Hey everybody, it's Tuesday, January 13th, 2026.
Welcome to the Giant Bombcast.
I am your host, Jan Ochoa.
Joining me, co-captain of the ship, he's his own gold-plated HDMI cord, Jeff Grubb.
That's right.
Every single one of my veins have been dipped in gold, and now they work better than ever.
That's true.
Speaking about being dipped in gold, he has never been buffaloed, because he is on top of everything, because he's in first place, because his veins are gold.
Dan Reichert.
Rarely buffaloed.
I'm rarely buffaloed.
I don't think I've been buffaloed in 20 years.
Speaking about 20 years, that's the energy he gives off.
That of a young, spry 20-year-old.
He's ready to do backflips.
Audio listeners, he's doing the Van Damme splits right now.
Under his chair.
Under his desk.
Jeff Bacalar.
Oh, my groin.
It's killing me from these splits.
I've also buffaloed you in the last 20 years, Dan.
When?
Do I know about this?
No, that's the whole point.
Sorry, you don't actually own any of Giant Bomb.
What?
When did you buffalo me?
Buddy, if I told you, that would give it away.
You can't do this to me.
It's an ongoing buffalo.
Yeah, it's a chronic buffaloing.
It happened while we were at 28th Street numerous times.
Vinny and I buffaloed you all the time.
On the podcast or in real life?
In real actual life.
This is going to kill him.
You don't actually have to pay for that.
It's been a trick this whole time.
They got you.
Look, Dan, you know, there's certain things that we just can't tell you when you're older.
When you're older.
That's very bad of you.
That's very naughty, Jeff Backlark, to be buffaloing a friend.
And speaking about being bad and naughty, we got the bird boy of games media, Mike Minotti.
Oh, it's Mike Minotti.
I ate half a burrito too fast.
Mike, have you or your brothers ever thought about starting a rap group called Minotti by Nature?
Oh, no.
Do you get that reference?
No, I was just going to say he don't get that.
Are you down with OPP?
I mean, I guess I don't know enough about them to be down.
Name one of their songs.
What?
No.
Name one song.
Do you have a pamphlet or something so I can understand better or not whether I'm down with OPP?
What's the platform here?
Do you have any literature?
Yeah, literature, I'll be naughty by nature.
OPP is not the group, Mike.
This is very different than identifying what cream was from the Wu-Tang song.
OPP is very different.
Cash.
Oh, you forgot that.
Cream.
Crash.
Oh, forget it.
Everything around me.
Okay, okay.
There we go.
Okay.
All right.
What's OPP?
Overwhelming personal profit.
That's it.
Yeah.
Yeah, you know what?
In that case, I am down with OPP.
Yeah, there we go.
Boys, gang, how's everything doing?
I know the world is on fire.
Everyone out there, go protect your neighbors and your family and friends.
Go check up on them.
Shouts out to the... Dan, I hope everything's okay over there.
It's not, but, you know.
But how's everyone doing in the meantime?
Yeah.
You can stay hanging in there.
Yeah, sure.
Why not?
Gang.
I want to take this opportunity, Jeff Grubb, to ask the folks at home or tell the folks at home really how they can support us over here at GB.
Well, first they need to know that they should support us because we're independent games media.
We're out here on our own, but we can be better.
We can do more because we have you in our corner at our backs.
You went to giantbomb.com slash join, became a premium member.
It has gone a long way to ensuring we can continue doing what we love to do over here, what you guys love to see us doing.
Hey, why not join the party if you haven't already?
It really goes a long way.
We see the people who have joined us.
We want to keep growing that.
Please and thank you.
Once again, that's giantbomb.com slash join.
Gets you some extra goodies.
It's 2026, so we're due for delivering a whole bunch of those, including the the uh new grub snacks which is going to go up today.
Uh, check that out here in your premium feeds go.
If you want to know more about that, go to john bobcom slash, join and you can find all the details there.
Yeah yeah, it's in your premium feeds.
Go eat the grub snacks oh, And you might have an email in your thing about when we're going to North Carolina.
So we can start setting that up soon, too.
All right.
OK, cool.
Fun, fun, fun.
Gang, Chuck needs help.
Chuck built the website.
He also needs help fleshing out the wiki.
If you have any experience with PHP working on wiki websites, you could help Chuck go to the Giant Bomb Discord.
Look for the wikistreetteam.com. discord channel additionally you could go to bombcast.com slash wiki go help him out over there and on top of that shout out to our homies at main gear maingear.com slash giant bomb go buy yourself a pc go buy yourself a plate go buy all of them if you buy all of them i'll kiss you So there you go.
If you want it.
Valentine's Day is coming up.
If you don't got anyone, I'll holler at you.
That's what's going to happen.
Gang, I've been on this fitness kick, right?
I've been on this journey.
And then I started thinking, how do I start gamifying this?
What is the best way to track all of this?
Calories, protein and stuff.
I know calories, protein, like heart rate and stuff because I don't want to get an Apple Watch.
No, no, you don't have to do it.
Don't mess with an Excel spreadsheet.
You don't have to do that.
There are so many apps and gimmicks and stuff that make it so much easier.
Apple Watch is... I'm charging it right now.
I just was like, my Apple Watch that I'm not wearing.
So Apple Watch for tracking things that'll track your resting energy, your active energy, things like that.
Lose.
It is an app that you can also Buffalo them, because if you decline their lifetime payment premium thing a few times, they'll give you like 80 off for a lifetime thing and it tracks all the macros and everything.
You can just take a picture of the food, you can scan the barcode, you can do there's a million different ways tracking calories and stuff like that.
So lose it and an apple watch are the two main things.
I would say.
What if i don't like the look of an apple watch because i just don't like the square faces?
All right, the pixel watch four.
There you go.
It's a round face.
There you go.
You like that grub.
I have a two.
Should i get a four?
I like it quite a bit.
Yeah.
It takes a second to dial in how many notifications I'm getting.
I'm like, oh, I don't need that notification.
But it's two seconds to get rid of them.
Jan, this is about you.
I'm sorry.
No, no, no, no.
Please.
I love the world of smart watches.
I just haven't partaken in quite a while.
The Google Watch 4 does have Fitbit built in, because Google acquired Fitbit, because that just happens now.
Things get acquired and you don't even hear about it.
And then you buy a product and it's like this is that old thing you remember now?
It's crazy.
Who owns Pebble?
Remember that company?
They just released a new watch like a little bit ago.
Yeah.
Really?
Yeah, like last year.
I thought about getting one because I had a Pebble for quite a while and I loved that shit.
Those are the smartwatches with the E-ink screens for everyone who's trying to catch up.
And so like the battery would last like a week instead or maybe even a month.
Longer, yeah.
Is there not a round Apple Watch option?
No.
How dare you even ask that?
You don't get options.
You don't get shot for that kind of comment.
Johnny Ives doesn't work there anymore.
He'll fucking kill you for asking that question.
It sounds like it.
I...
I was helping Stacy with her iPhone the other day.
And you know, every now and then I'm like a little Apple curious.
You know you get that grub.
You know what I'm talking about.
You're just like, you know, like I've, I use an iPad a lot.
So I'm like, I got one foot in and, you know, I'm like, I'm playing with the phone.
I'm like sort of ah, could i, could i make this work, and then, like i don't know, an hour goes by and i'm like oh, this is the fucking worst.
I can't imagine it.
You've all been suckered, you fucking sheep.
What do you mean?
What is the?
What is so bad about it?
As someone who's not used other phones, what is so?
The notification logic on those things is so ancient and terrible i turn them all off.
Well then you're, I don't know what to tell you, but there's just, there was just like so many little quality of life things that I feel like I've taken for granted.
Now, don't get me wrong.
Like I have a pixel 10 and I, I kind of fucking hate it.
Yeah.
What phone do you like?
I do like, what's that?
What phone do you like?
I don't know.
I don't think there's a.
There's probably like a Chinese phone out there that we're not allowed to have.
That I would really like.
I want the Chinese trucks.
Have you all seen the Chinese trucks?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm sure there's like, yeah, I'm sure there's like, you know, there's there.
I was watching like a Marquez video and there's a.
There's like a really cool Android phone with like a Hasselblad lens in it.
I'm like, I'm sure that phone kicks ass.
We'll never be able to use it here.
But yeah, it's definitely Android though for me, for sure.
For sure.
What can you do with the notifications that's different?
Just snooze them, decide when I want, get another app that'll completely customize them in a way that I want to have them alert on my computer, on my watch, on my phone.
Do whatever I want, design anything I want, any widget I make my own.
So it's just like, it's open-ended.
That's the big difference.
That's all.
Remember when Sony used to make phones?
Yeah.
Xperia phones, right?
Wasn't there like an Xperia phone?
Yep yeah, there was a psp phone, right right.
It was like, oh word, i guess that was the experiencecom.
Oh yeah, gamecom.
Yeah, you have batman on it.
I had a sony, i think, rocker e1 and that was like the first thing to have like itunes outside of the apple ecosystem.
There's definitely like some triple a game from playstation at that time where like, the main character had a sony phone because they were pushing them.
Yeah, I'm sure.
When you pause, the UI is the sidekick.
That was Def Jam as well.
Def Jam Pindetta.
Flip open your sidekick.
I used to have a Windows phone.
You guys ever have a Windows phone?
I did, but I immediately put Android on it.
It was in the early days of Android.
Oh, my God.
That was a big old HTC.
It was actually a pretty cool phone, especially when you put Android on it.
Yeah.
With like a pop out keyboard, right?
The whole thing.
No, this one was like their early iPhone clone.
So I was a little bit late to it, yeah.
Is Android a company or is it like Linux where it's just like an idea?
Nobody knows.
So Android is owned by Google, but Android is open source.
But Google Play, their Play Store is not open source.
Google Play services are not open source.
If you want to release an Android phone and you want all the stuff that really makes it sing, you got to work with Google.
If you want to like make all that stuff yourself, you can just use the Android open source project.
And all of it is built on Linux, Dan.
So you were kind of onto something.
Yeah.
Okay.
Everything in the world is basically Android.
Yeah, well, everything's Linux and then now everything's kind of becoming Android.
With Android, we're shelled on top of it, right?
Like I feel like every you know any product that basically has like a screen.
I feel like a touchscreen in this day and age.
More often than not it's an Android sort of wrap on top of Linux.
Cause, like my Peloton, all those streams are Android and it's like they have built in like you can do.
Entertainment runs where it's like.
Okay, they've got Netflix, they've got YouTube TV, which is awesome.
It's great for when you're just doing a run or a walk or something, but they have a specific ones like they'll put on and take off HBO.
And I want to watch Sopranos on there.
And it's like, I know Android, like I know it's just limiting.
It's purposefully limiting what I can access on this thing.
It's an Android tablet, right?
Like there's no reason I shouldn't be able to download HBO Max on there, right?
Probably, I don't know.
I've never used one.
What you're describing sounds very bizarre, but I bet there's people who jailbreak their Pelotons.
There are, and I've seen those videos and stuff, but there are risks involved with that.
But I bet it's a thing where it's like they probably make deals.
Your bike stops working.
It starts pedaling backwards.
They probably make deals where it's like, okay, make a deal with YouTube or with Netflix.
We're going to put you on all of our devices, and so they're just purposefully making it so you can't download apps onto it.
Yeah, it sounds like their own version of Android then, yeah.
Okay, yeah, yeah.
That sucks.
I don't want to be Smirch anyone, but Smirch, has any one of y'all been a belt phone holster person?
Never.
Never.
No, i think like one day, like one day of my life, i might have done.
I think it's when i did finally move on from the sidekick and i tried a blackberry uh, and it was like the blackberry with like the, the reduced keyboard.
I tried that for like a week and i hated it uh, but i put that on my belt for some reason, i don't know.
I kind of don't see those people in the wild anymore either.
Like even like my dad was a big.
If they do, I do ask them technical problems, because they're almost certainly like level one IT guys.
Well, you're giving them a lot of credit.
I don't know.
Mike, did you say you're barely a belt person?
Yeah.
I never wear belts if I don't have to.
It's like a funeral's wedding.
And you don't even go to those.
Why do we wear belts?
They're uncomfortable.
They're uncomfortable.
Look, okay, I'll be honest, like, there's a bit of a gut situation.
Yeah, it digs into my tummy.
Yeah, it digs into that.
It digs into that.
Yeah, but you don't ever have it riding down or anything?
Your pants are never... Yeah, I was going to say, like, every pair of pants fits you perfectly.
That ass keeps it up, baby.
I think I got a substantial ass, so I think the ass keeps it up.
Oh, man, I want to call the cops.
Those Italian hams.
Oh, Italian hams.
That's a good podcast title.
Thank you.
Yeah, you're welcome.
Has anyone considered suspenders?
Yes, of course.
With a tuxedo.
I love wearing suspenders with a tuxedo.
Well, yeah, but that's like part of the uniform there.
Yeah.
But like, what about jeans?
No, I'm not like a clammer, i don't you know what i mean.
Like that is like the perfect job.
Yes, thank you.
Like the image that popped in my head is a dude in suspenders yeah, good job.
And with like uh, with some sort of like uh newsies cap on, and he's just like get out there harvesting clams.
You know like that's it, the cable knitted sweater.
Yeah yeah yeah Oh, there's Jan.
All right.
With this newsy cat.
I am just that person that y'all just described.
All right.
Boy, you look a lot like a newsy.
I went through.
God, I could get my suspenders.
I went through a suspender phase because of 2014 or 2012 to 2014.
Oh, like Mumford and Sons.
Exactly.
I blame Joseph Gordon-Levitt and then Doctor Who for that.
Yeah, you're, like, turning everyday household objects into drums.
Exactly.
Just sort of making your way through the house like that.
I respect that.
Sorry, I was just looking for whimsy in my life.
Yeah, you think of cool people.
I think of, like, the Southern lawyer sweating a lot in, like, the, you know.
I'm just a simple Southern gentleman.
What?
A lawyer?
Yeah, you know, like, yeah, well.
Well, it looks to me here like, you know.
I don't know how you do it in a big city with all your city folks.
Monkey trial stuff.
I don't know.
I'm picturing the dude you're describing, but is that guy a lawyer?
Yeah.
I think so.
Yeah.
It could be a lawyer, but it really is anyone in a southern courtroom.
He's fanning himself.
He's like a leghorn.
A linen suit as well.
The guy from Inherit the Wind.
That's like super religious but like yeah, he's the lawyer on the team yeah.
I can picture his hat too, for sure.
Yeah, he takes the hat off and he fans himself with it as well.
I want to talk about Popeye.
Okay, no one's going to stop you.
This is an open podcast, Mike.
We haven't gotten to the structure yet.
I fell into a Popeye licky hole yesterday.
The origin or the coked up movie or the Nintendo video game?
Give us a picture.
I didn't know this, but it's always interesting.
Do you know that Popeye was the original Urkel?
What does that mean?
There was a comic strip in like the 1930s.
I know exactly what it means.
Thimbleweed Theater.
It's just an insane sentence.
It was called Thimbleweed Theater and it was about like these other people, including a guy named Castor Oil and his sister, Olive Oil and Olive Oil's boyfriend not popeye, just some guy and they were just having their own adventures until one day castor oil and olive oil's boyfriend had to hire a sailor.
So they found some guy named popeye, and then that guy became so popular that the strip professors became called popeye.
They got rid of these other characters.
Okay, The original Popeye is clearly Jesus.
You had the Torah and then he became super popular and they have the whole spinoff.
All right, there you go.
The red threads that I'm connecting is that is Mike Minotti our Urkel?
Oh, yes.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
That's a pretty good shout.
He's going to have his breakfast cereal in the merch store.
Oh, yeah.
My Nadios.
My Nadios.
My Nadios.
No, it's Focodos.
Oh, Focodos.
Yeah.
Right, right, right.
Oh, God.
Mikey, can you hit me with a Laura?
Laura.
No, just in your normal voice.
Don't do me doing you.
Do yourself.
Okay.
