[00:00:00] Yeah, give me the beef sweats. I had literal beef sweats last Friday. Like I had the meat sweats. What was the occasion? I took some clients out for a lunch and we went to a Brazilian steakhouse and it was literally all you can eat meat. They were just coming to your table and just being like, more? But at the beginning, we were all kind of like, we're gonna have the meat sweats. Oh my God, we're gonna be so full.

[00:00:29] But like, by like minute 20, every time they came, you just kind of looked up at them and you were like, yeah, yeah, go ahead. This is no laughing matter. Yeah. Would you like it? What do you mean would I like? If you keep coming here, I'm gonna keep taking it. And then we realized that you actually have to flip. There's like a little, they give you almost like a little coaster.

[00:00:52] And you have to flip that to red for them to fucking stop coming. Otherwise, they just keep coming with more meat. They're like, I don't know if this guy actually wants more meat, but the damn coaster is saying do it. I know. It's, it's insane. I've never seen so much beef in my life. The only time I've seen that much beef is between me and Riverside.

[00:01:15] Oh shit. I said over easy. Now, why did I do that? Because I refused to spoon with you last night. What it do everybody. My name is Aaron for just $1. I'll tickle anyone. And I'm Jerry. And it's Brittany, bitch. You're listening to Super Pod Saga, bitch.

[00:01:38] Oh, hey, welcome back. It's Super Pod Saga. Well, hello there. Hey there. Would you look at that? Yeah, would you look at that guy? I love that guy. Woo! Yeah, it's Super Pod Saga, the greatest collaboration of all time.

[00:02:04] For any of you first timers, Jerry and I, we're gonna discuss every single video game topic in existence eventually. This week, we're talking about games that blend genres in really sweet ways. Sweet ways. That fucking hurt my throat. In sweet ways. Way to go. There we go. I'm getting too old to say things in high pitched voices. Oh, come on. Live a little. I can't.

[00:02:31] But first, go look at SuperPodSaga.com. Check out all of our episodes and socials and Patreon and all that. It's only $2 or $4 a month. Come on. And rate and review the show, please. Help your boys out. I like how desperate. It's just too obvious. Come on, man. If we sound desperate enough, they might do it. Please, listeners, please. Throw it in this paper bag real quick. Put the money in the bag! You're facing the wrong way? Like Spongebob?

[00:03:03] Anyway, we've got a brand spanking new guest on the show. We've got Steve and you're on like three shows, aren't you? Yeah. I mean, a bunch of spots depending on what you're looking for. Nice. Hello. If you're into video games, I'm on a number of those podcasts. I'm a co-host on IndieQuest, which is a show, kind of like a review show all about indie video games exclusively. We're building a giant list of indie recommendations. Nice.

[00:03:32] And I also do Polykill, which is more of like a backlog focused show. I'd say it leans a little bit more retro. And it's me and my co-host just working through our backlogs and then talking through what we finished and what everyone in our community finished. So a couple of great shows. Nice. Yeah. Nice. You, um, real quick, I guess in, in the same flavor of your shows here, what would you say is your most elusive retro backlog game?

[00:04:00] Like what one do I most want to play or what one do I most want to purchase? Like what's the one that just like you, you keep being like, Oh God, like I really got to get at this game. And then it just always gets away from you. Mine is Okami. I've said it many times on this podcast before. Okami is that game that just keeps getting away from me. That's, that's basically like every scrolling shooter on the Sega Genesis. Oh, I always say so many of them.

[00:04:26] I keep wanting to get through them, but I, I'm just crap at them. And so I'll stream them for a couple hours, you know, maybe see halfway through the game, but I can never, never go the distance. Yeah. They're throwing some cheats if you need to. There's no shame in throwing on like an infinite lives cheat. No shame at all. I don't know. I want to beat it as God and developers presented it. You know, all the flaws in town, funeral, all the black guys available. Cool. Aaron, you booked a psychopath. That's awesome.

[00:04:57] No, it's okay. Well, uh, I also watched a couple of videos on your YouTube channel, which is pretty cool where you show off all of your fancy, uh, PlayStation trophies. I almost said achievements. I didn't want to offend you. I'm sorry. Hey man, come on. Sweet Jesus. Sweet. Yeah. I'm probably one of the last few people in the world that like still enjoy achievement hunting and trophy hunting. So I also have a YouTube channel. I know, I know people that there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's.

[00:05:24] Dave does. Yeah. Okay. I'll say like post 2020, post COVID, a lot of people got back into it. It's kind of like, I think a little bit of a nostalgic, like back to the early 360 era memories for people.

[00:05:37] There was definitely a time when it kind of went by the wayside. I never cared about them. Like that was never my, my thing, but I have gotten platinum, platinum trophies in a few games. I did. I think the first really big one that I was like pretty proud of was Doritos crash course. Nope. It was bloodborne. I remember it was bloodborne. Bloodborne was a hard one. That's yeah. Cause you got to do that fucking chalice dungeon with the half.

[00:06:05] No good. Oh my God. I gotta, that's not a good part of the game. No, it's not fun. In fact, that in particular, I tried it like when bloodborne came out, got to that specific chalice dungeon.

[00:06:18] And then I quit for like eight years and I finally went back and cleaned it up. Yeah. It's Oh God. It's, it's something else. Um, brutal. That's kind of why I'm like a little iffy on whatever this night rain, Elden ring game that's coming out this, this week. I totally forgot that that was coming out. Oh yeah. And three days. Right. Yeah. And like, I want to be hype. Cause I was like, Oh yeah. New Elden ring. That's always cool when you get new from software, but I don't know if I like the appeal of it being like a three person.

[00:06:48] Co-op thing. Roguelike thing. Whatever this is like an extraction thing or is it? No, it's like, so the way that I have had it broken down for me is that you essentially start on the map and it'll be like, okay, you like your objective is to kill this boss and it's somewhere here in this map.

[00:07:12] So then you're like, okay. So you spend, there's three parts. There's morning, afternoon, and then night. And each time the time changes, the map gets smaller. And then eventually you have to just face off against the bosses in like the small, I don't, it's, it's different enough, but it's like also kind of like pub G ish.

[00:07:38] Cause it's like, yeah, that is getting smaller, but then it's also kind of like monster hunter. Sort of, I guess. I don't know. I want to be excited, but I'm not. It sounds terrible. I got some friends that are pulling me into it. So I usually play my souls games multiplayer because I got a two year old. I can't coordinate with people to save my life. Like they got to just go do their own thing without me. It's fine. Leave me behind.

[00:08:04] But this one in particular, people are like, all right, we got to get in. We got to squad up. So I'm like, okay, I'll just kind of get swept up in your enthusiasm and we'll see how it goes. Yeah. I'd like to know how it is before I actually jump in. Like I kind of want to get some opinions from some people. There'll be no shortage of them on that. Oh yeah. Oh my God. Yeah. I recently went down the rabbit hole of looking at opinions of Claire Obscure's ending.

[00:08:32] And yeah, I am glad that that game is making it so divisive for people. But there is a very big line in the sand of like how people interpret that ending. And I want to, I'm not going to spoil anything obviously, because it's one of the coolest stories I've seen in a while. But some, some people, they ain't happy about the way that game blew up. Interesting.

[00:09:01] I'd be curious to talk more maybe off air because, you know, maybe some people aren't absorbing the lesson of the game if they're not happy with how the ending played out. Yeah, I have. Yeah. Yeah. We definitely got to talk off the pod. I'm about there. I just beat the, uh, the Tissueur or however the fuck you say it. Hey man, spoils. Come on. Oh, is that a spoil? I'm just saying a name. You pronounced it wrong. I think it's probably not a spoil. I was trying to be like, I was.

[00:09:32] Tissueur. I don't, yeah. Tissueur. I said, I said spoiler alert super fast, but at the same time I was like, I don't know what you said. Who cares? Spoil it. Yep. Yeah, baby. Let's, uh, so Steve, go ahead. And, uh, I mean, if you want to, you can, is there anything else you want to plug about the stuff you do, your shows or. No, I mean, yeah. If you're, if you're into trophy hunting, go check out the YouTube channel. You, it's blinkum on YouTube.

[00:10:02] Or if you're into, uh, other podcasts, you have room for other podcasts in your life. Like no one alive ever does. You can go to polymedianetwork.com and that's where the shows are hosted. Nice. Hell yeah. Yeah. Well, just to get to know you just a little bit better. We like to ask all of our new guests a fun little question. What, uh, what's your favorite video game memory? Hmm. Interesting. Okay. I say interesting. Like I didn't know.

[00:10:32] That's a fast. Let me just noodle on that for a second. Is this how they do the interviews on Jimmy Fallon? Like they just wait for Fallon to stop slapping his desk for a second. Then they're like, Hmm, let me answer the question that I for sure was briefed on before this. Yeah. It's already run through executives to make sure I'm allowed to say this. Interesting. Um, okay. My, my favorite honestly is probably the first gaming memory that I have, which feels like a cop out, but I'm going to run with it. It's, it's Christmas of either 92 or 93.

[00:11:00] I don't actually know which one because I was, I was like five and it was like, it was probably like 1130 at night. And my sister who's like 10 years older than me. So she's like a sophomore in high school. She sneaks down to my room and she wakes me up right after my parents went to sleep. So we snuck upstairs, cracked into all the gifts that were under the tree at basically midnight, which in hindsight, like you opened your gift.

