as you fix the world, the music kind of swells and picks up and adds, you know, instruments and.
- [16:31]
Justin McElroy
Can I just say, I love an isolated flute. Oh, dude, give me an isolated flute. Any of those high pitched woodwinds. I'm right back in third grade listening to Peter and the Wolf.
- [16:42]
Christopher Thomas Plant
Boop boop, boop, boop, boop, boop boop.
- [16:44]
Justin McElroy
Transported us.
- [16:45]
Christopher Thomas Plant
Austin Wintore is here for you. You know you found a perfect guy, I guess.
- [16:49]
Griffin McElroy
Yeah. Did he do it? Yeah, he did.
- [16:51]
Christopher Thomas Plant
Yeah.
- [16:52]
Justin McElroy
I just need more isolated flutes, everybody.
- [16:55]
Griffin McElroy
It's all we need.
- [16:56]
Justin McElroy
That's all we need.
- [16:57]
Christopher Thomas Plant
The game is very pretty. The music is great. It all comes together for me because it is a sensual game and not in a bow chicka bow wow way.
- [17:05]
Russ Frushtick
I mean, we did talk about scared.
- [17:07]
Griffin McElroy
Then you feel really betrayed by different word.
- [17:11]
Christopher Thomas Plant
What do you want sensory? Is that good?
- [17:13]
Russ Frushtick
It depends what you're going for.
- [17:14]
Justin McElroy
It depends on what you. You can't.
- [17:16]
Griffin McElroy
You can't say sensual.
- [17:17]
Justin McElroy
Can't say sensual and then be like, not sensual, but wink. Like use a different word.
- [17:22]
Christopher Thomas Plant
I'm saying it just makes you feel something. It is being able to turn hot into cold, being able to ring a bunch of bells, being able to do all the various spins and everything. It's all these little tiny good feeling things from other video games smashed into one place. And I would say it's sensual cool.
- [17:44]
Justin McElroy
I would say if I could attempt. Because it's. I kind of get what you're going for because I was attempting to summarize this in my head while I was playing, but by getting narrative out of the way and making the game so, like, obvious, which is to say, you are bringing back the sea. That's what you're always doing. Like, you're bringing back the sea. You've got the sea. You're bringing it back to this area. By getting the game stuff out of the way, it's like communicating narrative through gameplay in a way that. Where he's like, the actions that you are taking, because there's not a story. The actions that you're taking, I think, are imbued with more meaning because it's the meaning that you're like, laying on top of them.
- [18:25]
Russ Frushtick
But there's. I guess my point is there is a story.
- [18:28]
Griffin McElroy
There's a story.
- [18:29]
Russ Frushtick
When I get frustrated by, you know, RPGs that take 15 hours to get going and things like that, like, this is what I'm talking about. You can make someone. You know what? Perfect example. We just played Mafia last week. Perfect example. It took five hours of you slowly carrying wine for anything to happen here. You can make people feel things in a very short amount of time. I think the Ori games are like an incredible example of this, where they really get going very quickly. That just requires, like, I think, precision and careful editing and thought about what you're including versus not. I'm not saying games don't need narrative and dialogue. Of course, a lot of games do need that stuff, but you just need to be very selective about what you're doing and making sure those first few hours for people are an incredible experience and not just a preamble for what is going to be an incredible experience.
- [19:24]
Griffin McElroy
I think it's great. I was surprised by how sticky it was. I kept finding myself with time and instead of playing other stuff, I kept coming back to this one until I finished it. And it is, I think just the right length, just the right size, and just a really well crafted version of this. Sensual, sensual, erotic.
- [19:46]
Justin McElroy
Second hey, can I do a box quote? Let me try a box quote from the Besties. This sword of the sea is extremely sensual. This sword of the sea is extremely sensual. Yeah, not too hard, not too soft, not too long, not too short.
- [20:05]
Griffin McElroy
Okay, One star.
- [20:07]
Justin McElroy
But leaves a trail of wetness behind wherever it travels. This sword of the sea, let's get it wet this summer 2022. John Romero's gonna make you his bitch in Sword of the Sea.
- [20:26]
Griffin McElroy
Hey, there's a lot of other stuff to talk about, including but not limited to Bubsy 4D.
- [20:36]
Russ Frushtick
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- [21:43]
Christopher Thomas Plant
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- [23:29]
Russ Frushtick
Okay, Gamescom is going on. Should we. Should we just get into the heart of the matter, the only thing that people care about?
- [23:36]
Griffin McElroy
Yeah. And it should be noted, Jeff looks great.
- [23:39]
Russ Frushtick
That's what I cared about. He had a great suit on. It should be noted, we are recording this a little bit early. So if you're like, why are they not talking about the huge Silksong announcement that just happened yesterday? It's because we're recording it before that announcement and we asked Jason Schreier.
- [23:53]
Griffin McElroy
Jason Schreier's like, I got the scoop, I got the skinny. And we're like, give it. Give it up.
- [23:57]
Russ Frushtick
And he said, it's the wait until next year.
- [24:00]
Griffin McElroy
No, he did not. Yeah, they showed Silksong at the opening ceremony of Gamescom, by which.
- [24:08]
Russ Frushtick
I feel so bad for Geoff Keighley, by the way. Why?
