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The Evolution of Twitch and Tekken with BenjaminLee
20 Plays1 month ago
Tony is joined by Twitch Streamer, Tekken Player and Competitive Digimon TCG Player BenjaminLee. The duo discuss Annapurna's sudden walkouts, The Digimon TCG game, Tekken 8 and how its changed the competitive Tekken scene, and Twitch Con 2024 along with your bi-weekly gaming news updates and what games are coming out in the next 2 weeks.
Follow Tony: https://twitter.com/tonysgamelounge
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/tonysgamelounge
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TonysGameLounge
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Follow BenjaminLee: https://x.com/Benjamin_Lee00
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/benjaminlee
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Join the Official Tony's Game Lounge Discord: https://discord.gg/xXyvjaCsXp
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Transcript
Introduction and Personal Disclaimers
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.
Podcast Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:00:11
Speaker
to tony's game lounge a biweekly podcast that covers everything in the world of video games tcg tabletop and more here's your host tony fourteen Hello everybody and welcome back to another brand new episode of Tony's Game Lounge. I'm your host as always, Tony14, and joining me this week, Twitch streamer, second enthusiast, and former FF14 player. ah like Because that's how I found them originally. It's Benjamin Lee. Hey, what up? What up? What's up, dude? How you doing?
Balancing Life and Gaming
00:00:47
Speaker
Oh, you know, man, I I'm I'm that grown adult that still loves video games and stuff, but has zero time to do any of them. And, you know, we're just at that point where we're just chugging and we're trying to survive. We're trying to balance work and like happiness and all that stuff. But you know what? We're in it. We're in it. Hey, that's what we like to hear. and Yes, I got to love it when when when the time comes to actually be an adult and balance video games on top of everything else.
00:01:16
Speaker
ah You got you gotta love it It's rough. It's rough out here in these parts, but oh good. It is. Well, welcome to the podcast This is your first time being here. Have you ever done a podcast before? Is this your first one?
00:01:30
Speaker
I have done a podcast before, yes, but I was never, I've never been like a guest before. I think I've only, only ever been a host, but it hasn't been like a ah consistent thing either. Like I've done it once or twice. So, okay. Okay.
Favorite Games and Characters
00:01:44
Speaker
Well, uh, because you're brand new here, we get to start with the loading screen where we get to find out everything, oh not everything about you, but the three key things I think every ah video game player has, which is your favorite video game, favorite video game character and favorite video game soundtrack.
00:02:05
Speaker
All right. I've been thinking a little bit. I've been thinking a little bit. So, okay. So favorite game, like I've had, that's the thing, right? It's like, I feel like people have favorite games kind of throughout their life. Like, you know, when they're a kid, it's like something else is their favorite game. And then when, you know, when you're a teenager, like something else is your favorite game. Like I've had multiple favorite games, I think maybe right now as it stands. And I don't even know if this counts necessarily because it's not like a video game.
Digimon Card Game Passion
00:02:29
Speaker
It's more of a trading card game, but i so So back in 2020, a little trading card game came out called the Digimon Card Game. Oh yeah, they revived, I guess. somebody had that
00:02:42
Speaker
So that was kind of my little like covid saving grace during that time where I was like, OK, I can play in these games and discord, you know, like using our webcam and like we can have our physical cards. And I don't know what it was that got me attracted to card games in the first place. um But something about them is just so fun, like slapping the cards down and just playing on a physical playmat is is something that It really gives me that that like dopamine feeling. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I know. I feel that. I i legit feel that. like I wish I could. I want to do that. It's been a while since I've played with like physical cards, but like when Master Duel came out, like i like i get I had that feeling of, like oh, this just feels so good.
00:03:29
Speaker
so yeah so that came out in 2020 and then I played that for a good like three years before I had to kind of put it on the back burner and like I i really liked it like I was joining tournaments left and right like I was in regionals like it was I think I i went to um not Not worlds, but there was something like right before worlds where it was like, oh,
Career Moves and Gaming Resurgence
00:03:52
Speaker
nationals. I did i did make it into nationals like when I was super hardcore about it. yeah it was It was a crazy time in my life, like um but I loved every second of it. and
00:04:01
Speaker
unfortunately um I'm not sure if you knew this or not, but I used to live on the East Coast. And so I had to focus on like making my way out here to the West Coast. So I had to kind of throw it aside Digimon for a little bit. And I had to focus more on my career and like living and stuff like that. So I had to take a really long break. But I did get back into it this year. Nice. And so it does continue to be currently my my favorite game, I would say. that That's cool. Who is what who is your favorite Digimon?
00:04:30
Speaker
Ooh, favorite Digimon? I mean, there's there's definitely a bunch. Like, Omnimon was probably my favorite for the longest time because the Digimon movie in my opinion is one of the best pieces of media that exists in all lifetime. I rewatched it like earlier this year because I got back into Digimon. I rewatched all of Adventure and like started Adventure 2 again.
00:04:57
Speaker
um But like I never like fully I never fully watched like adventure growing up so like this is like my first time really Experiencing all of adventure I had watched all of adventure to you before and like parts of tamer's and everything else going forward But like I never watched adventure and like let's rewatch the the movie Let's where you watch the Digimon movie first and then like go watch like each of the individual movies second Because obviously it's made up of three movies um And I'm like man rewatching the digital one movie in the American version of it It feels like yo, what if we got the writers from the ghost stories dub to make a PG-13 Script essentially. I mean, oh my god It felt it felt like that's specifically more with us that with the third movie Hurricane Touchdown America or whatever they it was actually called. Mm-hmm
Nostalgia and Digimon Movie
00:05:49
Speaker
Like, the first two, it still felt fine, but like, there were there were some lines in there that I'm like, that line's very much intended for child humor. Oh, God, I mean, I could say so much about that movie. It just it touches on all points. I mean, the soundtrack, like ah the soundtrack is the craziest thing about it, too. Like you have this like these early 2000s like rock, rock, rock, music, like it is just like, huh?
00:06:19
Speaker
And then you look at the comments of the the movie, you're like, ah, yes. um The Digimon movie and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater is what united, like, kids of this music genre. And I'm like, they're not they're not wrong. It's just legendary soundtrack. And I don't know if you knew this, but they recently just announced um a pre-release for, or not a pre-release. Like, you can you can pre-order the Blu-ray of the movie.
00:06:46
Speaker
And it comes, it's like a re revamped, um you know, like read graphics and everything. It comes with the original Japanese dub. And then it comes with a reinvented and new um English dub. They got all of the original voice actors back and they redubbed it for this brand new Blu-ray version that comes out like, I think it's December 1st or something. Is it all three movies or is it just like our war? Oh, my God. all of it It's the original thing that we know and love, but it's redubbed with the original voice actors. um Oh, OK. Holy shit. I got that is crazy. I want I want to see this now. You you you might be able to still preorder it on Crunchyroll. But ah yeah, I think it's like 30 bucks to like it's it's like that. God, I mean, so that's 30 bucks. Yes.
Digimon Card Game Popularity
00:07:32
Speaker
Like 50 bucks. I mean, 50 bucks, Canadian. That's fine. like i I. Wow. That's nuts.
00:07:39
Speaker
So well I can't wait for that. OK, that's exciting. Oh, my God. That's so crazy. um For me to say this to the original question, V-mon has always been my favorite Digimon. Hey, V-mon for life. That's that. Yeah. I'll tell you something about V-mon right now. So you know how he he has the whole like Imperial German, like Payel German Imperial German stuff. Yeah. So that deck currently in the Digimon card game is the best deck in the format right now. lasts goal Let's go. go.
00:08:08
Speaker
They know what's up. The creators must love Vman too, man, because they fucking made that deck disgusting right now. So it it's crazy that we're even talking Digimon right now, because like recently I found a copy of the GameCube version of Digimon Rumble Arena 2.
Favorite Video Game Characters
00:08:25
Speaker
Oh, damn. It's sitting on my shelf. It was $100, but it was worth everything. That's vintage. They even find it and like I never thought I would even like way like look at a physical copy of this game until like I had to order it off of eBay or something. And the fact that I found I'm like, you know, this is added to my collection. ah So, yeah. Wow. Fucking crazy. Love it. um All right. Favorite video game character?
00:08:53
Speaker
Yeah, so ah favorite video game character. o Okay, I got it. So, as you know, I am an also an avid fighting game player. So I do love my fighting games. um But I got my start from playing Super Street Fighter IV. That was my very, very, very first fighting game that I ever touched. And in that game is a character called Dudley.
00:09:24
Speaker
Ah, yes, Dudley. Yup. He is the, in my opinion, the better boxer ah in that game. There's two boxers, but we'll just talk about Dudley because he, in my opinion, is the better boxer. But um yeah, that character, in in my opinion, if I could just describe my play style and fighting style in one fighting game character out of all fighting games, it would be him.
00:09:47
Speaker
okay And he definitely just embodied and stood for a lot of like play style, but also just like the things that he said, like his, his voice lines, right? So one of his voice lines is keep it classy. And to me, that line is just such a cool line that like speaks volumes in not just like video games, but like life too, like just trying to be this classy individual, the human being and like not be a douchebag when you're, yeah Living life like that's something that I truly embody and even my um my My discord I think is also titled keep it classy That's been the name of my discord since all those years ago, and I haven't touched it that an awesome so Yeah, he continues to be definitely my favorite ah video game character that That's awesome. i've Another fun fact about Mr. Game Lounge here, Street Fighter 4, I think it was the Super Edition as well. Because it was free on Xbox Live back when I had it in 360. And that's what I'm like, ah you know it's the free game of the month or whatever it was. So I picked it up.
00:10:54
Speaker
And I'm pretty sure because I don't remember ever playing a fighting game aside from like Smash Brothers But like I would I would classify platform fighters as like a whole separate entity from like traditional fighters So I think Street Fighter 4 was my first fighting game as well There you go. Yeah, it it just it started this huge journey for me in fighting games and it just ignited my competitive passion So I can't get enough of them nice and favorite video games soundtrack.
Soundtracks in Gaming
00:11:25
Speaker
Oh This is a tough one. There's a tough one. tracks There are so many good ones
00:11:32
Speaker
I mean, we got the, we got the movie soundtrack pegged down. I mean, obviously that one is pretty easy, but, um, video games soundtrack. I'm going to, I don't necessarily know if this is my favorite, but for whatever reason, this one has always stuck with me just, um, after I played the game, but, and it's going to come out of left field, but it's Pokemon diamond and Pearl. You know what valid.
00:11:57
Speaker
Valid I as a guy who has spent I think four to five hundred hours playing those games plus platinum Valid there is something about that soundtrack that I I don't I don't want to sound corny, but it's like magical like just every soundtrack in that game has like a purpose of being heard and being played and you can hear it behind the instruments and the like I was watching some YouTube video of this guy like breaking down um the the theme to Lake Lake variety and yes oh it was it was just beautiful I was like oh my god I never even thought about this before but it just it just hits on all surfaces and so I I bring that to the forefront edge it just keeps coming to my mind every now and then when I think about video game soundtracks so yeah I'd have to say that one
00:12:46
Speaker
Have you have you ever listened to the insane in the rain album? He did like a whole like cover album for like Diamond and Pearl. No, I have not. Give that a listen, because I think like some of the tracks in there are great. But give definitely give that. Yeah, he was. Oh, God. What did he play? Saxophone.
00:13:09
Speaker
i He played a couple things. I don't know. I know that he tweeted. I don't know if he's still fully retired or if he's like come out of YouTube retirement or not, but like definitely go give it that a listen. ah Because that's ah it's just ah so good. Yeah, I'll be sure to be sure to do that. OK, well, that's the loading screen. Now we get into hot takes where we ask our guest, what is your hottest take? Oh, OK.
00:13:38
Speaker
um god I might get so much backlash from this, but it and it sucks because I love the game too, but who All right from a from a like um From a standpoint where you know you absorb media and it gives you just a huge euphoric feeling that most people would look for when they either play a video game or when they watch an anime or when they're you know doing something for excitement and joy. ah Final Fantasy XIV, in my opinion, is so mid in that aspect when you're looking for that
00:14:17
Speaker
extreme like pinpoint feeling of holy fuck that just blew my fucking mind kind of thing like in my opinion I don't know what it is. I just can't seem to get hooked on any of the like revelations or the plot line or like wherever it's going. And i I still have not had that moment where, you know, in the story where something happens and I'm like, Oh my God, that was the greatest fucking thing ever. Like I just, it just hasn't happened to me. I don't know if there's something wrong with me if I'm broken because every other aspect about the game is beautiful, right? It's, it looks amazing. The combat is incredible. Like I've,
00:14:57
Speaker
I've put all this time into it, and I wouldn't if it wasn't ah if it was a bad game, like by no means is it a bad game, but for whatever reason, just can and the and the cut scenes, and I'm a i'm a literally a sucker for cut scenes, cut like I am a cut scene cunt, like that is my shit. I love good cut scenes, so if I don't get that adrenaline and euphoric feeling from a cut scene, then I'm just like, dude, why am I watching this?
00:15:26
Speaker
I just I don't know what it is, Tony. I can't seem to figure it out, man. But that's that's my. That's fair. I mean, I mean, I guess the one like cutscene spoilers for Shadowbringers with this question, the teslin scene where she got in Shadowbringers right at the start of Shadowbringers, where she got transformed into the. Oh, yes.