[00:11:28] Like as, as a dad now I'd be, I'd be so bummed if my kid did that. But as a five-year-old, I was like, yo, this is extra gift time. Let's go. And so I opened it up. Go ham on them. Yeah. I got a Sega Genesis packed in with Sonic 2. My sister helped me like hook it up to the big, big, you know, 30 inch CRT in the living room. The console TV? Or was it just like a standalone CRT?

[00:11:56] It was a CRT on one of those, like, I feel like a lot of people in the nineties had these. It was on this like wooden swivel sort of TV cabinet. So you could point it towards the TV or towards the dining room table, depending on what your family wanted to do that. Our family had the whole like monolith, like entertainment thing, but it also was like a wood. It was wooden. Like it was a wooden look and it had like lots of cabinets for things. VHS tapes. Might have the exact same thing.

[00:12:25] His only VHS tapes were What's Eating Gilbert Grape? Titanic. The SpongeBob movie. He had a... So he really liked Leonardo DiCaprio. Yeah. Really liked DiCaprio. There's another one I forgot. Yeah. He also had the whole like stereo setup too. He liked his young DiCaprio. Young DiCaprio. That DiCaprio was era appropriate. Your dad. Your dad? Oh, okay. I thought it was going to be a throwback to your uncle. To Uncle Ted. No, it's not Uncle Ted.

[00:12:55] I was going to say, I know what kind of VHS's Uncle Ted had. The kind you fuck to. Dude, weirdly enough. Shout out Uncle Ted. That's a coincidence too, man. He was just talking about Sega Genesis, which was the... That was when we brought up Uncle Ted. That was on the Sega Genesis episode. Yeah. Rip Uncle Ted. Sorry, man. Go ahead. Keep going. Continue? Continue?

[00:13:25] Is there more? So I ended up just playing that through the night and then at like, you know, 7.30, 8 in the morning, my parents woke up and I thought I was like the slickest five-year-old. I was like, I'm going to pretend like I had, like I just woke up like a half hour ago. You know, I'm going to trick them and they're going to think that I just barely beat them to the punch, but I was collapsing by like 10 in the morning. Yeah.

[00:13:52] It was the first video game system that was proper mine, which was nice. Hell yeah. Yeah. Mine was the old GameCube. What about you, Jerry? That was your first console? Yeah. Because I had to share the others with my fucking siblings. The GameCube was the first one that was actually mine because my dad bought it for me. God damn it. I'm going to make sure everybody knew that this is mine. But what was your first console? My first was the NES, but that was my stepdads.

[00:14:21] We had to share it with everybody, even my fucking evil stepsisters. Evil stepsisters? Were you in a fucking Disney movie? I might as well have been. Yeah, they were terrible, dude. Speaking of terrible, Jerry, is there any news? Yeah. Britney Spears lit a cigarette on a plane. Oh, that's sweet. Oops, I'm smoking again.

[00:14:49] She got pretty hammed up on a plane and then lit a cigarette. Oh yeah, she got fully fucking hammed on a plane. And then she lit a cigarette. And then I guess after they asked her about a response, she was like... She said something about, I don't know what the big deal about being drunk on a plane is. And yeah, I lit that cigarette up. It was like the same thing as the Chappelle show with Charlie Murphy and Rick James on the couch.

[00:15:19] Yeah, dude. Why would I go in there and wreck his couch? And he's like, yeah, I wrecked his couch. It's like the same mentality. It's like, okay, so what? I was drunk on a plane. Yeah, I lit up a cigarette on a plane. I don't know what the big deal is. Or like, it was something to do with like, I guess like the Coast Guard don't fly out. I mean, a Coast Guard could fly out of the plane. But like the Air Marshal. Yeah, I think the Air Marshals had to deal with her. And that's what she was like. I don't know.

[00:15:47] I think it was a little excessive with the Air Marshals, but yeah, I lit that cigarette up. She's fucking throwing hands over a Marlboro menthol or something. I thought that was a pretty cool headline. That is a cool headline. I was like, hell yeah, it's Britney, bitch. That is Britney, bitch. Imagine being a flight attendant and you're like, you're sitting there and you're like, oh my god, do I really have to go tell Britney Spears to put her cigarette out? Put her cigarette out on a plane? Is this worth the nothing wages that this airline pays me?

[00:16:16] Make her put it out on your forehead and be like, Britney, please grace me, Britney. I just hope that she just pulled out a Zippo and people were like, what are you doing? And she's like, and just lit it and then said, it's Britney, bitch. Oh, dude. And she does that cool trick where she like, you know, like the little Flint strike and she like strikes it on her fucking leg or something or like on the arm of the chair. She's flicking it around. Yeah, dude. Like fucking Dante with his guns and shit. Jackpot.

[00:16:46] And she's like, she's got her phone and she's playing one of her own songs. Like her phone is loud as it can go. And like her speakers are kind of busted. So it sounds really shitty. And she's like, do you know how I am? Yeah, she seems like she would have like a real busted iPhone. I bet there's so many cracks on her iPhone. I don't think I have any news, though. That was too good. That's it. That's all that's happening in the world.

[00:17:17] Yeah. That's pretty important news. That is very important. Thank you, Jerry. Thank you. There's more cracks in Britney's Apple iPhone than there are. I don't know. She has an Android. Oh, she has an Android. Actually, no, she has a Blackberry. Oh, yeah. She's one of the few people that still has a Blackberry. I respect that. I don't know what the fuck she has as a phone. Yeah. Who cares? She's smoking. Smoking.

[00:18:03] All right. Now to the topic. Oh, man. The topic. The topic. Yeah. We're talking about surprisingly sick genre blends. Games that do way goddamn more than just be an RPG or be a racing game or be a fighting game. Shit like that. Sometimes they're good, though. I don't mind just having a you're saying it like be something better, man. Like, no, I like an RPG. I like a racing game. Yeah. Like, I love me a burnout.

[00:18:34] I love me a Tekken. But it's cool to come across a game that goes fucking Britney with it and just mashes eight million genres together and make something really, really sweet. I just remembered one that I was trying to think of earlier. I put it in. All right. Well, Steve is our guest. Do you want to do you want to kick us off or would you prefer one of us to do it? Oh, I'll kick us off. Yeah. I brought a couple of newer ones and a couple of older ones. Yeah.

[00:19:03] But one of my modern darlings that I'm obsessed with right now that does this really well actually is Blueprints. Oh, it's so good. I still had to play. Oh, it's such a good game. Aaron, you haven't played it? No, because you keep telling me I have to mainline Claire Obscure. I'm still trying to do that. Yeah, you do. And Mighty No. 9. But you got to play both at the same time. Goaties. You know, it's important to hit them both. At the same time. That's what I did. Make an hour here. Make an hour there. Make an hour here. I haven't.

[00:19:29] I've only played Blueprints with Greg and Beth exclusively. Like, I don't play it without them because I'll stream it to Discord while they're watching me. And then they also will be like, oh, that thing, the thing. And like, yeah, it's just really cool. I'm excited. Really good game for that. Greg has a notebook with a bunch of notes in it. That's what I'm the most excited about, dude. When I worked in the office many, many years ago, I had this notebook that I would write down competitive Pokemon builds and all sorts of shit.

[00:19:59] I haven't done that kind of thing in a really long time. So I'm excited to bust out the old composition notebook for some blueprints eventually. But Steve, you have the floor. Go ahead. They tell you to bust out a notebook, too. There's like a piece of paper right away at the start of the game where they're like, you're going to need to go get a notebook. So take a beat. Go grab one. Yeah. But yeah. So it's a puzzle game. Puzzle in the sense of like. Well, like the witness, I guess, like kind of like a modern brainier sort of puzzle than like match three or like more literal direct puzzles.

[00:20:29] Mixed with what is basically like a deck building roguelike. You're essentially constructing this mansion into a like nine by five grid of rooms. And you do that by every time you walk up to a door, you draft one of three rooms. And so you're having to strike this really interesting balance of like resource management where you're making sure that you're getting enough like currency to buy items, gems to draft better rooms, keys to unlock doors, but also literally enough doors to like make the house

[00:20:58] large enough to navigate through. And at first to me, it was a little, I was actually a little bit like this doesn't work because I just want to do the puzzle stuff. But I think the genius of it is that because you can never guarantee what room you're going to draft and you're writing all this stuff down in your notebook. At some point you're going to be like, okay, I want to, I want to go like test this theory. And on your way to trying to draft that room and test that theory, you're going to be forced

[00:21:23] to draft and walk through a dozen other rooms where you're going to get sidetracked and pulled in three other directions. And, and it's like exponential puzzle discovery. At some point you're like so overwhelmed in a good way with the number of cool stuff to go like poke at and discover, then you wouldn't have that if it wasn't randomizing it. Yeah. I found that too. Like every time I'd be like, okay, I know the order that we have to do this thing in now. So we have to get to this.

