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00:00:01
Reaching Master Ball Rank with SwiftIke
21 Plays28 days ago
Tony is joined by returning guest, Twitch Partner, Twilight Princess Speedrunner, and Master Ball Rank Pokémon Player SwiftIke! The two talk about the upcoming schedule for Summer Game Fest, what it took for Ike to reach Master Ball rank in the 4 categories represented by Pokémon World Championships, and the situation regarding the Pokémon Trading Card Game, along with your bi-weekly recap of gaming news and upcoming game releases!
Follow Tony: https://www.twitch.tv/tonysgamelounge
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TonysGameLounge
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Follow Ike: https://www.twitch.tv/swiftike
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SwiftIke
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This Weeks Episode was Edited by Mike: https://www.instagram.com/heyitsmikeye/
Join the Official Tony's Game Lounge Discord: https://discord.gg/xXyvjaCsXp
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
Disclaimer, all views expressed on this podcast represent the host and his guest and not the companies or agencies they are associated with.
00:00:11
Speaker
Welcome to Tony's Game Lounge, a bi-weekly podcast that covers everything in the world of video games, TCG, tabletop and more. Here's your host, Tony 14. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to a brand new episode of Tony's Game Knowledge. I'm your host, as always, Tony14.
Guest Introduction: Swift Ike
00:00:28
Speaker
And joining us this week, the returning guest that we have not seen for a couple of years, ah Twilight Princess Speedrunner and now Master Ball Rank in every major form of Pokemon competitive, Swift Ike.
00:00:44
Speaker
Hello. Thanks for having me. Welcome back. Thank you for coming back on, Ike. Welcome back. How you been? Pretty good. i mean, yeah, I, you know little taking a break from speed running and I've moved to just, you know, variety content of a bunch of different Pokemon stuff, including, you know, you're saying getting the master rank and all of the, you know, world's titles.
00:01:08
Speaker
ah But, you know, big variety guy now they playing games. Nice.
Are Games Losing Their Fun in Competitive Settings?
00:01:16
Speaker
I'd love to hear that for you. ah Because you're a returning guest, we get to take part in Hot Takes, where you get to give us your hottest video game take.
00:01:29
Speaker
All right. Just in general? Just video gaming? Just in general. Yeah, just in general gaming. ah Your hottest take. As someone who does a lot of like competitive gaming, you know I've played FPSs, MOBAs, etc., etc., I think my hottest take is that we are, as a society, over-optimizing the fun out of games.
00:01:53
Speaker
Oh, just in general. And it's kind of frustrating. as So when you play a lot of games casually, I feel like you play a new game for like a week and it's fun. And then week two and people have like the sweaty, like got a dance on your keyboard to do the trick shots and every game possible.
00:02:10
Speaker
yeah they and you if you're not watching the hot new youtuber you suck now and it's no that's pretty that's that's a fair that's a pretty fair take i ill like i kind of agree with that it's why i don't do much uh multiplayer by competitive games anymore compared to when i was a kid i'm a big fan of them no go Yeah, I remember we talked about, what was it, Dota 2 back when you were on, I think. Yeah, I am unfortunately still playing that game.
00:02:43
Speaker
For better for worse, I've been playing for 20 years.
Swift Ike's Gaming Journey
00:02:46
Speaker
My God. Wow. That's, that's a long time for, ah dave that's, that's nuts that that game's back around 20 years. got a preface that I started with Dota, right? Like Dota 2 is like a 2011 game, but I did play Dota 2 2011, right?
00:03:02
Speaker
But I was playing the Warcraft Reesh stuff back in like 2006.
00:03:09
Speaker
That's, yeah, no, I was, I think I was playing Rayman Arena that in back in 2006. Maybe even some Mario Party 6, possibly.
00:03:22
Speaker
I think that's around the the right, I think that's the right year. I think. <unk> for he might Yeah, have been. Yeah, it was something in like that's late GameCube era, 2006, the release of the Wii, right?
00:03:34
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I now also own like more than half of the GameCube collection in North America. That's an expensive collection. It is. It's over 9,000 Yeah, i got like three GameCube games, and I think that gets me to about $1,000.
00:03:51
Speaker
I think I have Fire Emblem, Path of Radiance. Yeah, I got that one too. Pokemon Colosseum. Yeah. And two copies of Twilight Princess, and that's it. Oh. ah Yeah, that that that thought that'll battle that'll put it up there, that's for sure.
00:04:04
Speaker
but ah take the According to like the the stat collector, of my rarest game is Digimon Rumble Arena 2. Oh, wow, Digimon. I guess no one bought it, so... There's two. Believe it or not, there's two Digimon games on the GameCube. It's that one and Digimon World 4. Which was dungeon crawler. I'm making that shot after bringing up Fire Emblem. but you know Swift Ike and people like, oh, you're from Smash Bros. I'm like, yeah, man, of course.
00:04:33
Speaker
That's where Ike's from. Cries on the inside a little bit. Yeah.
Summer Game Fest 2025 and Exciting Announcements
00:04:37
Speaker
Well, what we shouldn't be crying about is we actually, going into our headline of the week, we have our Summer Game Fest 2025 schedule.
00:04:46
Speaker
This is, of course, as people know, the E3 killer that eliminated e the the three E's ah from the world once COVID happened.
00:04:58
Speaker
I thought COVID killed back. COVID killed it too, but Summer Game Fest basically took it up it to just give us all the main big shows throughout the summer months.
00:05:10
Speaker
I'm calling it Summer Game Fest. And the big live stream does happen next. Well, this if you're listening to this on the Monday of release, it's happening later this week on the 6th. That is Friday at 2 p.m. Pacific, 5 p.m. Eastern. Jeff Keighley will be putting on a 2- our show showing off a bunch of games uh that are either coming out later this year or next year or years onward who knows i hope that we see judas because that we they showed it off that one time and i'm like man this looks great i want it now and it's supposed to come out this year but we haven't seen shit and i'm getting scared it's one of my favorite lady gaga songs go on
00:05:54
Speaker
It is a banger. We also got Day of the Debs following that up starting at 4 p.m. Pacific, 7 p.m. Eastern on the 6th. And then on the 7th, the Wholesome Direct kicks off at 9 a.m. m Pacific, 12 p.m. Eastern. And following that is the Future Game Show at 1 p.m.
00:06:12
Speaker
Pacific, 4 p.m. Eastern. Then you got the Xbox Game the xbox game Showcase on the 8th at 10 a.m. Pacific, 1 p.m. Eastern, followed by the PC Gaming Show at 12 p.m.
00:06:24
Speaker
ah Pacific, 3 p.m. Eastern.
Pokemon Direct and Game Releases
00:06:26
Speaker
As of right now, we currently do not have any updates on a Nintendo Direct or a PlayStation State of Play. I don't know if we'll actually get a Nintendo Direct this summer, considering the Switch 2 drops on the 5th.
00:06:42
Speaker
drops on the f We have a Pokemon Direct. We do have a Pokemon Direct, actually. though Yes, they actually did just recently announce that along with ah Pokemon Legends ZA getting a release date on October 16th.
00:06:57
Speaker
um Which is huge. They kind like they didn't even do like a spectacle of like no new trailer announcing it. They just tweeted it as well. yeah here it is yeah it's just like It felt a little lackluster, honestly. I'm like, okay.
00:07:10
Speaker
But at least we're getting a Pokemon Direct in July. which is on the tail end of Summer Game Fest, I believe. ah So there is that, at least.
00:07:22
Speaker
Yay? um he depends on how excited you are for new Pokemon games. I mean, like, I'm excited. It's just like, oh, oh you Pokemon, you didn't do anything to get get me excited for this. Like, no sparkling glitters.
00:07:37
Speaker
You always sparkle and glitter everything. The hot new thing is the new Netflix show, Pokemon Concierge. I'm excited for news on that. did that That show looks beautifully animated.
00:07:50
Speaker
It's so good. It makes me feel like a happy. you know i'm like an old, depressed millennial now, so I watch that show and I'm just like, ooh, look at the way capitalism doesn't ruin their life. I'm so happy.
00:08:01
Speaker
The dopamine hit. Excellent. the um But that's what we know first so currently for Summer Game Fest. um And of course, we will be covering everything um that gets announced ah over that weekend ah in the next episode.
00:08:18
Speaker
ah So be prepared for information overload next week. the next time you hear us ah this podcast because oh boy there's going to be a lot and some of those games and a lot of those games are going to pretty wholesome too i'm I'm looking forward to the wholesome direct that's always i actually a really neat show to to watch because it's like holy shit I want all of this it makes me feel happy and calm and let me escape the reality and horrors of my job and life it's that good stuff
00:08:50
Speaker
The good stuff. ah But with that, it's time for us to now cover everything else that happened in these past two weeks by diving in to the Week in Review. Recapping the major stories of video games and the world of tabletop, looking over recent releases and reports from the Game Lounge crew, it's the Week in Review.
00:09:08
Speaker
Starting off, some of the major game releases that came out. You had the Sea of Stars Throws of the Watchmaker DLC drop, Fantasy Life I, The Girl Who Steals Time,
00:09:20
Speaker
Grandma Elden Ring Night Rain, Rune Factory, Guardians of Azuma, and Duck Detective, the Ghost of Glamping. Which, if you have not played Duck Detective, I would highly recommend. It is a fantastic, simple, short, little ah detective game.
00:09:37
Speaker
ah The first one is the... Oh, goodness. Why am I forgetting what it was called? The Secret Salami. That's what it was. is that what you call it?
00:09:49
Speaker
That is what you... Sorry. That's what it's called. It's called The Secret Salami. it's ah nobody Nobody knows where the salami is. I had to look it up. You're right. That is the name of it I'm just like, there's no way they'd name it that. Oh, it is.
00:10:05
Speaker
and That's what got me to like, well, what is this? A secret salami? No, it's actually a really fun time. but Definitely works. looks like one of those, don't know if you've scrolled down on like the homepage of Steam and seen the risque nonsense games that are like the the new and upcoming. There's like always one non-safe for work game on that list some reason. Yeah.
00:10:28
Speaker
It seems like something you'd see there and be like, whoa. No, now it's just a little innocent innocent detective game and with a dedicated quack button. So, ah you know, you just you play as Eugene Duck.
00:10:41
Speaker
He's got a crippling bread addiction, and you gotta help. He's going through a divorce. It's like a hard-boiled noir type game, but with a little duck game.
00:10:52
Speaker
Yeah, a little bit, yeah. It's quite the time. ah Moving on to the game news. Starting off, Marvel Rivals Season 2.5 added a brand new team of attacks. Ultron has a playable character and a brand new map called the Hellfire Gala.
00:11:06
Speaker
that ah his i don't I don't think anything will over top Venom twerking in that game, though. I have not played since I added that. not going to lie. I played a lot of Marvel Rivals, but... the One of my, the the the people I played with, one of them has like a super fancy computer and it just cannot run Marvel rifles. Like it crashes on them every time they try to play them.
00:11:29
Speaker
Oh, ah the game's like weirdly unoptimized. Interesting. A couple of my friends i actually just have issues running the game. Weird. But it was i'm I'm hoping that game gets more success because something needs to challenge like Overwatch and yeah Team Fortress.
00:11:47
Speaker
Yeah. But nothing can challenge Team Fortress. Yeah. Team Fortress is so unique. um And also, you know, Valve, and it's got so much. and yeah I think the challenge for Team Fortress, isn't Valve working on like another game that's sort of Team Fortress-esque?
00:12:02
Speaker
Deadlock, the game that had 50,000 players in like December of last year and now has like 12. Yeah. oh oh. It's technically in alpha, and they've completely redone the game like three times since it had that. But it was still like 50,000 players.
