[00:00:00] I can try switching to Edge or something. I mean, I don't know. Didn't that work that one time? No, don't do that. Did it? I don't know. I feel like switching to Edge is not the move for anything. All right. Like, at all. If my doctor was like, I think you should switch to Edge, I'd be like, I guess I'm gonna die. Yes, I have cancer.

[00:00:31] Yeah, let's start this thing. Aaron, be nice. We have a guest. Yeah, let's start this thing. What it do, everybody? My name's Aaron. I have a club foot and I'm not afraid to use it. And I'm Jerry. And if you go to SuperPod website, you can get all of our new flavors of loose cigarettes. You're listening to SuperPod Saga.

[00:01:07] Holy shit, that threw me off for a second. I could not process what the fuck you were trying to say. I think you were thinking about it too. I was like, I was, I knew what I wanted to say, but my brain was like, no, try this in the middle of me saying it. Why don't you just use one of the ones you wrote down? You wrote down like 13. Because I don't have them in, I don't have them in front of me. I gave you the notes though. But I didn't open them.

[00:01:34] I didn't open them in fear that your entire stream would crash. Welcome back, everybody. Hey, it's SuperPod Saga. It's the greatest collaboration of all time. It's me and it's Jerry. Jerry, how's it hanging over there? What's happening? It's, yep, it's a hanging. It's a hanging free. Free Willy. Sweet.

[00:01:54] And yeah, I'm excited to be here as the guest for the 76th time on the show. Happy to be here. Thanks. Thanks for having me. That's right. That's right. No matter how many times you're on this show, Jerry, you will never be the co-host. Never. No. No. Just kidding, folks. I have not been accepted. No, never. For any first time listeners, Jerry and I were on a quest, an epic saga to discuss every

[00:02:23] single video game topic in existence week by week. This week, we're talking about the year 2004 in gaming. What a year. Just a gigantic year full of banger after banger after banger. But before we get to that, Patreon and Ko-Fi, if you're listening to this and you want to help support the show in whatever way you can, check out patreon.com slash superpod saga. Two or four dollars a month, early access to new episodes, unedited video versions of

[00:02:52] each episode, bonus content here and there. You know what? That's a hard word to say. That is a hard word. Unedited. Yeah. See, I can't even say it. I stumbled on it a couple times. I don't know how to say that word right. You can tell me how to say it right. I'm never going to say it right. I have to sound it out of my head before I do say it. I have to go like un-ed-i-ted and then mash it together. Unedited. Unedited. But yeah, Ko-Fi. Go to Ko-Fi. Look for Super Pod Saga. Drop us a couple bucks there.

[00:03:21] All that stuff. Head over to superpod saga.com. Unedited. Head over to superpod saga.com. Find all of our episodes, socials, all that stuff. Okay. That's enough about us. Let's talk about our guest. Who cares about us? Yes. Let's talk about our guest. Gas time, baby. We've got Brian Rigsby with us who also does the retro game books. Hello, Brian. Hey, thanks for having me. No problem at all. It's our pleasure. I've seen these books.

[00:03:49] Not physically, but I've seen posts about these books. And as a fellow retro enjoyer, you're doing the Lord's work, Brian. Well, thanks. It takes a small group, but yeah, it's fun stuff. Yes. Very nice indeed. Aaron, you too like a retro game or two, I think. Never. Never touched a retro game.

[00:04:17] No, I do love retro games. Wait. Here's the thing though. Okay. Let's ask the guest this real quick before we get into anything crazy here. Is 2004 retro now? All right. So 20 years ago. I get that some organizations want it to be every 10 years, 10 years because they are running out of topics. I think that's why they picked 10 years, right? The podcasts and whatever.

[00:04:44] I think a lot of people like to go with 20 because it feels far enough back, which 2004 would still fall into. And then there's the others who are like, oh, it's about like generation four, generation five, like based on a certain console and they want to have a cutoff. I mean, for me, it's about like what age I was. So I always kind of think of things like when I was in my teens or before, that's what feels retro. Like I can't think of things from 2004 as retro still. It's almost like the term retro.

[00:05:13] And I agree with you too. The term retro almost has like an automatic little pin in it. And that pin says nostalgia. Like I always feel like nostalgia and retro are almost the same thing to me. Like when I think about retro games, I'm thinking of like Super Nintendo and 64. That's my that's what I first think goes right to that.

[00:05:39] Even though like NES was before those things and I played a lot of NES and I still have a fondness for it and I do consider it retro, but it's not the thing I think about when I think. Right. So it's kind of like if you're 65 years old and you go by a 20 year rule, are you going to think of things you played when you were 45 as retro? Probably not. But if you're like if you're 30, everything you played when you were 10 years old is very retro. So the 20 year things hard. It's also why I don't take a stance on this.

[00:06:06] I have no official stance on this because I'm not here to, you know, upset anyone. Yeah. Sorry, man. I didn't mean to throw a loaded question at you so early, but I was. It just popped in my head and I was like, is 2004 retro? Because like I think in my giant retro setup that I have in that I have an Xbox 360.

[00:06:29] I have a PS3 and I feel like even those I'm like some stuff on their teeter and pretty. They're teeter. Yeah. It's teeter tottering. Yeah. But. Seems fair. It's not the retro I think of all the time though. Is there a middle ground between retro and modern? Like is there an in-between to that or is it just strictly like black and white, retro and modern? I don't know. I don't know.

[00:06:59] I don't subscribe to an in-between. I feel like it's already complicated enough. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. My brain's starting to fall apart trying to think of that. It's like trying to understand quantum physics or HTML. No, it's good. It's worse. It's way worse. It's way worse. Those guys, one day they will figure out quantum physics. They'll never figure out where retro actually is. It'll never happen. String theory. We got it. Wormholes. We got all that shit.

[00:07:26] It's like, okay, well what's in between retro and modern? Modern fucking what? Brian, go ahead and if there's anything at all you want to plug, of course your books or if there's anything else at all you do that you want to plug, the social medias, whatever. Go ahead and plug away. Let everybody know where they can find you. Yeah. So head over to retrogamebooks.com if you want to see all our products. We have a number of different books. The latest one is on video game maps for the SNES. That's a three volume series.

[00:07:56] Number two is in the pre-order phase right now. But we also have other video game map series related books. So we got NES, we got Genesis. And then we have some other fun stuff like pixel art Metroid. It's got 125 pixel artists showcasing their work. This is modern pixel artists. That's so cool. Stuff that's been done recently. It's kind of like a curated art gallery. There's a book on the history of Rygar. I actually wrote that one myself. Whoa. It's a bit of a niche series.

[00:08:23] It was the first book I put out when forming the company four years ago. So it's really interesting. Even if you never played those games, you get to really get into it. And that book as well as many of the others, they have a lot of magazine-like flair to them. They're all full color. They all have a pop to them, a nostalgia to the layout as well as the content within. And then there's some other fun stuff like a retro gaming coloring book and some notebooks and other kind of things.

[00:08:51] As far as things that are in the hopper, there's a book being written by Nadia Oxford. All right. Now she's a former games journalist. She's a Retronauts alumni and Acts of the Blood God podcast host. There's another author who's also writing a book. I'm going to keep that one secret for now because it's not quite far enough along, but could come out this year. And some other surprises you'll see later in the year and next year as well. And then for social, most active on Blue Sky.

[00:09:18] It's also at Retro Game Books, but you can find us at most places. Nice. How much money would it take for me to commission you to do a whole book dedicated to Goemon? I don't think I'm the right person for it. There is someone on Blue Sky who actually shared a quote for the SNES book who is basically an expert of sorts. So that might be the better person. I don't think you want to hire me for that.

[00:09:48] I actually played the Super Nintendo game a few weeks ago for the first time. I just kind of decided to jump into it. Such a hidden little gem, that game. It is really cool. And all of the other ones. The N64 one is still one of them. It's actually one of my favorite games of all time. I get friends of ours, like friends of the podcast, they kind of, the joke is they make fun of me because I can't go like an episode without bringing up Goemon. But I just, I love it.

[00:10:13] And like, my thing, man, it's Goemon, Mega Man, and horror games. That's my jams. My jams. I love all of those. Yeah. I would go as far as to say as I'm really good at Mega Man. Like, really, really good. You like the 8-bit era, 16-bit era, more modern? I fell in love with Mega Man because of Mega Man X.

[00:10:40] But I, the first Mega Man I ever played was Mega Man 3 on Game Boy, of all things. It was the first game I ever owned in my life. And yeah, I've just been obsessed with Mega Man ever since. 2 was the one we owned when we were kids. So that was the one we played a lot. I can just throw that intro and just be like, yes, yes. Like, when it pans up and then the music, the crescendo and then the music. Oh, my God.

[00:11:09] Like, that was perfect. It was insane. But then Mega Man 3 came out and Snake Man's level, like, fucking rocked my socks. I used to take my Game Boy, put it on pause and just listen to it in the back of my parents' vehicle. And they'd be like, can you turn off that racket? And I'm like, dude, it's Snake Man. That and, like, King Dedede's. Snake Man. Yeah. I was like a 10-year-old kid being like, bro, dad, shut up. Trying to listen to Snake Man.

[00:11:40] But yeah, I love Mega Man. I love all the Mega Mans. Mega Mans. But yeah, X is kind of what got me into it. But I think I could go back sooner and play through, like, the original NES ones. Like, there's a strong love for that Mega Man. I like X, but X got a bit too corny in the later games. Especially when they, like, nobody asked for Axel. Nobody asked for him. We didn't need him.

[00:12:09] We still don't. I don't want to see him. But hey, anyways, derailing it with Golemon and Mega Man, as per usual. Aaron, back to you. I'm about to derail it for a second time. I'm looking through the credits in the SNES maps volume two. And I see you got John Riggs in there. That's really, really cool. Man, if I could have my name next to John Riggs, that'd be pretty sweet. I've been watching that dude on YouTube a long time.

[00:12:38] Yeah, I ran into him the last two years at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo because he seems to often have a booth set up for himself there. So that's what Cross Pounds is. That's awesome. You ever meet Metal Jesus? I have seen Metal Jesus. I wouldn't say we're not really acquainted with each other. You're not homies? That's the dream, right? I've emailed him once. I want to have Metal Jesus on speed.

[00:13:04] I want to be able to be like, I want to get to the point where we're that kind of podcast that we're like, let me just get MJ on the phone real quick. And I just like call Metal Jesus and was like, hey, you're on the podcast right now. Like, I want to get to that point. What's your phone? Yeah. Got Metal Jesus on the line. Well, Brian, for every first time guest, we like to get to know him a little bit. Ask him a question, a big old question. Nothing like the one before where it was like, what's in between retro and modern?

[00:13:32] Brian, what is your favorite video game memory? Yeah. So the one that came to mind first is that, you know, when I was very, very little, I was familiar with Atari, like the home consoles. We had one for a short time and we only had one game. It was like a Popeye game. And my mom said, oh, you don't want to play that anymore. I gave it away and we were so upset, but whatever. But then sometime went by and then kind of forgot about games because I was so little.

[00:13:57] And then I went to my neighbor's house to hang out and he opened the door and he was excited. He said, got this video game thing. There's a dragon. You have to see it. Like, that's how simple you are when you're little, right? There's a dragon. That's all you knew. And he was actually referring to Bowser from Super Mario Brothers. Oh, yes. They were the first kids on the block to get an NES. And yeah, sure. He's a dragon, turtle, whatever. He's close enough. His dad was helping him because, you know, we were so little at that time.

[00:14:27] And we were just in complete awe. You know, I mean, it seems so primitive now, but and it still plays well. But like, it looked incredible to us. Like, it blew our minds. You know, every generation that there's a new console, there's like diminishing returns in terms of like, you know, graphical quality. Right. It's like the jump from 8 to 16 was pretty big. And 16, you know, like when we went 3D, that was amazing. And then everything thereafter is like these little jumps. But like Atari to 8-bit was kind of a big deal.

[00:14:56] And so that's, you know, the day I'm sure I asked for a Nintendo and later got one. A Nintendo, right? That's what we called it then and had an NES. And I've swapped out the pin connector on that thing probably like three times. And I now have a HDMI out version instead that works pretty well. And so, yeah, I mean, that's what really got me hooked. Kind of got things going.

[00:15:22] Isn't it crazy how we can remember like pretty much that moment when you were like, I remember the moment I needed a console. When I was like, I went to my parents, my guardian, whoever, and was like, I need this. This right here. See this? I got to have this. I need you to buy this for me. I'm too small to buy this with my own money. Too small. You need to fucking speed dial up Santa or the Easter Bunny or whoever.