[00:21:50] Let's just make, let's just do a, let's just do a fucking spicy run right to that room and let's get it done. And then you, you get like a room you've never seen before and you're like, wait, yes. Wait, what is this? Oh, we don't, we've never seen this one. Let's just, let's just see what this one. And then you're like, oh, but now we're like in a dark room and like, I think I know what to do. And like, you just, it just snowballs. Yes. So much times that I've been like, all right, I'm, I'm definitely going to draft this room next

[00:22:20] to this room. And then halfway through that, I'm like, oh damn, I just grabbed a shovel. All right. Never scrap this whole plan. I'm heading out and doing the shovel thing. Right. And it's, it's so good. And I mean, I finished the game at this point. I've put probably 40 hours into it and I still like my notebook, my to-do list is still like over a page long. There's so much to find. And so this, this is all sounding. I mean, either of you guys played minute. Yeah. Uh, yes. It's reminded me a lot of that. I did start, I had to bust out the notebook. Yeah.

[00:22:50] I had to bust out the notebook for that one too. And it was, I had the same kind of cool feeling where you're discovering all these little puzzles and you're like, oh, I need the fucking watering can for this or whatever. And yeah. That's the thing where, that's the game where you only live a minute, right? Yeah. Yeah. That was really cool. I love that game. It's awesome. Yeah. But, uh, one of these days, once I finish the fucking, what, five games I have queued up, I'll get to blueprints. God damn it. I think you'll enjoy it when you do get around to it.

[00:23:19] It's, it's awesome. I'm sure I will too. I gotta finish Brothership. It's too fucking long. Dude. Ugh. Just, just do it. Just mainline it. Mainline that. Claire Obscure, Blueprints, throw on Resident Evil 3 Remake, just for good measure. Yeah, I'm, I also need to play through Mighty No. 9 for, uh, for fine time. You do? Yeah. It, it sucks though. Boys don't play Mighty No. 9. It sucks.

[00:23:46] I try to be very optimistic when I go into games that people hate. As a Mega Man enjoyer, the, the, the guy that can find the most optimistic path to any Mega Man, even the bad ones, that's a bad game. The levels were designed by fucking kindergartners, I feel like. Cause this shit is, well, not to get too off, off track here, uh, uh, Jerry, do you want Go off, King? Okay, I'm, I'm gonna do it. Everything is too fucking close.

[00:24:15] If there's spikes, it's too close to where you're supposed to go. Like, if you're supposed to drop down a hole, there's spikes too close to where you're supposed to drop down. So you can't like, like, like jump accurately in any direction or like drop down safely. I don't know. It's, it's stupid. It, you know. I want to play it real bad. As a, as a public Balan Wonderworld apologist, I feel like Mighty No. 9 has something special in store for me. Do it. We'll get shown in fun time. Is Balan Wonderland okay?

[00:24:46] It is perfectly okay. Yeah. It's, it's, it's biggest crime is just being a little corny. All right. And we're all on 2025. We can be a little corny on the internet. I've played Resident Evil 6. I've played the corn. Like. Oh my God. The corniest of corn. That game is just. It's dripping and cheesing corn. Yeah. If you look, I mean, there's literal corn in Balan Wonderworld, but also there's like musical

[00:25:13] dance numbers that happen with surprise and regularity. But if you look past that and you just take it as like kind of a weird costume based pseudo 3D platformer, you know, it's like an innocent six or seven out of 10. So it's like a 3D platform with like dancing. So it's like just, so is Balan Wonderland the big, the best mashup of genres? I mean, it might be costumes that spread the gamut. Aaron, can I get you on record saying that Balan Wonderland is the best genre mashup of all time?

[00:25:43] Listen, I don't know about the best, but I mean, it's one of them. Oh, well. I think one of the genre mashups of all time. If you can't get behind that, I might. One of them. If you can't. Dude, if you, I mean, you can't get behind that. I might be off the pod. Okay, fine. It's the best. I might be off the pod. Episode over. I might be off the pod. Balan Wonderworld or whatever wins. Yeah. Wonderland. Okay, then I think I'm back on the pod. I think I'm back on. Okay. Okay. Do you want to go next year or do you want me to get one of my like five out of the world?

[00:26:13] No, I'll go. I'll go because I just randomly thought of this and I was like, oh yeah, this is like the definition of what this whole topic is. Is Tobal number, I think, I guess it's Tobal number one or Tobal one. I think so. Something like that. It's a PS1 game and it's a fighting game, but also it's an RPG. With dungeon crawling too. Yeah.

[00:26:38] It's like a top down, like three, like you're running very oddly running around. We actually covered it a little bit in one of our retro rehab episodes where we talked about weird but good PS1 games. And it's definitely one of those because it's like you start off and it's like a top down view, but the way you move in this game is so asinine. Like it doesn't make sense.

[00:27:04] Like it's, it feels like if a fighter was like QWOP or something, like you're just like dashing around. Like it's so dumb, but then like you get into a battle and you're like, oh, I'm just like in a fighting game now. That's cool. Like it's literally like what? Don't you also capture monsters like Pokemon and shit? Oh yeah. Yeah. There's that whole thing too. Yeah. This game, this game is like everything. It's all over the place.

[00:27:33] It's literally like the definition of a mashup, but I, I don't, it definitely, it for sure doesn't beat a battle in Wonderland. There's no way. No dancing. I mean, you could dance, I guess, but you shouldn't. Just making them spin in place. Like you're playing funky town. Yeah. Yeah, you could. I'm going to bring in another like fighting mashup kind of, kind of game. Get this out of the way.

[00:28:00] Project X zone one or two, probably two, two, two was a little bit better. Did a little bit better. It's a tactics RPG slash fighting game. And it's fucking tight. Who? There's fighting in that? Yeah. I just thought it was a straight like Disgaea sort of tactics game. Who made that game? Everybody. It's got Bandai Namco. It's got Sega. It's got Capcom, right? I was going to say, I feel like I remember seeing a Mega Man in one of these.

[00:28:31] Yeah. There's Mega Man in it too. Cause you'll have like Dante, Mega Man, fucking the people from like .hack. You have, what the fuck is his name? Kiryu from Yakuza. What? Let's go. Oh, it's got a bunch of shit, dude. It's, it's sweet. And then the. I do like a tall glass of Kiryu. But you'll, you can pair up characters with different characters for cool abilities.

[00:28:56] Like your, um, like the main, I guess, uh, leader of your, of your squad. You can have up to like, I think two or three people, I believe. And then depending on who you have in the back, you'll have cool passive abilities you can activate in battle. And it's just like a, like a, like a, um, grid based tactics game. You'll move your, your squad up to an enemy and then, you know, you hit attack and then bam, it's like a fighting game. Cause you're mashing buttons and juggling enemies and doing combos and shit.

[00:29:25] And it's, uh, it reminds me a lot of the combat in, uh, Valkyrie profile where you're just making the number go up as high as possible. And then once it reaches a certain point, you can do like a super duper move. It's the wildest fucking shit ever. Cause like Dante, uh, we'll do the jackpot thing that he does in devil may cry or like fucking, you can get Chris Redfield and he'll do, he has like a rocket launcher.

[00:29:55] And it's, it's nuts. It's really, really cool. But super nuts, super nutty. That's great. Super nuts. Super nuts. Interesting. I did not have that other side to it. I just assumed it was like final fantasy tactics. Like I clicked attack and a little guy slashed his sword and moved on. Steve, uh, you got anything super nuts in the end? Oh, you want my, you want one of my super nuts games? Give me one of your super nuts. Uh, okay.

[00:30:23] We'll go, go maybe the little guardian legend. I was wondering about this. Tell me more. Never heard of that. Me either. Okay. So the NES game and exactly, you know, this is like maybe a little bit cheating because it's not so much like a genre mashup as it is. It is just like a really good fusion of the two genres. It plays a good chunk of the game is top down. Zelda style probably is a good comparison or maybe blaster master. The sections where you're out of the vehicle and blaster master.

[00:30:51] Oh, um, but then in between every area, like in between like the different temples you'd go to in a Zelda game or something like that is a vertical scrolling shoot them up level. And it's like actually well done, like competent, fun, scrolling, shoot them up levels with great music and stuff. And then you land back on the ground and it's great exploration, great music on top of that. And you're, it's, it's like dished out at just that right balance where as soon as you're like getting a little tired of one, they hit you with the other one and it's, it keeps

[00:31:19] it fresh and it's, it makes it like a real easy breezy play through. Are there like upgrades or like power ups that you get from different places that allow you to go to new ones? Yeah. Not, not quite as like literal as like, you know, like a hook shot or something like that, but there's like beam upgrades and stuff that'll let you blast through blocks that you couldn't get through before and stuff like that. That's all I need. Yeah. I used, you've sold me. Yep. Yeah. It's great. It's super fun.

[00:31:49] And it's pretty easy to track down to. It's not like too crazy expensive or anything if people are physical people. So nice. I'm a physical person. I am a physical. Yeah. I don't collect. I was going to say that too. I am a physical being. I'm a five star man. Five star man and a five star game. Typing of the dead. I don't know if either of you have ever played this before, but it is so much goddamn fun. Like, I don't even know.

[00:32:16] I guess it's a typing teacher. And also an arcade zombie shooter. I might eat brackets. I just put whatever the fuck this is. Oh, it's on steam. What the fuck? Yeah. I think I fell into like the twilight zone when I played this game. I was at some town a couple hours away. I was with my wife and she was going to a, she's like a big hobbyist knitter crafter.