00:12:20
Speaker
for like a month and then just everyone dropped it wild what we that's wild uh lies of p will be doing something the souls genre is too scared to do they are adding difficulty options uh these will be coming being released around the time of the prequel dlc that is set to come out soon ah Which brings up a huge thing that we actually talked about last time was ah with the Souls games and accessibility of they should have difficulty options. And this is the first one to actually do it.
00:12:56
Speaker
Big agree. as I have a partner who loves video games, but, you know, bless her heart, she's kind of ass. ah And some, you know, she picks up stuff eventually, but like...
00:13:08
Speaker
I don't think she would ever even try a Souls game because of just the fact that she'd get frustrated and not want to play anymore. And I think games, I think there's something to be said about like, oh you know, you got to climb the mountain, right? You got to you gotta to reach the top. The peak hits diff. But like some people, you know, they don't got climbing tools, you know, they're not built for it. And they shouldn't not, you know, this is a video game. This isn't an actual mountain, you know, give them the tools, lift them up.
00:13:34
Speaker
Absolutely. So ah huge kudos to Lies of Pete. And hey, who knows? maybe Maybe some other Souls games will realize maybe it is time to accept a difficulty slider.
00:13:46
Speaker
All i have to do, in my in my humble opinion, is have it be like ah like an are you sure like three times kind of thing. Like the base difficulty should be like when you go into the game, difficulty options should be like hidden in the settings.
00:14:00
Speaker
So that there is a true like this is what the game was designed around. And then if you want to go to baby mode, like, shit, maybe call it, like, little baby mode and, like, hide it in the settings and make people, like, really not want to press it, but let them press it if they want to press it.
00:14:14
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. If I want to be a little baby peewee, you know, peewee Herman, I want to, let me do it. Yeah. There's nothing wrong with that. Exactly. We don't difficulty shame here in the game lounge.
Collaborations and Adaptations: Monster Hunter and Elden Ring
00:14:28
Speaker
Yeah. The game wants to difficulty shame you. That's fine. don't want to put a little like baby icon on the top right that's like, oh, this guy is playing on Pee-wee settings, you know, point and laugh. But, yeah.
00:14:40
Speaker
But yeah, no, absolutely. Monster Hunter Wild's got a free Akuma layered armor complete with his Street Fighter VI moveset in a collaboration with the game.
00:14:51
Speaker
And also they have added DLC cosmetics that feature emotes and attire for Alma, allowing her to dress up as both Kami and Chun-Li. Various Street Fighter VI backgrounds, gestures, stickers, and pendants will also be available for purchase as part of the collaboration.
00:15:08
Speaker
Ubisoft appears to be bringing Ray-Ban back in a brand new AAA experience based on job listings that call for talent to join the development team.
00:15:19
Speaker
Studio Ubisoft Milan recently posted job listings searching for a 3D gameplay animator and a senior game designer to be involved in the production of a quote-unquote prestigious Twitch AAA title for the Ray-Ban brand.
00:15:32
Speaker
And now, while I am excited to see Ray-Ban back... i'll be more I'm going to be even more excited when these Ubisoft developers leave to go start their own studio to give us something just as gas as Expedition 33.
00:15:45
Speaker
who ah Expedition 33 is like that new RPG game, right? It is, yeah. The one starring Ben Starr from Final Fantasy XVI and Charlie Cox.
00:15:58
Speaker
Charlie Cox? The Daredevil guy? Yeah, he's ah the main character, Gustav. Is he still blind? ah ah No. he he He just looks like Robert Pattinson now, apparently.
00:16:10
Speaker
apparently People say that he looks like Robert Pattinson. I don't see it. I don't really see it. The Harry Potter guy, right? No. No, you are right. He was in Harry Potter. Was he?
00:16:21
Speaker
Wait. Yeah, Robert Pattinson was Cedric Diggory, the Hufflepuff who got killed in the fourth movie. He was in that. Yeah. This is the Twilight guy, though. Yeah, the Twilight guy. Twilight guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got, you know... mean, you weren't wrong, but like... Teenage crushes, you know, swapped up. My bad.
00:16:39
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, hey, you i take you technically weren't wrong. So... I feel like Twilight came out, like, at the same time as, like, Goblet of Fire. And I remember all the girls in, like, my middle school class being like, oh this shit is so good. I don't know. I don't know how mimic...
00:16:55
Speaker
I feel like I have like a weird specific memory of the people being like super hype. Like all the girls being super hype for Goblet Fire. and I'm just just like, yeah, okay, ladies.
00:17:07
Speaker
Okay, ladies. I'll just go back to polygons on the screen. I love my polygons. ah They're pretty good. ah Peak polygons. Sorry. I i could change it about like 2008 for hours. That like a Halo 3 time. Sorry. Go off.
00:17:26
Speaker
You're talking about now? That's good. It's good. ah Shift Up, the developers of Stellar Blade, have revealed that they are working on a brand new sequel. And also, Stellar Blade is ah collaborating with Nikkei, Goddess of Victory.
00:17:42
Speaker
Because i according to some people, it's the collaboration made in heaven. According to some. Not saying what demographic, but some.
00:17:53
Speaker
In movie news, A24 is making a movie based on the back rooms, and they're also working on a live-action adaptation of The Elden Ring. um The latter, Elden Ring movie, but was confirmed by Bandai Namco on X and other social media platforms, which I feel... I don't know really how you do an Elden Ring movie considering every, like...
00:18:20
Speaker
bit of story is told within the items not the characters that much i mean can't they narrate like this is a twitch streamer right just reading the description of the items out loud just be like oh this must be from the whatever right i don't know i've never played narrator is jack black please god no that man out of hollywood and
00:18:48
Speaker
ah Repo is preparing for its new update, showing off brand new weapons like a mountable cannon and scaling difficulty progression where every five rounds, the moon phase changes, adding more difficulty to the game.
00:19:00
Speaker
It could be fun. How do you feel about Repo? Sorry. I you it's i like it. in the it's It's kind of just dumb fun with friends. but yeah That's how i how I've been experiencing it.
00:19:12
Speaker
I've only played a handful of times, but just one of the times, like, all three my buddies died, and I was sitting there under a table just, like... gra And the monsters, and there's like in a long ass hallway and they kept like walking back and forth in the hallway. And I'm just like, am but is this the game? Am I just supposed to stay here? And yeah, it's a classic RPG where you're all the victim.
00:19:33
Speaker
Okay. We're all just, yeah, we're just like under leveled, but like, they're not killing me. They're just camping my spawn and I'm just standing there. Yeah.
Controversies in Gaming: LEGO Bionicle Fan Game Shutdown
00:19:40
Speaker
Watching them camp my spawn. and that I ended up self-destructing.
00:19:43
Speaker
but but like i I want to play the game and get me out of here. Yeah, no, I like it. It's ah it's got it's gods fun times. i but It's got a good a a couple of good mods too to add ah more stuff to it. Okay. I haven't tried modding.
00:20:00
Speaker
It's good dumb fun. It's just good dumb fun with friends. That's how I i see it. Just like how Lethal Company kind of is and what is it? Headliners and ah Content Warning are as well.
00:20:14
Speaker
They all kind of fall into that same general category. After eight years of development in some LEGO news, an ambitious LEGO Bionicle fan game has been forced to shut down.
00:20:28
Speaker
Bionicle Masks of Power was months away from having a playable demo, according to an update by developer ki co Team Kanoi, but it had to be canceled because good old LEGO had to step in and ruin the fun.
00:20:42
Speaker
ah So rest in peace to more Bionicle stuff. God damn, but Lego really does not want Bionicle to live on. were you ah Were you a read to Bionicle like? Not at all. i so That was one of those things I like witnessed from the sidelines.
00:20:56
Speaker
Just witnessed the commercials with the All-American rejects ah blasting their music while all the all the young boys were like, you look at the Bionicle. I think there was a period of time where I thought Bionicles were like General Grievous got a spinoff.
00:21:13
Speaker
a little bit, honestly. they They look very similarly alike. I actually recently like overheard my partner watching a thing about why Bionicle died.
00:21:24
Speaker
and so essentially it was just Bionicle was too goddamn expensive to produce. But also Lego will never like let anyone do anything because they're such a... the did They're like Nintendo. They protect their shit really tightly. Oh, Yeah.
00:21:40
Speaker
They absolutely do because it's so many properties that they have under that that they have the licenses for to make shit with. So it's like, yeah. And it's all like really expensive to make. So they kind of need to be making as much money as possible. Probably not to the degree that they do.
00:21:55
Speaker
Yeah. you know, corporate greed is a little, it's a little real with this. It's very real with them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I do understand, you know, to a degree, the, you know, our molds, you know, we, they're expensive to make. And I know, like, and don't know if you've played games, workshop stuff, you know, Warhammer, et cetera.
00:22:19
Speaker
I've never played like not never the physical game with all the miniatures I've never played. I've played one Warhammer game and only for like 20 ish minutes currently, um which was Boltgun, the Doom like Warhammer game.
00:22:34
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. i I played in high school, the like tabletop game. Yeah. That shit is pricey. But again, every single piece they have to, you know, pay for the mold And if they there's any adjustments, it's a whole new mold and that shit's expensive. Apparently, I don't and know all the details, but I guess it's a big deal. I was paying like $40 for a box of plastic and it was just like, damn. Jeez.
00:23:00
Speaker
That's even probably even more now with inflation. Yeah, i don't I'm glad I don't play that game as an adult. Yeah. ah Corsair has a brand new MMO mouse with not one, not two, but 16 side buttons.
Gaming Hardware Innovations: Corsair's New MMO Mouse
00:23:17
Speaker
All of them programmable as well. It's currently going for about $140. forty u s dollars It's called the Scimitar Elite Wireless SE. And it's also, you can program it like a stream deck.
00:23:29
Speaker
ah stream deck So each button could trigger those as well. Or of course, if you are an MMO player and want to have everything on your mouse, you can do that too.
00:23:40
Speaker
But like, I'm, just I'm content with my mouse that just has a two side buttons. That's, that's enough for me. Yeah. I'm a big fan of the two side buttons. I feel like the 15 is specifically for like Brunscape or wow.
00:23:54
Speaker
Yeah. Big rotation games. Very. Yeah. No, absolutely. ah The Exit 8, which was an indie horror walking sim that was that's ah like $4 on Steam.
00:24:08
Speaker
um Well, that's got a brand new movie trailer. um The movie is screening at the Festival Decayes this month and will be released in theaters in August. ah this it's ah a job being done by a Japanese studio um looks cool I think this is like a cool game to put into the movie format um and ah yeah definitely give that a check if you're into some horror stuff and a little bit of like back roomsiness because it does give those vibes a little bit
00:24:39
Speaker
ah Dead by Daylight's latest crossover is with Assassin's Creed Shadows. The teaser video has AC Shadows protags Naoe and Yasuke sitting by a bonfire as a ghostly figure in armor, shrouded in ghostly scarlet fires, watches them from the darkness.
00:24:56
Speaker
In Tekken news, Armor King was revealed as the latest, the next character in Tekken 8 after Fakum Ron releases, who will be releasing July 10th. And yes, people are still mad that he is coming out.
00:25:09
Speaker
King or? Fuck your mom. People are excited for Armor King. people yeah no people are people like excited for armor king ah Falken Rom, no.
00:25:20
Speaker
And, you know, I actually, like, compared to last week when I was like, I don't know why people are mad. I looked it up. it was because he kind of broke Tekken 7. He was in 7?
00:25:31
Speaker
he was He was a DLC fighter for 7. That was where he was first. That was, like, his ah debut. o Okay. Yeah. that's ah So that is who Falken Rom is.
00:25:42
Speaker
ah To those who ah weren't as invited as I was ah last week, um But I don't know. i you know I mentioned that i was I'm doing like variety now. The thing I was doing right before this Pokemon challenge where I tried to get out of the ranks was I actually tried to learn Tekken 8.
