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How to (Not) Do a 3D Platformer | Windbreaker Podcast
6.2k Plays2 months ago
On this week’s episode of Windbreaker, Yahtzee, Marty, and JM8 use the release of Astro Bot on PS5 as a jumping off point to discuss the current state of 3D platformers across AAA and indies.
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Transcript
Introduction & Game Maker Sponsorship
00:00:00
Speaker
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00:00:28
Speaker
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Podcast Start & 'Supposed to Lose Fights' in Games
00:01:00
Speaker
Hello, everyone. Welcome to We're Breaker. I'm Yahtzee Groveshaw joined as always by Jay and Marty. Hello. Hello. Hey, chat. What's the official term for a supposed to lose fight? We were talking about it before we went live. And none of us could think of what it's supposed to be called. You know, yeah like the fight at the start of Final Fantasy Two on the NES, where you were in a battle and you immediately get wiped and then the actual story starts.
00:01:27
Speaker
Anyone? Okay, we'll leave you with we'll leave you with that.
3D Platforming & Astro Bot Discussion
00:01:30
Speaker
ah Because what we're actually talking about this week is 3D platforming in the wake of Astro Bot coming out on PlayStation 5, and by all accounts, being a real breath of fresh air. I haven't played it yet. I'm actually installing it as we speak, and then play it this afternoon. But Marta, you've been on it. I've been under the weather the last couple of days, and this thing is the only thing in life that has made me happy.
00:01:55
Speaker
i thought you say cause so it has caused your disease I think my no game in recent memory has caused me to have a shit eating grin on my face for extended periods of time, as Astrobot has. And part of it is, it's an expertly designed game, but then part of it is, it is ah the latest in a long line of 3D platformers, which you know, gun to my head might be my favorite ah genre of games. And it might be the genre I think of when I think of video games. If someone was like, what is a video game? I think of a colorful character running around a 3D space jumping and collecting things. Oh, yes. 3D platformers always your favorite genre, Marty. I mean, not I guess when I was a child because they didn't exist. um But I think once the N64 came out and I played Mario 64 and then Banjo-Kazooie afterwards, I think
00:02:49
Speaker
it became my favorite genre. Yeah. Changed everything. Yeah. page everything Which has been a roller coaster ride with it because it, it sort of peaked and then they were gone for quite a while. And then they've kind of come back in both the triple A and the indie space, which I'm sure we'll be talking about.
Transition from 2D to 3D Games
00:03:05
Speaker
there was ah a difficulty in the initial transition to 3D wasn't there? There was, yeah. if you weren little ten but yeah I mean, the 16-bit platform makers were basically felt like they could just continue as they would ah but as they had begun.
00:03:24
Speaker
But it turns out platforming gets a lot more complicated in 3D space. Oh, Nintendo had to recreate it. They designed the N64 controller specifically to work with Mario 64. Even when you when you go back and play Mario 64 with only the one analog stick, it's like, ooh, this feels simultaneously feels like fully fleshed out. And also how did anyone do this?
00:03:48
Speaker
yeah and Even in Super Mario 64, the story goes that Nintendo basically just were working on the proof of concept for like a year. It was just Mario in a room with a rabbit to catch. And they iterated on that for a year before they were happy with how their platforming worked. A lot of platformers around this time didn't do that, and it shows.
00:04:11
Speaker
That's
Sega Dreamcast Anniversary & Impact
00:04:12
Speaker
true. Also, today is the 25th anniversary of the Sega Dreamcast coming out in the States, $9,999. Is there a reason you brought that up? ah A, I really love the Sega Dreamcast, but also when you said some developers sometimes the transition to 3D wasn't as smooth. ah Case in point, maybe some of the Sonic games that have had a rough go of it. Yeah. yeah Right. Has has Sonic figured out 3D even today?
00:04:39
Speaker
I really like Sonic Adventure, ah even though it is a bad, a very bad 3D platformer in my mind. And Sonic Frontiers... well that was legally a 3D platformer, right? Yeah. Okay. I guess the 3D platforming in Sonic frontiers works a little better for me than most of it. Yeah. hello i figure it anything out like so tis A lot of 3D Sonic games that people like site as working went back to basically 2D
Linear vs Open-World Platformers
00:05:08
Speaker
platforming. i meanre exactly
00:05:10
Speaker
The 3D platformers like Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Colors, a lot of that was either straight side on 2D platforming, or it was just going down a path. Going down a linear path. Transition and switch. Yeah. Yeah.
00:05:25
Speaker
Which is something that games still do. Like yeah even the the most recent Crash Bandicoot had a lot of the sort of the original DNA of of the early, which were 3D, but felt more 2D-ish, like felt more corridor-ed than a more open Mario game. um Same thing with a lot of the Sonic games. Even Mario 3D Land and 3D World feel more kind of constrained than traditional 3D platforms. That's the question, right? like What do you prefer? Do you prefer a more linear like thought out experience or do you prefer like more of an open world level based? Pretty platform. it's interesting It's interesting because Mario covers all the bases land and world, as you say, were very much felt like they were built around.
00:06:11
Speaker
2D segments in Spirit, Galaxy as well to a lesser extent. ah and They were all about linear challenges. And then you've got the counterpoint being Mario Sunshine, Mario Odyssey, Mario 64, which was more about the open exploration maps, yeah ah Sonic Frontiers-ish. And that i i I would say that the open world map for platformers generally worked better.
Failure and Experimentation in Open-World Games
00:06:40
Speaker
in For the format, it was certainly the thing that Nintendo's shit like yeah um Banjo-Kazooie and such tended to gravitate towards. I think if you were going to do like the the linear stuff, you had to be like a Mario.
00:06:58
Speaker
you have to be prepared to put that ah that amount of like design chops into it. I think there's like something to be said for what makes those kind of more open 3d platform is tick. For me, it's They're more about collectathons than they are the the straight mechanical challenge and i that the open world lends itself more to that and can give that kind of space to be able to look for these collectables and um pursue something over a longer distance rather than it being a point A to point B small mechanical challenge. You can spread those out along ah like a wider axis and I think that's what makes them tick for me.
00:07:37
Speaker
I'll tell you what it is about open world for 3D platforming, because Sonic Frontiers affects this pretty well, is that if you fuck up, or if the game decides arbitrarily that you fucked up, like a lot of Sonic 3D games tend to do, ah you just get dropped off into a different part of the open world and can turn around and go back and try again or do something else. You can't do that if it just drops you into a pit and then says, what do you do that for you idiot?
00:08:01
Speaker
Smack, back to the start with you. Fucking hell. What
Astro Bot's Level Design & Dynamic Music Systems
00:08:06
Speaker
kind of balls have you got to bring those sorts of skills to my lawn? Yeah, it's funny. I was, I was thinking about not that exact example, but in, uh, uh, so Astrobot has, uh, you know, it has longer beefier levels and then it has sort of smaller micro challenges that feel like the little one off, uh, planets in like a Mario galaxy or even like those, um, sunshine levels where they take, uh, they take flood away from you. Um, the featherli levels yeah. The floodless levels. And one thing about, and those are probably the toughest levels in Ashrobot I've gotten to so far are are those ones. And ah so you'll occasionally, you'll fall, you'll die. There's no checkpoints in the level. But one thing it does is it instantly takes you back to the beginning and the music keeps going. So it's not like you're stuck in this loop or you're listening to the opening 30 seconds of the song over and over and over again. The music just doesn't stop. So it doesn't feel like you're, you're groundhog day-ing.
00:09:04
Speaker
but rather it feels like, oh, this is like part of what the game is. Like the game is encouraging you through the music, not stopping and restarting to stay at it, which, which is something I like. And it's kind of, I guess. That's a beautiful, beautiful thing. Yeah. It reminds me a little bit of what you said about Sonic Gatsby of like, if you just fall off a thing, you can then choose, well, what do I want to do now? Do it like there's, it's almost like you're, you're a kid in a candy store and then every aisle is going to have something for you to, to get excited about.
00:09:33
Speaker
We were talking about this previously before the the podcast started about ah reminding the player about ah the game state and thinking of it as a you know ah mechanical product rather than an experience. And music is a huge part of that. One of the things I've done in the past when I've been creating music for games is I try my best to make dynamic music systems that can shift between ah each area and the player's state, be it through death or combat, um that they can flow naturally because if you, like you said, Marty, keep resetting or jumping between tracks, it can pull the player out and you know think, oh, this music's garbage, and then your player starts thinking, oh, yeah, this is this is music, right?
00:10:16
Speaker
um that's playing, somebody made this, oh, they chose to do this, and then you start thinking about how the game was put together, and it all crumbles. So, um yeah, it's super important, tiny detail, but really, really important. It's interesting that you noticed that the music doesn't restart. That's sort of the thing that you tend not to notice, and that's the that's a good thing. I've really liked the music in the game, and so um it was just a thing when when thinking about the various tunes, and I was on a a specific level yesterday that I died, probably,
00:10:45
Speaker
two dozen times on. And I was like, Oh, well, that's a nice touch. Instead of me having to listen to the opening 20 seconds of this song over and over again, that I'm just listening to it in its entirety. And then it's, you know, after a couple of minutes, it's, it's um it's
3D Platformer Innovations & Hardware Evolution
00:10:59
Speaker
restarting. and one another thing i mean With those levels, I think one thing Astrobot does really well that I think the best 3D platformers do, even starting with Mario 64, is um knowing when to kind of subvert expectations or just give you a different flavor or gameplay style. like Mario had those um
00:11:20
Speaker
ah short levels that were like races, like slides down, ah you know, du dus you're you're racing a a penguin or you're racing down Peach's Slide. And so it wasn't just you doing the exact same thing over and over again. And I feel like, you know, Psychonauts is a game that does that really well. Every level feels like it has kind of a unique twist to it, whether you were in a theater trying to change from a drama to a comedy and that changes all the platforms going.
00:11:46
Speaker
shrinking down into this like Napoleonic like miniatures war. um And Astrobot does that too where every level feels like you get a new power up that that completely changes how you interact with the world or there's like a new rule set to, oh, it does the Mario thing where, oh, there's certain platforms that will disappear and reappear every time you jump or on the beat. um And so you have to kind of engage with the game in a different way than just running and jumping.
00:12:12
Speaker
It's interesting to think of 3D platformers basically defining ah the hardware shift from no analog sticks to analog sticks, because right after that happened, 3D platformers just sort of stopped being a thing, at least in the mainstream sector. Started shifting more towards third person action. Yeah. Why do you think that is? and It could be the the the maturity of the, the call, the perceived call audience was shifting to, to be more teenage. like where city hoey went Maybe most of the very dodgy early 3d platformers were mascot platformers. You're older. yeah Do you remember croc? Yeah. Crocs coming back and remastered everything. Everything that's old will be new again. Oh, good old croc. Yeah. Oh God. Your duck out was Tomb Raider.
00:13:10
Speaker
which was one of the only 3D platformers, but was a markedly different beast ah to a cartoonish mascot platformer. It was more in spirit of the Prince of Persia style realistic platformer or cinematic platformer, yeah but in 3D space. And if you've gone back and played that recently, it plays like, it kind of plays like dog shit. AD original. i yeah were you It's terrible.
00:13:33
Speaker
It's like you're using geometry for jumps. It's like, okay, I need to line myself up and go two steps backwards and one step right. And, um, in contrast to later games, you've got sort of like, got a much more 16 bit era, uh, informed total 100% control over your positioning, angling and movements, which is why it's so silly to get anywhere. Yeah. Yeah. Line everything everything up perfectly.