[00:15:50] Someone is bringing this console to me. We got Santa Claus on the podcast. Yeah, we got Santa Claus on the podcast. I like how everybody that owned an NES back in the day, they never call it an NES. They're always like, yeah, I had the Nintendo. I had the regular Nintendo back in the day. Well, it wasn't the regular Nintendo until Super Nintendo came around. And I was like, you just got that regular Nintendo.

[00:16:20] Right. And then if you're a parent, you called literally everything Nintendo for the next 30 years forever. Whatever. Yeah. Throw an Oculus Quest on your head and they're like, playing that Nintendo. Quest that Nintendo on your face. Mom, get a clue. Gosh. Yeah. My mom definitely did the same thing. Like everything was Nintendo. And like the Nintendo was going to melt our brains.

[00:16:49] Like the Nintendo was no good for us. And meanwhile, I'm sitting there on a PS2 and I'm like, mom, shut up. You don't know anything. Like it literally says PS2 on the screen, mom. It's not a Nintendo. Look, I'm just trying to play Tony Hawk and enjoy Superman. Okay. Like I'm just trying to jam out to some deftones real quick. And you say, there's no, there's no pause. I can't stop. And then they eventually find out that you're full of it. Like, okay. So hang on.

[00:17:18] In the last few years when there's been games with no pause, and I don't even mean like online games because I don't play a lot of online games, but stuff like Dark Souls where there really isn't a pause. Like you can't pause. You have to find an area and be like, okay, I can pause now. The conversation that to this day, I still have to have with my wife to be like, I can't fucking pause it. It doesn't pause. I can't. I can't move. And she's like, well, you know what?

[00:17:46] The hamburger meat will just burn itself, I guess. And I'm like, well, fucking I can't. Although in her defense, if you're playing a Dark Souls game while actively barbecuing, you probably already, you messed up a long time ago. You goofed. Hey, man. Come on. But I played Elden Ring. I know. It totally brought me back to those days when you're like, I literally can't pause this thing. Yeah, you can't.

[00:18:13] I mean, I guess you could maybe go to the home screen or would that work? I don't know. Never tried. Like I've never felt more anxiety than like starting a boss fight in Elden Ring, seeing like the health bar come up, the music kicks in, and then I just hear my wife like, can you come here for a second? I'm like, holy shit. No, I can't. You have no idea what's on the line here. How many souls I have. And then meanwhile, you're dead in like five seconds.

[00:18:43] Yeah. And then I go up and then she's like, what was the bit like? And we're already in the middle of a fight over not being able to pause games. Jesus Christ. And I come up like two seconds later. Oh. Thankfully, there's not a lot of games like that anymore. That reminds me of a... So I was fighting this boss in Avowed, I think like last week. And I was basically trapped in it. So without... I don't know if it's a story boss or not, but basically you're in this like closed... Don't spoil it. Don't spoil it. I won't spoil it.

[00:19:11] But so it's in this enclosed area. There's no way to get out. Once you're in, you just walk up to this person, talk to him, the fight starts. And I was basically just stuck in this loop of getting my ass kicked by this boss until I die. And then, you know how in most games when you die, it's like hit A to respawn or respawn, quit game, pause menu, whatever. No, you don't have that in Avowed. It just immediately responds to you. You don't get a choice of loading a save or anything like that. You just reload.

[00:19:41] So I was stuck in this continuous loop. I left to go make some fucking peanut butter toast. And I came back and saw my dude stuck in this loop of getting his ass kicked. I would stand still. The boss would just annihilate me. I'd see the death screen and then it'd load. And then I'd be right back on my feet in front of the boss. And it was just this loop of getting my ass kicked, loading, respawning. And I kind of just like sat back and watched it a little bit. Like, it's kind of cool. Was it worth it for that peanut butter sandwich?

[00:20:10] Your absolute peanut butter toast. Yes, it was. Peanut butter toast? Yeah. Do you not do peanut butter toast in Canada? I mean, yeah, we do. But like, I feel like you could up your game a little bit there. Like, make a peanut butter. Dude, you know what's actually disgusting sounding, but really good? Is a peanut butter sandwich with cucumber in it. Stop, dude. Pass. I swear to God.

[00:20:39] Some, like, I was in, like, grade three. We were on some field trip and this crazy girl in my class, her mom was like, do you guys want some sandwiches? And that's what she had. And I was like, no fucking way am I eating this. She was trying to convert you. And it worked. It did work. I was so hungry. She was like, this is what I made. You've been in a cult for like 25 years and you didn't even know it. Oh my God. Yeah. Peanut butter and cucumber. Cucumber. Man, it's something. It's crazy.

[00:21:08] I can, like, dip cucumber into peanut butter and just be like, eat it. I don't know about that. Well, I guess, like, people do celery in peanut butter, so, I don't know. Yeah, I guess. Sort of. Just peanut. Those kind of like, I like peanut butter on everything. Those kind of have the same texture. Anyway. Anyway. One final tangent. One final tangent before we move on. I remember being a kid when I'd ride the school bus. As a snack, I would just squirt ketchup into, like, on a hamburger bun and just eat, like, a ketchup sandwich.

[00:21:38] Dude. Oh, yeah. For sure. That's great. That's not that weird. Yeah. I think the peanut butter cucumber sandwiches are a lot weird. My kid does this. It's normal. Yeah. I mean, my wife gets home from work sometimes, so she's like, I don't really want to make anything. So, she has a mayonnaise sandwich. I did that as a kid, actually. I was in the mayo sandwich. You fucking. As long as we're admitting to things. I was in the middle of a burp, you son of a.

[00:22:09] I'm out choked on that. Oh, man. What's so funny about my wife's mayo sandwich? Nothing. Oh, man. Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. Super important breaking news. Super. Super important. Super important mayonnaise sandwich. Let's get it. It's. Yeah, yeah. So, so Xbox. Breaking news. Yes. Xbox is reportedly coming out with their own handheld. Well, no, it's made by a third party. Kind of like. What is it? Rock. Asus Ally. Shit like that. Yeah. Steam Deck.

[00:22:38] All those, yeah. It's not like a proprietary Xbox handheld just yet. But apparently whenever their next generation console launches, it'll launch alongside their own like partner handheld pretty much. So that's kind of cool. I wonder. And it's supposed to have like the whole Xbox guide button. Xbox OS on the goddamn thing. So I can't help but wonder what that's going to be like. I think it would be cool. But I mean, at the same time, it's like Steam Deck just does that anyways.

[00:23:08] Yeah. You could install Windows on a Steam Deck and then it's. There you go. There's your Xbox handheld. But. Because that's what I did with when I had mine. That's what I did with it. But if you're already already heavily invested into the Xbox ecosystem and you don't have like dick for balls in Steam. If you have an Xbox handheld that has your entire Xbox library just kind of available and ready to download on it. That's kind of cool. Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah, that's a good point. And it has game. I can see the appeal there.

[00:23:37] And Game Pass on it and shit too. Yeah, that's pretty cool. Well, that's why. That is why I put Windows on my Steam Deck was for Game Pass. Because I was like, this is. I don't understand why this just isn't available on Steam. Like what? Steam. Just put Game Pass as like an app. Steam Pass. In Steam library, please. Do you imagine Steam Pass? And they have like five like hentai games on there. They've got like 16 visual novels on there. I'm just trying to think of like what other Steam games.

[00:24:07] Like a $1. This month is Honey Pop month. You get Honey Pop 1, 2, and 3 this month. That's cool. What do you got for us, Jerry? Yep. Honey Pop. Someone. Oh, God. This was. I read this and then I read it again. And then I read it a third time and I was like, this is what people spend money on. Someone spent $88,000 to own a Cheeto Zard.

[00:24:36] Now, you're probably thinking at home listeners. What the fuck is a Cheeto Zard? That's exactly what it sounds like. It's a goddamn Cheeto. That's shaped like a Charizard. And someone spent $88,000 on it. For what it's worth, it does look like. It does look exactly like a Charizard. Yes. It has 120 hit points. Obviously fire adjacent. I bet if it's a flame and hot Cheeto, that's even better. I think it is.

[00:25:04] Like that is better than seeing Christ in bread. It looks like one. I mean, it's. The article I'm looking at, one of the comments just says, what's wrong with people? Which I think is. Yeah. Like. You know. You. Like either this person has like just a sheer amount of fuck you money. Or like. Yeah. You don't have your priorities straight. Like you could own a car.

[00:25:32] A really, really nice car for that amount of money. Or is this like the. Is this the new version of that? Like, you know, Mario 64 scam. Where we like, you know. Juice the. Juice the bidding up. But we're going Cheetos now. Oh my God. Flamin' Hot Cheetos stock. Just went through the roof. All the other stocks. Crashing. Che. Flamin' Hot Cheetos. Rising up, baby. Tesla. Crashing. SpaceX. Crashing.

[00:26:02] Flamin' Hot Cheetos. Flamin' Hot Cheetos. FLN. CHT. I can't believe. 88,000. Why? What are you going to do with this? You show it to your friends. You're like, dude. I bought Cheetos art. And they're like. Okay. Yeah. That's cool. Can I have a bite? Well, let's see. Cheetos is owned by Frito-Lay. And they are owned by PepsiCo. Which is on the NASDAQ. No, I did that.

[00:26:33] We just start going down this crazy rabbit hole. We turn this into a conspiracy podcast. This is actually all true. But we could probably just leave it there. They are. They're gassing up those stock prices, man.

[00:27:09] Now we move on to the topic. We're talking about 2004 in gaming. But before we get to the gaming part of this whole thing, I jotted down some cool, fun things that happened in 2004. And I thought it would be fun if we all took turns reading these. Because there's some pretty good stuff here. The first one is some doozies. Yeah. MySpace became the first social media site to reach 1 million users. And it's pretty cool. I miss MySpace. And they're still on top, if you can believe it.

[00:27:39] Really? No. Okay. You had me there for a second. Aaron. Aaron. I remember when we first started. Walking right into that. I did. I was so cautious of anything you say for the rest of this episode. Ask Jeeves is now the number one search engine again. Dog piles back, baby. I missed in second place. Oh, Jerry, read the next one. Fuck you. I'll read the third one. No, I'm just kidding. February.

[00:28:08] Zuck launched Facebook. Yeah. Facebook. I mean, that was a celebration back then, I guess. I remember when my then girlfriend was like, you gotta get a fastback. And I was like, what the fuck is that? I don't. What is that? I don't want that. Because every other day she was like, gotta draw a boss pass. Gotta draw that. Like, she was always driving me towards all these things that I didn't want to do. But I was like, I guess we'll do it because, like, you know, you're my girlfriend and stuff. And I did it. And I was always like, this is dumb.

[00:28:37] Why am I on this? Like, website where we post pictures. There was a web, Pixel, I think was like a website where, like, it was a website designer. And literally all people did was use it to put pictures up. That was it. They would just, like, make, like, albums. And then Facebook came along. And then it was like, oh, now we're going to post our pictures on this thing.

[00:28:59] And then I just remember that was the start of, like, posing for pictures for other people. And I've never liked getting my picture taken. So I was just really not on board with it from day one. It wasn't a wild how we used to, like, call people out publicly on their walls. Like, people would be having, like, full-blown fights in public. Oh, yeah. I forgot about that.

[00:29:28] Nancy called you a bitch. Like, you just see that, like, on someone's wall. You're jealous. Okay. Give me the runs. Like, thanks. Thanks, Mom. Yeah. Like, and then there was, like, the older generation. Like, my mom and dad would have, like, a Facebook account. And sometimes there would just be, like, Google searches as, like, their status. There's probably people still doing that, too. Oh, 100%. Good Lord.

[00:29:58] I remember I, um, on my old flip phone, I had for, you know, you could, you could text, like, this, like, five-digit number and it would be for, like, for Twitter. Like, you could, you could text this number to put out a new tweet on your Twitter account. Same with, like, Facebook. You could text this number to change your Facebook status and stuff like that. I had one, like, one of those for Wikipedia. Do you remember that? Yep. Yeah, that was cool. Brian, go ahead with the next one. Yeah. It's a big one. All right.

[00:30:27] So, in May, Shrek, yeah. Shrek 2 released in theaters grossing $935.3 million worldwide and remained the highest grossing animated film until Toy Story 3 in 2010. It's crazy, man. Want to know something crazy? I've never seen one Shrek movie. What? You're not missing one. I've only seen the first one and I was already getting a little sleepy by the end. And I'm guessing the first one's the best one.

[00:30:56] I have seen the Puss in Boots movie because I do have a kid. But that's as far as I've gotten. Yeah. It was actually pretty good. I enjoyed it. Yeah. Our kids are all older, so they grew up on fucking Hannah Montana and shit. Oh, fun fact. When I was a video game designer, I worked on Hannah Montana Rock Out the Show for the PSP. Oh, hell yeah. What do you mean? What do you mean, Brian?