00:15:48
Speaker
but Because I know that like when people when people ask like what like really like hooked them like cuz like sometimes it's the first three don't do it but like Shadowbringers is like when it does it in this like that scene specifically is brought up a lot just because of like how Different and like how fucking like evil it kind of is It was sad. it was It was very sad, I will say, but maybe I'm just not a guy that gets you know hooked on the sad moments. I will tell you, and this was also in Shadowbringers, one more spoiler. maybe Maybe I shouldn't even talk about it because it is kind of a best-kept secret. We give it the warning. It's fine. The the moment ah the moment when you know the kind of the original bad guy of Shadowbringers, I'll try to keep it spoiler free, but the original bad guy of Shadowbringers, and you you beat him, and then that's phase one, right? But phase two... You know, he goes through this, you know, they get more powerful, right? They always get more powerful. That's the thing. Oh, yeah. Well, we'll just say he turned into something that I was not expecting. And that moment right there, in my opinion, was maybe not like an oh my God mind blowing moment, but it was hilarious. I died laughing during that. I mean, cube I mean, to be fair, that moment was beamed. Oh, no, he's hot.
00:17:05
Speaker
So that, that was probably the first time where I was like, like that brought all the emotions to me. And I was just like, wait, that's amazing. This, this part right here was the best part that happened as a cut scene so far in my mind in that entire game. But God damn it, Tony, it took me to get to what, level 77 or something to get there? Yeah, no, I feel that. I i i feel that. i I definitely feel that.
00:17:30
Speaker
Have you like gone back to the game at all like have you are you are like have you left? Are you still in like whereabouts are you with that? ah The last thing that I did was I did beat shadow bringers and I am in post shadow bringers. Okay Um, I just can't remember where exactly I'm very very near to post shadow bringers like towards the beginning So not a lot happened, but I did figure out the whole, you know crystal x arc thing and so that did wrap up But then yeah, I had to take another break from it. So here we are All right, so let's get into our headline of the week because it is a doozy of a news
Industry News and Controversies
00:18:06
Speaker
story. Holy shit. Anna Perna, interactive.
00:18:11
Speaker
has essentially, it's well not gone, but had a massive staff lockout. The the staff of Annapurn Interactive, the game's division specifically, they've resigned en masse after a deal to spin off the group, fell through.
00:18:30
Speaker
All 25 members of the Annapurna interactive team collectively resigned. ah They sent in a joint statement um about two Thursdays ago to the Bloomberg report. The only remaining executive that stayed from this division was Hector Sanchez, who helped launch the publisher in 2016 and re-joined the company after a stint at Epic Games.
00:18:55
Speaker
um Megan Ellison, who is the head of Annapurna entirely, he said that the company's gaming business will continue amid the mass resignations. There's no indication this will impact the internal game studio founded by the company in 2022, but the fate of South African support studio 24-bit games is up in the air as well with this. um But this, it had a lot of people Scrambling and how a lot of their partners that helped that developed games like wondering what was gonna happen ah Because Anna Perna, they're not really like Like well, they have their internal studio. They are primarily a publisher They've published such games such as stray which was up for game of the year nominations neon white which had Some nominations for best indie game a couple of years ago. I'm many many more I
00:19:45
Speaker
and And that's crazy. it It is like the fact that this happened. Everyone in the gaming industry was like, what the fuck? And this all happened just because of a disagreement between Megan Ellison and the head of the yeah games department of like, they couldn't come to an agreement because they the games department just wants to like spin off just as like a side thing or something like that. It just while still under Annapurna just become their own thing.
00:20:15
Speaker
and they couldn't come to an agreement. and it's kind of I don't know it seems it seems extreme but it it does but like we don't know I i don't know if we ever will know like the entire like the entire like backstory of this like we don't know what was going on inside those walls what was in those meetings we don't know how long this by the negotiations might have been going for or how long they've been trying to do this or even like the treatments from the head CEOs and everything so
00:20:49
Speaker
I don't know if we'll ever know, but it's crazy to see that Annapurna, a company that a lot of people like respect and like everything. I mean, you mentioned, you mentioned Stray, like I, even I bought Stray like straight. It's a fantastic game. I didn't finish it, but it's, it's mute. It's made beautifully. So it absolutely is.
00:21:12
Speaker
It absolutely is. and so um I believe they'll still be publishing games. I know that ah the deal that they had with Remedy regarding the Alan Wake and Control series and TV shows that they're they had that we know about aren't affected by this. but Hopefully those 25 people that walked out Get back in the industry because there's been a lot of layoffs and for in the gaming industry as it is that like seeing this Company get hit by that which is just another below to Yeah, big machine of like where the gaming industry is Well wish I had to all 25 of them
00:21:57
Speaker
Yeah. Well, and to get into everything else that happened these past two weeks, it's time for us to now dive 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.
00:22:18
Speaker
And starting off, some of the games that came out these past two weeks, we had Warhammer 40K Space Marine 2 release, the Jackbox Naughty Pack, Volipop Chainsaw Reapop, Funko Fusion, Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster, and Inotria, the last song. A lot of big releases came out these past two weeks.
00:22:38
Speaker
I still have friends that are playing War-Space Marine 2. I've heard nothing but great things about that. I got the Jackbox Naughty Pack, but I haven't played it with the the boys yet to see just how naughty it can be. ah Because, you know, whenever a new Jackbox game comes out, it it's all it always leads to a naughty time. This is just the first time that they're really going all-in on on that theme.
00:23:08
Speaker
I know I'd be curious if it's like, are people going to be allowed to stream it even? I don't even know. I don't know if I would want to. Like when it comes to streaming a Jackbox game to begin with, you're already nerfed because you've got to put out a lot of safety stuff because of who might come into your Twitch chat and ruin everything. That's like a single answer. That's like, oh, that's not safe for Twitch.
00:23:35
Speaker
but So that's why I just do discord nights with the the Jackbox games. They're much, it's much better. No restrictions. And you keep things within the friend group. In the world of video game news, kicking it off, the PlayStation 5, bro, was revealed and it costs 700 US dollars, which you're wondering, that's 952 Canadian.
00:24:04
Speaker
I don't know what they're doing with that. ah Like, here's the thing. It looks all right. I mean, look, isn't it upgrade? Yes, it absolutely is. Is it a downgrade at the same time? Yes, because the fact that they're offering and I think this is the dumb thing you can buy because it's like it doesn't come with a disk drive and people are like, oh, well, it's just a digital thing. No, not entirely. They're selling a disk drive separately. For 100 bucks. Jesus.
00:24:33
Speaker
um Now they did also reveal the 30th anniversary skin for Like the PlayStation 1 for the PlayStation 5 Pro and it looks cool I think the coolest part of that is gonna be the controller because obviously the controller will still work for a regular PlayStation 5 and that'll probably be what sells the most but uh Yeah, this is uh, this is the question that I want to know Do you think this is going to be the last PlayStation that they make or will there be a PlayStation 6?
00:25:03
Speaker
I mean, with every generation, there it's there's always gonna be new consoles, I feel. I feel like that's just how the console era, the consoles are, is there's always gonna be another one. like There's always gonna be a generation of consoles every couple of years. I think that's just kind of how it is because technology is gonna advance further and further and further because ah the consoles are essentially trying to match a gaming PC.
00:25:30
Speaker
Which they mostly do, like the PlayStation 5 and Series X do a really good job at that. Like sure, a PC can be upgraded even further, but like they do the job of like, home they have almost as much power as one. And each generation is just gonna be like, okay, now we got even more. Like, oh, we now have 8K graphics that we can support. Hopefully your TV can support that too, because that's the only way you're gonna be able to witness them.
00:25:59
Speaker
um It's it's gonna be like that forever at least with with on the Nintendo side is gonna be like that forever of a new console every Whatever because that's how Nintendo is like series x though it's Yeah, long long story short kids, just get yourself a PC. and Yeah, exactly. Like a legit, with the PS5 Pro costing like almost a thousand bucks Canadian, you might as well like start, you might as well put that thousand bucks you're gonna buy for that. Save up a bit more and just get a PC at that point.
00:26:32
Speaker
help yeah Because that's really what it's coming down to and the reason it's so high and I because I was looking around and like on things is because Xbox has not been doing great this year with or the series X has definitely lost this generation's console war that they're not even really trying anymore with it because the PlayStation 5 sold three to one against the Xbox Series X and Well, here's the other thing, isn't X, but can't you just play Xbox like on your Windows PC? Yep. So if you get a PC, you literally have an Xbox. So i i said essentially, get you like the only thing you like you really lose, like because you can get Game Pass for PC, the only thing you lose is like maybe the exclusive Game Pass games that are only on the console itself. Like specifically, I know that Halo 5 is only on Game Pass for console, but not on Game Pass for PC or even on PC to begin with.
00:27:26
Speaker
Which I think is- Is it on Steam? No, I- cuz I looked cuz I'm like, is Halo 5 even- and now granted, Halo 5 is by far like, the worst Halo game. Arguably. So it's like, do you really want to play Halo 5? Which I get, but it's like still give us a chance at least like, I don't know, dog shit on it in our own time and not like kate keep it from us for dog shitting on it. I don't know. I think the last Halo game I played was like Halo 2. It's a solid one. It's a solid one.
00:27:59
Speaker
Uh, Tony Hawk is in the news because he, on the YouTube series Last Meals
Future of Gaming and Technology
00:28:06
Speaker
on Mythical Kitchen, has revealed that he and Activision are doing something for Pro Skater's 25th anniversary, which is at the end of the month!
00:28:14
Speaker
ah He said, quote, I wish I could tell you more, but I could tell you that I have been talking to Activision again, which is insanely exciting. We're working on something that is, for the first time, I've said that publicly. I can't give any details, but I think it'll be something the fans truly appreciate.
00:28:30
Speaker
I watched that episode. I did, too. I mean, I just watched the series in general. It's a great shout out to Josh and the Mythical Kitchen team for making it. It's so good. ah The food looks good. i weigh I primarily watch it for the food, but the interviews are just really good, too. And I'm like, damn, this is fucking I'm how I'm thinking about death in my last meal. And it's not is just not my seasonal depression yeah kicking in. um This is cool. And people are theorizing, okay, what could it be? Is it good? Because Pro Skater one, two, the remaster is already on everything. So people are theorizing, is it Pro Skater three and four getting a remaster treatments or potentially the underground series getting a a remaster treatment? Wait, I figured it out. It's going to be Tony Hawk VR.
00:29:21
Speaker
I mean, that would be cool too. i mean he so That would be cool, not gonna lie. Like as sad as like, oh, not everyone's gonna be able to play it. That would be really fucking cool because the amount of vertigo people might get from doing just ramp tricks in VR is gonna be nutty. if If VR was a little bit more convenient to like get and wear and not be a danger to yourself in your own home, I would probably do it.
00:29:50
Speaker
But it's just a little too clunky looking for me. It's a little bit like unsafe. Like I would be the guy that would absolutely walk into my own wall 100 percent. So I mean, you're wired up with most of it. So you're like limited on where you can move. Like I'm debating because I really want to get ah the PlayStation VR to. I know that it I would have to like set it up a bit more because I don't know if I even have enough space to do it with how my setup is.
00:30:14
Speaker
But like I would just set it up, sit down in my chair, and just have it from there, and do everything from there, essentially, in vr the VR space. Yeah. ah But until then, thankfully, VR has got has its own like business attractions. We have, like in my city, like VR arcades, essentially, where you just pay for an hour or two, and you just yeah play VR. And they have like so many different games you can play, really which is really, really cool.
00:30:44
Speaker
Mm-hmm see eventually we need to like move towards a society that's similar to like that movie ready player one. Oh, yeah, that's That's what we're moving towards. Honestly, it's cool. It's which is cool. It would be cool to see that come be real in mobile game news Flappy bird is coming back under new ownership The Flobby Bird Foundation has acquired the official game's trademark rights as well as rights to the gaming characters in po P.O.P.O versus Cactus, which is a 2011 game which Flobby Bird is believed to have been inspired by. um They it's they have announced it's coming to multiple platforms um this fall. I don't know what they mean by that though, because the Android and iOS versions are planned for 2025.
00:31:32
Speaker
so I don't know if that means oh yeah you can play flabby bird on the switch and maybe like a certain like a browser game or like through steam or whatever they might be putting it through but uh flabby bird is alive and coming back folks ah so time to flex your high scores once again like I did in high school which is when that game came out for me It's still a gold mine, so I think they made a good choice. but it It also means that your i ah iPods and iPhones back in the day that still have it on there, even trying to sell for like thousands of dollars, um that that value is going to go down. So sell, sell it now. This is your only chance. It's your last chance.
00:32:17
Speaker
Unity is back in the news, the yeah yeah the the the program Unity. It's ah because it's finally revoked its maligned runtime fee. Which if you remember, a year ago, Unity Technologies introduced a near universally hated fee that was tied to a developer's game installs. While it argued its fee which impacts only developers with successful games that had lots of revenue, the users did not see it that way.
00:32:44
Speaker
So the company walked back parts of the runtime fee changed by last year, September 22nd, something that was a small improvement for some developers. But now the whole fee has been removed and people are happy again with Unity.
