Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Episode 26 - Non-Adventure Games
1.8k Plays2 months ago
Stay hydrated, everyone! No matter the cost.
Matt and Roses talk about their favorite non-adventure games, plus PlayDate with Matt!, ranking every adventure game ever, and other silliness. Matt also pitches a weird game idea he had about Machiavelli and he's sorry (but also don't steal it!)
Email us! [email protected]
Games Mentioned:
- The Crimson Diamond
- Lamplight City
- ToeJam & Earl
- Life's Too Short
- Life's Too Short: On Reflection
- Tetris
- Banjo Kazooey
- Dr. Mario
- Wave Race
- Jet Moto
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2
- Warcraft 2
- Stardew Valley
- Civilization (V & II)
- Lords of the Realm II
- Final Fantasy (V, VI, VII & VIII)
- Pokemon (entire series)
- Clock Tower
- Skyrim
- Morrowind
- Hollow Knight
- Ori & the Will o' the Wisps and the Blind Forest, too
- Yoku's Island Express
- Lone Fungus
- Unbound: Worlds Apart
- Monster Sanctuary
- Graveyard Keeper
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons
- Terraria
- Dreams in the Witch House
- Quest for Glory (entire series)
- Mortal Kombat
- Fallout: New Vegas
- Legend of Hand
- Scratches
- Blue Force
- Hell: A Cyberpunk Thriller
- Elena: Displaced Reality
Recommended
Transcript
Dishwater Smoothie Dilemma
00:00:00
Speaker
I actually have a question for you. I have a scenario to post to you and see how you would have handled it. Okay. Okay. So say you're making a smoothie for breakfast.
00:00:12
Speaker
You just made a smoothie for breakfast. You got all the ingredients, you put them in your little bullet blender and you blended them up. You just finished it and then just by a freak accident, you accidentally dripped a bunch of dishwater on top, on the very top of the smoothie. Okay. What do you do next? Is it just on the very top?
00:00:37
Speaker
Yeah. I skim it off with a- Oh my God! Okay. I thought, okay. So yeah, I just reached into the top of the smoothie and grabbed about an inch and just like slopped it out into the sink. And then I dry, but I could still, and I don't have a stomachache. Like I'm not sick. Yeah. But I swear I could smell dishwater the entire time I was drinking the smoothie. At one point,
00:01:04
Speaker
I was like, this has to be in my head because I was like, like, I was like very intentionally sniffing different parts. And it's like, no, this doesn't smell like dishwater. This doesn't smell like dishwater. But then I'd go to drink again and be like, I smell dishwater. I think at some point it was just in my head.
00:01:22
Speaker
Maybe. I mean, dish soap is very strong. And I feel like even if you skip it off like the or skim it off the top of the of the smoothie, there might still have been because it's bubbly, right? It like it's really quick. First of all, how did you this is even this is even worse. It wasn't just like soapy dishwater. It was the water that was like stuck in the scrub brush.
00:01:52
Speaker
on my sink. What? Like I picked up like I picked up the scrub brush on my sink and granted I had just used this scrub brush like five minutes prior so it's not like this is two-day old dish water but I picked up the scrub brush and the water dripped out right on top of my smoothie.
00:02:16
Speaker
I'm still gonna say that I would give it off you would have skinned. Okay? Yeah, like I'm not gonna I mean smoothies are expensive to make man. Yeah. Yeah, you know And you and like so like I go out and I like I buy
00:02:31
Speaker
frozen fruit or regular fruit and I freeze it and like, but there's so many ingredients in a smoothie that you start thinking about it and you're like, okay, even if I'm doing this the cheapest possible way, each smoothie that I make probably costs me two to three dollars. Yeah, they're not cheap because of the produce. Not cheap. Yeah, yeah. And I was like, I'm not going to just throw away this smoothie.
00:02:57
Speaker
because of some dishwater. And then I kept thinking, I was like, justifying in my head to us, like, well, I washed it with dishwater. Let's be honest, we've all had, we've all drank some dishwater in our times. We've definitely all drank, even if it was just reconstituted dishwater, like exactly you wash something with dishwater. It doesn't totally dry at like, yeah.
00:03:24
Speaker
the solids harden on the glass, then you fill the glass up with water later and drink it, you just drank some dish water. Yeah, I mean, I just drank some paint water not long ago and I'm fine. Oh no! Did you do the thing where you had a paint cup and a water cup next to each other? Aw. Oh yeah, all the time. Sometimes I don't even have another cup next to me. Sometimes it's just the paint water and I drink it anyway. I don't even confuse and I'm just like, oh, water.
00:03:51
Speaker
Sometimes you do it on purpose. Sometimes that's just a Friday night for you. To see if I like turn into like a Jekyll Hyde situation by drinking this paint water. There's not like turpentine in it or anything, is there? No, no, there's not. No, I've been using acrylic. So no, there's no turpentine. Then there would be a problem. Yeah, I think that would cause a problem.
00:04:16
Speaker
I'm sorry, was there a moral to this story or a point to this story? Yeah, the moral and the point is it's okay to drink dishwater. And paint water. And paint water. Drink whatever water you find. Stay hydrated, kids! Stay hydrated!
Introduction to 'Save Your Game' Podcast
00:04:52
Speaker
Hey, everybody, and welcome to Save Your Game, a podcast about adventure games. I'm Matt Aucamp, and with me here is Pushing Up Roses. Oh, hi. What confused you?
00:05:08
Speaker
that you're mad at camp. I'm sorry, guys, I'm allergic to my perfume, and it's making me a little delirious. So you forgot who I was. Just forgot,
Exploration of 'Crimson Diamond'
00:05:18
Speaker
yeah. I thought I was doing this podcast with Ted Danson. Or Steve Gutenberg. Or Tom Selleck. Anyone from Three Men and a Baby. Yeah, that's what I thought. Well, how are you doing today?
00:05:36
Speaker
pushing apprentices. Doing pretty, pretty good, Matt Aucamp. I am excited to talk to you guys about the game that I've been playing. Oh, what have you been playing? Oh, are we just gonna, are we just doing this? All right, let's just do this. Yeah, roll in, roll in.
00:05:52
Speaker
Roll it. All of last night, I streamed a very large chunk of the Crimson Diamond. Very large chunk. And then afterwards I decided to, because it got really late for streaming. I got a little tired, but I wanted to, I'm reviewing this game. I'm going to be doing a video review. So I wanted to give more into it. So I played just like a couple hours more. I loved it. I love it. I love this game. There's a lot I want to say about it.
00:06:19
Speaker
It's really good. It's really good. Where are you up to?
00:06:25
Speaker
I am like nearing the end. So yeah, no, I played like I said, I played a lot of it. And Julia came to my stream yesterday and she's like, you're doing so good. And I'm like, you know, I try like I consider myself a pretty good adventure game player at this point. So I think I'm almost at chapter six and there are seven chapters. So I am very close to the end. I really, really like it. There's so many improvements since the demo.
00:06:55
Speaker
Um, love, I love that she gives you, so there's always a notebook in these Laura bow games and the Laura bow games is what the Crimson diamond is based off of. We already discussed that. We're not going to talk about it again. Uh, but there's always a notebook in the Laura bow games and sometimes it's useful and sometimes it is not.
00:07:15
Speaker
And I think that this is the most useful way that a notebook has been used in like a murder mystery game, you know? Definitely. I so I am in I just got to chapter four. Oh, great. So I just experienced and I don't think this is a spoiler because I think if you're playing a mystery game, you know, this is going to happen. I just got to the first death.
00:07:41
Speaker
Okay. Okay. And what did you think? How did you find that? Because I, I found, you know, even though this is very inspired by the Colonel's bequest, it does not follow the same structure as the murders and the Colonel's bequest or dagger. It doesn't follow that structure. It has its own structure and its own kind of point of view. Yeah. Something I think that there was a, it was shocking because there was a moment where I was like,
00:08:11
Speaker
There was a moment where I started to doubt it, right? There was a moment where I was like, are there going to be murders or are these other weird things that are happening just going to be the mystery? And then when the murder happened, I was like, well, of course there was gonna be murders. That was silly to think, but it was still surprising. And yeah, I don't know that I got to know that character as much as I wanted to know them.
00:08:36
Speaker
That's yeah, for sure. Um, I did. I do find that a it's easier to talk to these characters versus the Colonel's bequest because Colonel's bequest is very long-winded. I think these modern games, uh, indie devs try to make their games a little more terse, a little more concise and it is, and it is. Uh, but I did, I did find if I was going to put a con out there, which I will talk about more in my video.
00:09:00
Speaker
It's I didn't get to know the characters as much as I wanted to. Yeah. And that's that's both a good and a bad thing, because for those people who don't want to sit and just read scads of dialogue for like 500 years. Right. You know, it's it's.