[00:31:26] Explain yourself. This is crazy. I didn't know we had a fucking celebrity here. What? Of course. Still in the shrink wrap because I didn't need to play it anymore. I'm sure this thing's worth like $4 in the shrink wrap and three unshrink. Time to play the game. Brian, we do a thing here where we go to price charting. Oh, yeah.

[00:31:54] We see and take guesses at what we think this is worth. What is it? Hannah Montana. Rock Out the Show. Rock Out the Show. Okay. Yeah. All right. Aaron, hands up. I think that's it. How much do you think a loose copy, which is a wild thing to get, a loose copy of a PSP game. Loose. Hannah Montana. Rock Out the Show. What are we paying?

[00:32:24] Loose $15. Oh, that's got to be too high. That's way too high. Dude. Is it really? You don't need to flatter me. I was assigned to this. This wasn't a choice. You could buy Brian's sealed copy. It like autographed by him for $15 and it would spike the market up so high. But like everything else would collapse. The problem is we're just looking at an $88,000 Cheeto. So nothing makes sense right now. Yeah.

[00:32:53] So loose is $5.77. Oh, man. I was going to say $0.99 USD, but okay. Yeah. Complete in box is $7.49. Sweet. Oh, well. If I'm on hard times, I got something back there. And new, which is what you have, $13. All right. You got new. You should go get that thing graded. Dude. I mean, I had nightmares of the songs for this thing.

[00:33:21] I would pay good money to have like a film crew follow you on this journey to go to like what's the name of the place that does like the grading? Like they'll put like the numbers and shit in. Like put it in like those. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That. Yeah. Yeah. I would pay so much money to just have like a documentary about you with this game going to them and just being like, just sliding it on the table and be like, how much is this?

[00:33:50] I would have to pay them more money than it's worth to get it graded. Right? I've never done that stuff before. They would just look at it and be like, oh, I guess you can keep it. Yeah. They would feel bad for me. They'd be like, well, just give them a 10. Just give them a 10. So what did you do on this game? Yeah. Yeah. So I was a game designer. So it's a rhythm and dance game, although it's PSP. So you're just, you know, pushing buttons, which is not super fun. But basically she's going on world tour. She's on all these different settings.

[00:34:20] Me and the other designer had different settings and we would kind of, we'd block out where the characters are in Maya. We would work with the animators on like what we wanted done. And then we would literally like one by one insert the cues into like basically Excel. And then you would do, you would do the hard version first and then you would kind of like trim it down for medium, then trim it down for easy. It's just the fastest way to do it. We did like, you know, flash animated, you know, cinematic type stuff.

[00:34:47] And then I had to work with the sound designer on the bleeps and the bloops. One thing I did that I'm most proud, two things I'm proud of at this game. One, I named my, my, uh, one of the backup dancers is named after my niece. Cause she was just born. Oh, cool. Um, so it's kind of fun. Why not? And she actually is really into dance. So it's kind of funny. Um, and then two there, they gave us Disney, gave us all the split tracks. You know, if people don't know what split tracks are, it's like, if you record a song, right, there might be like 15 tracks. Right.

[00:35:16] And you can't just like extract those things unless you have the original, uh, split tracks and they gave us those. So you have the stems to this game? Well, I, at the time I don't, I don't, anyway, there was kind of like the, the post, you know, the post level, like, how did you do like scene, you know, like recap. And I just kind of took the drum and bass from it. And I, I, I personally think it sounds the way I edit. I chopped it up a little bit to sound kind of like the mega man, like post level music, like NES games.

[00:35:47] And, and then after I put that in there, they said, don't do that anymore. You were supposed to send you the split tracks. Don't mess. But we just left it like that. No way. They didn't say to take it out. So did you get a credit in that? I mean, I'm credited, but it doesn't say guy who messed with the music. Guy who made that sick beat. Yeah. Oh, that's awesome. I kind of, you know what? I kind of want to play this game now.

[00:36:16] I kind of want to play it. There's nothing that you can do to stop me. I don't want to play it. Right before you start playing a song, you're like, this one goes hard to Brian Rigsby. And then you start playing on your little PSP. Who does not want to be known for this game. But whatever. Yeah. That's, that's how I mean. Christ almighty. If I had known that, I would have introduced you as a guy that worked on the Hannah Montana. I mean. Rock out the show. I worked on a lot of stuff.

[00:36:46] I also worked on high school musical. Oh, seriously. Holy shit, dude. Well, here's the thing. Like I want to cancel games too. I joke around, but you've worked on more games that I've worked on. It's okay. I mean, we also, we worked on like the fun games were in the earlier days. These were like Medal of Honor. And we worked on some MMR RPGs. And then just like some other cool stuff. We were designing one company. We were designing a Leisure Suit Larry game for the N-Gage.

[00:37:15] And they were just having me and all the potty mouth, like 22 year olds. This is like the first company I was at. Write a game design document. They're like, just have fun. And I had actually played one of the Leisure Suit Larry games when I was a kid. It was like a friend's dad's game. And so I was like, okay, yeah, I know what this is. And like, we were just writing crazy things down. And then a month later, they're like, yeah, it's not, it's not going to happen anymore.

[00:37:41] I don't think the N-Gage's history is very well known. I don't think that would have done too well on the N-Gage. No, nothing could say. Nothing did very well on the N-Gage. Nothing did well on the N-Gage. The N-Gage didn't do well on the N-Gage. No. It sure didn't. Speaking of N-Gage. Hey, Aaron, what else happened in 2004? Oh, yeah. Sorry. No, you're good. That was a good aside. I love that. It was good.

[00:38:10] Yeah, November, George W. Bush was reelected. Oh, my gosh. Who was his opponent? It was John Kerry, wasn't it? I don't remember. I don't know. I don't know. I wasn't, I actually wasn't paying attention to politics at that age. Al Gore, I believe. Was it Al Gore? It might have been Al Gore. Remember the Florida count? I feel like all you need to do is look up South Park at that time, and then it'll tell you who they're making fun of. No, that was 2000, actually. That was the first time.

[00:38:40] George W. Man, the Michael Scott of presidents. Don't make me do stuff. I'm reading super fudge. He was wild to watch from a Canadian standpoint. At the time, our prime minister was just this old guy that was super boring. Then every time George W. Bush was on the TV, he was just like, oh, man.

[00:39:09] Yeah, falling over his words. Just being like, we're going to go get those goddamn terrorists. Now watch me drive this four iron. And he just hit a ball on a golf course. He was just doing the craziest shit. And then I'll never forget seeing that press thing where someone threw a goddamn shoe at him. And he ducked. And then they threw the other one. He ducked over that, too. And he was just like, oh, see you over there, boy. Like, he was crazy.

[00:39:39] I'd give anything to go back to that time. God. Jerry, what's the next one? Motorola Razr and Nintendo DS launched. I had a Razr along with a billion other people that I know. And I loved that thing. Cool, fun fact. I loved that thing. When I realized that I could put Faith No More as my ringtone, that was the beginning of the end times. Really, really cool, fun fact about Aaron.

[00:40:08] And I did not have a Motorola Razr. I went with the Samsung Hue because I was like, I don't want to have the phone everybody else has. I want to have the phone that nobody else is using. And then as soon as I got it, like a few days after that, I was like, oh, that's why no one's using this phone. It's nowhere near as cool as the Razr. But, yeah, the Razr's cool, man. Still wish I would have gotten that instead of the Samsung Hue.

[00:40:37] But, I mean, what can you do? One of your biggest life regrets. Brian, did you have a Razr? No, I didn't get a cell phone until the next year. I remember thinking, like, I just don't need this thing. I was still checking messages on the answer machine with my, like, you know, three or four roommates at the time. I just didn't want it, you know? I just didn't feel ready. Do you remember the LG Chocolate? I feel like that was, like, the next one after that. That's a good one.

[00:41:07] LG Chocolate. Yeah, that was a good one. Yeah. That was, like, I think that was, like, the last T9 phone that I had. Oh, such a good phone. Dude, do you ever have to break up with somebody over T9? It sucked. I did a, uh, the Samsung Intensity 2. Is that? Oh, no. No, that had T9 actually. What is that? It also had, like, the slide-up keyboard. Look up Samsung Intensity 2. Oh, no, no, no. One of those ones that, like, had the slide-up keyboard. That's cheating.

[00:41:38] You didn't live until you had just T9. It had also T9 on it. It had, like, a full key, like, an actual, it was two in one. Basically, two in one. It was good. I can't believe we're talking about these cell phones over the Nintendo DS. I mean, I can tie it back to games real quick. The first gaming company I was at, I was, this is when I was still, like, in QA at the very beginning. We made flip phone games. So, we had, like, an X-Men game. We had a Tenchu game. What? Tenchu?

[00:42:05] Like, the X-Men was, like, a fighting game, like, Street Fighter style. And it was so stupid. Like, you're just hitting, like, towards the person, which would be, what, six on the numpad if you're on the left side? And towards is also attack. So, if you just get close enough and there was no reason to jump. So, you're literally just hitting this one button. Like, I remember our CEO was, like, he was, like, mobile gaming is the future. And we were all laughing at him. We're, like, you're crazy.

[00:42:35] And then, of course, like, if he had stuck with it a little longer, it's, like, mobile gaming blew up, like, a few years later. Like, I still don't think it's the future. But, like, it had a really big moment for a really long time. It's just the platform was not ready for it yet. And he was, like, no, no, no, we should start switching over from PC to this. This is going to be a big deal. Funding ran out for that company. So, he never got to see it through. That's so crazy. Unless you really, really, really like Snake.

[00:43:04] Yeah, mobile gaming back then just wasn't. I remember I had this mobile version of Guitar Hero 3, I think. And, of course, it just used, like, the number pad. I think it was just 1, 2, and 3. So, you only had, like, the three frets. It sucked. It really sucked. I remember the first mobile game I ever owned, I had a Samsung little flip phone. It was my very first cell phone.

[00:43:30] And that had a version of Fantasy Zone on it. Holy shit. And I remember, like, I didn't know what I was doing. I was just, like, I went into the store to, like, see what games were available. And I was just, like, yeah, click on this. And it was, like, do you agree to the terms and conditions to purchase this thing? And I'm, like, yeah. And then my mom and dad, like, flipped. They were, like, what did you buy for $399?

[00:43:57] Like, I mean, this is back in, this is probably back in, like, 2003 or 2004, actually. And they were, like, what did you buy with the cell phone? It was $399? And I was, like, I don't know, man. And that was the only thing I ever had was Fantasy Zone until I had an iPhone 4. Yep. It was the only game I ever had. Hell. But. Yeah. Let's get the next one. Yeah. Nintendo DS also launched. Pretty cool. Yeah, that's a good one. We're skipping it, though. Pretty cool little handheld. Yeah. It is cool. That's a can of worms. Yeah.

[00:44:27] So the next one is Jude Law named Sexiest Man Alive by People Magazine. For the kids, he's the guy in that Star Wars show you might have seen recently. I just, I did look up a picture. I mean, he had a lot going on then. It's a good picture. He deserved it. Good on him. I'm struggling to remember anything that I know Jude Law from, like, by name, but I can't. Gattaca. Wasn't he in, like, the Sherlock movies? Have you seen Gattaca? Yeah, he's in Sherlock movies. I don't think so.

[00:44:56] Gattaca is my favorite of his because I haven't seen him in a lot of stuff. Oh, dude. Aaron, you've seen Jude Law. Like, you've seen him. I'm sure I have. He's been in quite a few, like, romantic comedies, too, I believe. Oh, cool. Yeah. After that, well, not after that, but original Star Wars trilogy released on DVD for the first time, and it made $100 million. People ate that up like hotcakes, man. It's crazy. Good reason. But was it better, though?

[00:45:24] I feel like that was the one that people were complaining about, right? That it was like they, like, digitally altered a lot of scenes and stuff and, like, added stuff that I don't remember. I think the VHS release had already done that, and that was before this. I'm pretty sure. They had at least already started to refine it. I don't know if that's when they added the whatever, the things. Oh, yeah. I think you're right. That was, like, in the 90s when people were complaining about all the changes and stuff.

[00:45:53] I just remember, like, as far back as I can remember anything about Star Wars, I just remember people complaining about Jabba the Hutt, the way that he looked at, like, the re-releases. They were like, what did they do to Jabba? And, like, there was, like, a whole scene. It was either cut or added in of, like, someone tripping over his tail or something. There was this unreleased scene from A New Hope where there's a stand-in, and then they digitally added Jabba over the stand-in for one of the re-releases.