Do you want me to say the name Laura?
Just like you're calling out for someone named Laura.
Laura.
All right.
Backlar, can you do it?
You're disappointed?
Backlar, can you do it?
Laura, like that.
What's the...
You got any cheese?
Is that what you want?
Yeah, that's pretty good.
There you go.
There you go.
There we go.
But what's the Urkel angle to Popeye, though?
I'm not getting it.
Well, Urkel was not originally a part of Family Matters.
He was not a cast member.
He showed up in one episode.
He's supposed to do like a one bit as the wacky neighbor.
That's all they cared about was Urkels in the show.
It just came about him.
Got it.
Okay.
I didn't realize that.
Yeah, so there's your Urkel Popeye connection there.
It's been going on for decades.
I was a big Urkel kid.
I had the drawstring puppet thing or whatever.
Speaking about suspenders, right?
Yeah.
Urkel had it.
I think Minotti now needs a Stefan.
I mean, that's him at any gaming event where people recognize him.
He immediately comes very smooth and slick.
Yeah.
I get slipped into that whenever you want, baby.
Not this early in the morning and not after half a burrito.
It was an incredible visual.
We hopped into this call because he was just trying to house this burrito.
In five minutes, this giant burrito and his glasses were completely fogged up.
So we just looked completely insane.
Wait, why were your glasses fogged up?
I just got out of the shower, so I was still kind of steaming.
Just trying to quickly eat a giant burrito.
This is all very familiar to me.
This sounds like my life, Mike.
I get it.
You get it.
You get it.
I can't believe some people are mad about the belt thing.
People are like, oh, you've got to wear a belt.
Well, I don't.
You all can't say shit.
If you want to go yell at that guy on social media that's like the fashion guy and get him to scold Mike, then we'll take it.
But otherwise, everyone else has to shut up.
I'm not wearing any tucked in shirts.
No one can tell if I'm wearing a belt or not.
It's not about the visuals, though.
It's about the utility.
Yeah, but that's not what the people are yelling at him about.
I guess if you've got the butt situation helping you out, then maybe you're fine.
My pants have never fallen off.
No one has ever seen my underwear.
No one lets their pants shrug down to the point where they fall down like that's all i've ever also slide around, you know, but but i do, i don't, i don't know.
So they're upset more about the presentation which i'll i'll get on board.
Like if you're wearing a tucked in shirt and no belt, you look insane, Yeah.
But I don't tuck my shirts in.
Yeah, it's fine.
It's basically playthings and funerals.
And then, yeah.
I get it.
Or nice things.
Then I wear a belt.
Yes, I will wear belts if I'm trying to look nice.
And I'm not saying I'm a slob.
He's not Urkel, guys.
Come on.
Look at my fucking life, everyone.
I got a Capcom sign here.
All my video games from when I was 12.
There's figment on a calendar.
I'm here.
I don't need to wear a belt.
Yeah, that makes the tracks.
You're right.
Here's my happy burrito.
It's still in tinfoil.
I'm going to do that later.
Gonna do that later, wouldn't be caught dead in that house.
Um okay i, i guess let's talk about video games now.
Sponsorship i mean that is a joggers thing, like i'm a belt guy with jeans, but if you're wearing joggers you don't need that.
Right, they have the elastic band.
Yeah, i don't think like if go ahead, If Mike Minotti is the Urkel.
He said go ahead and Mike's like, well, Jan was trying to talk, but he did say go ahead.
If Mike Minotti is the Urkel, who is the Carl Winslow to his Mike Minotti?
Oh, Bacalar.
It's Bacalar, right?
I mean, if we could do the history of Giant Bomb, I feel like Vinny has real Carl Winslow.
Oh, absolutely.
In the history, yes.
He's the most Winslow of us all.
Oh, sure, sure, sure.
Okay.
What's that actor's name?
I wanted to say John Bell.
Reginald Bell Johnson.
Reginald Bell Johnson.
Reginald Bell Johnson.
All right.
Yes.
There's a very good Key and Peele sketch talking about Carl Winslow and Steve Urkel.
Speaking about Steve Urkel, arguably one of the smartest characters in sitcoms, I'll say, just like Jeff Grubb and I are the smartest companions to be playing Miss Three Exile with.
That's right.
I just wanted to bring this up because during Monday Morning's Myths with Mitch yesterday, we completed maybe the greatest video game puzzle of all time.
Where like the very beginning of this game, you encounter this guy's like crazy office.
And part of just all the clutter are these weird weights, evenly balanced like orbs, and it's like you see four glass orbs.
They're equal, it's like one of these metal looking orbs and like okay well, that should be important, right?
And then much later you're in this weird island, you come across this giant marble machine and some contraption where you're trying to get the marble to go across this balanced tube and And you see one of the counterweights and then you could see where you could uplift the other counterweights.
Like, okay, so something's going on here.
And this whole thing where there's components to weigh the counterweight, you can make it based off of apes.
So you can put in, like, one of the apes can be made of wood.
One of the apes can be out of metal or glass.
Okay and you're looking at the other counterweight and you can kind of see what it's made out of.
But if you explore you can see it from other angles.
You can actually, oh, one of the aces is actually glass.
And it's this whole thing, and then suddenly you're like oh, the beginning of the game where there are these weights.
That's important.
We should have been taking notes.
Oh, no.
Right.
And then there was this incredible eureka moment from Jeff, because we thought we had the math figured out.
Like, okay, four glass orbs equals one wood orb or something.
We broke everything down into units of wood.
It's like, oh, this thing weighs 11 wood eighths.
And then Mike's like, well, the metal's 16 wood, so we're never going to use those.
And it's like, that really bothered me.
And I'm sitting, I'm like, he's right.
That's crazy.
They wouldn't build this puzzle where we don't use any of like one of these six components they're giving us.
And then we're sitting there and it's, It's a balanced thing, but you can move the fulcrum, right?
And at a certain point it was like wait, there's no way they're going to have it.
So the fulcrum's in the middle.
Otherwise, there would not be a way to move it left and right.
So what if we move it to the left and double the weight?
And that way, we can actually get to an even number and use the metal pieces.
And it all just sort of fell into place.
So many things fell into place because at that moment I also realized.
The thing that my brother told me back in the day was oh, I was in physics class and I had to use something I learned in physics to beat Miz 3.
I was like, oh, my God, this is the physics moment.
It was never calculus.
It was physics.
This entire time.
But then just this incredible moment of doing this math and like setting off the marble machine again, and then it actually working.
And I just popped off so hard for that puzzle actually being completed.
And then, of course, it's like all right, now go to the next puzzle, because the marble gets stuck somewhere else.
But still, I am really liking Mystery a lot.
I think it's already my favorite of the series.
It's fantastic.
A lot of people are having some issues with the motion.
So previous Miss Games up to this point, we've been playing the remakes.
But in the past, they were slideshows, like just still images.
They were just pictures, Jan.
This one is photo spheres like panoramas and you can look all around them.
And so there's like some warping and it could feel a little bit disorienting, but I've been fine.
So it's like kind of a shame that some people are getting a little bit woozy watching it.
But I think as a game.
It holds up.
It looks amazing.
I still love when it clicks from the just pictures into one of these animated FMV sequences that uses all the game assets and stuff like that.
And they're pre-rendered, of course.
But I just love that subtle transition into the video clips.
That still holds up.
It's got the juice.
The fly-throughs for the worlds when you enter a new book, I really enjoy.
We've gotten a couple emails appreciating Monday Morning's Mist with Mitch, and some of those emails have been calling for some type of cooperative series, not with the three of us, but with Bacalar and Dan trying to solve puzzles together.
Well, it'd be.
I mean well, he's got escape academy, so he well, what if, what if, what if?
Instead it was uh, jerf and dib on one controller and dan on the other for escape academy 2.
Oh my god, i don't know.
Yeah, i'm not trying to traumatize bacalar.
To be very clear, this is up to bacalar.
I just don't know.
Here's another first-person game.
I think you were dealing with shapes or whatever that had a co-op mode, not Portal 2.
Something like with a glove or whatever.
No, not Snipperclips.
You're talking to me?
No, no, no.
I was just putting it out there.
I don't remember the name of the game, but maybe we could throw you two into it or something.
Portal 2.
Yeah, no, he's played most of Portal 2.
Okay.
Yeah, you know, I don't know how much we should be doing these physical challenges kind of things.
I just feel like... I want to do a mental challenge.
I want to beat him intellectually.
Oh, Poppy.
I agree.
You should.
What's that?
I was asking Jan if he's talking about Poppy Cum.
No, but that's a funny name for a game.
What did you say?
Poppycom.
Okay.
Oh.
I'm not going to try and repeat that.
Yeah.
Brad Dourif should be in more video games.
He's great.
Every time we get to see him, and again it's FMV, so he's just low-resolution rendering and he's looking right at the camera.
And God, that style still rules.
I am scrolling through.
Is this the mist yesterday where you solved the puzzle?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm trying to find this moment where he beat it and it's like everything I'm seeing on the screen is indecipherable.
I'm just looking for like a full-blown weight thing.
It is for us, too.
That's what we keep saying.
It's like every time we enter a new area it's like, oh my God, there's all these things and it's all complete nonsense.
It's like a broken globe.
It's a pinball machine.
It's a diorama.
The pop-off happens at about 1.45. four and 42.
Okay.
That's an hour.
42 minutes is when we we finally, I think start putting it together and we set the puzzle off.
And uh yeah, that whole Island with all of it's like Japanese pagodas in this weird marble machine.
It's, uh, It's pretty cool.
You know this game is definitely going back to that, Mr One, style of you have the hub world and you have puzzles there, just to access the different books.
Slash islands.
And then, once you're there, it's pretty insular and you're solving all the puzzles there to basically get one thing.
And in this case, it's these symbols we're looking for.
And then you go back to the hub island.
Gosh, it's good.
I just kind of want to keep doing these kinds of games with you guys forever.
People are saying Nancy Drew games.
Anti-Chamber?
I don't think that's one you've ever played, Mike.
I don't know if Anti-Chamber has co-op, but it's like it's... Oh, that's the Escher game?
Yes, it's the non-Euclidean sort of similar kind of game to this, where it's like you're solving puzzles but the geometry doesn't necessarily make sense.
Quantum Conundrum.
Do you remember Quantum Conundrum?
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
My brother liked that one.
That's the one with John Delancey in it.
Yeah.
Someday I want to help one of you guys play Monkey Island.
I think that'd be fun.
Oh, I would love that.
Yeah, I'd love that.
Yeah, that'd be fantastic.
Big Monkey Island guy.
Big Monkey Island guy.
Speaking about games like Monkey Island, Mike Minotti, you've also been playing Disco Elysium.
Have you guys ever felt incredibly bad and guilty for not being into a game?
I was born and raised Catholic, so yes.
So I was doing this whole like 2019 apology tour.
There's all these 2019 games I hadn't played.
And this was, you know, I played through like...
Most of them you know the last few years, like Resident Evil 2 Remake and Sekiro and The Outer Wilds and Slay the Spire, and this was the last one.
I figured it'd be something I was into and I was streaming it and so many people were excited for me to play this game.
I was getting texts from like some friends.
Like I'm so glad you're gonna finally start this game, man.
Chuck came into the chat, like, Mike, this is my favorite game ever.
So excited to see you play it.
And like within like 20 minutes, inside my mind, I was like i don't want to be playing this anymore.
I think i know why.
I was like watch, i'll watch you start playing and i tune in later and we were doing something else.
I'm like i don't.
Yeah, if you would have asked me beforehand, i would have been very like mike.
I don't know if you're gonna like this now, mike.
Yeah, do you not like the game?
Because of like, the dour tone and that everything is just sad.
I don't know.
I don't want it to be that.
I don't want to, you know, Flanderization, right?
Where Flanders started as a mildly Catholic person.
Then an aspect of a character gets amplified to the point of cartoonishness.
I don't want to be like, Mike only likes something with sunshine and rainbows at all times, right?
But it's not just that. dourness it's it's dour but it's also kind of up its own ass yeah uh and I I like that game a whole bunch it but it's like you have to like get on its wavelength with that tone it's a game for people from like what's that uh neighborhood in Brooklyn where all the hipsters hang out uh um Well, thank you.
Yeah, it's for people in Williamsburg and they deserve nice things.
They do.
And this is for them.
It's not for Mikey's.
I would play literally any JRPG before I played Disco.
Oh, yeah.
You would like it much.
It seems like the worst game for me ever.
I hate everything I've seen or heard.
You would explode.
Yes.
Didn't all the developers go to jail or something crazy, too?
No, no, no.
No, that's not... Every last one of them.
Right, but it wasn't like the people who made the game were awful people.
There were people who owned the studio.
Did that whole studio go to jail?
Yeah, people that haven't checked in on Giant Bomb in like a couple years.
They just assume the same.
Like, didn't they all go to jail?
And they were correct.
I wanted to maybe try it one more time not on stream because I don't know if that was part of it.
It's probably like...
You know the game has a slow pace already, but then I had like the extra voice acting on that.
They added where even the narration is voice acted, and kind of sitting there listening to instead of just reading it and moving on my life.
I know that maybe sounds silly, but I was like, it made the pace even more glacial.
Were there any sort of fun bits where, like you, were kind of having the narrator talk and it's like oh, that's clever, or something like that?
Because there's a lot of moments where it's like oh, this sort of internal, like internalization of the character's thoughts, being presented as this external voice, could be a lot of fun.
But you have to kind of get to those moments.
It's like.
I can tell it's all good.
Like, the game looks great.
I do think it is well-written.
I just, I don't know.
I just wasn't enjoying myself.
Did you meet Kuno?
It's a good question.
I met Kuno, yes.
He's a lot.
Yes, he was a lot.
But, like, that wasn't, even though I quit shortly after meeting him, that wasn't what bothered me.
I get it.
It's some obnoxious brat kid with a, you know, very annoying voice who's telling me to go fuck off all constantly, right.
Yeah.
I don't know.
Maybe I needed more puzzles.
I don't mind the dice rolling.
Sure.
Right?
I played plenty of games.
I didn't even know there were dice.
Oh, yeah.
Every time it comes up, you complain about it.
You complain about it every time.
The dice.
Oh, my God.
You forget that you complain about it.
No, no, I didn't know it was in Disco Elysium.
I heard it in Baldur's Gate.
You've talked about it before.
Yes, you have said yes.
Yeah, absolutely.
So I don't know.
I just, I felt really bad.
It's okay.
Well, you should.
I think I'm a bad person.
I might try it again a little bit more on my own and see if at that pace I can kind of get on its level a bit better.
Just from the outside looking at it.
I don't know if you're, I don't want to.
You know you don't like it.
You don't like it.
You're allowed to not like stuff for now.
But I think you should maybe give it like another go.
That's all.
And then don't like it.
Yeah, I think I want to give them a go.
This isn't that far off from all these point-and-click adventure games where mostly what you do is go around and talk to people.
That's what those are, and I like those a lot.
I don't know if it's just the tone, if it's just that I am solving some puzzles or doing something.
This one, it is a lot more talking to people.
That is the game, basically, is talking to people.
And maybe early on, I'm like, oh, now what does this person have to say for 10 minutes?
Now what does this person have to say for 10 minutes?
I don't know.
It's just getting... I was like, I kind of want to do something.
It does pick up, yeah.
I mean, the things you're doing is like using your language skills that you build up over time to do more and more, and that's exciting, but I get it.
What really worried me I hope it's not the case is I've been playing so many FromSoft and Souls games lately and I'm like, oh no, am I becoming like souls brained?
I just want to be playing more action like dodgy stuff constantly.
Is that the only thing that's getting me kicks right now?
Should i just be playing lies of p right now?
I don't want to be.
Oh, I mean, why is it?
He's good though.
It would be better with a Perry.
Absolutely.
I think I'm going to play through.
I keep saying sector.
I think I'm fine.
Like, that's the thing.
And the way everyone talks about it.
Like Mike, you were talking about being one of the best games you played.