00:09:15
Speaker
I don't know. I guess because there is a game that you can compare this to very easily, which is kernels and the temptation is to compare it to that. Right. But it is its own identity. You know what I mean? But yeah, no, you're right. I did. I did want to get to know the characters more. And I'm and I'm over that now. Like I'm very close to the end. So there's not I think the difference is in a lot of murder mystery games or just murder mystery in general.
00:09:43
Speaker
the characters always have a lot of quirks and a lot of secrets. And I find that this game didn't have that that like it was very, I don't know if you feel this way, but it's very obvious who did the crimes. It's obvious what the motivations are. And nobody has like secrets. You know what I mean? At least not big ones not like not like in Curdles be Quest where literally every person had some kind of weird secret going on, you know,
00:10:11
Speaker
I mean, I haven't started to solve anything yet, so I think it's going to be obvious, but I mean, it could be throwing me. I also like finding the deaths. I've only found one so far, but now I'm like, once it happened, I was like, oh, I gotta go find all these deaths.
00:10:34
Speaker
Right, right. So it does differ from Colonel's Bequest in that way. There's not any like weird, strange deaths, I would say, but there are, I mean, I'm not at the end yet, so I haven't figured out everything yet, but it is a little more grounded, which is interesting because a lot of the screens very much resemble Colonel's Bequest. You can see the inspiration.
00:11:03
Speaker
And I kept thinking in my mind, I kept putting bodies in weird places, right? Even though the game doesn't really do that. So there's like a gazebo. I kept imagining a body in the gazebo and stuff like that. I meant Nancy's deaths. I meant Nancy dying. Oh, yeah. Nancy deaths. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's fun. Yeah. No, I agree. I like that the game kind of urges you to be careful. It gives you one warning, man. It gives you one warning.
00:11:27
Speaker
Yeah. And then you're on your own. They're obvious warnings, too. Like, you're not you're not going to die by something that's completely out of left field. I you know, I was just thinking about what we were just talking about, about getting to know the characters. And I think my my issue with it is just that I think what I don't even know if this is an issue. This is just what's contributing to it is that the characters aren't being particularly active.
00:11:57
Speaker
Sure, sure. Like all the getting to know them happens just by talking. Yeah, that's true. So I think at least this one character who's dead so far
00:12:13
Speaker
I didn't see them do much of anything. So I don't know. So like, while I was like, Oh, I think I'm gonna like this character, they didn't actually do anything to fully endear me to them. Right.
00:12:30
Speaker
Yeah, that's true. I think maybe if I just yeah, maybe if I just seen them in another room or I don't know, like as simple as that sounds just. Yeah. No, I hear that because like in Colonels, a lot of Endagger, obviously the characters are moving about all over the place. And there is there is that in this game. Characters do things change. Scenes change is one of the charms of this kind of game.
00:12:54
Speaker
But yeah, no, I totally get what you're saying, although I will say I love the investigative parts of this game way more than what it is inspired from. It does a much better job.
00:13:07
Speaker
I think making like realistic, like lifting fingerprints and like comparing footprints and stuff like that and writing down things in your notebook even and having objectives. I found that really charming and fun. So, and I just, I want to say I love this game. I'm really, really enjoying it. I'm going to play all of it. I am excited. I keep being excited to go back to it.
00:13:33
Speaker
the art is beautiful, the music's great, the writing's incredible. So any criticisms I have are
00:13:41
Speaker
in the context of this game rules. Yeah, absolutely. But I do wish the investigation, so there's a point where you do have to compare fingerprints and you do it by typing compare fingerprints. Yes. And then Nancy does it. And I wish that we had had some sort of UI that showed us all the fingerprints and we could have compared the fingerprints. I thought that's where it was going.
00:14:06
Speaker
Man, I did not want that. Fuck that. That's very much a Matt thing. Yeah, I would just rather be doing the detective work myself. But that's not what this game is going for, I guess. So I just have to take it as it's worth. Did you get stuck on any puzzles yet?
00:14:28
Speaker
Uh, no, not really. Um, uh, Julia kind of nudged me in the right direction just for, for time's sake, but I would say that I, these are not puzzles that I get stuck on to find one particular fingerprint. I don't think so. Oh, okay. There's one particular fingerprint I had trouble with. Okay. It is the, there's one particular fingerprint that is very complex compared to the other ones.
00:14:52
Speaker
Oh, I know what you're talking about. I didn't find the necessary item. Yeah, I knew from the beginning. Oh, this is where I find the fingerprint. Yeah, but I did not find the necessary item. I got you two. So I was walking around and she was saying like, oh, there's a fingerprint here. If only I could dot dot dot. Yeah.
00:15:16
Speaker
And I was trying all sorts of stuff and I was like, I cannot figure it out. And I did have to look at a walkthrough and all it said was like one word. And I was like, Oh, of course. And then I found that and then everything else came naturally. And they came naturally. Yeah.
00:15:30
Speaker
Yeah, no, I I did pretty well, I think, just because these are these are the puzzles that I kind of live for. These are the puzzles that are my favorite type of puzzle. Right. They're like ingrained in my mind. So I have like this intuition on how to I guess how to do them. So I haven't gotten fully stuck yet, but I did. I did do something that pissed me off early on, just like in the, you know, the lower boat games, like curio cabinets and armwars they get broken into.
00:16:00
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I didn't look in the one in my room, my room, the cabinet in my room is the only one I didn't look at. I was like, you don't lose or anything. The game doesn't punish you like that for not doing it. But I was like, I can't. It was like way too late to go back. Like I'm in it now. There's no way I have seen what was already in there. You mean before that gets broken into? I had not looked at it. So Nancy didn't know what was in there.
00:16:30
Speaker
Which comes back later, I guess, I assume. Because she even gives you a little note. She's just like, huh, I wonder what was in there. I wonder if I should have looked in there. I'm like, ow! I also really appreciate, before we move on to what you've, unless what you've also been playing is Crimson Diamond,
00:16:50
Speaker
I have, but I have other stuff to yeah. OK, cool. So another thing I really liked about the game is it it doesn't it's not punishing the way these these older games are. Right. But if you miss something, you are kind of encouraged to go back and redo it. So I had accidentally I had accidentally walked into some people and it disturbed them and I wanted to eavesdrop on them.
00:17:17
Speaker
Okay. So, you know, the, so you can let it go. If you want, you're not necessarily going to lose, but I definitely wanted to know that information. So I, you know, I came at it from a different way. I went at it at a different screen and I think that's great. I think it's great that she kept those things about what was infuriating, but also charming about the Colonel's request is like missing things. But she gives you that note. She's like, Hey, maybe come out in a different way.
00:17:45
Speaker
And I'm like, yes, I will do that. And you don't have to, you don't have to correct anything if you don't want to, but I definitely did. I also really like the geology segments of the game. I do too, yeah. I like doing geology.
00:18:04
Speaker
No, that was great. It reminded me of being in my earth science class with the igneous rock and the glacial erratic. I'm like, man. Same. Same. I just took my earth. I just took an earth science classes class like, uh, early this year. And so yeah, she was talking about like intrusive igneous rock. And I was like, I know exactly what that means. Awesome.
00:18:26
Speaker
So anyway, I don't want to get too much more into it because I will be doing a very comprehensive review on this game, but I want to encourage you to pick it up. It's really good. It is definitely a passion project. It took a very long time to develop and I'm, I'm so happy for Julia for getting it out. That's awesome.
00:18:44
Speaker
Yeah. Hooray. Hooray for the Crimson.
Discussing 'Lamplight City'
00:18:47
Speaker
What else have you been, besides that, what else have you been playing? Okay, there's two things that I played a little bit of that I'm gonna save for our ridiculous segment just as an update. But I'll say I finished Lamplight City and it was really good.
00:19:08
Speaker
I don't know what else to say about it. It's just, it is earned its title as a modern classic. It was good the entire way through. Very nice. The final mystery brought, and I don't know if you knew this. In Lamplight City, you solve multiple mysteries in a row. Okay. You have like four or five cases that you solve in a row. And the last one sort of brings a bunch of disparate elements together and, uh,
00:19:38
Speaker
Yeah, it was really satisfying. Nice. And the other game that the other game that I played is we talked about it. And I have to say, it's not an adventure game, unfortunately. Oh, no, what is it?
Nostalgia with 'Toe Jam and Earl'
00:19:55
Speaker
Toe Jam and Earl. Oh, you don't you don't think it's an adventure game?
00:19:59
Speaker
I went back and played it. I played it. What the heck is it? I played it the whole way through. I think it's more like a dungeon crawler, but dressed up in its own special way. Because you do fight, you can fight things, but mostly you're trying to avoid the bad guys. You're trying to avoid them, yeah. But it's like a roguelike. Like each level is procedurally generated and you have to wander around avoiding enemies and finding power-ups.
