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April Madness (part two)
0 Playsin 7 hours
Ben & Jess return to the bracket from last week and break down everything until they get to the greatest Lucasfilm/arts adventure game of all time.
Quest Quest podcast is Ben Vigeant and Jess Morrissette.
Editing by Ben Vigeant
Show art by Kevin "WilcoWeb" Wallace
Watch us on Twitch!
Ben: https://www.twitch.tv/ps_garak
Jess: https://www.twitch.tv/decafjedi
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Quest' Podcast
00:00:26
Speaker
It is Quest Quest. The adventure game podcast? Yeah. Hi, everybody. It's Quest Quest. I'm Ben. And I am Jess.
00:00:37
Speaker
ah Thank you for joining us today while you're on the drive to work.
00:00:44
Speaker
And if you aren't. I'm sorry. what are you doing? Yeah, probably.
Podcast Listening Habits
00:00:48
Speaker
i I think I've said this on here. I listen to podcasts ah usually when I'm puttering.
00:00:55
Speaker
he podcasts are for puttering that's podcasts are for puttering that's what your bumper sticker says that's what my bumper sticker says i'll be puttering around my house you know uh cleaning doing dishes whatever laundry what have you and that's what what podcasts are for ah they're they're the the soundtrack of uh uh to my years uh from uh the usually ah los angeles comics uh uh lips uh when do you listen to podcasts jess only while making love
00:01:38
Speaker
No, I am a commuter. i drive like 45 minutes to work each way, which is just, you know, perfect for and for a nice little podcast experience. I only listen to Quest Quest, though.
00:01:49
Speaker
like yeah yeah I'm trying to drive up our numbers. Yeah, you only and you only ah and you only go to work on Tuesdays. That's right. And just to you to get that 45 minutes in, a lot of times I just skip when you're talking. Like I do the 15 seconds get to the parts where I'm like, I can't wait to hear what I say next.
00:02:11
Speaker
You know, that's true. Most people love hearing the the sound of their own voice. That's just a normal. Yeah. That's a thing that a lot of people love, especially recorded. Yeah. i mean, it just sounds. Yeah, exactly.
Generational Media Perspectives
00:02:25
Speaker
Like I want it to.
00:02:26
Speaker
Was it Adam Driver ah or like who was the the actor that like on I think it was like Fresh Air or something like it's like, all right, now I'm going to play a clip from the movie. And he walked out. He's like, nope, I do not like to hear my voice.
00:02:42
Speaker
Goodbye. I think it was Adam Driver. Yeah, this sounds very familiar. And that feels very on brand for him. Yeah, well, you know, he's he's tall and intimidating and has that luscious long hair. Mm-hmm.
00:02:55
Speaker
e I read a thing recently that was like Gen Z are starting to try to understand millennials by watching girls. And I was just like, I was just like, I didn't even like girls at the time. So I don't know what, what you're going to glean. ah like I watched a couple episodes. I thought it was fine, but it wasn't my thing.
00:03:17
Speaker
If you want to tell me Lena Dunham is not the voice of your generation. which Yeah. I see what you're doing there. ah See what you're doing there, Jess.
00:03:28
Speaker
Yeah, no, no, no. It's, ah yeah, I mean, it's it's a complicated intergenerational discussion that needs to be had. I don't know if it needs to be had over girls. Yeah. i i will After they get done watching girls, i will come in all Gen X style.
00:03:44
Speaker
be like, now you're going watch my so-called life. Sit down. I'm going to learn you a thing or two. Jess, I told you about how I spent like a hungover New Year's Day. Might have even been this year, but it might have been last year. i don't even remember anymore.
Nostalgia and Fashion Trends
00:03:58
Speaker
What's time?
00:03:59
Speaker
yeah I spent a hungover New Year's Day ah laying in my bed watching a YouTube playlist of ah episodes of MTV's Remote Control.
00:04:11
Speaker
oh man. That's good stuff. That is as cool as Gen X. Like, to me, that is... the The peak for for for those of you ah who are not familiar, Remote Control was a TV themed game show ah on MTV ah from like 88, 89 to like or something. Like like probably late to early And I'm watching it and it has a very young and by young, I think he was probably like 30 even then. Um, uh, a very young, like Colin Quinn.
00:04:52
Speaker
And a very young Colin Quinn still seems like, uh, like cantankerous 50 year old. Yeah. Yeah. um a baby adam sandler at home ah adam sandler and uh carrie werher from uh sliders uh and i watched it it's so cozy to me to watch because i'm like i get it i this is still very cool to me like yeah And it might be because a lot of like the styles, because everyone in the crowd, and my sister, my older sister, who is a member of of Generation X, was in a crowd of an episode of Remote Control once. What?
00:05:35
Speaker
And ah she recalls being told, like, you know, come dressed real cool. yeah so it's like i watched and i look at all the the like the the the teenagers in the audience and they're all dressed in like you know cool uh outfits for the time and i'm like this is cool again all these outfits are like have ah looped around in in the in the 90s and the early odds like when i was in college it like that was seen as like hopelessly like passe like you're you're
00:06:10
Speaker
like the vaporwave aesthetic. You'll see people with that. You'll people see people with mullets and you'll see like stuff like that.
Unexpected Encounters in Chicago
00:06:20
Speaker
And yeah, and like 2005, when I was in college, you would be caught dead. Like you'd be...
00:06:27
Speaker
made fun of in every which way if you had yeah the ironic mullet didn't exist yet uh yeah it would be a little don't think it's ironic now and i don't either i don't think the kids with mullets are are being ironic about it are you are you are you a 20 year old with a mullet and you're listening to our podcast yeah the odds are zero but if you are send us an email at quest quest podcast at gmail.com to to let us know on a scale one to ten how ironic is your hair what how how genuine are you about that hairstyle because it's like what what i uh right now here in chicago is a david lynch film festival and i i went to two screenings uh this weekend i saw eraser head and i just uh came from a screening of blue velvet
00:07:18
Speaker
And it is such an interesting cross section uh, like, uh, like cool and, and hip like Gen Xers down to like outrageously cool 20 year olds.
00:07:35
Speaker
Yeah. And, and I feel so good being in a movie theater with outrageously cool 20 year olds. I'm like, Oh, thank God. There's a future in this.
00:07:47
Speaker
yeah Now. Are you thinking the whole time? Like i'm pulling this off too. Like, I feel like oh no I've never been outrageously cool at any point in my life. checking. I'm just like looking around and I'm just seeing like these, like, you know, ah like 20 year olds and like, and whatnot in a movie theater, ah you know, watching and like an old grainy print of ah blue velvet. and We're all just sitting there like, yeah, yeah, yeah. This is the best.
00:08:14
Speaker
Well, you know, since the last time we
Exploring New Games: 'Blueprints' and 'Monaco 2'
00:08:17
Speaker
recorded, just to pull back the curtain a bit, yeah we had a chance to hang out in person in the big, windy city.
00:08:25
Speaker
And it was real it was a good time. But speaking of cool people, Ben, I told you a little bit about this briefly, but I have to say, yeah um we met up and and hung out at a lovely barcade for a bit, had a couple of drinks. That's right.
00:08:39
Speaker
enjoyed the uh enjoyed the nightlife right and as uh as it got really late like 10 p.m or so uh that's a west virginia light um i listen i didn't last that much later than you everybody all said like You and my sister who are about the same age, I believe, like left at about the same time. And then I left about 20 minutes later. And then my little brother and his friends like we're out until like two. And wow, that's the generational divide. Yeah, there it is.
00:09:15
Speaker
Like I I've started to have the realization as I, as I, uh, near 40, it's like, Oh no, midnight. Like my, I'm like looking in my hand, like Marty McFly and it's turning into a pumpkin.
00:09:28
Speaker
like yes But know, I mean, you talk about cool people in Chicago. So I leave this barcade, uh, after we part ways and I'm waiting for my Uber, um, out on the corner. Oh, you did tell me this.
00:09:40
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, I mean, ben when I tell you, the best dressed man ah saw in all of Chicago walked up to me. Now, now when you say the best dressed man, like we've been talking about cool. So is this like when in the context of cool,
00:09:58
Speaker
Like, because when you initially said like this guy was really well dressed, I was like, was he in like a well fit three piece suit? Or is he like, you know, does he have some real like fucking drip or something? Like what's going on?
00:10:11
Speaker
No, I mean, it is the former. He was wearing... like what appeared to be an incredibly well-tailored suit. Wow. like Okay. tim Out on the corner.
00:10:22
Speaker
I mean, this guy is just impeccably dressed. right And he walks up to me and he says, Hey, would you like to buy some cocaine? Wow. And I'm just like, this is the coolest drug dealer. Like I would trust.
00:10:35
Speaker
whatever he's selling like i look at this it's like he didn't buy that suit off of ill-gotten gains this is a this is a drug dealer i can trust no no no yeah no we have a classy coke dealer here and you know i am i'm enough of a country bumpkin i'm of course like nah man i'm good but thanks and then talked to him for a second like was like how you doing tonight but but Oh, it'd be rude to just say no.
00:11:05
Speaker
take the i mean, first of all, it, to I mean, walking up to a stranger and just approaching them. I mean, that takes a lot of guts. I shouldn't just dismiss. mean, he had to be like very confident to do that. I wanted to let him know that I appreciate his confidence, but yeah, I just, I will say, you say there are cool people in Chicago and I've got to say, i agree.
00:11:26
Speaker
That guy was really cool. ah terrible coke though uh you know he he sold the sizzle not the steak uh all right well just not purchase just just i've got a question for you uh-huh what have you been playing wow i thought you'd never ask I have case, Ben, of Blueprints fever.
00:11:53
Speaker
Everybody out there is playing breprint blueprint Blueprints. for blueer Everybody's playing Blueprints. Oh, come on. That's not what I sound like. that turned into a mean southern accent when i was attacking when I was attempting to just like add extra Rs to thing and I'm wondering if like it was me bailing and like my subconscious being like go for the cheap laugh or if adding extra Rs just makes it makes me like just go there that will remain a miscarriage
00:12:32
Speaker
Wow. But yeah, I've been playing blue prints.
00:12:37
Speaker
It is hard for, I've realized that brew prints. It is hard for me when I brew, like I almost say brew prints. You see what I'm saying? I think the problem is it gives me a twang.
