The Besties - Besties 10th Anniversary Game of the Decade Spectacular

Episode Date: February 18, 2022

To celebrate our tenth year of intractable debate over which video games are better than the other video games, we're doing EXACTLY THAT. For over an hour. We're pitting the best games of the last decade against one another, and only ONE survives. (One game, we mean. All the hosts are doing just fine.) Get the full list of games (and other stuff) discussed at www.besties.fan. Want more episodes? Join us at patreon.com/thebesties for three bonus episodes each month!

I thought you guys would do a joke while, because I went to, the joke was, okay. You're wasting time. This is not it. This is not it. Where did Griffin, Griffin just went down a tunnel. My door at my outside, my, the, I'm exposed to the elements. I'm sure he's saying important things, but I can't actually hear him, so. Listen, okay, listen, I can't do this show while my windows are open in my office and I can smell all of the possibilities of outside. Do you know what I mean? Yeah.

I can't sit here in my game diaper and talk about bullshit with you guys while I smell all the adventure waiting for me outdoors. I mean, there is a lot of adventure out my windows too, but it's mostly urine. Yeah. And some people like that yeah and those people are called new yorkers and raccoons My name is Justin McElroy and I know the best game Oh, it's me. My name is Christopher Thomas

Next decade. Next decade. The 20 year spectacular We'll get it for sure 2032 i know the best game of the decade my name is ross rossing out of the best game of the week welcome to the besties where we talk about the latest and greatest in home interactive inter game mint it is a video game club and And just by listening, you are a member. This is such a special time. A very formal episode.

Because we have been doing the besties, I would say, against all odds. For a decade now. Against every odd. It's been a bit of an on-and-again, off-and-again relationship with the show. We've been going sort of for 10 years, but not consecutively. Yeah. This show started life sort of right alongside Polygon. It was this great idea I had about doing a game of the year show that lasted all year long.

I remember walking through the streets of Soho in the rain and talking to you guys about this great idea that I had forming it. I should have been a little bit choosier about the three other people I chose to talk with about because I kind of got locked in just who was huddled around me at the time. You know what's sad? Adam Sessler was just a few feet ahead of me, so I definitely could have roped in the Sess dog. Yeah, the Sess cess pool i don't think he likes that one i bet he doesn't um so this is the show here's what we're doing because we're going to take a break and then we're going to get right into it i will tell you what we're doing we're going to talk about the past 10 years of games and pick the best game

we're going to fix our game of the year decisions entirely so we're gonna pit the ones that we picked originally as the game of the year versus the ones that we just a couple weeks ago said oh no we made a mistake they should have been these games and we're gonna hit those two against

one another and come up with a true best game of the first 10 years we are going to be moving through, usually our end of the year show is a bit more of a wrap up of meditation on the year in gaming. This, I will warn you, will be moving much quicker. We've got a lot to get

through. There's so many matchups, y'all. And I don't think we're going to create artificial discussion. If we feel settled on one, we'll just do it. And we're going to do it for you right after this break. Okay, we're back and we're going to get into our very first matchup. This is the wild card

round. Now, how did we generate this, Chris Plant? So, I took the ten games that we had picked already. I took the ten games that are the alternates we picked the other week. I created separate conferences. So, they won't face each other until you know one winner from each final battle showdown right right then here i ranked the the games in what we agreed we all agreed was their order of i would say like likelihood of winning basically you know like breath of wild is the one seed um i think dark souls 2 might be

a 10 seed maybe something like that i don't have the thing in front of me but but yeah so these wild cards are these are stuff that was like they're barely they're eking in right right um that that might surprise you with some of these games because they're good games but the stuff that like only got guaranteed a spot in the next round those are the the biggie biggies like we basically didn't want to penalize a game because it came out in the same year as another fantastic game so it's like a second some second shots the second chances okay um it's a true inspirational story first up dark god it really comes at you hard doesn't it griff yeah it does dark Dark Souls 2 versus Sekiro.

Oh, I'm sorry. No, this is so fucking... Yeah, that's extremely easy. It's the worst FromSoft game versus the best FromSoft game. I'm going to go with the best one, which is Sekiro. I really liked Dark Souls 2 because it was the first one that I finished. I didn't like... I want you to think about the time that you beat the fucking Saint.

I'm just trying to generate a little bit of conversation. I already bolded it. This is the epitome of a matchup that we know where it's going to end and we have so many matchups. I'm sorry Dark Souls 2, you're screwed. That's fine. We spent an entire year

fretting over that game and now that's how much better we've gotten at this. We don't need to waste that time anymore. We can do this podcast in 10 minutes it was the first from software game i beat i really like i think i think it was a better version of the first dark souls game that's it and now we never think of it again because it doesn't have fucking cursed frogs the fact that you think that dark souls is better and it has a fucking i think it does have not not in the where you have to like go find the stupid crow and give it a gem to get have your soft back soft soft give me warm crunchy okay next up zelda link between worlds versus dish honored

this is another honor was the very first game of the year winner right and, yeah. And I think Zelda was the second? Yeah, Dishonored, it's a fine game. That was when I think we realized it ended, and we were like, wait, do we even want this to win? We liked it, but it felt like we were all compromising around one game. It did. There was a little bit of that. Yeah, I really love Dishonored.

I would say that I feel like the second one is a refinement of it in in most ways um and i which is weird because it didn't it's nowhere on this list but i do think the second one is a it's a better version of the first of the first dishonored i think the second one came out in a very packed year of amazing amazing amazing games. Yeah. Link Between Worlds is just a fucking great, great 2D Zelda. It's probably my second favorite Zelda game. Wow, that's pretty high up there. I don't... This is the spiritual successor to

Link to the Past. Second or third, I would say. Yeah, second. I agree. Fresh was right to say second, and he was going to get it. Yeah, behind Link Between Worlds. We have actually already done this exact thing we're not going to sit here like 1200 times yeah sorry dishonored you're uh a very good game you're banished but you're banished next up titanfall 2 versus god of war can i be real with y'all yeah tough one yeah this one tough. I really love both of these games.

I would make the case that, and I think there's a case for both of these. For me, I think that God of War did a lot of really fantastic things mechanically and storytelling-wise, but I don't think I've ever seen a game, especially not in a major AAA franchise, a game, especially not in a major AAA franchise, a game that is actually in active conversation with its own history in the way that God of War is. And I just found that, especially somebody who's been playing video games for a long time and has watched them sort of grow and evolve, to watch a game have that conversation within itself, I thought was absolutely masterful. I thought it was absolutely fantastic yeah i think games do that more on the design side but not on the narrative side so they'll

like refer to things that you played you know gameplay mechanics like the way that mario world relates to you know the original super mario brothers but not quite as explicit as it is in god of war i think god of war i think i've said it before the best third person action adventure game i don't know maybe i think unless you get it i never really got into titanfall uh either of them so it's it's sort of uh god of war by default for me but i don't feel great about that because it's like they took out all the jugs, bro. You should play the campaign of Titanfall 2. It's stellar.