[00:46:21] And when Han walks around him, they had to have a reason, like, how could he walk around him? There's a tail. So they make him kind of, like, shriek, like, you know, uh-huh. I don't know if they, like, made Han raise up or whatever they did. I'm trying to, like, black it out of my memory. You know what I mean? Because, like, I don't need any of that. This is what people got paid for. There was a bunch of people in a writer's room just being like, goddammit, what do we do about Jabba? What do we do about this scene? Like, we gotta figure this out. Just leave it out. Yeah.

[00:46:51] Just do that. Just do nothing. Sometimes that's better. Yeah. And then this big one. This is a big, big one. World of Warcraft released. That's, I did not know that it was that long ago. So that's crazy. Unlike Jude Law, I think everyone still remembers World of Warcraft. Yes. You know, I never got into it. I tried.

[00:47:19] I tried several times to get into WoW, but it never really hooked me. And I don't know. On paper, it sounds like something that I would love. But. Yeah. It's on my list. I'll definitely get to it. It's on the backlog. No, I mean, it's on my list to talk about today. Oh, okay. I'll definitely get into it. Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah. Speaking of that list, Aaron, why don't we go through these games from 2004?

[00:47:47] 2004, we each kind of picked some standout games from that year, 2004, the year of our Lord, where, yeah, I see some real big games here. And it was, it took me a while. I was typing out some stuff and I was like, God damn it, Brian already has it. And I was like, typed in another thing. I was like, God damn it. Aaron already has that. I know. And I was like. Brian already had like three of mine. Damn it. You guys can take, you guys can have one each from the bottom of my list. If you want.

[00:48:18] No, no. Lucky for you. We can all talk about them. It's fine. Lucky for you. This was a year of just banger after banger after banger. Like, yeah, Silent Hill. Well, I guess some people don't like Silent Hill 4, but it's been awesome. They're wrong. It's okay to be wrong. Is that, is that the room? The room one? Yes. That's the room. I've only played the first, I only played the first hour of it. I was like borrowing it and just trying to get a taste of it. And at the time I hadn't like played through any of the other ones.

[00:48:45] I've since gone back and played two and the remake of two. So I wonder if I'd appreciate it now. If I like gave it. I love the concept of this like person in a room. What's going on. You're peeking through the window. The people with the chains is. It's extremely mysterious. I would absolutely go back and play that. You said that you bought that crusty, infected PS2 that you bought. That thing's in the dumpster now, but I have the, I have the PS1. I got to go get another PS2 now again. That's all I mean. The room is on God.

[00:49:15] You can get it on on God. Oh, did they release that on God? It's been on God for a really long time. Thank fuck. I didn't know that. Yeah. Brian, Brian, you have a PC. Yeah. That can play. I actually don't. I'm a, I switch from. I, when I, when I switched out of the gaming industry, I, I went into a MacBooks territory and I know I can still do PC on a Mac or whatever, but like, I just, I don't bother. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:49:43] I would, you know, honestly, my, if I were to play this game now, I have a PS2 and I have it soft modded and I have it hooked up to like an upscaler and those games look amazing. I have a nice OLED TV, throw some scan line filters on there. That's awesome. Oh, it looks so like, I don't know. There's something about it. I, I, I don't like seeing these PS. Honestly, I hate seeing PS2 games upscaled. I don't like seeing it.

[00:50:11] I want to see the imperfections and the little jaggies. Oh, me too. Like I want that. Yeah. So I would absolutely, when you get a PS2 set up, revisit this game. It's really good. It is scary as hell too. Like it is still scary. Like unsettling. It'd be cool. Also, if they remake some more of the silent hill games, I wouldn't mind. I mean, I think there's, there's worth in the old and the new, but I. Did you enjoy the silent hill to remake? I loved it. I thought it was a masterpiece.

[00:50:40] I, my job was on the floor. It was my game of the year, but I also didn't play. All of the contenders. So it's kind of unfair to compare, but yeah. I mean, just like with the resident evil remakes, cause that's one of my favorite series. Oh yeah. They're amazing. I love the old, I love the new, like, like my favorite resident evil game is actually the game cube remake of the original. Yeah. I don't mind tank controls and cinematic horror, like angles. We just became best friends, Brian. Like, like up is forward.

[00:51:10] Like actually is logical to me. I think that, I think that kills a lot of people. So yes, exactly. Tank controls make sense. Especially when you have a fixed perspective, when the camera is constantly changing. Cause guess what? When they took tank controls away in devil may cry. My brain went, I don't like this. Stop this now. Stop it. I don't like, I'm holding, I want to hold one direction to move in that direction.

[00:51:37] So yes, Brian, thank you so much. I just like, I like it all. Like, I think the remakes are great too. You know, like, Oh yeah. The remakes are just, they're just, they're all good. But tank controls, dude. But yeah, silent hill four, if it was just made in, you know, in the silent hill two style, that'd be awesome. But even then I probably would want to play the original first before I do the new one. So I can see all the differences and like appreciate the differences. So you've never played the first silent hill, like the OG. I've played it. I just never finished it.

[00:52:07] And then two, I originally like borrowed back in the day. Didn't quite finish it. Then had to circle back to it later. Three. I just, I don't, I don't know much about three other than three is very good. I think. Yeah. Yeah. Three is very good. Very good. I should probably just go through all of them at this point. Let's just do a run. Yeah. One to four. You don't have to. Yeah. Yeah. You don't have to do like, I personally like homecoming and downpour.

[00:52:36] They're kind of panned, but like, I just, I like them. I don't think. I've also played the PS. I played the, the PSP has like a prequel game and it is like shattered memories. Yeah. It's kind of like, it's got some interesting things going on with it. Maybe there's a couple for PSP, but it's the one where there's like a guy with like a trucker hat. He's their. Yeah. Origins. Oh, that's Origins. Yeah. Origins. Yeah. Yeah. That's good. It's like, it's got some interesting things.

[00:53:02] It nails like all the concepts well enough, but it's like, it feels more dated than the PS wanted to. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's pretty bare bones. Like it's, it's a decent silent Hill game. Like it's better than that. It was cool. Yeah. The, the, whatever that PS Vita one that came out, it was like a top down dungeon crawler. Wow. What a piece of shit that was, man. I came sucked. I'm fucked.

[00:53:27] But yeah, from my list, Aaron, if, if you'll allow me to, to go just cause we're in here. Yeah. Yeah. The floor is mine. It's, it's not the first thing on my list, but just because I recently talked about this Ninja Gaiden, my God almighty, that game. I just recently played Ninja Gaiden black, which is like the definitive version of Ninja Gaiden for the Xbox.

[00:53:52] And I feel like I was mad with myself that I did not play this game series that I did not do much with this whole series at all up to like now. And I owned Ninja Gaiden Sigma, never really played it. Like never did much with it, but man, I threw on Ninja Gaiden black just because of that re-release

[00:54:19] of, um, Ninja Gaiden two on game pass. And yeah, it's like, holy shit. But if I had to play this back then, like that would have blown my mind because it's such a good game. So everybody go play Ninja Gaiden, please. And it's cool that Tecmo was doing so many Xbox exclusive games back in that day. Cause yeah, that, that Ninja Gaiden was Xbox or shit, Xbox exclusive. It's so hard to say Xbox exclusive also.

[00:54:48] Maybe that's why they stopped making them. But yeah, Ninja Gaiden was Xbox exclusive for a little bit. Same with, uh, I forget which dead or alive game. Uh, that was also Xbox exclusive for a little bit. It's tough to say, but I believe in you. I, uh, I think they have that collection of these games on newer consoles. Don't they? I, you're, you're really hyping this up. I need to go play those. You should, you should play those. Brian, have you played Ninja Gaiden games?

[00:55:17] Uh, just the NES ones. That's it. Have you, have you beat any of the NES ones? I have not. I don't think I've put the time into it because I didn't, we had the first one or borrowed it or something. We didn't have much time with it. And I only got the second and third as an adult and didn't have the, uh, childhood patience to really give it a go. So I recently threw on Ninja Gaiden for NES on my mister and I quickly realized, and I'm,

[00:55:47] I'm like, I take pride in the fact that I'm really good at video games, some video games, but I, I couldn't believe my eyes with this game. Like the cheapness of the enemy placement, the respawning, just the, it's insane. Like some of the, some of the levels, like the run that you have to go on to get to a boss is just like, okay guys, like this is to lose like right away. For me, that game is ghosts and goblins for NES.

[00:56:16] Like I, I've beat ghosts and goblins for the NES. Not like the two playthroughs it tells you to do, but like the one, but it's like the same thing you're saying. It's like, there are certain points in that game where you literally can't move. You're like, I got to go up this ladder, but there's this thing and I'm stuck and I can't like it's, it's positioned in this way where I just have to start. Oh, like, is it that kind of feeling where you're like, you just feel cheated a little bit. So here's the thing on the mister. You can load in cheats. So that's what I did.

[00:56:45] I turned on, I didn't turn on like anything. So I like to play some of these retro games sometimes with cheats on just because of like this game, like how stupidly difficult it is where it's like, this is just not great game design at this point. Like, it's just like, like I'm, I'm all for a hard game, but like, this is just like bogus game design. So what I'll do is I'll turn on cheats for like either like unlimited continues or like unlimited lives.

[00:57:12] So that way I'm not having to like restart from the very beginning. And like, if I have to leave the game, I'll, I'll drop a safe state. If the core support safe states, I'll drop one like at the beginning of like, like world three, one, like I'll drop one there and kind of play it like fairly in a way. This game, even with cheats on is still fucked. Like it's still so insane.

[00:57:39] Like you can't fucking, I'm, I mean like the ice level and there's just, there's just guys shooting bullets that don't make sense. Cause they're not like in any sort of like rhythm or timing. It's just like random ass bullets that you can't time and you have to jump over them perfectly every single time. And then like, you've got to go through this whole crazy ass level only to get to the very end. And there's this insane boss.

[00:58:06] And if you die of the boss, which I get there, even with like, like even just min maxing all of everything, just trying to perfectly, I'll get there with like half my health. Nope. Annihilated. Yep. It's just cruel. Yeah. So I, I use cheats. I don't care. I don't care. I use cheats. Brian, have you ever cheated on any games in 2004? In 2004? I don't know. No, not back then.

[00:58:34] I mean, the closest I come to cheating now is of like, if I have to all emulate something cause I'd rather see it than not see it. And like, maybe I'll do a safe state here or there. You know what I mean? Because I'm like, I'm like, I got things to do tomorrow. I gotta. Exactly. Yeah. You're not safe scumming. Like you're just. And I'm not, and I'm not like showing off after being like, look what I did. It's like, no, I didn't really do it. You know, I just wanted to experience it. It's not a big deal. Yeah. A hundred percent.

[00:59:02] So what, uh, what stands out for you in 2004? Uh, so I'm gonna, I'm going to combine my first two since I have too many on my list anyway, and they do go together and you'll see why. So half-life two big for me and everyone I knew, um, it was obviously a pretty big leap forward from one to two for people that don't remember or didn't experience this. Like you're in this, you know, first person perspective, you're getting off this train.

[00:59:29] And one of the first things that happened is this combine guardian guy is like, pick up that can and put it in the trash. And you're like, what? And then you start to learn, you're like, oh, there's physics in this game. This is like, oh, and if I put it in there, he actually reacts to it. It's like, this all felt really novel at the time. It's, it was kind of a big deal. Plus the game sounded great. It looked great. It had a really cool story. Like I'm a sucker for any game. That's like kind of like post-apocalyptic, you know, that's about this like evil regime

[00:59:58] and, uh, you're fighting against them and you're part of the resistance. It's, it's, it's really cool. And like, you really feel like you're this action hero, you know, in living in a movie, but without it being overly cinematic where you feel like you have a lot of control. And then that leads me to my, my next one, which is Counter-Strike Source. So I played a lot of like 1.6 before Source. I remember even when 1.6 came out, I was like starting to get this itch. Like I wanted to like learn more about like how to make games and stuff.

[01:00:24] And I remember using their editor at the time and I couldn't quite figure it out or I just wasn't patient enough, but when the Source engine came out and you know, Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike Source were out there. I gave the, I gave the engine another try and I ended up making some Counter-Strike Source maps. I ended up later making a Left 4 Dead 2 campaign. So like all these things opened the door for me to like learn these tools and like explore and have fun and probably waste way too many hours doing, making things for free, just

[01:00:54] putting them out there. But it was all like worth it. It was like a ton of fun and like Counter-Strike Source is like the reason why I don't play any endless games anymore. I have not for a really like over a decade because it's like too hard to stop. They're just too fun. And you know, the Steam, I mean, we think of Steam as being this like normal thing now, right? It was just this, it was incredible innovation.