00:26:00
Speaker
Oh, how'd that go? ah Really good and then really bad. and Apparently Tekken 8 recently had a patch. you know but yeah the real whole fuck Yeah, the recent patch. Apparently Harada fired a lot of people for that patch.
00:26:15
Speaker
Yeah, like it was... and don't know how to explain it other than like people are so like saying this is the worst individual patch in like FGC history. like Quite literally ruined to the game level of patch.
00:26:31
Speaker
People were playing Tekken 7 instead. oh my god. Which is like crazy. i got into Tekken 8 because they added Clive Rossfield.
00:26:44
Speaker
i I hated that guy.
00:26:48
Speaker
That was brain dead character, man. Exactly. For people like me, brain dead button mashers. I was trying like to learn how to play the game. you know I really wanted to not be just like a brain dead button masher, and that was so frustrating that I just i couldn't figure how to be some of the you know the more... More characters. Yeah.
00:27:12
Speaker
Yeah. And the funny thing is, I don't even name Clyde. I name Reyna. Oh, me too. Yeah, that's what playing.
00:27:22
Speaker
ah The Parasite, the developers behind Blacktail, have revealed their next game, Davy X Jones, which looks like a Doom-style game, but with pirates. ah CD Projekt Red has confirmed that Cyberpunk 2 has entered pre-production stages.
00:27:38
Speaker
In Persona 4 news, Yuri Lowenthal may have inadvertently revealed that the Persona 4 remake is real and closer than we think.
Rumors and Speculations: Persona 4 Remake
00:27:48
Speaker
um As he tweeted on Blue Sky, ah quote, And for those who keep asking, no, I will not be returning as Yosuke for the Persona 4 remake.
00:27:56
Speaker
I asked, maybe I even begged, but they don't want me to come back, end quote. And also to follow this up, the voice actor for Chie has also tweeted something in a similar manner.
00:28:07
Speaker
um People are now speculating that during the Xbox showcase, we might see a first look or a teaser for a Persona 4 are whatever they call it.
00:28:18
Speaker
ah Dragon Quest 1 and 2 HD 2D Remix have have been given a release date for October 30th with a Switch 2 version confirmed as well. In some indie game news, the 6.1 Indie Showcase highlighted 40 brand new indie games. Well, some brand new and some ongoing with updates.
00:28:40
Speaker
um And they also announced a brand new publishing studio, 6-1 Publishing. Some of the games shown off included Video Gastly's, Forbidden Solitaire, Quite a Ride, Cabotau Park, Petal Runner, Dino Blade, Mouse PI for Hire, Grandma No, Guilty as Sock, and Scratch the Cat, and a whole lot
Indie Showcase and New Releases
00:29:00
Speaker
more.
00:29:00
Speaker
ah Some of those games are available now, some will be available down the line still. In some Sega news, Phantasy Star Online 2 New Genesis is collabing with Sonic starting June 4th, adding Sonic, Shadow, Tails, and Knuckles cosmetics, I believe was the fourth character.
00:29:19
Speaker
You can also get daily login rewards that are Sonic-themed. And Phasmophobia announced its next major update, Chronicle, and that will be launching on June 24th.
00:29:30
Speaker
Moving on to some ongoing game news, starting with Final Fantasy XIV, Colin Ryan, the English voice actor for Alphano LeVayeur, has finally reached the Heavensward expansion, which is where he started to voice Alphano as before it was Sam Riegel.
00:29:46
Speaker
ah And he has finally reached the Heavensward expansion during his playthrough ah and is now reacting to ki ah young Colin Ryan voice acting. ah Also, patch 7.25 has released, adding the brand new Gatherer Tribal Quest, two new Hildebrand side quests, and the Occult Crescent Field Operation where you gotta collect more Demi-Atma if you want that Relic weapon, and I am in my own personal hell again.
00:30:12
Speaker
Fuck you, Yoshi-P. How dare you do this to us?
Final Fantasy XIV Updates and Player Engagement
00:30:16
Speaker
Imagine grinding for things you need. ah But it not it's a side quest. I have to do it. My goal with this game is to finish every side quest.
00:30:27
Speaker
well so I'm almost done. i only I only have my roll quests left, and then I got a grind a mount, and then I just got to finish a couple of relic weapons, which are it is my personal hell.
00:30:38
Speaker
I love it. I have over 2,300 hours in this game. i love it. as Someone with a crippling old school runescape addiction. I understand. Thank you.
00:30:49
Speaker
In Fortnite news, the latest Fortnite battle pass added Darth Jar Jar as the big level 100 reward. Incredible. and Enjoy Darth Jar Jar. I guess.
00:31:01
Speaker
And in some Hoyoverse news, Honkai Starrail is collaborating with Fate, and you can claim Archer for free until version 3.6, and Saber is also there, but you have to pull for her. Boo.
00:31:13
Speaker
Yeah. some easy ah Sorry, what was that? I just said pulling, boo. Boo.
00:31:20
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. It's an eSport news. Honda has dropped its partnership with Team Liquid after six years after Dias Lucas BR included a of an atomic bomb after being eliminated by a Japanese team, CAG Osaka, at R6 Reload.
00:31:44
Speaker
I saw something about that. Apparently lead there was some stuff about like Honda's been trying to get out for a while and this was just like, oh, this was this was a good enough. ah You know, this was an opportunity, but also like Honda didn't need to be attached to anything that insanely insensitive.
00:32:03
Speaker
Yeah. um look like all right by yeah Liquid released a statement stating that the player will be fined four months' salary, undergo additional training, and have his post used as a case study.
00:32:15
Speaker
They will not be dropping the player. He will still be there. oh And Super Smash Bros. Melee Full House 2025 Finals ended in a very unexpected way, all because of an extremely rare glitch. i don't know if you saw this one, Ike.
00:32:31
Speaker
I did not see it, but I saw here in the and the briefing about so which ever I've known about this for forever. It's why people have been like trying to not have stadium be moving. There was like a frozen version of the of stadium that was being pushed for forever because this would happen.
00:32:50
Speaker
Yeah, and it did happen. Curtis, Moki, Pratt, and codant Cody Schwab were playing on Pokemon Stadium, and the glitch is basically if you wave dash at the right angle in the right spot on the fire variation of the stage, you can fall through the burning tree.
00:33:06
Speaker
And this happened, ah eliminating Moki, causing him to miss out on the $2,000 prize. And funny enough, good old Hungrybox, who was on the comms, called it.
00:33:18
Speaker
That it was like, oh, it looks it might might happen. And it happened. Yeah, it's... There's so many things jank with that stage. There's like an infinite in next to the tree of like a wave shine.
00:33:29
Speaker
oh yeah, I've seen that one. have seen that one. Fire Pokemon is like a lot of top players will see that and just stand still until it's over.
00:33:41
Speaker
Because it's just like none no one wants to be in the position where they just lose because they're stuck against the damn tree. Damn. Well, they there's some the hot tips for you rookie SSBM players.
00:33:57
Speaker
Don't pick Pokemon Stadium. It's a good stage if it didn't transform. true. now moving on, it's our first report of the season. We got a special Warhammer report from our boy, Sir Wiggles the Great.
00:34:11
Speaker
Hello Game Loungers, I'm SirWigglesTheGreat and here is the latest Warhammer news from Warhammer Skulls 2025, the annual celebration and showcase for Warhammer video games which took place on Thursday, May 22nd.
00:34:25
Speaker
Four games have been recently added to the Good Old Games preservation program, all of them Warhammer 40k games, Final Liberation, Chaos Gate, Fire Warrior, and Rites of War.
00:34:38
Speaker
Rites of War is currently free on the GOG platform for a limited time. Several new DLCs for various games have also been announced. Warhammer 40k Rogue Traders new DLC is Lex Imperialis, which will be adding new story content, a new companion, and new mechanics and more.
00:34:56
Speaker
Total War Warhammer 3 teased its new DLC Tides of Torment, which is set to be released this summer. Boltgun Words of Vengeance, a new free typing game, has been released and is available on Steam.
00:35:09
Speaker
Warhammer Vermintide 2 has gotten a free update, The Well of Dreams, which adds several quality of life changes to the Skaven killing fun. Space Marine 2 is getting an update that will include a new siege mode.
00:35:22
Speaker
You and two other players can get thrown against endless waves of horror on June 26th. And finally, a new class is being released for Warhammer Darktide. The Arbitus Class is joining the Heretic Hunt on June 23rd.
00:35:36
Speaker
Two remasters have been announced, Space Marine and my personal favorite, the original Dawn of War. Space Marine Mastercrafted Edition will be released on June 10th, and no release date has been announced for the Dawn of War remaster, but it can be wishlisted on Steam.
00:35:52
Speaker
Several new games were also announced. First we got Warhammer 40k Dark Heresy. Developed by Owlcat Games, the same developers as Rogue Trader, you get to explore the Coronas Expanse as a member of the Inquisition.
00:36:05
Speaker
No release date was mentioned, but it can be wishlisted on Steam. Warhammer 40k Bolt Gun 2 was revealed and is set to come out in 2026. And lastly, we have a new gameplay teaser for Warhammer 40k Mechanicus 2.
00:36:21
Speaker
The release date has yet to be announced, but it can be wishlisted on Steam. To learn more about what was released during Warhammer Skulls 2025, go to www.warhammer-community.com forward slash skulls.
00:36:35
Speaker
I'm Sir Wiggles the Great, signing off.
Pokemon TCG Developments and Collector Challenges
00:36:38
Speaker
Thank you for that, Wiggles. Moving on to some TCG news, starting off with the Pokemon Destined Rivals. That is out right now. And the brand new Pokemon TCG Pocket ah packs, extra dimensional... Oh, God, I can't remember what exactly called. It's the Ultra Beast pack.
00:36:55
Speaker
Those are out right now for you to start pulling for your Ultra Beasts and even more Sun and Moon Pokemon. In Yu-Gi-Oh! News, The Battle of Legend, Monster Mayhem releases June 13th, and Duelists Advance on July 4th.
00:37:09
Speaker
Imagine gathering, we are getting ever so closer to that Final Fantasy collaboration release on June 13th. Edge of Eternity releases August 1st, Spider-Man on September 26th, and Avatar The Last Airbender on November 21st.
00:37:23
Speaker
And in Lorcanna releases, Reign of Jafar drops on June 6th, and Fables drops sometime in quarter three. And in some tabletop news, Betrayal at the House on the Hill is getting an It expansion.
00:37:37
Speaker
ah It's called Betrayal at the Nabled House, the Evil of Pennywise, and it launches August 1st. I definitely read that as IT expansion, which doesn't make any sense at all, but it's way funnier to think about.
00:37:51
Speaker
like The tech nerds are coming out. They're going to betray us on the house. I'm thinking of like the – have you seen the IT crowd? I've seen clips and um Cliffs and Bits, yes.
00:38:03
Speaker
That's probably the best way to watch that show. It's really old British humor, so – But it's it's got some peak stuff. I'm just imagining those guys. it's some that's some The real horror is like the social you know interaction. You just see them ah holding um a knife and a a very long phone charger.
00:38:22
Speaker
That's right. ah Well, that is everything ah that happened in these past two weeks. Any final thoughts on any of those stories, Ike? ah No, other than it's a Interdimensional Crisis is the pocket pack. Thank you. Thank you. i haven't pulled i didn't I haven't pulled on it yet, only because I'm like, oh, I'm only like 15 things away from getting like a ah three diamond card that I needed to get from the previous pack. So I did that.
00:38:53
Speaker
So I'll be pulling Extra Dimensional Crisis tomorrow. I went and did all my battles to get my 10-pack, and I was like three thingies short, so i got to wait. and Oh, it's brutal. Yeah, I'll be doing those over the weekend because i i do it I do them at work because it's like, well, I've got nothing else going on.