It's very good. There are, I would say, a lot of- Are there jugs for days on Titanfall 2 like the cool God of War games had? Are there jugs for days? Do the robots have jugs? Robo jugs full of nutrient oil. I think Titanfall 2 has very high peaks of like a yeah

gentlemen but let's yeah i think it's got a war of course it is next before before it ends titanfall 2 titanfall 2 would be my pick here not Not because God of War is not an absolutely amazing game, but Titanfall 2 is one of the few games I think about often, and I revisit regularly. Yeah, I like to actually go back and play it. Yeah, because like Fresh said, the high highs, there are levels here that feel like it is whatever Half-Life 3 should have been. Griff, did you not play the campaign in Time War 2?

I played about half of it. Oh my god, finish it. It's really fantastic. Yeah, but I think there are levels that are not the best as well. It's just not my jam. I just didn't like the feel of it. Okay. Let's do this. Congratulations to

God of War then. Last in the wildcard round, Metroid Dread versus The Witcher. Fuck. Three. Three. The Witcher 3. Three. It's tough to give it to Metroid Dread

because it's just another Metroid game, but it's like the best one of them that's come out since maybe Super Metroid on the Super Nintendo. And also, I didn't like Witcher 3 very much. So why is it tough to give it to Metroid? Yeah, why is that tough? I don't know. It's just like it's another Metroid game.

I mean, you're definitely voting for Metroid is what you're saying. Yeah, for sure, for sure. Witcher 3, here's what Witcher 3 brings. It's an open world game that has fantastic writing, like some of the best writing in an open world game probably ever. But because of the writing,

I think the gameplay in Witcher 3 is not the best. It's fine. It's really cool stories. I love the story. The stories are great. It makes it feel like a world. You really get the sense of an epic journey because he's going down so many different pathways

and fully realized little narratives within the world. I, like all sane people, I didn't finish Witcher 3, but I really enjoyed what I played with. I finished it, and it's great. And it's, I'm going to pick it. Even though I love, love, love Metroid Dread, I think it's Witcher. Wow. If you're not standing up for it. Wow, Russ just bolded it. Even though I love, love, love Metroid Dread, I think it's Witcher. Wow. If you're not standing up for it. Wow, Russ just bolded it.

Oh, sorry. With his announcement, his decree. Well, Plant said he liked Witcher. You said you liked Witcher, and I said I like Witcher. I like a lot of things, Russ. I like Brussels sprouts. They're not my favorite food. Brussels sprouts.

That's nothing. That's a good one. Just put The Witcher 3. Just put The Witcher 3, because it'll cut down the amount of time I have to hear your voice. The Witcher 3. Okay, okay. So that was the wild card round. I swear, dear listener, we are going to actually get into more depth with video games.

You know, we have to work through this a little fast at the top. There are like so many matchups. It's more matchups than we would have in a normal game of the year. Yeah, I mean, stuff like Dark Souls 2, Dishonored, Metroid Dread. We can't spend time thinking about those games. It's a wildly ambitious episode and I think we should just keep moving. Let's just keep going. Flush the garbage of the real round.

Zelda Breath of the Wild versus Sekiro Shadows Die Twice. Breath of the Wild, this round. Yeah, this is the problem. And our listeners have pointed this out to us on Twitter.com. There is a certain energy that Zelda Breath of the Wild is the winner by default, knowing the history of besties. There is not a lot of tension here. That's interesting. I have an announcement.

I have an announcement. There are at least two games on this list that I would fight tooth and nail over Zelda. Wow. Same. Don't say what they are. Yeah. No, thanks, Russ. It's my first podcast, bud.

It is? Appreciate it. Thank you. Wait, you hit record, right? And you check your levels? Hi-yi. I'm just scrolling, writing everything I say down this Victrola cylinder. That's right.

I don't know. I like this character. I'm glad that Justin's finally getting into improv. Yeah. It's definitely Breath of the Wild. Sekiro. I'm the world's biggest Sekiro fan. It's Breath of the Wild. It's Breath of the Wild.

Breath of the Wild is is good we could talk about it more when it loses to one of these other games yes that sounds good oh now we got a spicy pick coming up spicy matchup uh yeah hades versus zelda link between worlds oh that is kind of spicy do you know that hades is kind of getting the uh it's getting the backlash period these days oh really i've seen a lot of people be like you know what it's a little overrated or a lot overrated here's my three years after it's released i i i disagree i think it only gets better with age um i could pop in whenever and have a game of hades i played hades i think, I mean, aside from like, you know, your massively multiplayer online games, but like, I definitely played it more than any Bethesda game.

I played it more than any single player game ever in my entire life. More than you played a Skyrim. For sure. More than a Fallout. Hundreds. Hundreds of hours. Wow. Okay. It's 100 More than a Fallout. Hundreds. Hundreds of hours. Wow. Okay. It's a hundred

plus on Hades. I mean, time though, I would say, is not necessarily a judgment on whether it beats Zelda A Link Between Worlds, a game that you, is not designed to be replayed over and over and over again. This is fair, but I didn't play, like, there's expansions for A Link Between Worlds.

Wasn't interested enough to dip back in on those. Wait, what? There were expansions for Link Between Worlds? Sure, yeah. Downloadable content. Really? No, there wasn't. Yeah, sure, sure, sure. That sounds made up. Sorry, I was thinking of Breath of the Wild, getting ahead of myself. Yo, hold up, wait, wait, another thing though,

but wait, but wait, you didn't play the Breath of the Wild expansions that give you a fucking motorcycle? Yeah, hard pass. So, Hades, congratulations I I guess, on this one. Pulling a Russ here. Wait, wait, wait. Just a little more time on this one. Unbolded, unbolded, unbolded, unbolded.

Thank you. Zelda Link Between Worlds. I mean, we just praise God of War for a game being in conversation with its past, right? I think Link Between Worlds does the same thing without having to be like do you get it a hundred percent yeah right like it is more it is more subtle yes um and and i will say i know it's gonna lose right now so i'm just giving it it's it's moment in the sun the system in this game of how you unlock or rent weapons is one of my favorite things really cool yeah it's a really cool idea so inspired and i have not seen it pretty much anywhere else and i at first it's like oh why aren't people ripping off this good idea and then i realized

probably because it's incredibly difficult to balance and incorporate into your video game and they just make it look easy yeah it shows you know there's a lot of dna in this game that showed up in breath of the wild because it allows for so much openness and player control and that's extremely fucking hard to make um yeah i think both these games are are brilliant and i yeah hades has its own good weapon system, so I... Okay, whatever. I mean, it does. Hades wins. Congratulations, Hades. I guess so.