Yes.
Kayla.
And like like fuck, like it intimidated the hell out of me when it came out, but I, I think i want to do it.
It did me and like the first time actually, like i was like so tim, even playing it i was like i don't know and dropped off and then you kind of like push through, you get used to it and you, you start feeling a lot more comfortable with it and then it becomes the best game ever.
I think it's so.
That's the thing i was playing punch out and it's like okay, it's so much about reflexes and enemy patterns and stuff like that and i'm fucking good at that, so i know i have it in me, so it's just a matter of like, i mean, that would probably feel really good to do that with like a modern game.
So it's very similar.
Yeah yep, punch out.
Well, punch outs the proto soulsborne games, it really is well.
Speaking of punch out dan, you've been playing mike tyson's punch out.
Yeah i, just in between sec hero sector, he breaks um first thing for three letters.
Uh, this weekend i just decided to beat punch out twice and megaman 2 once.
I was just on the crt.
So i was like what the fuck?
Let's just, let's just play some of this on the actual nes controller and everything Turns out punch out like.
I haven't played it really in a couple of years.
And the speed run tactics from when I was doing that didn't come back.
But just playing it the way I normally played it, I was able to go through and beat it twice pretty easily and still incredible.
And the Mega Man 2, fantastic.
But Mike, I forgot about the part in Wily's Castle where it's that like puzzle boss where you have to use crash man shit to like blow up the walls, and that's really fucking stupid.
I forgot how dumb that is.
Basically soft lock yourself if you get there and you don't have enough crash bombs, because it's the only thing you have to place them in the exact right order.
I mean, i you know i love megaman 2, but i'm always a megaman 3 is better person and i do like to use that boss as one of the reasons why megaman 3 is better.
People kind of forget about how awful that boss is.
Yes, it is awful.
But that game is still great.
So some good NES times in between my sector.
We were just talking about Soulsborne games.
Is it OK if I talk about something at the end of Liza P?
Yeah.
Oh, I mean, I mean, I know about like the the sequel bait, if that's what you mean.
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
That's what I'm talking about.
Okay.
Has Wicked ruined returning back to Wizard of Oz?
Nah, I think Wizard of Oz is still so like... um omnipresent in culture that it somehow still even exists outside of the shadow of wicked which you know that second movie has come out that's already retreating a little exactly it already feels like it happened and it's not an ongoing concern yeah okay okay uh dan another game that you've been playing is star wars jedi survivor yeah i uh grub was you that was telling me uh that you started playing it again recently Yes.
Yeah.
And I was thinking that I might actually start streaming.
So I did put a pause on and I was going to stream this game.
But I'll be curious to hear how you're feeling about it.
Yeah, it's really good.
And like, you know, I think it came out at the time when there were like issues with it on PC.
And I like I started up in the beginning.
I think we went to like Summer Game Fest as well, like right after it came out.
And like then we came back and there was a bunch of other games.
That's the thing.
It's like there were problems with it at launch.
I didn't love the very beginning of it.
And there was just a bunch of other shit going on.
So I just never came back to it.
So like now it's perfect.
There's not a lot coming out.
It runs awesome on PC now.
It runs really well, yeah.
And it's just like, man, just the actual like running around of that game feels great to see.
Sir?
You're double jumping, you're grappling around, you're wall running.
The lightsaber stuff feels amazing.
You're jumping off of a wall run and deflecting a blaster shot with the lightsaber.
Everything just feels very cool.
It is almost like a From Light, where it's like I'm not beating myself up trying to progress in this game.
I'm playing on default difficulty.
It's pretty smooth.
You're just playing through, but you feel very cool.
All the parries and everything and just the visuals and the audio and everything are so just top, top tier with respawn, like they killed it, and uh really, really loving it.
I'm several hours in now, i'm at the second kind of like big area and uh, definitely definitely enjoying it and glad i went back to it.
I try to remember that.
Check this out.
Oh, janet's worth it yeah yeah, what year was that 2023?
Yeah oh, i'm thinking of something else, the sequel.
No oh, you're thinking about laws, Maybe.
No, I'm thinking of something way older.
Oh, okay.
Well, then you're thinking of Force Unleashed?
No, there was like a third-person lightsaber game.
Force Unleashed.
Yeah, Unleashed, I think.
With Starkiller.
Jedi Knight?
Jedi Knight?
Oh, you think about Jedi Knight from the 90s?
Hell yeah.
No, no.
Maybe Jedi Academy?
I don't know.
Well, that would be Star Wars Dark Forces 4, Jedi Knight 3, Jedi Outcast 2, Jedi Academy.
What?
What did you say?
Say it again, Mike.
I don't like Star Wars anymore.
What?
Oh, I mean, yeah, of course.
Honestly, I think it was Jedi Academy.
Yeah, Jedi Academy is great.
Yeah, yeah.
Jedi Academy is technically the fourth Dark Forces game, yeah.
That's the last piece of Star Wars fiction that I interacted with.
2003.
2003 is Jedi Knight colon Jedi Academy.
After you hear the full title, you should like Star Wars more.
That's the kind of dumb shit that actually rules about Star Wars.
Because that sounds like a 2000s pop punk emo song title is why.
Okay.
Never mind.
You're right.
Yeah.
It's like Panic at the Disco or something.
It was like just two bands doing that.
But your point is taken.
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Maybe Grogu in The Mandalorian or The Mandalorian in Grogu will be good.
Oh, it's going to save everything.
I don't think so.
Is that a game or a show?
It's a movie.
The Bobcat guy from that cartoon's in it.
What?
Oh, wow.
Okay, I know what you mean.
You know that's based on the original Ralph McQuarrie design for Chewbacca?
Yes, I do know that.
Yeah, isn't that fun?
That's like the cool stuff about that.
Cool cool, grub.
I don't think you should stream jedi uh, star wars, jedi survivor.
I want you to stream the avatar game.
I was thinking about that too.
Yeah, because they're the new update for that.
Uh god yeah, and full gimmick.
Oh i, dan.
I literally thought about having blue paint and playing the game.
Yes okay yeah, saying there, we go, just grow the key yourself.
Oh, my god, I'll do the first one in blue paint.
Just get a blue light.
Jesus.
No, do paint.
Keeping on the Star Wars train, Jeff Grubb, you've been playing Star Wars Genesis?
Yeah, does anyone know what this is?
No.
You made it up.
Genesis is a Star Trek thing.
They can't take that from us.
It's all we have.
This is a full conversion mod for Starfield.
You go to the website, and they give you a little installer, and it's great.
God, I love modders.
The instructions are like if you skip this step, it's not going to work and I'm not going to fucking help you.
I'm like, oh, you guys are the best.
And there's a bunch of stuff like that.
It's like, don't skip this.
If you don't do it, you're not going to be able to save on controller.
I'm like, that's crazy.
But the reason it's so weird like that is it's a little installer that installs like 150 different mods to turn this into a completely.
It's a complete Star Wars game now.
They rework the main story of Starfield to be about Star Wars stuff.
There's a whole other campaign about working with the Rebel Alliance.
You could just go play the game, though on your own, separate from any of these campaigns, and you can interact with the Imperials and they have some stuff to hire you to do.
And there's bounty hunters and there's a bounty hunting system.
It made Starfield kind of fun.
Like, it's pretty cool.
It...
I don't know.
It looks a little bit messy because they'll introduce a bunch of like Star Wars geometry.
And so like there's like these rounded doors.
And now some of the NPCs are like walking up on the sides of these like rounded ramps, because they don't know to walk around it, because it's a broken ass.
Bethesda game underneath.
This is crazy.
But it's like, oh my God, this is like still the nice thing about being a Star Wars fan is sure EA can't figure it out.
They flub the license for 10 to 15 years.
But there is enough excitement in the community still where they'll just continue to do it themselves like they have always been.
There's always been Star Wars conversion mods.
They've always been the most robust total conversion mods.
And this is like maybe the prime example of that.
So I was playing it this morning for about an hour and a half.
And I'm like...
Kind of mostly doing the converted main campaign, and it's okay.
But even the people who are doing it, like, we wrote this, and we did kind of a bad job on it.
You should just go get into the rest of the galaxy.
So I think that's going to be my plan going forward.
I have my own Star Wars spaceship, and it's really well done and a cool way to maybe play this game.
Maybe you should do a little quick look for this, Greg.
Yes, I think so.
So I'm going to be playing a bit more of it.
Kind of have something to say, and then let's set up a quick look.
That'll be fun.
Some of those... Yeah, go ahead, Mikey.
It looks really cool, but you still have to play Starfield, so I don't know.
Sort of.
Right, but it's like...
Yeah, you're not wrong.
The bad parts about it are the Starfield parts.
Also yes, I think they did use AI to replace the main actor's voices with things that sound like Star Wars stuff.
I'm like listen, I'm like oh, that's just that actor and they must have taken her voice and built a tool to replace it and make her say the Imperials instead of whatever she said originally.
The rest of the line is from the original game and it's like they kind of just splice this stuff in.
And that's interesting, because everyone in star wars does sound like they're ai people anyway.
Exactly it's uh, you know, if i could uh take that stuff out, i would but um, i'm not gonna not play this, just because it's like no one's making money on this thing and it's yeah, i don't know, it's not like a business that's happening here and trying to use ai.
It's people trying to like make their ideal star wars thing and whatever.
I was talking about a little bit of a departure here.
Have you guys seen some of the cyberpunk mods that are out there?
No, haven't kept up.
Some of these are like freaking me out.
Now I get.
There's this one super, ultra photorealistic mod that I saw the other day.
That basically
Made the game look like some retro future like thing shot in the 80s.
Like with like a real world sort of filter layered over it.
I kind of couldn't believe it.
There's a lot of really cool like glitchy VHS sort of filters out there too.
Cool.
I don't know.
I feel like that's like my most interest in this game is coming from the mod sort of stuff that I'm seeing online.
Where, like it, i don't know, every now and then, like a game, becomes the sort of testing ground for a lot of that stuff, and i think cyberpunk is sliding into that in a really cool way.
Uh, some of it is, oh man, i got i don't.
I don't have it installed on this computer, but i gotta figure out if i could just play around with that photorealistic thing who knows like how complicated, and so you know, it's probably probably not, because i mean, there was the photo realistic stuff for grand theft auto and i did that a couple times and yeah oh, that's amazing.
I bet that stuff's even better.
Now let's let's, let's mess around with that.
That could be fun.
Yeah, really cool stuff.
And and i'm also assuming, like they, they really kind of cherry pick the b-roll for that and and the way they sure yeah yeah, that's cool.
Well, speaking about making a game look completely different, Mike Minotti, you have checked out the demo for Dragon Quest VII Reimagined.
Yeah, yeah.
I have played, I think, most of that demo, a couple hours into it.
Really interested about this one because Dragon Quest VII's sort of big legacy, I think, is it's slow, especially the intro.
So, like you know, basically if you're playing that PS1 version, it's like three or four hours of kind of walking around this island and talking to people and going back and forth between a few locations and solving some push block puzzles until you get into your first fight.
And then they made that 3DS version several years ago, and it picked up the pace.
So instead of like three hours, that takes two hours now.
And that still feels kind of slow, even though there's comparable games like Personas.
They have these slow openings.
You don't fight much for a while.
But you know, like a start of a Persona game is generally more interesting than the start of a Dragon Quest game,
As much as I love Dragon Quest, it's just, you know, probably true.
So I was curious this time around.
And the pacing is even much more improved here, where first off, they actually add a fight earlier into the game.
So you do at least fight something.
But even then, just getting through all of that, getting to the point where you're now on an overworld and you can go fight monsters and stuff, is more like one hour.
Or maybe like an hour and some change.
So in like less, like going back and forth to places less tedious puzzles, added a couple other like simple, more fun puzzles.
They aren't difficult, but they're cute.
It's just that whole process of this island intro.
It's moving along much faster.
It doesn't feel like anything has been lost in terms of like the story.
We're kind of setting things up.
So just smartly edited.
The look of the game actually like quite a lot.
I think it does look a lot better than the 3DS version, which is just kind of like it was 3D models, but they also like, moved the camera really far in.
The original game was pixels.
So kind of you know, far up and high up there, you kind of had a good field of view the entire time.
You could sort of see everything.
So this with that diorama aesthetic, again, you could see a lot at all times.
It doesn't feel claustrophobic like that 3ds version looks.
Sometimes looks a bit weird just because some of dragon quest seven's characters look weird, especially keifer.
You guys might remember him from the trailer.
He's like the, the blonde boy with the really like square jaw, the team american, matt damon vase.
Yeah yes yes, he's just kind of an ugly dude he's.
He's a nice boy, we like him, but he, just he.
He won't look right in any art style.
He's just kind of a strange looking fellow.
I like how ugly he looks.
He is, yeah.
I really do, yes.
Yeah, he's a prince.
Yeah, he probably is a prince to someone out there.
No, he's an actual prince of a kingdom.
I also mean in terms of affection, but go on.
Oh, okay, yeah.
There's some other just smart changes.
So this game, speaking about the slow pace, it has a job system.
Normally you don't really learn about that until, like God, I'm going to maybe rob it like 20 hours in.
But here you at least start with like a base job.
So you're immediately leveling up a job.
And I'm sure for in the game, you'll get to the monastery where you can unlock new jobs.
But the fact that you start with something there, that feels good.
So, yeah, I think it was smart to make a demo showing off the intro and you're safe.
Progress is going to carry over, so people can kind of see how that beginning has been edited and change.
And apparently those changes are going to be throughout the game, just quickening up the pace of what was a 100 hour JRPG back in a time when these things are always like 30 hours.
It's even that 3DS version.
It was more like 80 hours, but still felt very long for what this game is, which is like a relatively straightforward but well done and fun turn based RPG.
I never felt like it needed to be as long as it was.
So I think it's neat to see them approach it this way.
Speaking about slow openings in JRPGs, with all the Final Fantasy talk that we've had on Game Miss Mornings recently, I, for whatever reason, decided to dip back into Final Fantasy X. Oh, yeah.
And let me tell y'all, the opening of that game is so goddamn slow, but... is so fucking metal.
Yeah, I mean Xanark.
Yeah, exactly because Xanarkand and everything going on there.
It's all interesting and it looks cool.
There's crazy, weird, underwater soccer sports happening.
That pre-rendered opening?
Where isn't there a part where he like comes out of the sphere and like does that?
He's doing, like, a backflip kick.
Like a backflip, yeah.
Like an AJ Styles kick.
Yes.
And he's, like, I remember that just looking unbelievable back then.
Like, the craziest thing I've ever seen.
The things they were doing with Final Fantasy VII, Mighty, for, like, the next 10 years afterwards were just incredible. i like the blitz ball yeah no i i did too um i think i forgot how much final fantasy 10 just feels like it is ripped from um star wars the phantom menace but with more water it is very phantom menace coded in a lot of ways yeah in terms of like uh the aesthetics of everything uh but also is orin one of the coolest motherfuckers in the world he's yes Yeah.
It's Gordon McKenna hearts too.
And it was awesome.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think you know cloud is like the poster boy for final fantasy.
But like That was Mike's thoughts.
That was his inner thoughts.
Yeah, yeah.
But man, Orin is just so fucking sick.
He's one of the all-time great party members for sure.
Yes.
I don't know how much I'm going to stick with Final Fantasy X because I don't know how much bandwidth I have to take on an older JRPG I've already played through.
But just watching that opening sequence and just going through that, I'm like ah, what a simpler, yet too long of a time.
Um, and i just want something in the butter zone there.
Who is the dopey guy that plays?
It was a waka.
Yeah, your buddy, he's mostly nice, but racist.
Oh, is he okay?
I just already threw a ball, like that was yes yeah yeah, yeah.
And there's a cool mage lady.
Yes lulu, lulu.
Yeah, that's a really good game.
It's great.
It's great.
I keep hoping they make like the next class in Final Fantasy 14, walk inspired and call it athlete or something.
It's just somebody who kicks a ball at people.