00:20:28
Speaker
to better navigate the space and defend yourself from the enemies. And you go through about 25 dungeon levels. Yeah.
00:20:39
Speaker
and find the rocket pieces until you assemble your rocket and then you go. There's no puzzles. There's no, there is exploration, but there's no story. There's so much exploration and so much of this like strange kind of old style map, right? I don't know. It feels adventury, even if it's not an adventure game.
00:21:01
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I mean, I think there, I think you, like we said last episode, you're going on an adventure when you're playing Toe Jam and Earl, but it is, I think it is, it really struck me this time in a way that I never thought of when I was a kid, because I didn't know what this meant, but that it was just a rogue-like, right? Like it is. Yeah.
00:21:19
Speaker
it is exactly if you took any dungeon crawler and replaced the monsters with like weird dudes mowing the lawn or Santa Claus or moles stealing your stuff and you replaced the dungeon walls with grass and open sky.
00:21:42
Speaker
You just have, that's what Toe Jam and Earl is. And then I played a little bit of Toe Jam and Earl 2, that platformer you were talking about. It's fun, right? It's silly. I don't think I'm gonna beat that one. I'm not gonna get all the way through it, because it's just not good enough. But it's fun to play for like half an hour. I know, and that's kind of how I found it at the bar. It's like somebody was chipping away at it a bit and gave up. And I'm like, I'll take over. I'll chip a little bit more, see what we can do.
00:22:11
Speaker
And in that game, you're still on your alien planet. Because in Toe Jam and Earl, you are on Earth trying to get back to your alien planet by putting the other, of what do you call it, a spaceship. But then in the second one, you were on your planet and a bunch of Earthlings showed up and you have to capture them in jars and throw them in a sack and then put them in, launch them in a spaceship back to Earth. And it's really funny because at the end of each level,
00:22:41
Speaker
There's a guy, a different guy every level, I think, and he says, like, whoever you are with Toejamer Early is like, hey, you found all the Earthlings yet? And your guy just automatically says yes. And then he's like, well, what about that one? And it's like, oh, I didn't get that one.
00:22:58
Speaker
It's so good. You're just like Earl and he's like, Hey, did you find all the other things hit? And he's like, yup. And he's like, all right, well, what about that one guy? He's like, nope, didn't get him. All right, maybe you should get him. And then you just go back and look for that. It's very silly and very fun. And did you know that they released a Toe Jam and Earl sequel called Back in the Groove?
00:23:21
Speaker
In 2019. Yes, like, yes, I vaguely do remember this. Yeah. But it didn't really do well. I don't know. Yeah. Maybe it didn't because I didn't hear too much about it. Yeah. But it looks just like it looks very, very much like Toe Jam and are all with some like added stuff. Yeah. So I don't know. Anyway.
00:23:46
Speaker
That's Toe Jam and Earl, that's what I've been playing. And for the rest of what I've been playing, you're gonna need to hit a theme song. Oh man, here it comes. Are you guys ready? Are you ready? I assume you said, you all said yes. Here we go. They all said yes. Yeah, they all said yes. Theme B.
00:24:14
Speaker
All right, everybody, it's Playdate with Matt. It's a segment inside the podcast of the game. I'm your host, Matt O'Hare. This journey is pushing up roses. I'm here, too. Hi. Today, I want to talk about some games I've been playing on the Playdate.
00:24:38
Speaker
I said I would talk about two games per
Exploring 'Life's Too Short' on Playdate
00:24:40
Speaker
episode. Both of these are tied together. So I've been playing these cute little adventure games. There are serious and interesting adventure games on the Playdate, but so far all I've been playing are cute little dumb games. That's cute. But I'll get into more interesting ones in the future. But I've been playing these games. I played a game called Life's Too Short. Life's Too, I'm gonna look it up.
00:25:15
Speaker
What this game is, you're an adorable little pixel ghost, and that's who it's by. It's by a company called Pixel Ghost. And you're just this little pixel ghost who is walking around or floating around a haunted house, and you keep running into monsters who each have a problem. You find a witch stuck in a painting who has a cough, and you gotta get her some medicine. And you find a snake who's hungry.
00:25:34
Speaker
Are you sure that's not a game from our other segments?
00:25:44
Speaker
So you gotta get him some bats. You find a vegan- Oh, these are first world problems. You find a vegan vampire and you gotta get him a Bloody Mary, you get it? And then you find his non-vegan wife and you gotta get her some blood, but in the most disturbing way possible. And I won't spoil it, but it sucks. Oh, no.
00:26:06
Speaker
But the game is just sweet and cute. Again, you're just a little ghost going around a haunted house helping monsters. I love that. That's so sweet. Just a very sweet, cute little point and click adventure. Most of it is feels very fetch questy more than it does, um, puzzle-y, but it's still cute. And there were a couple of things that I would consider puzzles in it. Yeah. I mean, you know, I love a fetch quest though. Yeah, you do love a fetch quest. Yeah.
00:26:35
Speaker
And then the second game I played was called, so there's a bunch of these. And I played another Life's Too Short game called On Reflection. And you are in a tower in which an evil mirror has been mean to everybody. And so now everybody in the tower has body image issues. And so you have to- This is like my worst nightmare. This is like body disorder. This is about me. You have to walk around
00:27:06
Speaker
You know, finding the exact thing that's gonna make these people feel better about themselves. And each of them have a shard of the mirror. And once you put it all together in the mirror, something happens, right? Like the solution presents itself. But- That's so cute. The last thing you do in the game, and this is, I guess, spoiler territory, but the last thing you do in the game is you have to go around telling everybody they are enough.
00:27:35
Speaker
Oh my God! And then you get to leave the tower. And it's just so sweet. Again, you're just this really positive, sweet little pixel ghost walking around a tower, telling everybody that they're doing fine and they're enough. I love that so much. It's very sweet. It's so good. So that's Life's Too Short and Life's Too Short on reflection.
00:28:03
Speaker
I love it. I love it, so are we back to theme B? Yeah, yeah, back to theme B. All right, here we go. I'm going to ramp it up every single time. Theme B. So that was Playdate with Matt. Oh man, I got to come up with my own segment. It's going to be terrible.
00:28:33
Speaker
So today, dear listeners, what we're gonna be talking about is we're gonna take a break from adventure games for a minute.
Favorite Non-Adventure Games
00:28:43
Speaker
Well, I say a minute, probably like 45 minutes, probably a half hour to 45. And we're gonna talk about some non-adventure games that we have loved throughout our life, what we play when we're not playing adventure games.
00:28:58
Speaker
Uh, I want to see that spanky on my g-nose. Nope. Nope. I don't like where it's coming. Don't like that.
00:29:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:48
Speaker
Hey everyone, welcome back to Save Your Game. I'm your host, PushingUpRoses, with me as always, my special boy co-host, Matt Aucamp. Hey! Hey! How did you break? Oh, it's good. I just kind of... Oh, you know what I actually did? I did play... I was playing my play date, because you had to step away from it. You were? And so I was playing a little... I was playing a little surfing game on my play date.
00:30:16
Speaker
Oh, that's so mad in his play date. I just imagine you like taking your play date everywhere with you now.
00:30:25
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm in a bar and I'm on my play date. I'm at the beach and I'm turning my little crank. You're on a date and you have the play date. It's a problem. Yeah, you just have to... I'm at the gym lifting weights, but I also have the crank in my mouth and I'm swinging the thing around. Got to help these monsters with their body image. That's great. I'm just kidding. I don't go to the gym.
00:30:56
Speaker
So we talk about a lot of adventure games. This is an adventure game podcast, but sometimes you just need a break. And there are more to us. We're composed of many facets. We contain multitudes. We contain multitudes. And we like more than just adventure games. And some people might know that if you've followed my channel for a while, I do a lot of golf games in general. For example, you like Murder Shiro and I like the X-Men.
00:31:26
Speaker
Yes. The end. But that's not it. All right. Well, that was a good segment. No. Oh, okay.
00:31:34
Speaker
I just start playing theme B again. I have to really quick play two and play eight games so that I have something to talk about. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. The segment's back, it's returning. No, so we're not going to be talking about, we're still going to be talking about games, I think, right? Okay, good. I was just like, are we on the same page? Am I talking about murder she wrote today? Because I'll do it. No, I tricked you. No, please don't.
00:32:01
Speaker
tricky. Yeah, no, we're going to be talking about our favorite non adventure games. So I think what we should do is we know each other very well, very close friends. We pretty much know each other's gaming, like interests and gaming loves. But if you were to just throw out a guess as to what one of my all time favorite non adventure games is, what would you guess?
00:32:28
Speaker
Oh my goodness, okay, I know you like retro arcade games a lot. Like I know you are really, you are into like Aladdin and like the Sega games. Yeah, I was big into the Genesis, like big into the Genesis. But I have a feeling that's not where you're going with this. I have a feeling that, well, you know, maybe. I would bet you are a big Tetris person.