[01:01:21] It did come out in late 2003, so we can't credit it for 2004, but obviously it blew up in 2004 when these two games came out. Yeah. I barely, I barely remember Steam back then. Like I had heard of it, but I didn't really know it. I definitely didn't have anything on it. Like I just, I was still like, I think I built my very first like gaming PC around that time. But I was like, I was still buying like those box like games.

[01:01:50] Like I would go to GameStop and I'd be like, ooh, Bioshock on PC. Yup. My PC can run that. But I was still buying those. Like I didn't, I wasn't in on the digital thing. It wasn't until, yeah, it wasn't until like, I guess it was like that PS4 era is when I was like, oh, I'm going all digital now. Like that's, that's how I'm going to swing things. I remember. But yeah, that's, that's really cool.

[01:02:16] I remember a buddy of mine back in the day, his dad was a gigantic PC gaming nerd. Like he had one of those huge computer desks. One of the ones where I had like a bajillion different shelves for like, for CDs and like knickknacks and shit. And he had it. I know exactly the one you're talking to me. Yeah. He had it totally decked out with his different like tool CDs and then his like big box PC games. So like he had, of course, Half-Life 2.

[01:02:46] We watched him, we watched, we watched my buddy's dad play Half-Life 2 over and over and over. Uh, what the hell was that? Star Wars Battlefront. We, we played that game all the time. That was, yeah, that was a good time. I missed those like those big box game or the, the big boxes that the games have come in on PC because you always get so much cool shit in there. Like you get the cool manuals. Of course the discs, the fucking three discs that you need to install the game. And yeah, those were Half-Life 2.

[01:03:16] I mean, speaking of Metal Jesus earlier, like you ever see his like retro PC? Oh yeah. You ever seen that video of his? It's crazy. He has like, he has like a few different PCs from like different eras. And like one of them is like a DOS one that he has like set up specifically for just like DOS games and shit. And then he has like another one for playing. Like he has like a whole like shelf of those like big boxes.

[01:03:42] And I remember watching a video of his and he was like talking about these big boxes and how like they were wild, you know? Like these PC boxes were massive for no reason. Like there was no reason to have these boxes be this big. And it was on, they were all on discs and shit. So like these boxes would be like the size of like my upper body. It would be for like Duke Nukem. Duke Nukem. And to bring it back to Half-Life 2.

[01:04:11] On a floppy disk. To bring it back to Half-Life 2. I remember watching the, like the, the opening scene to Half-Life 2 for the very first time where you're on the train. And then the, I think it was it the train explodes. And then the G-Man is like rise and shine Mr. Freeman. And I was like, holy shit, that looks so realistic. And like, this is me coming from Metroid Prime on the GameCube. I was like, oh, this game looks so realistic. This is crazy.

[01:04:41] And you can see like the little dimple, not as dimples, the little like imperfections in the G-Man's face. Yeah. The nipples in his face. It's just, yeah, it looks good. Yeah. Half-Life 2 was a really, really good one that year. Super good pick. Speaking of super good picks, a game that I spent way too many hours on back in the day. Need for Speed Underground 2.

[01:05:06] Lord, all my, I can still hear that fucking Snoop Dogg song like in my head every single day. I still hear the, uh, uh, riders on the storm. Like it's, it's just stuck in my head, man. Was that Snoop Dogg? Yeah. Yeah. He did a cover of that song. I think the original song was done by the Doors, but Snoop Dogg did a cover of it. Oh. Yeah. I know. I'm not familiar with it. I'll have to go jam it later. Do it, dude. Snoop Dogg, riders in the storm. It's good stuff.

[01:05:37] I think it also had, I think there was, I think Mastodon did a, had a song on there. I think it was Blood and Thunder. Um, anyway, yeah. Need for Speed Underground 2 was, so the original Underground was just like race to race to race all through menus. There wasn't really anything else you could do in between other than, you know, customize your car or that's pretty much it. But Underground 2 was the first game where it was an open world that you could just,

[01:06:03] you drive around this, this city and do whatever and start races and everything. And it was, it was rad as hell to customize your perfect car and then cruise around and smash into buildings and ship. That game was just really, really, really good. So, it's funny that like you bring up like the soundtrack and stuff because I'm like, I'm looking at the, the picks that I have and it's like, yeah, but I agree because I

[01:06:29] look over at Brian's and sorry, Brian, to, uh, to, to make you bring this one up a little prematurely here. But, uh, I feel like this was around that time that I was like getting new music from games more so than I was back in like the PS1 era with like Tony Hawk games and stuff. Need for Speed Underground, the way that you describe it, but like San Andreas, dude, that's

[01:06:56] what got me into like Soundgarden. I, I didn't grow up on Soundgarden. I grew up on like obviously old shit like Green Day and Nirvana and stuff, but like never really listened to Soundgarden until it was like on this game and like Alice in Chains and all these other things like Faith No More. And that's when I was like, shit, what are all these bands? I've never heard of any of these things. Or like maybe I have heard of them, but I never actually listened to them before. And then I'm pretty sure that's when I was like, oh, I like gangster rap.

[01:07:25] What do you mean? Like I like, I like Black Betty by Spiderbait. Fucking. Yeah. It was, it was totally a time of just like getting music from soundtracks. I loved that stuff. Yeah. I remember you'd always, you'd be like, should I not get out of the car yet? Because I kind of want to finish this song, which is like what people still do today. You know, they're like listening to a podcast or whatever. They're like, oh, I'm not really done yet. I got to finish this part.

[01:07:54] Although it's all portable these days. I did look one thing up about San Andreas, which I don't think I ever knew this. It was the best selling game in the world that year. Really? In Japan, the best selling game in Japan was Dragon Quest VIII, which we didn't get until 2005. So it's not a contender. Makes sense. But I mean, I'm not surprised. I mean, this was like the third iteration of three, right? I remember thinking like while I was playing it, I got tired of it faster.

[01:08:20] But that's because I had played, you know, like Vice City and GTA 3 so much that I was like, I was like, I think I've had enough. It didn't mean it was like, it was definitely not boring. Like it was incredible. But it was the first time where I felt like the world was a little too big for what it was. Like they went big for the sake of going big, but then like there wasn't as much to like fill in the space. That's actually like my criticism about the latest. I'm calling it the latest. It's been out for like, what, like a hundred years now.

[01:08:49] Like it's like the only GTA where I didn't finish the storyline because I just kind of got tired of it. I'm like, yeah, it looks like real life, but I don't like that. I have to drive all the way up the Hollywood Hills. Like that's too far. Well, even like, even like in those like wooded areas and shit, it's just like, there's nothing out there. Nothing exciting. It's the wooded areas of, of San Andreas that I was thinking about specifically when I said that. Yeah. It's, and it's fine. I mean, it's an excellent game. Also, if you had never played the previous games or if you didn't play them to death,

[01:09:17] like I did, where I'm going to find all the packages or whatever, just to get my stupid t-shirt or whatever they give you at the end, you know, maybe then it would be fine. But like we, me and my roommate, we played GTA 3 to death. Like it was, it was a problem. So I was already very fulfilled by the time this one came out. Nice. Besides my little tangent about game music from this time. I mean, speaking of game music, the intro music to doom three, I thought was the hardest

[01:09:47] shit ever at the time. Like I was like, oh my God, like pure metal in like the intro of a song. This is crazy. Also doom three. That's not that bad of a game. I feel like doom three gets kind of shit on by like doom enjoyers, but it had a different pacing and it had a different vibe, but I kind of really liked it.

[01:10:11] Like that was the, one of the first games I had on like a gaming PC and I thought it was just incredible. Like I, I was scared. Like doom was never really ever scary. It was intense, but not scary. This, this was like, oh, it's got some scary shit in it. Like there was actually like jump scares and shit. There was like an actual story happening. Like I, I just felt like it was a, a big step up and that was when I was like, oh, okay. Like this is, this is an amazing game.

[01:10:41] And then everybody's like, no, it's not, it's not, but this is not classic doom. I was like, oh, okay. I guess it's not a good game then. And I just like fell off of it, but it was recently that I picked it back up and I was like, yeah, this game was good. I was right. They were wrong. This is a good game. Yeah. So I watched my brother play through this game on his, the original Xbox back in the day. And we were little kid. Well, not little kids, but we were like, maybe like middle school kids.

[01:11:09] And yeah, that game was freaky as fuck. Like I'm looking at a couple of screenshots and it's still kind of fucking like compared to doom one and two where everything is just, you know, pixelated and just kind of wonky and goofy looking like this one screenshot. I'm seeing this like slug beast with two front legs with like three mouths and he's like walking toward you down this really like narrow hallway. Like that's, that's some pretty gnarly shit.

[01:11:37] That's, that's really cool. I'm glad they went the horror like direction with, with doom, with doom three. That's yeah. That game was cool. There's a, there's a VR mod for doom three. Oh Jesus Christ. And doom three works really cool as a VR game. Gotta say. So let's talk about world of Warcraft. You cannot talk about 2004 without talking about world of Warcraft, even if you never played it.

[01:12:04] So my story with wow is that, uh, my roommate at the time I told him like, Hey, there's this new game called wow. Like I know about MMORPGs, but I've never played one and I'm super curious and it looks cool. And all of our friends are going to play it. And he said, don't do it. I was addicted to ever. I was addicted to ever quest and it took me a long time to stop. And I'm like, nah, it'll be fine.

[01:12:30] And then, uh, I played it and I think the level cap was 60 when it first came out, if I'm right. And I remember making it all the way to 60 playing solo and sometimes pairing up with these two other guys I knew. And, uh, it was incredibly addictive. You just want to do the next thing, do the next thing. It wasn't all that fulfilling to be totally honest. Like I look back at it and I'm not like, Oh, wasn't that so fun?

[01:12:57] I'm like, kind of just felt like I was doing work, but it is like, yeah, like checking things off a list can feel good, but it's not all. It's also not productive. And as soon as I hit 60, I remember everyone said, that's when the game starts. Now you go on raids and do this stuff and you get this epic gear. And I'm like, all right, show me. And I remember the waiting is what killed the experience for me. It's like you're sitting outside this dungeon. You're waiting for people to show up. All right. We have a big enough squad together, whatever the number was.

[01:13:25] Oh, someone just, Oh, sorry. Paul had to go. And then you're waiting and you're waiting and you're waiting. And it's, it's just like, you finally go inside and everyone's like, Oh, I've already done this dungeon 20 times. Uh, just follow me. No, you're not doing it right. You're not press this button. No, don't touch the treasure. Jenkins. Like I touched the treasure. I tell you. And like, I found, I found this experience to be incredibly unfun. And so after doing that for like a couple of days, I'm like, all right, I'm done. This is going to make it easy for me to leave.

[01:13:55] Actually. I sold my character. I went on a forum. Like anyone want to buy this character? Some, some guy was like, I think he was like 200 bucks or something, which is like, means I'm $200. But which means I'm working for like pennies on the hour. Right. Because you know, the time it, but still whatever I use as an additional excuse to make sure I would not come back to it. I remember the guy, he seemed a little unstable, but he, um, I'm like, yeah, that sounds good.

[01:14:25] Uh, I'm like, yeah, I'm going to work when I come back. Uh, we'll get it all set up. And then he sent me the money and then I come home because, you know, back then you don't have a smartphone in your pocket. Yeah. Uh, and he, he's blowing up. Oh, you scam me. You never sent me the character. I'm like, dude, I just got home from work. Everything's fine. Here's your character. You know, he said it was like birthday money or something. I'm like, who's getting 200 bucks for their birthday? Like good for you. But, um, yeah.

[01:14:54] And that's how it got out of my hands. And then, uh, I didn't look back. Yeah. That's kind of how the way that you described that checking things off a list. Is how I described to many people, my initial playing of final fantasy 14 online. Because I kept hearing about how insane this game was. And I was like, it's an MMO though. I don't know how I feel about those. And I was like, fuck it. Whatever. Who cares?

[01:15:23] I'll, it's free to try up until certain points. I'll try it. And it was exactly that. But it was fun to jump on with my two friends and just like dick around, do some dungeons. There was a story there, but it was like, who cares? But then after that was when I went, oh, this is what everybody talks about. This right here. And from like that moment onward was like, oh, this is as good or better than most final fantasy games.

[01:15:53] Like ever. It's crazy. I mean, my, the podcast that I was doing before, like that I still do. Um, besides this one, super ghost with my two friends, Greg and Beth. We started that because of final fantasy 14 online because of how much we were talking there. And we were like, this could just be a podcast, right? Like us, us just talking like this.

[01:16:14] And yeah, but it was so much fun because it was like during the pandemic and it was like, oh, I'm just like hanging out with my friends and we're just like playing this game together. But then once it actually kicked into gear, it had its hooks in me. I didn't, if it, if I had jumped on in its initial stages, I probably would have done the same thing. I would have been like, yeah, you know what? This was okay, but I'm time. It's time to move on.