00:33:01
Speaker
So, uh, yeah, uh, thanks unity only took you like a year. but I mean, it literally took, it literally took them a year, like, ah like almost the full year, but yeah. Uh, don't do it again. Yeah.
00:33:18
Speaker
But that's all I'm going to say about that. ah The Powerpuff Girls have been added to multiverses with a variation of the character being the roundy rough boys. So multiverses has been doing pretty well with their comeback. i don't Have you played any multiverses since its comeback at all? I i have not so multiverses is more of a platform fighters similar to like super smash brothers, right? So it's not really my cup of tea in the fighting game world But obviously they did have one of the highest expense tournaments ah ever ever held one time when they kind of had their their kickoff tournament and um, so what was the price pool? Oh my god, I think I want to say like the guy who came in like
00:34:04
Speaker
like 200th place, like still walked away with like 50 bucks. like god and like that It was massive. like you'd have to You'd have to Google it for details, but it was huge. like I literally think the first the first place person won like a million dollars or some shit. like it was It was outrageous. I'm probably exaggerating, but it was a lot. and then you have then you have like tech in which is like literally first place is like five thousand dollars for every two him it's so bad wow ep
00:34:36
Speaker
ah In layoff news 650 more employees have been laid off from Xbox ah Phil Spencer said no games were being cancelled and no studios were closed because of this But it's still holy fuck 650 more people God yeah They just need to stop just just mix with PC already and just work with work with windows and just that's it yeah ah In Minecraft news the Minecraft mob vote that happens around every minecon event um It's being retired officially because the vote had people
00:35:17
Speaker
So up in our like people were up in arms against the vote because like you're showing us three things and only once getting in and you're basically Scraping the other two we are sick of it. We want to justice for all these mobs that didn't win and so they are don't Mojang is listening and It's being retired good. Oh the J is silent in that I never I don't know III really don't know if it is or not. I Generally do not know cuz it's what what is it? Swedish I think I'm remembering I even remember it's been so long since I've played Minecraft. I don't but either but uh, yeah Mojang Mojang however you want to say it No more mob vote
00:36:01
Speaker
um In cool fan news, a fan-made LEGO model of Pelican Town, the city of Stardew Valley, was brought out to the LEGO Fan Exhibition, BrickCon 2024. The build features a total of 75,000 pieces, and it looks really fucking stunning. Like, if you've seen the images online, this is really cool to look at. And it's ah it's like, I think, ah very close to like a 1-1 replica.
00:36:31
Speaker
But like it's really cool wonder how long it took him. That's crazy. Oh god. I don't even want it. I probably like 75 000 pieces Like I would think at least a year unless you like have no wife and maybe you have that or like take a quarter off of that, but still That is crazy to see like the passion for like that shit Which is really cool ah in the hypest news this week Because it is super super exciting
00:37:03
Speaker
Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios, RGG, have announced their next game, starring everyone's favorite Yakuza character, Goro Majima, on a swashbuckling adventure. Like a dragon, Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii comes out next February at the end of the month, expanding the Gaiden formula, you get to play as Majima.
00:37:29
Speaker
You're a pirate with him. He has some amnesia. He's going on a pirate journey and it's a follow-up sequel to Infinite Wealth. Hell yeah. this I am so excited for this. um This is the first time Majima will be a starring role in his own game and not just a starring role alongside Kiryu like in Yakuza 0. And the Yakuza games have touched so many people. It's it's just cool that they're living on and in a giant legacy.
00:38:01
Speaker
They are and this is this is the craziest shit that they've ever pulled Like we thought like the the minigames and like side content would be the craziest shit They pulled nah the fact that this came.
Legal Battles in Gaming
00:38:13
Speaker
You're just a fucking pirate Yakuza But that that's that takes the cake that just takes the cake People are people are still hoping for Kazama Kiryu to be in Tekken that has been one of the most requested characters and For DLC for Tekken for the last like five years. I mean if that happened I would go by Tekken I would go by Tekken at that point. And now that Yakuza is on the switch People are now hoping for Kiryu in the next Smash Bros
00:38:44
Speaker
which i wouldn't say is impossible because but sega is the publisher of them so it is possible it just works i don't know why he's not in a fighting game it just honestly yeah yeah honestly like i'm surprised he hasn't come to a one yet ah Nintendo has finally filed the lawsuit against Palworld. But it's not on copyright infringement, it's on patent infringement. What are the patents that are being infringed? We actually don't know what they are yet. Nintendo hasn't revealed it. Palworld hasn't said anything because they don't know what patents were being infringed on either. ah But they're going to court!
00:39:26
Speaker
after how many months it's like what the game came out in January pal world so like it's only been nine months now taking action so I have to surmise that like if anything they can get them on just the looks of the the pals what are they You see, but yeah, yes, but that's that's what people thought they would go after them for. But it's not a copyright infringement, which is like weird, because like if it was, it would be copyright that they would go after them for. Can you not but patent like the design, though?
00:39:59
Speaker
Can you like that's it like that's if if you can then okay, which I mean but like Like obviously if there's a pattern out there for any design, it would be Pikachu In Charizard, so unless those are the pads that we've just never really known about because let's be real Why would we really care if they had a patent about that it makes sense? ah But we just don't know because we thought oh, yeah They probably just owned the copyright because that's really more or less what they would have but Regardless, we'll know more about this when more details are released, but for the time being, we don't really know what the patents are.
00:40:38
Speaker
yep ah There's a new mobile game ah evolving the Rubik's Cube but ah called Rubik's Match. And a fun fact about this app that just got released, ah the creator of the Rubik's Cube, Erno Rubik, was a game tester for it. So they had the creator of the Rubik's Cube game test, the new Rubik's Cube matching game.
00:41:01
Speaker
So but that's that's a pretty fun story right there. I've never solved the Rubik's Cube before my entire life. Same. Same. I've got that part. Never. but It probably is. I I just don't have that. kind I mean, I don't have a Rubik's Cube anymore to even try to learn. So I think I threw mine across the room one time when I was mad at the child. ah Yeah, I probably would too.
00:41:28
Speaker
ah In the and video game crime news, nine people have been arrested in Italy for their connection to a trafficking ring, dealing in fake retro video game puzzles, and an operation that sees more than $50 million dollars in counterfeit goods.
00:41:48
Speaker
Italy's Guardia de Finanza, a militarized police force that deals with economic and financial crimes, announced Friday that it had arrested the Italian nationals and confiscated their collection of fake video game goods. This was dubbed Coin Up 80. The investigation was led by the Guardia de for Finanza's turn unit, but spanned provinces across Italy and began late last year. Oh my God.
00:42:16
Speaker
How? How do you? Well, I don't know. I mean, this is that's crazy. This is crazy. Like I thought that of all the video game crime news that we're probably going to cover on this podcast, the whole Gary Bowser story would probably be the biggest one we had.
00:42:32
Speaker
where basically a guy named barr Gary Bowser was caught selling fake switches and shit in Canada, got sued by Nintendo at the same time is basically paying Nintendo for the rest of his life. And it's funny because the guy's name is Bowser. So it's like, oh, that's funny. ah This is a whole other level of what the fuck. I mean, how do you even like hide this for so long? and And then how do you even like get caught? Like you've been doing it for what, at least a year and a half, it sounds like. And then well, I wonder, like, what do you do to get caught?
00:43:02
Speaker
I mean, maybe the police down the warp pipes, they are Italian. Maybe it was a bunch of Italian plumbers. Oh my god. This was actually, this guy's, this was Mario's crime syndicate and they just found it.
00:43:16
Speaker
game consoles. So like, I mean, they must have worked or something. Like there must have been something about them that was actually decent. Like, yeah, like they, they, they they must like, I don't know what it was, but man, 50 million, 50 million, 50 million dollars. That's nuts.
Game Releases and Announcements
00:43:37
Speaker
In some anime news, the Devil May Cry anime has a brand new trailer and the voice actor for Dante in this adaptation is Nero's voice actor, Johnny Yong Bosch. We love Johnny. The anime premieres on Netflix April 2025.
00:43:55
Speaker
And I gotta say this new trailer looks good. Holy fuck like I haven't seen it I I've only just recently like what was it last year? I played through all of the devil may cry games fantastic games, uh Fantastic last year maybe two years ago now. It's been a while, but I played through all of them like in a year that they were great games And I'm excited to see this. um I'm super excited. And it's awesome to see the e the the guy who got to play essentially the young, the son of Virgil, now Dante himself, which is awesome. Yeah, that is very cool. Yeah, the um the original Devil May Cry anime, which has been out forever. Oh, yeah. The one that was that was what that was. it That was the it followed the events of Devil May Cry 2 or it led up to the events of Devil May Cry 2.
00:44:43
Speaker
Yeah, one of those, but I enjoyed that. So this being a much more modernized take on it, like I'm i'm very excited. In events I didn't know existed but took place the second Geo guesser World Cup ah Wrapped up in Stockholm, Sweden. I had eight finalists competing for the grand prize of twenty six thousand two hundred and fifty dollars plus one hundred percent of the revenue from every World Cup Jersey that was sold and twitch subscription sold During the tournaments Wow
00:45:18
Speaker
Yeah, that's nuts. ah The winner was a user by the name of Blinky who took home the cup. I have never played Geoguessr, but I get a bunch of those clips coming up every now and then on social media with ah that guy, Rainbolt. And he will literally from like, I'm almost surprised that his name is, was not the winner because the things that he does when he plays Geoguessr is astronomical. um I don't know if you've ever seen any of those clips, but he will literally
00:45:50
Speaker
ah There was one where he was blindfolded and his guest that um was playing with him described the scenery to him and he was like, okay, it sounds like you're describing ah Bolivia and then he yeah that it was correct and it was just it's very scary how he knows that Wow So these guys these pros are it' they're on another level when it comes to knowing the geography of the entire world and they probably This is what those geography degrees are good for, kids. Becoming a Geoguesser world champion.
00:46:24
Speaker
ah um In that I really don't know how to take, the ESRB has leaked the existence of a Horizon Zero Dawn remaster. Interesting. I don't know how to feel about this because Horizon Zero Dawn has only been out for seven years.
00:46:43
Speaker
I know it's like how can you even remaster it really? how can Like like it's not like much change like I like maybe like the engine maybe slightly changed from Zero Dawn to Forbidden West but like why like the the The Last of Us Part 1 remaster, I understood that because they they from The Last of Us when it first came out to The Last of Us 2, it was a much bigger gap. Like sure they had like put it onto PS4 and stuff and like high-resed it, but like it made sense a little bit of like, okay, they're just like redoing it entirely within the new engine and everything. So I was like fine with it. This, I don't know how to feel about.
00:47:28
Speaker
I really don't know how to talk about it. And so here's the other thing. I also don't like Horizon Zero Dawn. I could not get into it. Ah, okay. i I think, and this is just pure hearsay, I think I heard people say that they had a lot of like glitches and bugs. So maybe that has something to do with it, but... No idea. that's I never played. And that is the case in like, because I guess the game really never got like, because it was a PS4 title and never really got like the, Oh yeah, let's just ah HD it for the PS5. So for them, I guess that's in in that sense. Okay. But still, i I don't know how to really feel about it.
00:48:12
Speaker
I know, if they especially if they price it at an enormous price gain, like $70. Are they really going to turn a profit? I don't know, man. If they do that, then I'm like, okay, no. No.
00:48:25
Speaker
um The team behind Project Borealis, which is a fan-made effort to turn a former Valve writer, Marga Laidlaw's Half-Life 2 Episode 3 synopsis into a playable game, well they released a brand new teaser for Project Boreal prologue. um Because let's be real, if Valve ain't gonna do it, leave it to the fans to do it for you.
00:48:51
Speaker
Uh, so that's cool. So the first concept of like what it would actually be is, uh, soon to be out. So that's exciting for Half-Life fans. And lastly in regular gaming news, Final Fantasy 16 producer Naoki Yoshida asks that modders, please don't run amok with offensive or inappropriate shenanigans now that the game is on PC.
Gaming Community and Ethics
00:49:14
Speaker
Let's be real, you guys have already made Clive naked. I know it.
00:49:19
Speaker
I know people like and people can't help themselves. There is wild. I mean, it's it it's what it is what it is. Look, they teased us with it in that one scene after you fight Garuda with Clive essentially damn near naked.
00:49:36
Speaker
um ah Chained up as well. I think that people just couldn't help themselves. Oh Too many perverbs out there man. Yeah Also, just shout us to bed star living meme living legend of the voice of Clive Ross field fucking love the guy I will say I actually haven't played Final Fantasy 16 yet. I think I'm gonna try and play it.
00:50:01
Speaker
It's good. I loved 16. Like when it came out last year, uh, last year, last year. Fucking it. I think it was my game of the year. Uh, it's so good. The Leviathan DLC that came out this year. Finally. Fucking loved that. Uh, it's so good.
00:50:19
Speaker
So i I have trouble finishing like um action RPG story games, I think, just single player. um my My attention span, unfortunately, just it it has a hard time following the entire thing through and like keeping up with it. So I'm trying to think the last Final Fantasy game that I tried to play aside from the MMO was I think it was Final Fantasy 12. It was the one with Vaughn.