00:32:58
Speaker
You're so wrong. I hate Tetris. Whoa, really? I hate it because it's logical. Oh, I guess it is, huh? It is, yeah. I don't think about it that way. I think about it as a reflex game.
00:33:18
Speaker
You were so good, like starting with like the Genesis, because I'm a big, I'm a big, and some people don't. And then I was like, I don't want to take the obvious route. Anybody could have guessed a Genesis game, but here I'm going to guess something completely out of left field. And I was totally wrong. I will give you a major hint. One of my favorite games of all time is on the N64.
00:33:45
Speaker
OK, I know you consider these Zelda games to be adventure games, so I imagine those are not in a statement. Yeah, you can assume that it's not a Zelda game. I'm just going to say Super Mario 64. You're pretty close. And I do love that game. I hold that game. Banjo Kazooie. Yep, you got it. It's Banjo Kazooie. Banjo Kazooie has consistently been one of my favorites. I knew that about you and I completely blanked on it. OK.
00:34:14
Speaker
Yeah, but people may or may not know my close friends certainly do. I love platforming and side scrolling games. I love getting good at them. Like Matt said, Aladdin for the Genesis. That's one of my favorite games. I did a no death run at magfest one year and everyone's like, Oh my God. Okay. Maybe they weren't like that, but in my head, they're like, Oh my God, it's so good at Aladdin.
00:34:37
Speaker
And yeah, I love a lot of different genres of games, but when I was little on top of having a computer, I also wanted a Genesis and then I very much wanted an N64. So I played those games that came with it. Now, tell me about Banjo-Kazooie. That's actually a game I've never played. So what is the appeal?
00:35:00
Speaker
I think for me, the appeal was it's sort of open worldy. It is a platformer, but it's got this lovely open world with these goofy, adorable characters. You're playing a bear and a bird. Very cute. And the story is very
00:35:18
Speaker
It's very childlike, but at the same time, adults, you can play that. I still play this game every year. And I think for me, one of the biggest thing is I like platformers and I like the collect-a-thon aspect. And there is a lot of collect-a-thon aspects to Banjo-Kazooie. The music is charming. The NPCs, so cute. I always was so excited to go to the next world, the next level, because there are all the levels of their own separate worlds. Yeah.
00:35:47
Speaker
and they're just so fun and I was just always so excited to lose myself in these worlds. Did you like other cute platformers of the era? Like, did you like Crash Bandicoot or Spyro or?
00:36:01
Speaker
No, I guess I didn't. I didn't really play those. I think those were PlayStation games, but I did, I really loved everything that was like for the N64. So I love Mario 64. I can play that with my eyes closed. And you played so much Glover that you had it. I played so much Glover. It fucking sucks. Why am I a glove on a ball? You played this Frogger, the 3D Frogger.
00:36:29
Speaker
I didn't did not. Of course, I love Zelda. Yeah, of course. But I also loved all the weirdo games that came out on the N64. So there was like there was Wave Race, which is like a really early N64 game. And it's right. It's just a wave runner racing game. And I was obsessed. I love that game. I played one of those for the PlayStation. I do not remember the name of it. Let's see if I just a quick Google search can bring it up. JetMoto.
00:36:59
Speaker
Okay. You were you were doing like motocross on hoverbikes on water. Oh, wonderful. It sounds fun, actually. But you had these like you also had these like laser grappling hooks that would help propel you around turns. Very strange.
00:37:17
Speaker
The wave race was a little more grounded. Okay. You're just not a wave runner and you're just praising people. And I, I liked, I, one of my favorite things to do was to go to blockbuster with my dad. Cause we didn't, you know, I couldn't just always afford to buy a $60 and 64 games. So I'd rent for a little while and I would rent like these insane games, like snowboard kids. Snowboard kids.
00:37:46
Speaker
snowboard kids, you know, the classic snowboard kids. Yeah, it's literally you're just racing down like a mountain on a snowboard.
00:37:55
Speaker
And you know, I played like Starbucks and all that. But I really, Banjo Kazooie and Mario 64 are high up there. Also is Super Mario World. Growing up, I didn't have a super Nintendo, but my aunt did. And I would go to her house pretty frequently. And she only had a few games. She had like fucking Tetris. So I'm like, it's not gonna play that, obviously.
00:38:16
Speaker
To Tetris, she had super cools and ghosts, which is one of the hardest games ever developed. Yeah, that game is ridiculous. It's ridiculous. And of course, it came with Super Mario World. And man, I know that game very well. I love that game. I love all the secrets. It was like my first real experience completing a Mario game. So that's one of my favorites. Awesome. Yeah. All right, now you guess one of mine. OK. It's definitely.
00:38:47
Speaker
Gonna be. All right, we've got a definite here. Sonic Spinball. No way, absolutely not. Is it gonna be a PlayStation game? Did you like the PlayStation era? You know, I had a PlayStation, but those aren't the games that really stick with me, to be honest. Okay.
00:39:16
Speaker
Okay, it's a Tetris. No, but you're, you know, that's very close to one of the games that I go back to all of the time. It's very, very close to Tetris. Oh. What console was it for? I can guess it. Any Nintendo console. Any Nintendo console, okay. I think it's been released for every Nintendo console. Oh shit. I'm like totally blank. What is it? I'm totally blanking.
00:39:46
Speaker
Dr. Mario is just one of my favorite time-wasting games. I will go through phases where I play Dr. Mario just non-stop, not non-stop, but where I'll play it for like extended periods of time every single day for some amount of days.
00:40:07
Speaker
And then I'll go away from it for a while, and then I'll end up coming back, because it's just such a perfect little... It's about planning and puzzling, and at the same time, it's about reflex and repetition. It's just a sweet, cute little game. I did love Tetris, but Dr. Mario just has a bit more charm to it.
00:40:33
Speaker
I agree. I mean, I'm not a big Tetris fan, but I'll play Dr. Mario. I like the music. It's so cute. Although I don't know if I trust Mario as a doctor. Why is he throwing so many pills at everyone? Yeah, that guy. Opioid crisis much? Yeah. You heard it here, folks. Mario started the opioid crisis.
00:41:01
Speaker
Yeah. Dr. Mario irresponsibly prescribe over prescribes creating hyper resistant bacteria and getting everyone hooked on. Dr. Mario is a menace. He's going to do, they're going to do one of those investigative five part podcasts. Oh yeah. Definitely canceled. Uh, so did you have, so did you grow up on Nintendo systems?
00:41:28
Speaker
So I had NES as a kid and then I had a Game Boy. I never had a Genesis, but a neighbor did. And I absolutely loved going to his house and playing Genesis. And then I loved my Genesis. I loved Sonic 2 was one of my favorite games for a very long time.
00:41:47
Speaker
I can't go back to the Sonic games for the very specific reason, like any time I try, I realize how badly designed they are. Because the problem with Sonic is the whole thing is like they want you to go as fast as possible. Like that's the whole thing, they're telling you, go fast, go fast, go fast. But if you go fast, you miss all the stuff. You miss the stuff, yeah. And it's like, well then, what do you want from me?
00:42:14
Speaker
I try to play it very balanced. I try to go fast when I want to, and then I try to collect the rings so I can get the special levels. Yeah. So I got a Game Gear. That was my first big purchase. I purchased it. I really wanted a Game Gear growing up. I saw the ads for it, and I'm like, oh my god.
00:42:36
Speaker
Yeah, it seemed like the coolest thing ever. It kind of sucked. Like, it was not a good system. It was not. Like, it had no battery power. No, it was bad. Nobody goes back to Game Gear games. Like, when you emulate Nintendo, sometimes Genesis, Super Nintendo, no one is like, oh. Even Game Boy. Even Game Boy. Yeah, exactly. No one is like, I got to play the incredible Hulk for Game Gear.
00:43:05
Speaker
Oh no, oh no. Yeah, so, yeah, and then I had, my stepmom had an SNES that I played quite a bit and I played a lot of Super Mario, I'm gonna say it wrong again, Super Mario World? Yeah, that's correct, Super Mario World, Super Mario Land is the Game Boy.
00:43:31
Speaker
Okay, yeah, so I played a lot of Super Mario World on that, and then I got a N64, and then PlayStation 1, and then PlayStation 2, and then I got out of video games for like a long time. Like I stayed at N64 and PlayStation 2 for like a very long time. Wow. And only maybe like, whew, I guess maybe it's like eight years ago now,
00:44:02
Speaker
I got a PlayStation 3 and I got back into video games. And that led me back to adventure games and that leads me to where I am here now. Yeah, that's kind of how it went for me too, to be honest. Like, cause like, I don't know, there was a time where I'm like, I'm over this. Well, and keep in mind like for us, or at least for me, when you grew up on like computer and like DOS games and adventure games, that wasn't like, that didn't,
00:44:27
Speaker
stay popular. It came back, right? Now we have better computers and we're able to emulate stuff. But there was that little bit of time where it's like, I can't play my games. It's not running on this computer. What do I do? I'm not interested. And there's no new computer games coming out. I mean, we slowly watched the computer gaming section
00:44:50
Speaker
of every store. Yeah, just disappear. And maybe the Sims was there and that was it, you know. And then you could only find computer games on a spinner rack at a Michaels. Yeah. It was like, and it was like Jewel Hunter and like, and like the Amazon picture find.