00:14:01
Speaker
If you look at, like, the 3D platformers started working again when they ah when games like Prince of Persia Sounds of Time came about. And it became more like or focused where it would like fill in a lot of the blanks for you. Like if you walked off a ledge, he would spin around and grab the ledge before you fell off it. yeah So it was, that's the difference for me. What are you going for? Like mechanical precision with like Tomb Raider, which feels finicky for 99% of players, or are you going for game feel and having it work the majority of the time, but not really be kind of realistic and most it's not up to the player.
00:14:33
Speaker
i prefer game um listen yeah They had to put the training wheels on, because of course all the time they were making 2D platformers, the training wheels were sort of automatically on. Because there was no concern about falling to the left or to the right of a ledge. only ah You only had to make sure the ledge was above you or below you. So they have to compensate for the extra dimension, but making things exponentially more complicated. Square cube lore. That's why you can't have giant monsters. Look it up.
00:15:02
Speaker
where cube law giant monsters. Yeah. Like, you know, those stories about how like a spider gets after the radio aviation and then becomes a giant spider that wouldn't work. It would instantly collapse and die because if you increase the, the, like, uh, the, the size of something from a horizontal perspective, uh, it's like twice as big, but from a, like a full volume perspective, it's like,
00:15:28
Speaker
a thousand times as big. Yeah. Godzilla. Godzilla couldn't pump their own blood around their body because their heart would have to be twice the size of them or something. It's yeah crazy. Yeah. Thank you. So thanks everyone. indeed If you double something in size, you multiply the volume eight times. but it would It would be too, it would be too heavy to support itself. Oh my God. Zilla ain't real.
00:15:53
Speaker
And that's what three d perspective that's what the 3D engine does to platforming gameplay. It's twice as large and eight times as complicated. Yeah. a great rose like early Those early games on N64, on PS1, even into the PS2 and GameCube, they were still like figuring the rules out. like It felt like by the 16-bit generation, 2D platforming rules were kind of set in place.
00:16:19
Speaker
um Whereas with 3D, it was like, well, we have to go back to the drawing board. And ah the PlayStation for the first couple of years didn't even have an analog stick. So you'd play a game like Mega Man Legends, which was a 3D game, but you'd be controlling it using the D-pad. And so that was a ah yeah that was ah that was a very strange thing. But the Tomb Raider is an interesting example because I feel like Tomb Raider paved the way for a little bit of platforming to be in almost every game. Now we get a little bit of platforming and or was Jedi and a little bit of platforming and uncharted and a little bit of platforming, even in doom or, or you know, uh, in a very, in a very linear corridor climbing sort of way. Yeah. Yeah. They didn't like the very famously, I think it was one of the recent cooler duties they had. I think a lot of people as well, but I call it context climbing. Um, no
00:17:13
Speaker
Uh, that kind of idea of you walk up to a wall and your character like shimmies up the side of it. And then, um, you just get to the next level. Like that might as well be a door. Like I don't waste my time. It's just contextual, but prompting your way up the wall.
00:17:30
Speaker
And it's like the, the star Wars, uh, the Jedi survivor, the one that came out last year had, um, those occasional like challenge rooms where you'd go into like a force void and you'd have to do like a really intense parkour challenge in a place without a ground with or yeah i feel like that sort of that felt very much like separate from the game. That was like, you guys over there make a cool parkour challenge and we'll just stick it off into this, you know, nether realm over here. Big contrived, wasn't it?
00:17:58
Speaker
Yeah, because it's fun. but Because, you know, people who came to Jedi Survivor for adventure, exploration and combat might not necessarily be there to have their parkour skills tested as well, which is more about timing, positioning and, you know, ah awareness of one's position in 3D space. Who was the first genius to come up with the idea of putting a visible shadow under you in a 3D platformer? I wonder. Ooh. Yeah. Yeah, there's those little things that come.
00:18:29
Speaker
It's those little things that you're like, oh, this is I didn't realize if this helps immensely with with me you know being confident of where I'm going to actually land. Yeah, it doesn't really make any sense when you think about it, but it's like mechanically, it helps the players so much that it's it's it's overlooked. um And like we do stuff like that all over the place in in games. um and it's It's a necessity, really, that games get so much harder if we don't skew those rules.
Collectibles & Completionism in Platformers
00:18:57
Speaker
you ah Earlier, Jay, you mentioned collectathons. Yes. I think that's almost one of the things that um
00:19:05
Speaker
when 3D platformers were kind of having their heyday in the the mid to late 90s, they hit a point where it's like, ooh, that's too much. And that might've been like Donkey Kong 64 or that might've been Banjo 2 where it was like, okay, this got too cumbersome. Like it's no longer fun to enter or collect things because there are so many things to collect. That's a little bit how I feel about Mario Odyssey, that there's like a thousand moons And I'm like, well, they don't feel, it doesn't feel as satisfying to get a one of a thousand moons as it did one of 120 stars. yeah Well, that's cause every big time you picked up a star, there had to be a long fucking sequence of animation and like crescendo and Mario dancing around it. yeah I for one prefer the truncated format in Odyssey where they just say, yay, you found a moon, move on. There's another moonlight right next to you, might as well.
00:19:56
Speaker
Yeah. I mean like Mario yeah pulling you out of a level after finding one is like a, that's like a no-no of being like, well, just, I wanted to keep it exploring. that was a practical limit equation on sixty four yeah me I feel like the problem that I had with Odyssey, I love Odyssey, by the way, i um, one of my favorite Mario games, but I think With the collectathons and collectables, for me, they have to be a visible goal in the sense of, if I walk into a level um and you're you know you're given a goal, you can get X amount of moons or stars from that one goal. Where it really turned off for me was when I went to
00:20:34
Speaker
castle and I spoke to the achievement toad and they were like, here's 10 moons for these things you didn't know you did. And there's more, I'm not going to tell you what they are though. And I was like, I'm done. Like I want to walk into a level and know what my goal is. I don't want to like have to funny about with all that stuff.
00:20:52
Speaker
back smacks of beyond good and evil. Hey, we found all these, uh, pearls is a my room yeah because didn't have enough time. And I think we've, honestly, it's not the the the case that they didn't have enough time. I think it's because they were just like, we want to hit an arre arbitrary number of moons. So it sounds impressive. Yeah. you know Yeah. Maybe they should have just done a separate achievement system like every other game or just not done at all. Yeah.
00:21:21
Speaker
Astrobot does that in a really good way where every time you enter a level, you can you can just hit pause and it'll show you, okay, there you have silhouettes of... ah There's six bots you need to find and then there's little gold things around certain ones that mean they're the ones who are like costumed because you could find like regular ass bots or a bot where you're like, oh, it's ah it's it's Nathan Drake from Uncharted or Kratos from God of War, anything like that. um and that fucking playstation and all stars oh my gosh well yeah the deep hu are part of the thing i know I don't think you have as as ah the the strong of a relationship with old PlayStation games as I do, but like seeing blast from the past of like
00:22:01
Speaker
PS1 forgotten RPGs, getting a little character in here. I was like, oh, this is so nice. But anyways, shows them in the menu. And if there's three puzzle pieces to collect on a level, it has their silhouettes. And if there's a warp exit, it has a silhouette for that. And they're all sort of displayed chronologically. So if you get to the end of a level and the second bot isn't filled in, you'll know, Oh, it was somewhere between the first one I got and the third one I got. So when you go back through a level, you're very much like, okay, I can just focus on this part of the stage to see what I admit. Yeah. And that that's been making me want to go back and being like, and knowing, Oh, this level has a secret exit. I'm like, well, shit, I really want to poke around and figure out where the secret are you being charge backtracking, right? How do you, how do you make people want to go back and give them the the tools to be able to do so rather than just it arbitrarily in this massive area, right? It's tricky because I kind of hate that. <unk>ve I've always hated the way Yoshi's Island introduced the concept of beating the level and then beating the level properly. I feel like in like Super Mario World, ah you finish a level with the no mushrooms, you find no secrets, you get like you go through the ending tape when it's like two inches above the ground, the game doesn't care. It's like you finish the level, bully for you, carry on.
00:23:17
Speaker
And then from, like, Yoshi's Island onwards, there's sometimes is this concept of, well, you did beat the level, but you didn't find the five red coins or the flower or the five little flowers, oh and you didn't beat the game without dying, so you haven't finished it properly yet.
00:23:30
Speaker
I'm not always kind of good on my nose. to ah To an extent, if a level was red instead of like, if the the the level on the map was red instead of yellow, that meant that means it had a secret exit. So you'd beat it once and I'd be like, well, shit, now I want to go back and see where the secret exit is and what i what what it might lead me to, um which is usually more levels, which if you're liking the game, more levels is always a good thing. Well, I didn't know that.
00:23:53
Speaker
Oh, like like if you can, what you're describing with Ashby, but I'm really looking forward to playing it. I haven't played it yet, but it seems like those are goals that it is giving you is something that is easily achievable as you play, if you're exploring all aspects, right? But it's just framing the information in in a way so that it's easily readable to understand a more specific area you need to go rather than, uh, I'll replay the entire thing again, scouring every corner again, right? Yeah. To me, it's almost like ah putting in an inherent, I wouldn't even say if it's a difficulty slider. It is even like the game, and there's there's certain points in Astro where you need a hundred bots in order to unlock the next thing. And I feel like that number is very much if you're just going through the levels and just when you see something, you do it, you'll get to that thing.
Nostalgic Elements in Astro Bot & Indie Games
00:24:46
Speaker
So it's almost like there's the main route if you just want to
00:24:50
Speaker
get through and see everything. And then all that other shit is there for these who are like, Oh, I want to find the, the Vib ribbon character, which is me. That was me. I was sweaty and I found the Vib ribbon character. I was literally sweaty because I think it was great. I remember Vib ribbon. You know who I found? I don't want to spoil it. I found Mr. Mosquito. Mr. Mosquito was that pervert who flies around and and and sucks blood on naked women. I remember Mr. Mosquito as well. yeah Uh, that's why I just, every time I would find one, I'm like, Oh, I found him. That's great. There was a, there was a period in the PS2's life when there were companies just buying up like armfuls of obscure Japanese games and, uh, like translating them and chucking them out onto shelves. And there were a most, Mr. Mosquito was one of those, but there was a lot of fucking dross came out of that process.
00:25:38
Speaker
you Do you think a lot of the appeal of Astro Bot is its celebration of just games and the art form? Do you think that's what makes it attractive? Well I wouldn't say the same about Sonic Generations and that game's shit. I guess yeah, you still have to build a good game around there, right? And what really makes it feel really shit is that it's air of self-satisfaction.
00:26:01
Speaker
But the thing is with Sonic Generations is more of a celebration of Sonic and Sonic is shit. So yeah. This is more of a celebration of, you know, games and we'll PlayStation and history. no yeah Yeah, history reminds me a lot of, uh, in that way, it reminds me a lot of smash, um, smash brothers, uh, in that it is this like clearly lovingly rendered celebration of an entire gaming company. Uh, but at the same time, it's also a really good game.
00:26:34
Speaker
Okay. But is that just, is that, is it just that it's a good game? That means it works, uh, where playstation all stars failed. I mean, I think the main thing is I think Ash robot is an exceptional 3d platformer that happens to have all of that TLC to, um, PlayStation history. Whereas PlayStation all stars was right. Yeah. And the genre was places that all stars was a pretty mediocre, uh, smash clone that occasionally referenced. They feel like them trying to capitalize on something that is popular and trying to do their own spin. Whereas all stars felt like them going smash bros sold. Well, we can do that. This is like, yeah, we are making a 3d platformer. That is a, uh, also a celebration of games and what we've done and where the industry's gone and stuff like that. I think it's a combination of those things.