00:39:12
Speaker
Might as well do some battles. I just i i let it auto while I'm script writing or whatever in the morning. Yeah, I thought i finally built like a decent auto deck to do those with too now.
00:39:23
Speaker
The Giratina EX Darkrai EX tank. Oh, almost never loses an auto. It's so disgusting. Good to know. I made a lug trio yeah auto deck.
00:39:34
Speaker
I can see that being good too. him It day wipes out the back row and the front row. It's nice. Yeah. The, the, ah the bots really like to have like a really weak back row. So that makes a lot of sense.
00:39:45
Speaker
It does. um Well, that's everything for these past two weeks. It's now time for us to look ahead.
Nintendo Switch 2 Launch and Pre-order Experiences
00:39:51
Speaker
And boy, oh boy, are there a lot of games coming out on the 5th. I wonder why. Here's what's coming out that should be on your radar from June 2nd to 13th. From AAA titles, indie hits, hidden gems, and hot pieces of garbage, here are the games coming out that should be on your radar.
00:40:08
Speaker
Now starting off on the second, you got Void Slayer and Void Scout coming out on the PC. On the third, MWO, Anarchy Collapse comes out on the PC as well. Nothing releases on the fourth. And on the fifth, it's Switch 2 launch day.
00:40:22
Speaker
Here are all the launch titles for the Nintendo Switch 2. Bravely Default, Flying Fairy HD Remaster, Cyberpunk 2077 Ultimate Edition, Deltarune chapters 1 through 4. These are also being released on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and PC.
00:40:38
Speaker
Fast Fusion, Fortnite, Hitman World of Assassination Signature Edition, Hogwarts Legacy, Kunitsugami Path of the Goddess, Mario Kart World, but Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, Nobunaga's Ambition Awakening Complete Edition, also coming to PS5.
00:40:54
Speaker
Puyo Puyo Tetris 2S, Rune Factory, Guardians of Azuma, Civilization 7, Sonic X Shadow Generations, Split Fiction, Street Fighter 6, Survival Kids, Suikoden 1 and 2 HD Remaster, Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom, and Yakuza 0 Director's Cut.
00:41:12
Speaker
On the 6th, Dragon is Dead drops on the PC. No releases on the 9th, but on the 10th, Dune Awakening releases on the PC. Mind's Eye releases on the PS5 Series X a PC.
00:41:24
Speaker
And Warhammer 40K Space Marine Mastercrafted Edition comes to the Series X and PC. On the 11th, Stellar Blade makes its PC debut. On the 12th, Forgotlings releases on everything but the Switch systems.
00:41:37
Speaker
And on the 13th, Five Nights at Freddy's Secret of the Mimic releases on the PlayStation 5. And The Alters releases on PlayStation 5, Series X, and PC. What are your thoughts on some of those games, Ike?
00:41:49
Speaker
I'm honestly mostly excited for the Switch 2 stuff. i I do have the pre-order on the Switch 2. yeah so what Which version did you get? The Mario Kart one.
00:42:00
Speaker
Oh, lucky. i did So I pre-ordered, and within 20 minutes, GameStop sold out of the Mario Kart bundles. Oh, really? i mean, I tried to get the GameStop because I...
00:42:13
Speaker
Recently got into Pokemon TCG. So I have a GameStop Pro thing because I happened to hit a restock of something and bought a lot of cards. So it was like cheaper to get Pro. Okay. I wanted to use the Pro to get a cheaper Switch too. And that I was, you know, on my phone on the app on when it dropped and it crashed for like an hour and never let me put anything in ah in the cart.
00:42:37
Speaker
And then... was gone. Yeah, but that was brutal. I couldn't get either of them. ah But i someone in a Twitch chat was like, yo man, I got two pre-orders just because, you know, I thought maybe some friends couldn't get it.
00:42:54
Speaker
So if you want it, I'll sell it to you. And I'm just like, hell yeah. Nice. Yeah, I just I woke up on because I didn't do the midnight pre-orders on the day before because I'm like, you know what? GameStop's doing it like 10 a.m.
00:43:08
Speaker
I'll wake up. Oh, sorry. I woke up like 10 minutes before pre-orders went live, logged on, was able to log on to my GameStop account ah with enough time.
00:43:19
Speaker
Thankfully. And the second I logged in, it's like, okay, we're putting you in a queue. And then like 20 minutes went by. I got in, got my pre-order, got out. I'm like, well, that was but wasn't too bad.
00:43:32
Speaker
Very nice. Yeah, it's it's a shame that if you don't get the pre-order with the Mario Kart that you got to buy it for like an extra 40 bucks or some shit. it's ah it's It's an extra like 100 up here in Canada.
00:43:46
Speaker
yeah. yeah yeah Yeah. Yeah. But ah the good news is it's a new Mario Kart on a new console. This is probably going to be the the Mario Kart people are playing for like 10 years. so Yeah, i'm going to spend a lot of time playing that game because it to look so but that open world looks like a lot of fun.
00:44:09
Speaker
And then my only other comment is apparently I saw that with the Street Fighter 6 coming out on the Switch 2, that that is, for whatever reason, the optimal system to play Street Fighter 6 on. It has the lowest input lag.
00:44:26
Speaker
Actually, what? Somebody was testing that at one of the like launch things. like a though I saw someone on Twitter talking about you know they're a a Street Fighter player. They brought some stuff to to test it, and it was like a decent amount better than any other option currently available, and people were like laughing really hard about just, oh man, wouldn't it be so funny if the Switch 2 became like the best option? And then it and totally is.
00:44:52
Speaker
That is incredible. ah That is... Oh my God. And you know, they're like partnered with Sony or whatever. So it's still going to be on the PS5 at like tournaments.
00:45:04
Speaker
But people have always been like, man, get it off the PS5. Play on PC. It's so you know that's so much better. um blah, blah, blah, blah. But now that you know they can never do PC because you know PC setups at every setup are too expensive. Wasn't there a time where like it was during a Street Fighter event, there were mods installed that they didn't realize?
00:45:24
Speaker
ah and One of them was a nude model of one of the fighters. I'm sure that's happened. I mean... The FGC is not known for not being gooners.
00:45:36
Speaker
ah oh yeah yeah The FGC is great. they that We pay 300 bucks to have ah FGC players take their shirts off. You'll love to see it. You'll love to see that. That that did happen at Combo Breaker, by the way, folks. That that actually did it did happen.
00:45:51
Speaker
Easiest 300 bugs. Yeah. um As are some other games. Dune Awakening, I like the survival crafting aspect of this game, despite me knowing nothing about Dune.
00:46:05
Speaker
um But the MMO elements feel feel weird, and I'm not sure about those still. And of course, for all of you weird kids on the internet for more Five Nights at Freddy's ah content coming your way.
00:46:19
Speaker
Those are all the games coming out within the next two weeks. It's now time for us to dive into our main focus this week. Here's what we're talking about this week in the Game Lounge. Conversations of past and future games, the state of the gaming industry, how big decisions affect gamers, and anything else that's important to us.
00:46:37
Speaker
Here's what's going down this week in the Game Lounge. And kicking it off, we're talking ah about the competitive Pokemon scene since Swift Ike here. Mr. Swift Ike. Ike, if you will.
00:46:49
Speaker
That's what they call it. Has reached Master Ball rank, the highest rank you can achieve in the four main Pokemon competitive categories. VGC, TCG, Unite, and Go.
00:47:04
Speaker
So how was it? How was that experience for you? It was honestly a lot of a grind, but right after I finished, I looked back and I was just like, huh, the amount of...
00:47:15
Speaker
years that I've just been playing these games, I've never really played them all at the same time. i I actually picked up competitive or you know TCG after going to a regional for VGC that was like local to me at the end of last year, like November last year. um oh And um and i really you know I learned VGC for that, and that was really fun of event.
00:47:39
Speaker
And then relearned there that VGC is like a weird little side event at TCG tournaments. Like, there were 2,000 plus entrants to the TCG tournament and, like, 600 for VGC.
00:47:58
Speaker
oh whoa, wow. That is... Yeah, it blew me away. We were, like, in a corner, the VGC people. Whoa, that's nuts. Yeah, especially because, like, the dig the video game, that's, like, that's Pokemon, right? When I think of Pokemon, I think of the video game and just...
00:48:18
Speaker
it's That is not the case in terms of like playing it at a tournament level um and going to Worlds. and But you know even playing in VGC, i ended up winning some like cards.
00:48:33
Speaker
And i I had not played Pokemon the card game like at all. I've opened up some packs you know during like the big COVID pack hype of 2021. um Those cards are obviously all useless now. But then I...
00:48:47
Speaker
Ended up picking up TCG with my partner. and you know, couple months ago, like two or three months ago, I hit the highest rank, ah the Master Ball rank in TCG. And I kind of just sat there and was like, huh, I think I've now hit this rank in all four of the games at some point.
00:49:04
Speaker
I wonder if I could do it all at the same time. And then kind of sat down and grinded out each game every day. Wow. So what what was the hardest and what was the easiest? Yeah.
00:49:17
Speaker
The hardest was Go by a mile. Really? Really? Yeah. ah what What does the Go competitive series look like? So you're tapping the fuck out of your screen, right?
00:49:30
Speaker
Like, I'm not going to sugarcoat it. You're just tapping your screen, but you got to have the right Mon. And ah there's there's there's like meta Mon and like ah a rotation. Like every week there was a new format.
00:49:47
Speaker
That you can play, right? i i I've played Go since release, but, you know, i I get addicted for a couple months and then I set it down for a year. i don't have just like an infinite Stardust. You know, i'm level 40. think 50 is the max now. i'm level 40. got some Mon.
00:50:04
Speaker
But I'd be looking at like, you know oh who's the good Mon for this? all right, I put together a team and then I'm grinding a little bit. I go, oh, my team has a glaring problem. I need this mod to fix it.
00:50:15
Speaker
And it's like, oh, I have zero of those. have you know I you know, I got one and 12 candy and it's going to cost me 400,000 startups to get this guy to the point where I can use it. and it's like, oh, shit.
00:50:28
Speaker
I just, I can't. I can't adjust my team at all. Jeez. And that was brutal. What is the better kt like current meta team for Go? Out of curiosity. There isn't like an individual meta team, but there are like meta Mon and Mon with the best matchups into those meta Mon. So it was like Claude Sire's really, really good. Tinkatun's really good. have to see my boy Claude Sire in there.
00:50:59
Speaker
Yeah, no, Claude Sire's nasty. Mandabuzz is really good. ah the like, Squid, like, upside down. mallamar Malamar. Malamar's really, really good. Oh, word.
00:51:10
Speaker
ah Because Pokemon Go is all about just like type matchups, right? Yeah, I guess so. you You just have like typing and then you have a shield and two charged attacks. And the charged attacks are what kill you on the ah the resources to like put your team together.
00:51:26
Speaker
to have access to two attacks, you have to spend like upwards of 100,000 Stardust just to get access to it. um But that's how you have like coverage, right? so you have yeah your primary fast attack and then two charged attacks.
00:51:43
Speaker
But it's just a random of like, you know, are your three Mon and their, you know, six attacks going to be... good into the opponent's three mon and six attacks or not ah one of one of the more recent formats that i was playing at the end of it for go was called like catch cup you could only use mon that you got within it was like between like march and june of this year so you had to catch them recently okay I quite literally had a team of three Pokemon that I could use for that.
00:52:16
Speaker
So there were zero adjustments I could make without like spending a ton of money or like going on a hike. Yeah, I had to no-life the game a little bit if I wanted to get stuff. So I kind of just you know hunkered down with my team of three.
00:52:30
Speaker
And there were a couple teams. like I'm pretty sure if I ever saw a Marowak, I had to just like forfeit. I just, it just killed my entire team.