00:50:47
Speaker
Yeah, that's 12. And I made it as far as I could in that one. But even that, I don't think I made it very far. Like I want to say I got 50 percent. And then I just like I've never said to say I've never finished a Final Fantasy game ever. But I want to. Well, maybe 16 will do it for you. I hope so. I mean, you have a dog like you have Torgal. So like do it for Torgal. I'll do it for Torgal.
00:51:14
Speaker
um In the world of live service game news, Hoyleverse news, the McDonald's and Genshin Impact collaboration has started and customers can purchase items via the McDonald's menu app in the US only. It's only in the United States.
00:51:30
Speaker
ah The menu items include the Genshin Impact Apple Pie, which has special packaging that features Katahara, Kazuma, and Baidu, and the Genshin Impact Deluxe McChrissy Meal, which comes with special in-game items as well. The Apple Pie will reward players with 40 primogems, 3 golden apple pastries, and a golden apple pastry recipe,
00:51:54
Speaker
ah in the game and the McKrispy meal will give players the wings of delicacies wind glider and the celebration crispy and sweet name card
00:52:07
Speaker
I'm just going to say this. I never thought North American McDonald's would collab with Genshin Impact. i I actually am so shocked at the like just scale that um these gacha games and like the the rise of like VTubing and like playing Genshin and Hong Kai and all these things, it just blew up. It completely blew up and it caught me off guard. I'll say that much. Yeah.
00:52:35
Speaker
Yeah, Genshin, I played Genshin when it first came out on PlayStation. It was all right. I just i think I played it for a month and I'm like, I i think I'm good. And then Star Rail actually had me like buy the balls for like three months. ah I enjoyed Star Rail. I'm not going to say it's a bad game. I think Star Rail's a good game, but I had to i had to quit it because gotch of the gacha mechanic. Yup. And my wallet, essentially.
00:53:03
Speaker
In Destiny 2 news, Bungie has admitted that fan art was used in an official Destiny 2 collectible. It says that the artists will be compensated and credit credited for their incredible artwork. um This is at least the third time fan art has ended up on an official Destiny 2 product. And what was the product you're asking? It was their new Nerf gun.
00:53:25
Speaker
Hey, it's a pretty cool, pretty cool item to to to do it with. Yeah, I don't remember which gun replica it was, but it was another one of them. And it's like the fact that though this is the third time that fan art has ended up in their official products really means that Bungie has a hard time telling apart their own art, which is a which is a which is concerning.
00:53:50
Speaker
ah We now dive into the TCG news world and starting off with Pokemon Stellar Crown is out right now. You can now get the newest pack. Surging Sparks releases November 8th and we have a whole bunch of new news about Pokemon TCG Pocket. First, if you have it pre-registered for it, if you want to pre-register for it, it is available for pre-registration.
00:54:13
Speaker
The official release date that they have so far is October 30th, or the planned release date. It might come sooner, it might come later. But October 30th is what we have set for North America. More details about this have come out after a private event was held by Pokemon. This includes the starting packs, ah the rarities, pull rates, currencies in the game and everything. There's a lot that was shown off and my best recommendation for you if you are interested in this is to go check out the video Austin John plays put out because it goes over everything. And it's a really detailed video and I am super excited for this.
00:54:52
Speaker
like Like, I'm not a big, like, Pokรฉmon TCG fan. Like, I've i owned the cards growing up. I never really, like, went out to collect them, but, like, I had them, like, it's like, oh, here's some Pokรฉmon cards. I'm like, yay, Pokรฉmon! Whoo!
00:55:07
Speaker
So correct me if I'm wrong, but it so is it is it literally just a mobile? Way of collecting cards like images. Yeah, basically. Yeah So the big thing is that they did show up I will share details of so you get two free packs a day with the free plan and There is a $10 a month subscription that you can get which gives you like access to like premium missions because there's missions you can get daily of like of pull X amount of like fluffy Pokemon or water poke, etc. There's like other missions you can get with the plan. But you also get um because it's every 12 hours that you get a free pack with the if you pay 10 bucks a month with the plan, it's every eight hours you get a free pack to pull from.
00:55:54
Speaker
So that's like the big difference of what it is. Obviously, you can use all the different currencies to get different cards as well. um Again, the Austin John Plays video tells you the math and everything with all of that stuff as well. But that's really the big thing if you like if you want to pay for the app because it's 10 bucks a month and here's what you get. Otherwise, it's free. You get two pack free pulls a day.
00:56:19
Speaker
Pretty fucking solid. And then there is the a shortened ah essentially the speed dual version of the Pokemon TCG is what I would call it. That's in the app as well. Yeah.
00:56:33
Speaker
a much more condensed, simplified, ah streamlined version of the TCG game is a part of the app as well. But I'm very excited. I genuinely, when they announced this at the Pokรฉmon Presents last year or earlier this year, I don't remember when it was announced.
00:56:50
Speaker
I was like, yo, this looks sick because I just like I just like there's something about opening packs that just like that euphoric rush. I there's just something about that. I'm like, ah, yes. Oh, yeah. It's the I mean, that's gotcha for you. It's like it's that whole feeling of like, what am I going to get? Don't know what I'm going to get. So and the fact that anymore and the fact that they're giving you two to three a day for free. ah Sign me up.
00:57:19
Speaker
So what they what they need to do here is they need to make this compatible with the online training card games. So that like, I really hope what they do is maybe packs that you get, maybe come with codes or something, or some special promotions that you can bring into the actual TCG game itself, because players, competitors, for the most part, at least from my point of view, won't be too interested in necessarily the collecting aspect, rather getting you know the cards that they're looking for. so I think if they can merge those two as well, it will, you know, be really, really good for them. It would be. As of right now, they said, according to the Osijo, they said that they're not it's they're keeping it separate for the time being. um As time goes on, though, it might change, but for like the start of its life cycle, it's going to be a separate entity, sort of like how dual links and master dual are like separate entities from the core TCG. Gotcha. Gotcha.
00:58:15
Speaker
Yeah.
Trading Card Games and Tournaments
00:58:16
Speaker
ah Speaking of Yu-Gi-Oh, the Yu-Gi-Oh TCG 25th Anniversary 10 Dueling Mirrors is now out. Rage to the Abyss releases October 10th, The Quarter Century Bonanza on November 11th, Crossover Breakers on December 5th, and they did announce a new pack for January as well that I don't remember the name of. But I will have it to you in the next episode.
00:58:37
Speaker
And in Magic the Gathering, Duskborn House of Horror releases September 27th, which actually, wait, that that'll be, that's out, actually, that's out soon. If, depending on what you're listening to this episode, it's out soon, or out now, if you're listening to it past the 27th. It's out as well.
00:58:56
Speaker
ah Foundations releases on November 15th, and we've got three new secret lair drops arriving on September 30th. The Ghostbusters, Slimer from the Ghostbusters, and Chucky. Each one of those contains six cards. And in Disney Lorkana news, September, sorry, set number six releases November 29th. And that is everything in the week in review. Any final thoughts on any of those stories there, Ben?
00:59:27
Speaker
No, man, I mean that was that was some good juice some good juice I will say Disney Lorkana is I mean it was it was only a matter of time before Disney was like hey Let's ah let's give people some card games and I haven't gotten any or seen any or played it myself But I know a bunch of people that are interested in it. So um I think that's gonna be around for a really long time Did you see what the prize pool was for like their first like real official tournament?
00:59:54
Speaker
I didn't, but I imagine it's extremely high. Let me hold on the Liz, the Disney Lorkana hold on because it was essentially a a binder from like their first one. It was a binder of like every usable card at that point plus like the prize money.
01:00:16
Speaker
and like a very like ah one of the golden mickey cards that like is only like one of like 200 or something like that as well like it was like a fucking like holy shit this is like a fucking huge prize to get and this was like like their first official tournament and i'm like holy fuck yeah that's insane and then i think also they plan on holding worlds like at disney world Which I mean, I mean, it only makes sense. yeah Like where else would you ah host like your own card game? I like it makes sense for it to be there because I and that's just like great marketing. because It's like, oh, hell yeah. I'm going to go watch like the world finals and go to Disneyland world. Hell yeah.
01:01:02
Speaker
Yeah, one am my ah one of my close friends is actually a judge for Lorikano, like an official judge, and so he gets invited to go to all the tournaments. That man's gonna get a free ride to Disney. Damn. Oh, that's sick. Oh, that's sick. All right, well, with that, it's time for us to now dive into...
01:01:23
Speaker
The games that are coming out from September 23rd to October 4th, here's what should be on your radar. From AAA titles, indie hits, hidden gems, and hot pieces of garbage, here are the games coming out that should be on your radar. And there's a lot! I think I said this last week, now that we're in the fall season, there's a lot! So, I'm gonna rapid fire these off and then we'll talk about them after.
01:01:46
Speaker
Starting off, on the 23rd, Anarchade comes out on everything. Tiny Glade and Zucosis released on the PC. On the 24th, Dark Sky comes to the PC, Epic Mickey Rebrush comes out on everything, and the Puzzle Maker, Siba's Odyssey comes to the PC. On the 25th, Iron Meat comes out on everything. On the 26th, Apartment Story comes to the PC.
01:02:07
Speaker
Earth Defense Force World Brothers 2 comes with a PS5, PS4, and Switch. Golden Lab and Mechabelum release on the PC. Pineapple, a perfect revenge, comes out on the PC and mobile devices. Shadows of Doubt releases on the PS5, Series X, and PC. The Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom releases on the Switch. And the Nameless Slay Dragon comes to the PC. On the 27th, Dwarven Realms comes to the PC.
01:02:32
Speaker
EA Sports FC 25 releases on everything and Ray Nautis comes to the PlayStation systems, Switch, and PC. On the 30th, Economics comes to the PC as well as Rogue Waters and Sunny Legacy Collection. On the 1st, Master Detective Archives Rain Code Plus releases on the PlayStation 5, Series X, and PC. And Throne of Liberty also releases on the same systems.
01:02:58
Speaker
Nothing on the second, but on the third. Kill Knight comes out on everything. Kvark comes to the PC as well as Victory Heat Rally. And Neck Warrior 5, Clans releases on everything but the Switch. And lastly, on the fourth. SpongeBob SquarePants, the Patrick Star game comes out on everything. And until Dawn Remake comes to the PS5 and PC.
01:03:21
Speaker
Those are all the games coming out within the next two weeks that you should know about.
01:03:28
Speaker
um The big games within these two weeks, starting off Epic Mickey Rebrushed, formerly a Wii exclusive game. um For a long time now getting the remaster and put on everything Which is very exciting because I actually had the collector's edition of this game when I grew up Which came with a little Mickey figurine with the paintbrush? Which very cool and glad to see this gave me a remake. I am picking this up um because I never finished it as a kid because I was just I was a kid and Finishing games was rare back then um
01:04:08
Speaker
Obviously, one of the biggest games, Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom.
Console Limitations and Innovations
01:04:11
Speaker
that comes out well As we're recording this, this comes out next week for us. Here's here's my gripe with the Nintendo games in general. like For God's sakes, they make great games, but they need a dedicated... like Just a more advanced console in my opinion. like Bring us back to the GameCube errors where we actually had you know a controller and we had a console to play the game on. I don't want to play Legend of Zelda on a tiny little switch.
01:04:42
Speaker
Like I don't, I want Legend of Zelda to be like in my face on a massive like 8K screen and I want to really live the entire game because back in the day when they were on like um Nintendo 64, it was amazing. It was incredible. But now they gave us this little handheld thing and like, that's it. Like, come on. Like I understand you can like plug it to your TV and, but then I get these little dinky side left and right things to use as controllers. Like, no, I want something firm that I can hold in my hand. you know
01:05:13
Speaker
one like If they were to just create like you know Nintendo GameCube 10 or something, you know just some sort sort of advanced console nowadays that could rival like a PlayStation or rival an Xbox, I think I would get that because I am sad that I'm missing out on so many Nintendo games because of just not wanting to use my Switch.
01:05:36
Speaker
That's valid. That's valid. And who knows maybe the switch to will be something like that. Who knows? we're We are in that window where I believe now until April, they will be announcing um the new switch or the new Nintendo console. I'll have to see.
01:05:55
Speaker
We will have to see. um The EA Sports FC25, I believe that's what they call the FIFA series now. um Because they they can't call it FIFA anymore. Because they lost the rice to FIFA, but they can still make football games. So that's why it's called that now, I believe. um Master Detective Archives, Ring Code Plus. This is big because this was a Switch exclusive game for a long time.
01:06:21
Speaker
um To those who do not know what this game is or don't remember what this game is. This is from the creators of Danganronpa This is Yeah, that is now finally making its way to the PC and other consoles Which I'm excited for cuz that means I'll be able to stream it what I've done my list of games. I gotta play first Love me some dunk
New Game Releases
01:06:43
Speaker
and romper. That's for sure ah And lastly, SpongeBob SquarePants' Patrick Star Game. Open world sandbox where you play as Patrick. What more do you want? Honestly, this this game looks absolutely ridiculous. They announced it at the Nintendo Partners Showcase, but it is for everything. um I'm excited. for I'm genuinely excited for this. Like, I love the SpongeBob games. Like, but keep Battle for the Bikini Bottom, best one by far. Nothing will ever top it.