00:27:28
Speaker
It's also the 30th anniversary of PlayStation. So like it kind of feels like their way of celebrating that. Yeah. Well, one thing I, one thing I wanted to come back to was you mentioned that, uh, uh, indie games have embraced platforming. We haven't seen a long time, uh, which I agree with. And you know, what's, um,
00:27:48
Speaker
What I'm appreciating is the way platforming shows up in indie games is that it's platforming that actually calls for skill on the player's part. Because the platforming in the AAA model, as we've discussed, is ah your context climbing, your corridor climbing, which is mostly just points towards the next contextual button prompt and press the button. Whereas in the indie spheres, there there's ah some interesting experimentation in the world of traversal focused games going on. ah Just look at games like Neon White, and to a lesser extent,
00:28:18
Speaker
Uh, what was that game we played buddy? That was the first person parkour game where ah you were a Scottish man. Yeah, no, no, it was like a traversal focus. You were in hell and you were trying to run out of hell. was It was a hell foot. Anger kick. I know't know the one you're talking about. It was like, the white but <unk> if you guys played a weird about kick bastards, kick Yeah.
00:28:44
Speaker
So, uh, yeah. Um, so you've had, uh, even turf hat and time, the spark trilogy, uh, pennies, big breakaway, which came out a few months ago, which is like just movement centric. Like these are games where it's like movement is a question. And the whole thing in this game is how it feels to move in sort of the mastery of like almost built for speed runners.
00:29:06
Speaker
So AAA games don't seem to like ah just picking one thing to focus on. It's all about the broad experience, the world, the 500 different mechanics. Whereas in these these days with the the so increasingly low barrier to entry for game development.
00:29:23
Speaker
uh seem much more inclined to really explore a single mechanic and that's why the platformers have come back which comes to difficulty for me a lot of triple-a games don't like their games being ah hard and exploring a mechanic with its fullest ability because they're trying to appeal to, um you know, ah people who have kids and don't have time to smash their head against one level for, for five hours, right? And instead of making another Soulslike knockoff. oh yeah Hey, press dodge just before you get hit, then just do that forever.
00:30:01
Speaker
shocking ah There's also the, um, I feel like in the indie sphere, there's also even like a little pocket genre of like very mellow, low key, cozy platformer collectathons and what do you like short hike. Oh yes. And little Gator game, which is pretty much just more short hike you right coming out soon. Yeah. Yeah. Europa very much so. Yeah. Where it is. um you know, maybe, and maybe that's just the, the nature of the industry that like the genres are going to collide and like something that's cool over here is gonna, is going to pop over here. Like I'm sure if there's not already like a rogue light, I don't know if a rogue light platformer could really work. Cause I feel like platforming is like the thing that needs to be kind of bespoke and like hand curated, right? Yeah. You need to have like a sequence and of platforms to form a challenge. You can't really procedurally generate that.
00:31:00
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Um, but yeah, it's, it's, it's interesting how like, well, like we said, it seemed to, and maybe it was because like the PS two rolled around in that era. Like you mentioned Jay, like other games became the popular things. Like the popular games were more mature games. That was grand theft auto. And then the rise of call of duty and assassin's creed and sort of like, Oh, these are what video games are there rated M for mature. Um, yes.
00:31:28
Speaker
And yeah, I don't know if it was until developers who grew up playing the platformers ended up becoming the developers themselves, the indie devs who are like, well, I just want to make ah a 3D platformer about a yellow taxi that goes vroom. Yeah, that's how it works. that's yeah That's why there's so many indie games modeled on the PS1 style graphics these days, because we're at the 20 year nostalgia wave period.
00:31:53
Speaker
Yeah. It's been almost exactly 20 years since that specific era of 3d platforming. So we so seen or it makes me so worried about like in another 20 years, are we going to get some horrible Genshin like the actual game? let natural gym way yeah but yeah't want it Well, my, if we're, uh, if the, like the 20 year nostalgia rule is a hard and fast model, then the next wave is going to be for cover based gears of war style shooting. i think Oh no.
00:32:21
Speaker
But if you look i do last week I was playing Space Marine 2 and that's immediately what I thought of. is like People are liking this and I know why. It's because it's making them think of Gears of War from 20 years ago. I don't want to go back. I don't want to go back. I i think cover-based shooting is a shit system and I'm so glad we've graduated from it. You don't like cover shooters?
00:32:44
Speaker
I hate cover shooters. I think they are bland. I think ah they lock you into specific gameplay moments. I think Gears of War was good because of its um its aesthetics and its story rather than its shit. I remember message i remember and like when we were in the depths of cover based shooting being like the huge a genre. I remember every time I'd walk into a room and it would just be full filled with what were obviously chest high walls intended for cover shooting.
00:33:12
Speaker
and i was i not I would sort of mentally roll my eyes and think, well, I guess we know what's happening here. Squirrel with a gun. We were playing on the RC tries last week and ah you walked into that room and there were chest high walls, but for a squirrel, yeah just like in the room. And I was like, I hate this. This is like my worst nightmare.
00:33:34
Speaker
Um, I suppose Marine two isn't cover base, but it really feels like a sort of gears of war esque thing. Even though yeah you weapons, to the color palette, space Marines, right? They they've got yeahs and that energy. Yeah. Yeah. Honestly, it's like as much a melee fighter as it is a shooter. Yeah. Yeah. But, uh, yes, there's that.
Super Chats & Audience Interaction
00:33:54
Speaker
Shall we go to super chats? There's a few to get through, I think. Yeah. I'm sure folks will have a lot of different, uh, a lot of different thoughts on this that we can go on tangents to.
00:34:04
Speaker
Okay, starting with Dr. Theo, who gave $5 and says, I'd love a game like Little Nightmares, but it's a 3D platformer in that kind of world instead of puzzle platformer. So see the what I tend to think of as the limbo, like the side on ah keep moving to the right until we tell you to stop platformer is ah more suited to when you're trying to do a more narrative focused experience, I'd say. Yeah. Because obviously, because you've got a lot more control on where the player goes.
00:34:34
Speaker
if you if If that was in a 3D world, it would feel a little bit silly. I think it would feel like American McGee's Alice. yeah i Suddenly when it becomes much more ah gameplay focused, like yeah it would in a 3D platforming world, it feels less narratively impactful.
00:34:56
Speaker
Yeah, and the moments that stick with me in Limbo and Inside and Little Nightmares, I mean, you get them like that are the very scripted, authored moments where like... with yeah Like when you pull the leg off the spider in Limbo and then yeah use the spider's still alive body as a platform.
00:35:14
Speaker
Yeah. And if it was 3D and you had the sort of freedom of movement and everything, you it'd be harder to kind of strip those exact things. but being said pulling the leggos for spider It would be like the Bowser boss fight in Mario 64. Yeah, throw them. but Just throw the leg and swing the spider around your head. like boy I spoke, I spoke to this in my episode on death and little nightmares to being a huge example in that episode on, I think that the fact that it was trying to be a puzzle platform and was a huge contributing factor to why none of the horror stuck with me and why death became meaningless because they were respawning you as if you were playing a platformer, but trying to do it in a narrative horror way. And it just completely of the entire experience.
00:36:01
Speaker
Because most of the time, the the the the jump scares would just take you completely by surprise. ah a Like a thing would come out and just eat you instantly and you had no way of predicting it. And then yeah it would just reload and all the like the but tension was deflated. And that happens repeatedly in like nearly every single scene you go to. And it's it becomes meaningless. Death becomes meaningless. Fear just completely evaporates and you're like, what well well, then why am I playing? Right?
00:36:30
Speaker
It is interesting though that it feels like almost all of the games we mentioned, whether they're AAA, whether they're an indie, like a 3D platformer is associated with bright, colorful. Yeah.
00:36:41
Speaker
with cheery worlds that'll have the occasional haunted level like Banjo-Kazooie and Mario have the haunted levels. um It is interesting that there's just no, there's like an indie game called Pumpkin Jack, where you play as like a pumpkin head dude. um And I guess Hell Pie was kind of gross, right? Like, yeah but it's just weird that like, through yeah, it doesn't feel like no one's really explored like 3D platforming in in a in in a sort that he setting in a spooky setting yeah there's action because you don't necessarily
00:37:14
Speaker
What's the, I can't remember the full name. The last word in the name is regalia. Oh, so regalia is like not extremely bright and it has this kind of gothic, um, I guess, and kind of bunny girl thing. It's, it's a weird aesthetic. Um, and I agree. I want to see, I want to see the genre explored in different kinds of, um, thematic ways. things. Um, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, I think 3D movement with full camera control sort of inherently goes against a spooky atmosphere. I mean, the successful horror games are always your Resident Evils near your Silent Hills that were either had fixed cameras or lazy chase cameras that didn't feel like
00:37:52
Speaker
Because there's a bit early in Sion Hill 2 when you're going through the forest and it switches to like a camera like watching you through the trees and it feels, oh yeah it doesn't feel like you're in control. It feels like your camera is like another entity that's watching you. Yeah, yeah. a match i like But if you could control the whole camera, it would feel much more utilitarian, I suppose. Probably why I've got low low hopes for the Sion Hill 2 remake. I'd say we only have to wait a month to see what it's like to control the camera.
00:38:20
Speaker
um Yeah, Sudhiragali is a good example, though. I like the atmosphere in Sudhiragali is very much like sad. It's almost like a cross between like eco and like a Demon's Souls level, where it just feels like and like an empty, hopeless, dangerous castle, um which I think is cool. Yeah. There we go. chat As you're telling, we're looking for a full-control 3D platformer that has genuinely horrific and nightmare-y vibes. Nuru Vince. Good luck. And straight sheep.
00:38:49
Speaker
That's still constantly. Yeah. The book there here that uncle height gives two euros and says, what offers the fire link that windbreaker doesn't, uh, other people that aren't me, I think this is what a fire link has. Uh, yeah, this is, yeah, we talk about multiple. Was there, I don't know if this was supposed to be a goof. Is there a goof? Cause the fire link, it feels like this question is supposed to be a goof that I missed.
00:39:18
Speaker
Uh, finally talks about a bunch of random topics, but more, more random news. Like I'm sure, uh, tomorrow Sony's going to announce the PlayStation five pro. So I'm sure on Wednesday we'll talk about why the hell's this thing exist? Here you go. Uh, Cree gives $2 and says, I'm in a scary ass dentist appointment. Send love.
00:39:38
Speaker
It's a good setting for a, for a pretty platformer. Wait, ah first level like a dentist office and I know. I don't like that at all. I hope so. I hope it hurts. I bet he's doing horrible things to your teeth that make sounds like this. Thank God yachts is Mike can't pick that up.
00:40:05
Speaker
but Oh, ah poor of us for Katie gives $10 and says, got nothing to add to the topic this week since platformers aren't my thing. So here's 10 bucks for you, gents. Happy Monday. well Thank you.
00:40:23
Speaker
And then the bad thing gives 10 New Zealand dollars and says, hey all, since there was Kojima talk the last few weeks, have you heard about the ideas? Kojima wanted to include an MGS one, two, three, and four. The ideas he had were wild. Glad his team rained his ideas in. Were we talking about Kojima?
00:40:42
Speaker
I feel like we talk about Kojima pretty often. So yeah, we talk about kajima most episodes. Yeah. The one wild idea that I know got cut from MGS four is that originally that was supposed to end with snake and Otacon getting executed by firing squad. I would have loved that. Wow. But Kojima's team basically rebelled. And so we are not ending the series like that. Oh, that's really funny. That's so metal.