00:52:41
Speaker
And I, is there there were some days where I saw zero Marowak and there were some days where I saw like only Marowak and it just crushed me. It was brutal. Damn.
00:52:53
Speaker
So, so go was, go was really tough. What was, ah what was the final team that got you to the master ball rank? It was my man-to-buzz grumpig, right? The little pig from Gen 3?
00:53:07
Speaker
Yeah. That thing's really good. And then I, oh, what was my third one? Skeledurge. Okay, nice. Yeah, the ghost fire a lot of work. A certified flat fuck Friday, if you will.
00:53:24
Speaker
That's right. yeah Skeletor just like shockingly good because it has access to like fairy moves, fire moves, and yeah and goes shadow ball. Yeah. Yeah.
00:53:34
Speaker
Wow. Huh. And the easiest was VGC. I and knocked VGC out of the park. I hit master ball and like but master ball in that game is kind of a free ball. Uh, if you just play, I think it's like, if you go like 15 and O you're just in master ball.
00:53:54
Speaker
Oh, nice. yeah. I think it took me like two days to get there, like two full days of streaming. but that' That's not too bad at all, actually. That's pretty but yeah that's pretty good.
00:54:05
Speaker
ah But then after that, you hit a ladder. ah all Almost all of the Master Balls, actually, you hit a ladder once you hit Master Ball. um But i was I was able to hit top 1,000 on the ladder, and that's where I was like, okay, this feels really good. and You know, I put together my own little like not to not so meta team. I had like a Sylveon team.
00:54:26
Speaker
ooh nice. So it it felt good to put together, you know, my own little squad and use the ah knowledge from picking up VGC before. yeah i have like a whole YouTube about that experience going to the to the regional and whatnot.
00:54:41
Speaker
It's putting all that knowledge to work again, and it felt good to succeed with that. Nice. And then I guess you have the dark horse of like the categories, but I feel like with your Dota background was probably not the worst with Unite.
00:55:01
Speaker
Yes, unite Unite was the one that I initially was the most afraid of because very similar to Go, if you don't have resources, your options are play a ton or buy it.
00:55:11
Speaker
Because that game is shockingly pay to win and a couple of ways. yeah I guess it is because you got to buy all the mods to play as.
00:55:23
Speaker
Yeah, that they did decently good job of giving you a lot of resources to buy the mon, but there's like a held item mechanic. Oh, I did not know about this. I mean, I i did not know about this. who Yeah, you get you get three held items and you can level them up. So I have all the held items.
00:55:44
Speaker
um i I must have bought them when I was playing in the past. I haven't played in a long time. But the held items, have to level them up. And I only had love level up items for like one character.
00:55:57
Speaker
Oh, so i wanted to each item is based per your curveball. Yeah, it'll it'll be like this is an attack item or a defense item. This one's for scoring. This one gives you movement speed, right? There's a bunch of different things like that.
00:56:10
Speaker
And I had a good set of stuff for like one roll. Oh, it's a gotcha it's it's a five man game. So, you know, everyone picks, you know, we're all jungler. We got five jungles on the team. I go, oh, well, allll you know, I'll play support and my items are all jungle items. And it just felt kind of bad.
00:56:29
Speaker
Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay. But I did manage to hit master ball and I had a lot of fun with that. And I tried to see how far I can climb on the ladder. How far did you climb on the Unite ladder?
00:56:40
Speaker
ah You hit Master at 1,200 points, and I managed to hit, like, 1,360. Okay. ok ah you go up by, like, 10 a game. ah Okay. Like, I don't know if that's good or Okay, that's not... It looks... So the peak of the season is, like, 2,000. That's where, like, the top of the top are, but they have, like...
00:57:02
Speaker
tens of thousands of games. Yeah. I don't know if they like fully reset that or not, but it, you know, I started at the start of the season. These people have way like so many games. So I was a little, i don't know if I was, if I was just like way too late or what, but ah just, you know, with it being a five V five and I almost, I solo queue like the whole way.
00:57:26
Speaker
I was ah definitely afraid of just, you know, getting stuck with literal bots. they You quite literally get bots regularly playing that game because the player base is not as large as they might hope.
00:57:42
Speaker
ah yeah Yeah, I guess so. Like, especially, like, how long has Unite been around now? Like, three, four years? ah Yeah, I think it came out like 2021. Yeah, so it makes sense like that the peak for that game, especially with its competition literally being League of Legends and Dota and Smite even. Smite's all of it.
00:58:05
Speaker
I think it is. they like i know they did like something last year with another franchise. i don't remember which what it was. i know they've crossed over with ah Avatar and Ruby of all things.
00:58:19
Speaker
um yeah i google they're still they're so real good for them good for them they're still real yeah smite's always been like the other MOBA yeah it still kind of is like even though Pokemon came into the scene you're like oh finally and now we can no longer be the other MOBA unite's a bit more recognizable than that one still but I feel like it has the head a Pokemon carry lot yeah it has the Pokemon carry and that's it If it wasn't for that that, it would be the other MOBA with whatever it could have whatever else it could have been, which who knows what Unite could be without the Pokemon.
00:59:02
Speaker
Yeah. Speaking of the Pokemon carry, you know what game is like actually like the worst game I've ever played? What? Pokemon TCG Pocket. Oh, my God. Okay, so is it because of the...
00:59:18
Speaker
The competitive side of it or that they've tried to implement or just the pulling and the pulling is actually wonderful. I think if if if pocket was just a card collecting simulator, I think that game was goaded. and Oh, yeah. 100 percent.
00:59:34
Speaker
ah That game is so good for just like opening cards. but like I i actually wanted so so I learned TCG from going to the original right yeah I wanted to pick up ah Pocket because I assumed Pocket was just the a new app for playing Pokemon TCG and then you know it came out and it is not at all it's a whole new Pokemon Pocket TCG is to Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links sure where it's a condensed version of the game
01:00:07
Speaker
Yeah, but just, like, the the way it's condensed is just so... i i would rather just flip a coin. ah like Well, you can flip coins, though. I know, that's the whole In fact, can hundreds of coins.
01:00:22
Speaker
what But it's just like, why are there even cards, man? Just give me a coin to flip. I want to play rock, paper, scissors with this guy. And, you know, once we draw three times, we flip a couple coins, and whoever wins, wins. Like, it...
01:00:33
Speaker
You know, i was talking, I'm playing the Darkrai. Darkrai Giratina yeah. It's gross. It's quite literally which one of you just like gets your, because once you, because I played that game's ranked a little bit because I wanted the free packs.
01:00:47
Speaker
Uh-huh. And it's just such a grind and you get to a certain point and then you're just playing the same deck because it it is, or at least it was, just like the deck. And it's there's just no freedom of expression. There's no skill expression. It's so like brain dead quite literally pushed me to playing like it was part of the reason I went and switched to playing regular TCG.
01:01:14
Speaker
And like, I remember I got my partner into pocket because, you know, i got her into regular TCG first. And then she was like, oh, you know, I'll check out pocket. I'm really liking Pokemon cards. She just comes up to me and goes, hey, what the hell is this shit? Like, I can't.
01:01:28
Speaker
Why would people play this? There's a perfectly good actual card game right over there. Like it's in Pokemon TCG has an app. You can just play yeah regular Pokemon.
01:01:40
Speaker
It's horrid. I don't know if you've ever. I've i heard stories. I've heard stories. the the The Pokemon TCG Live might be one of the worst functioning applications I've ever used in my life.
01:01:53
Speaker
ah At least it has. You know what? I will give the Pokemon card game this. At least it has Twitch category, unlike the Digibon card game. Oh, that's rough. The Digibon card game has a Twitch category for its tutorial app.
01:02:06
Speaker
Huh. I know the ah so the the Pokemon card game actually has like two categories. And one of them is for the Game Boy Color game. Oh, hell yeah. And that's the one that everyone uses because that one's just called Pokemon Trading Card Game.
01:02:20
Speaker
yeah As opposed to Pokemon Trading Card Game Live, which is the actual like yeah playing the game. Yeah. The craziest thing about live being like a non-functioning app is that this was apparently their second app. Like there was Pokemon trading card game online and they were like, we're dumping this for a new one. Yeah, I remember Pokemon trading card game online because that was introduced around the time of the black and white card set, if I recall.
01:02:48
Speaker
Because I played that online because I bought the starter deck and it came with a code and I'm like, oh let's try this out. And you got those cards, you got that deck and you could play online.
01:03:04
Speaker
And I'm like, whoa. And that's how I learned the TCG card game um myself. ah I never, I haven't played it in years like properly because it's a pretty good time to get back in if you're, if you're interested ish.
01:03:17
Speaker
I have. she Here's the thing. I got burnt out of Yu-Gi-Oh because of how the Master Duel meta ruined me and how the meta has just gotten worse and worse. And now they're on Snake Eyes. I've heard Yu-Gi-Oh like her heo is like turn one. You do things and then you win.
01:03:37
Speaker
Yeah, basically it's basically if you go first and you get the right setup, you win. Otherwise, if you go second, you pray to God that they didn't get anything and they forfeit. That is basically the Yu-Gi-Oh! meta nowadays.
01:03:49
Speaker
That's so crazy to me. Like, Pokemon's got a little bit like that. Like, I respect Pokemon and Magic in the sense of like, hey, guys, you can only use cards up to this X points to this point for the current season and then when the new pack releases...
01:04:03
Speaker
With Yu-Gi-Oh! it's just like, oh here's some more cards to throw into the pile of everything you can use. Oh wow, there's not like a standard? No, it's basically here's your ban list, here's what you can and can't use, and everything else is fair play.
01:04:18
Speaker
That's crazy. know there's an expanded meta for Pokemon, and there's literally one deck. like If you're playing Expanded and you're not playing the one deck, you just lose. like it's Oh.
01:04:30
Speaker
Just like i like a triple S kind of deck. it's Oh, a tier 0 deck. yeah that we yeah called Good old tier 0. that's I think Master Duel has... I think there's a Snake Eyes ah engine combo that is a tier 0 currently.
01:04:47
Speaker
i don't know what, because the last time... I think I played Master Duel last year when it was like... oh god it's ah um' um I'm getting non-flashbacks right now with fucking Master Duel God.
01:05:01
Speaker
but i like Here's the thing. When that game came out, I was all over it. I loved Master Duel. I was like, yo, Konami, come sponsor me. I'm in love with this game. I got all my friends into it. We all played. It was good times.
01:05:13
Speaker
And then just slowly and slowly the meta got worse. I'm just like, I just want to play my Destiny Heroes. Yeah, man. i I've never really been super into the Yu-Gi-Oh! outside of like the show, because the show's bopping.
01:05:27
Speaker
The show is bopping. But like everything I hear about the game is that it's just getting worse. like It's just slowly or even rapidly dying. play that you want to play casually, play with a couple friends, have a fun time, build whatever you want.
01:05:42
Speaker
um There's some funny things you can do, like ah like de like there's some good deck out decks or nurse burn. They're funny gimmick decks.
01:05:54
Speaker
And then you just got your like all ah so many like archetypes that you can pick from that are just a lot of fun. like Are they viable and competitive? Not at all. ah But they're just fun to play.
01:06:05
Speaker
And you know I like that aspect of Yu-Gi-Oh! But God... the The ranked trenches, man. I got to like the highest rank in the very first season thanks to a gimmick deck called Time Thief where you steal the top card of your opponent's deck every turn.
01:06:25
Speaker
um It's an Xyz card onto that as material and then it has like, oh, if it's a monster, you can do this. If it's a trap, you can do this. and If it's a spell, you can do this.
01:06:36
Speaker
with ah The spell lets you draw a card, and the trap lets you return a card to the top of your opponent's deck, where if it's their turn and they're attacking and you use that ability, you're going to get to steal that monster, and they can't use it anymore because it's on your monster, unless your monster gets sent to the graveyard or something like that. but it's like it was funny It was funny gimmick, um but it was also like a 20 step turn one combo that you had to execute to make it work.