I think that would be a lot of fun.
Jan, are you playing the remastered version?
You know, there's like some like there's no fast forwarding or whatever.
It's the character models, so they update the character models, but the new models don't facially animate as much.
A lot of people just kind of stand there with the same face, whereas they emoted more.
That's sort of the problem apparently with the remaster, which I think sucks, but could get over it and it's probably worth it for the convenience of just being able to play it on whatever and have an HD.
But a bit of a bummer that that is an issue.
I'm I'm really, really tempted to check out Final Fantasy XIII.
That's one I skipped back in the day.
I think you hold on a little bit.
It feels like they're gearing up to do something with Final Fantasy XIII.
They gotta remaster that and release it as a trilogy eventually.
Yeah, yeah.
As long as you're okay with the characters and story not being that great, XIII's fantastic.
Or the level design.
The combat and the graphics and the music, though, all fantastic.
Why does that guy have a bird in his hair?
Oh, there's a little chocobo that lives in there.
Why?
Well, because the chocobo decided he lives there.
What are you going to do?
Well, going from talking about Final Fantasy XIII, which some people consider a bad one, to an amazing one,
Mike Minotti, you have finished Final Fantasy Tactics, The Evil East Chronicles.
Yeah, this is the opposite of my Disco Elysium shame, where I feel so good about finally playing through this game.
I've been a big Final Fantasy fan for a long time and I've always kind of felt like a bit of a phony because I had never really played much of any version of Tactics.
I think back when it was newer, I was intimidated by it.
Even when the PSP remake came out, I just didn't get to it.
Even this one, I didn't get to right away.
So finally played through all of it.
And yeah, everyone was right.
This game is freaking...
Fantastic.
The story is, gosh, it takes itself so seriously that I just respect the hell out of it for that.
Even you know, compared to other Final Fantasies, even the darker Final Fantasies, they will still like have jokes or really silly sequences.
This game is as like serious as serious can be.
Yeah.
Tired time.
You are not allowed to smile.
You are not allowed to crack a joke.
Everything sucks.
Everyone's miserable.
And they will probably not have a happy ending.
And you're just going to deal with that.
I'm like, wow, that's pretty bold for like 1997 or whatever when this game came out.
And also like not an easy game, even like this remaster, this remake, which I imagine probably smoothed things out in some places.
Plenty of fights, even when I was grinding, that were still plenty difficult.
Maybe part of my problem was that I wasn't adding in the story characters to my party because I was like no, I got this crew of no names that I've been building up.
Get out of here, Orlando.
I don't care that you're overpowered.
Also I like that there's a guy named Orlando, but they spell it slightly fancier.
But all I can think about was Epcot the entire time he was on the screen.
Not Orlando Jones.
Oh, I think it's Orlando Bloom.
Wow, okay.
I think Orlando Jones.
Disney World, believe it or not.
There's the Weegraph fight that's famous, where it's suddenly a one-on-one duel where he's just stronger than you.
So good luck.
Towards the end.
The last fight is challenging, but slightly before that you have to fight some guy and there's this chasm and he has a dozen flying monsters that can all basically one-shot your people.
And I'm like, how am I supposed to do this?
And it was the most just running around spamming Phoenix Downs, just kind of barely inching my way closer towards victory over like 30 minutes and finally getting there.
And it felt so good when I did.
You know this has a job system also and I just love that stuff and like messing around, getting certain abilities and equipping them here and finally settling on like my final crew.
I'm like, okay, I've got...
I got a ninja.
I got a dragoon.
I got a summoner.
The dragoons in this game are so sick.
Yeah, yeah.
You have to have a chemist because they can throw Phoenix Downs and high potions all over the place.
Summoner was really strong for me towards the end.
My strategy for a lot of it towards the end was get my summoner in there and hope that they cast Bahamut or whatever, and that'll get me started.
I can work with that.
They'll preemptively drop a magic nuke that is just Bahamut.
I really hope that with the success that Evil East Chronicles has had, that perhaps they will look at remastering Tactics Advance and Tactics Advance 2.
I would just take a collection that's kind of updated.
That'd be great.
That'd be awesome.
Even if they just put Advance on it, that would be really nice.
Mike, did you check out Advance in the past?
Yeah, i played advanced back like i didn't finish it, but yeah, and they're like i'm totally very different game right, but uh, gameplay wise uh, still fantastic, yeah as well.
I'm curious what the futuristic task is this?
This uh, remake here has done well.
It's sold over a million copies, which is a couple months yeah, which is you know great for for what this is.
There's got to be some kind of future for tactics.
I don't know if they're going to be as bold as to make a new game.
Yeah Maybe, especially if you can get Matsuno back into the fold.
That would be incredible.
But yeah, I can't imagine this is the last we see of tactics.
Um, i uh fell into a hole with tactics.
Um, a couple years ago there used to be a pvp mode where people would just go uh, fight against each other in squads in final fantasy tactics uh, and then there was a twitch channel that just automated it.
So, just be two teams just fighting each other of just squads that were super like uh, leveled up.
It was really fun and entertaining.
I got a.
I had to find what that was called.
I forgot.
Jan, have you ever played Tactics Ogre?
Because that one got remade, Tactics Ogre Reborn.
That was the Tactics team's game before this, basically.
I've never checked out Tactics Ogre.
I think the only other older Tactics game of that ilk I checked out was Front Mission and I really liked that.
Right.
Front Mission 3 is supposed to be the good one of those, and that one I think is getting remade.
So maybe I'll check that out at some point.
I might like I'm a little exhausted.
Like tactics is it's a lot like kind of emotionally and, you know, just even mentally.
So I'm definitely not looking to jump right into another one here.
How similar were the Shining Force games to these tactics games?
Similar.
I think they kind of remind me even more of Fire Emblem, I think.
So Shining Force 2 is the one.
And that one, I think, is just on NSO.
So if you're curious, you can play Shining Force 2.
Yeah, I should do that.
It's a really good game.
I don't think the translation is very good, unfortunately.
So you're kind of stuck with that 90s era, bare bones, not great translating style, right?
That we used to get for 16-bit RPGs.
But there's a lot there.
Well, going from a very serious game all the way through to a game that is just a lighthearted romp.
Big hops.
You guys talked a little bit about it last week.
We have a review on the website that our own Chuck wrote.
Go check that out on the new website that Chuck built.
He's got nothing else going on.
Yeah, he didn't have to do that.
He just did that.
We didn't tell him to.
But Big Hops.
I don't have much more to say about it than what y'all had to mention earlier, but I just really like having a 3D platformer that is like low stakes, to just hop and bop around.
My one critique about the game, I wish I could use the tongue more.
I want to be just slanging that tongue all over the place.
Buddy, you're preaching.
Come on.
That's right.
Is this Dib worthy?
What do you think?
Oh, yeah.
Dib should check it out.
Dib would love this.
If he liked Mario Odyssey, he would dig the crap out of this.
Mm-hmm.
Very good.
But this brings me to my point that I wanted to bring up is that I think frogs are the best video game characters.
They're great.
So who's the best frog?
Is it Frog?
Frog.
Yeah, Frog from Critter Trigger.
God, I thought he was... He's very orn-coded, speaking of, by the way.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He's got an incredible theme song.
God, Frog's theme.
I think that was my first.
I could have a custom ringtone.
I think my first custom ringtone ever was Frog's theme from Grand Adventure.
Weird, mine was Crazy Frog.
Also, you know, not the best frog, but a good frog.
Crazy Frog, yeah.
Oh, yeah, for sure.
What's the frog's name in Skate Story?
Ribbit?
It was just Ribbit, right?
No, it was something of I might be getting confused with the frog from Hades 2.
Oh, yeah.
I like that frog.
Yeah, I used him a lot.
Because he just gave me another death defiance, right?
I think.
I think so.
That helps.
Especially early on when you're just trying to kind of get through runs.
Like, absolutely, I need that.
There's like a little frog freak in one of the Star Wars Jedi games.
Jedi Survivor has that weird guy.
Oh, I haven't met him yet.
He's in the cantina.
Yeah.
Oh, I haven't met him yet.
Yeah, something like that.
He's great.
Slippy.
Turgle.
Turgle.
Turgle.
People don't like Slippy, Dan.
People like.
I was going to ask.
People are mean to Slippy.
Why don't people like Slippy?
I think he's annoying.
No, he's a nice little guy who flies a ship.
Yeah, I like Slippy.
I've never checked out the Star Fox games.
So, yeah, how is Slippy in y'all's opinion?
I mean, you gotta kind of protect him a little bit.
I mean, he's a dork.
Falco is the asshole.
Peppy is the wise old hair.
And Slippy's like, you know, your little cousin that you gotta protect.
But is Slippy, like, tails-coated?
Yes.
Yes.
I guess, yeah.
Okay, okay.
I feel like Tails is a little more... I think Tails can handle himself a little better than Sonic.
Tails is definitely more competent, actually.
Sure, Tails can actually pilot.
Yeah, Tails is like the Donatello that Sonic needs.
Oh, all right.
Well, like, Tails, like, flies the stuff.
He makes some things for some of the airplanes.
I think Tails is completely capable.
You don't need to put Tails' seatbelt on for him in the way you probably have to for Slippy.
Yeah.
Do the S-N-E-S, Slippy.
I think that was Slippy.
Or is that?
God, is that Peppy?
I think that's Porky Pig.
Wait.
Who's good?
Who's good?
Who says that?
He chants anyway.
Ba-da-da-da-da-da.
These are all slurs.
We need to turn this.
I love Starbucks.
That's me as voice.
We didn't need to move past that.
Well, the N64 voice lines are all good.
Like, yeah, they're also really good.
Star Fox.
If I never played those games, should I go back and check them out?
Star Fox 64 is still amazing.
64 is incredible.
I think with the SNES one it wouldn't be necessarily fun to play now for the first time.
But you need to put yourself in the perspective of a kid who's never seen 3D anything and suddenly the Super FX chip changed everything.
Yeah.
I feel like that's getting harder and harder to do for people.
Yeah.
You know, to just sort of like mind shift themselves.
I don't know.
You gotta be there.
You gotta, you gotta be there.
You gotta imagine you're in the crowd and the train is coming right at the screen and you're scared for your life.
I know.
I know.
It's like showing a caveman a lighter.
I get it.
It's just, it's not that easy.
You know, I thought I was going to be able to show my kid like all this eight big glory and he's just sort of like this shit sucks.
That's why I can't have kids.
I did not try to show my kids and they got interested in all the NES stuff.
Maybe that's the issue.
You gotta let them fight it themselves.
I think when he gets older, maybe.
That's a good idea.
Your kids should beat Tyson before they can play NES.
Can't let you do that, Star Fox!
Andross's enemy is my enemy!
Was that 3D adventure Star Fox game neat?
It's weird.
It's not great.
I never couldn't get into it, but I always think I can.
It's a Zelda ripoff.
It's a Zelda clone.
The other GameCube one, Star Fox Assault, is vastly underrated.
That one I think is actually pretty fun.
Jan, I think you could like Star Fox Adventures.
That's not a character flaw.
I think there's something in there that you could like.
I know what you're saying with this.
I know what you're saying with this.
Okay.
Not Trixie.
No, no, no, I'm not saying, no, no, separate from that, although that won't hurt.
Well, I'm gonna, my Google search is gonna be weird after this.
Well going we were just talking about spaceships to another ship, and boy have y'all sailed on this ship for quite a while now.
Gang, Sektori.
That ship is the Redeemer only.
We don't even look at the other ships.
Answer me this about Sektori.
I feel like I'm only playing this game because of you guys talking about it in the way you are.
I enjoy it.
I play probably 1% of the time you guys play.
I can tell you have not seriously played it, because you said you just buy all shields first.
And that's the craziest thing I've ever heard.
No, I mean, I kind of try a different rollout every run.
I kind of just like experiment a lot.
Like that used to be my go-to.
And now like the first thing I do is speed.
That's good.
And then I get like one or two speeds in before the first boss.
Yes.
But then it's like blaster missile.
I think before the first boss.
I want to have one blaster, one missile and almost all speed before the first boss.
I usually want to have that.
Full speed is important.
And then I'm finding, on challenging difficulty, that blaster is more important than it was, on experience difficulty.
And this is less effective.
Yeah yeah, what.
What i was getting at though was, like i, because of the sort of like uh, you know the weighted opinion that we have on this thing, i don't know like, are people playing this game outside of our little circle really?
Because i mean some people but, like on steam, it only has like 800 reviews or something, which is oh, okay.
It's funny because it's like everyone i know is obsessed with it, like bonk, and i will just sit there and just play each on our steam deck for hours and hours.
Now i've got like 70 hours in this game.
Yeah, I was going to ask you actually go check Steam and tell us your hour count.
My hour count is 59.3 hours.
Oh, my God oh, is that the number of your family?
Yeah yeah, it's weirdly split between like, because i'm playing on different devices, so it's like i see it update in weird ways, but i believe i saw it at like 58 last time i played on my steam.
Okay okay yeah, i played this uh, yesterday for megaman and definitely was having a good time.
I don't know if anyone ever mentioned to me or maybe i forgot that it's.
It's, it's very grottiest, it has the grottiest upgrade.
No yeah, that's the first.
Yeah yeah, when we first talked about it, i was like it's the greatest upgrade system.
And then, and it's like yeah yeah yeah, so like oh okay yeah yeah i, i do like that and i was definitely.
It helped when people told me get more speed right away, because that first boss without speed is uh, is a bit of a bear.
Uh, that's where i lose all my lives is bosses.
I'll have the best run ever and i'll get to one of those shithead bosses, like those big circular ones around the edge, and i'll die three times.
Do you like the bosses?
No, I get terrified every time.
When I no-hit them, it's the best fucking shit in the world.
Yeah, absolutely.
It changes.
When I beat them without getting hit.
Yeah okay, the snake is the easiest one, for sure.
Yeah, i've come around on the cylinder one uh, because if i have enough speed, which i almost always do now at this point uh, the patterns are pretty easy to predict.
So the one i can't do, there's a couple.
There's the one where it's like the spokes that go around, that one fucking sucks, and there's the one with the big ring and then the ring in between and it all kind of, if i can get those early, that's like oh hell yeah, because they get.
There's different versions, versions of them depending on what phase you meet them in.
So if you get them in phase one, they're much easier than like phase four yeah, and there it's like, oh god, i gotta just kind of get lucky here a lot.
And i just saw something i've never seen before, like i, i got farther and challenging than i've ever gotten and like a boss had a completely other mode where it just turned into like this nucleus of energy.
Yes, i just had that too.
Yeah, and that's the first time I've seen that, and it's just like Jesus Christ, this game is so fucking hard but it's so good.
If you pull that one with the laser beams with the other you know the grid laser beams and like the alternating rotation stuff.
If you pull that one first, like I'm kind of fucked on delivery there.
So here's like some like tips, for that is, immediately shoot one of the targets and then it gives you a line to the next target and hopefully you're close enough that you could just kind of aim at that line and then you could focus on your ship and only pay attention to the projectiles.
Right, it's like oh, i could just, even if it's off screen, i'm probably gonna be able to hit this thing.
Now, sometimes you don't have the range to hit it.
Yeah, and the missiles helped.
Now, this helps a lot with that.
So there is the line, but there's an accessibility option that gives you a line from your ship that helps you line up your strikes and you can choose short or long.
So what you can do is, on the boss fights, you can just look at your ship and just put the yellow line and then put your like you can change the color of the line that points where your ship is pointing and just overlap it.
And as long as those are overlapped, you look at your ship.
There's a few access.
There's accessibility options that are like pretty solid.
There's one where it makes the red more obvious.
It kind of pops more.
Yeah, like the danger zones and stuff like that.
Yeah, that would help.
So tweak the accessibility stuff.
I've turned the music off.
I just can't have any more distraction.
I did.
I turned the music off.
That's not real.
Those scores don't count anymore.
You don't have the music.
I enjoy the path to the bosses way more than the bosses.