00:41:10
Speaker
I'm not sure what the crime was. I mean, I think they'd do a lot of war crimes, don't they? Yeah. Well, it depends how you play the game. Well, if you just knock everyone out, I feel like that's still a war crime. Like I stuck espionage is inherently bad, right? Not as bad as murder, but it's still pretty bad espion espionage ended the second world war.
00:41:40
Speaker
Yeah. That's fair. I'm not sad. That out of kind of lack of espionage that ended the second world war. Wasn't it famously, uh, an Italian man who pretended to be a spy who wasn't actually a spy. I won't get into this. It's a huge, it's a huge thing.
00:41:57
Speaker
Well, British intelligence were able to trick Hitler into thinking the Normandy landings were going to happen. Because of this Italian dude. Were going to come for the Mediterranean rather than the English Channel. So he like, they were able to ensure that the resources were divided. Yeah. Which is one of the reasons why the Allies won the Second World War. One of the many reasons. Because I think another huge aspect to why World War II ended was nukes. But, you know, that's a... Yes.
00:42:28
Speaker
nukes, the Normandy landings, the Russian front, all of those things. well that Hitler being an insane asshole. Those were all the things that meant that Germany weren't going to win. Alex Armstrong goes $5 and says, Yahtzee, a Kotaku reviewer for Star Wars Outlaws said staring at a detailed wall texture was the most interesting part of the game. Sound familiar? Certainly does, Alex Armstrong. That was a bit from my Destiny 2 review from years and years and years and years ago.
00:42:58
Speaker
Wow. When he said I went in a sort of, when I went to sort of referee examining a wall texture and realizing that I couldn't see where the pattern repeated and it looked like there were like two different textures over it. I don't like someone had probably put a lot of work into it these days. I guess there's probably a lot of AI being used for that sort of thing. What was the last game you started the wallet texture that impressed me. I've got mine. What is it?
00:43:29
Speaker
which is Red Dead Redemption's 2 mud. Oh, that was a good mud. In Red Dead 2 is insane. That was good mud. I guess I usually push text floor and wall textures out of my mind these days because I know most of them just come from online libraries or AI. But now that you mention it, I remember being impressed by the sand physics in Black Myth Wukong.
00:43:51
Speaker
because there's a sandy desert level. And if you run through like deep sand with like your staff sort of dragging along the ground, it leaves a furrow in the sand that looks cool and realistic. I dad did the same thing trudging through the snow. like yeah andm thinking I'm going to run around in a circle and make a great big penis out with my sand trail.
00:44:11
Speaker
ah Astrobot does a cool thing where it it oftentimes will just dump a bunch of small objects into whatever area you're in and it'll be like a bunch of apples or a bunch of gems. And they all just react with their own physics. And so I'll just run around and be like, I'm going to do a spin attack in the middle of a bunch of apples and see them all fly away. It's very satisfying. And it's, yeah, it's still very hard to do the game I'm working on. We're currently working on physics for our objects and it's harder than it is.
00:44:39
Speaker
You're going to see, you're going to see this Astrobot shit and be like, God damn. god that i hope sure I'm going to be very impressive Astrobot. I was yeah even the the tech demo version of it. I was blown away by, so yeah looking forward to it. Just download a physics engine. Isn't that how it works? ah yeah Yes, you can. If you want them to do specific things and interact with multiple players in a multiplayer game, then it gets a bit more complex. Okay.
00:45:08
Speaker
Uh, just existing 45, member for seven months in tip jar. And Ryan Betts, member for seven months in tip jar. The seven month tip jar pals next to each other. Oh, tippy boys. And then, uh, a leaner gives five euros and says, what happened to the episode? How to not do relationships in games? I can't find it. Oh, well, we did that. one hours Was that a windbreaker? No, that was back at the escapist, I think. I think Catherine was on the cover. So I think it was shortly after I played Catherine.
00:45:37
Speaker
I feel like we might've covered this topic in a few areas. I did a semi-ramblematic on the subject of friendship as well. Yeah. Um, I don't know. Please clarify. It was, yeah, I was back at the escapist. All right. Cool of us for KTO. Welcome to tip jar.
00:45:59
Speaker
And then FoxD gives $5 and says, Sonic 3D always struck me as the genesis of the traversal game rather than a platformer. Less Mario and more recent Spider-Man.
00:46:12
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I mean, it is a platformer, at least the originals. Yeah, I do always feel like Sonic, especially 2D Sonic, and even 3D, I guess, feels different to me than Mario because with Mario, it always feels like I am in control over what he's doing. Whereas with Sonic, a lot of times he'll just hit a boost and he'll be like, Jesus, take the wheel. like but please know Please don't drop me into a spike. um Oh God, Sonic 3D blast. Take it away.
00:46:42
Speaker
Take it away. It depends on my eyes. Talking about 3D games that do not work. They tried. They tried. Yeah. Wasn't it, um, I think it was Titus that made Sonic 3D Blast. I don't play them that much these days. Yeah, I guess so.
00:47:00
Speaker
Uh, yeah, it is interesting. I guess, do you consider, do we consider swinging around New York city to be 3d platforming in, um, I think of it more as traversal as, uh, folks, he says, yeah, the superhero traversal game is its own thing. Yeah. Yeah. It's a separate thing. I think. Platforming for me is about, uh, precision. I don't think sonic spider-man traversal calls for much precision.
00:47:32
Speaker
No, building and press the web website down again. That game feel we were talking about, about doing those adjustments and stuff like that. It's, I was doing spiderman fingers while I was thinking about something. Um, it it has way more of that in game feel to make it a smoother experience, which I think in a cinematic superhero traversal game works perfectly, but it doesn't really rely on that precision. Like you're also saying. Hmm.
00:47:59
Speaker
Anyway, just1645 gives 10 Canadian dollars, says Astrobot has been a breath of fresh air and joy after emerging from a quagmire of souls-likes. Challenging in parts but so very enjoyable, genuine, happy vibes. And as always, Yahtzee is the GOAT. How dare you. You're the GOAT? You're the GOAT? I'm not a farm animal.
00:48:20
Speaker
Uh, I, I do. I'm glad you're enjoying, uh, Ashrobot just existing. I'm also enjoying it. Also red hot smasher. And I just looked up and I made sonic 3d blast the Lego. Oh, okay. Yeah. Well, what did, what did Titus do then? I don't know. Titus for Fox and a bunch of low budget crap.
00:48:50
Speaker
what titus the fire Anyway, Alex Armstrong gave side orders and says, despite Spark, the Electric Jester being based off Sonic, it had combat mechanics and Kirby power-ups. Name the sequels boiled down to just get to the end. Well, that was Sonic in a nutshell, isn't it? Just get to the end.
00:49:09
Speaker
Yeah. The spark series. They, uh, the engine crew just did one, two, and three over not three consecutive weeks, but I think Casey played them over his three weeks of hidden gems. And it was interesting to see how that, cause it's like a solo dev, I believe. And it's, uh, interesting to see how the first game starts as like, it's almost feels like the evolution of, of platforming throughout the course of a trilogy of games. Uh, and by the end of it, it's like a pretty interesting 3d Sonic clone that people really like. There you go.
00:49:38
Speaker
like it oh Arda Moore gives 4.99 and says, I really liked the PlayStation crossovers in Astro Bot, which is not something I like normally. What do you think this game does differently? Man, you people are all setting my expectations way too fucking high for this game. I'm going to be looking for things to hate about it now. Oh, sure. Which is fine. You'll hate it. I'm sure. I'll probably think, what is this? A fucking little big planet knockoff.
00:50:03
Speaker
there's, I was thinking about the same thing too because at the same time I've been, like I am vehemently against, not vehemently, if you want to buy Funkos, you buy as many Funkos as you want, I personally find the whole Funko experience to be like an affront to art.
00:50:20
Speaker
And i don't know why i'm I don't feel that way about Astro, like, because Astro is ostensibly doing the same thing where it's like, here, take all these million different games you remember from the past 30 years, and we've Astro sized them a little bit. And it, maybe it it feels like Funkos come from a place of commerce, whereas this comes from a place of like love and reverie. And you can sense that. Yeah, they certainly hacked those Funkos out on an industrial scale.
00:50:46
Speaker
Yeah. And there's this Funko game that's coming out in like a week. That's like, explore all your favorite properties, like Jaws and nope. And I'm like, why? I thought that came out and it was garbage. No, there was a Funko. There was a Gears Funko game that came out called Gears Pop, I believe. That was a Gears Funko game. Yeah, it came out like five or six years ago.
00:51:09
Speaker
The generations are going to look back on us and Funko pops the way we look back on tulip bulbs. Uh, it might be. What was going on? Whenever, whenever that was the Dutch, not the Danish, they're different. My mistake. The Dutch are in Holland. The Danish are in Denmark. Apologies to everyone in Holland and in Denmark. I hope you're all doing well. Shout out to honey money. She's sweet as shit. She's sweet as shit.
00:51:40
Speaker
Uh, same thing. Oh, she's coming. I didn't say that. No, of course. I know that Sweden and Denmark are not the same country, but they could be all about it. Yahtzee, if you really know, they're pretty close to each other though. They're both considered part of Scandinavia. ah Yeah. Uh, so now we do, she gives $20. Good to see you back on tracks. You know, we do sure giving us $20 a super chance with no text. You're, you're my hero. My hero.
00:52:11
Speaker
And then Alex Armstrong gives $2 and says, not just DK64, Crash 4 is a collect-a-thon from hell. oh yeah Yeah... I feel like I didn't i didn't feel...
00:52:23
Speaker
I feel like I could get through a lot of crash without having to engage with the collect-a-thon stuff, whereas it feels like DK, you don't have to. Then he said Crash Bandicoot has at one specific level near the end. It was like Cortex's Castle. That is just the most pain in the ass level I've ever played in a game. Like, oh great whatever the opposite of a challenging level that you want to keep replaying is, it's that. It's it's something that feels like it is it is actively sabotaging your enjoyment. Fuck that.
00:52:49
Speaker
With the way Toffee is attacking that shark, it looks like Toffee is a hand puppet that Yahtzee is like mimicking a dog fighting a dog. The two of them talk, it really does. It looks like Yahtzee is puppeting a dog. That is goofy as shit, I love it. Oh no, please don't fight.
00:53:09
Speaker
but ah Anyway, yes. um Mark Nevis give us one ninety nine pounds and says, what's your favorite Dreamcast game? Mine was PSO standing for fantasy star online, I believe. And I had I had so many but if I'm going to I think probably my my two favorites are Jet Set Radio and then ah which I'm covering and ah ah this next song I'm covering an upcoming episode of the archive is Skies of Arcadia, ah which was a ah ah Air Pirate JRPG, which is absolutely delightful and still holds up and I wish they would put on a modern console that wasn't the GameCube. They had great fighting games too, Soul Calibur and Marvel's Capcom Power Stone. Power Stone is the one I was going to mention.
00:53:57
Speaker
yeah Did you, uh, I'm, I'm really looking forward to that Capcom collection where they're bringing that back like that online, like that fun as hell. Oh, did you see that? I didn't realize power stone was in it. Yeah. It's like a different collection. They have the Marvel versus Capcom collection that's coming out. And then they have another separate Capcom fighting collection that, um, two of the games are power. so one and gi me there's not much There's not much like Power Stone, is there? It's almost in a niche by itself. I think Sonic the Fighters was trying to be perfect like Power Stone, but that was no good. Yeah, it's interesting because it just feels like it came out around the same time as Smash, and everyone just kind of copied the Smash model, whereas his Power Stone was almost like a 3D brawler beat-em-up, but in that sort of fun four-player party game. Indie game developers, make the new Power Stone. That's your job now. Go for it.