Griffin, where are you at? I'm fine with Hades. I love both these games, and if people feel more strongly about Hades, I'm willing to defer. Okay. Okay. Okay, here we are. Outer Wilds versus God of War. Justin, you are not allowed to participate.

I'm sitting out. I just said I'm sitting out. You know what? I'm going to go pee. Let me know how it shakes out. Okay, fine. Fucking Outer Wilds. Justin, I wish we could go to the tape. There was a point a few episodes ago where

Justin said, I would have given it to Outer Wilds for Game of the Year if I had just played it. Well, he said he played it and got bored. Which is a different thing. I thought he changed his mind on it. I thought he went back on it. Or wait, I guess I'm just no, you know what I'm thinking of?

I got you confused with Justin Pruschik. Happens all the time. Yeah, and it wasn't that I was bored by it. I just got tummy sick playing it initially. You got sick. Yeah. Um, uh,

it's, it is. Okay. Hmm. What, where are y'all at? Okay. So,

well, my background, I mean, I'm going to say it's outer wilds, but I do have a weird approach to this because I've still only played the expansion pack for how to wild. I have not played the main game. Um,

but I can sort of extrapolate based on the expansion pack, outer wilds i have not played the main game um but i can sort of extrapolate based on the expansion pack how amazing that was and everyone says the main game is even better than that so it's outer wilds yeah that's that's where i'm at too i think god of war is a great game but uh it did not leave it did not touch on certain existential concepts that i've never seen a game tackle before uh in a way that outer wilds absolutely did so yeah yeah i i think god of war is the like epitome of like the an incredibly designed game that follows a lot of um familiar game design tenants but does them in the best possible way whereas our wilds does something completely fucking new out of the box yeah holy shit i think it's also like our

bias for what we look for you know like i feel like sometimes when we talk about video games it's like uh like like you know like a couple of wine heads where we've tasted so many video games we're seeking that new flavor. Yeah, we just want something a little different. A little different. And honestly, when God of War came out, it felt different, but not different. Like, Outer Wilds is like you went underwater

and found a sunken pirate ship, and beneath that was some wine. More pirate ships. That was really good. Thank you. Yeah. All right, let's pick it and move on. Is he still

on the potty? Hey, I'm back, guys. Hope it all shook out properly. It did. Don't worry, Justin. The next one's going to be an extremely easy one. Spelunky HD versus The Witcher 3. Well,

one of them is very near and dear to me. And the other one is Spelunky. We've tried! I tried! God knows I tried! No, no, what? You said you opened up to Spelunky.

No, I opened up to the second Spelunky a little bit, and I kind of got the appeal, but it's not something that I care about on an ongoing basis. Wow, we are learning a lot about your bad taste in videos. I might be a spoiler here, because I would pick Spelunky, because I enjoy Spelunky, and I used to be very into it pick Spelunky because I just I enjoy Spelunky and I used to be very

into it. Spajunky. Spajunky, Justin says. Okay. Shitcher. Shitcher P. Is what I think of that game. Spelunky. Yeah, that makes it sound good. Chris and Russ,

these are the two games you guys give shits about. Why are you writing this to me and Justin to say things like shit your pee? It's valid. You're disappointing me so much right now. More than I ever thought possible. Spoonky is fantastic. Start talking about these two games!

Why are you making us do this one? It's Spoolunky. That's why? That's why you weren't talking? No. This bit is done. So you guys are really picking Spoolunky HD?

Have you seen it? It doesn't even look like a good game. We're going to be talking about it more later. Spoolunky HD 1. Is he going to have to fight Outer Wilds? That's good. I'll go build a new, I'll go upstairs,

like re-shingle my roof. Come back in three hours to fucking corpses lying everywhere. Oh, oh, this next one is a bloodbath. This is a very good one. Stardew Valley versus Bloodborne. Oh, man. Great matchup.

Dang it. Shit. Okay, so I'm going to say this about Bloodborne. My favorite, I know Griffin was talking about Sekiro earlier. This, I believe, is the best from-software game is Bloodborne. Yeah, I know I said that about Sekiro, but Bloodborne is so fucking good. It's the best. bloodborne so fucking good it's it's the best it's so fucking good uh they it checks all the boxes of like awesome story and environments and

boss fights and it's it's sick it's great more bloodborne please yeah bloodborne is maybe the best action game ever made? Is it an action game? Is it like an action RPG? I don't even know what we'd call it. But yes, I agree. It is the best From Software game, which makes it all the more tragic that it's going to lose to Stardew Valley.

Stardew Valley is the best farming life sim ever made. Stardew Valley is like one of the best games. It's like a top 50 game of all time type of thing yeah wow illustrious i would say higher than that yeah higher the way that stardew valley sort of came in and was like hey all of these sort of very established farming game franchises they're not doing a good job with them anymore so this one dude's gonna take a shot at it and made the best one of them. That does not happen very often, I would say, in vidya games. And it's just been updated over and over and over and over and over. So much shit has been added to that game, yeah.

The support for that game is incredible. Yeah, it is Stardew Valley for me. How many frames does Stardew Valley run at? Because Bloodborne is locked to 30 frames a second oh that's a good point in stardew valley i mean you can get it like probably double triple that yeah 180 easy easy 180 i mean sure you don't have a monitor that that refreshes at that rate but sure all right stardew valley it is i think it's stardew valley i think there are many many great from software games and even though that is the best from software games stardew valley is

as plant said one of the greatest games of all time are you gonna be the amount of sighing that is happening is gonna is i'm worried about like your blood oxygen i don't like being in this position well then have better taste i don't have to don't like being in this position the girl didn't have better taste i don't have to denigrate a game a lot of people like just because we're not denigrating it but i just said blood you're not amazing i'm being no i know i'm not talking about you guys i'm talking about the fact that i don't like stardew valley i don't like how you have to google everything to figure out what to do, and it's so stressful. I'm really excited that way. I'm ready to get to the games that you like.

That's going to be a fun part of this episode. They're getting knocked off one by one for these fucking... Well, what I love... Do you guys remember there's Gunsword? Do you remember playing Bloodborne? I mean, do you remember playing it and how the world's fucking amazing and gothic and dark and so fucking cool and everybody looks rad?

And there's like... Shut up! My favorite part about it is that you don't have to Google it to figure out how to do anything like you do in Star Trek. I did it. I did it. You beat Bloodborne without searching a single thing? Of course I did.

No, I did have to search one thing How to post super incredible High Bloodborne scores On the internet You doing those challenge dungeons? I kept getting so many high scores That it got like a little I started to get carpal tunnel posts

Yeah sure Okay so moving on Stardew Valley wins that round Sorry Bloodborne. We are now pitting the most recent winner of Game of the Year, Besties, versus Obra Dinn. What is the full name of Obra Dinn? Justin, take this one because I know that you're going to have very strong feelings,

so I want to hear your feelings first. There's a game here that you like. There's two games here I like. I like very much, actually. Hold on. Let me two games here I like. I like very much, actually. Hold on. Let me think. Yes. Okay.