- [24:11]
Griffin McElroy
I think it's okay. What they showed of silksong was like 30 seconds of new gameplay footage. There's a demo that is playable at Gamescom that is the big sort of proof of life.
- [24:21]
Russ Frushtick
I feel like, you know, Jeff King, that he is of this industry and the power that he wields, for sure wanted it. So flew to Sydney or whatever the fuck they are.
- [24:34]
Justin McElroy
He said, let give me a pick. I will go down to the game mines myself. Just let me do the announcement that it's live now. I want to say the words, please.
- [24:44]
Russ Frushtick
They showed up at their office one day and he was prostrate in front of their door with cups of coffee. What can I do for you, Australian gentleman to make Jeff's outside again.
- [24:55]
Justin McElroy
He's whipping himself with the cat. O9 tails. That's a British guy who works at the Australian.
- [25:00]
Christopher Thomas Plant
Yeah, sure.
- [25:01]
Russ Frushtick
And all they gave him was 10 seconds of gameplay. And they let him announce that the game was coming out in 2025, even though they had already announced that fact.
- [25:10]
Griffin McElroy
Okay. But it's also playable in some way at Gamescom, and that is a genuine escalation of evidence that this thing is.
- [25:19]
Russ Frushtick
I mean, it's been playable before. This is not the first time it's been playable.
- [25:22]
Justin McElroy
Can I ask, guys? Seriously?
- [25:24]
Griffin McElroy
Yeah.
- [25:25]
Justin McElroy
As somebody who, like, liked Silksong and I like, like, Hollow Knight, not Silksong. Liked Hollow Knight and thought it was really good at this point, is it more of, like a meme, or does this just frustrate you people who are, like, actually looking forward to it a lot? I feel like this is. I would be so annoyed if I really were very.
- [25:43]
Griffin McElroy
It has reached a sort of ironic level of like, I. Hollow Knight, I think is. Can hang with the best Metroidvania ever made. Like, it is way, way, way, way, way up there. Top three, easy masterpiece. And I can't wait for Silksong. But seven years, by the time I hit five years waiting on a game, it escalates to a point of I have to distance myself from it to be like, it's not real.
- [26:10]
Russ Frushtick
I mean, there was an Edge preview of it, like three years ago, maybe four years ago.
- [26:14]
Griffin McElroy
It's been in the works.
- [26:15]
Justin McElroy
I am.
- [26:16]
Griffin McElroy
I. I'm excited to see anything out of this fucking game, man.
- [26:19]
Russ Frushtick
I think what's sad to me, assuming that it actually is coming out, which I assume the listeners know at this point, it will probably mean the death of the Silksong subreddit, which has been basically dedicated to faking Silksong news over the course of the last three or four years.
- [26:36]
Griffin McElroy
Yeah.
- [26:36]
Russ Frushtick
In increasingly dramatic ways. Most recently, someone created a totally different subreddit that only had one post in it. The subreddit was called Indie Grames and the post was Silksong announced. And then they retweeted it on the Silksong subreddit as an effort to fool everyone. Oh, God. It's been just this escalating game of.
- [26:58]
Griffin McElroy
That community is going to absolutely meltdown. I feel like when this game exists, I don't know how we.
- [27:03]
Russ Frushtick
I'm happy for them.
- [27:05]
Griffin McElroy
Yeah.
- [27:05]
Justin McElroy
For sure. I don't feel like this situation is their fault, obviously. Like, this is not.
- [27:10]
Christopher Thomas Plant
Whose fault?
- [27:11]
Justin McElroy
The creators of the game. Right. I don't know to what Extent.
- [27:14]
Russ Frushtick
It's a little bit. A little bit.
- [27:16]
Griffin McElroy
There's a messaging issue.
- [27:19]
Justin McElroy
There's a messaging issue. Okay.
- [27:21]
Griffin McElroy
The Silksong announcement is coming out after we. The second, I guess announcement is coming out after we record this podcast. So hopefully by this point, by the time people hear this, we'll know when the game's coming out. I don't want to talk about Silksong anymore.
- [27:34]
Justin McElroy
Scratch.
- [27:36]
Christopher Thomas Plant
What? Bubsy's back.
- [27:39]
Griffin McElroy
Yeah. So that's how the trailer starts. It's so scary. Seriously, he yells at you like that?
- [27:45]
Christopher Thomas Plant
He yells, bubsy's back.
- [27:47]
Griffin McElroy
No, the trailer starts with Bubsy, and he looks amazing, and he's looking at all his old games, and he's like, these fucking stink. But it's better now. And then you see Bubsy 4D, and it's a cool way for a beloved IP to reintroduce itself to the new generation.
- [28:02]
Justin McElroy
So it's so crazy that this is happening two months after the GEX trilogy was released on the team. Like, what is happening right now?
- [28:09]
Christopher Thomas Plant
Well, I mean, it's all the same person, right? Yeah. Wasn't the GEX trilogy also part of Digital Eclipse?
- [28:15]
Griffin McElroy
Well, it's gex. GEX made all these games.
- [28:17]
Christopher Thomas Plant
Oh, GEX made me.
- [28:19]
Justin McElroy
Sorry.
- [28:19]
Griffin McElroy
I don't know if you see the.
- [28:20]
Justin McElroy
Logo, but GEX Trilogy, I can see how it's confusing.