01:07:08
Speaker
Wow. it was fun. Yeah, there's there's very little setup with Pokemon. Yeah, well, there's some setup, um yeah but not quite. Not to the level that you will ever be.
01:07:25
Speaker
Well, we also have ah recently a card came out called Budoo. Oh, but who, but who, but who is the thing swarming the meta right now?
01:07:38
Speaker
Cause it is a free attacker. So doesn't need energy. 30 HP. Uh, and, uh, free retreat. That's like the real big things that it can also go out of the the spot for free.
01:07:51
Speaker
Okay. And if it hits you, you can't play item cards from your hand. oh okay. That's actually, that's a big thing. And it's justs you're just item locked, and there's so many decks that need items. and So you just sit there, and you're just like, all right.
01:08:07
Speaker
And it's just this little guy hits you for 10 over and over again. just a little war crime guy. ah Just a little guy can make war crimes. Just a little guy. hate that little guy.
01:08:20
Speaker
I mean, I got one in my dag. You can't not have one in your dag, he's just a little guy. He's just a little guy. Absolutely. ah So with Pokemon Champions, the the new competitive Pokemon game that's going to come out that's essentially going to be the new Battle Revolution slash...
01:08:42
Speaker
I don't know what it's going to be. They almost advertised it like it's going to be like Pokemon Showdown. you yeah game The game. game. ah Do you think it will get a separate VGC category or will it become the main thing?
01:08:57
Speaker
i I really hope it becomes the main thing, because I'll tell you what, I hate Showdown. I think that i i it's nice. i like I love Showdown, but I hate playing on Showdown.
01:09:08
Speaker
Yeah, I what you mean. I like doing random battles on Showdown, because it's... But like, I feel like people like doing random battles on Showdown and that's awesome. But I feel like when I play like VGC to practice on Showdown, I get people trying to do random battles.
01:09:22
Speaker
And it's just like this. is I'm not going to see your Psyduck strats at the fucking like the regional, man. Like put that shit away. And I'm just like trying to figure out like what does Charjabug do, right? like Get that Charjabug out of your pants.
01:09:39
Speaker
And it's just it's so frustrating that ah like no matter what rating you are um it on Showdown, I feel like I just run into the most nonsense teams.
01:09:50
Speaker
And then I go play on cart. I don't see any of this. But then playing on cart feels terrible. Your shit crashes all the time. Yeah. Like, it's it's so slow and clunky. Like, if I open up, oh is like yeah you if if you played Scarlet Violet.
01:10:07
Speaker
I have, yeah. I um i cleared the national decks in all the all three. Nice, yeah. And it it's a it's a great game as long as you don't look at it.
01:10:17
Speaker
Yeah. It is. genuinely is. Yeah, it just runs. Just don't look at it too long. Just don't look at it too long. It runs as a questionable statement.
01:10:31
Speaker
Yeah. So, like, you know, if I wanted to go play VGC right now, I'd click the Scarlet Violet button, and then I'd spend about five minutes loading and lagging, and then I'd finally... And it's just, I just need to go through menus. You can do it from anywhere.
01:10:44
Speaker
Yeah. And just getting through those menus would take me a solid five minutes just to start playing. Like it's and then like so a fascinating thing about actually all four of the games that I played. Yeah. because I picked these four because these are the four games that you can see if you go to Pokemon Worlds.
01:11:02
Speaker
um These are the four games represented at Worlds, which is why I did not play Pocket. Because it's not going to be represented at Worlds. At least not this year. not this year. Next year. all wait for We'll see. Serentina and Darkrai everywhere. Yeah, i can't wait. I mean, they have like rare candies in that game now. So maybe yeah fathers the rare candies are interesting. I mean, i like them for the decks that type based decks that use against the AI.
01:11:29
Speaker
But that's it. Yeah. I use that against me. Do not know what the meta is now with those. Because I know I know i use a lot of them in regular TCG and it's wonderful. um Unless you get buddied and then you can't play it. ha.
01:11:44
Speaker
um But um yeah, so i picked I picked those four games and interestingly enough, none of them on their ranked ladder operate the same way they do if you go to a tournament.
01:11:57
Speaker
Oh. um For instance, Pokemon Go. I said it was just you get three, right? You just get three and they get three and you just go. In Pokemon Go, if I go to a... If I go to the polls... If I go to a tournament, a regional, local, whatever, don't know if are locals, it's six Mon. It's six Mon, and you get to see each other six Mon, and then you both bring threes. There is like a... Oh, okay. So they do that thing that you sometimes see with the VGC where it's like you see they're opposing teams. So for VGCs, you get a pregame screen where you both get to see six and you bring four. It's doubles, right?
01:12:36
Speaker
If I go to a tournament for VGC, it's going to be something called Open Team Sheet where I get to see what their team is, what items they have, what moves they have, and what teratype they use.
01:12:50
Speaker
There are pterotypes in Go. I have not played Go. Not in Go. This is for VGC. Oh, in VGC. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You go to a tournament. It's going be best of three, and you're going get to see all of that, and they get all that from you. It's an open team sheet. You share each other's team, and that is just a completely different game than the best of one blind ranked ladder where you just get to see their six mon and pick four.
01:13:15
Speaker
um So I'm really excited for Pokemon. well What's it called? Like challengers or whatever? champion ah Champions. Champions. I hope they give us open team sheet like an actual ranked UI that just lets you have a good game. Like I'm.
01:13:36
Speaker
So sick of ah just my my my my biggest pet peeve, Urshifu, right? Yeah. Oh, which Urshifu? Yeah. Both of them. That's the problem. If you're in the team preview and they have an Urshifu, it just says Urshifu.
01:13:53
Speaker
Oh, gosh. It's just a little picture. And it's going to be one of them. And it's just like, oh, are they bringing? it's It's probably rapid strike, which is the water one. No one really brings single strike, but it could be single strike. And you don't know. You just it's literally random.
01:14:10
Speaker
Okay, okay. And that is, it's so frustrating the way VGC has always felt like a thing that they, they they they must care about it because they do balance VGC stuff. Like there are minor tweaks, like they made Thunderwave slightly more accurate, right? Like there's no point in changing that for 99% of the people who play Pokemon.
01:14:38
Speaker
Yeah. So they clearly care, but ah not that much. like They care, but it's not a lot. Yeah, just do the way that Despite, like, a lot of the there being a lot of, like, one of the biggest Pokemon creators out there being Wolfie and him being a top VGC player.
01:14:57
Speaker
Pokemon! Yeah, I mean, outside of Wolf, Wolf, Wolfie, like, that's it. that's like That is Pokemon VGC. If you watch vgc and you don't watch Wolf, then you're a a minority, right? Like, that's probably a majority of what anyone knows about VGC is what they've seen from from him.
Learning from VGC and Community Reflections
01:15:19
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, yeah, that's like, bad like, I know everything I've learned from VGC because of watching him. Like, oh, neat. And that's it. That's it. that's That's all I know. It's kind of wild.
01:15:32
Speaker
it's kind of It's wild to see that like with Worlds, just like the sheer divide. um I'm excited to know like what's the how many people sign up for Go at Worlds. like How many you are are there for Go?
01:15:49
Speaker
ah Yeah, I have no idea. I know when I went to the to the the regional here, ah there was supposedly Unite and Go, but I never saw it. If I'm being real with you. they were hit they They were hidden at a back down a very far hallway right next to washroom. It was like convention center, like a big rectangle.
01:16:10
Speaker
Like, I feel like i would have been able to see it, man. But I didn't, I never, like, shit, I should have signed up for Unite the one guy in the room and qualified for Worlds. Because you have to qualify for this shit.
01:16:20
Speaker
Yeah. I hey ah picked the wrong game. I could have picked the the games with no one in them and qualified. yeah I'm going to Worlds as a spectator this year, but the shit, I could have you know had that paid for.
01:16:34
Speaker
thats that where Where are Worlds being held this year? ah Anaheim. Oh, i'll
Challenges in Pokemon Gaming: Unite, Go, and Scalping
01:16:40
Speaker
get that nice. Yeah, that makes sense. so as ah As a Cali local, I'm just going to waltz over there.
01:16:45
Speaker
Hell yeah. Nice. i'm I'm very excited. Nice. um Is there anything else you want to add on the but on the Pokemon competitive scene before we move on to our second topic of the day?
01:16:58
Speaker
Not really. I feel like the only other thing I'd add is just like if you're out there and you want to play Pokemon competitively, it's really fun and it's a lot easier than you might think. And you got options.
01:17:10
Speaker
Yeah, you got options. ah Probably don't play Unite. Or, I mean, you can play Go. Unite's free. They're free.
01:17:20
Speaker
tell Theoretically. Allegedly, they're Theoretically, with with quotation marks there. And, know, a bunch of CEOs with their money bags right behind with with bar behind them from all the microtransactions.
01:17:35
Speaker
Yeah, I had a lot of fun with all four of the games. I think Go and Unite are two games to me that i feel, and this is not in the competitive sense, just like in a general, they had the ability to be some of the greatest games of all time.
01:17:50
Speaker
ah Especially Go. Go, like, if you played in 2016, you know what I'm talking about. Like, Go was a phenomenon. It was. And they dropped the bag so hard.
01:18:02
Speaker
And they just keep, they keep dropping it. Like, every single time they make an adjustment, everyone's mad. Everything keeps getting more expensive. Everything keeps getting, like, less quality of life.
01:18:13
Speaker
Like, I've never seen a game release a patch for, like, Avatar creators. Yeah. that just like makes your guy ugly. like They straight up just said, hey, we wanted to add extra settings. We took away your old avatar. You have new avatars now, and all of them are ugly. You're all ugly now. Gross. You guys make an individual good decision. Like, please.
01:18:33
Speaker
i just want to walk around and catch Pokemon, man. That's all we wanted. There's so much potential. Yep. Yep.
01:18:43
Speaker
This is a public service announcement for all users in the virtual realm. Are you tired of your friend's terrible taste in memes? Do their jokes make you question your life choices? Well, fear not, because help is on the way.
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Speaker
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01:19:09
Speaker
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01:19:21
Speaker
The Meme Rehab Hotline is standing by, ready to rescue your friend's sense of humor. Remember, a meme saved is a laugh earned. All right, well, moving on to our second topic of the day.
01:19:34
Speaker
It's the TCG stock crisis. Dun, dun, dun. And this is where I talked about, like, if you want to get into Pokemon, it's a good time, but also it's not because you can't buy cards.
01:19:44
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Holy fuck, you cannot buy cards right now, either because they're being scalped or, you know, they're being limited to one thing, a person, one pack, a person. Which is to fight the scalping, but I still, you know, I i went to, like, a pet store the other day, and apparently there was, like, some Prismatic Evolutions, which is, like, an Eevee set that came out in January. ah Yeah. Apparently they were restocking at the GameStop. The GameStop didn't open for two fucking hours.
01:20:12
Speaker
And there was, a they like, campers, man. Like, a line of people camping for Pokemon cards, and I bet you, like, none of them play the game. Oh, yeah. yeah I've been in a couple of those lines recently since since, you know, I picked it up.
01:20:26
Speaker
And every time i'm like, oh, you guys play TCG and everyone looks at me and goes, play the fuck. what Are you crazy? just like, what? None of you play. Why not? It's fun. like why are you buying cards?
01:20:38
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, God. I mean, i understand those the people who like who just collect them. and They're pretty. They're pretty parents. I can respect a collector.
01:20:49
Speaker
ah Those who just purchase them to resell them, no. Nuh-uh. Don't do that. And there's there's even like ah like a fourth guy. So good we got players, collectors, scalpers, and then like tech bros, like like like like crypto bros are buying cards. Not the crypto bros!