[00:32:44] So she was going to like a crafting sort of convention basically. Nice. And I just wandered the streets of this town. Like what's there for me to do around here? And I wandered into was theoretically it was a game store, but it was more like just a room with a bunch of games piled up all haphazardly. Like there was no logic to it. I didn't know if anyone was even working there. And in the back behind this curtain, like this blue curtained room, I pulled it open

[00:33:09] and in the very corner, there's a standup arcade cabinet that is just painted 100% black cabinet, like just wood painted black with a monitor and a Dreamcast keyboard set up with typing of the dead. I never talked to another human walking into this building. I just walked into this empty game store into this back room, stood there, played all the way through typing of the dead and left. Never engaged to another human. Are you sure this wasn't a dream? Yeah, this sounds like some fucking fever dream.

[00:33:40] Meanwhile, Steve's just like in the streets cutting his forehead open and putting like LSD all over his face, like fucking Jimi Hendrix and tying off like a headband and just being like, yeah, I'll meet you in a few hours, man. And then you just stumble in a back alley and think that you're playing typing of the dead. I'm shooting zombies. And you're just on your back, like throwing your hands all over the place. Get back, zombie. What's up? Holy shit. That's cool.

[00:34:08] I want to try to track me down one of these arcade. Well, I guess you probably just make your own if you have a... Yeah, it's not an arcade game. Aaron, you're not going to talk his story. I don't know why they built this. You can't tell that story. You can't be like, in two years, you can't be like, I bought a cabinet for typing of the dead. The story is not going to be as good as what Steve just told. I don't consider this podcasted. Yeah. God damn it. Are you off the pod? No, I'm coming back onto the pod because I've got... I think I'm off the pod.

[00:34:38] Shit. But stay on the pod for just a minute because I've got a slot machine deck builder roguelike. Luck be a landlord. It's on phones now. You can play on your phone and it's really great. So the... Oh, fuck. Do I... I don't know how to start this. There's so much. So basically, the point of each round is to make enough money to pay your rent and you do so by just doing slots. Hitting the slots.

[00:35:06] Those hot sluts that, as they say... I'm sorry? Remember Beavis and Butthead do America? They're like... The old lady's like, I love hitting the sluts. And Beavis is like, hell yeah, I love sluts. Forgot about that. Love that movie. Yeah, so you hit the slots and you make money. And then in between rounds of doing slots, the game will give you a choice of different little icons to add to your reels.

[00:35:34] And there's lots of really wacky and weird ways for icons to interact with other icons. Like, you can get a geologist who can open up geodes. And then when the geodes open up, they'll generate a diamond. And then if you have an old lady or a couple other icons, they'll take in the diamond and do whatever the fuck.

[00:36:04] But yeah, there's all sorts of weird, wacky, cool combinations. You can make it a fever dream. Yeah, I don't know. Dude, I gotta be honest with you. I tuned out after sluts. Fuck Be Landlord is cool, man. It's a slot machine deck builder roguelike. It's cool as fuck. It's like five bucks on the Android. Or I don't know about Apple, though. But it's on phone. No, you're not allowed to have slot machines on Apple. There's no slot machine gambling. We don't gamble, though. No, it doesn't matter.

[00:36:33] They don't like slot machines on Apple. I do want to check it out, though. Pretty sure that the Bellatra developer said that Bellatra was heavily inspired by Luckbe a Landlord. Really? Bellatra's my boy right there. I've never played it. I'm scared to. I don't want to. You haven't played Bellatra yet? Are you fucking serious? Don't yell at me. 200 hours in and I got no plans on stopping. It's so good. Just let yourself succumb to it. No. Just listen. Just listen to the one song that plays all the time.

[00:37:02] You'll be lost in it like... Dude. It's good. It's like if you were really, really high on peyote, acid, and LSD, and then you're playing video poker, except there's no stakes. You don't lose money. So it's cool. Well, now that you frame it that way. The numbers get really big, which is one of the best things that can happen in a video game. And they start on fire! They do. Yes.

[00:37:31] And they make little dinging sounds. Yeah. God damn it, guys. I know. You can get that on your phone, too. Stop. That's enough. Put it on your phone. That is enough. All right. Let me pull you back with another one of my games, then. I'll get you away from Bellacho. Thank God. It's a little scary for you to one that I know that you are familiar with. That I feel like is a good genre mashup. Another recent one. Claire Obscure. Expedition 33. I don't know this one. Goaty 2025. Yeah.

[00:38:00] So it is, it's basically a turn-based Souls game, but I think actually the parts that, the Souls-y parts of it that are the most intelligent aren't even like the parry system and things like that. It's all the other stuff they did around like the item management and the healing and kind of copying the bonfire system and stuff like that. Yeah. The way that you have basically like Megalix or Estus flasks that you can use as you're exploring around.

[00:38:26] And then whenever you get to one of those flags and post up, you're able to like respawn all the enemies in an area. If you want to go do a little bit of extra like grinding or farming up your pictos and stuff like that. It just, it's one of those things where as soon as you play it, it feels like this should have happened a long time ago. Like it's almost obvious in hindsight how well these two things work together. But then, you know, on top of that, they, the soundtrack is unbelievable. The story is ridiculously cool. Every character is so well done. Yep.

[00:38:54] It's, it's just like had every right to just be a good game. You know what I mean? Like, like a solid seven, just like a, yeah, you know what? Yeah. Well done. That's a good game. It, it has no right to be as fucking good as it is. Like it's insane. It doesn't have the right. Like it's, it's wild how this came out. And I was like, I was excited for it because it looks stylish in some of the previews that I had seen.

[00:39:23] I'm a huge sucker for turn-based with action. So like anything with like timed hits, one of my favorite games of all time is Super Mario RPG. So every time that I see something that has like turn-based, but with timed hits, like, like that South Park game, that's also an incredible game. And I love it because a big part of it is because the battle system and the battle system in Claire Obscure is very, very good and addicting.

[00:39:51] Like it makes you want to fight every fight. You don't want to run into the mobs. Yeah. You're like, Oh, I am learning how to parry this. You're fucking dead. You're fucking dead. But yeah, I do agree with you. I wasn't expecting at all for it. I made the comment to a lot of my friends as I was playing.

[00:40:17] I was like, you know, if I didn't know anything at all about this game and I had it just thrown on for me and someone said, this is from software's new turn-based RPG. I'd be like, yeah, this looks awesome. And I would believe you because you're right. There, there was a lot of DNA from souls in this game that I was like, and I personally really hate in the last like five to eight years.

[00:40:46] How often I hear souls, like souls, like souls, like souls, like, but this isn't a souls like, that's not what this is. No, you're like, I don't want your, you're the, what, what, like what you're saying is it's a direct comparison to aspects of a souls game, like the bonfires and the Estes and stuff like that. So yeah, it's when I seen you put this on here, I was like, Oh yeah, that is a good one because it does marry up to things like that very well. Yeah. And it doesn't hurt that.

[00:41:14] It's just one of the coolest games I've ever played in my entire life. Yeah. And, and also that Luna is very easy on the eyes and also how amazing SGA is. I mean, time for swim. It's pretty easy on the eyes too. I mean, there's, there's no wrong answers here. Who did you say? Gustav. Oh, Gustav. Yeah. Uh, I mean, he looks, as soon as I threw the game on, I was like, is that Robert Patterson? Like instantly. A lot of people have said that.

[00:41:44] Is that him? Maybe I don't hang out with Robert Patterson enough, but I'm like, I don't do it. Oh, dude. Great guy. Great guy. Loves a hot dog. Chill dude. Don't smoke enough cigarettes on my private jet with him. He really enjoys a dinosaur nugget. I feel, dude, definitely. I feel like not only does Claire Obscure blend just so many genres, it blends a lot of like elements from other RPGs really, really, really, really well.

[00:42:11] And like, is it, you've got like the whole Picto system reminds me a lot of the skill system in Final Fantasy IX. Yeah. The story is very like Final Fantasy X and shit. And it's just, but it just feels so brand new. Yeah. I think one of the things too about the game that really dings my dong is like, and this might be a slight spoiler, maybe skip ahead like five seconds. World map.

[00:42:40] There's a world map. There's a fucking world map. When I got out on that, I was like, oh, they did it. They did the thing. Yes. Yes. Like you're, you're the like smaller character on like a big map. And I was like, holy shit. That's exactly what I've been wanting. I want this. I didn't realize how bad I needed it until I stepped out onto it. I was like, oh, it's not a big open world. Yes. I know. It's not just a menu where I choose locations. It's such a breath of fresh air.

[00:43:10] It's a little cute little world map. Yes. And then it becomes even more enjoying to travel around it as the game progresses. And it just truly makes you want to poke around and like look at every single thing. Yes. What's the big dude's name? The guy you swim on. Esquia. Yeah. Time for swim, swim. Love that dude. Him and his fucking rocks. Dude.

[00:43:39] When he gives that first hug after some shit goes down, there was a fucking sandstorm blown into my eyes. Yep. Actually, there was a sandstorm blown into my eyes a few times in this game. Yeah. The shit. I can't wait for you to finish it, Aaron, because the, the ending really got me like it. It got me. It got me good.