[01:16:39] But because it, it was already like nine years into this game and it had gotten really, really good. It got its hooks in me bad, like real bad. Right. And for all I know, you know, World of Warcraft, like I never saw expansions or any of that, you know, like I'm sure it got more interesting, but like I, I wasn't there for the ride. I got off, I got off the bus very early. Yep. Aaron hit me with another one of yours, dude.

[01:17:09] A really, really big one for me was Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen. I went with LeafGreen because yeah, I thought Venusaur was cool, but yeah, these were, these were pretty fucking huge full blown GBA remakes of, uh, blue, red and yellow. And dude, it was awesome. It was really awesome going through the Kanto region and, and seeing everything that you know and love from your Game Boy like many years ago.

[01:17:38] Now on GBA with just so much more detail, better music. The gameplay is way, way, way better. Because I don't know if anybody has ever gone back and played red, blue or yellow, but they're fucking, they're slow. They're so slow. They're so fucking arcade. Crystal now. I'm playing Crystal and it, Crystal's a little bit. It's not faster. No, it's not faster. I'm playing, I'm literally playing that game on my analog pocket.

[01:18:07] And on the R button, because it's a Game Boy Color game, the R button is automatically mapped to fast forward. I've played the entire game in fast forward because it actually feels like a normal running game now. Do you have to hold that thing down the whole time or is it a toggle? It is a toggle. Didn't realize that until day two of playing the game. So I was literally just like, I was like, I'll just treat it like it's the run button. And I just held it down the whole time. But yeah, when I realized that you could just toggle it.

[01:18:37] So I'm just like, and when you talk, like when you hit fast forward, it cuts the sound. It doesn't like speed the sound up or anything. It just like cuts the sound. So I'm just playing this game like in silence. I'll just like throw on like a podcast or like a show or something and I'll just play, play the game. And I'm happy to announce that I, because so I guess this is a spoiler. Like if you care about spoilers for Pokemon Crystal on the Game Boy Color, avert your attention for a couple seconds here.

[01:19:06] But when it did, because just as a backstory, I never played another Pokemon after I played Red as a kid. Like I've, I've tried some, but I've never like actually gotten into them and actually sat down and was like, oh, I'm gonna beat this game. So my buddy recently was like, dude, I think you should check out Crystal. Cause it's like kind of nostalgic because there's a lot of gen one and like just the whole feel of it and everything.

[01:19:35] Like it is very much just a continuation of that, those first games. And I was like, really now, you know, I have this analog pocket and it's, it's, I haven't really used it too, too much. I was like, this is a good excuse to play something on the pocket. So I throw it on and I was instantly in love with it. Cause I was like, oh, this is exactly what I've been wanting.

[01:19:55] Like I just, and honestly, if I had to play this game when I was a kid, right after playing Red and Blue, the twist that I'm talking about is that at a certain point you go back to the full map from the first games. And you have to go through the whole map, do all of those gyms. And like, it's a whole thing. It does the fake out credit shit where like you get credits and it's like, oh, but wait, don't you want to like actually be the punk?

[01:20:25] Pokemon master. And it's like, what the fuck do you mean? I just killed the elite fours Pokemon over here on top of mountain. It's like when a game has like the percentage and then you're trying to get to a hundred percent. It's like, actually, this is 129% game. You can still make it a hundred percent. You don't have to do that to me. You can, you can country. Yeah. Like I, I was totally like, cause I, I got credits and I was like, cool.

[01:20:55] It's literally midnight. I'm laying in bed. Got the credits. Awesome. Seeing that it like saved my game. So I was like, cool. Turn off the analog pocket. I text Greg and Beth. I'm like, beat. Got it. It's in the books. And they were like, did you see credits? And I was like, yeah, they were like, you're not done. And I was like, what do you mean? I seen credits. I'm done. And they were like, no, this is like one of those things where it's like a fake out thing. Like, oh, this is, it's just getting started. And yeah, it was, it was like that.

[01:21:25] If I had to play this game as a kid, my, my child brain would have been all over the walls. My head would have exploded if I hadn't played this. Like it would have been insane to see like, oh, now you're going back to the whole entire original map. And now you have to do all of those gyms. But like, you're kind of like ripping shit up though. By the time you go back over there, like you're, you're pretty, pretty leveled up. But I'm literally at the last boss now fighting red.

[01:21:54] Like you're fighting the main character from the first game. And it's like, oh, okay. This shit's actually really like, I'm, I'm like cruising along with my level 50 out, uh, not Alakazam. What's the one below Al, uh, Kadabra. I got a Kadabra that's level 50 something. And this dude's just like melting everything. I'm like, all right, I'm going into this fight. I'm getting, I'm rolling those credits tonight. Then this, this guy throws out a goddamn 81 Pikachu.

[01:22:22] And I'm like 81. What do you mean? This is insane. Like everybody else in this game so far in the second map has been like max, like 40 something. And then you're just going to throw a level 81 Pikachu at me. This is stupid. This is, this is one of those moments where I'm like, I wish I had some cheats on where I could just melt this guy. But yeah. Yeah. That's where I am with that. Brian, have you, you, you mentioned that you've only played the first Pokemon games. Yeah.

[01:22:51] I can't remember if it was blue or red. Um, not that it matters too much, but, um, yeah, I played it on the original Game Boy back in high school. Maybe on the fat, the fat gray Game Boy on the big giant brick. And I remember thinking someone said, you need, someone said, you need to borrow this. You need to play this. It's great. I remember thinking like, this looks a little childish. And he's like, no, it's an RPG. I'm like, it is like, it doesn't look like it. And I was, I was totally drawn into it.

[01:23:21] Like I just, I probably played it through in a weekend or something. You know, it was, um, I loved it. I haven't been able to get into anything, you know, really beyond that. I just dabbled a little bit, but I have really fond memories on the original. Yeah. And that's, like I said, that's kind of where I was with the whole series where like, I hear Greg and Beth talking about like all these new Pokemon. I'm like, I don't have a, like you're talking, like you could tell me that there's a Pokemon that is just a garbage bag. And I'd be like, yeah, sure. Of course there is one. I mean, is there actually?

[01:23:50] Yeah. Garbodor. Are you kidding? For, for real? Yeah. Look it up. Look at Pokemon Garbodor. G-A-R-B-O-D-O-R. Garbodor. I mean, I was making a joke. Maybe it's Garbodor. This is why I don't play these new Pokemon. Cause it's like, you guys couldn't think of anything else. I mean, whenever I take my kid to the library, sometimes he sees the Pokemon books and he wants them. And you would think I'd be like, oh cool. A gaming book.

[01:24:18] But they're actually my least favorite thing to read to him. Cause all it is, is proper noun after proper noun. And they're all made up words. And it's like a tongue twister. You're trying. And I'm like, I've never heard this word out loud before. This is beyond my time. And there's like eight proper nouns in every single sentence. And it's, it's like, they're trying to, they're trolling the parents is what it feels like. Yeah. Good luck. Read this to your kid. Schmuck. It makes no sense to you. It makes no sense to him either.

[01:24:48] It's just, it's fine. Yep. Teaching our kids to read and write with Pokemon. Yeah. Memorize these words. That's not the way. No. Is that what's wrong with the kids today? They just grew up having Pokemons read to them. And now they're just making up their own words. Maybe that, is that how On God came about? There was like a Pokemon called On God. I don't know. I don't know how any of that came by.

[01:25:16] But while we're on the topic of Game Boy Advance. Yeah. You want me to talk about Advanced Guardian Heroes? Yes. Yes. That game is so good. It's a. Yes, it is. It's just like a, it's a, it's a re-release of Guardian Heroes, which is a real good game. When I was going down through like a list of games that came on in 2004, I was like, oh, this. Yeah. I don't even remember this. Like, have either of you played this game? No, I'm looking it up right now.

[01:25:45] Is it a beat-em-up game? Yeah. I played the original Guardian Heroes. I've never played Advance. I've had my eye on it though. It's a game by Treasure. It looks great. I adore Treasure. I don't know if I've played a game by them. Even their McDonald's game is good. Like, that's not a game that should be good. That's a good game. But like, yeah, Treasure just makes these really, really good like video games. Like, I've always loved their stuff. Like, I loved Mischief Makers on N64.

[01:26:15] I really enjoyed. Gunstar Heroes. Yeah, that's the one I was thinking of. Gunstar Heroes. Dynamite Heady. You know, I've played a little bit of that, but I never beat it. It's on my list of things that I want to get at. But Alien Soldier is out of this world. Like, it is insanely good. It's so, so brutally difficult. Like, it's insane. Like, I... Yeah, that game is wild.

[01:26:44] And funny enough, this Treasure game has like a memory burned in my brain that I will never forget now. Because the night that I beat that game was the night that my dad passed away. And I was just like... Oh, no. Mixed emotions. Damn. Sorry. Yeah. Nah, it was two years ago. It's fine. Oh. Yeah.

[01:27:10] Like, literally, like, within 10 minutes of beating that game, I get that phone call. I was like, ah, shit. That sucks, man. Dad, you couldn't... Like, goddammit. Like, I just really wanted to have a good night where I beat Alien Soldier. But yeah. No. That's a... That's a... Look, it's a... I try to associate bad memories with good things. And that's one of those times where it's like, that's a really shitty memory. But I beat Alien Soldier that night.

[01:27:39] But yeah. Advanced Guardian Heroes is definitely something that everybody should check out. Because it's a beat-em-up. It has a really... So, I don't know if you're like me. But like, I don't just like a regular-ass beat-em-up game. Where you're just kind of mashing buttons. I like stuff with like a good move set. Like, where it's like, you do like down-forward attack. It's like a different type of move. Like, it could be like a jumping spin kick or something.

[01:28:06] And like, I don't even mean like hold this button to charge and then you lose a bunch of life. Because it's like a... It's like a AOE kind of thing. Nah. That's in a bunch of shit too. But like, this game has like grabbing and like a lot of like throwing dudes at other guys. And then like a lot of bouncing around off of other things. And then like, there's like full upgrades and stuff. But like, it's just a wild game. And it's not even that long. Like, it's a very short game.

[01:28:33] And I would encourage anybody that enjoys a good beat-em-up, just throw this on one time. You'll beat in one sitting. I guarantee it. Hell yeah. Check it out, Brian. I will. Actually, I like beat-em-ups. Yeah. Do it. Guardian Heroes is good. Yeah. Brian, what else? I see a flurry of games with the letter M on them. And they're all really, really, really good. Well, yeah. Next, like, let's, I mean, let's talk about this.

[01:29:02] There were two Metroid games in 2004. Metroid Prime 2 Echoes. I mean, the Prime games are, they're great. I mean, they're different, right? They're your first-person shooters. They're a completely different game. But unlike other series that try to deviate from their, you know, their formula that works for them and it fails, this one actually works well. They're just different games. And I appreciate that. Maybe we'll see a remake of Prime 2 like we did with the first Prime. Maybe we'll actually see a new Prime game one day.

[01:29:32] I don't know. And then with Metroid Zero Mission, I didn't have a Game Boy Advance. I was playing too much Counter-Strike, probably. I've since gone back and played a bunch of the staples that are on that, including Zero Mission, which is a remake of the original Metroid for people not familiar. But to call it a remake, I think really does not do this game justice. No. Because it is way more than a remake.

[01:29:57] In fact, the first time I heard that, I was like, yeah, I have fond memories of the original Metroid. I remember it having shortcomings in terms of the quality of life issues. You know, you've got to like regain all your health every time you enter a password that you probably didn't write down correctly in the first place. Right. Those kind of things. Right. It's confusing and all that. But I was reminiscing about this for the show. And there are so many differences in this. Obviously, it looks way better. There are additional new areas. It's not just a one-to-one mapping.

[01:30:27] There are additional mini bosses out of this. There's new mechanics, including simple but important things like crouching and shooting, which is kind of a big deal. They added weapons, abilities. They improved the overall flow, which is not a footnote. Like the flow of the original Metroid, like it worked, but it was like, you were always kind of confused unless someone was telling you what to do. Oh. Yeah. This actually has a good flow to it, including like guidance markers and stuff if you need them.

[01:30:56] There's more secrets in it. The music and sound is improved. There's an actual map, which is like kind of a big deal. And you can save your game, which is, you know, table stakes at this point. But like, you know, in the original, again, the password that you wrote down and you're like, is that an A or is that a little hooky thing? No one. You couldn't take pictures of your TVs back then. You know, kids. Sorry. But yeah, it's an excellent game, regardless of if you've ever played the original or not, or if you're even really that into Metroid.