- [28:23]
Christopher Thomas Plant
I just like that Wade Rosen, the current CEO of Atari. And let me be clear. GEX Trilogy, that was limited run games. There are other stickers in the world. You get really rich, you take over Atari, and then you use all of that power and money to make Bubsy 4D. I just think that is. That's somebody living out their fantasy, living out their dream.
- [28:48]
Griffin McElroy
I am nervous and perhaps a little skeptical that this is going to transition cleanly from Bubsy being something we all can have a good laugh about to a beloved 3 d. To. To. Hey, I'm back. And I'm in on the joke too.
- [29:06]
Justin McElroy
It's meta.
- [29:07]
Russ Frushtick
Hey, just for. For your guys. I'm just curious, without looking it up, how many Bubsy games have there been?
- [29:15]
Griffin McElroy
Are we counting? Like, this is a trick question.
- [29:17]
Justin McElroy
This is the fifth one. Okay, so 3D. Is there a Bubsy games, but there.
- [29:25]
Christopher Thomas Plant
Are mobile ones that are slightly different, and there's also the art. Unofficial Bubsy games. Yes. So, like, what are you. What are you counting?
- [29:33]
Russ Frushtick
I was talking about the official ones.
- [29:35]
Christopher Thomas Plant
Probably like six if you count the. The portable ones is different from the plain ones.
- [29:40]
Russ Frushtick
Yeah, it's six. The numbers six, which is fucking staggering to me that Bubsy's been in that many games and now soon to be seven.
- [29:47]
Griffin McElroy
Yeah.
- [29:48]
Russ Frushtick
And I guess, like, irony, how far does this go?
- [29:55]
Christopher Thomas Plant
Okay, so here's. I think this game, for it to work, has to actually be a fun game.
- [30:01]
Russ Frushtick
Yeah. I mean, I would argue that's the case for all games. Quite a bit of gameplay.
- [30:05]
Christopher Thomas Plant
Yeah, Well, I. I checked out. You can. You can see the. The developer. I think their name is Fabraz. They're on Steam, and they've made a number of games that are quite well rated. I have not played any of these. They're called Demon Turf, Slime Song, Planet Diver.
- [30:24]
Griffin McElroy
But they have played Slimeson. That is a great game.
- [30:27]
Christopher Thomas Plant
It seems like these people know how to make a game, so they are trusting it with people who know how to make a game.
- [30:35]
Justin McElroy
Right.
- [30:37]
Griffin McElroy
And you can't go wrong with Bubsy.
- [30:40]
Christopher Thomas Plant
Always design, like, his actual look.
- [30:43]
Griffin McElroy
I mean, he's grown up, he's more mature, he's wearing a suit. Now this is an adults. Bubsy game for adults.
- [30:49]
Christopher Thomas Plant
It's like, yeah, second divorce Bubsy.
- [30:53]
Griffin McElroy
Yeah.
- [30:53]
Justin McElroy
Now I have to look at it.
- [30:55]
Griffin McElroy
It's Bubsy. Adults only is the original working part.
- [30:58]
Justin McElroy
I have to watch the trailer to participate in the discussion. This seems like such a betrayal, guys. I don't know.
- [31:03]
Russ Frushtick
Yeah.
- [31:06]
Justin McElroy
Bubsy. Bubsy. I don't know. Atari's been doing interesting stuff. Speaking of Atari doing interesting stuff, did you see that Pac Man, Atari? They did?
- [31:14]
Christopher Thomas Plant
Yeah, dude.
- [31:14]
Russ Frushtick
Which.
- [31:15]
Justin McElroy
You see that?
- [31:16]
Russ Frushtick
Which one's good?
- [31:16]
Justin McElroy
Look at that. Look, Just look up the pac man, atari 2600. They have a pac man themed atari 2600 that has controllers in four different colorways represent the ghosts. And it's like, there's. It's gorgeous. I mean, it is gorgeous, but they're doing more. I don't know. Atari's doing interesting stuff like that. They were in a weird place earlier where they were trying to do a hotel and bitcoins and stuff or whatever, but I don't know, they're a little more. A little more interesting.
- [31:48]
Christopher Thomas Plant
You can listen to a little show called Post Games, listen to an interview between me and the CEO, and you'll find out that hotel still happening, baby. The hotel is still happening.
- [32:00]
Griffin McElroy
What other big announcements did we. Oh, the Kirby writers direct.
- [32:04]
Russ Frushtick
Yeah. This wasn't really officially part of Gamescom, but they did spend 45 minutes of Sakurai talking about what Kirby Air Riders is, and at one point, he's like, you know, people might be saying that this is like, Mario Kart, and it kind of is, but they still let me do it.
- [32:23]
Griffin McElroy
I could watch that dude talk about any game he's making fucking forever. There's a bit where he's talking about how great the original Kirby Air Riders was because it only used a single button for all the interactions. He's like, unfortunately, we've added a second button. It looks so fucking fun. I did not play the original at all. And I know it's a game a lot of people have a lot of nostalgia for, but just the movement. Like, it's not a kart racer.
- [32:48]
Russ Frushtick
I mean, it has elements of it, but it seems more kinetic. Almost like a bayonetta take on Mario Kart.