I, man, I love Resident Evil 8, but in a lot of ways, like, it is an evolution of all the Resident Evil stuff before it. A cleaning out of cruft, a refinement, a honing of action mechanics and storytelling. We honored it, and I feel like we talked a lot of good stuff about it in the Resident Evil series. I feel like it got its due there, because I think that taken away from the lineage, it would still be very excellent. But I think that the fact that this is part of the Resident Evil franchise is a big part of the appeal because it's looked at in comparison and in conversation with the rest of the series. I adore it.

I think Obra Dinn is unlike anything I've ever played. Playing it was the most satisfying, like in terms of like went beyond any sort of like puzzle I've ever solved, like crossword puzzle, whatever, you know, escape room, any of that.

It made me feel like a genuine intelligent person in a way that most games never get close to. For me, this would be, this would be over then I adore over them and can't wait to see what, what is next from, from Lucas, but it's a game on the little tiny play date,

I believe. Yeah. I, you know what I mean? All right. Yeah. I mean, he probably has one of the fucking ufo 50 too but that's never

getting released either so here we are uh i agree with this whole yeah i think it's obra din i i've said before that resident evil 8 is a amazing fantastic game but not my favorite resident evil game um because that's resident evil 4 and obrara dinn as justin said is a very unique experience very similar to another justin loved game outer wilds insofar as it feels like a completely new experience that when you figure things out you feel immensely satisfied and awesome and you feel great so justin agrees with the greatness of both obra dinn and the outer wilds And you feel great. So Justin agrees with the greatness of both Obra Dinn and the Outer Wilds.

That was a weird way to put words in his mouth. Yeah. I felt like I was very polite. That was like a syllogism thing. If A equals B equals C. I don't think that's what a syllogism is. I felt like I was being very polite about Outer Wilds because I didn't want to. I mean, you took a poopy in the middle of that segment. That was a bit, man. I'm always want to I mean you took a poopy in the middle of that segment that was a bit man

I'm always listening I'm checking the levels and you know all that stuff all right congratulations to Return of the Obra Dinn or Curse of the Obra Dinn Return of the Obra Dinn oh you heard it here first I submitted it

did you have any closing thoughts on that breakdown no I think that makes sense I love Resident Evil 8 like Chris Pine, did you have any closing thoughts on that breakdown? No, I think that makes sense. I love Resident Evil 8. I really, really, really like it. Obra Dinn is kind of a perfect little game. Next up, we have... Oh, my God. Towerfall vs. Animal Crossing Switch.

And this is the Ouya version of Towerfall, correct? Yeah, just to be clear, if you're thinking of any other version, you're wrong. This is the Ouya version. That's an important distinction actually, I feel like. Because they did one with better graphics later, right? I think we count this as all

the evolution of it. In the same way that Stardew valley is like the evolution of stardew valley um god almighty what do you think chris and russ i mean my immediate thought is it's towerfall yeah i mean i i agree with that i never burnt out of towerfall it's just i stopped going into an office with people but it was a game that doesn't necessarily have a lot of i mean it has a lot going on i don't want to diminish the game design stuff going on but it doesn't have like the 600 items of animal crossing or whatever and yet that loop of those like 30 second matches it's so fucking good that i could just play it over and

over and over again it is i've said this recently it's the last local multiplayer game that i got super duper into and it's sick it's great it's i associate i have so many positive associations with tower fall like it was the game when I first moved to Austin that like me and all of my friends played. And I look back on those memories very fondly, but I feel also the same way about Animal Crossing during the obsidian pitch black depths of COVID quarantine version 1.0.

And so it's tough for me to like sort of pick which one of those those sweet emotions is like more more uh important i don't know man yeah i genuinely couldn't i don't know i it's towerfall for me animal crossing i i agree animal crossing switch is a fantastic game and i hope that you continue to support it and it becomes even better but i once i fell off i have no desire to go back to it in fact i've tried to go back to it a few times and it's been it's been brutal um i really i i'm not gonna fight on this one i will say though and i mean i know that on a certain level that this is like um uh all personal whatever um but like the i think that you guys are letting

your where you were at in your lives when tower fall was released really color like i feel like there's a lot of games uh tower fall is great but like i feel like there's a lot of games that could have been that no for being released during the time that it was when you guys were like in the polygon offices a lot it was something that people were getting together and playing a whole lot i think it's great i'm not arguing with it i'm just saying like if you look at the sort of like global phenomenon and the the the healing that took place as a result of Animal Crossing Switch and how important that was to so many people and how well it refined so much of

what it did. I really would push for Animal Crossing Switch because I really do think that you guys are this is sort of like... You're saying the same thing though for both things because what you're saying is like not that Animal Crossing on Switch is a great game that it came out at the right moment and just had an effect on a lot of people.

Yeah, but it's like, what is the planet, and what is like you and us? Yeah, but I don't, yeah, this is our show. Yeah. Also, here's where I disagree on the Towerfall thing. It's one of my shows too.

Despite what the previous rounds of voting would lead you to believe, it's also my show. I think Towerfall is a pretty good co-op uh or pretty good wow you don't even play multiplayer action game i mean a little bit couch co-op is fucking great in tower fall and i won't hear anything else right before the pandemic uh griffin and i were in houston and we uh were at a friend's house and played some tower fall for probably the first time in a couple years. Let me tell you, just as good as it ever was. It's better than Mario Kart

by like a mile. Just is. As a multiplayer game? I don't think it's like some like, oh, it happened to be the right multiplayer game at the right time. I think it is genuinely one of the best multiplayer games ever made. Okay. Next up

is Destiny vs. Mario Odyssey. And just to be clear this is not destiny 2 and the various this is just the first game of destiny um muddy i would say that's muddy because there's a lot of destiny in no i'm including all the expansions that came out for destiny 1 you know taken king and all that stuff that's all included but not destiny 2 and anything came after that yeah i mean we did give both of those games their own sort of considerations the last time we did something like this so uh didn't we yeah oh yeah you wanted to yeah um so i think oh man i cannot in good conscience give this one to destiny one because while it introduced a lot of good ideas fucking mario odyssey is so amazing and maybe the very rarely do i get so into a game that i'm like

i got a hundo percent that bad boy and i did that to mario odyssey i did everything in mario odyssey that one can do in mario odyssey and i would do it again uh Griffin, a question for you, just because I'm sure there are going to be some people who are like, well, you said Stardew Valley is like the history of Stardew Valley, same with Tower Fall. If Destiny 2 was included here, would you still say Mario Odyssey? No.