For sure.
Yeah, I mean, yeah, the bosses are a lot, for sure.
That is the most dangerous part.
Yeah, I was, God, I was definitely getting it.
I was having a lot of fun.
It is mentally exhausting.
Like, twice I almost finished a run, I think.
I think it was on the final boss.
And like the last time, I was so mad because it was literally just like okay, it was like to transition to the boss, and I just turned my brain off for a second and it accidentally stayed in the red area where, like the level, like went away and died immediately.
Oh, no!
That's definitely happened to me, but oh no.
I can't let my guard down for a second.
That's an instant kill for people listening to this conversation wondering why that's so bad.
No matter how many shields you have, you get caught in the red.
It's an instant death.
It's fun keeping track.
I was like, okay, if the letters show up, I need to make sure I get an M or an I.
You know there's a power-up there, but should I wait for my strike to reload so that I can strike into it and get another strike right away?
Which upgrades?
Yeah, there's a lot to keep up with, and it's fun.
All of that keeps getting deeper as you begin linking all these systems together.
It's like yeah, that's the early part of it, but eventually it's like you're going to always be striking.
You're always going to be leaking these things together.
I've had runs where for the entire first two bosses...
I basically had a strike link chain going the entire time.
I might have lost it once, because by the time I was done with that second boss, I was at like seven million.
And it's like, OK, I think I'm on to something here.
And of course, I immediately fucked up after that.
So I am nipping at the heels of Grubb and I very much want to make that happen because he's like 10 million.
I'm at like nine million seven hundred thousand.
And did you I just remembered I was talking to Mary Kish last night.
She said she started playing.
Did you send her, like, a Steam message or something?
Just saying, like, you'll never get to 10 million?
Uh-huh.
And here, let me see.
I did get a message from her back.
Fuck you, Grub.
Okay, yeah.
Okay, yeah.
So we're coming after you.
Yep.
I love this.
This is my favorite kind of gaming.
It's leaderboard chasing and having to get Like.
The one big problem is that the runs that we're doing on this mode are a half an hour to like really set a score.
Now we could have all collectively decided to play one of the shorter modes.
There's modes where it's like it's probably 10 minutes, but for like, for i mean, it's this is probably the best way to play it.
But uh, like the gates mode is great.
That's just a pacifism from geometry wars could have just done that and that's like 10 minutes to get a really good score in there.
Uh, but for, i'm doing these runs and every time i just can't stop playing.
I'll do like three to four back to back and uh, it's taking up all my time and it's like, at this point again, sunk cost fallacy.
I've played so much, i've got so much practice.
I do have like a really good sort of grasp on how i'm linking all these strikes together at this point uh, to the point where it's like i'm not even i'm not thinking anymore.
That's kind of where i want to be with games like this.
So yeah, it makes this addiction so much more potent than other games.
Is that like?
This is a great Steam Deck game, but it is the worst Steam Deck with something on in the background.
I would love playing games on Steam Deck, and that's how I was watching a lot of the Mortal Kombat Legacy Collection documentary stuff or shows in the background where it's like all right, I'm looking up every once in a while.
Okay, cool.
You can't do that with Sektoria.
So when I'm playing Sektoria, I am just staring at the screen.
Yeah, music's off.
No podcast, no shows.
I am just Sektoria for like hours and hours, and I feel insane when I'm done.
Mm-hmm, and it's good, it's great.
I swear saturday was like six hours of me, just like in a sectory hole.
Oh my heart, oh my god, my eyes were like there used to be like a warning label on this game.
I think i know.
Yeah, that's a lot man.
It's really neat because I'll be playing on the Steam Deck so much that it's great because the screen and the sticks are right next to each other.
So I sort of begin building into my mind a mental map of like the stick goes in this direction, it's going to shoot in that direction.
Then I'll come play on the computer and I'll be holding the controller on my lap and it feels a little bit off.
So if I just kind of hold the controller up a little bit, so it's on the same level as the monitor, it's like
It's because I've been playing on the Steam Deck for tens of hours, and I'm so used to that.
I kind of have to level these things out so I can have that cardinal direction again.
It's building neural pathways in my brain that are becoming permanent, I think.
Hopefully for the better, right?
Who gives a shit?
It is what it is.
There's the underground pipes going on in your brains now.
All right, gang.
Well, that is video games.
We're going to go take a quick bricky break, and we will be back with some news right after this.
Back like you had something.
Oh yeah.
When you're talking about the mortal combat thing, Dan, before we broke the documentary documentary.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So in the last couple of weeks I've been um on and off watching that in bed with my wife, because I'm romantic.
I'm a romantic guy.
Last night.
We're watching the part where they like put the game into arcades.
You know like secretly.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And we're like, it's like 1230 and she like leans over to me.
She goes, you know, it's weird.
I always thought the name of this game was Mortal Comeback.
And I was like, what?
She's like, yeah, I used to think it was Mortal Comeback.
How long did she think this?
That's what I said, Dan.
I said, what do you mean?
The title shows up when you start the game.
There's a song where someone yells combat.
It's like one of the most spoken out loud game titles of all time.
Also, people aren't coming back.
There's combat, though, happening in the game quite frequently.
A lot of combat.
We had to pause it because we were laughing for 30 seconds just because of how insane of a statement that was.
It was a Hollywood movie.
It wasn't this.
It wasn't like a weird.
No, this before all that.
This is like when it came out in like the mid, early 90s, like 92 93 right, or it's like what was it on?
Like snes and genesis, probably in 1994, like yeah okay, come back.
So we're like little kids, we're like 10, 11 years old, we're like dibs age.
So you know yeah, i mean you can't read that age.
So i understand why she couldn't just read the marquee which tracks right, which tracks yeah, mortal comeback.
Why would it be she still think it was with a k.
That is a great question, Mike.
Yeah.
Okay.
Get the answer to that.
Yeah.
Okay.
Well, I'll let you know tomorrow when I'm not sleeping in the garage.
That's good.
Careful.
Bring a blanket.
It's cold out there.
Yeah.
I have news, but my understanding is, Jan, you have a news story first.
Please hit me with it.
Yes okay gang, just like y'all have been on sectory scout, please.
Uh, i have continued to partake in maybe too much marvel rivals and they just dropped a new character early.
A new new character trailer reveal, and it's dan's favorite marvel character, deadpool.
Um, of course yeah, But here's the fucked up thing, Dan.
Random law.
You're so good at that, Dan.
Wow.
Rafflecopter dog.
Law.
But there are three characters in, or not three characters, three classes in Marvel Rivals that tank, the DPS and then the support.
And somehow Deadpool is all three of them.
Oh.
So you choose whether or not you want a healer Deadpool, a DPS Deadpool, or a tank Deadpool.
And I watched the trailer while we were on break.
It looks absolutely insane, and it's going to break the game.
Parentheses positive.
They're probably going to have all those Deadpool characters from that last movie.
I mean, obviously from the comics, but all the variations of Deadpool as skins.
Oh, boy.
There's all sorts of things you can do.
They're going to make a lot of money.
The comics are great.
Well, they're all Disney, but he is.
Yeah, that sounds right.
I mean, a pinball game is phenomenal.
I'll just say it.
Sure.
It's one of the best.
It's Nolan North doing it.
That's pretty good job.
It's inoffensive for the most part.
It's okay.
Mike, i kind of want to play some marvel rivals.
It's been a moment.
Don't need to tell me twice, baby.
Yeah people, i've been.
It's been showing up in my algorithm uh, when i'm not asking for it, and it's like this game's getting really good right now.
My jam keeps saying that, so maybe we should check it out.
I guess, since we're talking about Deadpool, let's hit this story that I just saw before we started doing this in the last hour.
Sounds like Facebook has shut down a couple of studios, including that Twisted Pixel, which goes back a long way.
Explosion Man.
Explosion Man, yeah.
Yeah, they acquired them a while ago.
I think they acquired them in 2021, and they last made Marvel's Deadpool VR for the MetaQuest 3.
Man, that just came out.
Just came out, yes.
So it sounds like, you know, I'm listening.
He's always making great bets over there at Facebook.
This Mark Zuckerberg guy.
Just brilliant guy.
Billions of dollars in the VR.
Billions of dollars in the metaverse.
It all paid off.
These were just a couple of weird ones that didn't seem to work out.
I don't know.
He's also closing down Sanzaru Games, which made that Asgard's Wrath 2.
That got really high review scores.
That's supposed to be the best VR game. when they brought back Sly Cooper.
Oh, wow.
They did the Sly collection and the God of War collection.
And it's like, oh yeah, that would have been a much better use of their time if they were still doing stuff like that.
But they're not.
And now they've closed them down.
This is, of course, them shifting away from VR, which surprise, surprise.
Now they're onto AI and that's going to work out just great.
Cool.
Uh okay, so let me get to the uh, once i've written down here.
Uh okay, so have you guys ever written, read something that's insane but makes perfect sense?
Uh, we'll just hang in there.
Uh, understanding game pricing with the developers of peak.
This is a quote that um, they provided to steven totillo, and every word of this makes so much sense.
Yes, i'm just gonna read this too.
It's very good.
How much is a game really?
In a player's mind, what does it even mean to spend $5?
Well, that's $5.
But $6?
Well, that's still $5.
$4 is also kind of $5.
$3 is $2, and $2 is basically free.
So we've got these tiers.
You know, $12?
That's $10.
But $13 is $15.
And we found that $8 is still $5.
It doesn't become $10.
$7.99?
You know, that's $5, right?
So eight bucks going to five bucks is the biggest differential we could find in pricing.
So we found it very optimal.
Just that quote qualifies these people to have the highest office in the country.
This is the kind of shit where it's like if this was what people posted on LinkedIn, LinkedIn would be a much better place.
This is what people try to post on LinkedIn, but then they just fucking trip all over themselves.
This is actual insight.
Games industry Steiner math.
Yes.
But the eight bucks is five bucks is the most real shit anyone has ever said.
Absolutely.
God, I don't think they're claiming to have any data or anything.
They're just saying it.
It's like, no, you're right.
They're right.
One hundred percent.
I love it.
It's it's the most like it's just a sort of like a vibe read in the in the most accurate, like sobering way. yeah and it's like the evidence is before us where that game just absolutely cracked everything uh at eight dollars and just came out and destroyed uh all right uh the xbox developer direct will feature a secret fourth game uh that thing is happening january 22nd they've already confirmed forza horizon 6 fable and beast of reincarnation uh so we're going to get a good look at all these beast of reincarnation is the game freak game the people make pokemon this is their Maybe Soulsborne looks like a Soulsborne game.
Yeah.
Could be more of a character action game.
We don't know.
We're going to find out more at this thing.
They're showing Fable?
They're showing Fable, and they said specifically a lot more gameplay.
We're going to focus on the gameplay of Fable.
Didn't we get a gameplay review of Perfect Dark right before that got canceled?
I think we did.
Yes, but it's like this one.
They would have canceled this one if that's what they were going to do, but hey, famous last words, so we'll see.
I wish the fourth secret game was just them uncanceling Perfect Dark.
But I'll still be excited when it's Crimson Skies.
That's all right.
So it's It's it sounds like according to VGC, it's a smaller game from a first party studio.
You know, they always have like a ton of games like cooking in the kiln or whatever.
So we'll probably get excited.
I dare you.
Right.
It's like there's some rumors it could be from Double Fine or something like that.
But they just had a game.
So we'll see.
We'll see.
I don't know.
Right, right, right.
Yeah, Keeper just came out.
That's next week, huh?
Obsidian somehow always makes like four games a year.
So it could just be like another smaller, pediment-sized Obsidian thing even.
Who knows?
They had three games last year, so it'd be even crazier.
But you're right, i wouldn't put it past them.
Um okay, let's see here.
Resident evil showcase set for next week, featuring a new resident evil requiem gameplay snippet.
Capcom is hosting the resident evil showcase on january 15th at 2 pm pacific time, 5 pm eastern.
Uh, that's what was.
That was a wednesday.
No, it's thursday right, Yeah?
So maybe we can find time to talk over that.
I know it's going to last 12 minutes.
We'll see if it's even going to be worth it.
But yeah, they're going to show off probably some of the other stuff that we haven't seen so far.
We've seen a lot of like the one side of things.
This will probably get over to Leon, but I want to see.
Who knows, we'll see.
I know i'm like ready and god, this game sounds like.
Oh, they're just using everything they have.
They have and it doesn't like worry me that they have these like bifurcated gameplay styles.
It's like no, i have full confidence in capcom to pull that off at this point.
You know yes, six weeks away, it's like who cares?
It's here.
It's so insane.
That's right, it's february 27th.
That's the big one, Wow.
It's the first big release of the year by far.
There's not a ton this month, but next month things pick up.
But even then, it's like, oh, it's not until Resident Evil, really.
All right.
Ubisoft hits the division and Avatar studio massive entertainment with layoffs.
Ubisoft is implementing a proposed organizational restructuring at its massive entertainment studios, which could result in 55 layoffs.
This follows a voluntary leave program.
So they basically have already been doing like soft layoffs up to this point.
Massive primary focus going forward will be the division franchise.
They're making the division three.
They're also going to keep working on the Snowdrop engine, which has been doing pretty well for them.
Like that thing runs really well on the Switch, for example, or the Switch 2, I should say.
They also are responsible for Ubisoft Connect.
So OK, I guess that's something they're going to keep doing, along with an unannounced innovative tech project that they have working as well.
Of course, the Division is not part of the three over at the Tencent-backed new version of Ubisoft that is separate from the old version of Ubisoft, where they're working on Assassin's Creed games and Ghost Recon and Far Cry.
So everything else seems like it's subject to these ongoing cost-cutting measures.
And this is the studio that just had star wars outlaws, which underperformed, and before that avatar, frontiers of pandora, which also seemed to underperform, although both kind of had small pop-ups here and there.
Uh, they clearly didn't hit what their targets were for those big budget games.
So they're going back to division three and gonna be doing it with a reduced staff.
Yeah, it's a shame, because Part of Outlaw's problem wasn't really the studio.
The game, one, came out earlier than it should have.
It clearly needed a little bit more work, and now it seems like it's in a much better place than when it launched.
And you know franchise fatigue because the franchise has been mismanaged, which isn't Massive's fault at all.
Um, you know the avatar games.
That seems like that.
One got like a pretty decent bump when the new uh movie came out and they released an expansion, for it seems like a good amount of people actually finally either went back to that game or picked it up.
And also like the division three, that's going to be a huge game.
That's going to take a lot of people, so a little strange to do layoffs.
If that is your next project, Yep.
Yeah.
And they've said as much, that next division game is going to be massive and they want it to not.
You know, that's in the studio.
But also, yeah, it's going to be massive.
And they're they want to make sure that it's going to have like the same impact that the division one did.
Division two got to a place where people who like that game really like that game.
They're very happy with it.
So it's like I think they want to continue that momentum and see if they can break it through to a bigger audience. uh real quick uh ubisoft also uh seems to be hinting at teasing straight up confirming the division definitive edition uh there was a poster for that at a ubisoft event in japan uh seems like it would just gather up all the dlc and all the expansions and everything that you can get put it on all in one package and put it out again uh they've done some events in the division too to like make the world like snowy and feel like the division one so maybe they're trying to bring it all together and set up for whatever division three is going to be i don't think i've ever been interested in the division at all i don't think i could point it out in a police to be a little dad coded it's it's it's like the most tom clancy of the tom clancy game i think yeah maybe splinter cell still is but this is very i had a I've had some good times with division two.
I, every time I played it, I enjoyed it.
Yeah.
There's a part of me.
It's.
I don't know, maybe like the division sickos feel differently, but I don't really want to go back to division one necessarily.
I mean, I would want to just, I don't know.
I think like two was always better than one in my mind.
So I would just play that or I'd be excited for division three.
Um, but I guess there's, you know, some some value there.
Um, you know, it is different and maybe that stuff is kind of stuck in and accessible now.