00:12:50
Speaker
And if I was saying blueprints, Like it was actually, know, the pun of the title is supposed to be like blueprints. Oh, it's a pun. Yeah, because you're building out a mansion as you play it. If I say it that way, it's like blueprints is very easy. But blueprints is like two separate words is like a much more difficult. But that's beside the point. I mean, if people listening to this, there's a good chance they've heard about this. It's the critical darling of the moment. It's a roguelike puzzle adventure game.
00:13:28
Speaker
Say the word. Say the frame. What have they been calling it, Jess? Metroidvania. Oh. Now, by the time this gets out, the discourse will have started and ended.
00:13:42
Speaker
Yes. On the phrase Metroid Brainiya. but I just want to join it to say i agree with everyone that's mad about it. Yeah, that's the correct answer. But, I mean, yeah, the whole idea is you're a ah kid who's inherited ah mansion from your uncle.
00:14:00
Speaker
And it has, like... a secret 46th room you have to discover by roguelike building out all the rooms each day of the game and exploring and solving puzzles. And then at the end of each day, the whole house resets. if You have to build it out again. Right now, it is not clicking for me. Like, I have to say, roguelikes in general aren't my jam. The the learning process of like erasing, starting over and doing better the next time
00:14:32
Speaker
does not quite click with me. It never has. I don't play a lot of roguelikes and this one isn't working for me. And I will say I saw a Blue Sky post earlier today where someone said once you hit like hour 12 and you realize realize what the game is really doing. Oh fuck off.
00:14:49
Speaker
Exactly. That is my exact response that as well. Yeah. like And I hope that's not accurate. I hope that that's an exaggeration. But that's like a like a JRPG thing. It's like once you've played Final Fantasy and you get to hour 25, that's when you've actually started the game. Yeah, it's a day.
00:15:08
Speaker
Yeah, but also it's like at least you know what game you're going to be playing with them. Like I get the feeling on this one. It's like, oh, what you think is the game is not the game. And there's an extra game hidden under this game.
00:15:19
Speaker
And you haven't gotten to that game yet. I don't want this thing to frog fraction me or anything. I think you're gonna get frog fraction. I don't get frog fraction. think you're getting, I bet there's a frog, I bet everyone's freaking out and they're all chuckling, laughing up their sleeves because this is frog fractions three.
00:15:39
Speaker
Remember when that was like the joke? Yeah. Like it was a very tedious and exhausting joke. and I'm kind of pissed off at myself for making it right now. Like that every like game release, someone would be like, I thought that's Frog Fractions 2. And then Frog Fractions 2 came out and everyone's like, well, all right. Time to put that one to bed.
00:15:58
Speaker
we talked about something like that with stair quest 2 if we ever made stair quest 2 hiding it inside some benign game that then suddenly people are now trapped in stair quest 2 who knows if that ever comes true people can go back to this podcast and get posted on the stair quest wiki yeah it's uh it's hidden in uh jazz jack rabbit to the lost levels That's right. That's exactly right. But yeah, I think I'm going bounce off blueprints.
00:16:23
Speaker
I am so worried that that is what's going to, because I've also seen like kind of like, because the blueprints got such a like rapturous,
00:16:36
Speaker
like, you know, immediate, like everybody just was like, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. And I think the last like couple days I've started to see people be like,
00:16:51
Speaker
I think the the thing for me, what I see people saying on online, which is kind of dissuading me from getting it, is that they're like, it's great. You can take notes.
00:17:05
Speaker
See, here's the thing. You can say, it's great, and then you can take notes in like the same sentence, because those are are are are not... Those aren't things I don't consider...
00:17:22
Speaker
a quality of greatness being that you take notes. Now I know that there's some of you who are sickos. We're like, I love taking notes. I love taking notes. Can't get enough of it. I love taking notes.
00:17:34
Speaker
I encourage everybody that, you know, is wondering where we stand on note taking, go back and listen to episode one. First all, it will make you appreciate this episode so much more. And second of all, you can hear me and Ben talk about that's just not how we roll. We don't roll with notes.
00:17:48
Speaker
I'm not a, I'm not a notesman. Nope, not at all. Zero notes for me. I'd rather never finish a game and write down one yeah code that it requires me to. yeah If i can't memorize it or ask chat to memorize it for me, I don't need to solve that puzzle. There's only one code I care about, that's code name Iceman.
00:18:10
Speaker
Well, Ben, yeah speaking of code name Iceman, which is a game you've played, what have you been playing? Uh, Jess, I've been playing a little game called Monaco 2.
00:18:23
Speaker
Oh wow, a racing your game. Jess, did you good black No. What? No. Oh.
00:18:31
Speaker
Did you play Monaco 1? No. I absolutely do not know anything about it. In fact, when I saw you and Grayson talking about it on the Discord, ah assumed it was a racing sim. No, it's... So, Monaco, which came out, I would say, about 10 years ago, is a, I believe, up to four-player co-op game.
00:18:50
Speaker
ah like it's And it's a heist game. You're you're all robbers. And the original is this kind of top-down 2D game
00:19:03
Speaker
like You each play a different like
00:19:08
Speaker
co-op heist member and each has one special ability and you work together to steal like the diamond in the mansion or whatever. And it's cute, it's fun. I played it with friends, I had a great time 10 years ago.
00:19:22
Speaker
and then And I think it was reasonably
00:19:30
Speaker
liked co-op game. It seemed like people really enjoyed it at the time. And then, flash forward to this past week, Grayson's like, hey Ben, Monaco, 2 is out. Do you want to play it?
00:19:46
Speaker
And I was like, there's 2? There's a sequel out? And looking at the Steam page and the relative like lack of press conference, it just seems like Nobody like, it just, it doesn't seem like a lot of people saw, let me, I'm i'm opening up tube right now.
00:20:11
Speaker
Like, take a look at the the store page, has there been,
00:20:16
Speaker
so now there's there's 56 it's mostly positive there's 56 uh uh reviews um and you know what it's perfectly it's perfectly fine it is a cute fun little ah like sneaky heist game that's fun to play with a friend um The
00:20:43
Speaker
the difference between this and the original is that now it's like a isometric 3D game and it's fun. I played it with Grayson for a little over an hour. we' played a couple of missions, had a good time. like you know It was Fodico. It's a fun little... like if If you've got a place in your heart for a fun little sneaky heist, like four player game,
00:21:09
Speaker
You know, you could probably do worse than Monaco 2. It gets a, like, it's a pretty good game. Well, there you have it. The little over an hour I played, I was like, ah, this was entertaining.
00:21:22
Speaker
i was That's all i'm looking for in a game. Yeah. just want to be entertained, Ben. i don't have think and write notes. Yeah. Have you taken a single note? You want to know how many notes? You want to know how many notes I i took while I was playing Monaco 2 with Grayson?
00:21:37
Speaker
How many? Zero. Wow.
Listener Feedback and Sierra Tournament Idea
00:21:40
Speaker
that's the least you can take that's not not a note was wrote no notes wrote you heard it here first uh well jess uh time for our next segment uh we got email wow an electronic mail uh so this is uh from mark mark says hi ben and jess
00:22:08
Speaker
I just wanted to let you guys know that your podcast is the real deal. Fair dinkum. Fair dinkum. There it is. There it is. I've been listening to few retro gaming adventure gaming podcasts over the past few years.
00:22:21
Speaker
And yours is my current favorite. It's rare to find a chill podcast where a couple mates sit back and talk about games I care about, i.e. adventure games.
00:22:32
Speaker
Even the tangents are amusing. Parentheses. Well, most of the time, emoji. Talk out. Fair. I would agree. would agree. No, everyone is gold.
00:22:45
Speaker
I like the fact that you're doing a not cap tournament for Lucas Arts Adventures and found myself agreeing with all your choices in the first round. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. And Mark's point here.
00:22:56
Speaker
But to be fair, most of those matchups were no contest. Yeah. I'm curious to see what you pick for the next one, but it better be Loom, Dave, the Tentacle, Monkey Island 1 and 2.
00:23:10
Speaker
Any chance you'll do one for Sierra Adventures? Cheers, Mark G. Yeah. Wow. Thank you, Mark. You're also our favorite listener right now. So that is, uh, that's outstanding. Thank you for listening. We appreciate it.
00:23:23
Speaker
Uh, boy, this tournament, Ben, April madness has, uh, has got people going crazy now. So, uh, and I think we said this in the last one, I think we'll wrap it today, I mean, maybe we won't.
00:23:36
Speaker
I hope we do. That's the goal. I mean, think we'll wrap it. Last time was real, real easy. Like you asked me what's a better game. Secret of monkey Islanders, Zach McCracken. Well, and I can knock that out pretty quickly.
00:23:49
Speaker
This round, this is, this is going to be tough. You're down to eight good games in this tournament bracket. Good games. Yeah.
00:24:02
Speaker
I mean, this is Ben. i feel like this is going to be the episode where we make enemies. enemies What? Yes. But, but before we, we, we, we talk about this episode itself, let's, let's answer ah Mark's question about ah Sierra because we'll get to the whole topic of this episode.
00:24:21
Speaker
But do you think, I mean, we'll probably do this with Sierra. Like the, the thing is with Lucas arts and I'm sure everybody like, ah is is with LucasArts, there's like such a tight catalog where like Sierra is enormous.
00:24:37
Speaker
I think we we could probably do if we wanted to do something similar ah for Sierra was either do it by series or like break up the series because like you could probably ah like you could probably have some of the series so you could have like early space quest versus late space quest but I know like That's tough too. Yeah. I mean, no because it's hard. Like all of those games are very, very different.
00:25:07
Speaker
yeah And it's hard to like put like a beginning and end on a Sierra bracket like that. Like are the, you know, high res that might be games like two mystery house.
00:25:18
Speaker
It might be two brackets. Yeah. It's dynamics. It might be two divisions. It's cocktail vision. Part of it I mean, yeah. I mean this that is ah first of all, it's like, I feel like, yes, eventually that will probably happen.
00:25:30
Speaker
i i would I would keep it. I would cut out cocktail vision. So, you know, we're not going to do Heart of China or Deja Vu. wait, Heart of China is Dynamics.
00:25:46
Speaker
Yeah. ah Which is cocktail dynamics to cocktail vision. That would be Inca. What about Wally Beamish? Wally Beamish we would probably have to keep out, but there's part of that's just like, you know what? Wally Beamish, you get You get pass. Sashay, you stay.