01:07:13
Speaker
Glad that I got the remaster, but I still feel like the the physics in it are the the physics are different, and so like it feels a little different, but I'm fine with it. um But glad to see and a third, essentially modern SpongeBob game is coming out, which is awesome. And until Dawn's ah remat remaster for the PS5, I never played the original until Dawn's, so like I know that people are like excited for it. I'm i'm i'm indifferent.
01:07:39
Speaker
Yeah, um I've seen a bunch of gameplay. I enjoy it. I mean, I never played it myself, but I think it's just fun to watch people play it because at the end of the day, it's a horror game. and It is. Yeah, your decisions matter and all that kind of stuff. So me just in general, I do love the ah decision type games where your decisions have impact, like your telltale games, you know, so it's under under that same category. So I think it'll be good.
01:08:01
Speaker
Yes. And with that, it's now time for us to dive into our main focus. ah 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. Here's what's going down this week in the Game Lounge. And to kick it off, as we're recording this, it's TwitchCon 2024.
TwitchCon Reflections
01:08:27
Speaker
Woo, yay, TwitchCon, yay.
01:08:30
Speaker
Uh, have you been down to the con this year? No, um I had no plans of kind of going to the convention um this year. um i've been I've been at TwitchCon I think four times now total. So yeah, it's kind of one of those things where it's like once you've gone once, twice, three, four times, then you've kind of, you know, same old song and dance at that point. So, but obviously it continues to be ah a wide attraction because I still know a bunch of people who have gone even more than me and they've gone this year. So.
01:09:03
Speaker
Yeah, this I went last year that last year was my first Twitch con. It was actually my first like real big convention in general, actually. So it was like, yeah, Las Vegas, um which was easy. The reason I wait it was because of Vegas, I'm like, hey, mom, you want to split a ah a flight to Vegas and a hotel trip? And she's like, yeah, of course, because Vegas to her is like a second home. So it's like perfect. So I didn't have to spend as much as I would have if I was just going alone.
01:09:32
Speaker
So worked out Worked out in that end and I absolutely it was a great event um I completely understand why they're not doing it in Vegas anymore because there were so many other things happening at the same time that like Transportation was a big issue just with the event in general But everything else about the event was pretty fine from what I saw and heard Mm-hmm If I can ask, sorry, if I can ask how much how much were the were the tickets that year? Do you remember? I. OK, because so I believe I spent about three fifty Canadian. OK, maybe a little maybe a little more. I generally do that. That's. It was about that much because I also purchased because I bought the three day pass and I also did the after party.
01:10:20
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Okay. Well, I think I think it was about 350 Canadian see about everything interesting I buy bought I bought everything because and I only bought the after party because they were doing an area 15 Which is a very cool place if you're ever in Vegas go check it out. It's super cool. Yes yeah um The only reason I ask is because like back in the day, my god the price was not even close to what it is today. yeah um It's it's kind of a shame because i mean when I went to TwitchCon for the very first time, my first time was in 2017. I remember I think tickets were like, I want to say a hundred bucks for like the entire three days and then it was like 125 or 130 if you wanted to do the party and not to mention the parties back then um were in like an actual arena or like a stadium and then they brought like celebrity singers to to the to the show to perform so like this year's party
01:11:23
Speaker
um All they're doing is they're just sectioning off a block of downtown San Diego and like that's it. So it's like a block party and it costs so much for no reason. I'm looking at the tickets ticket prices now. So the block party pass is completely sold out. I don't even know well how much it costs. But the one day pass, you're looking at 149 to 159 and the three day pass is 239.
01:11:51
Speaker
Yeah, i think I think with the party it was about 350 USD. Yeah. So yeah, that that roughly adds up to like what I spent last year, which I think like once you do the party once, like it's i you you realize it's either for you or it's not for you. And like, really, I didn't care. Like, again, I only went because of the venue, not because of the party itself. Mm hmm. Like realistically going forward like 239. Yeah, that's I mean, Canadian, that's still about 350 roughly if not like close to 300. Right. Like it's like.
01:12:24
Speaker
ah Pricing but that's not like I've seen worse like worse prices in my time and like because of inflation in the way that the economy fucking went like of course it's gonna go up like that's just Economics in general and it's a shitty thing too But like twitch it also has grown so much from like where it was to 2017 to where it is now as well But they're able to like charge that much more. I though, because recently I think within, it might've been this year, but um the CEO of Twitch announced that Twitch is not profitable at the moment.
01:13:02
Speaker
yeah Yeah, that's the other thing. It's like, yeah, they're not profitable. They had they shut down which Korea entirely like Korea doesn't have twitch anymore. ah Like it's crazy to see that like duality of like like how profitable is like a basic question of how profitable is twitch really um on the twitch and on the Amazon endd because they are still owned by Amazon. Yeah. And it's like.
01:13:30
Speaker
We have no clue, but it's obviously still guys popular to keep itself running, which is good. And then it's like they run so many ads. So I'm like, how are you not profitable? Yeah, exactly. And maybe they're just saying that. So that way they're like they're secretly like saving up. So that way it's like, actually, we haven't profitable. We just haven't said anything because like for X reason or whatever.
01:13:55
Speaker
Yeah, because I don't know it's it's so Amazon doesn't like fully like corporal us or whatever. Maybe that's why maybe that's why it's possible. But either way, it's not going to change the way that we use Twitch. Like that's the ask what yeah what they really need to do if whether they're profitable or not, is they need to start like revamping things and adding more features that are just likable to the user experience and You know, even like quality of life changes, like for God's sakes, the mobile app right now is the shittiest thing I've ever ordered in my entire life, Tony.
Twitch Platform Developments
01:14:31
Speaker
Let's talk about that mobile app right now, because that is like a big point of with Twitch. like ah
01:14:37
Speaker
Desktop is great. Everyone loves the desktop version of it. It's super accessible. The back end of it for streamers is pretty easy to follow and understand when you like it might just take a read of like, okay, what is exactly everything? But it's really very user friendly, which I like because I like things user friendly.
01:14:55
Speaker
Um, the app. Holy fuck. Like it used to be very simple. It used to be super straightforward of just like, okay, here's everyone who's live. Here's your other categories of like who you could follow. Like, like all that stuff. Now when you open it up, it's like tick tock, which I'm not saying it's bad that it's like tick tock. Oh, it's just, I mean, idea it's bad i it' like tick tock.
01:15:19
Speaker
It is definitely like not what which needs to be for their mobile app. Not at all. I mean, it just from the the placement of the menu items and the buttons like now to get to like your following instead of it just being like right on your page where you can scroll. Now you have to like click a button and it like pulls open the side of your top left corner is your where your side bar is of who you all of all your followed channels. so it and Like here's it here's like it's an easy fix you make the home screen your followed list You can still have that tick-tock feed if you want just put it like as a second and bottom button or whatever you can go That's that's all legit. That's all you have to do which like legit that's all you have to do cuz I understand like
01:16:08
Speaker
With that scrolling ability of scrolling through different live channels of like your followers, your the ones you have followed and like other ones that you can discover, I think that's cool because obviously discoverability is a big thing that Twitch is still trying to work on for the smaller streamer. It's a it's a good step, but definitely it's a good step and a good thing, just the wrong execution.
01:16:33
Speaker
I agree. I agree. But we're stuck with it. And that's where the mobile app is. Hey, maybe on the third day they'll announce the mobile app is changing. Who knows? But they did announce a good couple of things at the opening ceremony. Starting off with Grassman.
01:16:51
Speaker
Have you seen the Grassman? I have not, but it sounds terrifying. It's ah so last year they brought ah the the big like photo op was. Oh, yeah, we brought this patch of grass that you can go touch because, you know, touching grass. Haha. I do remember that, actually. um So they they evolved it and they just they grass man man in a grass suit. Oh, Jesus.
01:17:18
Speaker
ah So that was that was funny. I mean funny cringe however you want to put it it happened go I don't know if you want to go touch him though because they're about that might lead to some Some things I don't know if you want to go touch the grass man But uh as as we know Tony all these conventions are always super spreader events people shouldn't be touching nothing Exactly. Exactly. um um They then donated $100,000 to the oh God, I buy a he goes animal sanctuary. i'll I'll why do I want to say Alvarez? It's not my um going to animal.
01:18:01
Speaker
Oh my god, Alveus! That's what the Alveus Sanctuary. They donated $100,000 to it, which is super awesome. Because we love animals, and that's that shit's always cool to see.
01:18:13
Speaker
um And then they announced so actual features coming to twitch starting off the clip carousel Which is the way for you to highlight your best moments from your streams You'll be able to swipe through clips and share them directly from mobile or desktop now I don't know I believe this is just like of clips you already have and it's just a way to like view them better and like immediately Share them. Yeah, that sounds cool Yeah, sounds cool. ah What I'd like that to actually become is like, oh, hey, we auto-clipped certain parts of your stream that might be ah good clips. That would be even better because i my mods don't do shit.
01:18:50
Speaker
Yeah, no, I mean, especially for for us smaller streamers, like getting people to clip things is very tedious. So it's like we end up having to just clip our own things, which I mean, it works, but which yeah yeah, it works, but it's like it'd be nice if.
01:19:05
Speaker
There was a system that's like, oh, hey, we think that these are the parts like if they could like that's what like I think a good AI use within toys should be is like, hey, I think we think ah based on like other clips that we've seen get submitted to the system, this would be a good clip for you. Yeah. And then you review it and it's like, uh, yeah, sure. Or it's like, ah, no, you got that one wrong. That would be neat. That would be neat. I think that would be a really cool feature.
01:19:29
Speaker
um They did finally debut the shared chat for the knock feature, the brand new ah collab together feature. They now have officially, I believe it's been like unveiled and like it's now out for everyone. ah So now whenever you use knock, your chats combine, which I think is great, honestly.
01:19:50
Speaker
I think like that that's a really beneficial part with the NOC feature. I know that when NOC was first introduced, it caused massive issues within the V2 being seen specifically because it would turn on your webcam. I did hear that. like Oh my god, go no. No. They did fix that, and so it doesn't do that now. um But I think the shared chat is good for NOC.
01:20:15
Speaker
um So that's nice. I wonder is that ah is that a feature for everybody right now or is it only select feature? i i believe I don't know if it's for everybody or if it's for select channels and they're just like unrolling it for like everyone like slowly. yeah I don't know entirely yet. I believe they said it. i I believe they said it's for everyone now, but I can't Yeah, that's what I don't I don't know if I'll ever do it it feels kind of not like intrusive But if it like it feels kind of just like I don't really know how it works But it's like if you like knock on someone's door right it's kind of surprising right like kind of like yeah like here. What's going on?
01:20:50
Speaker
Yeah like I think in like some sense it's neat like if you're all if for like some people who are like always open for like oh I hope someone not like if people like open for like random collabs and that that sure but like most of the time like collabs are planned like nine out of ten times it's a planned collab of like people and that's so like well the knock feature now like if you do the collab okay you're gonna knock when you're both ready sure that's fine now and then that combines the chat to make it simpler for both of you i think that's cool or like even if someone like does it right and a little notification shows up in your chat that says like hey somebody's knocking like that that to me would be the best way that you could do it but that would still be kind of annoying
01:21:33
Speaker
I mean, yeah, you and there there are preferences for you to turn on with the but within the knock feature of like who can knock on your door and whatnot. So definitely interesting. We'll have to see that how that works out later on. Yeah, absolutely. um They did announce that I believe next year they're going to bring in more enhanced broadcasting, 2K features, 1440p that you can broadcast that, which is I mean, wow.
01:21:58
Speaker
I mean, I I will say I feel like the thing that people are not doing when it comes to Twitch is like watching on massive like screens. So, I mean, I don't know about you. You're telling me that the rich don't watch Twitch.
01:22:16
Speaker
I mean, hey, maybe they're doing it during their morning yoga sessions. I don't know, baby. Well, I'll tell you, like the only times that I literally get to watch Twitch are when I'm at work and I just have a tiny stream on the side of my mobile phone and like that's it. I ain't watching in no 1440p 2K and I'm also watching in 160p because I'm on freaking company Wi-Fi.
01:22:39
Speaker
yeah you know like I'm just doing that audio only type shit, you know, so. Oh, yeah. No, I feel that I feel that at time when I'm at work sometimes. Hey, for those people that want to watch it in big ass screens, there you go. There you go. um More. They're adding more interactivity with bits. We know that they have introduced those three ah bit features that you can spend some bits to like enlarge emotes, bringing like emote effects in the third one, which I never remember what it is.
01:23:11
Speaker
They're essentially adding more customization to that more more stuff. Essentially, from what they showed off in the preview, they're making it a bit like TikTok Live, where like yeah you yeah you give people like those flowers. it It's like giving them money like by giving them the extreme emotes. They're doing it like that.
01:23:32
Speaker
um Where as long as you have bits you can through the mobile and I believe it's getting introduced through mobile first But will be introduced on desktop as well so they're introducing that which I'm like as okay, it's like more stuff to do with bits because Which is cool. I guess is really bits like at the most part for like a channel give you a TTS if you pay like X amount or whatever their TTS is That's really all bits do. So it's cool to see that they're trying to do more with bits. But it's really like something that I'm like, indifferent about. It's like, yeah, you could do. Don't care if you don't. Yeah, there's a lot of these like tiny changes where they're not even really new things. They're just like mini DLCs for the things they already have. And, yeah you know, they're just very underwhelming. So they they really have to come up with something new at some point.