- [32:54]
Griffin McElroy
Yeah, it's more about, like, charging up and dashing, like, chaining together these charged dashes and using special Kirby abilities and stuff. It looks like a fucking blast. I cannot wait for this one. Hey, I haven't played the last few Call of Duty Black Ops games. Have they always been kind of completely fucking unhinged or trailers for Black Ops.
- [33:13]
Russ Frushtick
7, we played one. What was the one we played? What was it? Last year? That was quite good.
- [33:18]
Christopher Thomas Plant
We just played Black Ops 6. When did that come? Yeah, that came out last year. Okay, so I'm not.
- [33:22]
Russ Frushtick
We're not.
- [33:23]
Christopher Thomas Plant
They are wild. And y'. All. There are a million reasons that you might not want to play a Call of Duty game over the last 20 years, but I can't believe these games exist. They have gone so far off the plot. Every mission now is just a different type of game. I don't know if that's what they're doing this time around.
- [33:46]
Russ Frushtick
I mean, based on the trailer, it's like you get super jumps, and the world looks like how it did at the end of Inception.
- [33:52]
Griffin McElroy
You get hit with a fucking scarecrow gas, and you and your squad all of a sudden are in Venezuela. But all the streets go straight up into the sky. It looks incredible. Insane.
- [34:02]
Russ Frushtick
I think they've rightly realized that from a design standpoint, you can't make a grounded Call of Duty game for every single mission and have it really keep it compelling. So they've figured out, as Plant said, new ways to sort of refresh it. The last game we played had, like, a big open world mission, which was incredible in addition to, like, fucking grappling hooks and shit. And this one seems to be going even more in that direction where you get fucking superpowers for some reason. Eventually there's like, an end game to the campaign where it's like a PvE CO op centric experience that's like very involved, actually. This whole game can be played in co op, which is pretty cool. I don't know.
- [34:41]
Griffin McElroy
I don't know if it's enough to get me back in the ecosystem, but it's always fun, specifically, Black Ops, to see a trailer for Black Ops where it's like, we're on dinosaurs and it's like, what the fuck? You are cool.
- [34:53]
Russ Frushtick
It feels like the sort of game that, like, for people don't. That don't give a shit about the militaristic stuff. Like it's designed for them.
- [35:00]
Griffin McElroy
It almost feels like they should call it a different. Like, make it a different thing. Call it a different, like just call it Mind wars or something. Like.
- [35:07]
Russ Frushtick
Well, but then the multiplayer is the militaristic stuff and the, like, free to play whatever it is. The battle royale mode is like all the basic militaristic stuff. So you're getting everything in that package. It's how they've done Call of Duty Forever, basically.
- [35:19]
Griffin McElroy
Yeah.
- [35:19]
Justin McElroy
Sorry, are we just going to ignore the fact that Gryffindor came up with Mind wars for free?
- [35:24]
Griffin McElroy
I thought it was anybody to use Milo Ventimiglia in Mind Wars.
- [35:30]
Russ Frushtick
Yes. So the bad boyfriend from Gilmore Girls is the star of this game or.
- [35:36]
Griffin McElroy
The good boy from this Is Us, depending on how you look at him. Yeah, it's crazy. Crazy how.
- [35:45]
Christopher Thomas Plant
How y' all feel about the new Batman game?
- [35:48]
Russ Frushtick
You see this? Oh, the LEGO Batman.
- [35:50]
Christopher Thomas Plant
Lego Batman Legacy of the Dark Knight, which seems to be a combination of every Batman thing. Like Batman TV shows, the Batman movies, you got Nolan movies, you got Burton movies, you got the Reeves movie, but also looks kind of like it plays like a rocksteady Batman.
- [36:09]
Russ Frushtick
It does, yeah. The combat looks like a rocksteady game. It looks like what they're doing here is what they did with the Star Wars Rise of the Skywalker LEGO game.
- [36:19]
Justin McElroy
Just mushing it all.
- [36:21]
Russ Frushtick
All the hits.
- [36:22]
Justin McElroy
Hey, listen, I'll just say. I'll just say this, okay? Lego. I don't think we need anybody else taking all of popular culture and smooshed it into a big mushy slurry. You know, we get it. You know, I don't think we need to just moosh everything up into one big gloopy pile and slurp it down in Lego form. I don't think that's necessary.
- [36:42]
Russ Frushtick
I mean, I gotta be honest, they were kind of doing that long before Disney was.
- [36:45]
Griffin McElroy
Yeah, way, way, way, way, way Back.
- [36:47]
Justin McElroy
How many of those beauties are sitting on your shelf right now, Russia?
- [36:51]
Russ Frushtick
You know I'm not.
- [36:52]
Justin McElroy
None. Is that right?
- [36:53]
Christopher Thomas Plant
None.
- [36:53]
Justin McElroy
Yeah.
- [36:53]
Russ Frushtick
The answer is none.
- [36:54]
Justin McElroy
I don't. None is the answer. None. None of those beauties. Even kids get bored of those games.
- [37:01]
Russ Frushtick
Every.
- [37:02]
Justin McElroy
Every game journalist alive has recommended a LEGO game to anybody looking for games to play with their kids. And then without fail, after 15 minutes, every kid on the plan is like, this is boring.