00:26:07
Speaker
be immediately... To be immediately eliminated. Droused, yeah. That's... Like, well, you can Wally Beamish, I respect you enough that i want you here, but you're getting beaten by like King's Quest 2 or whoever you're up against in the bracket. Wally Beamish is getting knocked out immediately, but it's just like, I'm not going to to fucking play those other Dynamics games. You're just not, I'm not going to do it.
00:26:33
Speaker
Rise of the Dragon time, Ben. It's coming for you. ah But yeah, Cocktail Vision, because yeah, I met mushed in some of the the Dynamics games with that. cocktail visions i'd be goblins one two three and woodruff and the schnibble yeah which fun name to say is i've never played woodruff and the schnibble but i you know i have fun saying it i think just for simplicity's sake you'd probably want to keep it ah to those in-house ah Sierra. Yeah. And maybe ah like cut out like and and and keep it for simplicity's sake because this is what most people talk about. Like do it of the
00:27:23
Speaker
3d animated ah adventures which would be to say king's quest one on so wizard and the princess would be out right yeah i think so people aren't writing hard for fucking was it time zone time warp cranston manor ah time zone yeah The only one that people talk about is Mystery House, right? Like, that's one... The Lizard and the Princess is their most play. Yeah, I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, they're... Even by the standard of, like, rudimentary, you know, graphical adventures, they're not great.
00:28:01
Speaker
You know what I'd love to do? i ah is... I would not mash together uh, the remakes. I would have the remakes and the originals compete separately.
00:28:14
Speaker
i like this idea. I think that would be fun. because it would give me, you know, that one of our best performing. So there, there are three, we have three top episodes in terms of, of listens.
00:28:27
Speaker
Um, It's the first episode, ah but that's not number one. Number one is our Quest for Glory 1 episode, and it's because everyone wants to hear about the clay freak faces. That's right. Clay freak phrase faces are huge. that people Clay freak flaces look then i'm having a tough time it's a malpropism sunday cany can you just like fix all of this in post for me yeah yeah yeah voice or something like drain a lake basin and use ai to correct all of my mistakes yeah i'm on it i'm on it um
00:29:03
Speaker
but But yeah, I would want to... ah i i would I would enjoy any excuse. I think the thing for me is... i think I've played all of them except...
00:29:19
Speaker
for the Leisure Suit Larry ones because I have not received permission from my parents to play them yet. And also I can't quiz. as pass the quiz so yeah I can't solve the quiz at the start of Larry one.
00:29:33
Speaker
um You don't know a lot of great Watergate era references and that here's the thing i should probably play leisure suit larry because eventually we'll we'll we'll have to do a leisure suit larry one of these and like ah we will have no choice yeah like there will be a gun like it's like record this record this and and the thing is is that like ah you know, you played it as a kid and you played it at the time. And so you have like a completely different vantage point of me playing them in 2025 for yeah pretty much the first time. I've noodled around in the first game a couple times, but that's roughly it.
00:30:16
Speaker
Yeah. So that would be a fascinating perspective. That would be a fascinating perspective that pisses off a lot of people. Yeah. Guarantee it. But, you know, ah let's let's let's not kill any more time.
April Madness: LucasArts Adventure Games Tournament
00:30:31
Speaker
ah Yeah, we'll we'll do the Sierra one. It just would require ah more, since Lucas yeah is such a nice and tight. yeah But yeah, but let's let's not let's let's do it. Let's get to ah the ah what we're doing today.
00:30:48
Speaker
ah Just what are we doing today? Ben, we are here in round two of what we're calling April Madness. We have put together a tournament bracket of ah all the LucasArts adventure games, and we are ah determining scientifically, objectively,
00:31:06
Speaker
I don't want to hear anybody after this episode comes out telling us we're wrong because we've put a lot of thought and work into this. Yeah. We put a lot of work into it and I'm just a little boy. just a small boy. just a small boy. wouldn't hurt my feelings.
00:31:24
Speaker
No. it does? Who would? He's just a little boy. so little boy
00:31:33
Speaker
yeah But no, so yeah, we've been in head to head matchups. We have been moving through this first round and Ben, we are down to what I'm calling the great eight.
00:31:47
Speaker
Great. Now, great ah now uh so we're recording this this is kind of an unusual record for us i think maybe we've done this one other time where it's like we're recording this sunday it goes out tuesday yeah that's right barring that i'm not able to put it together in time yeah which is possible could very well happen yeah um but uh so we have though like this this has a distinct advantage of that ah we also got to see, Jess, so you you you put the ah bracket out there online for everyone ah to make their own.
00:32:29
Speaker
and ah do you want to talk about a little bit about what we we saw out there? Because a lot of people made this. this Actually, a lot of people made this. I feel like dozens of people filled out these brackets and posted them online. I mean, it was deluge. A day lot of you aren't listeners, and I know it.
00:32:48
Speaker
That's right. I didn't want say anything, but I did. It was like, oh you got time to fill a bracket, but you can't listen to hour and a half long podcast. Yeah, time great time for me be passive aggressive to people that aren't interested in a nearly a two hour podcast. Yeah. but that are suddenly into this aspect of it for once and now i want to shame them. No, but I mean, we have seen a lot of games being, you know like, like pushed ahead. i Like I'd say the games that we're seeing most frequently, if I can, like from looking at other people's brackets, the games that seem to be coming on top, we're seeing a lot of day of the tentacle.
00:33:25
Speaker
I would say Day of the Tentacle, if not the majority, is the plurality choice. And then what else have we seen up there? Secret Monkey Island?
00:33:36
Speaker
Yeah, I, you know, what my Secret of Monkey Island I've seen a couple times. it's It's really like the main pattern I saw was it was like Day of the Tentacle, which I would also say like.
00:33:49
Speaker
I think that day of the tentacle is probably the the ah consensus fate. Like, wasn't it It was like either Adventure Gamer or Rock Paper Shotgun or probably both, honestly, like at a like a top adventure games of all time list and like Day of the Tentacle is at the top of it. Like, I believe so. I mean, i mean yeah yeah, it's up there. I think when you look at countdowns of LucasArts games, you know, Day of the Tentacle, Grim Fandango oftentimes does really well in those, you know Secret of Monkey Island, of course, performs strongly and they are top seeds in this tournament. So yeah. I loved seeing, and and i hope I hope you're listening, ah like you're you're you're listening. I loved seeing the ones where people went against our first round picks. Yes, absolutely. Because I saw a couple of those, which I was just like, that's awesome.
00:34:44
Speaker
I'm fascinated. Like, i saw I saw some people that went with Maniac Mansion ah in the first round. And what was Maniac Mansion against? Magnetic Mansion was up against Curse of Monkey Island. Yeah.
00:34:56
Speaker
So I saw some of that. I also saw... Dig advanced over Fate of the Blameless. I saw some big Dig heads. Yeah. Big Dig energy. Yeah. Big Dig energy. And then I saw someone's bracket...
00:35:12
Speaker
who like escape from monkey island like had a like a cinderella run and i was just like i really like i'm glad that it has like it it's it's shooters that's great no that this has been fascinating to me i've loved the the reaction to this episode or at least the the reaction to the concept of this yeah tournament They're, uh, oh, go ahead. Go ahead.
00:35:36
Speaker
was just saying, I'm especially glad that nobody's been too upset about our arbitrary bracket building. yeah you know, the, they're going to be upset after today because they will be. Yeah. This is going to be the end of all this goodwill that we built with last episode. The, but like back on the escape from monkey Island one for a little bit, it just makes me think like, I remember hearing, uh, there was uh, a ah pinball machine that came out that, that just wasn't particularly well received. It was just like, you know, when something like where just among fans of it, like it's just was like kind of shorthand for it. Like everyone's like, well, that one was a flop, not fun. Um, but
00:36:19
Speaker
that game, including myself, ah this was ah ah for, ah they did one on Avengers and ah they've they've made two Avengers games. And this was the first one on the first Avengers movie. um And I remember the ah designer for it saying like, yeah, you know, ah we have like a a saying that like the the CEO said once it was like every pinball machine ends up in a house.
00:36:48
Speaker
it was It was like, or like it finds its house, you know? Yeah. and And like, which is to say he's like, you know, like it might not be popular with like, it might not be like the overall consensus favorite. It might not be, but they're like,
00:37:05
Speaker
You know, when I played that Avengers game, I played it and I was like, I don't know, they like this just clicks for me. Like I love how it shoots. I love how weird it is. It's kind of a pain in the ass game, but like it's it's weirdness was very appealing to me at the time.
00:37:20
Speaker
Yeah. And so it's like it like would have a spot in my house if, you know, I could have room for pinball machines and the money and the glamorous lifestyle that it implies.
00:37:38
Speaker
That's right. But life of leisure that your very young pinball machine suggests. Please, please, Jess. The life of leisure. Oh, wow. give some elocution lessons tonight. This is.
00:37:51
Speaker
All right. So. ah ah Yeah, I'm Henry Higgins tonight. yeah The rain in spine holds mindly on the plane.
00:38:04
Speaker
Oh, brother. okay All right. Let's let's let's enough of this. Enough of this. i not i' just I'm scared. I'm scared. This is like. Let me let me put you at ease.
00:38:16
Speaker
Oh, yeah, there it is. That that resets. that That puts me in a nice, cold, easy space. Like, I'm just afraid halfway through this record, like a brick is going fly through your window it's going to have note tied to it's like bloom or else or something like that. And I just don't know if we're ready for this. All right. Is it time? Okay. Match up number one. What's the first one?
00:38:39
Speaker
Match
Game Debates: 'Grim Fandango' vs 'Loom'
00:38:40
Speaker
up number one. This is hard already. Grim Fandango. This was our number one seed. versus Loom, which defeated Full Throttle in the first round. So we have Grim Fandango, and we have Loom.
00:38:55
Speaker
so So Grim was... ah a game that, uh, I think it, it made it far on a lot of people's lists. I don't know if I recall you were, uh, resharing a lot of, uh, people's brackets. so you probably looked at a lot more of them than I did.
00:39:16
Speaker
How many, grims made it uh all the way to to to the end of i didn't see a lot of grims i saw a lot of grims that advanced past this matchup yeah but i didn't see a lot that took the prize and don't want and and to be clear i don't want to have other people's opinions like kind of color mine but i think i would go opposite their opinions if it did influence me what i think is interesting is what that says is that
00:39:46
Speaker
Grim has seen revision downward in the, like, I think honestly, since the remaster. ah Like, this is interesting I like, and I don't have empirical evidence of this. I just feel a vibe. So maybe I'm totally wrong here, but I get the sense.