00:45:13
Speaker
Yeah. Or like maybe not, not even sports games, really not for computer, but like, yeah, the Sims and stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it's really only been recently where we've had like, I mean, not recent recently, but you know, in the newish modern age where we can even revisit some of those things. So I think even in just revisiting them,
00:45:35
Speaker
Uh, I got back into adventure games, you know, uh, yeah, I took, you know, I took, you know, about 10 years away from video games. And then when I came back, I was like, Oh, I got to catch up. Some of these things are like, I didn't realize how sort of like.
00:45:52
Speaker
far the medium had progressed. I was still stuck in sort of the arcade-y experience of PlayStation 2 and N64, where there were some story games, but a lot of the stuff you were playing, you'd just play like in rounds or matches.
00:46:10
Speaker
And so I came back and I was like, oh, my God, these uncharted games are wild and these Far Cry games. And yeah, you know, the Fallout games like I just started like absorbing all of these. And then, you know, again, I was like, oh, I remember I used to like these point and click games. I'm going to go back and then, you know, the rest is history. But OK, so do you have a game that is like your
00:46:39
Speaker
Because you can't do this while playing adventure games because you have to pay a lot of attention. But do you have a game that's like your your podcast game or your audio book game or oh, like something where I need like a distraction, something I need to do a game you play while you're doing other things? Oh, I'm doing other things. Or like, yeah, listening to something or whatever.
00:47:01
Speaker
I think I do have games like that. Well, Stardew is one of them. Stardew, sometimes I can play with my eyes closed. Oh, something. Oh, oh, my God. I mean, I used to be huge and I kind of still am into Warcraft.
00:47:18
Speaker
Oh, wow. Okay. Warcraft 2 is one of my favorite games of all time. I love Warcraft 2. I remember like taking the manual with me to school and reading it and being like, I'm so excited for these orcs.
00:47:33
Speaker
And I can kind of multitask in Warcraft, and I can kind of multitask in Stardew. I also can multitask in Civ, in some of the Civ games. And several years ago, I got really into, I think it was, oh God, I'm gonna mess up the Roman numerals. Was it Civ V, Civ VI?
00:47:57
Speaker
I don't know. I stopped playing Civ at Civ II. Oh, really? Yeah, I played some strategy games when I was a lot younger. I played Civilization II. I played Lords of the Realm II, it was called. I remember that.
00:48:18
Speaker
And I really liked them. And then anytime I tried to like, like update and play newer strategy games, there was just too much going on. There's just like, they'd gotten so utterly complex. Oh yeah, they are. I was just like, Crusader Kings is.
00:48:33
Speaker
You have to take a college course to understand how to play one round of Crusaders, Crusader Kings. And honestly, that's not typically my jam at all. I will even avoid board games with too many rules, like stuff you have with some categories or something. That's what I want to play. But for whatever reason, so it is Civ VI in 2016 that came out, and I got really into it. I kind of dealt with the learning curve,
00:49:01
Speaker
I really liked it. I had never played a turn-based strategy game before because I grew up on Warcraft, which is real-time strategy. So I had to really learn what to do on my turn. Oh, and we're completely glazing over some of my other favorite games from a completely different genre. But I like the Final Fantasy games a lot. So this is going to be a controversial take. It's going to be a hot take.
00:49:31
Speaker
I love Final Fantasy 8. It is one of my favorites. Okay. I mean, I like the, I like the classics too. Like I like the popular ones that people like. I like seven. Um, but man, there is just something insane about Final Fantasy 8. And I love it for, it's just absurdity. It was one of the first, it was one of the first JRPGs I ever played. So I think it just holds a special place.
00:49:59
Speaker
I only started playing the Final Fantasies like a year and a half ago and I just started playing them in order and I started with one and two and then three and then four and I stopped at seven because seven is just such a big experience. I don't think I was fully prepared for it and I've gone back to it a couple of times and every time like I just, there's something about Final Fantasy seven that I think playing it for the first time
00:50:27
Speaker
in, I guess I started it in 2023. Playing it for the first time in 2023, it does not have the magic.
00:50:37
Speaker
that I think it had for people when they first played it. So it feels sacrilegious to say that I have not loved Final Fantasy VII. I understand. No, I do understand that. I keep finding myself bored in a way that I don't think I did by Final Fantasy V and VI because there's like a retro charm to them.
00:51:03
Speaker
And there is that sort of turn your brain off and turn on an audio book, or not turn your brain off, but like turn your brain away from the game and turn on an audio book while you just like grind your way through. Yeah, exactly. Oh yeah, I definitely, now that we, now that you like say that, like, oh yeah, I definitely will grind in like final fantasy seven, final fantasy eight, and then just do other things while I'm grinding. I liked final fantasies one and two,
00:51:30
Speaker
three I wasn't so hot on, four I wasn't so hot on, but then five and six I loved. And then seven, yeah, it's been a real roller coaster. There are moments where I'm like, that was so cool. But more often, I'm just kind of like,
00:51:46
Speaker
I think forcing my way through it so that I can get to eight. Yeah. I mean, keep in mind that there is a graphic style change there. Yeah. Seven is kind of this grand, this grand big deal experience. And if you don't like seven, I don't think you're going to like eight, but I could be wrong. You might also enjoy it for its absurdity and very bad story. Very, very bad. But man, there is something.
00:52:11
Speaker
about a JRPG. Yeah, that just takes me away from reality and puts me in this just amazing adventure. I mean, I don't want to say that they're full on adventure games to kind of like we were talking before, it does make you feel like you're on an adventure, even if it's not the genre, you know. So if Final Fantasy is kind of your genre obsession, what what do you think mine is?
00:52:37
Speaker
Oh, you mean like the franchise? Yeah, sorry. That's what I meant. Is it your big franchise obsession? What do you think mine is? Oh, that's a good question. Clearly. Clearly it is. Clearly. Clearly. This should be. I've this is not something that I am.
00:53:04
Speaker
that I've been very public on the internet about this before, but I don't know if you know this. Is it Pokemon? It is Pokemon, yes! I absolutely adore Pokemon, and I've played every Pokemon game. I have a Pokemon Home account in which I, before Sword and Shield, no, after Sword and Shield, so before, what was the next one? Scarlet and Violet, I had,
00:53:34
Speaker
every Pokemon. I had a full living Pokedex, every single Pokemon from every generation I had a copy of in my Pokemon home. And then Sword and Shield, I wasn't like, incredibly, like I was really excited for, and I wasn't incredibly hot on. And then,
00:53:58
Speaker
Pokemon Legends Arceus seemed like a really interesting shake up of the franchise, but whatever reason it didn't capture me and then Scarlet and Violet I played maybe two hours of. So I've fallen off it a little bit. I assume I'll go back, but like the
00:54:18
Speaker
As a kid, I played the Game Boy games just over and over and over and over, red and blue, and then a little bit of gold and silver. I just played them so much. And then later, when I said, when I got back into video games about 10 years ago, I played the 3DS games also just multiple times, just like in a row. Like I'd play X and Y and then finish them and then play X and Y again.
00:54:48
Speaker
So have you ever played Pokemon? I've played, yeah, not many, but I must say that I love Oddish.
00:54:57
Speaker
He's my favorite. He's my favorite little boy. Oh, he's so cute. Yeah, Jen won, yeah. But yeah, I've played, I played a couple for the Game Boy. I emulated it. They're very cute. They're actually kind of perfect for me, because it's kind of a collecty thing. It's got a little bit of an RPG element. So I did like it. And then I started, I definitely played a lot of Pokemon Go. We're not gonna get into that. That was an embarrassing time of my life.
00:55:26
Speaker
I played a lot of Pokemon Go. Yeah. And then I played there was one that came out. It was a little it was a little while ago now, gosh. I don't remember which one it was, but I think it was for the PS3. I had to be right? It wouldn't have been for the PS3. Or maybe it's got to be PS4 then. They've only ever Pokemon games have only ever come out on Nintendo.
00:55:52
Speaker
I'm going to look it up. Oh, oh really? Okay. That helps. Okay. So it had to be, gosh, it had to be the switch that let me see. If it had to be the switch, then you're talking about let's go Pikachu and Eevee.
00:56:07
Speaker
Oh, it's that. Okay. It is that. Ooh, first try. Yeah, it was sort of like an update and sort of a simplifying of the first two, of red and blue.