01:24:21
Speaker
They are officially launching the Twitch YouTube channel, which will be where they now post their important vods and like updates and stuff like that. which is like we I wish when they said this, I'm like, wait, Twitch doesn't have a YouTube channel. What do you mean? What do you mean they don't have a YouTube channel?
01:24:42
Speaker
I thought they did. I had no idea. Yeah. So that that they're finally launching that. So that way you can stay up to date like on like the bigger things that are that they can post to YouTube. They're updating the strike system. This one's big. ah So they will now clip and show you what you did wrong ah when you get a strike on Twitch.
01:25:08
Speaker
Which is I think one that is great. That's because like sometimes they're very vague. they Like they're basically they're trying to be less. They're trying to remove the vagueness of like why you got hit by a strike or whatever. Got it. Got it. Which is great. And strikes will now slowly run a countdown timer of when they'll be off of your channel.
01:25:32
Speaker
Oh, OK. So you'll know. Strikes will fade. Yeah, exactly. ah Which is really cool, as which is great because it's like, hey, if it was a minor infraction, obviously we don't want the strike on your channel forever. As long as you don't keep doing it, it'll go away.
01:25:47
Speaker
Makes sense to me. I mean, it's, it almost kind of surprises me that, you know, we need such a a heavily detailed strike system. I mean, you would think that lot most people would try to use their, their noggins when streaming and know what's right and wrong when streaming, but yeah unfortunately that's not the case. I mean, I don't know about you, Tony, but I've never had a strike. I've never been banned and you know, just, just a dainty little streamer me. So.
01:26:10
Speaker
Yeah, same. I've never had a strike on my channel. I've had my VODs muted at times because it's like, oh, wait, that music is bad. I'm like, that's fair. But like, I don't publish the VOD afterwards when that happens. So it's like, I don't care. I'm safe. Ha ha.
01:26:26
Speaker
But ah it's really nice to see that Twitch is actually doing this. If YouTube could take a piece of their book, it'd be less vague about their shit too. That'd be great. Because that's that's all we need now. um They are also expanding the Twitch guilds stuff. Like the the Black creators and like those types of guilds are expanding on those a bit more. um And yeah, that's always cool to see too.
01:26:55
Speaker
ah Nice. rad um and that was That was essentially everything that was covered within their opening ceremony, um which is usually where they make all the big announcements. It's the opening ceremony, so really solid. I think some of the stuff that they're bringing out is cool. um Obviously, the strike system is the big thing out of all of this.
01:27:18
Speaker
um like good thank you twitch for that yeah now uh now if you could now now now those vtubers can understand why they're all getting banned always the vtubers man it it is always the vtubers you're showing us too much skin seriously too much virtual skin too many drinks they're they're drinking too much They're drinking too much. they're They're drinking that juice. It's it's not good. There's gin in that juice. They just they just won't say it. um So where does which go from here? What do you think, which with everything that they've announced, with everything they've done, where does which need to go from here? I mean, I just think they need to listen to user feedback more. Like, I feel like they give us these things that nobody asks for.
01:28:12
Speaker
Like, yeah, I don't, I don't know. And I still don't know if there's like a forum where we can literally give our feedback and input on things that we want to see. Um, I, yeah, I don't actually, you know what? There is, and I'm going to tell you a very small, tiny story, but when I first got into the Digimon card game all those years ago, um, it was actually pretty popular to stream it on Twitch, not like popular in the sense, like legal legends popular, but you know, it was, it was a new thing that came out and us, us creators were.
01:28:41
Speaker
streaming our games and streaming our tournaments and you know there was a moment where I was doing really well ah well in the tournament and I had like you know over a hundred and something people watching me play freaking Digimon and it was really cool and i the the entire time I had to stream all of my games on just chatting because guess what there actually isn't a um category for the Digimon card game and I all those years ago was trying to lead some kind of effort. I don't know why I did this because it went in silence and on deafening ears, but, um,
01:29:19
Speaker
they Twitch does have some kind of like suggestion forum thing, but it's very it's it's very like ambiguous, and I don't think very many people know about it, to be honest, but I did suggest that Digimon Card Game 2020 be put as a category on Twitch, and I think it got 700, 800 upvotes or something, which is kind of a lot.
01:29:42
Speaker
um And it just it never happened. It just never went through. So just things like that where it's like, I really wish they would like actually listen to, you know, the feedback that that we give them and, you know, advertise more of places for people to give feedback because you see all the time on Twitter, like people will be complaining about Twitch and complaining about, you know, using it and and all that stuff. And it just won't um It will never reach the devs, like ever. It just goes on deaf ears and they never even see it or or look at it. And it's really annoying. It's really annoying. So in my opinion, I think that the best way to make something um is to really absorb the the user feedback, which I just don't think Twitch is doing because, you know, like that, like nobody asked for enhanced broadcasting at 1440p. Nobody asked for that. Nobody asked for this shared knock feature.
01:30:41
Speaker
You know, nobody asked for this clip care. So like you're just adding these things that people have never even mentioned, but they're not fixing things like the frickin mobile app. Right. Like just simple things that they could really focus on. And I just think they're they're turning away from. them So, yeah, I actually I saw I went into my stream info to see if the there is a there still is no Digimon card game category, but there is Digimon card game tutorial app.
01:31:11
Speaker
oh my god okay so uh if you didn't know there is a there's an app that was created specifically by bandai for mobile and it is a digimon card game tutorial app but it's just that's all it is it's a tutorial it's just a walk through like three turns type game where you play like You know, it's it's very like it doesn't even look refined. um It looks super pixely and it's on mobile, but it's literally a tutorial for the for the game. It's not even an actual game. So the fact that that is a category, but not the actual game as a category is right ridiculous to me. So speed run for that must go crazy. Oh, my God. I didn't even realize that. Oh, man. But I will say so somehow. And I don't know how this happened, but
01:31:59
Speaker
um A couple good leaders of the Digimon Car game community um created a simulator. um And it's a very, very, very good simulator.
01:32:14
Speaker
um ah the The creator and kind of the guy who's leading the efforts, his name is Huang, H-O-A-N-G, and he has a Discord and everything, probably, I'm sure it's on Google or something, but his team made a very good Digimon Card game simulator. And they dubbed it ah DCGO, Digimon Card game online. um It's functional, you get matched, you know, online, you play random players, you can build a deck in the simulator. It's it's actually very, very well made for a fansim simulator, but Somehow it got its own category. So DCGO is a category and
01:32:55
Speaker
I don't know how they were able to manage that. um Maybe Huang has some, like, some connects or something, but, I mean, the fact that they can put the simulator in there, but they can't actually put the actual, like, game in general on there, because, um, the Pokรฉmon TCG, I'm pretty sure, has its own... Yeah. That one does. Magic does. yeah I think Yu-Gi-Oh does as well. So, like, what the heck?
01:33:19
Speaker
So just tiny things like that man, like I don't know I don't i don't know what we're twitch's head is that sometimes but there's there's a lot they could work on in my opinion Definitely is You think what do you think the competition of kicking YouTube do
Streaming Platforms Comparison
01:33:37
Speaker
that? Do you think that kicking YouTube do it stuff better than twitch and that twitch could like I don't know take a page from I so maybe mean more youtube specifically because let's be real kick is uh yeah no they've really kicked them they've really kicked themselves in the shin kick kick is kind of a joke i mean when you have you know people that try to develop something or head something and then those individuals are
01:34:04
Speaker
We'll just say not the most morally angelic people, maybe people that don't make the most rash decisions when speaking or doing things. ah Typically, the platform, you know, is going to come out trash as well. So um I ah don't ever plan on like streaming on kick or anything like that. I just I think it would be like a waste of time. um I mean, are they profitable or are they like able to successfully have a platform? Yeah, but that's because the guys that are doing it are f freaking, you know, multi millionaires, right? Like they have just been probably using their own money to to keep this thing alive. But um in terms of YouTube, I mean,
01:34:47
Speaker
I think, I think YouTube streaming is not bad, but I think the problem is, is they just can't focus on the efforts to make like really intuitive updates to their streaming platforms because they're already like an extremely successful just video uploading platform. And so when you make the bulk of your like profits from just YouTube alone um to to have a dedicated like
01:35:22
Speaker
I guess more focused efforts to make the streaming platform something similar to twitch where You know because there's definitely a lot of things that youtube doesn't have it I don't think when it comes to like streaming on youtube that twitch Yeah, like when it comes to me on youtube like you there's actually like a lot of streamers that like consistently stream on there like blood wig Um, they like use like a lot of third-party tools. to Yeah, they give it more of that twitch experience Exactly. And so I think if if YouTube was just more integrated with their streaming services and like the features that they put for streamers, I would easily think that they could overtake Twitch because they have the money.
01:36:05
Speaker
you know I mean, they they definitely are not short on funds. like YouTube will forever be profitable for the you know spans of yeah generations. so um I think if they just put a little bit more effort into their streaming services, like they could really they could really start something and even even like rebrand it Almost like don't even call it like youtube streaming or something like because when I think of youtube, I don't think of streaming I think of like going to watch videos that people have uploaded you know, so they could they could start something truly spectacular if they almost reap or end and Obviously it could still stay under youtube because it's youtube but just call it something different, you know, like um
01:36:52
Speaker
I don't know. I wouldn't know what to call it, but I do think they're sitting on a gold mine. They just need to put more effort into it. Definitely. um Back on kick real quick, because I saw this tweet earlier this morning. um Kick issued warnings to streamers that anyone using whippets or galaxy gas on street would be permanently banned.
01:37:10
Speaker
the
01:37:13
Speaker
Oh, my God. I only recently. The fact that kicks evolved to people doing that. Crazy. I mean, kick was- I wonder why people don't take it seriously. like I'm pretty sure originally when kick was started, like they didn't even have like a list of like what was not allowed on their platforms. like I think people could just do whatever the fuck they would could want. Oh, yeah. There was booba, kaka, everything on that platform. Yeah. I don't know. it's I'm surprised that they're initiating rules for that type of stuff. but
01:37:46
Speaker
Now. Yeah. No, it's like too a little too late almost. But yeah, I don't know. In my opinion, I think kick will forever be known as like a meme, but that's because the people who created it and the people who had it are memes themselves. Yeah. You know, so. Yeah. Yeah. Well, definitely. um Is there anything else you want to add to the Twitch conversation or shall we move on to our second topic?
01:38:08
Speaker
No, I mean, I, I think, I think we hit everything. Um, very yeah, in regards to Twitch con, you know, uh, good luck to everyone that is at the con, you know, be safe, like yeah conventions in general, not just Twitch con, but conventions in general are always known to have those, you know, creepers and stalkers and people that will drug drinks and.
01:38:29
Speaker
things of that nature. So to anyone listening that, you know, goes to conventions avidly like that, just, just be safe and, you know, mind where you're going and be, be really mindful about the people that you hang out with because find your buddy, stay with your buddy system, buddy system guys, but stay with your buddy at all times. Now let go of them. Uh, bathroom buddies, uh, hallway buddies.
01:38:55
Speaker
Seat buddies, buddies forever, buddy forever. No, for real. Use that use that buddy system and you know just pay attention to the ones that actually have your back because there's a ton of drama that happens all the time every year at TwitchCon where it's like people will think that people are their friends and then they turn out not to be and it can turn out to just be this giant like social hierarchy thing. Because at the end of the day, right a lot of people are going to like meet certain people.
01:39:20
Speaker
and it just so happens that like these people are you know on a socially higher uh like pedestal than they are just because you know they get more viewers or they're just a little bit more famous or whatever and so that turns into this giant loop of like people want to hang out with people who are more popular than them and then those people want to hang out with people who are more popular than them so at the end of the day like nobody gets to hang out with anybody so because everybody's just trying to hang out with like people that they um you know that they admire and things of that nature so it's it can turn into a bit of a social shit show but um you know what i've learned from going all those four years is just go with people that you know you enjoy and you know you have will have your back and just enjoy the convention for what it is you know don't try to go out of your way to like you know become best friends with fucking valkyray and shit like that because it's not gonna happen
01:40:12
Speaker
i got you see'm I'm a little sad I didn't go this year because a lot more people that I know that I've had on the podcast or met just through other streams like in chats and everything are gonna be down there they're like man cuz I only got like two people that like I've done the podcast with Mm-hmm have no like known through this whole twitch experience that were there last year I'm like damn but this year there's like a lot more down there. I'm like man. I wish it was there I But, ah lastly, before we move on to the second topic, they did announce the dates for TwitchCon 2025. Next year is the 10th year of TwitchCon, by the way. They'll be out for the European TwitchCon Rotterdam May 31st to June 1st and San Diego again next year from October 17th to 19th. Those are your dates for next year. and
01:40:58
Speaker
Uh, your boy Tony's game lounge will be down there. Hey, so if you want to say hi, folks, i will I'll be down there. Come on down. Come on down to which might be right. It'll be big. It'll be big 10 years. Who knows what they'll announce. they'llll They'll they'll be doing something big for it. Hey, we can only hope we can only hope.