00:54:49
Speaker
Go for it. With Funko's. Cam, Cam de Neptune gives $2. Why is Jermaine streaming from jail? Did Ludo snitch? Yeah. I mean, I've been put in jail, but they've let me keep the streaming set up. Um, and I can still make design though. So honestly, not much different than my usual day to day. so do rest just make find up Yeah. Look me up. I'm three, three meals a day. Oh my God. I'm in heaven.
00:55:15
Speaker
yeah But no, yeah, as Eric has put in the background, I'm visiting a friend, so I'm in the States, currently. You're in I'm in Massachusetts. How do you remember that yet? How do you remember where Massachusetts is? I remember that it's right next to New York and above Connecticut and Rhode Island, because Connecticut and Rhode Island look like New York's little penis, and Massachusetts sounds like what normal words sound like when you say them with New York's penis in your mouth.
00:55:45
Speaker
yeah And if you want to remember those thoughts on the rest of the states and you are a $10 Patreon ah member, and you can check out Yachty's full video right now about how he has learned to memorize all 50 states using insanity like that. I made a bonus video on a whim. I just had the idea in my mind, so I wrote it up and made it. If you remember my old Judging by the Cover series, it's got that sort of energy. It's incredibly unhinged in the best way. yeah But it, but it genuinely will help you remember what every stage is. yeah I certainly do now.
00:56:22
Speaker
Uh, Fox Degas $5 and says Yahtzee's objection to Yoshi's Island is mine to Red Dead 2. Either I beat the game or I didn't. Don't give me this. You got bronze BS. I'm done. Did Red Dead 2 have? I don't mind having like an extra challenge.
00:56:39
Speaker
I just don't like it when you finish a level and there's just this big empty void where the reward would go. And it says, yeah where the f**k's this idiot? Play the level again sometime, why don't you? What about being graded? What about like a character action game, a spectacle fighter where you're graded at the end of a corner or a level? I quintuple hate that as well. Especially in Sonic games, because I never know what the f**k Sonic wants from me. I'll try to get through the level fast, I'll try to be impressive, but then at the end it just goes, you got to D, f**k you.
00:57:08
Speaker
Yeah, it's information for me. It's if I understand what the game wants and I can't be bothered, then that's fine. Grade me with a D, whatever. yeah But it can't communicate to me why I'm getting the grade I want or.
00:57:21
Speaker
the collectibles that I didn't find. Um, then I, I lose interest in instantly. I'm like, Oh, I don't care then. And then all future collectibles or challenges again mean nothing to me. So yeah. Yeah. I never made cry. It's supposed to be about spectacle. I'll be being impressive, but what it's really about is making sure you vary up what attack you're using for a moment. That's basically it.
00:57:49
Speaker
So that's trouble with game mechanics that try to rate you on an aesthetic level. I was talking about this when I was reviewing Crush House. It was like sooner or later you figure out how to game the system. Yeah. Especially in Crush House where you just get maximum points by filming a pot plant for three hours with on a Dutch angle. We'd love that. That's, it sounds like that's a film festival darling right there. There you go.
00:58:14
Speaker
Uh, Alex Armstrong gives $2 and says, fun as Wario World is, it's controlled for very janky. I actually played that in reference there, Alex Armstrong. I did that for the first time a few months ago on definitely not my Steam Deck. ah it' say It was a weird, Wario World was a weird GameCube Wario game developed by Treasure um that never got ported anywhere else. ah And yeah, I did kind of feel like Treasure learning how to make a 3D game. I don't know if this was their first, but it it does control a little wonky. I like Wario though. I like that he's just a big weirdo who loves gems.
00:58:51
Speaker
He found his oeuvre in the WarioWare series, if you ask me. Then he could like get into his own spirit and not just be Mario with a but the hue slider moved along yeah a bit. He had to find his own niche and not just exist as a counterpoint to Mario. That's what Waluigi needs, needs to find his niche.
00:59:18
Speaker
Maybe he needs to like, there needs to be like a series of, uh, ice cream shop management simulators where you play as Waluigi. And after he finds his niche, you should find his nephew. Oh my God. You guys get that? That's a little niche niche and nephew joke. Yeah. he goes each Took me a second. It's not really a pun though, is it?
00:59:45
Speaker
I don't think it was supposed to be fun. It was a commentary goof that I hoped we would move on from and we haven't and it's making me very self conscious. I reckon we should discuss this more honestly. i you that i don't know As you have a joke though, Norse God of Thunder ah picks up a lady in a bar, takes her home, does her like 50 times all around the house, up and down the kitchen worktop. And at the end of it, he gets up and yells in triumph, I am Thor! And his lady friend says, you're Thor, I'm Thor, Thor, I can hardly pith now.
01:00:22
Speaker
look I think Nisha nephew was better. personally yeah I think we've we've graduated into, um, the, the podcast always getting into jokes at the end. And half of me is here for it. and not at the end though We still have more. We have super chats. I know. We got sumptuous. I know a lot of jokes. I'm sorry. Uh, Alex Armstrong gives two dollars again and says, infamous is finicky and we liked it. Sequels better.
01:00:53
Speaker
Sure. Did we say, did we say anything bad about it? Oh, about it. I think we were complaining about finicky things. Yeah. And I guess that is, it's not finicky the way Tomb Raider one's finicky. No, no, but it is in the way that a lot of times a sequel will improve upon its predecessor in so many ways, especially of the, that era from Assassin's Creed two to uncharted two. Um, on you know, just feeling like it is bigger and better in all ways.
01:01:25
Speaker
Man, I want more infamous. Why? I want irony like from the second son and more of infamous too. In fact, I just want infamous too. I want infamous two to be available to play on Steam. It is a crying shame. The horizon zero dawn and go to Tsushima can be played on Steam, but not infamous fucking two or bloodborne while we're at it. Will be a launch title for the PS five pro.
01:01:54
Speaker
$700 console. The infamous collection. Well, it won't be. Let's face it. Did you know they keep raising the price of PS5 controllers are now $5 more? Is that legal? That's what, that's the opposite of how it's supposed to work. That's the opposite. Like the reason the PS2 became so popular is because like by at this time in its life, it was like a hundred dollars or $150. Yeah. And I'm like, this shit is still $500.
01:02:20
Speaker
controllers. when more What are we doing? Did the like scarcity of PS five die down? Did that ever die down? so the label open Like I think you can just go into stores and get it, but then mean like i had the turning on the PS five to wins install Astro bot is the first time I've turned it on in months. I'm sure. Oh, mine's a paperweight for sure.
01:02:39
Speaker
um Yeah, I had the the luckiest experience of getting a PS5 I think I've ever seen. i like i'm I'm a pretty lucky person anyway, but it was Christmas Eve and I decided I wanted one and on a whim. This was at the height of when nobody could get any. And I just went online to a store and they were like, yeah, we've got them available. I ordered one. And then the next day they were all gone. You, Jeremy, for acting sod.
01:03:04
Speaker
Yeah, so this was the day before Christmas Eve, so on Christmas Eve, my PS5 showed up. I'm incredibly jammy. Every time they announced more of becoming available, me and my wife had to camp out on the Walmart website and hope for the best. And it never worked out. In the end, a viewer had to send me one. Wow. It was pathetic. Pathetic sent you one. Thanks Pathetic.
01:03:33
Speaker
It's pathetic. It's pathetic. We, a professional games coverage outlet, had to be sent to PS5 from a viewer. I know. is It's a bit much. ah Dale Mallows gives two dollars and says, sorry I farted. Can you repeat that? And then says, then gives another two dollars and says, you'll have to speak up. I'm wearing a towel. too fast or pe yeah er Sorry I farted. No, before that.
01:04:04
Speaker
ah i can see i wearing it I think you'll have to speak up on wearing a towel that might be from The Simpsons. Yes, that is from The Simpsons. Hjor 37 gives 50 Danish krona, speaking of the Danish, and says, I recall contrast, a bit fun, a bit wonky, never finished it. They had some interesting ideas, but I got stuck on a collection side mission.
01:04:28
Speaker
Yeah, that was, uh, compulsion games as his first game who won on and make we happy few is now owned by Microsoft and they're working on south of midnight. Um, that was a cool 3d platform. I can see why they're in by Microsoft. Yeah. Snap up that fucking we happy view developer. They clearly know what the fuck they're doing. I believe they snapped them up.
01:04:49
Speaker
possibly after this this was a fight This was a launch game for the PS4, I remember. and it's ah I liked the tone, it kind of felt like good Tim Burton, but its whole mechanic is that you can like ah exist in the shadows of walls. and like You go from a 3D platformer to all of a sudden you become a shadow on the wall in your 2D platforming. Oh, that old chestnut. Yeah, wasn't that...
01:05:14
Speaker
It felt ah pretty ah unique at the time. This was 20 years. So, but that is definitely something that has been done quite a bit since then. What wasn't, wouldn't that have been around the same time as a shadow's tail or whatever? it was country Yeah. rebec I Anyway, the hedge pig. Oh, sorry. rob Not that shadow being voiced by Keanu Reeves, apparently.
01:05:45
Speaker
ah damn ah Alex Armstrong again gives $2 and says, would corn kids 64 counters horror or more creepy? I have no earthly fucking clue what that is. Alex Armstrong. Yeah. I own this game. I own this game on switch and I have not played it as from what I know. It is a 3d, uh, platformer, but it's whole thing is it's almost like, uh, I think the story behind it's almost supposed to be like pets cop where it is like, You're it is a game dumb. that has been unearthed that was made in the late nineties. And there's some,
01:06:17
Speaker
what's going on around this game. It is an unfinished game. and There's something kind of spooky here. I believe he passed her. Oh, little creepy Alfredo. Um, okay. I do not know if any of that's correct. I just know. I think that's what it's about. And I bought it on switch and I have not played it. I find I have little time for non tomato based pasta sources.
01:06:42
Speaker
<unk> just actually having says like the olive oil but like olive oil no Although having said that, I'll go for a chicken pesto pasta meal. Anything creamy? Anything creamy like an Alfredo? Not my jam. It's certainly not my jam. I'm a big fan of all pasta sauces, me. Oh, look at Mr. Cosmopolitan. Hey, culture does fuck me.
01:07:10
Speaker
I don't just eat chicken nuggets like Nicholas Calandra.
01:07:16
Speaker
I wish my kids would eat chicken nuggets. God damn. I mean, they've, they're so like, we're running out of foods they'll actually eat. And we thought chicken nuggets, that's a slam dunk, surely. We even got dinosaur shaped ones. They just never took to the fucking things. Maybe it's the dinos, maybe they're scary. Yeah.
01:07:37
Speaker
Who knows? Uh, Rose Delta gives $5 and says, I M O one of the best 3d sonic implementations was a fan game called green Hill paradise based on generations engine. It was way more meant momentum based. I have to take your word for that. I guess through still I I feel like I'm an allergy to fan games. You like, I have an allergy to Sonic. I think I might make my, I hate Sonic video.
01:08:08
Speaker
The more I think about it, the more if I, I, I well i hate Sonic. That'll get the clicks. sure like Just make that the thumbnail. I just need to vent because I keep, I keep thinking it. I hate Sonic and you're a bad person for liking him. There you go. No, it's I hate Sonic. Fuck you, Marty.