So if it's like bringing it into the division two ecosystem, which then ties into the division three ecosystem, i guess it could make sense.
I think that the the this is how i feel, and i think i've heard people echo this as well that i like the setting of division one better than I do Division 2, but I enjoy playing Division 2 more.
And I think Division 3 is probably going to try to combine those things and kind of make it feel like you're in Division 1 while having all the cool dark zone stuff that Division 2 had.
And they're probably trying to, like, Remind people of that by going back to the definitive edition.
Yeah.
Cause division one was like Christmas, New York division two is just a hot DC.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Summer DC.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I really liked the air and space museum level.
I don't know why that tickled me.
Apparently.
Yeah.
That's neat.
Yep.
All right.
Call of Duty on Switch 2 could be imminent, according to data miners who are looking at the Call of Duty HQ app, which is the hub app that you use to access all the other stuff.
I don't know, actually.
I can never understand what that thing is.
But people have gotten in there, looked at the code and they've seen references to the Switch and like to
And so, and having a user account, stuff connect from Activision to Nintendo stuff, so crossplay can work.
And it sounds like people are thinking a lot of this stuff is setting up something to happen, excuse me, with Call of Duty on Switch to this year.
Probably Call of Duty Warzone before anything else, because that game is still up and running and working on like a PS4 and probably will be for a long time.
So that's likely what they're going to move over first.
I don't know.
Is it even worth it to do Black Ops 7 at this point?
They seem ready and willing to move on from that one pretty fast.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
I mean, they have to do this.
They told the courts that they would, right?
They told the government.
Yeah, that's right.
Nintendo president reiterates plans for future movies and animated videos, and he doesn't rule out anime.
Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa detailed the company's plans for future film and animated content, emphasizing deep involvement from planning stages to ensure meticulous craftsmanship consistent with their games and merchandise.
He also said, like this is awesome still about exposing our characters to more people, and not necessarily about us becoming this, this company that makes a lot of money from movies and TV.
It's like we, the ones we put out, hopefully they make a lot of money, but we're not going to like try to put out 10 a year as, like this is the primary way that we are generating revenue.
It is about making sure our characters have as high a profile as possible.
But yeah, he talked about acquiring Dynamo Pictures, which is now Nintendo Pictures, which are making these animated shorts like the pikmin stuff they're like we're going to do more of that and then they were asked he was asked about what about anime he's like if we can do it in a unique nintendo way we might do that does it sound like that's that means there's anything in the works currently um so dan reicher which nintendo anime do you want to see i would watch i don't know if there's any i would watch i I would watch a Mike Tyson's Punch Out anime.
Yeah, sure.
They get Tyson.
Hajime no Ippo style boxing with Lil Mac.
With the characters.
All right, yes, yes.
Give me that specific project.
They should make an anime based on Pokemon.
That could never work.
That would never work.
I like how they're like, never rule out anime.
You should never rule out anime.
Exactly.
I mean, we've also had F-Zero anime.
We've had Kirby anime.
We had that Animal Crossing anime movie.
I'm surprised there hasn't been.
I'm sure there's probably been something.
I'm surprised there hasn't been a more substantial Fire Emblem anime something something.
Sure.
I was going to say I don't know, maybe they could use this as a vehicle to bring characters into the fold that may not be as popular.
I know that everyone here likes Metroid a bunch, but I don't know if the general Nintendo audience would hit.
That would be a great way to do that.
Metroid's hot now.
Yeah, that's right.
Everyone's talking about it.
People can't stop talking about how much they love the new one.
Yep.
But, like you know, they would save on voice acting for the Metroid anime because, like Samus, wouldn't have that many lines.
Apparently she would have no lines.
Apparently she's now completely mute as a character and doesn't talk even to people who talk to her.
Brain training anime.
Oh.
Oh.
Yeah.
That would be good, actually.
I think that'd be cool.
That's why I said it.
That's why I said it.
Mm-hmm.
All right, well, we'll see what they're going to do with that in the meantime.
What about that price of that Switch 2?
Is that going to go up?
Well, Nintendo's keeping an eye on RAM prices and tariff impacts.
But when asked, well, is that going to cause the price of the Switch 2 to go up?
He's like, that's hypothetical.
I'm not going to answer that, which sounds like he's probably going to raise the price.
Yeah, I don't know.
Interesting.
Yeah, I mean, you know, what's not hypothetical is the stuff costs more.
But he did say like they're always looking to find ways to acquire, to procure components at an affordable way to keep the price where it is.
So it's like, I don't know.
They might let the switch to supply like that because it seems like they have a lot of them.
They might let it dry up a little bit before they try to rush out and buy a bunch of RAM at super high prices.
But yeah.
We'll see.
How much RAM could the Switch 2 have?
I don't know, like four, five?
Like one?
I'll take one RAM, please.
Come on.
Two glass orbs and one wood.
What are we doing here?
Come on.
Don't act like there's RAM in a Switch 2.
They really don't want to raise the price.
I think they are the ones who still feel very uncomfortable about doing that, I think.
Even though I say it won't happen.
It could definitely still happen, but they're probably resistant to it.
I mean like, my thing continues to be they've built themselves a lot of like trap doors that they could, you know surprise, jump off stage by going oh, that mario kart bundle's gone, and then they reappear on stage with a new bundle.
That's actually 550 and it comes with a you know a game or maybe two games or something that they could position, the welcome tour.
Yeah, it comes with welcome tour and mario kart.
It's 550.
They can't give that away from.
That's actually where Welcome Tour is located in the 12 gigabytes of RAM in the Switch 2.
Oh, Welcome Tour should have cost $8 because that's basically $5 instead of $10.
Yeah.
Oh, my God.
There you go.
Now you're thinking, Mikey.
Whoa.
We're tying so many threads together with this.
Yeah, Mr. Shark Tank over here.
I think the Switch 2 is overpriced and they've built in that overpricing.
Yeah, but they...
Built it in for like potential stuff.
Well, I think they built it in for component uncertainty.
And then the tariffs came along as well.
And now components are actually going way more crazier than I think even they predicted.
So I think they're already kind of at their limit.
And they're kind of hoping that they can redline it for a while and see what happens.
The tariff stuff, because I remember they announced all of it.
Everything went crazy.
And then it seemed like they immediately walked it back.
Is it like back or...
Well, they walked it back a little bit, but there's still tariffs on all the.
It's still like 30, I think, for China and Vietnam and stuff like that.
It's not 300% or something like that.
I mean, have you bought anything internationally in the last eight months?
I haven't done it in the last eight years.
Really?
I mean, there's Chinese handouts.
I guess I bought some of those.
Yeah, I guess that was before the tariff stuff, yeah.
I find myself...
Yeah, I do buy a decent amount of stuff from Europe and I've noticed that some outlets will be like, oh it's built into the cost, where they'll say you're not going to pay anything.
But I had something from DHL come the other day that I had to pay $80 on.
So when that happens, do you pay the delivery driver?
Yeah.
So in the case of DHL, they will front the money and then you pay DHL.
And if you don't pay it, the payment unlocks the disbursement.
So if you don't pay them, they'll just return it to sender in a week or something.
Got it.
It's super sick.
It's awesome.
Yeah, it rules.
It's really making us a lot of money.
Yeah, that's why a freaking Osmo costs $800 now instead of $300 when it originally came out.
Yep.
All those Osmo factories are here now, so it's a really good thing.
Extra.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, actually, the Supreme Court is still their ruling on the tariffs is still coming in.
And you can kind of tell the way the wind is blowing because there's been some social media posts from certain someone who's like, if they do this, he literally said we're screwed.
They go and they go back on.
The tariffs happen, which is just an incredible thing to have a president post online.
But yeah, it seems like there's a good chance the Supreme Court is going to come back and be like we don't like these tariffs and we're not going to let them happen.
And then all that's going to fall apart.
It's going to be kind of a mess for a little bit as well.
Well, finally, we'll know what a mess looks like in this game.
Yeah, I know.
I haven't seen one in quite some time, and frankly, I could use the entertainment.
I'll take a mess over a catastrophe.
Uh-huh.
Baldur's Gate 3 boss explains lack of Switch 2 version.
Basically said Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro don't like us anymore and don't want to pay us any money to do the work to get this on Switch 2.
What?
Yeah.
Okay, interesting.
It's weird to let pettiness get in the way.
I mean, they would make money, too.
Yeah, that's how that works.
I mean...
They don't even have to have Larian do it, right?
You hire other companies to port games all the time.
That's a thing that other studios can do.
Maybe it's something about Larian's contract, or I don't know.
But whatever the case, I can't imagine why a Switch 2 version of this game is not out yesterday.
That would be such a slam dunk.
Yeah, I think we were talking about it on a show recently.
We're like, yeah, in 2026, that'll just be on Switch, too.
And it's like, because obviously it'll make a lot of money.
But yeah, I think eventually the money will talk and this will happen.
But you're right, whether that's Larian getting the contract after people sort of like, they're like let's all make money together, even if we do have bad beef, or they pay a studio to come in and do the job.
Yeah, we'll see.
Did you look at like?
Because they also did their big Reddit AMA where they were talking about the AI and they said they're going to stop using generative AI for concept art, which is interesting because before it was, it's not a big deal.
I don't know.
They said they're not going to use it for concept art, which is the thing they said they were doing, and they got a lot of heat for that.
And then they're like, we're not going to do that anymore.
However, having said that, and he literally said, having said that, and then said we're still going to use gen AI for other like on, to be iterative.
He said, I would just like the concept already.
I know it sounds like for the other departments, but I don't know.
People should keep yelling at him because clearly they haven't heard the message.
All right, let's see.
Nintendo Switch 2's latest GameCube game is now live, bringing the total to eight games.
Switch 2, Switch Online, plus Expansion Pass.
Expansion Pack, I think.
Xervice has added the GameCube game, Fire Emblem Path of Radiance, which is...
A very good strategy tactics RPG.
It's like one that was very expensive on GameCube for a long time.
So this is a really great way for people to actually play this game.
And it's added to a list that's growing pretty quickly for GameCube games on Nintendo Switch NSO GameCube.
I got to check this one out.
I've never checked out this Fire Emblem.
Yeah, people do like it a lot.
Back in the day, I didn't check it out because I thought it looked really ugly compared to the GBA games at the time.
And now it's come a bit full circle where its ugliness is sort of endearing, I think.
So yeah, I want to find some time for this for sure.
This is one where some of the slight problems I have with the emulation, like the analog stick sensitivity that doesn't really matter for a tile-based tactics game.
So this is one that i bet would work great on.
So, and most importantly, now that there are eight games, i could finally make like a two row, fill out the entire library thing on that app without any gaps.
You've been struggling for so long.
I'm happy that this has happened.
Mike's nightmare is over everybody, thank god.
What happens when there's nine games?
Three, three rows of three?
Oh, that won't work.
No, there will be a little gap in the right.
I think I'll have to mess with it.
I'm scared.
Why would you do this to him?
I was happy for a moment.
Because it's funny because I don't even see it.
I don't even know.
Whenever him and Dan.
Yeah.
When I saw your NSO library and how not organized it was, I was mad at you.
It means nothing to me.
I was like, no, I'm just going to win the game.
Grubbin made sense to me.
I literally spend time.
If it's night, I don't necessarily want to play a game.
I'll just go into my libraries and organize things.
Oh, there's enough caveman Super Nintendo games for me to have a caveman row.
Exactly, exactly.
I'll make a caveman row.
Joe and Mac and Prehistoric Man.
When's the last time we had a caveman game?
I don't know.
I've been out of style for a while.
There are so many in the 16th.
What's the Assassin's Creed guy that left to make the monkey game?
Yeah, I'm trying to remember that.
Ancestors, the Humankind Odyssey.
That's a game I love that I know Dan hates.
It's the weirdest fucking game.
It's about like. making people evolve and you can swing from trees.
I'm going to play that game again.
I appreciate that it exists, but I want tail of the sun.
Yeah, not Far Cry Primal.
Yeah.
It's not Far Cry Primal.
It's like something else.
It's like a weird emergent storyline game.
I don't know.
I miss Spock.
Is Horizon... She misses you too.
It's caveman adjacent, the Horizon series.
Yeah, there's a caveman quality to it.
There's something to that.
There's too many glowy bits for a caveman game.
Well, that's the twist.
Yeah, it's electronics.
Well, because it's like it's far in the future, got blasted back to the stone age, you know?
No, i get it mikey, but uh yeah, i don't think that qualifies.
Okay, fair enough.
What about the flintstones?
We should do another flintstones game.
What about the flintstones?
Hit and run?
Oh my god, Dan.
Instead of holding down acceleration button, you have to actually use your tutors.
You got to do Katamari style with analog sticks.
I do think a bedrock GTA would be fun. oh my god yeah yes gta bedrock you go oh man mr slate will be there and pebbles will be there bam bam will be there all the yeah what part would you want this in the story to take place mike is it like post pebbles and bam bam or after It's Pebbles and Bam Bam are babies.
I don't want it like, oh, they're married now.
I don't want it before that they're around.
No, Prime, Flintstones, Pebbles and Bam Bam are there.
They're being funny.
They're being silly goobers.
And you have a Navi and it's the little green alien guy.
The Martian guy.
No Navis.
We have a strict no Navi policy.
The green alien guy is right there.
Yeah, you got to have the Great Gazoo be a part of it.
The Great Gazoo, yeah.
Yeah, you go to the Order of the Water Buffalo Lodge.
You can go bowling.
There is a conversion mod for Starfield that turns it into the Flintstones.
Why didn't you leave us that earlier?
Yeah, why didn't you leave me exactly?
My brain is Harvey Birdman broken, where I cannot think of Flintstones without him being Tony Soprano.
I just envision a GTA Flintstones, Tony Soprano where the kids are grown up and they're like AJ and Meadow.
It has to be that.
You're not going to be able to get away with a little baby kid like it.
Yeah, it's actually Fred Flintstone.
He's Italian.
So what?
No fucking Ziti-saurus?
What am I paying you for?
Yeah, we claim Fred for sure.
Fred, that's a good Italian name.
Shh shit out of those dinosaur ribs y'all come on.
I bet there's a lot of shred of fat in them, but I bet they still look so good.
It's just all lean.
I know i would eat so much of it.
I i'm like happy that like i get those total star wars conversion mods for everything.
But i wouldn't hate living in a universe where instead it was everything got a flintstones total conversion.
That would be like do you guys have, like you have an ip that you would like wish, like everything just kind of had a mod that it would turn into, or anything like that.
Or i mean obviously, flintstones for you, mike.
Yeah, i'm good yeah, that's a good one.
Uh, i don't know, Just turned everything into hockey.
Moral comeback.
Moral comeback for sure.
Marvel comeback for sure.
Heated rivals.
Alright, last story and it's good news.
We're going to get to kill MechaHitler.
MachineGames is reportedly working on Wolfenstein 3 and a Rainbow Six Siege style multiplayer title.
Machine Games, the studio behind Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, is reportedly planning a third Wolfenstein game, according to Windows Central and Kotaku.
Windows Central also claims the studio is working on a Rainbow Six Siege-like multiplayer title.
This news comes after the release of the critically acclaimed Indiana Jones, which then got a PlayStation five version.
Um uh, they did release a third wolfenstein game from machine games.
That was young blood, but that was not.
That was a spinoff.
This should complete the trilogy uh, and finished telling the story of bj blaskowitz.
Uh, sounds like that's the plan now.
Boy, i'm excited.
Yeah yeah, that's incredible.
I loved it.
Yep yeah, my favorite part is when uh, the ronald reagan shows up.
They don't make it clear it's ronald reagan.
Yeah yeah, before hitler pees himself.
Yeah, Hitler kills Ronald Reagan and pees himself.
Yeah, exactly.
It's a good video game.
It's an incredible video game.
They're so going to make a big deal out of the Mecca thing.
They know everyone needs it.
Yeah, and it's such a great thing to build toward.
And they've already kind of messed around with the idea of bodies living on, like B.J.