[00:44:08] I'm on track, man. I'm a, if, if like act three is right after you beat the two like big things like sirene and whatever the fuck the other thing is, but I'm getting there. Pretty close. I mean, it's pretty much like you do the two things and then you go do another big thing and then it's like buckle up. I will say take, take some advice. If you want a challenge though. Okay. I'm going to, I'm going to say this as vaguely as possible.

[00:44:38] If you want a challenge for the final part of the game, do it almost immediately. Mm-hmm. As soon as you're able to and then clue up the rest of the stuff. If not, that motherfucker's cheeks are going to get clapped up so hard. He's not even going to know what hit him. Yeah. It was, it was kind of, it was like a, like a two shot situation. I was like, oh. Yeah. Okay. And then people were like, ooh, but you used the exploit for Mayel.

[00:45:08] And I was like, no, I didn't. This dude was just weak as fuck. I just did all the other stuff first and. But the spectacle behind everything else. I had like 30 levels on him. Like the only, the only thing that was like the saving grace was just the spectacle behind how insane the finale was. Yeah. And then like, yeah, then you just get to the last boss and you're like, you just flick him in the face and he's like, ah, and like it's done. He falls over like, uh, like Betty from Kung Pao.

[00:45:37] I fell and hurt my stomach. Jerry, what, what, uh, what genres are you blending? And then like in an omelet for breakfast, uh, in a protein shake also for breakfast. You know, something that I, I like love even is turn-based.

[00:46:00] Like we're talking about, you don't often see it in a horror game and the, the first and maybe only game I beat. So I had a steam deck for a hot minute and I liked it. I enjoyed it. I bought it specifically as like, this is, this thing is my emulation box. Like that is what this is going to be. Like, sure. I can play steam games on it. Why the fuck would I do that?

[00:46:27] If I have a really nice gaming PC, like it's, this is an emulation box. And then eventually it just became not an emulation box. It just became a fucking dust collector. So I sold it. That's not to say I didn't like it. However, the first and probably only game that I beat on the steam deck was Resident Evil Gaiden for Game Boy Color. Hell yeah. Interesting pick. Is this the one where there's like a, like a time, like a shot with like this little meter

[00:46:56] going back and forth? Yep. Yep. It's a, it's a, it's like a turn-based action horror game or something. It's not so fast. Yeah. It's, it's strange. It's quick. Then you know what? It's pretty goddamn fun. Like it's not even a bad game. Did you, did you ever play that one on a family calm, the sweet home thing is what it's called? Uh, I have played a little bit of that. Yeah.

[00:47:25] That's a, that's an interesting one too. Freaky as fuck. Yeah. That, um, that was the basis for Resident Evil. That game. Mm-hmm. That was Shinji Mikami. I think that was like one of his first games he ever did or ever worked on. I didn't realize until like the other day that Shinji Mikami made Goof Troop. My man. Yeah. Like the show or the game? No, not the show. Aaron.

[00:47:55] Yeah, dude. All you said was Goof Troop. I don't fucking know. You know that show White Lotus, dude? Shigeru Miyamoto. Brady Spears, man. Yeah, dude. Miyamoto's behind White Lotus. Yeah. Bun Miyamoto. Holy shit. At the height of the GameCube. So what was I saying? Yeah. Shigeru Miyamoto. Goof Troop. You fucked me up by saying, did he make the show? Yeah, man.

[00:48:25] Yeah. He made the Goof Troop game on SNES. Hell yeah. When are we getting that turn-based Goof Troop RPG? That'd be cool. I'd fuck with that. I would play that so fast. Yeah. Unironically, too. Like, sign me up. That Goof Troop game on SNES is good, too. Mm-hmm. It's a fun co-op game. Oh, man. I, um... Well, hold on. Now my brain is a- Brewing with other horror RPGs, because that's such a... Well, that's the thing. There's a brand new one out. I haven't played it yet.

[00:48:55] Um, I think it's called, like, Don't Look Outside or Look Outside. Is it turn-based? Turn-based RPG? Yeah. I've heard... Oh, interesting. Yeah, look outside. Are we talking, like, kind of Shadow Hearts-y? Because if so, sign me up. Yeah, Shadow Hearts, Kubelka. No, it's more Earthbound, like, battle system. Like, it's first-person kind of view, and... Saying all the right things. I mean, if you just go to the Steam page and flick through the pictures here... Yeah, there's some wild shit. Fucked.

[00:49:24] Like, and it's currently overwhelmingly positive on Steam. Oh my god. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Some really, really cool pixel art, and it literally looks like a horrific Earthbound. Oh! This one reminds me a little bit of World of Horror, that, like... Oh, yeah, the Junji Ito one. Yeah, there you go. I've played... I own that game.

[00:49:53] I've played a little bit of it with Beth. That one's awesome, too. It's pretty cool. Yeah, it's pretty cool. There's, like, multiple, like, paths that you can take, and, like... Hmm. Yeah, it's different. It's kind of... At first, it's a little hard to look at, but it's... Are they overwhelming? It's just, like... It's all black and white, and it almost looks like it's, like, the ASCII, like, ASCII, like, looking... Like, it's just odd-looking, but it is...

[00:50:22] It's got a look. It's got a style. Which... This is totally off-topic, but have you guys heard of the game Repose? Repose? Repose. Is that, like, the modern, sort of, like, multiplayer, proximity chat, spooky kind of game? It's, like... It's a first-person... And, like, that's why I'm saying it. It's a first-person game, but it looks like it... Oh. ...runs on, like, a fucking T9 calculator.

[00:50:51] I see it now. Yeah, R-E-P-O-S-E. Yeah. It's another one that's... Whoa! Yeah. This thing looks crazy. I've been wanting to pick this one up. Oh, dang. I might pick this... Yeah, I might... Good. I might grab this and look outside, like, real soon. I've been... After Clare Obscura, I've been kind of, like... Well, I've been playing Doom Eternal. Or, not Doom Eternal. Doom Dark Ages. And it's been fun, but, like... I'm... I don't know.

[00:51:20] I'm, like, ready for this thing to be over. Because I kind of... Lately, I've just been wanting to play, like, some... Some smaller, like, horror games. Go play Kodoka. It's, like... Yeah. 20 hours, I think. There's a couple of... There's a couple of things that I have on my list that I'm, like... Like, Crow Country is the next thing I'm playing. Mmm. 100%. That's a great game. Have you played that? Crow Country? Yeah. Yeah. Really well done. Yeah. Yeah. I've only played, like...

[00:51:50] Maybe 40 minutes of the game. So far. And then I got sidetracked with a bunch of other shit. But I'm... I've been, like... No. I gotta... I gotta get back in there. Because, like... I really, really like what I was playing. Yeah. Great map design in that game. And it's the type of game that, like... Knows... Not to overstay its welcome. It's the perfect game. It's only, like, five or six hours, right? Like, it's not... Right as you get it, they're like, all right, we're good. And I'm like, perfect. Sweet. And that's the thing. That's kind of what I want. Like, I don't... Mm-hmm. I don't need... Every game doesn't...

[00:52:19] That's another thing about... Not to go back to Claire Obscure again, but, like... Yeah. That's another thing about Claire Obscure. It's not a fucking 80-hour game. Yeah. I don't need every RPG to be 80 hours now. Like... Preach. Preach. Preach it, sister. The only time that I've actually been, like, upset when over a hundred-hour RPG has ended, like a classic RPG, is Dragon Quest XI. I was just gonna say the only RPG allowed to be triple digits is the Dragon Quest game.

[00:52:47] And when I finished that, I was like, fuck, man. Now what do I do with my life? Like, what the fuck am I gonna play? Because, like, you sink a hundred and, like, ten, twenty hours into that thing, and you're like, I feel complete. But now I feel empty. Yes. Like, the second you see those credits roll, it's just this void that you can't fill. I got a friend that... I miss that game so much. I know. I got a buddy that... Okay.

[00:53:14] So he fucking hates turn-based RPGs. Hates them. Played Clare Obscure on mine and my other friend's recommendation. We were like, dude, you fucking have to play this game. He got super into it. He just beat it a couple days ago. And immediately was like, okay, guys. I wanna play another turn-based RPG. And we're like, holy fuck. What do we tell him? We're like, okay. It's gotta be Dragon Quest XI. Because he hates random encounters. So I was like, it has to be Dragon Quest XI. He's four hours in now.

[00:53:44] And he's like, yeah, I'm in. Like, I'm into this. And as soon as he started playing, I was like, fuck. I wanna play this again. So bad. I miss it so much. I miss the... What is it called? The teeny tiny forge? Or the mini-sized forge? Oh, yeah. The forge. And it's like a mini game. Yeah. And you can make all sorts of cool shit with that. The fun-sized forge. There we go. That shit was so fucking cool. Yeah. Steaming up your armor all the right ways. Yeah, man.

[00:54:14] Getting some of that puff puff. Yeah. Alright, I'm gonna reel us back in a little bit. Yeah, reel it in. Reel it in. Oh, I can't pick... Fuck it. Pocket card jockey, dude. No. Solitaire, horse racing, and JRPG, dude. You were so close to a perfect segue. How so? Reel it back in with Sushi Striker. Oh, man. I mean, I could redo it. No. Is it too late? The moment is gone. Okay. The moment is gone. Damn it.