01:08:29
Speaker
i ship the video i Don't you're stupid. There we go. and
01:08:40
Speaker
Exactly, Eric, exactly. Well, no, clickbait needs to be a question, doesn't it? So, are you stupid for liking Sonic? Yes, you are. I'm writing that down, Yance. I'm writing that down right now. Um, Dkarma gives $5 and says, I was wearing the second Wind Founders shirt this weekend at Comic-Con and had people ask if I worked for you guys. Oh, that's great. Oh, that's what happened, Dkarma. I mean, if you go to Starbucks wearing a Starbucks uniform,
01:09:06
Speaker
But you can't really get offended if people ask you for a mocha latte. Yeah, but we don't own Comic-Con. We don't own this Comic-Con. Whatever Comic-Con you want to own. All right. Flawed analogy, perhaps.
01:09:21
Speaker
Whittiesism gives us $5 and says, are there 3D platformers with an emphasis on difficulty like Mega Man stroke Cuphead? Returnal is the best example coming to mind right now.
01:09:31
Speaker
Returnal feels more like an action game than a platform, right? I mean, i got satisfied like i'd I'd say it's more of a shooter. Definitely. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. I don't know what like the most difficult 3d platformers are. like Well, unless we count the aforementioned first Tomb Raider, where it's just really fucking janky to control. Yeah. I'm trying to think in the same way that there's like crazy difficult 2d platformers, you know, there's like Celeste, if you want to get everything or, um, yeah, I don't know.
01:10:00
Speaker
the And neon white if you see and for like the platinum medals. Yeah. It feels like a lot of the most difficult ones are difficult, then probably not by design, but by the fact that they were made in like the, I'm sure there's like PS2 or PS1 and N64 platform, like Gex 3. It just be hard because you're like, this is not well made. Metroid Prime's pretty hard on the original GameCube controller controls because they kind of sucked. Yeah. And that has a nice, that's like depth.
01:10:32
Speaker
the ending levels of chain together are really rough. but you can so much resist and Yeah, that's the equivalent of a, that's a modern three, yeah although that's more hard difficulty in a Mimi sort of way, Mimi click baity sort of way stream bait at one should say, and yeah get much harder than like what we played. Oh, infinitely harder. Yeah. It makes the stuff we did look like Charles play.
01:10:59
Speaker
ah not from like tricks. It tricks you into thinking, Oh, this is what you're meant to do. And it's like, um, ah it's yeah, it's really grim. Um, on a scale of zero two I want to be the guy. How tricky are we talking about here?
01:11:16
Speaker
i say i want to be the guys but the Yeah, I'd say I want to be the guys harder. Um, and go it's, it's a lot of precision. Um, and I think if we, do you know, you discovered yards that we could like reset to a specific, like the highest point. I reckon if I didn't use that with my friend, I would have just like,
01:11:35
Speaker
shot my knees off because it's so frustrating. But um we use that and we got it completed. Don't shoot your knees off. You'll need them. I know, right? Especially in a platformer. I know, right? Uh, Alex Armstrong, you saw dollars and says an indie 3d platformer called lunastis locks the plot behind a hundred percent completion without it. It's just a fun kiddie platformer. Would you count that as bad? Yeah, that seems pretty silly.
01:12:04
Speaker
depends what sort of player you are, I suppose. Yeah, I actually, I own Lewis's on my switch and I've, I haven't finished it, but I did just think it was a colorful 3d platformer. I didn't realize it's got like a lower deep, deep and sadness. loline is law Is it like how in Ico, you only know what half the characters are saying in the second playthrough. Oh, well, maybe. Yeah, I don't know.
01:12:34
Speaker
Yeah. Like in, uh, I go, when you play first, it's just gibberish, like the subtitle they speak gibberish and the subtitles are gibberish. And then a second play through you, the subtitles are in English. Yeah. It's kind of fun. Uh, Zelda Wind Waker did something similar. If you like in the second place in the lobster pyjamas play through a Zelda Wind Waker, all the characters who talk in decipherable ancient Hyrule language to talk plain English. And it sort of gives the plot away earlier in the game. Huh?
01:13:00
Speaker
I liked that. I really liked that. in enough And if you had to learn the L bed and when you talk to people speaking L bed originally, you can't understand what they're saying. And then slowly you learn the language. So I don't know. That's really cool. I liked that. yeah We've over a chance of Zen are already been done.
01:13:24
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, sort of. Fox D gives $5 and says, spin a tax on apples. Can't hold a candle to fuss through da in a room full of cheese wheels.
Skyrim Physics & Game Humor
01:13:33
Speaker
Still the gold standard. it ah Did, did Skyrim have like fun physics? Yeah. You used to like, there used to be like a classic exploit where you'd stick a pot on someone's head and then you could steal everything they owned because they couldn't see you. Yeah. I can't see you. Yeah. Oh, that's funny.
01:13:51
Speaker
That's good. And you could first throw dar people over and they'd ragdoll all over the place and the physics yeah yeah yeah average i got crazy my club by a giant. And then my body was just like food in the air. Yeah. Yeah. Giant airlines. The classic yeah in your light ah pinwheel arts gives five pounds and says, loved the jokes last week. So let's have some more. I'll start. Why did the Jordy cobbler get sacked? Cause he got caught fucking a boot. Okay.
01:14:20
Speaker
like Yeah, that got me. that cause i'm pretty That's That's pretty good. What's a Geordie? Geordie is an area. It's like a regional accent. Oh, someone from Newcastle is referred to as a Geordie. Oh, he's a cobbler and he fucked at the boot instead of fucking a boot. He's fucking a boot. ah Rose Delta, remember for four months in the Green Gang, says also S.O. to a story about my uncle for traversal.
01:14:48
Speaker
Uh, shout out. That's what ESO means. Shout out to a story about my uncle for traversal. Oh, that is the name of the game. That's just not, uh, them telling a story about their uncle. Uh,
01:15:01
Speaker
their uncle I've heard of a story about my uncle and I have not played it. Um, well, nevermind then.
01:15:12
Speaker
Permafrosty79. Permafrosty79, member for five months in Tip Jar, and Brett Walden, member for six months in the Green Gang. a Two ah green friends there. a Double Finger gives two euros. It says, isn't every 3D Sonic game a horror 3D platformer? Lol, lol, roll eyes, et cetera.
Character Appeal & Narrative in Games
01:15:33
Speaker
Shadow, so this is the season of the Shadow we're about to enter, so you better you better watch out.
01:15:40
Speaker
Have you ever seen Sonic turn into a werehog? Or a hog wolf? Or whatever way you want to say it. You know, Sonic's original appeal was that he had an angry face and he was like an edgy team. The fact that they then added another character who was even more an edgy team, being Shadow the Hedgehog, sort of felt kind of redundant, amongst other things. I like the original Sonic that had a pot belly. Like the original Pikachu that had a pot belly. Yes. So.
01:16:10
Speaker
i just want he was pregnant That's even when you think about it. and Oh no. Not hedge pick babies. Oh no, hedge pick babies? The worst kind of baby.
01:16:24
Speaker
ah Long Shanks gives £10 and says, I've got the week off and I'm craving a game with a good narrative stroke story, old or new. Got any suggestions? Hmm. Yes. Several.
01:16:39
Speaker
what remains a fewrelysium Let's go. Yeah. Disco Elysium bottles. Get free. Um, if you're more interested in narrative gameplay interaction, play something like return of the Obra Dinn. Turn the Obra Dinn. Yes. I'm always going to recommend pyre. Send your, send your religious basketball players off to heaven.
01:17:02
Speaker
Hidden Gems last week, Jess and I played ah the Excavation of Hobbs Barrow. And I know you really enjoyed the ah slow opening, but like the the mysteries they've laid down really interested me. And I want to play more, so maybe check that out. Yeah, I played the first half of it. And then I remember thinking, this is moving pretty slowly. I guess I'll stop. guess should get back to I've only played two hours, so I don't know how it progresses.
01:17:33
Speaker
Uh, a superb owner member for nine months in tip jar. Thank you very much. And then Dr. Theo gives $2 and says, what is a sequel that feels like a reboot? God of war. Metal Gear Solid 5. God of war. Metal Gear Solid 5. Yeah. Doom 2016.
01:17:57
Speaker
Wait, does anything come to the sequel? I don't think dude 2016 is a sequel to anything. I think it's just plain reboot. Um, yeah, I don't, yeah, I guess. I don't know. Yeah. I got a war might be the best suggestion. All right. Then we're the best. Uh, the brain. Oh, hang on. Herula cowboy. Oh, hang on. I keep I've missed a few. Oh, I jumped to the bottom again and it keeps doing that. I think you're at Fox D. I can, I can read it if you need it.
01:18:29
Speaker
No, no, I got it. I got it.
01:18:34
Speaker
Wait, Fox D. Yeah, I've got number I've got number 10. After double finger. Just want to say Sonic games really shouldn't be that hard unless you're playing as recklessly as possible.
01:18:49
Speaker
I didn't even have that one written down. I don't know what happened. That was on me. You're doing great. yeah so Aren't you kind of supposed to be playing recklessly in Sonic though? Aren't you supposed to be playing with a certain amount of gay abandon as you fliggle yourself into space? Yeah. Got to go fast. Exactly. You have a choice.
01:19:05
Speaker
Like yeah i mean what did the game just breaks if you try and take it. what i think about When I think about not playing Sonic games recklessly, I think of ah the underwater ruins level in the first Sonic game, which was a pain in the ass because you couldn't go fast at all.
01:19:23
Speaker
And that just felt like a, like a misstep. Yeah. They were like Sonic as a whole. Yeah. Yeah. like We can't base the whole game around going fast and doing stunts. it's We're a platformer. We've got to have some very annoying bits where you have to avoid spikes in a cave. but so That tends to happen on like the cutting edge of game design. I remember when Thief 1 came out and the developers were all like, we refuse to believe that someone would just like a game that's all stealth. Let's throw in a bunch of levels where you have to escape from monsters as well.
01:19:57
Speaker
yeah Yeah. Everyone hated them. And the next game was just, yeah, all right. Here's just a game that's all stealth. Just just doing something. Well, like do one thing really well rather than yeah one thing. And then five other things tacked on just because. Yeah.
Nerd Culture & Personal Preferences
01:20:14
Speaker
It's a a useful skill. hu
01:20:24
Speaker
Man, I'm all over the place. Oh, I think you're a fax. Yeah, now I'm on Fox Day. Fox Day gives $5 and says, Funko's are everything wrong with nerd culture. Nobody ties their identity up in brands like nerds. And it's why I take offense to being called one. I don't want it. There's plenty of good people by Funko's. That's why i wanted to I wanted to make it very very clear. That is my personal thought on Funko's. Well, are they good people because they buy Funko's or in spite of the fact that they buy Funko's? This is it probably not related.
01:20:55
Speaker
You could be a good person and also buy Funkos, but I don't think buying or not buying changes. If someone bought a Funko pop, what would be a 100% positive usage of that Funko pop after they bought it? What if they but what have you designed a character who got a Funko pop and you wanted one in your office? I would buy a Funko pop of a character that I had i had made.
01:21:19
Speaker
Yeah, you would be the only person who would have a reasonable reason to want to own that Funko pop. Yeah. i I think there's a line, right? I don't mind people who have them. I mind people who have them still boxed and they have a wall of them. Like then I'm, um um I'm, I'm all right. What possible use are they? They're so flimsy and cheaply made. I mean, I'm i'm just, my thing is I can't I don't have a leg to stand on because I look to the left and I just have 50 amiibo. At least Kinder Surprise toys take some assembly. At least there's a little stimulation to be gained from that. Do you feel the same about amiibo? Do you judge me for having my chibi robo and my joker?