Blazkowicz's head getting put on it like a nazi super soldier soldier body, and they've done great work of like the subtext of what that means.
But they've also just made it awesome cool action stuff like his head floating around like getting put on the body and it's like okay, now they can mess around with the other side of that of hitler being put into a mech suit, all right.
Well, that's probably years away.
Um hopefully, hopefully we get it sooner rather than later.
But that does it for the news from me handing this show back over to janice joa Fantastic gang.
We're going to take another quick break and we will be back with some emails and super chats if we got any.
We'll see you on the other side.
These are the emails for the show emails.
Bombcastjohnbombcom is the email address to send your emails to.
You can write in about any and everything.
I look at all of them.
Thank you for all the kind words across the board, whether it's the happy holidays, the happy new years or just talking about game of the year.
We appreciate all of the emails.
And also hey, If you want to avoid an awkward social interaction and you don't got anyone to text, send us an email.
First email comes from Mike from Loveland.
Bonjour, bomb gigantesque.
New Year, yet it seems like the horrors are persisting.
What does a Giant Bomb crew do for a little treat?
Imagine you're in your car driving home alone from a stressful event.
What is the stop or what are you excited to go home to to balance the scales?
Also, or if Giant Bombs sold a snack through the merch store, what would it be?
Love the show.
Love you all.
Mike from Loveland.
Shaq started selling those gummies, and I think they're popular.
So maybe we would have giant bum gummies with our faces in it.
That would be good.
Yeah.
But he has the market cornered on giant head gummies.
The gummies are giant gummies of his head.
Ours would be very small.
Okay.
All right.
I like that.
Go in the other direction.
Is this drugs or no?
No.
I think this is candy.
No, it's just candy.
It's just sugar.
I should try this.
Are they good?
I have a bag.
I'll let you know.
I'll do a live review.
Oh, live chat.
I don't like them all that much.
They're okay.
I prefer those gummy Skittles.
Stuff like that.
I prefer those.
I don't like just normal ass gummy bears.
I like sour patch kids.
I want some more density.
I don't want the bounce back.
Gummy bears bounce back.
Gummy bears is like you're chewing literal rubber.
I don't understand the appeal.
I never have.
You know what I mean?
Like a sour patch kid, it doesn't have that bounce back.
I'm not a big sweets person, but I really love those peach rings.
I like the watermelons.
There's three flavors in here.
There's peach, berry, punch, and orange.
I really have no interest in peach.
Who's this guy?
Who's this guy again?
Oh, he's the spokesperson for Radio Shack.
Damn it, I was going to make that joke.
Man, Shack is... They're big.
The word no is just not in his library.
That's a good idea for a product.
He's doing good work out there.
I should get Papa John's in his honor.
They smell nice.
Now, I like my gummies to not be too gummy.
I like them a bit firmer.
I think, Betty Crocker.
Well, we were all just saying we hate the Haribo gummy bears because they're too firm.
We don't want the bounce back.
What do you mean by Betty Crocker?
Betty Crocker makes, like, they have a brand of gummies.
Really?
Yeah.
Really?
Oh.
Okay, he's chewing.
He's chewing the blue one.
He's halfway through.
That's a damn fine gummy.
Really?
I don't care if he likes it.
I just searched like an idiot Betty Crocker fucking gummies and to the surprise of literally no one Porn.
The Mickey and Friends and Moana gummy bears.
That's why you like them.
Oh, those fruit snacks.
It's just fruit snacks.
I think we should, uh... Is fruit snacks not gummies?
No.
No, they're... Yeah, they're gummies, I guess.
These are a lot like those.
I'll tell you right now.
Yeah, they're fruit snacks.
Um...
I think we should, like you know, like Japanese, like snacks come in like boxes, like a box of Japanese snacks.
We should do something like that.
Love that.
Yeah.
It's weird that he bit a gummy in half.
Like, I know they're big, but, like, yeah, I've never bit a gummy in half.
Get a whole one in your mouth there.
It's big.
It's big.
It's big.
That's probably the peach one, though, Mike.
No, I made sure.
I got two reddish ones out.
I got the paler one and I threw it the hell back in there.
You're like my.
You're like my six-year-old, who will only eat certain colors of candy.
This is very good, though i'm addicted to japanese snacks.
There's a um, there's like a you know like a market a couple miles away and i just go nuts, oh man, that sounds awesome.
So i got a box delivered and it was like that.
They were really good, but i'm like, all right, fresh it's even better.
All right, i'll eat so much sesame.
Yeah, do it for me.
That's my favorite flavor.
Peach is good, Mike.
Learn to love it.
He has a curious look on his face.
Tastes like nothing.
I can't taste peach.
Have you had a peach before to be able to tell?
What do you mean it tastes like nothing?
The two first gummies fried all your buds?
What's happening?
This one's just a lot more subtle.
It's not bad, I guess, but subtle.
Alright, two out of three.
That's not bad for flavors.
I'm going to big sumo orange kick.
Funk gets a bunch of sumo oranges, and they got the little nub up top so it's easy to just peel them.
And it's like, oh, man, just a delicious, juicy sumo orange.
It's fucking awesome.
Yeah, those are cool.
How does it compare to a clementine or whatever?
I think they're bigger.
They're bigger, and they got the nub for cracking the top off.
Yeah.
The clementine, the shell is so soft, it's so easy to peel.
Those are so small, though.
I like a big sumo orange.
Yeah.
Yeah, I like the small ones because they're easy to snack on and eat real quick.
I can see four of them if I need a lot.
Are these named sumo because of like a sumo wrestler?
Like a little top knot?
I don't know.
I don't know.
Oh.
Because they kind of look like little sumo wrestlers.
We put little pants on them, yeah.
I was going to say, do you make them fight?
They do a very good job marketing them, because I always know when they're in season, because it's on trucks.
It's on like.
We could take them and we could spin them and make them fight in a little thing.
Oh, my God.
Yeah.
A little baby.
Guys, I don't think we can beat Shaq at this gummy game.
It's impressive.
I don't want to repeat his quote, but I wasn't surprised.
Well, here's how we beat Shaq.
I have to apologize.
I wasn't familiar with the game.
Oh, yes.
I was unfamiliar with your game.
What we got to do, I think we would be very well served in the jelly bean market.
We each pick a flavor that represents us.
Mine would just be Jeff.
What's the flavor?
You can find out.
Can we spell it GB like jelly beans?
I want an Arby's sauce jelly bean.
Oh, that's so fucking gross.
I knew you would all do the weirdest shit.
No, garlic jelly bean, like i know i'm weird.
The popcorn, buttered popcorn, jelly bellies though i think that's delicious.
This mine's actually sweet.
So there you go.
Mine's a better fit for jelly beans.
Oh my god, someone just like triggered a, a memory the, the the shark.
Remember the the white mystery shark?
Yeah, they're fucking awesome.
Now that was betty crocker, i'm telling you, Okay.
They made the best ones.
What was the, what was like the thing there?
It was all sharks.
It was like a magic.
It glowed in the dark.
It glowed in the dark too.
It was like a different texture.
It was like the more kind of like the drier, chalkier texture.
Like, and they were delicious.
It reminded me of the like white airheads, the mystery ones where they just kind of throw everything together.
Gummy shark.
I love that.
What was the other part of this question?
There's, you know, there's that local ice cream place handles I like to go to if I really need a treat sometimes.
Oh, yeah.
What's a little treat y'all give to yourselves.
Actually i'll go to arby's.
I'm like down if that's, if i find like sad and i'm like that's an excuse to do something bad for me.
So i feel better i will go to.
Oh, i always gotta say i'll say to my family i'm going to the corner and i'll just go to the gas station and buy some crap because i'll just i need to get out of the house.
So it's like i'll just go get a you know a drink or something and a candy bar.
I will do this.
I should do this.
I decompress after long runs like after like a half marathon or whatever.
I'll go to Taco Bell and just get the most, because you just burn like a billion calories and it's like I'm going to get everything at Taco Bell.
That sounds awesome.
Okay.
I'll just yell in my car. for a little bit.
Sure, that's nice.
That's a great treat.
That's a good treat.
With the windows down, actually.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
People get scared when I roll all the windows down.
Alright, next email comes from Eric from Massachusetts.
Gang.
Are there any games that you personally regret not playing?
Before Game of the Year discussions for any year.
It doesn't need to be number one, but something.
You are just disappointed you didn't have more love at the time.
Eric from Massachusetts.
Go see Yotei.
Yeah, this past year I did feel like we didn't.
Yeah, I think, except for Dan, none of us just kind of happened to not play it.
I don't think it would have been Game of the Year, so like...
But, you know, it's a little bit more love.
Yeah, I should have got a little bit more love.
I definitely wish I had played Sekiro way earlier, like going back to that, because it is my 2019 game of the year.
Not that I feel that bad that I gave it to Three Houses back then.
I do like that game a lot.
But yeah, I think Sekiro would.
That's like one of the few times where like oh, if I had played this game then it would have straight up been my favorite game that year.
I bet if Game of the Year was right now, I think Sectoria would do better.
It got on the top 10, but I feel like Grub, you and I it'd probably be a lot higher on our personal list.
Yep.
Well, it was number two on mine.
Oh, shit.
Okay.
Yeah.
I forget where it was on mine, but it would have been higher.
Yeah.
Yep.
Really good.
I wish I finished Dispatch before.
I wrote the book.
I'm not finishing shit, so I don't know.
But you didn't finish the book, though.
No, it's still stuck in limbo.
It'll never get done.
How come none of you said Two Point Museum?
What's that?
Oh, boy.
I didn't bring it up, but I played like 30 hours of Two Point Campus this week.
Oh, fun.
That has become my game also.
Yeah, I've been playing a lot of that, actually.
Well, how did you like it in comparison to Museum?
Yeah, I talked about it a little bit last week.
It's still not as good as Museum, but it's more Two Points, and I'm just kind of chugging it down.
Apparently, I just like this series.
You know, I'm going to make a note.
I want to play Two Point Museum.
Good.
Looks like you'll like it.
Yeah, I should do that.
Were you making that note just like out loud?
No, I'm at my Google Doc here.
There you go.
That's probably a keyboard and mouse thing, right?
No.
It's a keyboard and mouse thing.
Okay.
Next email comes from Matt.
Matt writes in.
Hey guys, on the last episode of The Dump Truck, Dan mentioned he once wanted some sort of scheme to win a million dollars in and I think I may have come up with the best idea.
Hell yeah.
We need to get Dan on the game show The Floor.
His topic could be as simple as video games.
Even if someone challenges him early, I think he would be good enough to somehow come out on top.
When Dan ultimately comes out on top.
It'd be the final piece of the puzzle for the movie about his life.
It'd be an amalgamation of Forrest Gump and Slumdog Millionaire.
So my question is, if Dan was to try and get on the show, what would his topic be?
And what would the eventual movie about his triumph be called?
How does the floor work?
Help me out here.
I've never heard of the floor.
I think it's either Rob Lowe or one of those people you could easily slot in for Rob Lowe.
I immediately believe that it's Rob Lowe.
I think the floor like has like traps doors in it and I think they like fall through trap doors in the floor.
I don't know anything else.
It seems like there's a board.
The floor is a trivia game where 81 contestants stand on a giant LED floor, each on a square representing a category like horror movies or famous athletes.
A random contestant challenges a neighboring opponent to a head-to-head quiz duel in the opponent's category.
The winner takes control of the loser's square, expanding their territory, while the loser is eliminated.
That's fun.
Do you like...
Do you go in with your category?
Is that you?
I think you have your category and that's like your defense.
And then you challenge someone around you who you think you can beat them in their category is what it sounds like.
So let's say I go into Disney parks.
That's great.
Obviously, I'm going to be fine the first round.
But then do I like take over horror films?
Do I have to answer those questions?
Oh, that's a good question.
I think you have to beat them in horror games or horror films to take over their category.
But once you do that, I think it's like now when someone challenges you, it's still yours, I think.
Yeah, I think it just expands your territory, Mike.
Yeah.
I am applying right now, to be honest.
And dance categories should be wrestling even more so than video games.
I don't think so, because, again, I don't know anything about Japanese wrestling.
I don't know anything about Lucha Libre.
Yeah, but there's a lot of three genres you don't know about either, right?
I know way more about games than I do wrestling.
Okay.
If I got to pick, I would do video games, for sure.
We should all apply to this game show.
Sure, sure, sure.
Yeah.
I'm on Disney.
Literally entering the floorcasting.com.
Is it broadcast on a Disney network by any chance?
That might help my chances.
Yes, it's on Hulu.
Oh, well, there you go then.
Yeah, Dan will do video games and the show will be called Leave It to Danny.
Okay.
What do I put for occupation?
Podcaster.
Self-employed.
Business owner.
Content creator?
That just sounds like a guy with a youtube channel.
I never say content creator.
Yeah, it's amazing.
Just look in the mirror, you know.
Yeah oh, i like, i like what chad is saying media mogul oh oh, there you go.
I'm gonna say games, media personality.
Okay sure, i think they'll like that, Okay.
Personality.
We should get on the Family Feud.
I think we would clean up on the Family Feud.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, my God.
We were trying to show did Family Feud last night and there was like a really problematic category.
Really?
What?
Every answer was penises?
It was... It just was... It was, like... Favorite thing you saw at CES 2022?
Something like...
I forget what it was.
It was something that was like where Stace and I looked at each other like we have to turn the fucking channel.
We can't watch the family feud together.
That's what's happened.
Okay.
The survey that I need to fill out to enter says, what are you like when you play games?
Are you a risk taker or do you play it safe?
Super competitive or just do it for the fun?
Elaborate.
All right.
Yeah, yeah.
Super competitive.
I'm competitive, but in a fun way.
I'm kind of a stinker.
Okay.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You know when to play the heel.
Fun for who?
Select your stinker from the drop down.
Just watch this and then Mario Party Party and then just have them.
Yeah, yeah.
I have a ton of fun with it, but I definitely play to win.
Not in an aggressive way.
I just have a lot of fun.
Are these canned answers?
I can be a little stinker.
No, I'm typing.
These are all canned?
I'm typing.
Oh, okay.
All right.
Next email comes from Travis in Fargo.
Travis writes in five questions.
I choose one of them.
Travis writes in, what's the most beautiful or astounding place in your state?
California.
It's Yosemite.
Yosemite National Park.
Oh, yeah.
It's tough to beat.
Boy.
Okay.
I feel like... Y'all can say the sheets.
Yeah, I mean, there are some nice parks in Ohio that I haven't been to.
Oh, yeah, definitely.
I'm trying to remember the name of the place.
There's a bunch of great, like, rocky... Hocking Hills, I think.
Yeah, Hocking Hills.
Yeah, Hocking Hills is up there for sure.
Probably Hocking Hills, at least on this side of Ohio.
I think there's some Lake Erie shore stuff that's, you know, plenty nice.
There's probably stuff in the Appalachians, but no one goes there, not unless you want to be taken by the Appalachians. and then you're practically in west virginia so like look out right exactly yeah for sure out yeah i think it used to be the margaritaville but they closed it in cleveland i never go too far from the twin cities but it's like it's just like there's just a million really nice lakes it's not like there's this one oh my god vista you have to see it's just like there's a million just really fucking nice lakes around here wait does the butter come from you dan but it's wisconsin wisconsin they're they're the no like lando lakes butter Maybe.
No, well, Wisconsin has a lot of lakes as well.
Oh, okay.
You know the Lakers came from here, right?
Yeah, of course.
Yeah, they did.
Oh, that makes so much more sense.
They didn't change the name when they went to L.A.?
That's a whole joke from basketball, where it's like the Lakers moved from Minnesota to LA, where there are no lakes, and the Jazz moved from wherever to Utah, where they don't allow music.
Music, yeah.
Very good.
I haven't seen that movie in a while.
Everything basically north of me is like sprawling mountains and like you would think you're in vermont, like it's just that forever and ever and ever where i am in colorado.