00:56:23
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. With some like with some like internet connectivity stuff. Right. I think that's why I liked it. I'm like, oh, it's it's just it's an update and it looks nice and I like it and it's cozy. It's very, very cozy. So I haven't played a lot of Pokemon, but I do in general like Pokemon, if that makes sense. I know I hear you. I just like the whole franchise. I like the designs. I don't know. I like Oddish. He's so cute.
00:56:52
Speaker
If anyone wants to hear me talking about Pokemon, I did a podcast for about a year where I forced two of my funny friends to watch every Pokemon movie in a row. And season two was supposed to be us doing it again and they both abandoned
00:57:12
Speaker
I wanted to watch all the Pokemon movies again and talk like I thought that would be so funny and Now they abandoned me and they're like I will not watch another Pokemon movie Yeah, I gotta say I don't think I'd want to do it either But the podcast is called the very worst if you want to go check it out the very worst Yeah, I mean I would watch the anime. It's pretty cute He's adorable
00:57:42
Speaker
Okay, another one of your favorite games, non adventure games of all time. Man, I'm still oh, oh, I'm actually kind of skipped over a really big one because I don't think people think about it because it's way off in terms of even related genre. It's world combat.
00:57:59
Speaker
Oh, you're a fighting game person. Okay. Yeah. And I would say that I'm actually not a fighting game person at all. I am a Mortal Kombat person though. So like if I try to play like Street Fighter, I will muck it up. I can't take it easy to the controls.
00:58:15
Speaker
I don't even get to be started on things like Tekken. I think it's terrible. I like the old school Mortal Kombat because it's one of the first games I had on my Genesis. My brother bought it for, quote, me.
00:58:32
Speaker
Obviously, you know, he put the blood code in, I was traumatized by it for a very long time. And then later in life, I rediscovered it on, I think I rediscovered it, whatever Deadly Alliance was on. And I think that was the PlayStation 2.
00:58:48
Speaker
And then I played deception and then I played Armageddon and I played X and which is Mortal Kombat, the new one. And I love all of them. I love the Mortal Kombat games. I especially love them on the consoles, on the newer consoles. I actually there was a time in my life, Matt, OK, where I wanted to try to like play pro, like play, learn how to play. Oh, my God. Like a pro player. I thought the same thing about Pokemon. Oh, I did it. Yeah. So what happened?
00:59:19
Speaker
I gave up. It's hard man. The people who do that so professionally are really, really, really good. Unbelievably good. Don't get me wrong, I think I am a better than average Mortal Kombat player. But I'm certainly, I would have to practice.
00:59:39
Speaker
all the time and I just don't have time for that. I mean, these pro players are amazing. Just absolutely amazing. They dedicate their life to it. There's no way I could do that with Pokemon. Like I just could not do it. No, absolutely not. So I'm wondering if we are including, this is going to be a good question, are we including survival horror or is that too much like adventure games?
01:00:05
Speaker
I feel like survival horror is something we are going to talk about on the show at some point. Yeah. To me, I do lump it in to adventure. It depends. It depends if you're shooting things or not. I think if you're shooting things, we are getting away from adventure games. If you're not shooting things.
01:00:22
Speaker
like the Amnesia games, I would consider more adventure while, let's say Resident Evil, I would consider more action. It's so interesting, because like I was gonna throw out Clock Tower by the Super Famicom. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:00:39
Speaker
And it's not because it's not an adventure. It is an adventure game, you guys. It's set up like an adventure game. It has survival elements. But it is so different in tone than any adventure game I've ever played. So it doesn't feel like one. Because I think when we talk about adventure games,
01:00:59
Speaker
like look at the games that pop up. They're kind of comedic. And if they're not comedic, they're at least lighthearted. If they're not lighthearted, then they're like a mystery, you know, or a drama like Grim Fandango. It's very rare that like you have like the survival element.
01:01:16
Speaker
even in games like Fran Bow, which is horror as well. So I almost like threw out Clock Tower because it's just so different to me, even though it is an adventure game. I hear you. I mean, I do think we should talk about Clock Tower at some point on this show. So. OK. I'm going to throw out. So what is what would you say is like if adventure games is your favorite genre of video games? What would you say is your second favorite genre?
01:01:46
Speaker
It's definitely like side scroll slash platformer. And I put those kind of together because a lot of times they sometimes will hold hands, right? There's a lot of platforming in Aladdin for the Genesis, which again, one of my favorite games of all time. The Lion King for the Genesis.
01:02:06
Speaker
One of my favorites, all the all the really intensely difficult games. It's so hard. The games that drove everyone crazy as kids. Yeah. Yeah. No, I love it. I love those kind of games. Man, even playing today, the Lion King, sometimes I'll stream it every now and then I'm like, nope.
01:02:25
Speaker
I don't even want to fuck with this. This end is so hard that like my hand hurts. So yeah, I would say side scroller slash platformer. So those are the games kind of like your Latins. And then also when you get into n64, because it's not that's a hard question. It's a hard thing to distinguish because it's like,
01:02:47
Speaker
Banjo Kazooie and Mario, they're not side scrollers, but no, but they are platformers, but they are platformers and Aladdin is a side scroller and a bit of a platformer. So it's yeah, those kind of games, you guys. I love to play any modern ones like do you play? I know a lot of those games these days are more like puzzle platformers. Yeah, they can be. Yeah.
01:03:15
Speaker
I have played a few I try like I try to play like new things every now and then I get this is so funny I guess I guess the newest thing that I've been playing in terms of like a platformer is I will still play like fall guys every now and then
01:03:32
Speaker
Oh, yeah, I'll just boot it up and just start going because it's so easy to do. It's just like lots of platforming. In terms of side scores, they don't really, I think it's tough to find kind of a retro style platformer. I remember I played Owlboy at the time that, I don't know if you remember that. This is a while ago now, 2015, 2016.
01:03:55
Speaker
And I really liked that, but man, I actually do struggle to think about modern, like modern side scroll slash platformers. And I guess it's because in terms of gaming today, like the most popular things, if you really think about it, are kind of those like vast open world games, like your God of War and the, the, oh God, the Oblate, or they call the Skyrim and like Skyrim. Yes. Yeah.
01:04:23
Speaker
And Skyrim is a game that I have put 300 hours into throughout my life. Listen, I tried to play it once.
01:04:32
Speaker
and then I stopped and that, and you'd think I wouldn't because I'm actually, one of my other favorite games of all time is Breath of the Wild. So you would think I veer into some of those games, right? But I never could, I think Skyrim at the time, it was just too big for me. It seemed vast. It seemed like, oh God, I don't know what I'm doing.
01:04:56
Speaker
I totally understand that. So I play Morrowind when I was young, which is Elder Scrolls 3, and I got really into it and I explored that whole map and I got really far. I ended up getting locked out of the main quest by a bug. I've never actually finished Morrowind. I've gotten 90% of the way through.
01:05:22
Speaker
During the time that I wasn't really playing video games, the one real exception was Skyrim. I had a pirated copy of Skyrim. I own it literally now, everybody, but I had a pirated copy of Skyrim on my shitty laptop and I would just turn the graphics down and I would play Skyrim for hours. And I've gone back to it a couple times, but it's sort of the game once you have
01:05:52
Speaker
hit a certain point in it, it's kind of like, all right, I've gotten it, I got it. I mean, it's kind of like Stardew Valley, right? Like for me, once I hit a point, I kind of stop and you don't have to stop. There's always things that you could be doing. But I will say that feeling of being overwhelmed because something is too big happened to me in between those two games. I tried to play Oblivion.
01:06:17
Speaker
And I guess I just wasn't ready for another open world game and it just felt too big. And like there was too much going on and I bounced off of it. Yeah. But. OK, do you know my favorite other? Maybe you already know this. Do you know my favorite genre, the second favorite genre next to adventure games?
01:06:40
Speaker
Oh gosh, now I don't know because I'm gonna have to, oh gosh, now I don't know. Is it like, no, that doesn't make any sense. What were you going to say? I was gonna say like, I was gonna say like some kind of RPG. Oh. That's right. You know, like I said, I played a lot of Skyrim, I played the, I recently played all the,
01:07:10
Speaker
Final Fantasy games, I played Fallout New Vegas is one of my favorite games of all time, but no, I wouldn't say I'm a huge RPG guy. Okay, yeah, and I was also gonna maybe, I was also thinking like, it just left my brain, what was it? I know what it's not, like I know it's not racing games. No, I hate racing games, I'm not a big fan of fighting games. Yeah, I'm just gonna say it's not fighting games. Is it simulation games?
01:07:39
Speaker
No, so I am just a... I am as obsessive about Metroidvanias as I am about adventure games. I will play every Metroidvania that you put in front of me. So like, I played...