- [37:13]
Russ Frushtick
I think Legos, the last one genuinely is like a genuinely great game.
- [37:18]
Justin McElroy
Their hit rate is so bad, I cannot get the kids to try them anymore because they are so.
- [37:23]
Russ Frushtick
I think there was a time where they were pumping them out like every six months. And at that point I agree with you. And I think what they've focused on instead, like it's been two years since that Star wars game, at least.
- [37:33]
Griffin McElroy
Yeah.
- [37:33]
Russ Frushtick
I think they are now spending more time on them.
- [37:36]
Justin McElroy
I think they would need to do something for me to like separate it a bit more because in my head that's like a big. Just a big glump that doesn't really.
- [37:45]
Griffin McElroy
Like an over saturation sort of situation. I feel like the LEGO Fortnite stuff has been more successful at like kind of capturing the.
- [37:53]
Justin McElroy
Well, it's like a separate brand, you know what I mean?
- [37:56]
Griffin McElroy
Yeah, for sure.
- [37:57]
Justin McElroy
That LEGO thing, this is not to shit on all of lego because the LEGO thing that Jeff shared with us last time that Jeff had one of his special parties, the one where you're a LEGO brick and you're rolling around Interact. Yeah, the COB one.
- [38:12]
Russ Frushtick
LEGO Adventure, I think it's called something like that.
- [38:15]
Justin McElroy
I can't remember the title. Maybe they do need Batman.
- [38:19]
Griffin McElroy
I did not. I was not paying super close attention to the Gamescom stuff as it was being announced. And so I got a slack message from Russ in the middle of the day that just said Sekiro anime. And it felt like a prank at first, but now they're doing one up on Crunchyroll Sekiro anime adaptation of the plot of the game. And I'm one, wanting to play Sekiro again thanks to that. Two, excited for this anime. Three, wondering if this is any kind of fuel for the fire for the Sekiro to finally come to me. Because I'm ready. I've been ready.
- [38:53]
Christopher Thomas Plant
Do you think that Activision can get that to happen?
- [38:56]
Griffin McElroy
Yeah, yeah. No. I prayed really hard to the Lord, I said, give me more Sekiro. Give me Sekiro anime. Give me more Bubsy. And the Lord was like, you got it, man.
- [39:04]
Russ Frushtick
What if it's together?
- [39:06]
Justin McElroy
I just want to say Gryffon, what if it's both an anime and the game where when it gets to a hard part in the anime, they turn to you and they say, Griffin, please help with your skills. I want you to take over in this scene.
- [39:19]
Russ Frushtick
And then you fought this monkey man 60 times.
- [39:22]
Justin McElroy
And you play the adventure. Travis. Griffin. Travis. In here. Griffin. Listen, I'm saying you could play the adventure like you could play the anime.
- [39:31]
Griffin McElroy
That sounds cool, man. Yeah.
- [39:33]
Russ Frushtick
Do you think they're gonna render the poop?
- [39:36]
Griffin McElroy
I think they'll render the poop for sure. I think you try to start episode 10 is just called Sword Saint Isshin. And you try to start it and a prompt comes up on Netflix. I'll grudge you roll. It's like, nope, you're not fucking ready, man. You're not good enough.
- [39:49]
Russ Frushtick
Watch the first nine episodes.
- [39:50]
Griffin McElroy
Watch the first nine episodes a hundred thousand times and then you can come and watch the finale. Yeah, a weird batch. A weird batch of stuff out of outta Gamescom. But this is sort of the nature of the decentralized news state of the gaming industry where everyone, I feel like, I don't know, you don't get any huge fucking pressers anymore. Where it's like, and here's the new Zelda cause that's controlled entirely by Nintendo. Or here's the new, you know, PlayStation joint because that's gonna be on their state of place. It's just left. It's left press conferences in kind of a strange spot. There's some good stuff.
- [40:33]
Russ Frushtick
There's some Ghost of Yotei stuff.
- [40:34]
Griffin McElroy
But yeah, yeah, they announced the DLC for Ghost of Yotei. When is that? Is that game out soon?
- [40:40]
Russ Frushtick
It's this fall.
- [40:41]
Christopher Thomas Plant
Yeah.
- [40:41]
Griffin McElroy
Yeah.
- [40:42]
Russ Frushtick
Weird to announce DLC for a game that's not out. I agree.
- [40:44]
Griffin McElroy
Yeah. I mean I'm excited. I'm excited for the game.
- [40:47]
Russ Frushtick
Yeah. Okay, honorable mentions time. Anyone got anything they want to talk about?
- [40:55]
Griffin McElroy
I Justin, kindly gave me a handheld, the Ayaneo Pocket Ace, which has really become my off court buddy over here.
- [41:08]
Russ Frushtick
It is your new off court buddy. Where is the old off court buddy.
- [41:11]
Griffin McElroy
That we used to play? So I have a. Now I was adopting a sort of two handheld set where I would have one for the big fancy stuff. And then I have the Pocket Micro Classic for, you know, I just finished FF6 Game Boy Advance Audio Remaster Edition on that one. But this is more of a mid sized guy. This still fits in the old Pocket and it can Run like fucking anything. I got Final Fantasy XII up and running on it. I got Celeste up and running on it and it's fun to have a little guy that I can take around and I don't know, I just really, really, really like the form factor. I also bought one of the Retroid second screen attachments that just came out because it's supposed to fit really nicely on the, on the, on the Ace. So looking forward to.