When i was in denver uh, the most beautiful thing was walking out of the grocery store and seeing the rocky mountains.
Yeah, that's awesome, that's cool, All right.
Moving on down the emails.
John from Greece writes in.
Hi, Bomb Crew.
I have a beautiful clear Anbernic RG35XXH in my New Year's resolution is to play more retro games.
Yes.
Right now, I want to focus on one of the best handhelds of all time, the GBA.
So far.
My plan is to replay Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and to try Fire Emblem, the Blazing Blade, for the first time.
I would love to hear your recommendations.
I don't care about genre of game.
Just give me your top GBA picks, please.
Don't worry.
I totally own all the games you will recommend.
Thanks in advance.
John from Greece.
This is my favorite platform.
WarioWare sure warrior where uh, stuntman is surprisingly good on there.
I always make people play it.
Um, metroid fusion, for sure, wario land 4 is also very good.
On gba yeah uh, the astro boy game is very good.
Oh yes, it is.
Yes yep, actually it's good.
Both mario sports games, tennis and golf on advance are a ton of fun.
Megaman battle network uh, if you haven't played like the remasters, Drill Dozer recently.
Drill Dozer.
It's a great game.
Yes, absolutely.
Try actually try to track down a real one of those.
I bet it's expensive now, but you get the rumble.
I guess you could probably emulate the rumble.
I don't know.
Yeah.
Oh, Klonoa.
Yeah, the Konoha games.
There might even be two of them, but they're very good on GBA, actually.
The Advance Wars games are fantastic.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Golden Sun 1 and 2, if you're looking for traditional turn-based, if you're looking for something a bit sillier, but maybe even better, Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga is one of the all-time.
The Mega Man Zero games are also very good.
I love Mega Man Zero.
Those Castlevania games.
20 Hawks Pro Skater 2 on GBA.
It's actually an amazing version.
2 and 3 on there are great.
I love Minish Cap actually.
The Zelda game.
I think the Sonic Advance games are very good.
They're good.
So if you're a fan of Sonic, check those out as well.
Ninja Five-O.
Ninja Five-O is really good.
I got a port recently to Switch, but worth checking out.
Lizzie McGuire is a good game.
Why is it?
I think Cory in the House.
No, I think that's for the DS.
Never mind.
Yeah, that might be for the DS.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You can't go wrong on the GBA, it turns out.
It's got a ton of great games.
It's also perfect for the analog pocket.
All those retro handhelds and stuff, GBA just pops on it.
Those Legacy of Goku games were actually pretty fun, like Zelda-ish style Dragon Ball games.
Those are very good.
Car Battler Joe.
Play that one.
That's a good one.
Tar Battle or Joe?
Oh, the Metabots games.
Those are all very good.
I love just how many games have weird, surprisingly competent isometric versions on GBA, like Max Payne right.
It's like a GBA isometric Max Payne game.
Yeah, like the two Towers, Return of the King, games that are basically Diablo-like are actually pretty good.
Fonk is playing the Katara Unbound, and that sounds very impressive.
Oh, yeah.
That shit bangs.
It sounds really cool, yeah.
God.
Yeah, I think I pitched a long, long time ago Game Boy Adjance and I just play a bunch of GBA games.
I like that.
Sweet.
All right.
Two more emails.
This one comes from Tyler from Baltimore.
Hey, Bombers.
As a 27-year-old listener, one of my favorite parts of your show is hearing about games that were before my time but clearly had a big impact on you.
If each of you could prescribe one game for Zoomers to play, what would it be and why?
PS2 generation or older... bonus points if it's playable on modern consoles or PC.
Tyler from Baltimore.
Metal Gear Solid.
Metal Gear.
I was going to say Shadow of the Colossus.
Okay.
Castlevania Symphony of the Night.
More of you should all play Grim Fandango.
Yeah.
Oh, sure.
Here's a wild one.
Rygar for the PS2.
Or Rygar for the NES.
Yeah.
Boomers.
Twisted Metal Black.
Yeah, we don't have a lot of car combat games anymore.
Final Fantasy 9 specifically.
Ergeis.
God bless the ring.
Ridge Racer Type 4.
Love of God.
So good.
We're just naming altered games.
Think about Cool Borders all the time.
Yeah.
Sure.
PS2, PS1.
It was never good, but yeah.
No, it wasn't that good.
I'm just going to tell you how it's not as good as 1080.
It's better in time.
It's not.
It's absolutely.
Cool Boarders always disappointed me from the beginning.
Yeah, those games aren't good.
I don't know why.
Why are we talking about anything but SSX?
SSX is great.
It's the trickies.
Oh, I love Tricky.
Oh, my gosh.
Tyler, you should actually play.
If you wind up liking Metal Gear Solid or you're a fan of Kojima and you haven't checked out Zone of the Enders.
Play Zone of the Enders.
God, Jehudi just sounded hella fucking sick as a child.
Jehudi's an incredible word.
Mike, do you have the email document in front of you?
The email document in front of me?
Yes, I do.
The writer of the show.
Could you read this last email?
Yes.
Dear Jan, please say Civ 7 in the 6-7 cadence.
Brandon from Alabama.
Can you say it?
Oh, me.
You want me to do it?
That's why I asked you to read it.
You don't have to.
Do it.
Okay, I'll do it.
Civ 7.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I got it.
And folks, that does it for emails.
Bombcastatgiantbomb.com.
Send your emails in.
Thank you to any and everyone that sends an email.
Mikey...
Hit me with some super chats if we got it.
We got a couple.
I saw some people say they're having trouble getting them through, but a couple got through here.
Oh, YouTube acting poorly?
Weird.
I know, right?
Huh?
Daisy, Daisy, Daisy says, congrats on being Absalom in one attempt.
What was your favorite part of the story?
Penis.
It was incredible watching you guys just mash through the final boss's dialogue the first time you heard him.
He has, like, a whole monologue prepared, and you guys are just... We had kids to take care of.
Are you guys mad at me?
He's about to die.
Yeah, he's dead.
We were there to beat him.
We did.
What about last words?
Yeah, fuck him.
Maybe he said something cool.
No.
Yeah, he did.
What if he was your father?
Fucking dead.
Yeah.
Those are great words, in my opinion.
Oh, you guys.
All right.
I had a great time.
Me too.
And Japan says, if you can own a prop from any movie or FMV game, what would you get?
I think, weren't we told that they still have Quan Chi's throne at NetherRealm?
You streaming from Quan Chi's throne would be incredible.
That's my new favorite chair.
It's just Quan Chi's throne.
Why do they have a throne?
Mine's definitely the MacGruber notebook.
Oh sure, i'm sure someone's made that.
Uh, mary made a one-to-one replica of it basically uh, but i want the original one.
Yeah oh, i don't know if you could have that.
I mean there's, like you know, like the hoverboard from back to the future 2 is a pretty big.
Yeah, they sell that.
Yeah, but like you know, that one, i'd want the one.
Right yeah, you guys are not just like stealing the props from the movie, But I mean, is it the question if you could have anything?
Sure, okay.
I don't think he's asking, like, what do we want for our birthdays, and now he has to procure it for us.
Fair enough, fair enough.
Yeah, like I already have this, like I have this secretly oozed 3D printed vial.
But if I had the real one and it was all sharp because of the broken glass, that'd be cool.
I want Kino's moped from TMNT 2.
They're going to start delivering pizzas?
Yep.
Insulting women?
That's me.
2026, baby.
Just like Keno.
I should have 400 answers to this and I can't think of anything.
I want Tim Curry's outfit from the Command and Conquer game.
Would you want Donnie's Folgers ashes cup thing?
That's good.
Oh, that's funny.
What about the Bill Murray ball with a hand in it from Kingpin?
Oh, the rose?
No, it's a rose.
Oh, is it?
I thought I said...
Ernie McCracken?
Because he loses his hand.
They don't put the hand in the ball?
Woody Howson loses his prosthetic hand in the ball, but Ernie McCracken bowls with a crystal ball with a rose embedded inside.
Oh, yep.
I'm looking at it now.
Yep.
Okay.
I like that.
People want to explain that yeah, king probably made replicas about.
It always seemed like it was bad.
It's kind of actually fantastic.
Yeah, they probably made replicas, but i would love a speed racer helmet.
Um, i've been thinking about the wachowski movie a lot.
It's good.
It's such a banger.
Oh, i know what i want.
I want the zf1 uh gun from fifth element.
Oh sure, that's great.
Oh, i want the helmet from rocketeer.
Oh yeah yeah, yeah.
Hell yeah.
Grub, is there like a Star Wars related thing you'd want?
I don't like.
I've had plenty of years now to like, get like a replica lightsaber and it's never been for me.
I don't know.
Did you do the thing at, like Galaxy's Edge, where you make a lightsaber?
No, we did the droids instead.
Yeah, the droids cooler.
Right, i'll do the lightsaber ones next time i'm there.
Uh, but we did uh, the droids with the kids and that was.
That was fantastic.
They like spent the next 45 minutes just playing with those on.
They have like a little pad across the street where you can get them out and move them around because they're radio controlled.
We had a lot of fun doing that, but uh Yeah, I don't know.
I like the really dumb stuff.
So anything that references an in-world company would be cool.
Or even the brass dice that Han Solo had for some reason at the end of Last Jedi.
Oh, because they were going to make a big deal about it being in Solo.
I'm like, that's really fucking dumb.
I would like that.
I think one of the Planet Hollywoods had the giant wax figure of the naked Sylvester Stallone from Demolition Man hanging in its rafters.
I think I would just have that just hanging above me in my office at all times.
So if I'm doing this, you know what's up.
Taco Horn's got it.
If I could just have Hobbiton, just the entire town of Hobbiton in New Zealand still.
You don't want the one ring or something convenient.
You want the town of Hobbiton.
I'll just go live in a Hobbit hole.
Are you kidding?
No, it's very convenient.
Would that be to scale to you grubs from like-
The one that they built that's still there that you can visit is to human scale.
I think there's probably some of them that are bigger so that people look small when they're in there.
But yeah, absolutely.
Apparently, Red Letter Media owns the Sylvester Stallone thing, by the way.
Oh, good for them.
They deserve it.
Yeah, that's nice.
Antonio Morales says that they couldn't send a super chat, but they sent something via Ko-fi.
I don't know if we can easily access the Ko-fi account to see their message.
I can do it.
Alright, there you go.
Don't worry, Dan is on it.
Ooh, that's a good idea, Dan.
Fiasco, one of the poison green balls from The Rock.
Just have that as an ornament on your Christmas tree.
That would be incredible, yes.
I just want Willem Dafoe from Spider-Man 1.
You just want the actor Willem Dafoe.
Yeah, just to like yell at me.
I have antonio morales.
One says uh, if nintendo releases an anime, can we finally get waifu episode 2 also.
Update on tall clothing, merch master also also.
How about them bears good, better best.
You guys don't want anything to do with a wifey webisode.
Trust me on that.
Yeah, you guys keep yourselves safe.
What is wifey webisode one?
Don't worry about that.
That's something Jeff and I did on our show.
And it's become sort of notorious at this point.
We can't tread that ground again.
I mean, again, about the tall clothes, there might not be too much I can do.
The way the store works is that we could pick from a selection of clothing that the supplier has available and then put designs onto that.
So I'll check again to see if they have any special tall options.
But a lot like with that and with like larger sizes.
A lot of times they just don't have any, or like so few that when we sell five of them we start getting like order things coming in like oh no, we ran out of that.
Actually, you got to go tell those people now that we don't have them.
We're always looking at potential new vendors and stuff like that.
We'll see if that's an option in the future, but right now it sounds like it's going to be tough to pull off.
It is front of mind.
Yeah.
Soon here I have to do another store refresh, so I'll take a look.
Also, that Bears game, it was incredible.
Did they win?
They were down 18 points.
It was like 21 to 3 or something like that and they beat the Packers and just kind of embarrassed them.
It was amazing.
And that's all the Packers got what they deserve.
So I'm rooting for the Bears now, even as a Lions fan, which sucks.
But here we are.
I want Pee Wee's Bike from Pee Wee's Big Adventure.
Okay, that's a good one.
I like that.
That's a good one.
It's rough when a lot of your favorite films are animated.
At least the 2D ones.
I guess I could ask for an animation sell.
But if it was a CG movie, what do I want?
The processor from the computer?
I don't know.
Kind of.
Actually, kind of.
That's good.
It's a fun game to play.
By the way yeah, the Morphers from the Power Rangers movie oh, that's good.
I love that plastic, hard shell Power Rangers costumes from the movie.
Oh, I fucks with it.
Oh, God.
They had those on this.
They had, I think, one of those on display in Hollywood Studios for a long time.
Really?
The Planet Hollywood store that was there.
I think that's right.
And they always looked cool.
I remember the first time I was in a Planet Hollywood.
The idea that, like, to me, I was like, this is irresponsible that they have these props just here.
They need to be, like, locked up.
These are too precious.
These were in a movie.
Yeah, biggest deal ever.
I couldn't believe that.
I was just, you know, eating right next to the freaking battering from batman.
Forever, your spaghetti sauce on it, right?
Yeah, this is dangerous.
Look out.
I'd want something from Wayne's World too.
The guitar?
The guitar?
The gun rack.
The gun rack.
That's pretty good.
I don't even own a gun.
Oh, you know what?
The penis pump from Austin Powers.
Oh, sure.
The Swedish penis enlarger.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I mean, for Wayne's World, just get the car.
The Murph-mobile or whatever.
A car?
Yeah, for sure.
Oh, yeah.
Alan Rickman's alien head prop from Galaxy Quest.
That's a good one.
Oh, God.
It's all ripped up and stuff.
Yeah, just wearing it all day without even remembering.
I love that movie.
God.
God, I love Galaxy Quest.
What a freaking movie.
Yeah, the book Austin Powers writes about the penis and larger pump.
That's my bag, baby.
Mikey, any more Super Chats?
I think we're good.
I think we're good, actually, now.
All right, thank you to everyone who sent a YouTube super chat.
And, gang, what do we got going on for the rest of the week?
Game Mess Mornings popping off Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
We're back, yeah.
Mikey's definitely beating Larry tomorrow.
It's going to happen.
I don't know.
I've got this whole Titanic or bi-tanic with a Y thing to get through.
No one knows what it means.
No, we do.
It's not even a joke.
Yeah.
Yeah, I do.
There's one costume slot I don't have yet and I'm hoping it's like a reward for being in the game or for getting all the trophies.
It better not be indicating a fourth movie sequence because I'm going to lose my mind.
I don't think it is.
Oh, boy.
I can't take much more, fellas.
I'm going to start lashing out.
I swear to God, I can't handle this fucking...
I tire of this Larry.
His leisure.
Voicemail dump truck popping off on Thursday as per usual.
And then on Professional Fridays, Friday afternoon as well.
We mentioned at the tippy top, there's a Big Hops review on the website, written by Chuck Towski, who also built the new website.
And then, folks, a little bit of housekeeping.
We are taking Martin Luther King Jr.
Day off next Monday.
So Myst will be moved to a different day.
No Game Miss Mornings that day.
Mega Man, I don't know, Mike.
You do whatever you want.
Probably no Mega Man, but we'll see.
There we go.
I was going to say you could maybe just watch the children's film Martin, where everyone goes back in time with a young Martin Luther King.
I thought that shit was a banger as a kid.
I was thinking about the show Martin, which I liked.
Yeah, that's what I was thinking of too.
I've never seen this movie.
Oh, I also like the show Martin.
Gang, anything else I forgot or anything else we want to talk about before we get on out of here?
No.
No.
No, I think we're good.
All right.
Okay, fantastic.
Giantbomb.com slash join.
Go help Chuck with the wiki.
And hey, you know, resist.
Just keep resisting out there, gang.
Stay safe as well.
We love you.
That's been the show.
He's been Jeff.
He's been Jeff.
He's been Mike.
He's been Dan.
I've been Jan, and you at home.
Smoke show going on over there.
Look at you.
Wow.
What that bang do?
Oh, my God.