No, I mean, Destiny 2 is the game I've spent more time playing than any other game on this planet and I think is a masterpiece. So, yeah. But I don't think it's fair at all to weigh those two in the same way. Am I alone in that?

I agree. If you guys want to try and convince me, No, no, no, I agree. Yeah, I agree. I just wonder if we should include Destiny 2 here because... No, we should not. It's different.

I don't think so. No, it is a literal sequel. I've played as Griffin. I think Griffin and I have probably played the most Destiny out of the group. And it is a spectacular series and a spectacular game. Mario Odyssey is... It's the best Mario game. I don't think we have to hedge that in the way that we've hedged other franchise installments. I think Mario Odyssey is the best Mario game. Like, I don't think we have to hedge that in the way that we've hedged

other sort of like franchise installments. I think Mario Odyssey is the best Mario game and I can't imagine how one would argue otherwise. Like, what could stand up against it? Yeah, it's great. Full, full agree. I love Mario Odyssey. Fantastic.

There you go. There you go, Justin. You got one. Is Destiny 2 on the list later? No. Okay. Well, that's weird. Well, one. Is Destiny 2 on the list later? No. Okay. Well, that's weird. Well, because remember, when Destiny 2 came out,

it also had a heck of a lot of problems. So it didn't really make the cut as a game of the year game. That's fine. Destiny 2, I think, had a stronger start than Destiny 1 did. That's probably true. Okay. No, no, no. How are you seeding these?

What do you mean? Come on. I'm a man now, okay? He's not a boy. I'm not a boy like I was in early besties. I'm a man. Let's take a break. Hey, yo, it's me, New York Giraffe.

Fuck. Do you love Bitcoin? Do you love Ethereum? Do you wish you had coins but don't like the fact that they're in computers? Let me introduce you to TallCoin from New York Giraffe, your best buddy. TallCoin is an actual literal coin

you can flip and keep in your pocket and look at. And if you're in a disagreement with someone and they say one thing and look at. And if you're in a disagreement with someone and they say one thing and you say the other, you can flip the coin and have it decide for you. It's TallCoin.

That's it. This is not a joke. I'm laughing because the existence of this is extremely real. Yeah, and available on the Besties store. Of course it is. I don't run scams yeah i i don't think we had discussed the name tall coin but now of course that's perfect it's perfect yeah uh this is because it's because giraffes are tall i don't know if it's listed

as nft not funny token um but um uh yeah mackerel remergecom is the website, and that will be up there, and you can get your tall coin by New York Giraffe. I believe New York Giraffe has gone a little rogue here. The idea of the coin on our end, on the humans' end, was that it would be a deciding token because there are four of us, which means that there are going to be ties, and that we could flip a coin for a tiebreaker instead of using the Chris Granatron. That's very true, but then he came up with the idea of a crypto coin that's a real coin made by New York Giraffe, and I actually go with that. That is funny. Yeah, we're going with that.

That's extremely funny. Tall coin. Don't you always wonder, like, crypto, like, where is it? Yeah, it would be nice to know where the crypto is for once wait wait wait cryptozoology is kind of what new york giraffe is i'm just a giraffe you're the original crypto there's just a regular there's nothing cryptozoologist about me i'm just a giraffe chris plan uh we the the fact that we were like we don't have time to talk about the greatest games of all time because we've got a jam packed episode

anyway listen to a man sound like a giraffe from New York for 30 minutes where is Frush he's gone so that's a real thing can you go get Frush I assume he's at the deli getting some egg steam yeah I'll go get him bye

oh my gosh he just fell down the stairs well his body is so light just to reiterate that is a real thing that he was talking about that actually exists it's not a game it's not a bit you can literally buy a coin that has a picture of new york giraffe on one side and the besties logo on the other and it's great it was funnier when the tails was a picture of New York giraffe on one side and the besties logo on the other, and it's great. It was funnier when the tails was a picture of a giraffe ass, but I got outvoted, so here we are. Okay. First up is Breath of the Wild, Zelda,

The Legend of Zelda, Breath of the Wild 1 versus Stardew Valley. Now, if there's ever a sequel to that they should call it stardew valley anyway uh justin is not allowed to complain about games he likes being pitted against each other again because this is a this one's a fucking heartbreaker this one's a rough one i don't know how to pick between these two i genuinely don't yeah this is extremely difficult um i i mean just by graphics maybe let's just do that yeah i mean the fun sorry valley it's i think it's breath of the wild i think it's okay maybe i think the only easy thing to is to both everyone can agree on this call,

except for maybe Justin, that both of these games are spectacularly good, but both of these games also have faults in them, which has the more egregious faults. You know what? No, we're not being fair, right? I think both these games are great. Russ, you think both these games are great.

Chris, you think both these games are great? Yeah, I think they're perfect. Okay, Justin doesn't like Stardew Valley and does like Breath of the Wild, so I don't know how Stardew Valley overcomes it. But, but, but, but, Justin doesn't like video games, so... No, that's not fair. He does. He likes a plane game. What's that called?

Microsoft Flight Simulator? Ace Combat. He likes that. I do like Ace Combat. I could go for an Ace Combat. That'd be good. We want to sneak that on the list. I think that farm sims aren't everybody's cup of tea. I think Breath of the Wild, like every human being on Earth, should have to play. I think the government should mandate it. And I think if you don't do it, you should go to jail for the rest of your life.

I want Uncle Sam out of my Switch. Yeah. It took me years to get back into Breath of the Wild. That's not a knock against it. It's just that I think the assumption of that it's for everybody is not. He bounced off of it initially. Yeah. I think it is great.

And I have come to love it. So we're penalizing it because you were playing other video games? No, no, no. I'm just saying that I think there's a reputation in Breath of the Wild of like, it's the game for everybody. And I don't think that's true. I think it can be a hard hang for certain people. Well, no game is a game for everybody, right? Like, that game doesn't exist.

Well, you just said that the government should mandate that everyone play it. Like, the next thing you know, you're going to say that we're going to have the purge. You can get a purge Stardew Valley. No, I probably wouldn't say anything like that ever. Yeah, I don't know, you're going to say that we're going to have the purge. You're going to purge Stardew Valley. No, I probably wouldn't say anything like that ever. Yeah, I don't know, man. They're both fucking great games. I hate this. Why did we do this episode?

Yeah, it's a bad idea of an episode. But congratulations to Breath of the Wild for being better than Stardew Valley. It does feel like a situation where I'm very, very happy with both of them. And Justin doesn't like one of them. And you gotta respect that. And you gotta respect that. I played a lot of Stardew Valley for the record.