01:07:57
Speaker
Hollow Knight to like 100% well actually like they had those expansions so I played Hollow Knight to like 125% completion or whatever like there was this there's these things at the end where there were boss rushes and yet or like playing fighting a boss where you had to
01:08:15
Speaker
but it was like a harder version of the boss. And then one where you had to do it perfectly. It was like some of the most challenging shit I've ever done. And I did it all in Hollow Knight. I played the Guacamelee's. Oh my god, you're like bringing up like memories for me now. The Ori games are both really good Ori and the, what are they called? Ori and the Will of the Wisps and Ori and the?
01:08:45
Speaker
I know I have, I think I have one on Steam actually. They look beautiful. The Blind Forest is what it's called. They're beautiful and the locomotion in those games is really great. You can just like kind of fling yourself across the entire map so quickly and so smoothly.
01:09:03
Speaker
There's a game called Yoku's Island Express that is a pinball Metroidvania where you play basically like a dung beetle who's rolling a ball around and you cling to it and then jump in like these pinball things and that's how you fight enemies and that's how you travel around the map and solve like little puzzles. Yeah.
01:09:29
Speaker
There's a game called Lone Fungus where you're just a little mushroom and it is such a precision Metroidvania platformer that I don't even know if I recommend it. It's so hard. I really, really loved it.
01:09:45
Speaker
I'll say one more because I could go on about Metroidvanias for a while. But there's one game that does not get the love that I think it should in the Metroidvania space. And I reviewed the demo of it once for, I think back when I wrote for adventuregamers.com. It's called Unbound Worlds Apart. And you play,
01:10:13
Speaker
this cute little monk guy with a little fire on his head.
01:10:22
Speaker
You don't have any combat abilities, but you can create a like a rift in the dimensions. Like you can create this like circular portal around yourself and you use it. And the physics inside that portal are often different or even the physics or the reality are different inside that portal than outside. So you will turn on the portal, jump into a platform, turn off the portal to get to the next platform.
01:10:49
Speaker
or you'll turn on the portal to reverse gravity, fall upside down and turn off the portal to jump over a thing that you could not have jumped over on your own. And then it's got all the normal stuff like double jump and whatever. But it's called Unbound Worlds Apart and it is a really, really clever and really cool underrated Metroidvania.
01:11:15
Speaker
You know, I knew, I knew that you liked Metroidvanias. I don't know why that didn't, I think I, here's what happened, Matt. I looked up Pokemon and now a bunch of Pokemon is on my monitor and that's all I could think about. I'm like, surely it's Pokemon. There's one place where Pokemon and Metroidvanias crossover and it's a game called Monster Sanctuary.
01:11:42
Speaker
Oh, I remember. I think I remember that. And it's it's okay. Yeah, it's not it's not as good. It's not like it is not the sum of its parts, unfortunately. You know what genre that I and I guess it's a genre, but it's it's a very like,
01:11:59
Speaker
It's very eclectic genre. It's like the stimulator genre. So when I say that though, I feel like I could be talking about a lot of different things. So for example, I like The Sims every now and then, like I'll binge it. But what I'm really interested in, and this is Stardew Valley's fault, is those kind of weird
01:12:21
Speaker
life slash work simulations. So like where I'm going with this is because I like Stardew Valley, I played Graveyard Keeper.
01:12:30
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. And I loved it. I don't know how to describe these games. Like they're not quite simulations. They're just like, they're like maintenance games. Like, why do I want to maintain this little thing? I don't know why, but I really like it. And on that same note, I over lockdown, I got really into animal crossing.
01:12:51
Speaker
And this is a genre, you know, where you're gardening and you're like taking care of stuff, you're doing maybe little mini puzzles. That's not a genre I was looking for back in the day. But for whatever reason, Stardew kind of got me into that. And then I've been kind of seeking out like those kind of games. Like I really like, I don't know, a maintenance game. You know, the only real game like that that that super pulled me in
01:13:21
Speaker
Well, also, I want to say that's also something that pulled me and you in about dreams in the witch house. That's true. Yes, that's true. It's the life system elements of it. But the only other game besides Stardew Valley that really that is like that, that pulled me in in that way was Terraria. I spent a lot of time in Terraria. Yeah, I remember Terraria kind of has that little Minecraft aesthetic.
01:13:46
Speaker
going on. Yeah, like a little pixel art 2D Minecraft kind of thing. Yeah. With but but with a lot more of like a a lot more robust fantasy world to explore. Right. Like I feel like Minecraft is is less about the
01:14:09
Speaker
monsters and crazy worlds that you find and things that you collect and it's more about what you can build where Terraria is definitely about like the adventure you go on.
01:14:23
Speaker
Yeah, I agree, I agree. And yeah, I'm even thinking about Stardew and that's not even as life quote, life sim as like even dreams in the witch house. Because like literally you have to eat now to survive or he'll complain at you. And I wonder if my love for that, I'm just wondering if it's spark because of quest for glory. Because yeah, because I was so into quest for glory five, which really is a hybrid, really is a hybrid game.
01:14:52
Speaker
And like in quest for glory five, you have to eat. You will get hungry. Your health will go down. You have to sleep. That's a big one. Like you have to go to sleep. I guess you do in in stardew as well. But there's less emphasis on like you're hungry or you will die or you're sick. You know what I mean? Like you're hungry and sick. Your hunger doesn't go. Yeah. Your hunger doesn't go down or affect your health and stardew. You just lose energy and then you can't.
01:15:22
Speaker
Right, yeah, it has like an energy meter as opposed to like, like a hunger meter and a sanity meter and things of, it'd actually be pretty funny though if Stardew had a sanity meter. Yeah. All these ostriches, they're just driving me insane. Yeah. Have you ever heard the story about how Machiavelli
01:15:49
Speaker
The writer, Nicola Machiavelli, who wrote The Prince. Do you know the story about how he wrote The Prince? I don't. So he was a diplomat and a... He wasn't like an elected politician or anything, but he was like the...
01:16:17
Speaker
counselor to a bunch of royal people, right? He was just like in the royal court for a long time until the, what do you call it, the crown that he was serving was overthrown. And then he was exiled. And he was exiled to the countryside, to a farm.
01:16:45
Speaker
but he hated it so much that he spent his time writing the prints so that he could give it as a gift to the dude who overthrew the throne and kicked him out so that maybe that guy would let him back into political life. So I've often had this thought about, wouldn't that make an incredible Stardew Valley game?
01:17:07
Speaker
where you are knocking back. Yeah, that's the story, yeah. You are thrown out of court and you can choose to spend your time gardening and making friends with the locals and accepting your new life, or you can choose to spend time writing your book to try and get back into the good graces of the court, the royal court. That's amazing.
01:17:31
Speaker
And yeah, like you have this sanity meter like are you what's going to drive you more insane and like how do you survive? This is the thing that I think about. I've thought about so many times and I really wish I could make games because I would absolutely make that game. I think about that too. Like I want to make this game with you now. Or I want to make the Carol Reed games.
01:17:55
Speaker
Oh my God, we're gonna talk about those in a few minutes. Before we close this segment down, are there any other games you just have to mention?
01:18:05
Speaker
I think I mentioned the very big ones. But what I was thinking of, if you were to ask me, if anyone were to ask me, what is my favorite non-adventure game? Really, just offhand, the first thing that comes to mind is Banjo-Kazooie. I think it's very interesting. Yeah, I just can't stop thinking about it. I want to go play it. It's so cute. It just brings me back to a better time. It's really engaging.
01:18:32
Speaker
Go play if you have not played Banjo Kazooie, you guys. You gotta. Here's a recommendation for use a recommendation from adventure game. What about like, what about what would your answer be? It's like your number one, not I assume it's going to be like Pokemon. Well, yeah, I mean, because it would have to probably be like Stardew, but I feel like God, it might be Fallout New Vegas because it just has it all in like.
01:19:00
Speaker
It made me, I felt like I got addicted to it. I was moved by it. Everything that I wanted in a game was in Fallout New Vegas. Amazing. Okay, let's throw up some music and then we'll come back,
01:19:28
Speaker
last stupid segment and then get out of here. I want to play banjo kazooie now.
01:20:09
Speaker
Hey everyone, welcome back. Welcome back to
Ranking Adventure Games
01:20:11
Speaker
Save Your Game. I'm pushing up roses with me, as always, Matt Aucamp.
01:20:15
Speaker
Hey, and you know, we haven't gotten feedback on this segment yet, so we're just gonna keep doing it. Keep going, Wayne, let's do it. All right, we're gonna rank every, so if you haven't tuned in, we're gonna rank every adventure game of all time, even the ones that we've never played. I have a list of, a cold list of every adventure game, like roughly every adventure game that's ever been made. It's missing some of the freeware ones and some of the remake,
01:20:44
Speaker
but I have 3,200 some games here. And I'm just gonna, with a random number generator, we're gonna pull them up, pull up five random ones and add them to our list. So are you ready pushing up roses for a first game? I am so ready for more Carol Reed games. Go! Speaking of, yeah, right before we do it, I played a Carol Reed game because of our last segment. It's pretty fun.