01:21:09
Speaker
Yeah, man. There's like a whole ass like Reddit for like tracking the bright like the rise and fall of cards and like opening up, like pulling hundreds of packs.
01:21:20
Speaker
to get the the expensive stuff and get it graded and then you know some some of them collect it it's like it's like collecting but if you were collecting money like if pokemon cards were a currency it's so weird no i can't wait for the nuclear i can't wait for the nuclear apocalypse to come and uh our currency become pokemon cards uh who we're gonna have to next fall i'm about to go hard that get to spend a charizard to get some canned steak oh no oh oh geez uh so do you think uh gamestop and walmart uh should be eliminating the purchases of tcg do you think it's a good strategy for them to put in place for anti-scalper ways
01:22:09
Speaker
I think it's a good start. As someone who wants to play the game, and someone who played as like a child, right? ah It actually like breaks my heart when I walk into a Target and i I walk over to the Pokemon card game section and it is a bare wall.
01:22:25
Speaker
And it's just like, man, what if I was a kid and my friends at school had some Pokemon cards and I asked my mom, please, can I i get some Pokemon cards? And you go into the Target and there's just nothing.
01:22:36
Speaker
And some, you know... ah scalping guy shows up and goes, oh, yeah, you got to be here and open on release day to get any cards. That mom can't do that shit. That kid, you know, you ate your little Timmy. You can't get any cards.
01:22:50
Speaker
And that just, yeah it i so I feel like there needs to be something, but I don't know. How much it helps? ah I know something GameStop actually just announced that they're doing is ah this newest set, the Destined Rivals, right?
01:23:08
Speaker
Yeah, Destined Rivals. They're selling it at over MSRP. Which is just like insane to me that it's i've never seen yeah I've seen card shops do this. you know I go into a card shop and they're like oh yeah, $130 for this $50 box. And I'm like, yeah, you actually can screw yourself.
01:23:28
Speaker
But... But you're ah you're a card shop and you're just, you know, I'm sure you've struggled to even get the stock, right? Yeah. But for like Target, or Target's not doing it. It's just GameStop.
01:23:42
Speaker
It feels bad. yeah Because Target and Walmart could follow suit in that too as well. Yeah, and I guess it'd be nice to have cards on the shelf, but at what cost, man? you do At what cost? At our cost.
01:23:58
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Literally, our wallets are crying because of it. um there There are some other cool things. I've been seeing some card shops do a... There's like a two-price system. I love the two-price system.
01:24:15
Speaker
Um, the idea is if you pay and MSRP, you got to open that shit in the store. Oh yes. I have seen that too. Yeah. They've been, they've, uh, I've seen some tech talks of like card shows are even, uh, doing that too.
01:24:30
Speaker
Yeah. You got it You got to open it there on the spot that before you can't resell it. Right. You're going to resell. You got to pay the market price of, ah you know, three X the the rate, but if you're going to open it in the shop,
01:24:42
Speaker
Go for it. Apparently, have you seen the yeah Pokemon Center vending machines? Oh, have I seen those? They are all over the place in the States now.
01:24:55
Speaker
I've never seen anything in them, personally. Oof. i Ever. Yeah, no I've never seen them stocked. But I've heard that they are going to start...
01:25:09
Speaker
removing the plastic from the stuff that they sell in those. oh Oh. To stop resellers by just removing the plastic.
01:25:20
Speaker
Yeah. Because then it's not a sealed product anymore. Yeah. but That's not so bad. Because obviously the people who care and want the cards don't care that sealed. Yeah. yeah and Well, they don't care that it's sealed coming from the Pokemon Center, right? Yeah. um I think if I...
01:25:38
Speaker
went to like a card shop and I bought ah box and it wasn't sealed, I'd be like, hey man. yeah ah Yeah, obviously for that because it's like, hmm. How many of these cards, you take out my poles?
01:25:50
Speaker
Yeah. Because I'll cry. i'll do it, man. i will cry right here in the middle of the store to for everybody to watch. Yeah, man. It's your fault. get on my knees and sob.
01:26:03
Speaker
like And I already don't have any luck. Like I've pulled... A decent amount of cards. Because i'm i'm you know I'm camping. I'm trying to get into this game. and So I'm having to camp out to buy some packs.
01:26:15
Speaker
And ah I hate it. I hate it. But I got some packs and I pulled nothing. But i just if you're taking my good cards out before I even get the chance, I'm going from nothing to like negative... you know Nothing times two, and it's just... Oh, it hurts.
01:26:33
Speaker
I can't have that, man. Yeah, no, you you can't. Do you think Pokemon's own popularity is what's kind of... wouldn't say killing its card game, but, like, it's because of Pokemon's own popularity that's caused this.
01:26:48
Speaker
I don't... So, first of all, you can't... I can't say, like, that it's killing it. Yeah, no, exactly. Because, like, you see... The problem is it's going off the shelf, right? Oh, yeah, exactly.
01:26:58
Speaker
But it's definitely, like... Killing morale. Killing the experience, yeah. The the whole Twitter echo chamber of players is just like, oh, I can't buy shit. I can't do shit.
01:27:10
Speaker
ah The price of singles are going up because of like this. It's like a weird... Like Crypto Bro thing. There's like big YouTube channels. I think the YouTubers, the YouTubers who are opening thousands of packs for content, I think that's what's killing it.
01:27:26
Speaker
Yeah. and like There's a lot. Yeah. People, people well there there are channels where they just like open up packs and like as they showcase the cards that they're pulling, they're being like, this is the market value of this card.
01:27:40
Speaker
And like the the the price goes up, right? Like the little ticker. Yeah. Like, ah like they're They're buying stocks, man. And it's like, these these aren't these aren't stocks. They are stock board. These are... Come on!
01:27:56
Speaker
They're cards. Just like, they're for children. And they're pretty. I love... And you're talking about like play Yu-Gi-Oh! The thing that's ever going to get me to play another card game is A, I'm terrible at card games. I play Pokemon because I like Pokemon.
01:28:10
Speaker
I think I like my little guys, you know? i got I'm playing an Zorarks deck. Ooh! And I got i got my my little Zoruras and they're it's adorable.
01:28:21
Speaker
got my Darumaka. They're pretty cards. and of course N is on most of them and I love that guy. He's pretty chill guy. Yeah. Hashtag N is hot.
01:28:33
Speaker
It's the name of my deck, actually. You can name your deck, and I have N is hot as my deck. Valid. but night My Minecraft skin is Zen. Hell yeah.
01:28:45
Speaker
I love my green-haired game. Have you seen have you seen his ah like full art card? i I feel like I have, but it's been a while. but like Actually, I should look that up right now. on let me i'm sending you I'm sending you the picture. This card is gorgeous.
01:29:02
Speaker
and it's It's a shame it's not better, but the it's good enough. so so oh That is such a cool-looking card. Holy shit. Right? So i got I got one of those in my deck. It's peak stuff, man.
01:29:17
Speaker
That is peak. God damn. Pokemon cards. And then this is why I like can't knock the collectors because like these cards are gorgeous. Unfortunately, you open a pack and like you're going to get nine Pokemon.
01:29:29
Speaker
And they're all useless. And then like one Pokemon card might be useful. You might get like an item card, maybe. And items are... Like when you build a Pokemon deck, you have like 18 Pokemon.
01:29:42
Speaker
like 10 energy or less. And then the rest is all items and trainers. Jeez, that's... Fucking Christ. It's so funny because when you open up packs, you get like 90% Pokemon.
01:29:56
Speaker
yeah like And yet your deck is 60% items. yeah It's really funny. To me, at least. Jeez Louise.
01:30:08
Speaker
So, basically, open up a card shop that just sells item cards. And you'll profit. For the competitive players. Yeah, for... And I'll just make a joke. All three of us, but that's...
01:30:21
Speaker
ah Not TCG. Just like I'm saying, I went to the tournament, man. 2000. There's a lot of people. And this was, the why you know, I'm in Sacramento. This isn't ah like a big, you know, I've gone to a couple locals. There's like 30 people maybe.
01:30:37
Speaker
but ha So for 2000, it was like, sheesh, man. Jeez. Yeah, Wow. Well, it goes to show when you give one of the the the most iconic brands of all time cardboard, people go nuts for it.
01:30:58
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's been around for a long time. it's been around for... came out like year after the video games. after the video games Something like that. if How old is Yu-Gi-Oh in comparison? know very similar age. Yu-Gi-Oh celebrated 25 years not too long ago.
01:31:20
Speaker
Okay, so Yu-Gi-Oh must be like right after Pokemon. But there was definitely like a card game boom. like Pokemon revolutionized that shit. I feel like Yu-Gi-Oh must have followed suit. And probably did you on too. two thousand it launched in Japan.
01:31:36
Speaker
march two thousand and two in north america so yeah they so they've they've been celebrating ah twenty they around twenty six years fair nice Very nice indeed.
01:31:47
Speaker
ah Well, Ike, is there anything else you want to add on the Pokemon TCG stock crisis before we move on to the bonus level? ah Please stop scalping my cards.
01:31:59
Speaker
if you're ah If you're watching this and you're a scalper. You better look out because we'll come scalp you. i I'm not legally allowed to say out loud what... yeah Yeah, I just want to be able to buy cards. I want a little Timmy to be able to buy cards.
01:32:15
Speaker
Think of Timmy. Think of little Timmy the next time you scalp those cards. Scalping should be like a criminal offense like in general. If you buy a ticket to something and then sell it at triple the price, like you should go to prison.
01:32:29
Speaker
Well, I mean, one form of scalping is legal, so... ah We should just make both of them. but I mean, yes. The punishment fits the crime, man. Scalpers get scalped.
01:32:42
Speaker
Exactly. There it is. That's how you solve the issue. so ah well Well, with that, it's time for us to move on to our final segment of the show, the bonus level. Crazy lists, great deals, and recapping gaming history. It's all here in the bonus level.
Gaming History and Celebrations
01:32:59
Speaker
And to kick it off, we got Game Clash. This is a small eight-entry tournament, randomly seeded, depending on the topic. And this week's topic, well, staying on Pokemon theme, and since we both have some cats, we got Cat Pokemon.
01:33:14
Speaker
So Ike, you will be deciding which of these cats move on each round. And only one can be deemed the champion. Okay. For match one, we got Glameow versus Purloin.
01:33:29
Speaker
think I got to go Purloin. All right. All right. Round two. We got Esper versus Galarian Meowth. I gotta go Esper.
01:33:41
Speaker
Nice. Solid choice. Batch 3, Skitty versus Regular Meowth. That one's hard because I love Skitty. Pink, adorable little cat, but quite possibly the worst Pokemon in the game.
01:33:57
Speaker
like One of like the actual worst Pokemon of all time. It introduced the ability, or it's ah it's Evo, Delicati, introduced the ability Normalize, which is turn all of your moves into Normal type.
01:34:09
Speaker
Get that stat bonus. I don't know if you've ever played Ironmon. Oh, well, we know of Ironmon. um we i we've We've talked once on the podcast about Ironmon. And oh, that's oh, I had like a two, two or three years stint of playing Ironmon. I finally got my win after like two and a half years.
01:34:30
Speaker
Nice. And normalized is like an ability you get every once in a while. And it's just like, oh, my I i lose. I can't hit ghosts ever. Oh, yeah. Oh, unfortunate. Normalize just like kills you instantly.
01:34:44
Speaker
And for some reason, they put that on. Oh, so I'm going to have to go me out. Yeah. And lastly, and ah this was just how it was seeded, Litten versus Sprigatito.
01:34:59
Speaker
This is the second toughest one, or maybe the toughest because they're both adorable. Yeah. I think it comes down to Incineroar versus Meow's Karada. Hilariously, both competitively viable.