- [41:57]
Justin McElroy
Cool thing about the Ace that is kind of different at this price point for a lot of these higher end Android consoles is that it is a three by two aspect ratio screen.
- [42:08]
Griffin McElroy
Yes.
- [42:08]
Justin McElroy
Which is not the best if you want to like play a bunch of like high end stuff that's already in widescreen. But if you want to play anything that is at that like old school ratio like it's going to look a lot better. It's going to take up more of the real estate on the screen and that's not super common in the vertical form factor to have this three by two screen. Yeah, it's kind of a neat, neat place that a. Slides in. Hoops.
- [42:34]
Christopher Thomas Plant
Hoops, Hoops. Can you tell people about your sneaker head theory about these things?
- [42:39]
Justin McElroy
Yeah, I don't, I don't know. It's. It's when you follow this space it's like very iterative. Right. It's a lot about like latest and greatest and what is the newest hottest thing To a point where like people joke about the one feature that is missing from this year's thing or this year, this month's thing that'll be in the next month's thing. But you can. A lot of these are funded through Indiegogo. It's kind of wild. Like if you look at when the Pocket Ace or the Pocket Pro, a lot of these Ineo products do this anbernic does it sometimes I believe but they start on an indie crowdfunding platform. So like if you go to Indiegogo right now for Ayaneo I think is doing one for a flip console, a clamshell sort of DS form factor that.
- [43:20]
Griffin McElroy
They are which has really become the battlefront of this.
- [43:23]
Justin McElroy
That is where the market is. Right.
- [43:24]
Griffin McElroy
Who can make the best double screen clamshell.
- [43:27]
Justin McElroy
Right. So you had the retroid flip 2 which is widely beloved. A lot of people like that thing. It's a really solid option but it does not have the bottom screen. And then you have Retroid releasing that second screen attachment that Griffin just mentioned. And then we've got the Ayaneo Flip DS that just like got announced I think this week. And that is a started with a crowdfunding campaign. And then you can see on the crowdfunding campaign like exactly how many people have pre ordered these things. And it's like, like the Aino pocket actually is the one. The flip is the higher end windows based thing. That is over a thousand dollars.
- [44:08]
Griffin McElroy
Yeah, that's a little much. That's a lot, guys.
- [44:11]
Justin McElroy
It's a lot. It's kind of wild, guys.
- [44:12]
Griffin McElroy
And then I just announced the Thor.
- [44:15]
Justin McElroy
Which they, they teased the Thor. They have not told us what Thor, what the Thor will be yet. But yeah, it is just wild, wild, wild. It is a wild space. But you can see how many people have crowdfunded each of these things. It's crazy. Like you can see the exact number of people that are purchasing each of these. And I have heard people like on some channels like kind of bragging about like being number two or number three or even number one.
- [44:42]
Russ Frushtick
How do they have the time between all the fucking to brag about that stuff?
- [44:46]
Griffin McElroy
Russ Frushtick of all people, what are we doing right now?
- [44:51]
Justin McElroy
You are the people.
- [44:52]
Griffin McElroy
What are we doing right right now?
- [44:53]
Justin McElroy
A glass house. You, you couldn't even dream of being in a glass house, right? You wish. You're, you're in Wonder Woman's invisible jet. It's like nothing.
- [45:02]
Griffin McElroy
Your house is made of candy floss and you're, you're spraying the hose all around.
- [45:08]
Justin McElroy
So they've raised a half million six hundred thousand dollars pretty much on the po the Pocket ds, which is the world's first dual screen Android handheld. And that, that one they have, you can see they have done like for example at the early bird level, which is like 400 for your base model. That's the cheapest one they have. 54 of those have sold. The step up from that 257, you can see exactly how many of each of these models have sold and how many are unclaimed. And it's kind of a wild way of doing business because it's like if the market's there, people will just keep like releasing it. And I don't know.
- [45:50]
Griffin McElroy
It's wild.
- [45:51]
Russ Frushtick
I guess from my perspective, the games that I loved on both the 3Ds and the DS, which I guess this is, these devices are designed for, right. Of the ones that haven't been like re released in some format. So the examples being like the Castlevania, those GBA and DS games, right. I think there's like 10 of those DS 3DS games that I like, really would want to play, which makes the justification kind of hard for me.
- [46:21]
Griffin McElroy
Can I say that's crazy. Personally speaking, that's crazy. The DS and 3Ds, there's a lot.
- [46:27]
Russ Frushtick
Of games on there, A lot of great games on there.
- [46:29]
Justin McElroy
But, like, so to say you have 10 you'd want to play is.
- [46:32]
Griffin McElroy
I feel like there's a lot of games that can't be adapted because of the dual screen format. And this is. This is. I don't know. I don't know if one of these is gonna become like my. I think the dream is always having like, the one. The one true handheld that I can play everything on. And like this. There's tough, man.
- [46:51]
Justin McElroy
Cause these. You really. If you look at this space, there are some consoles where, like, the best way to play it is still on original hardware. Right? Right. The DS is like that. The Vita's like that. Three DS is like that. Certainly. Oh, home consoles, forget about it. But yeah, like, even those old ones, that's still the best way of playing it.