00:40:10
Speaker
The Grim Fandango has moved from, i think that like, During the quote, like, you know, we are our earlier a podcast, our adventure games that like during that period where it really did seem like that the genre was like dead dead.
00:40:27
Speaker
ah Like during that period and like the like before 2010. ah like Grim Fandango and The Longest Journey were seen as like these two final masterpieces right yeah like works of art especially Grim Fandango like yeah and that's not to knock it because it is a beautiful wonderful game but yeah absolutely I think it was like unquestionably like the masterpiece that people point to you know people may have loved like a secret of monkey island or something a little bit more but grand fandango was positioned at some level ah as as a greater artistic achievement i think than most of the rest of the lucas arts catalog
00:41:09
Speaker
And and it's it's not hard to see why, because it is ah it is like an absolutely gorgeous game. um Like for an early 3D game, like Tim Schafer's call to to pick the Calavada dolls as the model because they're easy to 3D model and then do those incredible late 90s 3D pre-render backgrounds that are so detailed that have that like gorgeous art deco uh like you know it has that remarkable like live band like soundtrack uh it has a phenomenal voice cast uh it has like
00:41:58
Speaker
and And I think for years, and and may again, maybe I'm wrong, but I think for years, the knock on it on on Grim Fandango was it's great.
00:42:10
Speaker
It just has like, you know, kind of that early, like they didn't know what to do with the interface. it has those awful tank controls. Yeah. and ah like but but that's the problem and then and maybe like and again you know this is just a vibes feeling this isn't an empirical thing but i think the revision downward is is like grim fandango remastered comes out it has mouse controls it has better gamepad controls then you play it you still are a little frustrated
00:42:44
Speaker
Yeah, you know, i think this is my... So it's not... But I mean, the UI is a pain in the ass if you play originally, but it's not the UI that's the only problem. That's right. Yeah, i mean, this is my experience. I did not play Grim Fandango until two or three years ago for the first time. I missed it upon its initial release.
00:43:02
Speaker
And coming back to it, I mean, yeah... style by the bushel i mean this is a game that is you know uh just and there's nothing like it yeah it's hard to think of something more stylish especially when it's released in 1998 and you know maybe we weren't seeing as much of the day of the dead imagery uh in the united states as maybe it's more familiar now and it really seemed fresh and just uh you know, i really just gorgeous, great sound and great active game, as you said.
00:43:35
Speaker
But I have to say, i really bounced off of the puzzles pretty hard. It's like, I love everything about Grim Fandango, except the parts that are a video game. And they aren't horrible. They're not bad. I mean, it's still a very good game.
00:43:51
Speaker
But those parts, yeah, I don't think it's the tank controls as much as it is just, yeah, I don't know that The puzzling is particularly fun. I don't think it takes advantage of this interesting world it's created in those puzzles necessarily.
00:44:06
Speaker
You know, in the...
00:44:10
Speaker
It's hard. I love Grim Fandango. I purchased Grim Fandango at release. I had it. I played... I completed Grim Fandango at the time.
00:44:21
Speaker
Tank controls. Didn't mind. Not a problem. I definitely used hints because, like, I mean... ah you know, a lot of it it is very difficult.
00:44:33
Speaker
um Yeah. I mean, it's interesting too, because I think then of its, its matchup in this round loom. Yeah. know I think that it has risen in people's estimation through the years. I mean, loom, the knock on it. I mean, as it was made,
00:44:49
Speaker
yeah mua too short two four too short so easy i mean basically it got some level of like the 1990s version of like the walking simulator ah criticism yeah and I think that adventure gamers have really come to appreciate what it was doing much, much more. I mean, and again, it's a game that is, you know, artistically gorgeous in its own way. It's a game that is very non-traditional in its puzzle style, but this, yeah, I think that a lot of ways we, we do see, i mean, again, nobody's saying Graham Fandango's bad, but I don't know that it's like the automatic obvious number one choice that it was years ago.
00:45:30
Speaker
So so here's here's the thing so both of these games are outrageously original like truly original visions um i like grim goes further but it has a lot more resources at at its ability it's like a i think it was a three three cd game it was like it was it's a very like You know, and I think that's one of the other reasons that, like, you know, it was held up Grim for so long is that it's also it's like, and this is still true.
00:46:10
Speaker
Like Grim Fandango is probably like the last time a game like Grim Fandango ah will be made as a traditional adventure game with that amount of resources at its disposal.
00:46:27
Speaker
Yeah. Like, I, you know, like never ever say never, of course. Like, you know, there's no, there are are no certainties, certainly in in the the game business.
00:46:39
Speaker
But it's like you look at something like Grim Fandango, it's four acts. The second act is as long is longer than loom. and Honestly, all yeah four acts. Yeah.
Bracket Showdown: 'Sam and Max' vs 'LeChuck's Revenge'
00:46:51
Speaker
are longer than loom it's probably like six looms shorter it's six looms long i would say it's longer than six looms like it is and like but like the rubikov sequence which is absolutely spectacular in terms of like so that's that's the second act that's the second year in the game uh it is an adventure game wholly in itself has It has its own set of characters and like sequences. It is ah like your traditional LucasArts game, which, you know, we're going to talking a lot about this, has like a central part, which is like this large open area where you have essential usually like three objectives that you can do in any order.
00:47:37
Speaker
That's what Rubik's Cava is. And ah like it is remarkable. Also, at the same time, it is enormous. ah You have these big objectives and you have very difficult puzzles and you run around not knowing what to do for hours.
00:47:55
Speaker
Yes. This, yeah. And doing this live ah when I streamed it, I mean, it was like a lot of it was running around. And then, you as you run around, of course, having to occasionally reorient the direction you're running because of the controls and shifting perspective.
00:48:11
Speaker
And yeah, it... it Well, what's one thing what's interesting to me when I watched you play Grim Fandango, and I realize we're talking way more about Grim Fandango, but I think it it merits a lot of discussion because it's... But ah when I was watching you play it, I also had the feeling that...
00:48:32
Speaker
the game is made for the tank controls. The game is made because when I watched you run around and you would miss like exits and entrances to scenes and you would miss hot spots.
00:48:46
Speaker
And ah when I was playing with tank controls, like Manny's head like swings and looks at every hot spot, Manny, like I would run Manny around the circumference of a, so a scene. And then he would go into like whatever side passage.
00:49:02
Speaker
Like the game was made with the tank controls in mind. And when they like just dropped in point and click controls, like some of those hotspots and entrances and exits to screens aren't as obvious in a point and click, which is not Grim Fandango's fault.
00:49:23
Speaker
Like, I don't think that should be held against it in this tournament because that is, that's the remasters problem. That's not, the uh 1998 uh uh uh game's fault eight right right yes but anyway so last round what was loom against last time loom was uh upset over full throttle and that's when a lot of our listeners advanced full throttle there
00:49:54
Speaker
and and and ah so the thing that advanced loom over full throttle which is another uh wildly original tim shafer like a game uh the thing that advanced loom over full throttle was that uh it doesn't have the stuff that like pisses you off which full throttle does yes and in full throttle versus loom that makes sense because they're both five pound games and it's just that one of those games like a pound of it is kind of like itching powder
00:50:41
Speaker
um yes yes now this is a five pound game versus a 20 pound game yes and so now the question is it's like all right well loom is this nice tight game uh that its biggest sin is that like it kind of end like it it ends like on an unresolved like open note um it uh and its other biggest problem is is that you can solve it in like two and a half hours you know uh so what
00:51:19
Speaker
why i don't know what to do here oh because it's like like so if it if it's held up in the same way as full throttle versus loom it's that loom advances here okay if it is if if we if we're not looking at it at the exact same way like i've had ah ah grim fandango music like on playlists yes there are moments from grim fandango that stick with me uh like
00:52:01
Speaker
um but there's also moments that stick with me because they are so tedious and piss me off so i don't i i sincerely don't know which way i'm leaning oh man i mean is this the time for the one two three we answer at the same time yeah it's a one two three it's a one two three okay all one one two three three loom lo Oh, there it is.
00:52:33
Speaker
all right. There it is. It's Loom. Loom moves up. I did know. All right. Next. Let's go. We got a big night. A big night. Yeah, a big night. Well, this one should be super easy.
00:52:44
Speaker
um but These are all so hard now. Sam and Max hit the road versus our number five seed, LeChuck's Revenge, Monkey Island 2. This is number four seed versus number five seed. This is a very hard one because...
00:53:02
Speaker
They're both games, I think, that have a similar problem that I both love. Like, they're games that I think they're both, like, kind of beautiful.
00:53:13
Speaker
ah I know that, I think it was, what, Peter Chan, ah the the gentleman who did the art, the backgrounds, didn't like that dithered look.
00:53:26
Speaker
but I have a fondness for that. Like that, that dithering. So it's like, ah like secret of monkey Island two is herbs here. Or like LeChuck's revenge is like an outlier.
00:53:40
Speaker
uh of LucasArts games because it has that like kind of dithered look which is kind of like I it's kind of Sierra-y the backgrounds are more Sierra they have that like I don't think they are digitized paintings or are they digitized I think they are I think that's why they didn't do that like yeah because I think I've seen the painting of Wood Tick and some of the other locations I think so i think so um
00:54:05
Speaker
like I I you know um ah so and Max I hold to is I think it's straight up funnier.
00:54:18
Speaker
I think Sam and Max is funnier. I think Sam and Max is, i I think that the, the writing in Sam and Max hit the road. And I've like, I'm already on the record saying this multiple times. I think Sam and Max hit the roads writing is some of the funniest game writing there is.
00:54:35
Speaker
Um, Yeah, and beautiful and just when it knows when to pull back. Like, it's not overwritten. The comedy is there. It hits. It knows when to get out.
00:54:48
Speaker
um Yeah, i mean, Monkey Island 2 is a funny game, too. I mean, I don't know if you could find a Monkey Island game. Even when Escape is at its worst, Escape's a pretty funny Monkey Island game. Mm-hmm.
00:54:59
Speaker
ah well it has Dominic Armato which I mean like you know when I was playing Tales for the like finishing Tales for the first time I played a little bit of Tales at the time but like playing it playing Tales of Monkey Island the Telltale one I was like oh you know what a treat it is to play like more Monkey Island with Dominic Armato who just does such a great job absolutely And course he's here in the remake. He a great job of voicing him in ah the the the remake.