01:22:07
Speaker
Absolutely. In Persona, we have talked about Persona. They also have in-game usage in certain games. you know you the bo like They're a valuable piece of art. Oh, definitely. It's newly ripped the box. Oh, yes. Well, moving on.
01:22:24
Speaker
Camden Energy gives $2 and says, Sonic 3D Blast ends with an awful love ballad. 10 out of 10. oh ah so Oh, let's make a short list of games whose end credits have awful love ballads on them. a Symphony of the night. That's another one. That's a good one. I think, I think King's quest six has one. Do one of the silen hills. Does it really? Yeah, it's called Ned Sheeran song on the end. Get out of town. I wouldn't describe any of the side and tail ending songs as being love ballads. Maybe I don't know what a love ballad is. i Maybe I don't know what love is.
01:22:59
Speaker
Yeah. Maybe maybe you don't. You need to feel it.
01:23:05
Speaker
ah A superb owner gives $5 and says, raise your hand if you've played the free Celeste SQL-ish 3D platformer that the Celeste devs released earlier this year. I didn't know it existed until um games done quick a couple months ago. And I downloaded it after that. I have not. Pretty cool. Played it.
01:23:27
Speaker
Uh, double finger gives five euros and says, Oh my God, I looked up power stone. And while I didn't play the game, I remember watching the anime way back. Been trying to remember the name for ages. Oh yeah. There was like a one season anime about that. Yeah. Like 20 episodes or something. Cool. There's a lot of things that get adapted into anime that don't make it into the West. I think Capcom was doing a lot of animated stuff at the time. So they did a street fighter anime that, uh, Mega Man animated series. so
01:23:58
Speaker
There you go, two examples.
Gaming Desires & Sports Culture
01:24:00
Speaker
There you go. ah Senu gives $4.99 and says, Yahtzee, please keep banging that infamous on modern consoles drum. Certainly will. I'll keep banging it until someone from Sony with the kind of influence to make it happen. Here's it. There you go Mark, Sony's going to get on H tomorrow. Influential Sony person. Get on it. Bloodborne as well. yeah Bloodborne has to be literally they lost the code and they are too. I'm almost certain it's the physics of the game is tied to the FPS and which is locked on consoles. So when you put it to PC, it box the game. I think none of that sounds insurmountable as a problem. Someone can fix that.
01:24:47
Speaker
I agree only because it's bloodborne and that would sell like absolute hotcakes and would make them a bajillion dollars. So even if it costs them millions to fix that issue, it would be worth it. You know, hell just get the players to mod it. thats that joke is It's playable on PC now. I saw some people streaming it on PC, like emulated. Yeah. Like all janked up. Yeah. Yeah.
01:25:14
Speaker
Uh, Carmen, it gives $2 and says nothing. Okay. I heard super on a live stream. Like good old. Uh, girdle and get it. Just give us $5 and says, if you made a platformer, what would you most want to challenge with the jumping challenge? They're timing the puzzling capability or something else. I would like to make something ah in the more of a neon white e direction, I suppose. Ooh.
01:25:41
Speaker
something more about speed challenge and, uh, yeah. Refinement. Yeah. That was one of those rare games where I could feel getting better at. Oh, I, I did the, uh, the recording and the editing for your neon white video. And I had such a blast playing that. So it's so fun. Yeah. It's a great game. My game of the year. It came out, I believe.
01:26:07
Speaker
I think so. SG 004 music gives $10 and says, what's your perfect Sunday?
01:26:18
Speaker
Knickerbocker glory, lol. Not having travelers sickness, sickness, which is what I had. Yeah. That's, that's an important one. yeah Traveling sickness great.
01:26:32
Speaker
I've got a free day. Like, uh, the, the wife's taken the kids, uh, to the grandma's house. Uh, my usual attitude is try to do as many things as possible. Cause it feels like the day is longer then. Oh, you know, on a bike ride, I'll do some shopping. I'll have lunch at ah at a restaurant. Uh, maybe he takes out some library books.
01:26:57
Speaker
You are both but' fortunate you don't like American football because that's just what my my Sundays are now. And it just feels like a waste. I used to sit down for nine hours. and i've go taken him I got taken to a high school American football game once. The game seems to consist of a bunch of kids running around for a bit and then everything stops and people argue about how far the ball has traveled for about half an hour. Yeah. Sounds about right. And then they do it again.
01:27:27
Speaker
i like the the ceremony like We've very famously, Marty's spoken about me going to that winner's parade. But like coming to America and, you know, watching some, not that I'm crazy into the sport, but you know, the, all of the food and the prep to watch the Super Bowl and stuff, that's kind of nice. I guess it's cause I'm British and that, that's kind of just like an American thing to do, right? But it's still nice. But is it like every Sunday for you, Marty? Like, is that a common day for the games to be happening? So this was week one. So.
01:27:58
Speaker
Uh, yes. Sunday is where a majority of the football games are. And yesterday was the first Sunday of the season. And this is the buildup to the, the Superbowl. Yeah. Yeah. So this is there's 17, 17 weeks. And then the playoffs and the Superbowls will be pretty much every Sunday now until I saw that Kendrick, Kendrick Lamar's going to be playing the, the opening man, this one for Drake ah notta shots fired from a Superbowl who has a lyric, which is as big as the Superbowl.
01:28:27
Speaker
Of course, culturally, the British are no one to throw stones when it comes to being obsessed with sports. Sure. Oh, yes. Yeah. a i Personally, firstly I'm not into any of that kind of shit. Although I watch the Olympics if it's on, because that's like the triumph of the individual human spirit. I ain't getting any interest in team games. Fuck friendship. Fuck teamwork. Yeah. I'm an objectivist. I suppose.
01:28:56
Speaker
ah Fox D gives side all this and says, wearing a red shirt and car keys in a Target is fun. Bonus points if a manager tries to scold you for standing around and you yell, I quit. That's pretty funny. That's a great. Karuda Cowboy, I remember for nine months in ad-free podcasts says, off topic, but I started Symphony of the Night for the first time recently. Just wanted to say it's as great as everyone says it is. Yeah, it would be if the um if the way you use healing items wasn't completely mental.
01:29:25
Speaker
Yeah. You have to equip a healing item to one of your hands, press the attack button to throw the healing item onto the floor, and then walk over the healing item for it to heal you. Is it nonsense?
01:29:38
Speaker
it's genuinely It's like, you know, mechanically, I'd almost say just for that alone, something like, ah, you're a sorrow might be my favorite Castlevania game. I was about to say, did they fix that for the, um, Game Boy Advance games?
01:29:54
Speaker
Yes, yes, and the DS ones. DS Castlevania games, almost all bangers. Yeah. Those are the, the collection is out now. Those are available on modern platforms. Oh yes. Yes. Uh, although I usually play Dawn of Sorrow emulated so I can download a rom hack that removes those bloody stupid, uh, drawing rune puzzles from the boss fights. Oh yeah. I think they've changed it to where you just have to, like each of the corners are just a button. So you just have to be like triangle, square, square X triangle. Touchscreen gimmicks. Oh, we've got a touchscreen. We got to work it into every bloody game.
01:30:30
Speaker
That's me being Nintendo making the 3DS. Yeah. That sounded about right. That's a great me and my impression. Yeah. Thank you. no I'm going to make a 3D engine that will enchant a generation.
01:30:47
Speaker
The brain sturgeon gives two euros and says, Yahtzee, what's your favorite sea shanty? Well. I can't go wrong with the classics, I'd say. So I, if I were called upon to sing a sea shanty, I'd probably go with blow the man down. That's a, that's like an old, that's, that's one we all know beautiful,
01:31:16
Speaker
beautiful, et cetera. Although what's the, uh, I do quite like the Wellerman.
01:31:28
Speaker
It technically isn't a sea shanty though, because of how it's put together. um You could probably, if you could imagine a bunch of sailors on an old fashioned sailing ship, singing it together, that's, it's probably. Specifically to pull rigging and to, to coordinate an entire boat together. Like that's what that design needs to be like, uh, how they're sung to coordinate, uh, they have actual function. They're not just songs that are sung on boats.
01:31:59
Speaker
Well, they didn't spend 100% of their time pulling rigging. Maybe they had songs they sung when they weren't doing that. I know, but like the definition of a sea shanty. I'll send, i've I've got a video on it. alsoll I'll send it to you. What shall we do with the drunken sailor? What shall we do with the drunken sailor? Like that? Yes. So what do you sing when you're ah ah flogging someone? I'm a Barbie girl. Yeah, a Barbie girl.
01:32:29
Speaker
Swinging my cat and nine tails. mean like A superb owner gives two dollars and says, Matty, is it still the year of the Gex a sauce? Yeah, we, it's a big year. We got the Croc-A-Sants obviously coming on with k Croc coming back. We're in the middle of the, we're in the midst of the Gex-A-Sants. Although Gex hasn't been dated yet. the The Gex trilogy remastered. So I don't know if it can technically be a Gex-A-Sants, but we're definitely, we're hot and heavy in the Croc-A-Sants right now.
01:32:59
Speaker
Which is a good time to be alive.
Revival of Classic Games & Platformer Critique
01:33:01
Speaker
Who the fuck was crywis names really get in me but it's great because you just add it to i not ah who was crying out for I don't know. I think for the goofs, I'm just really curious about Gex because I think some of those jokes are not going to age well. There are a few Gex games. I understand the crying out for Gex. It's crying out for Croc that and that ah confuses me. I think maybe it was big in Europe. Do Europeans like Croc? I don't know. um I guess if you just had a PlayStation and you didn't have a Nintendo, so you couldn't play like the good, the good goods, you had to settle for like Crocs. If you had a PlayStation, there are much better platforms to be playing. Crash, Crash Bandicoot, you could be playing on your PlayStation. Crash Bandicoot, any of the Toy Story games, you know, Spiro. Moving into Ratchet and Clank. Bruce Willis's Apocalypse. No one wants to play Bruce Willis's Apocalypse.
01:33:57
Speaker
Why would anyone not want to play Bruce Willis? Crocaholics. Crocaholics, what do you know? no a Jeffrey Summer Hayes gives five Canadian dollars and says, Yahtzee, any luck with the derelict PDA bug in Starstruck Vagabond? I don't know which specific one you mean, although I have fixed a lot of bugs in Starstruck Vagabond, and none of them have been posted in the Discord lately, so I'm officially not thinking about it anymore.
01:34:24
Speaker
You did it. Don't miss. Oh, I was about to say, don't miss buying it on the steam sale, but the steam sales over now. It ended like an hour and a half ago. The steam space exploration fest. Well, go buy it full price right now, guys. Buck it up. Go do that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Save me some money. Why don't you support me in my enterprises? Yeah. Stingy gets Anyway, Cry he gives $2 and says, send disappointment over and I survived. Applause. A lot of you cry. I hope you didn't cry. They take all your teeth. Oh no. And then Goo Bomber comes in with $2 and says, I'm late. Did yards like or hate Astro Bot? Oh my God. You gave so many opinions. I haven't played it yet. I'm going to play it after lunch. You can find out in the upcoming fully rambledmatic review, which will probably be in like seven weeks or something.
01:35:24
Speaker
It's not positive I'm going to delete it from the backend. I'm going to get through Star Wars Outlaws and Space Marine 2 first. The games, big games coming. You know what I'm excited for? Zelda Echoes of Wisdom. Oh, hell yeah. I'm excited because when your grandma looks at you playing and says, oh, you being Zelda again, this time you don't have to correct her. You know, you don't have to say I'm a linky old bitch. You could just say, yes, I am Zelda. Yes, me, ma. I am Zelda. Yes, me, ma. I am Zelda.