[00:54:44] Oh, yeah. Pocket card jockey. I don't even know where to begin. There's so much to this fucking game. You just racehorse. I've heard you talk about this before. It's so good. It's so addictive, man. I'm pretty sure you brought this to one of the anti-game of the years. And you argued like... Goddamn right, I did. ...pretty hard for this one. I always do, man. If there's any... If there's three games that I'm always, like, preaching about, it's Pocket card jockey, Sushi Striker, and Custom Robo, dude.

[00:55:13] I just remember us all yelling and then someone going, uh, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright. Aaron, what the fuck is Pocket card jockey? And you're like, okay. Let me fucking lay it on you. Uncle up. Listen up, studs. So, you race in horses, right? But you do so by playing games of solitaire. And the better you do in the games of solitaire, the more energy your horse will have.

[00:55:39] And the more energy your horse has at, like, the end of the race, like, at the home stretch, the better, like, your chances are of winning the race. So, yeah, solitaire, you just do, like, what? King, queen, jack, ten, blah, blah, blah. You try to basically just clear out every single card in your deck by matching them all together in solitaire.

[00:55:59] Then your horses can learn all sorts of cool abilities, like, they'll gain more energy if they run behind a horse, or some horses will just naturally have better, or naturally have more stamina. And there's all sorts of cool items that you can equip to your horses. And it's just, it's rad, man. I mean, you can't buy the 3DS version anymore, unfortunately. That was the best one. But you can buy the new one on Switch. I think fucking iPhones. You can buy it on iPhones now.

[00:56:29] So, Jerry, that's three games you're going to buy on your iPhone, right? No. There's not a chance. Fuck you. Buy them. The amount of card games that you enjoy, like, you must be able to handle a deck, dude. You must be able to handle a deck. I know my way around a deck. You must be able to shuffle a fucking deck. God damn it. So once I have my hands on that deck.

[00:56:56] Let me get both hands around that deck. God damn right, dude. Show you some slight hand. Could you do it? Do it like the, doing the samurai sword, like, but like with the deck? No. If you know what I mean. No. With the dick. No. That would be awful. I don't want that. Nobody wants that in their life. No, it'd be great. What's, uh, what you got for us, Steve?

[00:57:27] I appreciate the setup on that. Speaking of this, here's Steve. Um, okay. How about a little dungeon crawler rhythm game? Oh my God. I still have the steam page up for repos and started playing haunting music. Oh shit. I was like, what is going on? Nightmare, nightmare, nightmare. Like, it's not that intense guys. I guess it does say that has necro in it, but it shouldn't be that scary.

[00:57:57] Uh, Crypt of the Necrodancer. Dungeon crawler rhythm game, which I like it a lot because I actually think rhythm games are one of the worst things to genre mashup. I usually don't think it works very well because rhythm games require such like precision. There's such a specific thing that if you sort of half ass it into another game, it ends up just being like a worse version of that game and a not very fun rhythm game. I agree with you hard on that one, but Crypt of the Necrodancer does it perfectly.

[00:58:27] I mean, it helps that you just like mostly keep in the beat, keep in four, four time, but like the, the way that the entire world is sort of like pulsing to the beat and like helping you keep your rhythm and the way that it like helps you naturally get into sort of that flow state that you would get into with this type of game anyways, I think works perfectly. And I think it also works great in the Zelda version too. Yeah. Um, I was meant to play that cadence of Hyrule. Yeah, that's great. But yeah, really, I suck at the, I suck at Crypt of the Necrodancer, but I really like it.

[00:58:56] Dude, I'm, I'm a musician and I understand timing and I'm, I struggle with this game. Like they do, I thought they had though, I thought they had, or maybe they updated it or something. Didn't they add something that allows it to be, or am I thinking? No, I'm thinking of, um, was that game that shadow dropped on Xbox? Um, Hi-Fi Rush. They had like some accessibility stuff there where they were like, Hey, we can like make

[00:59:24] it so that like you can be off a little bit. Like they, they still want you to be on time for most of it, but you can still be off by a little bit. And I think if, if you have a rhythm game like that, especially like with Crypt of the Necrodancer, I feel like you should, should have something there that may allow some forgiveness. Cause not everybody has like timing, right? Like I, I, I, I can do it.

[00:59:49] And even, even me, like I have like a fucking metronome in my head and I still can't do a lot of the stuff in the game. Yeah. I think cadence had just the ability to turn off the rhythm stuff that they're like, if you just want to play Zelda, you can just go play Zelda. That's cool. Like a middle ground between the two is nice where it's like, you can still kind of get in the spirit of the game and try to, you know, keep the beat going. Just it's okay. If you're a little bit off here and there is would be appreciated. And maybe it's in there. Honestly, I don't know. I guess I haven't looked recently.

[01:00:18] It's very possible. How would there be dudes ever played ever hood? No, I've been meaning to play it for a long time. That game looks sick. I think I did. Isn't that like a side scroller? And then you get into like turn-based fights. No, it's like a rhythm RPG kind of like, no, I've never, it'll be like, this is like an undertale. This looks crazy. Like you walk around and then like the battles are on this like guitar hero like grid and

[01:00:44] you can start off just like, I know dude, I know that ever really has such a fucking cool story too. There's a lot of like mind melting shit in it. And it's really, really cool. This one's cool as what just came out for that, right? Like, isn't there a second one now? Yeah. Yeah, there is a second one now. I'm seeing it. Whoa, this looks cool as fuck too. It's sweet, dude. Oh, three fucking games. I'm starting to think I'm going to die without having played all the games I want to. God. Repose.

[01:01:13] We got Look Outside, Everhood. Oh, God. It's a good problem to have. It is a good problem to have. Yeah. It's a good problem. Speaking of problems. Speaking of problems, right here. Why don't we take a quick commercial break? Why don't we kick back and say be right back before we get into some of these final picks? What do you think? That sounds good. We'll be right back. Yeah, do it. That's epic!

[01:01:45] Hey, Jerry. What's your favorite cereal? What cereal do you like? Um, I enjoy a Kellogg's Corn Flake. Single Corn Flake? With brown sugar. Oh, okay. And a little bit of Froot Loops on top for good measure. Then what I'll do is I'll take the Lucky Charms box. I'll empty out all of the pieces like a puzzle. Oh, fuck it. And then I'll tip it a little.

[01:02:15] I'll tip it a little. But then I'm taking the marshmallows out. I'm throwing those into the centers of the Froot Loops. So go on. Tell me about how much better my life would be with something better than Kellogg's Frosted Flakes with some Froot Loops, brown sugar, and the marshmallows. Well, I'm here to tell both of you fellas about cereal made with recycled materials.

[01:02:41] So, you know, the cardboard and aluminum and the paper you guys are always recycling and tossing out. Well, the company I haven't thought of the name for you, they're taking those materials and then taking that shit a step further. They're mashing it up with, like, granola and oats and whey. Yeah, whatever. We're going with whey. They're mashing it up together to make a brand new tasty breakfast cereal. You know what?

[01:03:10] They're taking those fucking... They're taking stale marshmallows. They're doing that too. You know what? Not even just recyclables. Like, any waste. They're going to reuse that shit. Carrot tops. They'll take those. Orange peels. They'll take those. Banana peels. Like the comedian? Is he in the cereal? Who? Orange peel? What? Carrot top? Oh, yeah, yeah. No, he's the spokesperson for it. Oh, okay. Oh, yeah, because he gave us the promo code. Not the promo code, the DLC code.

[01:03:40] We have the DLC. We got the exclusive rights for a DLC that you can grab for these delicious snacks. It's the honey-crusted, sugar-coated Illuminati bombs. Holy shit. Yeah. What is it called again, Eric? Honey-coated, sugar-blasted Illuminati bombs.

[01:04:06] It's honey-coated, sugar-bomb, crusted Christ-bomb Illuminati bros. Holy shit. Oh, man. Move aside. Honeynut Cheerios and fucking Frosted Flakes. Get that shit out of here. We're saving the earth one bowl at a time. You know what? It's not going to be prejudiced against Frosted Flakes or anything. No, I'm tired of this goddamn shit. We're tired of sowing the seeds of the earth. I don't know.

[01:04:35] We're just using materials people don't need. You know, there's glass. There's glass in it, but it's good. There's monkeys sometimes. No one needs monkeys, really. They're not like, you know, people are like, oh, hey. Just the parts people don't use. Yeah. I mean, like, you know, people are like, oh, you killed a spider? They eat flies. Monkeys don't do anything, really. Like, they don't fucking... What do they do? They just hang out in trees? Yeah, fuck it. We're putting them in cereal. Exactly. Really? It's all the stuff people don't use.

[01:05:04] We're reusing it in our cereal. Or not our cereal, but Steve, what's... What? What do you got to add to this? I'm just grateful there's finally a cereal that uses milk and the milk carton together. You know? No longer leaving it behind. Yep. You're like pouring the milk into the bowl, and then all of a sudden the carton turns like inside out and plops into the bowl. Just plops right in. And then you find the kid that's on the milk carton in the bowl. Oh, poor kid.