00:55:31
Speaker
Yeah. They did. You know, this one's tough for me too. Like something that came up a lot in our Discord and a little bit on Blue Sky as well that I hadn't thought about before. Some people ah mentioned that salmon max with its sort of american road trip roadside attraction thing didn't necessarily translate outside of this specific culture uh specific cultural milieu the yeah new year as well as it could right remember which never thought your elocution today i know i'm trying man i'm doing my best but no i've never really thought about that before
00:56:09
Speaker
And, you know, guess Monkey Island 2 has its own issue with like the Monkey Ranch joke where it didn't translate out of out of the U.S. either. But I never thought about that in that context. I don't know if that's like a knock against Sam and Max. I mean, Sam Max is what it's trying to be.
00:56:27
Speaker
You know, for me... I mean, this isn't the matchup we're talking about. For me, though, i know there's a strand of adventure gamers out there who would put LeChuck's Revenge ahead of Secret of Monkey Island.
00:56:41
Speaker
A lot of people, I think, consider it. Well, yeah, I'm not one of them. That's not me either. That's not me either. No, I'm a secret guy yeah in that regard. So, yeah, I mean, i do think that there's a lot to like about monkey island too i like getting able to travel around to the various islands i think that's uh that's kind of fun there they're clever gags like the wanted poster that really stick with me that love uh the introduction of wally as a supporting character fantastic i still think you know i've said this before um
00:57:17
Speaker
My favorite joke in adventure game history is in Monkey Island 2. It is when Guybrush first walks into Wally's shack and he asks him what he does and Guybrush, and Wally responds, I'm a cartographer.
00:57:32
Speaker
And Guybrush says, you do open heart surgery in here? Which is my all-time favorite adventure game joke. As we're going to record, I think that is ah beautiful little joke. So it wins some real points with me there. I like LeChuck's Revenge also because it feels...
00:57:51
Speaker
um
00:57:54
Speaker
it It feels like you're exploring more in it. ah Like, Sam and Max, like, you you've got, like, this big, you know, map of the U.S. And each of those is, like, these discrete areas that have, like, maybe four or five screens each.
00:58:13
Speaker
You know, some are a little bigger than others. Some of them are and are very small. Some of them are a little bit bigger. um Whereas, like, ah Monkey Island 2 has these, like, largely, you spend a little more time elsewhere, too, but, like, largely these three islands that, like, you explore pretty thoroughly.
00:58:36
Speaker
and like, it it feels like you're you're really... like exploring these the these spots like and that's something that kind of scratches a piece of my my brain like as an adventure game that space quest three vibe uh yeah like it's like oh i've got control of the ship i could go to all these planets um and so that's something i like that sam and max doesn't have that's right i mean you are i mean you can kind of
00:59:08
Speaker
I mean you're on a road trip, you have all these different locations, but doesn't quite feel the the same in that regard. Yeah, I would agree. You know, i think something that works against Mikey Allen 2 for me is, you know, it also is the game that introduces adventure gamers for the first time ah to the patented Ron Gilbert ending.
00:59:31
Speaker
I feel like that we would get to experience a few more times in future Ron Gilbert games. I've never cared much for the ending of Mikey Allen 2. yeah You don't like his his kooky rug pulls.
00:59:42
Speaker
I don't like the kooky rug pulls. I'll be honest. I love Ron Gilbert's work. I love a lot of his games. I played Death Spank 2, just for the record. Yeah. Start to finish. that i mean, that's the level of dedication. didn't need the Death Spanks. I played them a little bit. I was just like, all right. yeah Nobody mistake this for me saying I'm not a Ron Gilbert fan.
01:00:02
Speaker
um Nobody respank this. Nobody respank this. but no i uh i don't care for the ending that much and and you know i don't care much for the ending of return to monkey island and i've been told i won't care much for the ending of fibbleweed park haven't finished that one no you but you won't yeah so park is a fun game though yeah but you know ah this is a this is a tough one for me you know you want to do a countdown
01:00:34
Speaker
Is it countdown time? Well, we could talk a little more. We could talk about it. I'm ready to count down. All right. Let's count down. All right. Three. Two. Wait, wait. Are we counting? Which way are we counting? Because you said one. counting You said count down. So we'll count down. Okay. Yeah.
01:00:49
Speaker
three two
01:00:54
Speaker
salmon max all right i love it too much i just can't yeah resist that it it so funny to me we have plenty of monkey island left in the bracket you know guy brush is going to get his chance i i don't i i think yeah people aren't gonna like this but oh well i think uh yeah don't know uh i'm doing this for three people to quote jessica rabbit it it makes me laugh um like i'm doing this podcast for three people you me and almighty god up in heaven that's right and right that's a the only people who can judge me amen that's right amen all right what's the next one okay the next matchup ben
01:01:41
Speaker
Y'all ready for this?
Classic Analysis: 'Secret of Monkey Island' vs 'Curse of Monkey Island'
01:01:43
Speaker
dada but but but but Yeah. We have our number two seed, The Secret of Monkey Island. All right. Facing off against our number seven seed, The Curse of Monkey Island.
01:01:56
Speaker
this is very this is This is very difficult. um I've heard both of these are good games. Yeah, I i adore ah Curse of Monkey Island.
01:02:09
Speaker
um i like I loved it at the time. yeah they really blew me away at the time, especially, as I said, like the voice performance ah from Dominic Armato ah is just like...
01:02:28
Speaker
When I got a computer with a CD-ROM in the mid-90s, and then I was able to revisit some of the old disc games that I had ah played um with like CDs and with the voice tracks,
01:02:51
Speaker
I like, I would always be a little or like, I would always be a little disappointed because the voice in my head was a little different than, or like, it just didn't sound right.
01:03:05
Speaker
Just didn't sound correct. Right. And then I remember, uh, turning on Curse of Monkey Island. And Guybrush opens his mouth and talks. And I was just like, that is the voice of Guybrush Streetwood.
01:03:21
Speaker
It was not the voice I had in my head, but it doesn't matter. Like the second he spoke, I was like, that is Guybrush Streetwood. That is absolutely it.
01:03:32
Speaker
His performance is so good. And like... in uh like a great adventure game like voice acting performance like usually you have the subtitles on uh and so it's like sometimes you just click through it but a great voice acting performance really lifts up the material absolutely and i mean it is so good and so definitive Within a few minutes of playing Curse of Monkey Island, it's almost like, you at the time I could hear his voice back in Monkey Island 1 and 2. It almost was like it reverberated back through time. I could imagine now how he was sounded delivering some of those famous bits from Monkey Island 1 and 2.
01:04:16
Speaker
Of course, he'd later get to when they do the remasters of both of those. But, i mean, it is... I mean, I don't know, you know, if you tell me like the, in the annals of adventure game voice work,
01:04:29
Speaker
I got to figure, i mean, this is the goat. I feel like this, this is the goat brush. um I don't know if they're, I mean, what, who else is up there? maybe like a Gary Owens as space quest narrator. Gary Owens. And that's another person that really raises the quality of the material. Like in like, you know, like space quest six has its problems, but it's like the incredible Josh Mandel, like description writing ah is already pretty funny.
01:05:00
Speaker
Like he's a yeah very funny writer. And then you have a guy with this hilarious voice who read these descriptions. Yeah. And all of a sudden,
01:05:12
Speaker
something that would have just been funny reading it as text is like, it's a multiplier. yeah It's like a two. So you heard here first folks, space quest six advances.
01:05:23
Speaker
This is, this throws the whole bracket. Oh my God. No one said a dog can't play. um a late entry into the tournament. All right. Space quest six, this battle frontier. I, ah I also think that curse of monkey Island i is not I don't.
01:05:44
Speaker
And, you know, maybe I'm just not part of these conversations. Maybe this is part of the conversation all the time. I think Curse Monkey Island has one of the most absurdly bends out of its way to be fair designs of any adventure game.
01:06:01
Speaker
even in difficult mode so so so hard to really clue you in i would say ah like it it it doesn't always succeed i would say especially in like blood island there's a couple little things that are are kind of a pain in the ass um but uh like i think it's it's a very ah like it's a It's a game that feels like it's aware of all the criticism of adventure games. And it's like, you know, we're not going to like, it's going to have puzzles you're going figure stuff out.
01:06:41
Speaker
But it's not like you could figure it out. ah we are We're going to clue the hell out of you. And also we're going to make your objectives like super clear. Yeah, and I feel like it does it in that way that great adventure games do of, you know, it manages to clue you in on all that stuff and point you in the right direction without seeming easy in the process. Like at no point does it ever seem like this is cakewalk. Rather, it's that constant feeling of like,
01:07:10
Speaker
oh yeah, i put the pieces together and now this puzzle makes sense and I can move forward. More so than it's just handing these solutions to me. It doesn't have like that Leisure Suit Larry 5 vibe, which you haven't played, but it's a game that's just like, yeah, sure. don't even care about this being a game. We just want you to finish it.
01:07:27
Speaker
um And Curse the Monkey Island, even again in Mega Monkey mode, is that what they call the difficult version of Curse? I think so. Yeah, I mean... More puzzles, dude. Yeah, it's still a very fair game. Like the bit with... the When you encounter Blondebeard in the shack and have to get his gold tooth to show that you know how to procure a treasure.
01:07:50
Speaker
And in the Mega Monkey mode, you're like floating it around in a you know chewing gum bubble and all this sort of stuff. I mean, it is... just a fantastic game. And I will say also, you know, I will stand by this.
01:08:04
Speaker
Um, I think that curse monkey Island remains maybe the most gorgeous adventure game ever created. I think it may be the prettiest adventure game of all time.
01:08:14
Speaker
All right. Well, let's, let's talk about a secret. Uh, it's also amazing.
01:08:23
Speaker
So, here's, here's the thing. ah I think like where I'm like ah Curse of Monkey Island is so tightly designed and it's very fair and it's fairer than anything else.
01:08:39
Speaker
There's another, there's one other game that I think does that very well. And guess what game that is? It's the secret of Monkey Island, which which is you know,
01:08:52
Speaker
so it came out seven years before and ah also has And in kind of a revolutionary way, because not a lot of their games were like this tightly designed at this time.
01:09:09
Speaker
Not, not zero, not none of them, but like You know, it stands out. it It really stands out because it's like if for you if you think about like those like the like the Ron Gilbert design ethos, like he he wrote like this manifesto. I think you could find it on his Grumpy Gamer ah website.