01:41:21
Speaker
the
01:41:24
Speaker
This is your public service reminder that most FPS shooters are in a three-dimensional space. So you have to look up once in a while, because that camper that you were complaining about has been standing on the same light standard the whole time, because you refuse to look up. You're letting your whole team down.
01:41:45
Speaker
All right.
Exploring Tekken Series
01:41:46
Speaker
With that, let's dive into our second topic of the day, Tekken. We're talking Tekken, baby. Hey, Tekken. Which is but so I've my experience with Tekken, which I'll say right now, very limited. I have played Kazuya and Smash Bros.
01:42:02
Speaker
And that's it. That's this. I know of the series. I know of the plot of the first two games of Kazuya and Hayachi, basically fathers the father-son relationship of them hating each other, throwing each other off of buildings into volcanoes.
01:42:24
Speaker
all I know of that, but when it comes to the whole the gin stuff that like came in, whenever gin was introduced, because I don't know exactly when he was introduced, ah I know that it became like a whole fucking like world war fucking five in this shit. Yeah. Yeah. No, the um the storyline and the plot to Tekken is even something that eludes me a lot of the times. um It goes so far back to the beginnings of like the original Tekken series. And those games I never played, didn't even know they existed. um Even I'm technically like I've been playing Tekken for probably seven, almost eight years now, and I'm still technically new to the game.
01:43:04
Speaker
Like i'm not I'm not by any means like a veteran. I mean, I i started with Tekken 7 and we're on Tekken 8 now. So I didn't play 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Tekken Tag, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Tekken Revolution. I didn't play any of those games. So I'm still pretty new to this series myself. um But I will say it it's got a choke hold on me. There's something about the game that has just captivated me entirely.
01:43:33
Speaker
What specifically got you into Tekken? Yeah. So as you as I mentioned a little bit earlier, you know, Super Street Fighter 4 was kind of my gateway into fighting games. And I played that game for maybe nine years. Like it was that was that was like my game of choice for such a long time. And um
01:43:57
Speaker
i Don't know what it was I think it was just a buddy of mine back in the day cuz cuz me and him would play Street Fighter all the time just like literally get home from school play Street Fighter get home from school play Street Fighter and Something piqued his curiosity about Tekken where he just wanted to try it. So around that time um the the latest Tekken game out was Tekken tag tournament 2 and ah Literally, it's it's a 2v2 Tekken game where you can like tag in um you know your your other Tekken characters, so you kind of have to know both of those characters in order to be good at the game.
01:44:33
Speaker
but Yeah, he ah he started dabbling in it, and he was like, hey, like we should play some Tekken. I was like, what the hell is Tekken? So you know I did a little research, and I looked at it, and I was very skeptical. like I wasn't like hooked right away. I was very skeptical. It was one of those things where I didn't enjoy it by looking at it alone. I only enjoyed it after I played with it for like a little bit.
01:45:02
Speaker
um it was it was was odd it's it's it's not necessarily how Tekken looks because Tekken looks visually it looks good like it looks like like visually but like especially with eight like it looks gorgeous yeah it's like like graphic mechanics wise it looks good but maybe like mechanics wise it doesn't really look anything spectacular right I mean when you look at a 2d fighter like Street Fighter or and an anime fighter maybe like Guilty Gear or you know something that's fast-paced like Dragon Ball fighters right you look at all the flashes and the bangs you're like wow like that looks hype that looks sick when you look at Tekken right the first time you look at it you don't really go like oh man that was so sick because all you're seeing on screen is like two guys maybe like doing a couple punches doing a couple kicks maybe backdashing a little bit so
01:45:47
Speaker
it It doesn't have that visual like appeal right away, in my opinion. And so that's kind of the mindset I had about it. But when I got my hands on it and I pressed you know the buttons that were assigned, you have like your two punch buttons and your two kick buttons. And I was like, wait a minute. like the the The idea that I press the button and then the but the actual move like takes time to come out. right There takes like a certain amount of frames to happen before it makes contact.
01:46:16
Speaker
There was something about that idea where it just felt more realistic than your regular 2D or 2D fighting games like Street Fighter because in Street Fighter you press a button and the move basically comes out instantly. There's no kind of um there's no really like delay on it and it's it's meant to look flashy, it's not meant to feel super intuitive and feel amazing. Whereas Tekken, you press a button and all of a sudden you become that character where it's like, wow, I am actually have to time my moves in a way where you know it's going to take this long for that move to come out. So I need to be in the mindset and already know what situation I'm in so that when I press that button, it's going to work successfully. So
01:47:05
Speaker
Tekken is such a in like complex and and technical and mechanical game that when you're moving around and you're pressing your buttons, it's the feel that captivates the people. It's not necessarily the look, but it's the feel. I mean, yeah, the looks are awesome. Like you can customize your character to make them look however you want. And that's really cool, right? Yeah, I've seen so many of those like custom character things of like Oh yeah, they made so many anime like references yeah yeah people have that people have made through that. i'm like god that's just That's cool to see. Exactly. and And so I honestly think that's really what it has to do with is just the mechanics of the game and how it works and how you get your damage and how you prevent from taking damage. There's so much that goes into it and it was just way more than something like Street Fighter.
01:47:56
Speaker
you know, not to mention the from the 2D aspect to the 3D aspect. So not only are you moving side to side, but you are now revolving around each other consistently. And you have to think about that. So it just adds another layer onto the onion. And I think a combination of how it felt versus all of the things that I had to learn, just I told myself, I was like, wow, like this game could set me up for life.
01:48:20
Speaker
just in in terms of always having something new to learn, something new to watch, something new to, ah you know, get excited about. And so, yeah, I mean, it just, it really just hooked me and and I've been on that train kind of ever since. So, yeah. Wow. Nice. So how does second eight stand in your eyes? All right. So,
01:48:46
Speaker
Don't get me wrong. I love Tekken 8. I think it's a fantastic game and I think it's doing its job um Its job and its goal was to bring in new players um Like even more new players than Tekken 7. So like Tekken 7's goal was to bring in more new players, but it still wasn't on that level of intuitiveness or ease Tekken 8 made it so much more intuitive to learn and so much a little bit easier to play and understand. So new players that ah came into the game, all they needed was maybe like a little bit of advice from somebody who was already playing the game and they could they could pick it up. So, um you know, I know they they held um
01:49:34
Speaker
Uh, what was it called? They held a say jam slam. Uh, say jam is one of the pioneers for fighting games. He commentates, he plays a little bit, but he's kind of a content creator. And basically what that was is it was a combination of pro players, um, coaching a team of people who have never touched the game before, or maybe just picked it up in the first couple of months. And we're talking about these people that are not like.
01:49:59
Speaker
Not randos, but it's like a popular content creators. So, for example, Lily Pichu. Lily Pichu picked up Tekken 8 this year, and she's actually a demon at it now. I mean, I've seen the clip of her going against Harada himself. ah Yeah. So Tekken 8 worked in the sense where it allowed players like Lily Pichu, who have never touched the game in their lives before, to be able to be very good at the game.
01:50:26
Speaker
um Now that said, right players that either started with Tekken 7 or started earlier than Tekken 7, I would say a lot of us were a bit on the iffy side when Tekken 8 first came out um because of of the the level of ease that it included and because of the level of um layers of thinking that it removed, essentially. um the The thing about Tekken 7 and all the previous Tekken games was that
01:50:58
Speaker
it it really heavily punished you for making a mistake. And i mean I mean, seriously, seriously punished you. Like if you had one whiff, for example, you would you would lose literally 80% of your health kind of thing. Like it was it was unforgiving in the sense where it's like, if your defense was not perfect, then you probably lose.
01:51:24
Speaker
You know, so it it forced you to become a obsessive master of Tekken whether you liked it or not. That was the thing with the previous Tekken games. So me coming from Tekken 7, right, I had to learn all of these Extremely difficult mechanical defensive maneuvers and and defensive style thinking and learning Match of knowledge like knowing when to sidestep when to duck when to low parry when to do all these different things and Tekken 8 said Nah, all you need to do in this game is hold forward
01:52:01
Speaker
You know, because offense for whatever reason in Tekken 8 is the more dominant factor. And so the player, the more aggressive player will win in Tekken 8, nine times out of 10. Whereas that was not the case in Tekken 7. In Tekken 7, the more defensive and the more patient player won.
01:52:19
Speaker
So oh um and that that sort of exhibited itself in tournaments. So and tech in Tekken 7, one of the biggest complaints was that ah you know players the the two players wouldn't actually be doing anything. Like they were just kind of dancing around, backdashing a little bit, maybe pressing some jabs here and there, but they weren't really doing too much on screen.
01:52:40
Speaker
However, deep down, when you reveal the layers of thinking, they were actually playing, in my opinion, like they were they were going through the most complex and most deep layers of thinking in order to try and outplay the other person like ever possible. They're playing 5D chess. what Yes, exactly. But it didn't manifest itself on screen. And so a lot of casual spectators were like, dude, what the fuck is this? Why don't you press a button to somebody do something?
01:53:07
Speaker
um And that was Tekken 7 and us like players like me and and the veteran players that grew up playing that like we knew what was going on because we played the game so we understood what they were trying to think and what they were trying to avoid and and we knew that they knew if they pressed a button in this situation they were gonna get punished and they were gonna lose the game so It was just a it was a different mindset back then and it was just to casuals. It just didn't look right. But in Tekken 8, they made it so that if you try to play defense, you're going to get fucked. So playing offense is the best defense in Tekken 8.
01:53:46
Speaker
And I think that really sparked things in casual players to go, oh shit, I can just press buttons. I could just hold forward. And, you know, for spectators, like, oh shit, they're actually doing things. They're actually not just playing footsies the entire time, but they're actually trying to go in and rush each other down. I'm in.
01:54:05
Speaker
So in my opinion, you know, Tekken 8 is definitely the most different out of all of the out of all of the Tekken's, but it did its job. It brought in new players. It brought a lot more hype to the game. And so in that retrospect, I respect it and I really enjoy the direction that it's going.
01:54:24
Speaker
um Am I a little bit salty that my Korean backdash that I practiced for every day for hours? and second seven Is kind of is kind of useless as fuck now. Oh, absolutely but you know One of the one of the things about being a good fighting game player is that you have to learn to adjust and you have to learn to move on so Yeah, no, definitely. I definitely understand that feeling, because when it came to when it comes to me in fighting games, like i I've maybe played like a handful of them. And like when Street Fighter VI was revealed, I'm like, oh, that I mean, like yes, the world tour aspect of it and the custom character aspect of it looked really cool, and that was more of my appeal. But on the other end of it, it had the yeah the simple mode of like gameplay where it would auto-combo for you and all that stuff, and I'm like,
01:55:12
Speaker
Hey, I know while like all my friends that I play against are like Absolutely so much better at the game than me and because they've just played like fighting games forever I'm like, I at least stand like a better chance at it. Not really but like This is it kind it it was like also like it's similar to help bring in more people to the series because like Street Fighter 6 definitely is like I would say the easier game to get into and With how you just described Tekken 8. I'm like, oh yo, I could totally I could totally see myself playing that like if I Got got into it like for a fighting game like I could totally see myself playing it without
01:55:52
Speaker
you had described it there. Do you think then for like Tekken 9 then whenever that comes out they might go back to with now with the popularity that 8 brought go back to that more complex system?
01:56:07
Speaker
um No, I don't believe so. um If anything, they may expand sort of slightly on the couple new features that they added for Tekken 8, but in terms of difficulty and intuitiveness, I think they're going to kind of leave it where it is or make it even you know more intuitive and even more easier because ah As intuitive as Tekken 8 is, it can be more intuitive. It can always be made easier. It can always be dumbed to down. um You know, will I be upset about that? Yeah, probably because, you know, part of the appeal of Tekken is how difficult it is and, you know, it takes a long time to learn. And so it really separates the casuals from the competitors.
01:56:46
Speaker
um I think, I mean, it's, it's definitely early. If we even get a second nine, right? It's not going to come out for at least, you know, it's not going to come out for at least five, six, seven, eight, however many years. Like what was the gap? What was, the like, what was the gap between seven and eight? Oh, so seven came out 20. It had a us release in 20.
01:57:13
Speaker
Was it 2016 2017? Okay, so about seven eight years. Yeah. Yeah, and then it released in Japan though So they had Tekken 7 released in Japan back in like 2015 2015 so oh nine years. Yeah. Yeah, and then it released in Japan even earlier than that. So I but um But yeah, so it's it's been a long gap. I mean, and the story technically of Tekken 8 also ended on a cliffhanger. So there's technically more story to be had. So I imagine there will be another Tekken. But where they're going to go for it, I have no idea. I have no idea. Definitely. um Just a general Tekken thing. What was your reaction to at Evo to Heihachi coming back to the game after he was thrown into a volcano in Tekken 7?
01:58:02
Speaker
Uh, look, I mean, I think Harada said he's he's not coming back. yeah Yeah. No, we all, we, I think we all knew he was coming back. I think there was, um, I think there was some hints to it too. Um, during, during some things, uh, some conventions or something, I can't remember exactly what there was, but I think a lot of the player base, especially the legacy players, they all knew he was coming back. Um, at some point, you know, you, you can't kill, you can't kill the man himself.