[01:31:26] Like this might be like my number one, like Metroid recommendation. I don't know if it's my favorite, but it's like I would. I recommend it to people who have like never played Metroid, who just want to get a sense of everything. It is a really good jumping off point. Yeah. Because like Super Metroid is obviously incredible. You know, like even Dread, like it's incredible. Like I said, the Prime games are great. But this one, it stands out. It's amazing. I still got to play Fusion.

[01:31:53] I've started Fusion like three or four times, and for some reason I never finish it. It's good. Yeah, it's a good game. Yeah, that's one that I really want to get back into and finish it off. For sure. Yeah. Those, I mean, Metroid Prime, dude. I mean, I was a late comer to the Prime series just because I was one of those guys back then that was like, this is not my Metroid. My Metroid is only 2D. This is dumb.

[01:32:22] And then I remember my buddy brought his GameCube to my house and was like, sit down. You're playing this now. And I was like, fine, I'll play it. And I was like, hey, can you leave this here for the weekend? I just want to play this game a little more. And he's like, oh, you like it? And I was like, yeah, I think I'm going to tell my parents I want to get one of these consoles for Christmas. And sure enough, I did.

[01:32:45] I got a GameCube and I had Metroid Prime 1 and 2 because 2 had been out by that point. I had those and Resident Evil 4 and Wind Waker. That was my initial. Oh, yeah. Like I was like, actually, yeah, I really like the GameCube. I talked a lot of shit about this console, but it's so good actually. Changed my mind because I was like all in on PS2. And I was like, no, I'm okay with my PS2. I don't need these games.

[01:33:16] But that's how I felt too until I played like Smash Brothers and the Resident Evil remake. And then also, you know, like you said, Wind Waker. Like I got, it pulled me in too. Same as you. The GameCube is an incredible console. It has such a good library. It's so funny. You're like, this isn't my Metroid. But like when I got my GameCube way back in the day, I got the one that came with Metroid Prime bundled in. And I had never played a Metroid game until then.

[01:33:44] So when I discovered there were 2D Metroids, I was like, that's what? That's not Metroid. Where's the Prime? Oh, man. Where's the Prime? Yeah, dude. But yeah, Metroid Prime 2 Echoes. I have some really fond memories of kind of fond, but like the multiplayer in it was really kind of lame. Like there was multiplayer and it was kind of cool, but it was also very lame, kind of bare bones. Like you could grapple beam everywhere.

[01:34:14] You could use the freeze beam to freeze people. You could morph ball into cool hiding spots. But yeah, it was all right. But yeah, Metroid Prime 2 was really cool. Hell yeah, dude. Hell yeah. Why don't we just do one more each? I had Fable on here. I'm going to delete it though, because I really, really like Burnout. Like the whole Burnout series, I really, really love.

[01:34:41] Burnout 3, while it's not my favorite in the series, Burnout 3 was the one that introduced me to the series. My cousins, we would go to, for certain holidays, like Thanksgiving and Christmas, we had certain relatives' houses we'd go to for those holidays. And so every Thanksgiving, almost every Thanksgiving, I look forward to going to our cousins, because they had a PlayStation 2. Before that, they had an SNES with like Ms. Pac-Man and stuff.

[01:35:09] But when they got the PS2, we played a bunch, well, they played a bunch of Madden. But when it was my turn, finally, I played the piss out of Burnout 3. More specifically, the crash mode. Because the crash mode was just bonkers. I'm pretty sure the crash mode was new to Burnout 3. And it was basically just this gigantic, explosive puzzle. Like you find like the perfect spots to, or not the perfect,

[01:35:37] you find the perfect angle when you launch yourself off to just annihilate anything and everything that your car comes in contact with. And then Burnout 3 had just the coolest soundtrack. They introduced what were called takedowns, which was where you could smash the people you're driving with, or like your opponents, basically. You could smash them into things. Like you just mash them into a wall and cause them to crash and get a takedown. You could push them into the back of like,

[01:36:07] like an incoming van or truck or something like that, get a takedown. Just annihilating people left and right in each and every race. And yeah, just a really awesome, fast-paced, explosive racing game. So good. Burnout 3 takedown. Yeah. It is a good one. So for my final one, I don't know. Let's see. Do you guys know what Echo Night Beyond is? Only because I've seen a Nitro Red video about it. Really?

[01:36:36] Oh, I don't know this one. So this is a horror game in first person on a spaceship by From Software. Yeah. Oh, really? Really? Yes. It sure is. And yeah, it's interesting. It's an interesting game. Like you're on like this space station and it's, yeah, it's a first person game. It's kind of like, it's not really like a walking simulator, but like it's, it's not like some crazy action game.

[01:37:04] Like it's more about like the atmosphere. It's like kind of like, like a shadow gate in space. Oh, that's, that sounds cool. I'm looking at pictures and it seems like every other picture is a person laying on the floor for some reason. Yeah. It's, um, is that coming up on the, I keep hearing like noise. Like I don't, I heard, I heard something on your side. It's because you start talking about a scary game and then spooky things start to happen in your house. That's usually how it goes.

[01:37:34] Like the call is coming from inside your house. Or maybe not. I don't care for what's happening in the background. I don't hear anything. I'm going to try to ignore it. Yeah. As soon as I start talking about a haunted space station is like, just hear like fucking ghost rapping at my door. Jerry, I'm going to choke you. Yes, daddy. Um, so echo,

[01:37:59] echo night beyond as a pretty interesting thing. Like, especially after I said the sentence of it's a horror game in space by from software in first person. Like that's a weird string of things that you were like, Oh, Oh, Oh, what? Like that's a, that's crazy. Yeah. I would say go check it out. I don't really want to say too much about the story. It's kind of cool. It's got its, um, it's got its moments, but like, yeah,

[01:38:29] it's a, it's a creepy little, little game. It wasn't like, like some highly rated thing. It definitely flew under the radar, but like if, if we want to throw a name on it, it's a hidden gem in my opinion. Like it's one of those where it's like, you know what? This is, this is pretty cool. It's better than I think it, uh, it was made out to be, but I also find that going back to retro games, like Brian, I don't know about you, but like, I feel like my,

[01:38:56] I guess tolerance for things back even in 2004, I'm finding like, I would go to IGN. I'd be like, Oh, does IGN like it? No, then it's garbage. And I would move on with my day. And I was just like overlooking all these games. Now when I go back, I'm like, yeah, it's got some jankiness, but like there's a cool game here. I don't know why everybody hated this so much. And like, I just feel like I fall in love with games that are supposed to be bad or like, they were just like, Oh, Oh,

[01:39:25] IGN gave it a six. It's like, well, fuck them. Like, I don't, I don't know. Like I'm having a good time with this. I mean, the same could be true with like movies, TV shows too. Right. It's like, especially even if you look at these aggregators, you know, like rotten tomatoes or Metacritic or whatever, like it doesn't necessarily reflect your opinion. Like you might be that, that one out of five thumbs up, you know, that could be a 10 out of 10 for you, you know, with time being so limited, you know, it's a, I get it though. It's like you kind of pick and choose,

[01:39:55] but like me, like many others, I'm trying to go back and like revisit a lot of things that are now on my backlog for these kinds of reasons, you know? Yeah. But also because counter-strike took over too much of my life. Too long of a period of time. Yeah. There's a, there's a sliver of your life that's been removed. Yeah. It's like those people. Yeah. You're like, I can't remember anything that happened from 2004 to 2012, but yeah, it's okay. I'll make it up. Hell yeah. So yeah.

[01:40:24] Echo night beyond, go check it out. Brian, your, your last one is a, is a doozy. Well, it's, it's interesting. So, so, okay. The last game on my list is metal gear, solid three snake eater. This, so I played the original NES game. I've since, you know, I've played some others, but that was my only experience with metal gear until this game. So I leaped all the way from the first NES game. And there was a second NES game.

[01:40:53] Then there was metal gear solid and solid two, right? All the way to three. And I kind of just picked it up random. I remember thinking like, is this even for me? I, I don't really know what this is. I don't know much about it. Right. And I played it and like, I had a mixed experience with it. Like there were certain things I loved about it. Certain things I was kind of soft on about it. I, I still look back on it as being like, that's an, that's an awesome game. It is. It's got the, I mean, as people who have played any of these kinds of games, right?

[01:41:20] Like the cinematics and the story is just incredibly insane. Right. It's like, everything's over the top. It's like an anime on steroids. Right. And that's part of the charm of it. It's like, it's not taking itself too seriously or it's taking itself too seriously, like all at the same time, but everything's over the top. And I kind of love that about it. I also love that. It's like, isn't it like you smoke a cigarette and you like lose health. It's like silly things like that. You lose health when you smoke cigarettes,

[01:41:49] but it helps you steady your aim with the sniper. Oh, see, I didn't even, I didn't even know that. It's also, it's also a game where like the boss fights are incredibly innovative. Right. Like, Oh yeah. Just like, like there's the old guy, right. Where you can like, he's like all camouflaged running around the forest and you can actually wait for him to die. If you don't want to like finish him off with like letting real time go by, which is hilarious. Like, I remember looking that up later and being like, really? Like, Oh,

[01:42:18] this is like a fourth wall breaker. This is like really outside the box. Oh yeah. Kojima was doing that shit all over the place. Yeah. And he's like, he's so respected now. Yeah. And, but the thing is like now when people are like, they talk about Kojima and like kind of go about how like, you know, Kojima is kind of like, he's kind of got his head up as I want to ask a little bit these days. And like a lot of people didn't like death stranding for what it tried to do and what it did. I liked death stranding.

[01:42:47] Can't tell you why, but I love that game. And I went back recently and started playing metal gear. So on one on PS one, I finished that and was like, okay, this is like insane. I get why people say that this game is so good. And I play metal gear solid too. I recently beat that. And I was like, okay, I'm starting to see now why Kojima's head is up his own ass.

[01:43:10] Cause he kind of deserves to be in that position because I don't know if there's anything quite like these games, especially at the time. Holy shit. At the time, these games were like, they were their own thing. Like there was nothing that was like, they're in, they're in a category all of their own. Like, yeah, you could call it like a stealth shooter or whatever. And sure. There were some other things like that popping up, but like, that's like, that's actually my least favorite part about the game. I'm a very impatient person. I'm like, when I play a game, I'm like, I'm like,

[01:43:40] I want to be the barbarian. I am not the guy who sits and crawls around in the shadows. Like, that's why I can't play Assassin's Creed games. I can't play them. I've never played those. But like, whenever there's an option to do one or the other, I always do the berserker thing. So like, I think I've maybe soiled my experience with this a little bit because I didn't have the patience. I wanted to keep going. But again, like it was the innovation. I did. I finished the game. Like it was the innovation that really climbed up that ladder. Yeah. And I think there was like, there was a boss that was like,

[01:44:10] kind of like a ghost or like all the people you had killed were like appearing in this like ravine. And I, and I, that was also something where I looked up later. It was like, oh, if you didn't kill these guys, they wouldn't be there. And I think you had to like, let yourself die to progress. It was something like that, but I kept like resetting it because I didn't know what to do. But yeah, I mean, it's like, it's all the stuff that goes around the game. It's all this stuff outside of it. And that kind of like permeates and like exists within the game and outside the game at the same time, including all his other games.

[01:44:38] Metal Gear Solid one and two are on my backlog. I want to like go back now and just like experience those. All I know is like Raiden is the character too, I think. And everyone was all pissed off. Dude, there's some crazy shit in two. There's some, there's some cool things that happened in two that I was even like knowing a lot of stuff from these games. Cause I, I actually still haven't played Metal Gear Solid three. I'm still getting to that. I know a lot about it, but that's the thing. Even knowing a lot about one and two, there was still shit that was like, Oh,

[01:45:08] this is so cool. Oh, this is awesome. Like, and there's still like little twists and turns. Yeah. I was like, I was like a child. Like I was like, Oh, that's so cool. How he did that. And like how the, the fourth wall broke like seven times just to get to this part. Like it's, it's still blowing my mind. So I'm like, okay. Yeah. This holds the test of time. This game is still super good. He was doing weird stuff, even on the NES game. Like the whole idea of like, you're hiding in a cardboard box.

[01:45:37] And if you don't move, the cameras don't see you. And like, you have to like, you can tap on a wall or punch a wall to see if it makes a different sound to determine if you can. Like that's already like pretty cool. If you think about it. And it's, you know, early days. And then death stranding is actually the next game I'm going to play. I bought the director's cut because I want to get hyped for the sequel. Maybe I won't finish it. I heard it say, you know, pizza delivery simulator or something like that. So I'm really looking forward to that. That's the thing, man. I'm like, I'm making fun of it.