01:09:30
Speaker
about like it's like here's all the frustrating things that no one likes in adventure games it's like no one likes dead ends no one likes dying no one likes you know like confusing puzzles it was something like that i haven't read it in a while but it's like secret monkey island lives up to all of them um It has an extremely tight design.
01:09:51
Speaker
It has one of the greatest puzzle sequences i of any game, which every other Monkey Island game, with the exception of LeChuck's Revenge, chases after.
01:10:06
Speaker
which is to say insult sword fighting one of the weakest parts in curse monkey island is when they're just like uh let's just do insult sword fighting again i guess but now it rhymes yeah like yeah that's one of parts of escape from monkey island think tails is the one uh like they they found some clever ways to to to kind of mess around with that that concept which i really enjoyed yeah and then um Return didn't have anything, did it?
01:10:37
Speaker
No, it don't think so. I don't think so. No. And I mean, also, it's a testament to Monkey Island, Secret of Monkey Island, that just the very second that insult sword fighting is starting to get a little bit, you know, sort of monotonous, like I've done this enough times I get the thing, it ends and it moves on. That's like where it does better than monkey combat, right? Like, yeah right about the time you're like, okay, I get it.
01:11:02
Speaker
The game's like, great, you're good enough to go, if I have the Swordmaster, go for it. ah So it does, well, I mean, it's so tightly written. I think one of the most fascinating things to me when I go back and play it is this isn't a game that like piles on the dialogue or piles on the descriptions or anything else. very it's sparse and it works beautifully it's also not like hilarious it's not like comedy which like i i i don't think initially it was like the the plan was like for it to be a big cop like monkey island eventually becomes a big comedy series the first game it's more droll right curse is downright like we're doing a comedy bit yeah like curses mad cap goofy laugh them up
01:11:50
Speaker
and secret or monkey island whimsical is some level is very it's very atmospheric um yeah it has a touch of the absurd yeah it's no i mean i will say for me too like playing this as a kid like I'm sorry. I just realized what I was about to say.
01:12:14
Speaker
was about to say, i remember walking to Stan's shipyard and seeing the grog vending machine there as a kid and thinking it's like, ah, this, this vending machine's hilarious. What an anachronism here.
01:12:27
Speaker
But then i also realized it's a little too on brand for me to say that it was like a formative moment to see a soda machine. Yeah. ors yeah So yeah, no, but I'll back off of that. yeah Back the fuck off, man. Yeah, that's right. I mean,
01:12:40
Speaker
This one's, we wouldn't be talking about a bracket of 16 LucasArts adventure games right now, most of which are pretty dang good games, presumably if Secret of Monkey Island didn't exist.
01:12:55
Speaker
i mean, there is there is no Sam and Max and Day of the Tentacle and a lot of these others, I suspect, without Secret of Monkey Island being such a smash hit and really locking in what this LucasArts formula was going to be in a lot of ways.
01:13:11
Speaker
all right let's go down countdown okay and we'll just is it curse or secret yeah okay all right three two one no
01:13:30
Speaker
Okay. Now this goes to reconciliation. ah And don't worry, folks, if you're worrying, this could take too long. Our official rules here say reconciliation cannot last more than one hour. So.
01:13:44
Speaker
So so here's here's what it is. I think I enjoy curse more, but I think that secret is like. All right. let's Let's talk about the negative parts of both. and Let's weigh the feathers.
01:13:58
Speaker
Curse has none. No. Curse has... whated What? What? Curse has a weak ending. okay curse has ah the insult sword fighting curse has a little bit of a loss of momentum in some parts in blood island i would say yes slows down a little bit then for for secret i would say secrets major flaw is that it loses some momentum on monkey island yes like i think that monkey island
01:14:30
Speaker
A lot of back and forth. Like, it doesn't quite have the fun of the melee opening um or the ship ah sequence. Yeah. um But once you, like, but I wouldn't say it's all bad. i i would say it's just, like, it just doesn't have, like, like just kind of wandering around a mostly deserted island that's huge.
01:14:57
Speaker
is it's just not as exciting as like this uh like much more like kind of packed island but here's okay okay here's why i went for secret okay over curse because i love curse um uh i uh i think that secret just represents so much more.
01:15:23
Speaker
um And I think that like, you know, you said like we wouldn't be doing this without secret. That was the determining factor. I think that secret is such a like it is such a like a foundational game that is still a pleasure to play today it's not like it's like oh it's a foundational game but like you can skip ahead it's fine yeah that's right yeah um it is yeah no yeah it is a fun game to play and there are still sequences in it
01:16:01
Speaker
that i think are brilliant and uh i'll name three one i've already said one is uh the insult sword fighting that's number one number two is the sequence where you break in to the governor's mansion which i think is one of the greatest comedy sequences like just such a really clever sequence and um ah Number three is when you poke the parrot like that. whole those are all i mean Yeah, that's true. And then and then I'll throw in a fourth, which is when um the ah ah the the guy who trains you um ah brings out the machine. and
01:16:44
Speaker
um and i mean so but i mean i could name great moments in curse monkey island of course think duck duck island is one like skull duck island uh i think that's a brilliant but i just think because it's foundational because it's still great like curse has more but the the fact that like Secret doesn't have that many demerits that it it established so much that it's such a rich, like, it's still such a pleasure to play. That's what, like, it's such a ah tight experience.
01:17:28
Speaker
Yes. And so that's why i i went with Secret. yeah i mean to sum up why i went with curse i just love that game man i just love that game and i i mean i know deep down in my heart that secret deserves to advance here but o man there's ah i mean again curse is beautiful yeah the picket so we can move on Well, you know, and I mean, curse also has maybe the grossest puzzle in adventure game. I love that puzzle. It is disgusting though.
01:18:03
Speaker
but I mean, it's a wonderful puzzle. The peeling, you're you're thinking the peeling the back skin off the guy, right? You know, i mean, that's terrible. and that's But it's also a very good puzzle. I mean, I think, i I think curse of monkey Island of the two, i may love it a little more.
01:18:18
Speaker
i agree that secret is the better game. So Ben, i will concede to you. All right. I went and secret moves ahead. And plus this will get us a lot fewer death threats. Yeah, that's true.
01:18:31
Speaker
I'm going the the path of least resistance. I'm a complying. That's the best way to a bracket. Um, now, uh, Jess, what's next? Next is our final round two matchup. We have a number three seed, Day of the Tentacle.
Semi-Finals: 'Day of the Tentacle' vs 'Fate of Atlantis'
01:18:45
Speaker
That's Maniac Mansion 2 to you and me, Russ. but And number six seed, Indiana Jones and One Fate of Atlantis.
01:18:55
Speaker
I hate to say but this one is easy to me. um There you hear it. Indiana Jones with favor of Atlantis advances. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. I knew Another kick in the teeth to Tim Schafer. No, this is, this is the, like, you know, I think there will be more to say about a day of the technical later ah because in my opinion, we'll probably advance. I think,
01:19:20
Speaker
Well, I love Fae of Atlantis. Yeah, absolutely. I think if... But the thing is, is that the reason that Day the Tentacle made it so far in so many people's lists is that it is, ah like, such a ah clever and bulletproof design and um uh uh fave atlantis is ah gloriously messy in some ways yeah like like maniac mansion before it day of the tentacle is remarkably complex and somehow manages to tie up all of its loopholes and make this and
01:20:01
Speaker
pretty complex storyline and design come together. And i mean, it truly is impressive. It's funny, iconic characters, gorgeous, wonderful voice acting.
01:20:13
Speaker
Fave Atlantis is terrific. As we said in our Indiana Jones episode, Fave Atlantis is better than like half of the Indiana Jones film franchise in a lot of ways. Sophia Hapgood is a wonderful addition to the to the indie mythos.
01:20:30
Speaker
I hate to see fate of Atlantis go here, but I don't think I can make the case to myself or our beloved listeners. The, the, it should, yeah, it should advance over to like piloting the submarine, controlling the hot air balloon. Like there's so many like things in fate of Atlantis, which are a pain in the ass.
01:20:53
Speaker
Gain and punch fights. least yeah least of which is atlantis itself which is a very unfun part of the game it gets real puzzly and not a fun way at the end and yeah and it's randomized that way you can't necessarily use walkthroughs like you'd like to stuff like locations of items right they yep they move around yeah i mean that Yeah, it slows to a crawl there at the end, which is unfortunate because it has such breezy momentum. It's a great game, but great yeah yeah yeah day of the tentacles and ease. This is this is an easy W for me. This is yeah e me, too. Yeah. Move it forward. Decided. Day of the tentacle advances.
01:21:36
Speaker
Sorry, Indiana Jones. We now ah no longer have any Indiana Jones left in the bracket. All right. Okay, but we've now moved on ah to, ah what is this, the semifinals?
01:21:49
Speaker
I think so. Or is this the quarterfinals? There are four, which comes, how does that work? I i don't know. ah Yeah, this is, there are matchups. I'm sorry, two matchups left, four games.
01:22:01
Speaker
Yeah, two matchups. Okay, whew, so here's what we have.
Finals Discussion: 'Loom' vs 'Sam and Max'
01:22:05
Speaker
We have Loom going up against Sam and Max Hit the Road.
01:22:12
Speaker
is our next matchup loom boy and i cannot think hu of two games less two games i would never think of no it is hard to even imagine on what criteria to compare these two games you know what's really funny is that if this was grim fandango versus uh salmon max it'd be grim fandango to me really yeah Does that mean we picked her on?
01:22:39
Speaker
Do we have to go back and re-record this? Well, first off, you never change a call. You never ever change a call. ah But second off, no, that's just how how you know this head-to-head system works.
01:22:54
Speaker
I think I would pick Grim Fandango over Sam and Max, but would I pick over Sam and Max now i really like
01:23:12
Speaker
you're exhausted this is like asking me it's like what do you want uh for for uh uh like like what do you want uh uh for for dinner um like a uh delicious like a steak or an expertly uh uh cooked perfectly made roast cauliflower like it's like both of them i could be in the mood for like i there's not one that i would empirically say oh i want to have a steak because i'm not gonna have a steak every night it's gonna make me feel sick um
01:23:52
Speaker
And, uh, yeah. Uh-huh. Now tell me more. Yeah. And I'd like to hear more about the steak. i've sous vide you know oh really yeah do you like finish it off with sear or anything or just oh you always finish it with a sear no you're not gonna have like this gray steak yeah i don't want to boil and bag steak if that's okay yeah i'm gonna do that finished stuff i had a steak when i have one every night oh you do oh okay well that this does not work uh yeah okay how do you feel how do you feel do you think is this hard for you
01:24:24
Speaker
This is hard at some level. It's hard in that way that I don't like that I know exactly what the answer is. I i think I feel the same way. So let's just count down. I think okay i think we're we're in agreement.