[01:05:37] It's kind of like, you know those dinosaurs that you used to get as a kid? And like a little egg, and they throw it in the water, and they like expand. Oh, the dehydrated kid? Yeah, it's just a dehydrated missing kid. God damn, that's dark. No one will find this child I'm abducted. Dude, do you remember? This is a super side.

[01:06:04] Do you remember that kid that like wandered out into the woods for like three or four days, and then they found him, and they were like, oh, he's alive. But he like, he looked like he's seen some shit, dude. He probably did. That's what those kids look like. Those dehydrated cornflake kids. Out there drinking their own piss. I bet they're dehydrating themselves, drinking their own piss. Oh, God. It's okay. Bear Grylls taught us you could do that. That's true. You know what? Hey, for a limited time, use our promo code,

[01:06:36] fucking balls, and we'll throw in a jar of powdered jankum. Fucking balls. Yeah, dude. Powdered jankum. They're coming to a store near you. And you gotta be 18 or older to order this to you, by the way. You have the cereal and the jankum. Yeah, like you gotta go get your mom and be like, hey, mom, can you type this in for me? Because I'm not old enough. That's the promo code, fucking balls. Mom, how do you spell fucking? What? You're trying to spell fuck?

[01:07:06] And then that kid ends up as a dehydrated missing kid in your cornflakes. Because he drank his own piss. Yeah, yeah. Hey, thanks, piss, for sponsoring this episode. Okay, I think we're back. I'm like 90% sure we're back, right? Yeah. Yeah, we're back. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Jerry, what's your last one? I don't care.

[01:07:35] It's okay. I'm off the pod. I'm off. Actually, no, no. I can throw in there. No, shut up. I'm back on. I'm back. I'm back on. I'm back on the pod. Inscription. Anybody play Inscription? Oh, yeah. Goddamn right I have. Oh, wee. That's a banger of a game. I feel like that may be a modern indie classic. Fuck yeah. Absolutely. Right? Easy W on Inscription. Great pick, too, for a mashup. Yeah.

[01:08:05] It's. It was. You got Deck Builder. You got fucking puzzles in there, too. It's like an escape room. Yeah. Right? And then it turns into, like, Pokemon. Yeah. Then it turns into something else. And then it turns into something else. Like, yeah. I mean, I remember hearing about this game. And I loved Pony Island. I found Pony Island and went in blind. Didn't know anything about it.

[01:08:34] And I loved it. And then when I had started hearing about this Inscription game, and I was like, yeah, I keep hearing a lot of good stuff about it. Not really interested. Don't really like roguelikes. Don't really like deck builders. Don't really like anything that I'm hearing about what the type of game is. And then I found out that it was by, what's his name? Something Mullins? John Pony Island. Is it Dan Mullins? Yeah. Daniel Mullins. Daniel Mullins. Yeah. We call him Dan here in Canada. Yeah.

[01:09:05] A little more casual. Danada. Danada, yeah. Yeah. So once I heard that it was by him and I was like, oh, I think I got to play this now. And I threw it on the night that I threw it on and I called in sick the next day. Yeah. Right. I couldn't get away from the fucking computer. Like I couldn't put it down. Like turn after turn.

[01:09:33] And then I'm pretty sure it was at that first turning point. Like when the rug gets pulled out from underneath you and I was like, well, now I'm really not going to work tomorrow. Yeah. Chalk another one up to diarrhea. Three days in a row. That is the easiest one. You can't be like, prove it. Take up to work all shitty pants. You don't believe me. Yeah. Can I get a spot check real quick?

[01:10:04] Fucking. Do you guys remember the show Robin Big from MTV like years back? You don't remember Robin Big? Rob Deer Dick and. Deer Dick. Yeah. That's his name. Rob Deer Dick. That's his real last name? Yeah. Well, okay. Well, I don't know. Whatever. So, so, so Big was trying to patent this thing called the man pond, which was for like when you shart or whatever.

[01:10:34] All diarrhea talk spawned that into my brain. This reminds me of the time that Mark Hoppus proposed inventing the wipe saddle, which is just a sawhorse you mount and glide back and forth on. Hands free wiping. Oh, genius. Genius. Shark tank. Here we come. Inscription's a good pick, though. And I will say. Sorry. Go ahead. Sorry.

[01:11:04] I got to get you away from poop or you'll go for another five minutes. I'm trying to save you from yourself. Please. I do really like that Daniel Mullins had the had the balls to make Pony Island 2 his next game. Yeah. Instead of inscription 2. I've seen that trailer and it was like Daniel Mullins. I was like, oh, what is this going to be? And then I seen Pony Island 2 and I was like, huh? I mean, I'm all in. But what? What do you mean?

[01:11:47] Let's go. I'm trying to figure out this. He's kind of like the M. Night Shyamalan of indie game developers, but he's consistent and he hasn't made the happening yet. What? Who? Is it the Hex? Who casted Mark Wahlberg as a scientist? Why did they do that? That was... Why would you... He was available, you know?

[01:12:15] Who believed in Mark Wahlberg as a scientist? That was his time. They were like, all right, who's the hottest new actor that could pop... Maybe pass. Who's even new? That was his area. He was on that and the other guys and Transformers and other stuff. That movie was so bad. Which one? The Happening. Oh, yeah. The Happening was fucking stupid.

[01:12:42] I really love games that do that rug pull type of shit. Did you guys ever play Frog Fractions? I... Okay, so... I started to play Frog Fractions because someone was like, you gotta play Frog Fractions. And I was like, okay. And then I started playing it and I was like, okay, what is... What's the big deal with this? This is kind of dumb. And I didn't play it again. Did you only ever do the fractions? I feel like there's maybe a piece you missed.

[01:13:11] I didn't realize... You played the poopy part, dude. I didn't realize that it did a thing. Like some of these other games. So I literally just played like a fucking edutainment game. Well, you know, it's good to brush up every now and again. Keep your mind short. I'll go play Mario's Missing. No, you don't need to play that. Or Mario's Time Machine. They're both fantastic edutainment games. Speaking of edutainment, dude.

[01:13:39] I'm gonna get Sushi Striker out of the way because there's a lot to Sushi Striker. An action puzzle creature catching RPG. Holy fuck. Another 3DS gem that fucking nobody has played, dude. I've heard lots about Sushi Striker and it's always... I've always been curious. It's great, man. Like there's a million layers to the combat and it basically just all boils down to attacking your opponent until their HP reaches zero.

[01:14:07] But you attack them by throwing stacks of plates and like the more plates are in the stack that you throw, the more damage will do. And then like the color of the plates in the stack that you throw, like there's this hierarchy of colors. Kind of like with Borderlands with the guns. You know, there's like white, red, green, blue, shit like that. But then also, if you have a rainbow plate in your stack, it'll do even more damage.

[01:14:37] Oh, but then wait. If you chain together stacks of plates of the same color, you'll do even more damage. But then, oh wait. There's even more. If it's a Sushi Jubilee, you'll do even more damage. But wait. If you have a fucking Sushi Sprite... Or not a Sushi Sprite. Yeah. If you have a Sushi Sprite with a cool ability, you can do even more damage. You can do all sorts of cool, funky things to fuck up your opponent. To just give yourself a shield or heal. There's these little creatures called Sushi Sprites

[01:15:06] that you'll collect more as you go through the story. But the more you fight them over and over, they'll eventually join your party. And there's ones that are just like a fucking tiger that does more damage. Or a little cactus guy that'll make it so... He like saps your opponent's Sushi Jubilee energy so that you get into it faster. I don't know. It's a really sick game. And there's this fucking... There's a super banging little anime intro to the game too

[01:15:34] that will get stuck in your brain. And there's sweet little anime cut scenes all throughout it too, dude. It's... Yeah. Sushi Striker is... I think it's like 10 bucks. It's really, really, really cheap. Where does all the creature catching come into that? You said... You mentioned the Sushi Sprites. Are they just handed to you? Or is there like actual catching mechanics? You don't actually catch them. You just kind of like collect them.

[01:16:02] There's some that you can go out of your way to get. But that's from fighting them over and over and over. Because you'll basically... Like all the people that you fight are minions in this like sushi empire. I forget what the fuck exactly happens. But they'll... Depending on like what location you're in, they'll use the same Sushi Sprites in different teams. And yeah. You can mix and match your team of three Sushi Sprites.

[01:16:30] And there's different like gears and belts and all sorts of shit that you can equip to... To increase your score or affect the lanes. The speed of your lanes and just all sorts of fucking hootenanny and mayhem. I think society lets you down on this one. I remember this is like always been just ridiculously cheap for physical copies. I remember like at game stores it'd be for like two bucks. Or I think I saw it five below at some point.

[01:16:59] So people did not pick up on what you're putting down unfortunately. No they didn't man. Like it's... I mean it's also on Switch. But that version you have to play with your fingers. And it's not like as intuitive as the stylus. So if you have a 3DS, go get a copy of Sushi Striker. It's dirt cheap and it's really, really fucking good. I promise you it's good. And the soundtrack slaps like a motherfucker too. Look at the song Volcano.

[01:17:30] Volcano. Volcano. Volcano. Sushi Striker. Maybe I will. And the last one on my list is Borderlands because it's an FPS RPG. But I guess there's a bunch of other FPS RPGs like System Shock and Deus Ex. Deus Ex. Deus Ex. That's a good ass game. Deus Ex.