[01:46:07] Not even know. Like nothing has actually been spoiled. Like I know, I know who does the voice acting in it. Obviously it's extremely recognizable. I know there's a baby in a safe room. I know you make deliveries. That's all I know about it. And so I'm actually like really excited. Having nothing spoiled for me. I'm not going to spoil a thing. I promise. I'm not going to spoil anything for you. When I played this game at first, I was like, okay, this is a, this is a vibe, I guess. And I was kind of like, I don't really know if I like this.

[01:46:36] I'm like hours past. And I was like, Oh, I got to figure out. I got to stack these things like this because I need to deliver it. You got to drink more monster. I just got to. Yeah. Like there, I was starting to like, like really work things out. And I was like, okay, this is how I'm going to do this delivery. And then I realized like, Holy shit. I've been playing this game for like 15 hours. And then like, there's crazy story stuff that happens that I was like, this is so Kojima. Like what is going on?

[01:47:06] I don't know anything that's happening, but I love everything that's happening. And by the end of the game, after like 40 hours of playing this game, I was like, that was an amazing game. And then people will be like, Oh, did you like that game? I loved it. And they'd be like, what'd you like about it? Don't know. I have no idea. That's okay. I can't explain why I love this game so much, but I do. And I'm hyped for the second one. If stacking cargo boxes is as fulfilling as reorganizing your cache case in Resident Evil 4, I'm all in. Yes. It is. It's pretty.

[01:47:36] When you do a delivery where you have to utilize every aspect of like your environment and like other players online, and you get to that end goal and all your packages are still intact, pretty rewarding. All right. Well, I'm going to do it. I'll let you all know what I think once I, I would love to hear what you think about it. Would love it. My, my favorite part of Metal Gear Solid 3 is when you're, you're in the, the,

[01:48:05] the menu you go to, to like tend to your wounds and you spin snake around a whole shit ton. And then after you back out of that, he throws up because you've been spinning him way too much and he's all dizzy. It's pretty cool. Actually, I didn't remember that, but that, that sounds right.

[01:48:44] All right. Well, uh, you all know what time it is. If you're a listener of this show, it's the saddest part of the show, but it's also the most generous part of the show because we always leave you with a little something. I mean, we, we've left you guys with lots and lots and lots and lots of stuff in this episode, but Hey, what's, what's something to throw a little cherry on top, you know, just, uh, just to close it out and really give a strong recommendation for a random recommended game.

[01:49:13] Random recommended games. Brian, because you're the guest and thank you so much for coming on doing this. This has been real fun, but one last thing before you go, we just ask Brian, give us a random recommended game or games. Yeah, I, I went overboard. I got three here, but these are the last three games I played. So I didn't look back very far. Um, and they're all very different. So harvest for the SNES is the first harvest moon.

[01:49:43] I was always so interested in what is this thing when I saw it, when I was younger and I just finally decided, okay, I'll do it. I did all 300 days, got married, had a baby, really painted my house. Um, my wife made wine during the day. I think that's what it was. Although they call it juice. Um, but yeah, so I did it. Um, the next one is signalists, which you can play on switch, but I believe it's on all the other things. Awesome game. It's a very like,

[01:50:11] it's like retro 3d looking kind of like three quarter view, very resident evil, like in the sense of like, you know, some simple puzzles and like gating, um, but also like shooting at zombie esque type things, but they're not very mysterious, really cool story. Has multiple endings. I came to learn, um, kind of a very sad tone to it, but also just like, it's so intriguing. Check that out. And it's pretty short. And then the last one is Ocarina of time.

[01:50:40] This is the 3ds version. So I played this 64 version when I was younger. I went back and played Majora's mask again last year. And then I decided why not Ocarina of time on the 3ds, which has fishing and some, you know, cleaned up graphics. It's an incredible game. I mean, there's not much to say about this game that hasn't been said other than when I finished it, I didn't love Zelda echoes of wisdom. I did finish it. I did not love it. It felt like it was like a bed staircase simulator. And I felt like,

[01:51:11] I think they did her a little dirty in the sense of like, I don't know either. Really? I like that. She's like a spell caster. That's kind of cool. I like that. Like it's her own thing. That's great. I do feel like there was too much of like, she's a, there's a crutch where she's like relying on him as an ability too much. And it's like still kind of his story, even though it's supposed to be, I think Zelda game we should play. Is you should have, you should have Zelda in her like Sheikah form. And it should be, what is it?

[01:51:38] Like the 10 or so years when link. So if people don't remember Ocarina of Time, link gets all the things he needs to go into the temple of time. And then he's basically like frozen in time until he becomes an adult. And that's when Ganon takes over the help, you know, help breaks loose and the world turns to shit. But that, that 10 year or whatever it is, like that's when she is whisked away by her caretaker, where she learns about the Sheikah, where she gains these cool abilities, Ninja vanish,

[01:52:08] playing the harp. She has the, you know, like maybe she could do some cool stuff with her harp that the Ocarina does. Like, you could make a whole game out of that. She's incognito. She's like a double agent with, with a Ganon, at least in the, in the manga version. Cause I read that to my kid recently. You could do a lot. That's the Zelda game. I want to play. I don't care what it looks like. It's a good idea. Like what you're saying to me, I'm thinking like, imagine if platinum came out and they were like, Hey, we're doing a new character action game,

[01:52:37] but it's Zelda as Sheikah. And it's just like, bro. Tearing shit up with like, like Bayonetta, like kind of like gameplay, like that kind of thing. Give me that all day long. Like some like Tenchu stealth segments, redoing stealth kills. I mean, she probably would. Stealth killing a Goron. Yeah, dude. It's also just a good excuse to kind of remake some parts of Ocarina of Time, you know,

[01:53:07] and like embellish. I'm surprised actually that they haven't like Ocarina of Time is like that one that like it had Majora's mask, but like nothing else really came about that kind of segment of Zelda. Like you, you think about like a link to the past ended up getting a link between worlds. Like how many years later? Like that was like a continuation of that, but it's like,

[01:53:33] how have we not gotten anything as a continuation of Ocarina of Time? Like that's, that's wild. Yeah. I mean, it's probably the best story, you know, it's, it's really great. Yeah. If people would complain way too much, it would end up getting the, cause like, like how good Ocarina of Time is, it would end up getting the, the Chrono Cross treatment where people are like, uh, if it wasn't a Chrono game, it would be good. But like, it is a good game. I don't know. To be fair,

[01:54:03] Chrono Trigger is a much better game than Chrono Cross, but yes, I love Chrono Cross though. They're, but yeah, they are. Chrono Trigger is a fucking, I love Chrono Trigger. Yeah. Chrono Trigger is a perfect game. Yeah. But yeah, no, no hate for Cross. I just, if you have to pick one. Yes. That's right. Chrono Trigger. That's a, that's a, that's a 10 out of 10 game for me, Brian. Best, best video game soundtrack of all time. In my opinion.

[01:54:30] Wasn't it crazy what that game was doing on a super Nintendo? Yeah. It's insane. Yeah. Like, so good, man. We should just do an episode on Chrono Trigger. We should. It just had its anniversary too. I couldn't avoid it. Well, yeah, we're going to have to do an episode on Chrono Trigger. I think we're going to, and Aaron, no, no Chrono Cross talk on that one. I'll try not to shut your yapper. Do you,

[01:55:00] do you want me to go next or you want to go next? I was just going to say, I'll, I'll just go real quick here. I was, I was out of town for business last week and I was stuck in a hotel room and I brought my analog pocket with me and I was just kind of exploring the Game Boy Advance library. And I remember hearing about this game Ninja 5.0, like, even back. Which is now on Switch, by the way. Yeah, I seen that. And I, I threw it on. And it wasn't what I was expecting it to be. It's kind of like,

[01:55:28] it's kind of like those old Prince of Persia games, but like, you're a ninja. It's not a, it's not like an action game in the sense, like, it's more of like, puzzly. You have to think about like, you get into a room and you're like, hmm, how am I going to take all these guys out and save that hostage? Like, it's, and it's kind of got like, uh, Donkey Kong for Game Boy vibes in a weird way. Like, it's almost like every level is like a platforming puzzle with action, but you're a ninja.

[01:55:58] Like, it's, it's really, really cool. I would definitely recommend people check this game out. Uh, especially now that it has a Switch re-release. Yeah. It's just a cool, fun, like it's got a vibe. It's difficult though. I'll warn you. It is quite difficult. I don't know why ninja games are so insistent on being insanely hard, but. It's really, it's fun. Yeah. It's, it's, it's got a nice Chancho, but it's also really short at the same time. Uh, it's my, my only complaint was like, I wanted more at the end, which is not a complaint.

[01:56:28] Isn't it only like three worlds or something? Uh, I think it's three levels in the five. It's five missions with three levels and a boss battle. According to Wikipedia. Also for people that are looking for it, it's also called Ninja cop, which was just like, Ninja. But it's funny. Cause like Ninja five, Oh, five. Oh, also means. Oh yeah. So it's kind of Ninja cop. That just sounds like some bad B movie. I'm pretty sure that is a movie. That we need to make movies like this again. I actually love it.

[01:56:58] Google Ninja cop. I'm pretty sure it's a movie. Aaron. What's your Ranga? Ranga. I was going to say Ranga recommendation. What's your Ranga? Ranga-tation? Yeah. Hit me. Hit me. My, my recommend, my random recommended game. I've been getting into, uh, into shmups these past couple of days, a lot. And, uh, one I've gotten pretty into kind of gone back to it more and more and more as G Darius,

[01:57:26] or I'm pretty sure it's Darius. Is it Darius? I don't, I mean, I'm just shmup junkie says Darius. So that's just when I'm going by the G Darius. I've always said this Darius in my head. I always said Darius also. But I don't know. I don't think a lot about it. And nor should you, Brian. Yeah. Well, maybe, maybe this one. Does not keep me up at night. This one might. This one, it's super. So it's the fur. Yeah.

[01:57:55] The first one on PS1. Washington. I'm pretty sure it's the only one on PS1, but it's the first one to use 3d graphics. So it's got cool 3d backgrounds. It's got 3d enemies. And then your ship as well too. And all that stuff. And a lot of the enemies are like robotic fish, like especially the bosses. They're these gigantic screen filling robotic fish with different names, like iron defender or steel, steel fish. Or like, I can't remember any of the names,

[01:58:24] but they have really cool designs. And the boss fights are just, just insane. Like you're shooting off different parts of the boss, the whittling down its health. And, and just the bullets are spraying everywhere. And one of the cool mechanics to this game is that you can throw out a capture ball at enemies and you can capture an enemy and then use it as one of your guns. So alongside like upgrading your gun as you go along, you can capture an enemy and then use their weapons alongside you. And if you want to,

[01:58:52] you can just detonate the enemy and use it as a bomb to clear off any bullets that are flying at you. You can also, you can, you can hold down the fire button to basically absorb the, the enemy that you have captured and turn them into this giant, like giant laser beam that if you time it just right, when you're fighting a boss, you can do, you can start what's called a laser duel where you just mash the, the fire button. It's like that, like a dragon ball Z kind of thing where it's like a Kamehameha,

[01:59:21] like two Kamehameha colliding and they're like going back and forth. But yeah, it just does a shit ton of damage to bosses and it's really cool to see. Yeah. Just a really sweet game. It's hard as fuck, but it's really, really cool. And so it should be if it's a shmup. I don't think there is very many easy shmups. Actually, there's a whole genre of them and they're called cute em ups, but even those are hard. Yeah. They can be kind of hard. They can be.

[02:00:01] Aaron, what do you say? Take us out of here. Let's go. Yeah. Brian, one more time. Tell people where they can find you. RetroGameBooks.com or at Retro GameBooks on some social mediums, like Blue Sky. If you want to see my Left 4 Dead 2 campaign, it's called Tour of Terror. Look it up. It's in Europe. Nice. Hell yeah. It's very old now, but people still play it apparently. Maybe I will. Maybe I will.

[02:00:31] See what you got, Brian. man. Well, listeners, if you're, if you've listened to this point, thanks for hanging out. Make sure to check out our Patreon one more time. Two, four dollars a month. Get early access. Uh, unedited, unedited video. Fuck. Unedited. Unedited. Video versions. Yeah. Unedited video versions of each episode. Listen to Super Ghost Radio, the other show Jerry does with Beth and Greg. It's really good. Leave a rating or review, whatever you're listening to us on, whatever app you use. Everybody, you say bye. Goodbye. Goodbye.

[02:01:01] Oh, you forgot. Be sure to tune in next time where Jerry, Jerry fights a gigantic robotic laser fish. Oh, okay. And, uh, Aaron will teach us that, uh, steel beams can melt. Okay. Now we say bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.