01:24:38
Speaker
Okay. Three, two, one.
01:24:45
Speaker
and Max. Yeah, Sam and Max. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, Loom had advanced so far on this. It gets in there and it gets out and it doesn't have a chance to do too much wrong.
01:25:00
Speaker
And I think it finally caught up with it. I think that, you know, that was its... There are annoying parts of Sam and Max, which there are, ah but there are like... But, ah like, you know, that like that was what got Loom through. But they're not as annoying as the things that annoyed me in Full Throttle or Grim Fandango, which is how of Loom defeated them.
01:25:26
Speaker
Like, it's that, like, Sam and Max beats it, like, it's able to to beat it on being like, this is ah a good adventure game. It's not a great adventure game, but it has...
01:25:37
Speaker
like you know has that lucas or its writing and personality and like it has enough charm to smooth over its flaws yeah like even when you're kind of stuck on some of the parts of sam and max that maybe aren't working as well as the others you know you're just like one click and a funny little line read between sam and max away from it's like okay i'm back in this like this is at least i'm enjoying being stuck because i'm spending time with this uh this hilarious dog and rabbit all right okay well sam sam and max we'll see you in the finals all uh what is it now day of the tentacle and secret of monkey island ben
01:26:21
Speaker
This is where the bracket really kills you. I think a lot of people would argue this should be the finals matchup, but here it is. yeah probably but Maybe the sema or quarterfins to depend on a semi on semi finals. Yeah, but probably. This probably should be the final.
01:26:37
Speaker
yeah definite it isn't and you know what world this would be the final because i would say these are the two best well one of them one of them is going to be discarded and it will be just as bad as labyrinth uh once we get it out of our bracket so they'll all go into the loser pile this is so Yeah, I mean, you know, there there is, ah they obviously there's a ah wisdom of crowds.
01:27:04
Speaker
ah There's a reason why so many people love Day of the Tentacle. um it is also like you you had a great point just then which was that like it day of the tentacle uh manages to take uh that really like tight design of maniac mansion and in some ways it simplifies it because you don't select like a party like you do in maniac mansion which which
01:27:39
Speaker
is like the most impressive parlor trick ah that is that Maniac Mansion pulls. This is more it more of a traditional adventure game. yeah um i But that it is able, like the though though the magnificent trick of Day of the Tentacle is that it it does this complicated time travel plot you control three characters, one's in the past, one's in the present, one's in the future.
01:28:14
Speaker
And if they interact with each other. And like, it's the traditional LucasArts thing. um You have a big open sequence with three objectives i and you could do them in any order.
01:28:31
Speaker
ah And, but like, that it's able to do this kind of mind bending time travel thing. You have three characters that are three distinct characters that are like, have these wonderful character designs, like the animation,
01:28:49
Speaker
yeah ah is is just spectacular. i could watch Laverne walk around all day. Like that walk cycle is just beautiful. ah i I mean, and think about this and it's like, are we grading on difficulty at some level?
01:29:06
Speaker
Because I feel like Day of the Tentacle, is by several degrees more ambitious yeah than secret of monkey island i mean it is it is trying to do some really you know challenging stuff narratively and puzzle design wise and everything else and it absolutely sticks the landing like i mean it it it pulls it off it pulls it off and makes it look easy Monkey Island maybe is a little bit ambitious, less ambitious of what it's trying to achieve, but it also just absolutely nails it.
01:29:39
Speaker
So it's hard to hold that against it. I mean, in a lot of ways, the simplicity of Monkey Island is where its beauty lies. I mean, I think it set a new standard for what we expect out of adventure games as far as signposting and some other basic day and just like a three act structure, you know clear definition of what your current goals are. i mean, i feel like monkey Island really gives us the roadmap that countless adventure games since then have followed along closely with. So this is difficult.
01:30:13
Speaker
This is killing me, Jess. I, I think I know. Wow. I think this soon. I think I know. Yeah. Ben, do you want say, I'm not sure if I'm ready to count down Ben, tell me what's on your mind though.
01:30:26
Speaker
All right. i I I'm kind of annoyed at myself, honestly. because i saw our listeners right now yeah i'm I'm leaning towards Day of the Tentacle and I and i don't like that honestly okay why don't you like it? I don't like it because that's that that's that's the boring pick that's the that's the most like because if Day of the Tentacle oh no don't say this Ben no I mean yeah I mean who knows what will happen next but
01:31:02
Speaker
Like, uh, have a pretty strong feeling about the outcome of the finals. Uh, stay tuned for an exciting announcement at the end. Don't turn off now. Uh,
01:31:14
Speaker
and because it's like, i you know, all right, I've been like, you know, I don't know if I've been grading any of these on any sort of consistent criteria other than like my real, like gut and feeling.
01:31:31
Speaker
Um, But if i if I think about what I've said, and i you know I'm sure you know people listening as opposed to me thinking i've you know thinking of what I'm saying, you know i think you know a lot of ah the criteria I've been thinking about when making these picks is like the like a cohesive design.
01:31:57
Speaker
which is what like both of these games have such, they're they're both sharp as a tack. Yes. In terms of their design. Now, Secret of Monkey Island, as I said, is like the foundational game of that.
01:32:15
Speaker
the The reason that I would, that I lean towards Day of the Tentacle is that I feel that Day of the Tentacle, by merit of being so clever in its puzzle design, is a realization of the promise.
01:32:36
Speaker
that a game like secret of monkey island makes when it says like we are like uh we're we're lucasfilm or it was lucasfilm still at that point lucasfilm games yeah and we make adventure games and this is what they are no dead ends uh yeah no deaths and day of the tentacle and and we have like this this kind of ah like kooky originality this uh type of sense of humor and uh kind of like mind bending like puzzles but they make sense um i think that day of the tentacle is the one that like
01:33:25
Speaker
fulfills what what it is and i would say more so than curse which curse i think is an exceptional adventure game day of the tentacle is a game that like delivers on like a a design ethos that that yeah games had And yeah, that's why I'm leaning towards a, the tentacle, even though I'm like, that's the boring pick.
Personal Game Preferences
01:33:53
Speaker
And it is. i mean, at the same time too, like, I hate to say, you know, sorry, secret of Mikey Island. You should have tried being a multimedia extravaganza when you came out.
01:34:04
Speaker
Yeah. ah How lazy of you not to have full voice and all that, but you know, I will say the multimedia aspects of Day of the Tentacle elevate it so much more to, I mean, it's like, it's hard to think of, I know day of the tentacle is a disc game first, but it's hard to think of it without the amazing voice work. I mean, top to bottom, I mean, hoagies segment with Ben Franklin, then, then what?
01:34:32
Speaker
And then what? It's just, it's ingrained in my head forever. Every line read that Laverne gives, ah you know, Bernard is also fantastic. Oh, I mean, yeah. Top to bottom, every supporting character is just,
01:34:45
Speaker
knocks it out of the park. You know, pardon me, Wes, hold me up. Like if you ask me tomorrow, you said, Hey, Jess. Hey, Jess. Thank you. um You have, you have tomorrow morning for you. You have two or three hours to play an adventure game.
01:34:58
Speaker
Which of these two do you pick up? I pick up secret of monkey Island, which is the only thing giving me just a little bit of pause. Like, but i think that's because I think this is a concept we'll probably talk about in a future podcast, big time comfort game for me.
01:35:13
Speaker
Like that is a chill. yeah I want to relax with the, with an adventure game game for me, monkey Island one. But I think, I like how you conceptualize this. I think that in lot of ways, Monkey Island is like the proof of concept that this LucasArts philosophy can generate a really fantastic game.
01:35:36
Speaker
But then like
01:35:39
Speaker
that's the you know the first stab of this by day of the tentacle they're showing we can take this philosophy and do wildly impressive things with it then as boring as it is like here yeah let me tell you deep down i was sort of hoping we would be advancing curse of monkey island to the finals right now and now i'm not i don't have it out for uh secret monkey island but would you say that uh curse is better than day of the tentacle because no i couldn't say that i wouldn't see the thing is i mean i would have i would have said day of the tentacle again i think i still would have to i mean i think it's again i may like curse a little better but i know that is ah simply and i'll even know then you it's just i think
01:36:22
Speaker
you know, day of the tentacles so good. I mean, again, there's a reason why it's the obvious choice in all of these matchups. It's hard to find flaw with day of the tentacle. And I think with a lot of these other games, we have found flaws and it's one that I just really struggled to think about.
01:36:41
Speaker
What did day of the tentacle do wrong? ah And I keep coming up kind of empty on it. So day of the tentacle advances for me too, Ben. All right. I'm right there with you. So we're at the finals. Do you want to just do a countdown or do you know? i snow No, no. Okay.
01:36:56
Speaker
So cards on the table. I think we're both going to agree. This is this is ah kind of a disappointing Super Bowl, right? like it's like It is a disappointing Super Bowl. super bowl it's a Yeah, Super Bowl.
01:37:07
Speaker
um it It's a disappointing big game. ah reading i' yeah I'm sorry. yeah Edit that out. Edit. it edit ah Computer. Delete. Yeah. That's why we wait until April to do this thing is because we are afraid March Madness was trademarked.
Trademark Humor and Game Comparisons
01:37:22
Speaker
Oh, no. Delete.
01:37:23
Speaker
Delete. Edit. Edit. Edit.
01:37:27
Speaker
Oh yeah. and that's why we do it now because of the Oscar. Oh no. The Academy Awards. Can we say that? No. Um, anyway, anyway, anyway. All right. I mean, what's your defense for, for what, what?
01:37:41
Speaker
This is what wanted to ask. Yeah. Yeah. What is like, in what universe, what case do you make that, Sam and Max goes over. They have the tentacle here. Like if you had to convince that if you're gun to your head.
01:37:53
Speaker
So someone says tell me why Sam and Max is a better game than day of the tentacle. What case do you make for them? is Yeah. Uh, all right.
01:38:05
Speaker
Um,
01:38:08
Speaker
So Day of the Tentacle and Sam and Max. So yeah, let's let's construct this case. Let's let's let's start let's let's let's do it. So Day of the Tentacle and Sam and Max are both games that the promise to the player is that you're inside a cartoon.