01:35:12
Speaker
Obviously, Incineroar is like the guy. He's the yeah the goat. So I have to go Sprigatito. oh okay. Okay. ah I like my little weed cat. I don't know if you've watched Pokemon Horizons.
01:35:28
Speaker
I have not, but I know that Sprigatito has a big role for such a tiny animal. I can't recommend that show enough. It makes Ash... Like, it blows Ash Pokemon, like, out of the water.
01:35:43
Speaker
Damn! It's not even... It's night and day. Horizons is just, like, it's adorable. It's got good characters. It's still definitely made for kids. This isn't no Avatar The Last Airbender level shit, but it's it's just...
01:35:57
Speaker
It's just good. It's good, right? It's a show about people who like Pokemon or doing Pokemon stuff. And there are like actual believable adult characters in the show. And the kids are believable. And it's just it's it's wonderful.
01:36:13
Speaker
Nice. I really should give it a ah watch because I have heard good things about it. Moving on to the semifinals, Purloid versus Esper. I think I got to go Esper because Esper is just cute. I like Esper.
01:36:29
Speaker
All right. And Meowth versus Weave Cat Spriggetito. Spriggetito takes it. All right. And going into grand finals, Resper versus Spriggetito.
01:36:40
Speaker
See, the unfortunate thing is that grand finals should have been lidden Spriggetito. So i really so you know it's It's Sprigatito takes it. Esprigate's real close, though. Weedcat all the way. Again, these are just randomly seeded.
01:36:53
Speaker
If you want to blame someone, blamechallenge.com. because I will. I've been blaming Challenge for like 10 years, so... Excellent. Moving on this week in gaming history, here's some things that happened from June 2nd to 15th, starting with some major events. On June 6th, 2006, the Entertainment Software Association filed a lawsuit against the state of Minnesota in Minnesota Federal District Court to overturn a new bill that would fine children and teens for buying or renting mature or adult-only games.
01:37:27
Speaker
On June 8th, 2009, Nintendo released the Wii Motion Plus attachment for the Wii controller, giving more precise motion control. And on the 11th in 2001, Nintendo launched the Game Boy Advance in North America.
01:37:41
Speaker
It was 3.25 by 5.6 inches, required two AA batteries that powered the system for 15 hours. And in game birthdays, on June 5th, Psychodots turns 20.
01:37:55
Speaker
On June 7th, The Legend of Zelda 4 Swords Adventure and Sonic Advance 3 both turn 21. Also on the 7th, Infamous 2 turns 14. On the 8th, Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker turns 15.
01:38:08
Speaker
On the 11th, Super Mario Advanced and F-Zero Maximum Velocity both turn 24. On the 12th, Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of the Patriots and Metal Gear Online turn 17.
01:38:21
Speaker
On the 13th, WePlay Motion turns 14. And on the 14th, Duke Nukem Forever turns 14. Happy birthday, video games. happy Happy birthday.
01:38:34
Speaker
Moving on to Tony's Game Poll, a seasonly poll that changes every season. Ike, what franchise deserves a new game in 2025 slash 2026 that has not been announced yet?
01:38:48
Speaker
Team Fortress 3. Deep Force history. You know what? Valid. I'm so sick of Overwatch. Marvel Rivals was a nice break, but i I love that genre of games so much, but Overwatch makes me want to cry, and Marvel Rivals makes me want to cry.
01:39:06
Speaker
ah They're just not Team Fortress. Like, it's, there's not, like, I don't know how else to put it. Team Fortress 2 is just, like, I got into that game late, you know? Yeah. And then when I finally got into it, it was like, it was like, I mean, i don't want to say it was dead, because apparently it was alive, but just, like, to a hundred really committed people.
01:39:26
Speaker
Yeah, it's got, it um got tight it's more of a smaller, tight-knit thing now, but, like, it's still got its shine through here and there. Yeah, but it's just like that game has so much life and character.
01:39:39
Speaker
It's so vibrant. And every other game just seems to be the only game that got close to me or for me was Paladins. And that game's dead. Oh, yeah. I had a friend who played a lot of Paladins.
01:39:52
Speaker
That game was so underrated. I've actually never played and and as a game as underrated as Paladins. Yeah. um I. I think it blew overwatch out of the water personally, but overwatch had like tracers ass and it just couldn't compete.
01:40:08
Speaker
The paladins at least could not compete. Yeah. um Yeah. And yeah, the only thing that could compete with a chaser's ass was Emma Frost's ass. And that they're doing, I'm, I love that. Marvel rivals is like challenging overwatch and overwatch is having to make adjustments. That's great.
01:40:25
Speaker
Yeah. But if team fortress three, i mean, it's going to be called like team fortress, uh, the Fortressing or something. They can't have Freeze. It's going to be something stupid. But if that game comes out, Overwatch, Marvel Rivals are going to who Like, gone.
01:40:41
Speaker
yeah No one will talk about him. Because what we'll have, we'll have Scout's ass. We'll have Scout's ass. They're going to make him dubby thick. we'll have We'll have the the source memes back, man. And they'll be beautiful. They'll be upgraded to the modern era.
01:40:57
Speaker
That game has so much potential. does. Yeah. that's that's That's my want. It's never happening. ah It feels like it's never happening, but that's what I want. It'll never happen because the unfortunate reality is Gaben does not know how to count to three.
01:41:14
Speaker
It's a dark secret he's been trying hide. Clearly they can release new games. Counter-Strike got a new right because Counter-Strike Go isn't like... CS2 isn't yeah the second Counter-Strike. It's the third. It's the third.
01:41:29
Speaker
Oh, yeah. No, it is. You're right. There's been lot of Counter-Strikes. There's Counter-Strike, Counter-Strike 1.6, Counter-Strike Source, Counter-Strike Go, and now CS2. So however many that is.
01:41:40
Speaker
Counter-Strike followed the number system like Kingdom Hearts. Yeah. And then... ah Half-Life has a bunch of games too. They just can't count to three. So we're going to get Team Fortress the Fortressing.
01:41:51
Speaker
Yeah. yeah That we are. Can't wait for it. Looking forward to it. um Your deals of the week starting off with your Epic free games. Limbo and Tiny Tina's Wonderlands are free on the Epic Game Store until June 5th.
01:42:05
Speaker
Also
Closing and Social Media Plugs
01:42:06
Speaker
going on is the Epic Games a Mega Sale going on until the 12th of June. On Steam, the Handy Games 25th anniversary sale is on until June 10th, and the Arc System Works publisher sale on until June 8th, so be sure to go pick up those discounts and whatever other discounts are on the Steam store, because there are so many that are going on.
01:42:24
Speaker
um On PlayStation, your PlayStation Plus free games um that release on June 2nd are NBA 2K25, Alone in the Dark, Bomb Rush, Cyber Funk, and Destiny 2 The Final Shape.
01:42:38
Speaker
Your achievement of the week is in Fantasy Life Eye, the girl who steals time, time capsule, which is to age a weapon or a life tool. And your game of the week is Mario Kart World, because of course it is.
01:42:51
Speaker
And Ike, if there is one game old or new that you would recommend to the audience right now, what game would that be? One game older than me? One game old or new. Doesn't matter. Oh, that's so hard.
01:43:05
Speaker
I think I might have to say old school RuneScape because I'd need more friends to play it. there have you played Have you played that? ah Because the devs of RuneScape put out that new game recently. It's like a Valheim clone.
01:43:21
Speaker
yeah I have not checked it out because it's like it's very similar to like, oh, you like Pokemon? Have you played Unite? it's like, no, I don't like MOBAs, right? ahha it's like It's like a very different game, but it's in the RuneScape universe. It doesn't hit like... I play RuneScape because like number go up.
01:43:38
Speaker
um and RuneScape's like you're saying you play Final Fantasy right I play I am a Final Fantasy 14 addict I've been this way for I think going into three years now like this that's more or less where I'm at with old school RuneScape the thing that keeps me from trying out any other MMO is that old school RuneScape A has a mobile version Oh, it is like the same character. Like I can be playing on my PC and then go to the couch and keep doing what I was doing. They did what they did. They did a Hoyo.
01:44:13
Speaker
Yeah. But like before they did Hoyo before the Hoyo. did Hoyo before the Hoyo. And their game isn't fucking like for a supercomputer. It's goddamn runescape. So it works on your phone.
01:44:25
Speaker
It can run on your phone like Doom. ah Yeah, is. it But then beyond that, it's that this game never has you chasing the dragon, so to speak.
01:44:38
Speaker
ah Well, okay, it's all it's all it's MMO, so you're always chasing the dragon. always Yeah, but you do you want. The dragon's never being like taken from you. Gotcha. Okay. So you know how like when a new season comes out in in in Final Fantasy or in WoW, all of your old shit is just like useless garbage? Yeah.
01:44:55
Speaker
Yeah, you gotta go gear up if you want to do some like hardcore rating or whatever. That never happens. there's no There's no season you missed out on. There's no weekend event you missed out on.
01:45:06
Speaker
There is old school RuneScape. All progress is progress. Huh. Alright. it's It's old school RuneScape, so I have 174 days of playtime on this account.
01:45:21
Speaker
I made this account last year. Damn. ah Yeah. That's a third of a year. Yeah. I did the math much longer ago. It's like although it's over 30% of my life since making this account. I've been logged into this account.
01:45:35
Speaker
Wow. That's wild. I mean, it's a lot of AFK. I like stand there. but Yeah. Just stand there menacingly. But it's just... It's so...
01:45:48
Speaker
peak having a game that just if I want to be locked in doing bossing I have that if I want to stay here and like chop a tree like that there's still a purpose to that like it's got everything and I think that that's I feel like this game got written off because it's you know old and it looks like it's old but it's so goaded nice Well, with that, we have reached the end of another episode here in the Game Lounge. Ike, thank you so much for coming back on.
01:46:19
Speaker
and Thank you for having me. Where can we find you on the answer internet? I am Swift Ike. I'm Swift Ike on Twitch. I'm Swift Ike on YouTube. I just started putting out full YouTube videos. I got one about me learning Tekken. I got one about me... Well, that one's coming out.
01:46:36
Speaker
I got one about me going to the Pokemon tournament and learning Pokemon. Um, but then I'm also on blue sky and Twitter as Swift Dyke. Excellent. Uh, and of course you can find me at Tony's game lounge, uh, everywhere.
01:46:50
Speaker
ah Twitter, blue sky, Instagram, Instagram, TikTok, Twitch, and YouTube. um we do got a new YouTube shorts every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, uh, of highlights of this podcast.
01:47:01
Speaker
And, uh, we got some new YouTube videos in the pipelines, We got a video where we quizzed our moderator TC on hockey teams ah because we're all from Canada and he's from ah Texas.
01:47:16
Speaker
yeah I'd fail that so hard. ah We've got a new Mount Hunt video that I'm working on myself and a two-part video that me and my boy back ryan Mac Ryan Mack are working on.
01:47:29
Speaker
And there's also some, I've also decided to delegate some editing to TC. So you'll see those videos. Who knows when, when they're writing but they're done, with I thank you so much again for coming on.
01:47:44
Speaker
Yeah. Again, it's a pleasure being here. And thank you, the listener, for tuning in. Be sure to follow this podcast on whatever platform you're streaming it on. And also like, share, and follow, like, and share it as well.
01:47:58
Speaker
um We will be back here in two weeks' time to recap everything from Summer Game Fest and the Switch 2 launch. You do not want to miss next week's episode because this is going to be loaded and my brain might explode live while recording it.
01:48:12
Speaker
You don't want to miss it. ah good Brain guts everywhere. See you on the track. See you on the track, everybody. Goodbye. Thanks for listening to this week's episode of Tony's Game Lounge. New episodes release every two weeks. Make sure to follow, like, and share the podcast on your streaming service and follow us on Instagram, YouTube, Twitch, and X.