01:21:14
Speaker
They're so simple. They are just, yeah. We're gonna talk about them more. We gotta talk about them more on the next episode because I've been watching Let's Plays on them, and I have things to say. I was just saying. Okay, so this one, I feel like I should have played it, because it's by Cloak and Dagger Games, which are good. It is Legend of Hand. Let me look that up, because I like Cloak and Dagger a lot.
01:21:44
Speaker
Legend of Hand? Yeah, it looks a little bit like a fighting game. What an interesting game. It's like partly fighting game, partly adventure game. It has a really interesting art style. I was just gonna say, I've never seen an adventure game quite look like this before. Well, here's the thing about this though. Gotta put it below Frambo. I just gotta.
01:22:13
Speaker
you gotta put it below Fran Bow. Yeah, I mean, it's definitely below Fran Bow. You know, I regret that we put Krabat in the Secret of the Sorbian King above Amos Green's final repose, but- I do too. Maybe we should change that. All right, so how about this? How about we go back on our, we'll try not to do this very often, but why don't we go back on it? Yeah. Here's my thought.
01:22:38
Speaker
I'm going to put, now that I've seen the Carol Reed games in action, and I love them, I say we put Amos Green's Final Repose. Oh my God. I say we put that at number two, and then we put Legend of Hand at number three.
01:23:00
Speaker
above Krabat and the secret of the Sorbian King. Yes. Okay. I agree. Nope. I agree with you. All right. And like, this may happen, you guys, because like sometimes we're going to play these games. And then have to go back and be like, wait, that one was good. Yeah. Oh my God. All right. Here's one. Uh oh. So 859 is our next one and it is the horror game Scratches. Oh my God. Scratches. Have you played Scratches?
01:23:29
Speaker
I have. I have. I have. I have. What? All right. I know where. I liked it a lot. I liked it a lot. It was, I thought it was very scary. It was so scary. I have never been so scared by a game. Now the gameplay is not amazing.
01:23:46
Speaker
Like there was a lot of really whack stuff in that game that you're just kind of like, I don't know what to do. Where am I supposed to click? What am I, where am I supposed to go? I know. Um, I know it's a little nebulous feeling. Yeah. So I think for that reason, it can't go above Fran Bow, but I would not put it above. Holy cow is scratches a good game. It is. No, I like scratches. Okay. Scratches at number two. What do you think?
01:24:11
Speaker
Okay, all right. Number two is the hotspot today. Okay, yes, Scratches is terrifying. If you guys have never played Scratches, my God, it is- Oh man, I felt so tense the whole time. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it is so scary. Okay, here's the game I've never played. So this is a low number. We're at 214. Okay. I've never played this game, but I know of it. It is Blue Force.
01:24:40
Speaker
Okay, that sounds familiar though. It is a gym walls game. Oh no. That he made with tsunami games. Oh, this game. Yeah.
01:24:56
Speaker
Ooh, this is gonna be, this is gonna go pretty low, guys. It is FMV. It is FMV, but it is Jim Walls doing another basically police quest. Okay, where are you thinking? I'm thinking- Oh my God. I'm thinking low, but not bottom. No, I don't think it's on the bottom. It's above weird. It's above weird. I think it's above Wild Wild West, the Steel Assassin.
01:25:24
Speaker
Definitely is above that too. Okay. Would you? So this is where I'm looking. Is it above the fan? The other FMV game that looks like you just torture a woman. Yes. Okay. Maybe a hot cake, but I would put it above the fan. Okay. All right. It's going to go above the fan. Does it go above Krabat in the secret of the Sorbian King? Hmm. I think no. I think just because Jim walls, it can't.
01:25:55
Speaker
I am fair. We're being very fair. I think we are too, to these games we've never played. Um, okay. Two 78 is our next game. Oh no. All right. What do you think about hell, a cyberpunk thriller? Oh boy. Oh my God. I, you know, I kind of like it. Have you played it?
01:26:24
Speaker
No, but I know, I definitely know of it, and it kind of reminds me, it very much reminds me of Sanitarium, a little bit. It's got a Sanitarium feel, it's also, but a little sillier than Sanitarium, it looks like. Yeah, and Take Two Interactive, I feel like they have done games that I actually, that I do like. Like I've seen Take Two Interactive before. Okay, but I think the game was originally made by Game Tech, right?
01:26:53
Speaker
Okay. Maybe I'm wrong. I kinda like the look at this game. I'm not gonna lie, but I'm gonna also say that it's probably not. I think it's gonna be one of those games where you just take it how it is. Like you get what you're looking at and it's probably gonna be really cheesy and maybe a little grating. Yeah, it looks, I'm looking at it and I'm getting a lot of, um, uh,
01:27:22
Speaker
I have no mouth and I want to scream. Is that it? And I must scream. I have no mouth and I must scream vibes. Except for there's some cyberpunk stuff. Listen, yeah, it's so interesting looking. OK, it really is like I don't want to put it like near ish the bottom, but I don't think it's definitely it's going above the legend of hand, right?
01:27:50
Speaker
Yes, it'll go below that, it'll go above the Wild Wild West, what the fuck ever that was. So is it gonna go above or below Krabat and the Secret of the Sorbian King? I'm putting it above. All right, all right, okay, it is our new number six. For interest's sake. We got one more. All right, Tiffany, hit me with it. Okay, all right, come on, give us something we've played. At least we've played Scratches.
01:28:18
Speaker
All right, we got 1655. It is Elena displaced reality. It's got, it's got a review on adventure gamers. Um, it's got a bad review. Oh, really bad. Underwhelming. Okay. It's like a walking Sim. Um, yeah, that is, I guess.
01:28:48
Speaker
Oh, it's one of those ones where it's like, oh, how do you know what you're seeing is really reality? Oh my God. We've all played like a million of those, right? Yeah. But it's like not, here's the thing, like this kind of falls into almost like mediocre, right? It's not bad, it's not good. So where do we place games like that that are just kind of like, eh, this is so underwhelming, but it's not, it's also not egregiously bad, you know?
01:29:15
Speaker
Yeah, and it's got a positive, it's got 80% on Steam. So yeah, I think you're right. I think it looks like one of those games that's just, in our professional opinion, one of those games that's just not in any way remarkable. Right.
01:29:40
Speaker
So I think it also should be noted that this is very much it seems that they're pushing VR for this game. So I wonder if the VR experience would be different. So I think it goes above the offensive games. I do, too. I think it goes above Blue Force. Yeah, me, too. And I think I think it is comfortable somewhere around Krabat, because I think that's what that looks like, too. Just like a very mediocre like that is mediocre point and click. This is mediocre walking simulator. So
01:30:10
Speaker
Uh, what'd he say? It's man above or below. I would actually put it below krabot because I'm sensing a lack of like characters and like, yeah. You know what I mean? I think there's more krabot at least has some like weirdness to it. Exactly. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. All right. I got it. All right. So here's our list right now. Number one, best adventure game of all time frame bow followed by scratches.
01:30:36
Speaker
Then we have Amos Green's Final Repose, Legend of Hand, Hell, a cyberpunk thriller, Crobot and the Secret of the Sorbian King, Elena, Displaced Reality, Blue Force, The Fan, Wild Wild West, The Steel Assassin, and the worst adventure game of all time. Weird, truth is stranger than fiction. That's our list of 11 adventure games right now. What do you think? That is, I mean...
01:30:59
Speaker
I think we're doing great. Yeah, we're doing so good. We're doing so good? All right, well, thank you everybody for tuning in. I like our new segments. They're so good. They're so good. They're so exciting. I hope our audience doesn't cancel the segment. Please don't cancel our segment. We like laughing at weird names. It's so indulgent and stupid, but I love it.
01:31:29
Speaker
So do you have anything you want people to check out in the meantime before we come back next week? Nah.
01:31:37
Speaker
Check out Adventure Game Hotspot, AdventureGameHotspot.com. We're part of the Adventure Game Hotspot network. Always cool stuff going on there. There's actually a review of the Crimson Diamond that just went up today. Nice. Well, also, if you want to check out my stream by this time, the recordings of the Crimson Diamond will still be up. And I think my review will be up, too. So kind of look out for that if you're interested in what we said earlier about the Crimson Diamond. And if you want to check out any of my stuff, there's nothing.
01:32:07
Speaker
Go back and go back and listen to my old podcast. That's what you got from me. Yeah. That's it. Listen to the Pokemon podcast. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so in the meantime, there's only one thing left to say, and that is that podcasts is art, but also there's another thing to say. Oh, okay. And that is artists suffer. Bye.