I did try, I just couldn't get, if it was just a little bit more in the game, versus having, I felt like I was constantly it felt very stressful to me because i felt like i was always missing opportunities for things that i should be doing to like min max the experience and to and you know what it's i would i would equate it to is um uh a deadly premonition where it's like i really like this in theory, but there's like, I feel like I

need to have a guide in front of me to get everything out of it. I will say this about Stardew. It's much better. Yeah. I will say this about Stardew. It is worth noting, and I'm not saying this to diminish, but in future updates, most recent updates, a lot of the stuff that you would look up on a guide is now

in the game. So, for example, the favorite foods and favorite gifts, all that stuff is now in the game so for example the favorite foods and favorite gifts all that stuff is now in the game so it does make it a little more approachable they made like uh figuring out which items are in like the community bundles that you're supposed to hold on to and not sell like that stuff is much more um integrated i don't know yeah yeah it's a good word for it so breath of the wild one but breath of the wild word for it. So Breath of the Wild won? But Breath of the Wild won. It's got to be Breath of the Wild. Congrats. That's such a fucking good game. Okay.

Whoa. Now it's time for the Justin blood, sweat, and tears. Obra Dinn versus Hades. Justin, have we knocked out the games that you wanted to knock out with? Don't tell me what they are, but Breath of the Wilds. I think these are the games, right? These are probably the two. Yeah, these are the two.

Okay. Yeah. This is hard. Boy, this is hard. What do you guys like better? Obra Dinn. Hades is real good. Nobody's ever made a game like Obra Dinn before.

And Obra Dinn was an incredible, not only just like a new type of game but like in the the they nailed it like you did the this new type of game perfectly on the first try so that's that's uh that's really something well okay just personal preference like if i had to pick what game i was playing right now it'd probably be hades well that's i don't think it's fair to leverage that comparison in this particular round because hades is infinitely replayable and obredin is almost by design you can't if you playing it a second time is just not going to be but that's why it is but here's i'm going to say about okay fine yeah that's fine yeah i'm going say this about oberdin there are moments in oberdin where i felt like what the fuck i'm like throwing myself at this thing and i'm not seeing the thing it wants me to see and and that was kind of a drag and

eventually i got it and figured it out but but those were not like the funnest moments re-watching cut scenes over and over again i mean i'm just saying like i funnest moments rewatching cut scenes over and over again. I mean, I'm just saying like, I definitely had those moments. Yeah, I understand that. Um, I should die.

Oprah didn't so fucking good though. Like Oprah, Dan is the game. It is very good. I will say though, I, I think it's bad, man. I want to know what has the best chance of moving forward.

No, no. Don't go to it. Okay, well, let me... Here's my defense of Hades. Hades is good at so many different things that sometimes I dismiss it because I think of it as just the action. And I'm like, oh, wait, yeah, the story was really good.

Or I think about the story and I'm like, oh, yeah, also, like, all the design the story was really good. Or I think about the story and I'm like, oh, yeah, also like all the design upgrade stuff was really good. And I'm like, oh, wait, the music was great. The voice acting was really good. I feel like it has any one of those things in most games would be enough. And people would be like, wow, I can't believe how great that part of the game was. And every corner of that game is is just like

firing on all cylinders yeah it's just every part of hades is great the voice acting's great oh my gosh what what i don't think he was being facetious what are you laughing at chris what are you yeah what's what are we laughing at i thought you're just repeating exactly what i said no i just it's all great oh um i just i don't think i'll be pushed off of obra den but if you guys all feel like it's hades then it's then i who am i i'm but one man i am but true gamer. I do want more games with that art style that Obra Dinn uses, that like old-timey CRT whatever they're doing.

Mac 2? Yeah, Mac art style. Man, that's sick. But yeah, I think I'm going with Hades. Alright. Did Hades win? Seems like it. Me too.

Okay. Howder Wilds versus Mario Odyssey. No, let's not do that. Do you want to come back to it after Spelunky versus Towerfall? Yeah, I would love to watch the two of you eviscerate yourselves before I... Oh, Spelunky vs. Towerfall would be easy. Spelunky has already won it. Oh, wow. Okay.

I don't think there's even going to be a conversation. Yeah, Spelunky vs. Towerfall. Congratulations. Spelunky won. It's Frosh and I's favorite game. Okay, but the rest of us do get to vote on this stuff, and I think Towerfall is a better game. Towerfall is a better game than Spelunky. Deuce, how do you feel?

Well, God. I don't know. Which of my testicles are I going to get kicked in? I don't care. You pick. Tough guys. You took all my dogs out of the race. You guys have a dog party, as they say.

Yeah, I would not pick Spelunky over Towerfall. But if Justin doesn't have a dog in the race and you two both pick Spelunky, then again, this one seems... No, I'd go Towerfall. I'd go Towerfall and nothing will ever change in my mind.

Now we're getting down and dirty with it, baby. Hey, yo, it's me, New York Giraffe. I heard you have a pumpkin decision ahead of you you you don't have the tall coin yet well i have it in the computer okay fine in the website let's just make it spelunky because uh then we can move on and talk about the other one okay so now we have to we have to finish you don't need my coin anymore outer wilds versus bye-bye oh no he fell down the stairs again outer wilds versus mario odyssey uh out hmm i i'd wilds could take it all for me mario odyssey damn if it isn't just like maybe the best mario game i don't know i yeah it is i feel like um like technical achievement and design achievement fuck man this sucks why are we doing this it's like it's for me it's outer wilds

wow again weird because i've only played the expansion, so maybe that... But I've played all of Mario Odyssey, and I've played the expansion of Outer Wilds, and Outer Wilds is able to hit heights that Mario Odyssey did not hit, for me. Outer Wilds is like someone didn't make a ship in a bottle,

they made a fucking universe in a bottle and it all has physics it's nuts yeah that is pretty wild uh i do agree the fact that everything is moving all the time in real time is pretty pretty wild um pretty outer wild i am dying to Pretty outer wild. I am dying to play Outer Wilds. That is when I will play the main game. It's on Steam Deck, by the way. Oh, that's good.

Juice, do you have any religion in this? For me personally, I would lean towards Mario Odyssey. I just feel like it's overall a lot more enjoyable. I mean, I don't know how to codify the quality of Outer Wilds versus my personal feelings on it, but I just feel like Mario Odyssey is one of those where I just love that I think anybody can pick it up and have fun with it. And it's bending over backwards to make sure every inch of it is like really pleasant and pleasurable.