01:58:28
Speaker
um Character-wise and selection-wise, I've never been a Heihachi player. He doesn't really appeal to me that much. um And Legas...Legasily? Legasily? Legasily? Legasily? Speaking? Legasily? Legalis?
01:58:45
Speaker
leg
01:58:48
Speaker
ah Maybe legacy-wise, he hasn't always been that great of a character. Like in Tekken 7, for example, he was trash. He was garbage. So um I'm curious to see what how they make him ah for Tekken 8. I get the feeling he'll be good, but I don't think he'll be top-tier or overpowered. so Okay.
01:59:10
Speaker
Okay, um where What do you see for like the other like side Tekken games like the Tekken tag tournaments? Street Fighter Tekken those will make a comeback in between but let me let me let tell you some that are bals let Let me tell you something about Street Fighter cross Tekken in my opinion Street Fighter cross Tekken was one of the greatest fighting games ever to exist on the planet oh For the fighting game world like I'm not gonna lie. I loved to that game. I loved that game so much It was a little bit like rough around the edges because it was so old back then um, but oh my god if they made a remake of Street Fighter cross-tech and I would I would suck that shit up like a vacuum like like it would literally oh my god in my opinion that game was made so well like
01:59:57
Speaker
Okay, so in Tekken 7, they tried to release Akuma for Tekken. Yeah, they are tech yeah they they did. ah That was a bad idea. so So Street Fighter characters should not go into a Tekken game. But let me damn tell you, sir, that Tekken characters absolutely can belong in a Street Fighter game. And that was confirmed in Street Fighter cross Tekken. It was one of my favorite things to play. I got to play my two favorite characters of all time in any fighting game. I got to play Dudley and Steve.
02:00:26
Speaker
Both boxers, right? I had the boxing dream team in that game and it was so fun to play. I would love for them to make a revamp. I doubt it's going to happen. But if it did, Capcom is in like a renaissance of releasing a lot of their old fighting games that like I wouldn't put it past them eventually to do it.
02:00:47
Speaker
I mean, I would love it. i would I would buy it. I would give them all my monies if it was properly like created and just you know took all they got all the kinks out. um Man, that would be such a cool game because the concept is amazing and and the way that it played out was also incredible. so Nice. I'm all for it. Nice. ah Last thing I want to ask a two part question. How is when it comes to the series like in the past iterations, like how active are those scenes still like are they still like pretty active like second seven six five four or no you'll all kind of on focus on like eight now.
02:01:25
Speaker
Yeah, no, for for Tekken kind of once the new game comes out, then the other community kind of ceases to exist. um It's I mean, you'll have people like boot up Tekken 7 for some clips, maybe like to be like, hey, this is what we used to be able to do kind of thing.
02:01:41
Speaker
um But I would hesitate to think that like if I went on an open Tekken 7 right now that I would find a match. So that's that's kind of typically how things work. I mean, obviously the veteran players and the pros have their favorite games and like, you know, maybe there's a cabinet. Like I think there were some old Tekken games as cabinets at Evo this year.
02:02:05
Speaker
um So, you know people can always play those just for funsies and nostalgia purposes, but for like competition purposes Nobody is really focusing their efforts on those. So there's no like um you know There's no tournaments for them or anything like that. They're just not very supported anymore. so Okay. was I was curious about that because like with with how different 7 and 8 are, I would think like maybe 7 still kind of has a small presence there with how with like its technicalities. Yeah, no. I i mean, there might be there there might be, but I haven't heard of anything.
02:02:43
Speaker
And last question I would ask, what would you um recommend for the newcomers getting into this series? like but you what what What advice would you give? That's a good question. I would say... First off, for anyone that is thinking about it is try to think of like your goal when you're reasoning for actually playing the game. Because that's going to determine like your level of effort that you would need to even put into it in the first place. like If you're just trying to play the game like for super funsies just with a bunch of friends and like none of you guys know what the fuck you're doing, then like you don't need any training or any advice or anything at all. Just go in, press buttons, and and just figure shit out.
02:03:20
Speaker
um If you want to actually beat people and you want to say, hey, I like winning, like I want to start winning some games. Okay. That's a bit of a different story. You will start to do, need to do some research. You'll need to get advice from players that have been playing for a while. Um, and, and you'll have to kind of, yeah, you'll have to start that tech and journey. Like it's.
02:03:46
Speaker
It's crazy how really there's no, there's no like in between, between like casual and competitive. It's like casual is casual. Nobody's telling you what to do. You can learn as you please and do what you want. And then competitive is like, oh, so now you need to learn some frame data. Like that's, that's kind of the difference between the two. um So I would say realize your goals, figure out why you're actually getting the game, what you want to do with it, um and then and then go from there. I mean, when it comes to like picking a character, that's always super important. I mean, there's the the roster is huge, so ah choosing a character is one of the most difficult things.
02:04:26
Speaker
um But in that sense, I find the answer to just be pick a character that one you think looks cool. And then once you pick that character because they looked cool, just throw them in the training room for a little bit, press some buttons and see if you like you know what their moves look like. And if you if those two things get checked off, then that's a pretty good indicator that, hey, you should you should use that character. um But yeah, that's that's probably the the best piece of advice I think I could give to people who are at least interested in the game.
02:04:56
Speaker
All right. That's that's some great advice. Is there anything else you want to add before we head on into the bonus level? No, I think that's good. I mean, hey, Tekken is going to be around for a long time. um I think even if you're you're not interested um as a player and you don't want a player, give it give it a watch. Try to watch some either some streamers that play Tekken or go look up some tournaments that happened recently about Tekken because Even if you don't play, even if you have no idea what you're looking at, it can be one of the most hype games to watch ever. And you will find yourself clenching your ass without even realizing it. So I think at least go, go give it a watch and you'll be surprised. All right.
02:05:44
Speaker
All righty, definitely, but I know I will. yeah I need some good ass cheek clenching in my life right now. So tack it it is. ah ah With that, it's time for us to start closing out the episode and head on into the bonus level. Crazy lists, great deals and recapping gaming history. It's all here in the bonus level.
02:06:12
Speaker
and Kicking it off, we got this week in gaming history from the 23rd to the 6th. Here's what happened in the past. On the 28th, 1994, Atari and Sega Enterprise settled their lawsuit with Sega, paying Atari 90 million US dollars in return for 7.4% of Atari and rights to 70 Atari patents.
02:06:34
Speaker
On the 29th in 1996, Nintendo released the Nintendo 64 in North America. It was 200 US dollars. On the 1st, October 1st, 2007, Bungie gained independence from Microsoft, with Microsoft retaining its rights to Halo.
02:06:52
Speaker
In the game birthday category, Star Fox Adventures turns 22. Lego Batman ah turns 16. Those are both on the 23rd. On the 24th, Pokemon Puzzle League turns 24. On the 25th, Halo 3 turns... 3.
02:07:13
Speaker
17 on the 26th I go turns 23 on the also on the 26th Valkyrie profile to Silmeria turns wait math for 18 on the 28th dead rising to Turns 14 years old on September 29th Super Mario 64 and pilot wings 64 both turned 28 on the also on the 29th Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, 25 years. And we'll know then what the new announcement is from Activision and Tony Hawk himself. And Cuphead on the 29th turns 7 years old. On the 30th, Pokemon Red and ratted Blue turn 26. On the of October, of October,
02:08:09
Speaker
Pokemon XD, Gale of Darkness, my first favorite Pokemon game of all time. That turns, oh God, 19. So it's next year is 20 years, so maybe we'll see Pokemon XD remake? I would love to see that. And on October 4th, Dark Souls turns 13. We now move on to top five, and Ben, our top five for you, top five Tekken characters.
02:08:39
Speaker
Ooh, who do I think are my top or who do I think are the top? Who are your top five? Who are your top five? In terms of how good they are. Could be whatever you want. All right. Let's see. Well, I think the the current best top five Tekken characters for Tekken 8 right now At least the ones that we see winning a lot of tournaments and things, uh, we'll say in no particular order are, uh, Dragunov, uh, Fang, Yoshimitsu, Nina, and one more. We'll say, we'll say Elisa because I hate her.
02:09:24
Speaker
that's my that's my current top five tier list right now in my opinion nice nice uh my favorite second character is the bear oh god i hate the bears i just like that they put a that like just a what is it kuma right it's kuma but there's also another one called panda i mean i just like that they put just like an actual bear in this fucking tournament it's just like hell yeah no one of the one of the saddle one of the sayings in my streams is fuck bears bro fuck those yeah
02:09:56
Speaker
ah heck yeah Our heads are head-to-head where two games enter one game leaves it's more than two this time I've put the entire Tekken series in an arena and only one could leave and that is the Decision holder right there. Oh, man. Um, I mean I've only played Tekken tag 2 Tekken 7 and Tekken 8 so if one of those were to leave I But which which one wins? who win well Who wins? Ooh, out of all three, probably Tekken 7. Probably Tekken 7. And then if one has got to go... ah i if it was When I was first learning Tekken, I would have said Tekken Tag just because it was so hard. But now because I know how to play Tekken, I'm so sad that I didn't get a chance to play Tekken Tag. So I'm going to have to say Tekken 8 leaves still for now. For now.
02:10:49
Speaker
So, OK. We now move on to Tony's game poll. This is a seasonal poll where at the end of the season we will reveal the big what what what was the most popular answer. If Kingdom Hearts 4 was to add any Disney Pixar world that they haven't added before, what world would you add?
02:11:07
Speaker
Ooh, um, what worlds. Um, if you don't, if you like, what, what movie, like what, what movie? Yeah. Um, they added, um, cause you know, I'm going to be honest, I've watched a bit of gameplay from kingdom hearts, but I've never like played through them myself. That's why I'm here. Cause I've played all of them and I can tell you what's been in it and what hasn't. Let's see. What's, what's something kind of probably something more recent, maybe one of the, one of the more recent Disney movies, like, um,
02:11:38
Speaker
I don't know, maybe like Moana or some shit, man. Like, I don't know. Um. Oh, that's a good one. Trying to think of. I know I really because like all so I'm more of an older older movie Disney lover, like like the word like Hercules. Oh, yeah. You know, like Beauty and the Beast and stuff like that. Like those are like my favorite Disney movies, like Mulan. But I think those have all been kind of Hercules, Mulan and Beauty and the Beast. We're all in Kingdom Hearts, too. Yeah. There you go. So, you know, for things that haven't been added yet, I don't know. I don't know.
02:12:15
Speaker
But yeah. One of the the personal favorites that that has been answered that I would love to see. Emperor's New Groove. It's been answered a couple of times and I'm like, that sounds like such a great one. that Wait, I'm surprised that they haven't done that. I know, right? Huh.
02:12:35
Speaker
Would you say that is your your answer for this? I mean, it could be. Yeah, I love Emperor's New Groove, too. Cusco is the man. That's that was a great movie. It was that it was. All right. all Your deals of the week. All your free games on Epic are tolem and the last stand aftermath. You can get those for free until September 26. All your steam sales. yeah There's a Capcom TGS sale on Tokyo Game Show sale on until September 29th as same with Square Enix until September 29th.
02:13:05
Speaker
ah There's also a Sega sale on right now, so you can go check that out on Steam. Serenity Forge is celebrating its 10-year anniversary sale until the 27th, and PQube's 15th anniversary sale is going on until the 26th. The achievement of the week is in the Jackbox Naughty Pack, faking it all night long. I'm a cool mob, which is to play an entire game with at least one player named Mob.
02:13:28
Speaker
The game of the week is Echoes of Wisdom and also the Patrick Star game and the guest game recommendation that if there's one game old new Forgotten current that you would recommend to have the listeners out there. What game would it be? Hmm
02:13:48
Speaker
Tekken. Go play Tekken, y'all. That's what I got. Go try it. Go play Tekken. All right. Go play Tekken. And with that, that does it for another episode here in the Game Lounge. Ben, thank you so much for coming on. Dude, thank you for having me. It was ah it was fun. It was exciting. And it was a really good conversation. So thank you. it really It really was. I love episodes like this where the conversations are just chef's kiss. ah Where can we find you on the internet?
02:14:17
Speaker
Oh man, I really don't have that much. um I would say Twitch is probably my biggest, in quotes, biggest ah platform that I do. So ah you can find me at twitch dot.tv slash Benjamin Lee. And then I do have a Twitter, which I use occasionally, um which is at Benjamin underscore Lee zero zero.
02:14:38
Speaker
Alrighty. And of course, you can find me on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Twitch, YouTube, all under Tony's Game Lounge. Nice and simple for you. Basically, if there's a social media out there if that's mainstream, I probably have it. Except except Snapchat. I don't don't have that anymore. Snapchat. Yeah. yeah and that That was uh, that was uh first round of college me that used that not anymore Uh, thank you once again then for coming on Thanks for having me Tony and thank you the listener for tuning in this week We will be back in two weeks with a brand new episode Be sure to like share and follow the podcast on whatever streaming platform you're listening to this to And we will be back with uh, let me tease the next guest who who we
02:15:20
Speaker
Oh, oh, it's that at all. We have two guests coming on next week. You're not going to miss it. Mr. that Mr. Frontiers himself is coming on the podcast next week. Who's Mr. Frontiers? You'll have to find out. We will see you guys next time right back here in the game lounge. Bye.
02:15:42
Speaker
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.