01:38:32
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Something that a lot of games tried to promise around this time and very few delivered successfully. That's right. Like in, in, um,
01:38:44
Speaker
like in day of the tentacle as that, like very intentional Chuck Jones style art, like explicitly, but you know, Sam and Max, um,
01:39:01
Speaker
by virtue of its pedigree coming from those comic strips, it it exists in this, uh, like kind of cartoon reality, which is very specific and original.
01:39:21
Speaker
And, uh, like, therefore, it has that over day of the tentacle. i i would I would say that the... ah i'll I'll return to the thing that I've said every time, which is that the joke quality and density is better.
01:39:41
Speaker
The batting average for every joke that Sam and Max tease up... It has a better hit rate.
01:39:53
Speaker
Yeah. Than like many other games. That includes Day of the Tentacle. Yeah, I would say, i mean, I haven't replayed this recently. I mean, it's like, it's not batting a thousand, but it's not far off Sam and Max. I mean, it it really does nail it, you know, and it's, yeah, beautifully written in that sense. day of the tentacle does have the talking horse which is one of the funniest jokes just this incredible non sequitur that just makes me laugh every time but um you know like there's this uh
01:40:29
Speaker
so like obviously this reference level is just not going to work if you are outside of this country uh but I'm inside it, unfortunately, at this moment, I would say. ah and ah But... flavor of...
01:40:49
Speaker
i it i
01:40:56
Speaker
the the the the that flavor of um this kind of road trip this mid-century americana biggest ball of twine ah you know the weird spot that was a idea that was getting a lot of traction i said that this was wholly original but like that was an idea that was getting a lot of traction in the mid-90s right What's that? Mystery spots?
01:41:26
Speaker
Well, mystery spots are in that incredible up episode of The Simpsons. But, like, this... like this like ironic usages of uh route 66 yeah an americana like driving stuff like you kind of see it in like pb's big adventure and you see it in like you just kind of see it in music videos a lot like a lot of music videos contemporary to them like kind of traded that iconography jesus christ i sound like such a fucking dork
01:42:03
Speaker
No, absolutely. No, you know, actually this is fascinating to me because i had never really thought about Sam and Max in the context of Pee Wee's Big Adventure. That's a big T-Rex.
01:42:15
Speaker
They both have the big T-Rex. That's right. And so, uh, Fallout New Vegas. So, you know, there you have it. Um, but It does. I mean, they're cut very much in the same cloth. Yeah, this was, I think, something, you know, I think even MTV was enjoying playing around with some of this sort of. Absolutely. To loop back to what we were talking about at the beginning of the podcast.
01:42:37
Speaker
That's right. That's right. Yeah. No, I mean, it's absolutely there. I would agree 100%. And I do think that gives it, for me, it lends it a definite charm. it's hard not to, to kind of love that setting.
Final Reflections on 'Day of the Tentacle'
01:42:50
Speaker
And again, if you're someone sort of steeped in this culture, especially, but I mean, I think those are all good points. I do think this idea that you know, as a creation of Steve Purcell and existing so much in its just own little world, there's something special about Sam and Max and something special about Sam and Max that will persist through all the later sequels that come out through Telltale and, you know, and and everything else. I mean, it is, it's an iconic duo. It's an iconic world that they exist in. I do love that about it.
01:43:22
Speaker
ah But again, it's hard argue. it' hard to argue that it's a better game than day of the tentacle. And again, I hate that we're here. I get a perfect world right now.
01:43:34
Speaker
Like we would somehow be making the argument that like, you know, Indiana Jones and the last crusade was the best LucasArts game just because of how angry it would make all of our listeners. um Like that would make me kind of happy if we were like really having to, you know,
01:43:51
Speaker
slap people with an uncomfortable outcome to this but i'm afraid we have arrived at oh my god it's space quest six just entered the room by god they're playing space quest six's music it's fucking soylent uh clear new soylent clear at last it's here with clearly better taste yeah no absolutely no mean it's uh people too know it's day of the tentacle it's day of the tentacle it's day of the tentacle all day long day of the tentacle boo birds are out boo i'm bored
01:44:27
Speaker
I'm bored. This sucks. Okay. Okay, Ben. I'm so mad. If we, would this be any different if there had been no bracket? If I just to ask you best LucasArts game, is it still day of the tentacle? No matter how we jumble these. You know, the the crazy thing is I would probably say secret of Monkey Island.
01:44:48
Speaker
after're a After all after all of that, I would probably say secret of Monkey Island. we did the tentacle eliminated it i know i know listen i don't know listen there's just some bracket magic no we've got we've got buyer's remorse already you know what hold on hold on i'm looking up in the air what's that what's what' what's flying above me no it's boo birds oh
01:45:22
Speaker
Oh, my God. Well, I mean, I guess the thing is, like when we're reading these headlines on Tuesday morning on Kotaku and Rock Paper Shotgun and, you know, the Huffington Post and everywhere else. Politico, Axios.
01:45:39
Speaker
when When they're like Quest Quest determines best LucasArts game. most boring choice yeah they're gonna be like confirming what yeah thousands of people have said in the past uh quest why did we do this thought we were going to send the to do a ah story that they're going to be like and then one of the hosts said that his favorite was actually one that he eliminated
01:46:06
Speaker
No. And it's going to be really fun too. When we do the Sierra one, when we do the Sierra, when we get to the end, they're like, Oh, they chose Gabriel not to, or, you know, whatever. I know which one will win.
01:46:19
Speaker
and That's a, that's a pre ah close, close listeners of the podcast and certainly close watchers of my stream know exactly ah which one will rocket to the top.
01:46:31
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, this is the worst outcome we could have had been. This was a waste of three hours. three hours ah But I mean, if nothing else, we now know where we stand.
01:46:47
Speaker
Like with each other. with most norm-ass taste of all adventure games. Look, I wanted Curse of Monkey Island, but no, no, no, no. You had to pick secret. And I was like, oh, no, Ben, I defer to you. Listen, you know, we've just been, you know, at loose ends ever since I did a tasteless southern bumpkin accent at the start of this.
01:47:08
Speaker
I've been fuming this entire time. Like, I didn't want to say anything, I've been fuming. I've been fucking fuming this entire time. I'm so angry at you. So, no, I mean, at some level, I feel like this is what you deserved. You deserved a boring outcome here. So, yeah, it's Day the Tentacle.
01:47:26
Speaker
Let me tell you, gang, it's a pretty good game. If you haven't played Day of the Tentacle, you should get out there and do it. Yeah. Just Google fun tentacles and it should take you straight. It should take you straight to the steam page. Oh yeah. i sure And steam, uh, the steam store has recently been having some problems with their SEO. There's they're having some sort of game is having some sort of spat with, uh, uh, Google.
01:47:55
Speaker
So you have to turn off safe search when you do that search. Yeah. So you have to turn off safe search in Google ah and type in, what was Good tentacles? Fun tentacles. Fun tentacles. Better.
01:48:08
Speaker
Better. yeah Yeah. Turn off the safe search. Mm-hmm. Type in fun tentacles. Yeah.
01:48:17
Speaker
What is the, i I wonder what the first result is. I'm doing this live on the air, Ben. All right. If die. It's not going to, it's going to be, it's not going to, it's, it's, it's, we're, we're making ourselves laugh with.
01:48:29
Speaker
ah nine thought Yeah. It's it's not going to be something. No, nothing's good here. What's going on yeah they inter Hasn't been good for like 15 years. Here on the first page is a link to something called consensual fun with tentacles.
01:48:43
Speaker
all right. Yeah. So good. Yeah. um Yeah. Not, not what I was hoping, but you know, well, yeah, that's how I felt about this podcast. Yeah.
01:48:54
Speaker
Yeah. That's right. That's how I felt about this podcast. but ah Is there any, is there any game from this bracket that you found yourself reaching a newfound appreciation of even of the ones that we eliminated along the way?
01:49:12
Speaker
ah Fey of Atlantis and Loom, I think. Who's Miss Congeniality? Oh, who's Miss Congeniality? Loom may be Miss Congeniality, right?
01:49:25
Speaker
Loom takes out the number one seed in the second round. Yeah. which I feel like loom at that point becomes the Cinderella story. So it really overperforms for us. yeah You know, I think that's one that for me, the more I thought about as we talked about day of the tentacle, I'll be honest.
01:49:46
Speaker
i appreciated Maniac Mansion a little bit more in hindsight. I feel like the more I think, to me, i think years ago, i looked at those two and I'm like, that's not really a sequel to that. I mean, I know it's got tentacles and the Edisons and Bernard and everything, but it feels like a completely different game. I played Day of the Tentacle before I played, well, no, that's not true.
01:50:07
Speaker
But I certainly played Day of the Tentacle before I spent a lot of time with Maniac Mansion. And I think looking back, i really can see what the progression is there in a way that maybe I didn't think about before.
01:50:18
Speaker
But i mean, still, it's not like would have advanced it over cursing. You know what the real boring thing is, is that like after this whole conversation, I'm like, I think I want to play Day of the Tonical now.
01:50:33
Speaker
i hear it's a pretty good game but he's a basic man um no mean yeah wait until wait until the word gets out after this episode uh releases the day of the tentacles good there's gonna be a rush on that in the steam store uh who owns all that now is it disney i guess it is disney right because they only yeah i guess it's disney yeah so you know laverne is my favorite disney princess All right.
01:51:01
Speaker
Okay. I'm packing. We did it, Ben. We did did it. Thank you. It took us three hours to do something we could have done in 30 seconds. Could have just Googled. What is the best weakest arts game?
01:51:12
Speaker
Uh, comma, not grim. Um, uh, well, thank you so much for listening to, uh, quest quest, the adventure game podcast. uh you know uh if if uh you have any uh you know thoughts on the bracket uh or anything else ah shoot us an email at quest quest podcast at gmail.com or you could send us a request quest you could send us something is there uh an adventure game something ah you'd like us to discuss i mean we'll definitely get to that sierra one
01:51:45
Speaker
not next yeah we're not doing this this went so well i don't know how we wouldn't um uh but uh yeah shoot us an email at quest quest uh podcast at gmail.com uh be sure to give this podcast a uh five-star review helps people find it um so then more people can be like oh day of the tentacle huh um and he'll say huh yeah you can watch both of us on uh twitch i'm ps underscore garrick jess you are decaf jedi and we're also both on youtube under those names as well and join us next week when ben and jess talk about why their favorite ice cream flavor is vanilla