01:35:56
Speaker
ah Dr. Theo, you bringing up judging by the cover gave me an idea. Why haven't there been an ARG where one puzzle solution is hidden on the game's cover? There fucking has, Dr. Theo. The original Metal Gear Solid did that. Yeah. You remember that? Yeah, right here. Well, that really confused some people.
01:36:13
Speaker
There was like one character says, Oh yes, the codec you need, the code for the codec you need to enter is on the back of the CD box. And some people thought they were talking about a CD box in the game, but it wasn't. It was the actual CD box. yeah Meryl's, Meryl's codec number is on the back. If you rented the game, I don't know what you did. I don't know how you got through that. Ate shit, I think. Ate a big old pile of shit. Yeah.
01:36:38
Speaker
Uh, humane shield gives one, eight and nine says, Jamaite, after watching you last DD, I want to restart my world of warcraft troll hunter, though I lost my account when I quit before wrath of witch King. Well, I'm glad you lost your account hunters. If you play hunt, I just, you know, I just lay down and die.
01:36:57
Speaker
fa deaf firel I only ever played mage in World of Warcraft because I couldn't be asked joining groups with anyone. And mages are pretty good for like soloing. Yeah, like blinking and teleporting around having a nice elemental and stuff, yeah. Yeah, you do like 90% of your damage before the dude even gets to you.
01:37:14
Speaker
Yeah, you do one cast and just absolutely obliterate them. Yeah. this Yeah. Well, you say one cast, but it's like ice bolt, frost nova, nova things, fireball, fireball, fireball, fireball. Ooh, you're next to me now. Frost nova, blink away, more fireballs. Super satisfying. yeah Also fuck hunters. And as that one spell, you create like four mirror images of yourself. And, you know, I was taken down like raid bosses by myself with that thing. It's satisfying as hell, right?
01:37:45
Speaker
Yeah. Damn it. I don't want to get back into world of Warcraft. Let's fucking play yachts. Come on. Let's make a guilt. No, that would be a twist. A 20, 24 twist. I got shit to do. I got a family. Oh yeah. my his son I spend my evenings vegging out.
01:38:03
Speaker
ah do ve out i could be right in Yachts, we could be taking down raid bosses. I'm just saying. although my wife's been playing way too much Elder Scrolls online. So maybe that would be fitting revenge. let's get guitar is Wow. yeahscom Wow. Let's go. Have your kids farm gold. ah So I don't need to be less productive right now. Okay. fair And between books and indie game projects. Sounds like a great time to play a game. No, it isn't. Oh, nevermind. Sorry. I thought it was.
01:38:36
Speaker
ArmedKama gives $5 and says, I had admit to say it was a Comic Con to recruit for my game dev school, so wearing a second Schwinn shirt was helpful. ah Is it a game dev school like Kung Fu Dojos now? I hope so. And then you might take on another rival game dev school, and the winner gets to take the sign from out the front gate. Yeah, you do like a game jam, like kill the rivals. So cool.
01:39:05
Speaker
ham The Brain Sturgeon gives two euros. It says, I sing blow the man down with my two-year-old. You know ah the song I sing to my four-year-old? Just because it was one of the few songs I could remember all the lyrics to. I sing only you. Because I remember the lyrics from the end credits of Batman Arkham City when the Joker sings it to Batman. you Yeah, that's a good one. And then it shows up in Far Cry 5 as well.
01:39:35
Speaker
That's also just a very sweet song to sing to your child. and Yeah. And now she just expects it. Every night I have to sing her only you. And I'm sure my other child in the other bunk keeps their feelings to themselves. Only them? What about me? What about only me? Yeah. Well, she's not quite old enough to pass it at this point, but I'm sure it will cause trouble at some point.
01:40:00
Speaker
then you'll have to start singing just the two of us, but referencing them rather than just you. Yeah. Just the two of you. Yeah. Just the two of you. You can make it if you try. Uh, Robo knob, the snob gives 20 euros. If it wasn't mentioned, I hate platformers that rely on powerups, but all they do is just act as glorified keys rather than letting you experiment. Basically Bolano banana land. Also, hi, Jamais, you beautiful soul.
01:40:29
Speaker
Miele, Miele and wonder world. I assume Alan is okay. Yeah. Those were things were pretty good. Yeah. Uh, okay. Powerups are a thing that can very easily, uh, be abused for good or for evil. Do you want to be Mario or do you want to be somebody in the night? Pick one.
01:40:51
Speaker
A power-up either opens up more of the map or just gives you an advantage in the moment. Pick one and miss. Every game I should be able to turn and miss and go through gates.
01:41:02
Speaker
Uh, robo not the snob, then gives another five dollars for euros and says, and guys, stop doing these podcasts while I'm recording. I can never catch up in time. Ari. Well, maybe you should specifically call out to podcasts. Yeah. Yeah. Also to be sure we're doing it at the same time, same day of the week for several years.
01:41:23
Speaker
uh, SG zero zero four music gives $5 and says, apparently the new expansion was created by Quentin Tarantino. Now that, and said, now we're talking about here. I was like the wow expansion. Is there feet stuff? It's an expansion, probably. Wow. But I'm not sure what they're referring to as it being made by Clinton. Cause he always puts feet stuff. Is there a lot of feet in the wild expansion? I didn't notice any feet.
01:41:49
Speaker
no i didn't notice a lot of feet um story wise it's just it's not like it it starts with the end or anything like there's lots of manipulations and actual intrigue and stuff but is is there any story still untold yeah yeah little more i explained in my last video They moved away from it and they butchered it, but they're they've brought back Chris Metzen, who was there one of their previous directors, who's come back to span a story across three expansions rather than having one solo story in one expansion. They're going to spread it across three so they can tell a more unified story. So i'm I have high hopes for what they can do. Well, how do they expect new players to be able to jump in at this stage? Ha, ha, ha. Just kidding. Ask Final Fantasy 14.
01:42:36
Speaker
No new players are starting well. well the vital What the fuck am I talking about? Are you, your wife and your children going to start well? Yeah. No, we really aren't. We're going to start gold farming guild yachts, what are you on about? I'm going to sever my own hands if I feel myself wanting to do that. Anyway, your main shield gets all 99 and says yes, but Rimmer directive 271 states just as clearly, no chance you metal bastard. That's a line from Red Dwarf, although I forget precisely which episode.
01:43:06
Speaker
Rimmer directive. i It might be season four. Sounds like a season four line. You don't know, no. And then Toad wizard member for six months in the green gang says Jay's, I love Jay's pedantry about shanties. So I don't have to. You're welcome. I am a Dick.
01:43:31
Speaker
Oh, and then one more just came in at the very last moment. Nick Nogg is $5 and says, off to the question. Have any of you guys played universal paper clips? Might it make for a really good design delve. What's that then?
01:43:48
Speaker
Uh, American incremental game. These are plays the role of an AI program to produce paper clips. Sounds riveting, but then I would have said the same thing about papers, please. If you just described it in an elevator pitch. I'll check that out, Nick. If you think that'll be a good design, do vola a clicker game with a sinister funny underbelly.
Podcast Wrap-up & Future Content
01:44:12
Speaker
Okay. Pick a game. I stopped listening.
01:44:17
Speaker
I will check that out. Thank you, Nick. Well, it's not on Steam. Even more sinister. Oh my God. That's who very sinister. All right, well, that's all the Super Chats. Thank you very much for listening to the Windbreakers podcast, as always. I'm going off now to play Astro, but I think maybe after I've had some lunch and then later in the week, you can enjoy firstly an episode of Fully Ramblimatic on the subject of Star Wars Outlaws, that game that everyone thinks is really good and has been praising like it is a very important a landmark title in the history of the medium.
01:44:57
Speaker
And, uh, then of course I'll be playing, I'll be doing my Yahtzee Tri stream on the same day in the afternoon. And I'm going to have a semi-remplimatic on Thursday. And this one will be about the subject.
01:45:18
Speaker
What was it? I read it so long ago. I do this all the time. Oh, games you love, but you don't play. Oh yes, it's a good one this week. Not that they're ever not a good one, but this is a particularly good one, I think. On the subject of games I really like despite never playing them.
01:45:37
Speaker
Uh, you two plug your shit now. Uh, J first. Uh, designed off on my, uh, what Java had pointed out to me was a over half my life addiction to what a Warcraft just came out. Um, talking about why and the kind of psychology behind that. So check that out. Uh, I'm currently working on my next one and later this week we will have an episode of Dev heads on Friday, which we're going to be joined by boob Castle.
01:46:05
Speaker
um from Hollywood and game dev fame. So really interested to sit down with them. They're a friend of the podcast. So we'll remind us what people would know him from.
01:46:21
Speaker
ah They'd known from like TB wise, raised by wolves. Yeah. He was also was house the dragon he was in season two of of House of the Dragon. And um was also um been in a bunch of Assassin's Creed games, voice acting and made the game Zao, yeah um which is a love letter to his father. Yeah. ah he voiced ah but He played in AC Origins, yes the lead.
01:46:47
Speaker
a ah true Renaissance man. I'm very excited to sit down and talk about the industry and um just all facets of that. So yeah, check that out on Friday with Mikey, Tina and the Uber car. And other than that, yeah, essentially some other streams and stuff, but nothing that comes to mind right now. But that's me.
01:47:08
Speaker
Cool. Yeah. I think later today you'll have, uh, were you part of that video, the big edited video and the whatever came, you guys played last week? Concord, not Concord. That's the terrible one. they got council yeah The deadlock. Yes. I was, I was involved in that. Yeah. Uh, I believe that video was going to go on up later today. Well, Convo, uh, uh, with y'all chatting about your thoughts on that game. Uh, and then, uh, tonight, normal time, 6 PM central will be hidden gems. Uh, the crew will be paying self loss.
01:47:38
Speaker
which is a new sort of a moody puzzle platform or something. Uh, it looks, or it looks very neat. So does it involve moving to the right until the game tells you to stop? I don't know. I just know the thumbnail and the thumbnail looks nice. Okay. It kind of looks like a little bit like below or like Ashton. Do you remember what that game Ash did?
01:48:00
Speaker
Oh yeah. Uh, they the developers of Flint log. Yes. A terrible subtitle seat of dawn. Yeah. Looks like action. Uh, and then, uh, yeah, so that'll be tonight. Uh, I don't believe we have any streams tomorrow. Uh, yeah. And the normal, normal stuff this week should have fire link. Yeah. That's he tries. Um, all right. like cry Well, that's stuff.
01:48:22
Speaker
And we had one last super check come in in the last minute from JTC glass on who gives five dollars and says finally caught one live only just JTC glass on. My unpopular 3d opinion is Sonic advanced two is actually a good Sonic platformer stuck with a crappy mech stroke scavenger on game. That's the other two thirds of the game, which is tough because a third of the game is a third of the game is mecha and a third of the game is scavenger on. Mm.
01:48:51
Speaker
Well, and well, it's an adventure. And it's true. It's got multiple game mechanics to be an adventure. but An adventure. We did it. I'm proud of all of us. Yeah. Thinking about it is maybe that's what defines an action adventure game. A game how that has multiple gameplay mechanics. Tell me I'm wrong. Could be. Sound off in the comments below. Like, subscribe.
01:49:18
Speaker
Yeah. Smash that file button. I'll put the doors box. Yeah. Okay. See you later then. Bye.