- [47:10]
Christopher Thomas Plant
And that's so easy to hack too.
- [47:12]
Griffin McElroy
Yeah.
- [47:13]
Justin McElroy
Yes, they are. Oh, that's like, well settled. Because nobody cares. Right? It's like. But from a preservation perspective, a lot of these games, you will not be able to have this experience, like, without some sort of hardware that can emulate it. Right. Like, even, like in Retro Arc, you can do a. In the, like, MGBA emulator, you can do a amount of solar radiation that you are receiving. Oh, on BTI for boktai. Right. So like, that stuff can be emulated, but that's the level, like, to be able. But if you want to play boktai.
- [47:50]
Griffin McElroy
Those are your options twisted on the GBA with the motion sensor. Like, there's weird edge cases that are.
- [47:57]
Justin McElroy
My kids are obsessed with icarly. They've watched every episode of iCarly, and the only iCarly games are on Nintendo DS. So I have to, like, go dig out my pink Nintendo ds, charge it up, go find the icarly games and. And get. And so it's like, I understand the edge case thing, but, like, especially as, like, your kids get older, the ability to say, like, hey, there's 30, 40, 50 games on this thing that I got to show you because it's wild. There's a real value to that.
- [48:26]
Griffin McElroy
Personally speaking. Henry is really wanting to play Ocarina of Time, and I don't want him to play any version but the 3ds version because the game is not especially approachable to an 8 year old and it's in 64 fashion.
- [48:41]
Russ Frushtick
What about Ship of Harkonnen?
- [48:43]
Griffin McElroy
What about Ship of Harkonnen?
- [48:45]
Justin McElroy
Quick plug, actually, for Sword of the Sea. Again, I meant to mention this in the earlier discussion, but I played with Cooper, who is 7 and does not play almost nothing with like dual sticks. And she loved Sword of the Sea. She loved it. And it was just enough of a challenge to make her feel like she was leading the experience. But like, yeah, she really got it. Only thing that I thought was interesting, I thought you guys would think was interesting, she was over manipulating the right stick because she's so used to roadblocks where there is no camera, third person camera support and you are completely manipulating the camera on the right thumbstick. And she was getting frustrated with the game because she was wanting to control. Yeah, instinctually she was wanting to control the camera constantly. So she was like fighting the game until I told her, like, honey, in a good game there's a camera and they're trying to help you. You don't have to do it all on your own, hun. The game will help. It'll work with you. I know you're used to having to fight Roblox tooth and nail to get any pleasure out of it, right?
- [49:46]
Griffin McElroy
I also wanted to shout out a show I've been watching on Netflix. Big shout out to David Weiner, my father in law, for the recommendation. It's called Final Draft. It is a Japanese competition reality athleticism show where like 30 retired athletes compete in physical 100 style athletic challenges. And it's really great because the, I don't know, it's an older base of competitors who all have quite a bit to prove and most of which have reached the end of their careers. And this is sort of like their last way of using these skills to try and win a big prize pool. And it's, it's. That is a cool concept for a show.
- [50:27]
Justin McElroy
My father in law sending that to me would be the most fucking loaded thing possible. You know what I mean? Think about it. It's a bunch of old dogs with one last fight left in them just in case they got one less scrap in there in case you think they don't have it anymore. Griffin.
- [50:43]
Griffin McElroy
It hits different from a David Weiner than it does from a Tommy Smurl. But I concede the point.
- [50:49]
Justin McElroy
Not fighting for physical dominance as much. I understand.
- [50:54]
Russ Frushtick
I played a game called Super Mario 64 on the Nintendo 64. I played it because I owned that version that came out on Switch that they Stopped selling for some reason. I forget what they called it, but I was looking for games because I beat Mario Wonder with my son more or less sitting alongside me. And he was super, super into it. And I was looking for games that we could play next and went there and he loved it. He was incredibly into it. Not afraid of the eel. Remarkably loved all the swimming. We ended up beating that. And then I was like, what could I play next? And I tried booting up Odyssey, which is also in that game pack. It's Odyssey Sunshine, which I skipped because it's Dog, and then straight to Galaxy. Galaxy was way too overwhelming. Yeah, I think he was just like, it was too much for him. Scare. It starts with the scary, like, Bowser fucking mortaring the Princess Peach's castle. And then suddenly you're in space and it's just there's.
- [51:53]
Justin McElroy
He doesn't mean that metaphorically, kids. He means that literally. Sorry.
- [51:57]
Russ Frushtick
Yeah, yeah. It's a shame. And then so I jumped over to Yoshi's island, which he was into, but then now he just wants to keep going back to Mario Wonder, which I guess is not a failing. But not ideal is the fact that the only levels he wants to see are the Wiggler races. Wiggler, as we all know, is the caterpillar that runs along and is very friendly. There are only two Wiggler races the entire game, and he just wants to replay those over and over again. And it's fucking boring as hell. So I just want to play Yoshi's island with him because it rules.
- [52:27]
Justin McElroy
Yeah, it's gonna be easy.
- [52:30]
Griffin McElroy
Yeah, that's true, Chris.