And it's not a message game. It's not saying anything in the way that Outer Wilds is, but like in terms of just the legacy of that franchise and how just so it feels so incredibly fresh for something that is so rooted in like the very origins of video games like i i would absolutely go with odyssey let me ask you this and that fucking song that is 100 accurate um re outer wilds do you feel like you've only heard the setup to a joke but not heard the punchline like do you has it not you have you ever

seen a moment in outer wilds there was like oh i kind of get it or have you never seen that moment um i i in theory understand the appeal i just like i find the amount of time i was like wasting trying to get to the stuff that's interesting uh really tough to swallow especially in a game that has such like heady themes um i feel like it wastes a lot of your time uh with like by by being kind of inscrutable and i feel like the stuff that it does really well that i've seen in like videos or what have you is i feel really like left out that i didn't like get to experience that, you know, honestly in the game and had to like watch a video of it just because the playing of the game was like, I mean, it just sucks to have one wrong move and your ship explodes and you have to do the whole thing over again, over

and over and over it, like repeat ad nauseum. And I know that there's people who love it and I get it. It's just like, I like the cool stuff stuff i played a ton of that game i just felt like it withheld a lot of its best stuff from you uh in in service of feeling mysterious and original whereas mario odyssey is is extremely eager to play yeah i would say i would agree with the fact that like i think it's fully possible outer wiles only starts working once you get a foothold. Yeah. And you know, like you have some sort of discovery that then threads into the next

discovery that threads into the next discovery. I think it probably happens to lots of people that like, you don't, for whatever reason, like find one of those toe holds or you have, you know, it is, they do not reveal themselves.

And like, if you stumble on stuff in the wrong order in that game, I could see you not having a suboptimal like experience with it. Yeah. I think I might change mine to Odyssey actually. I think Super Mario Odyssey might be it for me. I think Justin makes a very good point.

Point. I mean, it's Out outer wilds for me but i i hear all of these things i also feel very i think i kind of have to push forward mario odyssey um because i don't feel great about it being like me and then fresh who has not actually played all of the original Outer Wilds which is I was going to say that as well the fact that I have not played the main game makes me I mean I played a little bit of it but yeah I mean it's a little

weird but I'm fine deferring to Mario Odyssey in this case alright Mario Odyssey it is okay so where does that leave us that leaves us with All right. Mario Odyssey it is. Okay. So where does that leave us? That leaves us with two more rounds ostensibly.

Can we not just do of these four, which one wins? Oh, wait. Idea. Yeah. We could do it in 10-year anniversary fashion. We could do it as a four ramp like who wins out of the four yeah that's what that's literally what i just oh okay i didn't realize it was like a nostalgia thing though i was like because that's how the show really started thing as much as you guys remember when the show started i don't remember i don't remember. I don't remember anything before 2016. Did you say why the show started or when?

Okay. Uh, Oh, these are, see, this is fine to me. This is fine. It doesn't matter.

Like at this point we are, we have, these games are all so good and this is so, they are so distant from us. We have abstracted this conversation. We're talking about like fractals of light that are surrounding us there is no gravity to this uh hades congratulations wow is that where immediately where you're at is and again let me just reiterate the four it's breath of the wild versus hades versus spelunky

hd versus mario odyssey okay let's let's do this okay it ain't spelunky i would have that i mean it's not i won't let that happen i acknowledge the likelihood of it ever being spelunky is very very low i think all of us like these games right these are all great games i think that spelunky would be bottom of this list for me would be would come in at number four for me. It wouldn't be bottom, but I do acknowledge the likelihood, again, of it winning is low. I think bottom for me is probably Hades out of these four.

And again, bottom, top four of the last 10 years. Hades is probably down there for me. Probably Mario Odyssey is the bottom for me on this. Wow, interesting. So then that leaves by default... I love this. Breath of Mario Odyssey is the bottom for me on this. Wow, interesting. So then that leaves by default... I love this. Breath of the Wild is the only one. Well, not necessarily.

No, no, no. Okay. You guys don't actively dislike your bottom. So maybe, is that how we do it? We just remove stuff that is low? I don't know how we do it any other way. I don't know how one makes an impassioned plea for one of these games against the other ones so then it's like a personal preference i will say this

in breath of the wild it sucks that your stuff broke and that's not and climbing in the rain was a nightmare like climbing there is you know what it sucks that your stuff breaks climbing the rain in real life is also really dangerous i watched free solo he wouldn't do it that guy took all sorts of risks and wouldn't climb in the rain free solo yes yeah that was so funny i love that movie it makes me bust up every time i watch it um okay do we have any consistency on the bottom i don't think we do i mean i think i think i would also put spelunky at number four we're not ranking them i mean if spelunky is not gonna win i feel like it's like breath of the wild becomes the winner interesting yeah only because i feel like spelunky had has fresh and i as like mega fans right but i don't think anything else here has a

like duo mega fan like thing going for except for maybe breath of the wild i mean i'm a mega fan of all these games but i do appreciate your point which is sponky is the epitome of you know very very fine caviar which is to say some people think it tastes gross oh my god is there any way that we can get through this without doing this exact thing uh no i i mean i appreciate that some people it's extremely tough for some people to get into spunky that is that is 100 true so if we take if we it's hard for me to push for mario odyssey against breath of the wild because they came out the same year i don't like breath of the wild was like for us i think the clear winner then and i guess probably still the case and then. Yes. And it's still.

It's still. Okay, well then let's take Mario Odyssey out of it. Yes. Because I agree with that. I don't see a world in which it beats Breath of the Wild. So at least Breath of the Wild versus Hades versus Spelunky. Yeah. No, and Spelunky's out.

Spelunky's not going to win. Yeah, I would agree with that too. So Breath of the Wild versus Hades. And then it becomes quite easy. It does. it does it's just so boring i will be honest with you guys i like breath of the wild a whole whole bunch it i do like hades more and i know that it is i am outvoted in this it's just so boring like it's just so boring that nintendo made one of the greatest video games ever i think it sucks now

hades is one of the greatest video games ever hades is is a better is is the story okay okay how about this i'm gonna break it down into categories oh no fun factor allow allow me okay yes that would be fine yes i would get fun factor to hades yes this is correct okay let me let me actually just like stop for a second everybody shut up i i get one chance okay okay okay fun factor hades individual combat like the the combat encounters the the the balance of that the variety um the the fluidity of the combat like it's hate that one's hades narrative not even close hades at blowsades blows Zelda out of the water in, in that regard. The stories are complex. They're mature.

They're dealing with adult themes. They are thematically about it being a roguelike, which is very cool. There's lots of great stories within Hades narrative story. That's easily Hades music. I mean that fucking score, Zelda is building off of the existing score. I'm not saying it's not good stuff,

but Hades has so many absolutely stellar tracks throughout the entire game. The music is fantastic. Graphically, I think the art style of Hades, these beautiful, sexy gods and the the look of the weapons and the weapon effects and the uh all that stuff uh it looks fantastic and looks better so again oh uh replayability obviously hades uh reviewers tilt well that one's hades uh for me personally but we don't have to factor that in.

In every meaningful category, Hades is a more accomplished video game than Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild. And yet... No, no, no, no. Are you done? I'm going to set up a...

I'm going to counter that argument. I'm not just going to say Breath of the Wild is better, even though it is. Breath of the Wild is a game about player empowerment, specifically player empowerment that allows you to do things that maybe the designers did not even think about. That is not something that Hades can offer. It is all factored in. And that's not a bad thing.