[01:18:07] Well, Aaron. Yeah. What do you say we get into the saddest part of the episode? Let's do it. Cool. Random Recommendated Games. Yes. That is right. That is the sound that we make when we get into the saddest part of the show where we are getting ready to say goodbye. But of course, we're generous lovers. We always give back. So we have some recommended games for you to play.

[01:18:37] And this week, we have our lovely guest, Steve, to tell us. Dude, please tell us. What should we play? All right. I'm going to pick a random game that came out in 2016. This is like my go-to. Nobody's played it and it's better than you'd think.

[01:18:55] It's a game called The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human, which is a mouthful of a title. But my pitch is it's an underwater. So you're playing as a submarine. It's an underwater mix of Metroid and Shadow of the Colossus.

[01:19:20] So it's put out by the same studio that they've made a bunch of games, but their most recent one is called Keep Driving. I think it came out this year. And it's that like road trip roguelike where you're just trying to like drive across the country. But this is the game they made like a decade ago. And so you like you go out into the world 2D side on map. You explore around. There's not like a ton of enemies, but there is like gated progression like in a Metroid game. Oh, yeah.

[01:19:49] But more Shadow of the Colossus, like it's it's kind of more just traveling from boss location to boss location and like soaking in the atmosphere as you go. And then the boss fights as you against like these giant massive sea creatures or sometimes like sea creatures mixed with technology like manta ray with a big laser attached to it or like. Like these two like dueling seahorse kings and stuff like that.

[01:20:14] And it's just like a really solid fun kind of almost boss rushy kind of game. Very, very unique. You know, it does a good job pulling influence from other stuff. Sounds awesome. What did you say the name of this was? The aquatic adventure of the last human. The ocean is fucking terrifying. So no, thank you. Oh, but you're in a submarine. You got like harpoons and, you know, you'll eventually upgrade to get like a buzzsaw and missiles and stuff.

[01:20:42] So you're equipped to fight back. I saw that screenshot with like the angler fish and it's like just like a dark red. No. Maybe. No, maybe. Maybe I might. What is this on? This sounds sweet. PC. It's on PlayStation 4 and I'm not sure if it's on Xbox. It's on Switch. I'm pretty. I think I just saw. Oh, really? Yeah. I played the PS4 version. It ran great. So. Nice. Cool.

[01:21:12] That sounds very interesting. Thanks for that recommendation. Of course. Aaron, I got one. I got one for you. I got one for all. For everyone. Goemon. So like, you know, Goemon, right? You know. As one does, yeah. You know a good Goemon game is, it's nice to have. Well, there's a new Goemon game that's not Goemon. I don't know if you heard of this or not. Bakaru?

[01:21:43] Bakaru? I don't know how to pronounce it. I think I've heard of that. It's a fucking Goemon game. And you have like, he's like a drummer dude. And he basically has like nunchucks. Like he has like little sticks that you use. And your attacks are all on like your shoulder buttons and stuff. And you do like one, two, three, four, five. And you kind of time it with like a rhythm. It's really, really good. And it's got like really fun level design.

[01:22:11] It's not like an overly long game. But it's definitely like a spiritual successor to Goemon. And I would highly recommend that if anybody out there like myself loves a good Goemon game. But you know, Konami doesn't make those anymore. Then I would, I would check this out. If, if you're into a 3D puzzle platformer. Yeah, it looks awesome. This, holy shit. Yeah, it's a Spike Chunsoft good feel game.

[01:22:40] Dude, holy shit. I'm, I'm on board. Anything Spike Chunsoft makes, I'm fucking on board. Yeah. Yeah, they're good. It's good stuff, man. Check it out. I'm doing a check it out. So the, for, for the Super Pod Game Club, the, the poll just ended. We're playing Mega Man X2 for, for next month's Game Club game. And to get ready for that, I've been playing Mega Man X.

[01:23:05] Also just to kind of like purge the, the disgustingness, like the oily disgustingness of Mighty No. 9 out of my system. I've been playing something good. The first Mega Man X. Yeah. Yeah. Have you, you've beat Mega Man X before, right? Oh yeah. And, but. I decided to just like, you follow a guide telling you like which, like the exact boss order. Just to make it like as easy and like stupid as possible.

[01:23:32] And yeah, I, fucking it's, the last like three bosses, literally all I've done is just hug the left wall, blast them. And just like, kind of depending on the boss, just kind of rinse and repeat. Like Spark Mandrill, you just hop along the wall and blast them. And then you get to, uh, fucking chill, or no. I'm going to shoot him with the ice, dude. Yeah. Yeah. It's chill penguin first, then Spark Mandrill, shoot him with the ice.

[01:23:58] And then you get to, um, uh, armored armadillo and you hit him with the electricity gun. All while hugging the left wall. Follow that pattern, you will be safe. And yeah. Game's just fucking good. Yeah. That's how you do a Mega Man game. God damn it. Yeah. Yeah. Throw Mega Man X6 in the mix and let's see how you do. Hug those walls. Find out what happens. Do they not have a wall jump on that one anymore? No, they do. The game is just incredibly difficult. Oh shit.

[01:24:28] Yeah. What's up? Steve's nodding in, in approval. Are you aware of the, uh, the pitfalls of Mega Man X6? Yeah. I, I convinced myself to play through Mega Man X through X8 a couple of summers back. Oh yeah. You did seven and eight, huh? Burned to the ground, buddy. I mean that X7 is something else. So that, that is a video game. Capital V, capital G. Yeah. What's, so what's the game?

[01:24:56] What's the, what would you say is like the, the hierarchy or like the tier of Mega Man X games? Just so. Oh God. Oh, that's wow. That's a question. That's a question. I think my favorites are X and X4. And then under that I'd put like X2, X3. Then under that probably X5, X6.

[01:25:18] I think I'm going X3 on top and then X1, X2, X4. And then X, you know, X6 gets a lot of shit, but I think I like X6 more than X5. Yeah. That's fair. They're pretty close in my head. Yeah. I think that's like part of the reason why I like, cause X4 seemed like it was different

[01:25:47] enough from the other ones. Cause it was like the next step, right? Like it was, it was a PlayStation game, but then X5 and six just seemed like the same thing. Like they didn't seem, they just seem like their continuations of X4. They didn't seem like their own games for some reason. Like, I don't know. I don't know what it is. So yeah, they're kind of, they kind of blend together. I have not played X7 entirely. It's something I wanted to, um, like yourself.

[01:26:14] I just, I have to, I love Mega Man so much and I just, I need to complete the series. I'm a bit of a completionist when it comes to that. And I've played the X8 demake, which was really, really, really good. Cause it's based on Mega Man X3's engine. Oh, so it's done in the, in the Super Nintendo style, not the original NES one. Yes. And it is very, very good.

[01:26:43] And you can only play as X. Interesting. And they've, yeah, they've pretty much, they pretty much made the game a Mega Man X on SNES. Like if you were to be like, this is what Mega Man X4 is on the SNES. Yeah. I'd believe it. Awesome. I'll have to try that. It's free. It's on, I think it's on itch.io. Oh, hell yeah. Yeah. You can just download it. It's like a fan game.

[01:27:09] We definitely need to do a Mega Man X video. I would actually, I, well, I mean, there's a million Mega Man X and Mega Man videos and stuff or, you know, podcasts. I would like to do the best Mega Man fan games because there's a lot of really good ROM hacks and fan games that are as good as the originals. Hell yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:27:40] Well, everybody, that's it. That is the show. Uh, Steve, one more time for the listeners. What, uh, what shows and, and YouTubes and such can they find you on?

[01:28:19] Yeah. You've heard of it? Yeah. I've heard. I've heard of YouTube. YouTube's pretty sick, man. Yeah. It's pretty cool. It's pretty solid. I can get behind some YouTube. Cool. Yeah. I'll put, I'll put all of your stuff in the, uh, in the show notes and all that stuff and the credits and everything. But, uh, yeah, listeners, that's it. We're getting the hell out of here. I need to go to sleep. Oh, probably not now because I've slammed two Red Bulls, but, uh, yeah. Yeah. Thanks for coming on, man.

[01:28:49] Thanks for having me. Yeah. This was a lot of fun. Aaron didn't thank you once. The son of a bitch. He told me he wasn't gonna. He's like, don't expect a bunch of, a bunch of false gratitude. All right. You go on the show, but I'm not being fucking nice to you. Dude, I'm not gonna say fucking friendly things. Be reasonable. Oh, man. No, this was fun. And, and you know what? Thank you for coming on. Uh, I mean, yeah, we, we definitely do need to have you on time. It's been goddamned time that you thanked a guest. Yeah.

[01:29:19] Let me know anytime. I'll be happy to come back. I was, I was pumped when you reached out, so I'll be happy to join you anytime. Awesome. Hell yeah. Hell yeah, dude. Well, listeners, go check out superpodsog.com and, uh, be sure to tune in next time in the next episode where, uh, Jerry also slams a red bull, doesn't sleep for four days straight, and then, uh, just fucking sleeps in the street. I don't know. I don't prepare these. Yeah. And, uh, on the next episode, Aaron will handle a full deck. Goddamn right. And, uh, well, everybody say bye. Bye. Bye.

[01:29:49] Bye.