- [52:32]
Christopher Thomas Plant
Yeah. I'm just gonna use this as a chance to plug something related to that, which is I guested on the Ringerverse. Over at the Ringer, they have a game show called Button Mash. And with Joshua Rivera and Matty Myers and the host, Ben Lindbergh, we picked the best Mario games of all time. And it's a really fun episode. I did research ahead of time, and let me tell you, I learned so much about Mario sewing games. So much. They made two of them over a decade apart. You can learn all about it on that episode.
- [53:08]
Russ Frushtick
Did you do every single Mario game or just, like the core?
- [53:12]
Christopher Thomas Plant
It was a draft, so there were, like, categories. It was very ringer, very sports. You know, focused. You know, we talked a lot about baseball.
- [53:19]
Russ Frushtick
They do love sports. Although we do do a bracket as well.
- [53:22]
Justin McElroy
We know about sports. Sports.
- [53:24]
Griffin McElroy
We know about sports.
- [53:25]
Christopher Thomas Plant
That's true.
- [53:26]
Russ Frushtick
Justin, you got anything besides your nerd ass handheld shit?
- [53:32]
Justin McElroy
No. No, I don't.
- [53:35]
Griffin McElroy
I want to hear about your nerd action.
- [53:36]
Justin McElroy
No, no, no, no. We've talked. We had a good segment about that.
- [53:38]
Russ Frushtick
We did. We did.
- [53:39]
Justin McElroy
We've done our due diligence. Let me scoot away. Some of the things that I had within reach to.
- [53:43]
Griffin McElroy
Hold on.
- [53:45]
Justin McElroy
Just gotta scoot away. Some of these handhelds that I had within reach to.
- [53:49]
Griffin McElroy
This is actually a fun game. How many within reach right now? I've got.
- [53:54]
Justin McElroy
How long will you give me?
- [53:56]
Griffin McElroy
Can you give me.
- [53:58]
Justin McElroy
I legitimately don't have any within reach of the studio because I need.
- [54:02]
Griffin McElroy
It's a workspace.
- [54:03]
Justin McElroy
Cause it's a workspace. Right. All I have is my Marvel stickers for when you guys do a good job. That's it. That's all I have within each handed out.
- [54:11]
Griffin McElroy
Today I noticed.
- [54:12]
Justin McElroy
What?
- [54:13]
Griffin McElroy
No stickers today? I noticed in a while.
- [54:15]
Justin McElroy
Griff, actually.
- [54:16]
Russ Frushtick
He's a stingy gentleman when it comes to stickers.
- [54:18]
Griffin McElroy
It's gotta mean something when he does it.
- [54:20]
Russ Frushtick
It does.
- [54:22]
Griffin McElroy
That's the show. I think.
- [54:23]
Russ Frushtick
I think we did it. Plant. You want to recap games? We talked about.
- [54:27]
Christopher Thomas Plant
We talked about so much good stuff today. We talked about Sword of the Sea, but we also talked about Hollow Knight, Silksong, Kirby, Air Riders, Call of Duty, Black Ops 7, Bubsy 4D, Lego Batman, Legacy of the Dark Knight. And we talked about stuff that isn't video games too. We Talked about Atari 2600, Pac Man Edition, the Sekiro anime, Ayaneo Pocket Ace, TV shows like Final Draft. And then there was a bunch of retro Mario games thrown in there in Lego Voyagers. It was just a fun, full, wonderful episode.
- [54:58]
Russ Frushtick
Yeah. Lego Voyager is the name of that co op game we were trying to remember.
- [55:01]
Justin McElroy
Lego Voyager. There we go.
- [55:03]
Christopher Thomas Plant
All of the details, all of the links and so much more are available to you at Besties Fan. Subscribe for free.
- [55:12]
Russ Frushtick
Not to mention there's a towel for sale.
- [55:14]
Griffin McElroy
There is a Dark Soul. It's a great towel.
- [55:18]
Russ Frushtick
We also have a Patreon. You can go to patreon.com thebesties you can buy a gift of the Patreon for a good buddy of yours. If you have money left over after the towel, that's patreon.com thebesty gift. We have some new members to shout out. We have Kelly, we have Brian, we have Steven, and we have nj. Thank you for being members. We have a new episode of the Restyz coming at you on Tuesday. We're talking about Stick it to the Stickman, which will be a fun one. And we also have a game that we're talking about next week, which is Hurdling, a very cool game from the makers of far. It was called Far and from the.
- [56:00]
Christopher Thomas Plant
Publisher Panic, who you know, for Untitled Goose game and Despolote, this one is.
- [56:07]
Russ Frushtick
Like Imagine Babe, but it's with like.
- [56:11]
Christopher Thomas Plant
Babe or Babe picking the city. Which one?
- [56:13]
Russ Frushtick
No, more original Babe because it's about hurting creatures.
- [56:17]
Griffin McElroy
Is it about hurting, though?
- [56:19]
Russ Frushtick
Hurt. Hurting. Hering. I hurt. I don't want to hurt them. I want to herd them.
- [56:23]
Griffin McElroy
Yeah.
- [56:24]
Russ Frushtick
The game is called Hurdling, which I think is. That's what you are.
- [56:27]
Justin McElroy
That's going to do it for us for, for this week. Until next time, my name is Justin McElroy. Be sure to join us again next week for the besties because shouldn't the world's best friends pick the world's best Sam.