Like great games are designed that way, where it's all factored in. Breath of the Wild invented the idea that you would have this level of free range and control over the environments and the things you do and the way you fight enemies. And it created an experience that is unlike any other. Whereas Hades, you know, similar to the God of War discussion we had earlier,

Hades, fantastic game. The components of hades have existed in other games before and again i do not think that hades heights reach breath of wilds heights and that's not a joke about climbing i i also think like breaking down the like individual components is a little bit like a filet mignon versus a big mac like a big Mac has a higher fun factor. It's got more flavors going on, you know, it's for everybody. It doesn't mean it's better than a filet mignon. No, it's kind of like comparing one steak to another steak and say which one tastes better is what it's a lot more like. I agree with a lot of what you said, Juice.

I would push back against music. I agree with a lot of what you said, Juice. I would push back against music. I think the sort of deconstructed, dynamic soundtrack of Breath of the Wild is one of the more sort of memorable things about it. And not really based on the... Not a single song, not a single track in that is better than a single track. But the point is, it's not tracks in Breath of the Wild.

It's like a dynamic built based on what's going on in the game. Like one of the robots spots you and suddenly you're a piano you can't just say it's not about no no no we're comparing not of that's that's we're comparing score and soundtrack yes like it's it there's different concepts and i i don't okay the score and music is better that's when i say track i mean like songs that you can they're used to accompany the action it's all better in Hades than it is in Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild. I mean, again, I would just go back to, like, I've played both of these games a shitload. They're both fantastic.

The heights and satisfaction that I feel. There's so much fucking fat on Breath of the Wild. There is so much cruft. Like, the cooking is so dumb the fact that the weapons are constantly degrading i feel like is a complete bummer a lot of the climbing is a lot of the climbing is bad like it's just like unpleasant it's like sucks to do um it's like there's a lot of stuff in breath of the wild that does not work it only like succeeds in contrast to the previous game no i'm trying to like really you think it only you think

breath of wild is only good not only not only but if this was just some other open world franchise and not zelda it would not be in this conversation right now. 100%. No question. It's really hard to say. I mean, it's possible that it never would have taken off, but I don't think Zelda carries Breath of the Wild. Someone just wrote Nier Automata in the thing and bolded it, and that's not, you're not helping. I don't think Zelda carries Breath of the Wild and makes Breath of the Wild a good game. If anything, it is not, you know, it's so unlike the other games that it doesn't feel wild a good game if anything it is not you know it's so unlike the other games

that it doesn't feel like a zelda game so i you know and and i'd agree with you not everything lands in that game it takes a lot of swings not everything lands but i think the entire soup of it feels more robust. If we're going to do this, we've got to keep our food metaphor straight. It's a soup because that's what Link makes in Breath of the Wild. He does make a lot of soup, though. What about the Blood Moon?

I love the Blood Moon. That's a bummer. You can go back and farm enemies. It's great. I like the Blood Moon. You find a little ghost vendor uh breath of wild is just like and those puzzles are great it's just like a nested puzzle box of amazingness look hades great you you are replaying a lot of the same levels over and over i mean i don't know it's so dumb to to have to pit these games against each other because they're

they're both great i do agree we should land on something because otherwise the wiki page will be forever scorned but it's definitely breath of the wild for me you will not knock me off at breath of the wild uh can we talk about some of your guys favorite characters from breath of the wild i mean i like the old beard guy who turns out to be the king i like zel. I like Mipha's grace is ready. Remember Mipha? The bird man. Bird man is dope.

I like all the fish people. The big Gerudo lady. Fish people. Fish people. I'm hearing a lot of sort of like vague character silhouettes. I want to say the bird's name is Ralphie. Let's do a vote. We're going to do a vote.

Justin, what's your vote? I know that I will lose a vote. We're going to do a vote. Justin, what's your vote? I know that I will lose this vote. That's fine by me. That's why he's trying to make it as unpleasant as possible. No, I'm just saying that I want people who are listening to realize that if this is a show about discussing these and coming to a consensus, I am right. I'm not wrong. you guys like breath of the wild more that's fine you but hades is a better video game here i here's we can agree let's do the vote my guess is that justin will have won in his mind and then we will also announce

the winner i think so justin your vote is hades yes okay it Yes. Okay. It's not a vote. It's not a vote. Cause this is not a fucking, uh, a democratic Republic. It's a, it's a show where we talk about great works and try to, to ferret out their, their merits through,

through congenial discussion. So I think a vote is rather reductive in the sense of a vote. If that is what the body politic has settled on then i am obsequiated of course to in this instance vote for hayes okay okay and fresh dick what's your vote breath of the wild and griffin what's your vote uh it is breath of the wild okay my vote's hades i'm just kidding with you is breath Breath of the Wild. We're having fun here. That's it. We did it. What's weird is it doesn't feel like it. It feels inevitable.

Breath of the Wild is a fantastic game. I think it's a boring choice. I mean it's hard to argue with it. I wish it wasn't a boring choice. You have to be at Justin McElroy level intellect. I also don't think Hades is much more of an exciting choice. We're actually not talking about this anymore

A great choice would be 13 Sentinels Right like Fuck off If we're getting into like okay Not for broadcast or any of the other FMV classics That I would like to see I don't think we have time for anything else Well I'm going to thank the people who wrote reviews

Oh there's always time for gratitude Thank you Russ Thank you to the following people for writing reviews of the besties. We managed to do it for 10 years because of you. Yes. 11Logan, HSmitty20, RettlawST, TheAnomaly,

and Matthew Wales. Thank you for writing reviews of the besties, and thank you to everyone else for writing reviews of the besties on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, I'm going to recap all the games that we talked about no it's all the good games it's all the way it it's it's all on our twitter you can look at the bracket there yes and and we will have it there for you um thank you for we in one of these days we got to come up with like the ability for people to

fill out their own You know what I mean like March Madness style Do a betting pool Put cash on the line Not the money part that might be a little dangerous You heard me I said what I said Did you say Giraffe Kings? Oh no

Hey yo it's me New York Giraffe Next week is very exciting Games are back baby Games are back, baby. Games are back. And I'm here for the rest of the year. No, what is it? Are we doing Horizon? Horizon Forbidden West.

Oh, man. Is that the one with the giant robots and they're like super tall? Giant robot giraffes. You climb them? Yeah. Yeah. It's fantastic. They're hot.

Those giraffes have got it going on. There's your cake. We found it. Oh, my gosh. He rolled three. He fell down the stairs one last time. And I don't know if he's coming back. Thank you for keeping us doing this for 10 years.

We really do. It's all because of you. So thank you very much. And be sure to join us again next time for the besties. Because shouldn't the world's best friends pick the world's best games? Besties!