The Besties - Is the New Zelda as Good as We Hoped?

Episode Date: October 4, 2024

New Zelda week! The Besties step into the shoes of Zelda (not Link!) in Echoes of Wisdom. With the help of a magical wand and a star, they summon countless tables and vases to save the world. Plus, the crew looks at the remaining games of 2024. 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'm putting in some, uh, like wifi. I'm putting in a unified system and putting like wifi access points in my house. Sure, sure. And part of that is like, it got pulled into the Eastern ports in the house. And except the one thing is that when I, uh, put the network lines in, the guys didn't label them to where they go, which is not that big of a deal usually because like, I don't know, they all want internet.

So I'll probably put my eyes into the thing. But yesterday to put in these access points, I had to figure out which line went to which thing. And I did not have the tools on hand to do that. So I came up with a system and this is what the system is. I bring the Apple TV into the ethernet port I'm trying to test. I plug that into the TV.

Then I turn the TV up as loud as it'll possibly go. And then I start playing Alvin and the Chipmunks on the kids' Netflix. Because it's the most annoying and grating thing that I've ever heard. You're gonna hear that. So I'm like down in the basement and I still hear those idiots upstairs.

And eventually I pulled the plug and I hear, and then I don't hear the chipmunks anymore. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They no longer want a hula hoop is what you're saying. Yeah, but at one point I messed myself up pretty bad because I identified one and then I ran upstairs before I could forget the number of the one I was thinking and then when I ran upstairs I realized I left the volume remote at down back downstairs so I'm there with a screwdriver like trying to get into this accident spotter's Oh, here we come! We'll bring your action! Oh, the single ladies! Oh, the single ladies!

Oh, oh, oh. But, uh, it's all- I love their death metal turn. That is my favorite thing about the monks. I know there is a tool, and friends, I know what you're wondering. My neighbors are fully looking at me right, fully, fully, fully staring at me right now.

Did Justin label them after he found them this time? Alright. No, no, no. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no Watch Alvin in the chip off repeatedly Your algo is about to get fucked. Oh volume the volume on his TV is a right sir. I think it's some sort of mental Conditioning he loves the first seven seconds of this show His internet died he's just staring at a static images aesthetic images. My name is Justin McIlroy and I know the best game of the week. My name is Griffin McElroy and I know the best game of the week. My name is Christopher Thomas Plant and I know the best game of the week. My name is Russ Frushtrick and I know the best game of the week.

Welcome to the Besties where we talk about the latest and greatest in home interactive entertainment and it is always a rare exciting day on the Besties where we get to talk about a new game in the franchise called The Legend of Zelda. This one's called Legend of Zelda Echo Chamber. I didn't, sorry. I thought, I don't know. This is one where Zelda- Echoes of wisdom?

Echo, there we go. Zelda loses the election and no one is quite sure why. Everyone is like, I thought it was a fucking lock, man. I don't get it. Echoes of wisdom. Chris Plant, what's that? This time, Zelda's back. Oh wait, not back, here for the first time,

Zelda is the star of this Zelda game, but rather than a sword and a shield, Zelda is going through using just whatever is available to solve puzzles. Also a sword and a shield. Yeah, sword and a shield mode, we'll get to it. All the good stuff. Hey, come on, let me, it's like a bed

and like a table and like a giant spider. And we're gonna talk about it more after the break. So I love Zelda's adventure on the CD-i. I was just thinking that, I was trying to remember the name. Yeah, I've been dying to continue the Zelda franchise, and finally, a new Zelda game. I'm thrilled. I wanna mention something about the CDI game

before we move on to the relevant topic. Games, which one are we talking about? Are we talking about the one that starred? Well, only one I think starred Zelda. No, there are two. No, you can play as Zelda and wanna gamble on, but Zelda's adventure is the one that I was gonna say. It should be noted that that was the first time,

props to Polygon's YouTube video that I watched yesterday, the first time that Zelda appeared with her blonde hair. That, like, defined her blonde hair in the games. In a game. In a game, yeah. Did she not have blonde hair in the first game? No, she has, uh, no, red hair, first game, blonde hair, TV show, then CDI games. And, like, brown hair in the first Zelda game? No, red hair, first game, blonde hair, TV show, then CD-IP.

And like brown hair in Zelda II, which we don't even exist. Incredibly important. It doesn't matter. This is a game, it couldn't matter less. This is a top-down isometric... Is it isometric? It doesn't need to be tilted to be isometric. It's slightly isometric. It's not a bird's eye view. Yeah. Zelda game that is pulling in a lot of the trappings

of the classic franchise, a lot like the enemies and characters and weapons and world and what have you. But- Specifically linked to the past, for the most part. Yeah. No, yes, linked to the past.

Yeah. The SNES one. But you are interacting with the world, For the most part. No, yes, Link to the Past. Yeah. The SNES one. But you are interacting with the world, I would say, in a more active and kinetic way than I think you're used to in these perspective of Zelda games. Yeah, the 2D top-down games tend to be very-

2D is like very inaccurate. Sorry, top-down, you're right. Top-down Zelda games tend to be- It's not top-down either, because top-downs have to be in It's not top down either, because top down is like the Empire. How about this? How about this? It's a sort of a blending of the link to the past era

and the creative era of the modern Zelda games that are one space. You crushed it. But in reality, it's more of like a puzzle game than anything else. Yeah, yeah, I think that's true. Maybe. Everybody, I feel like, knows the thing of this game.

You have a magic rod that can create copies of things that you have discovered, whether that be enemies you've defeated, every time you defeat an enemy for the first time, they drop a little echo that you can then summon them, or maybe it's a jug that you found, and now you can spawn a jug if you need to and jump up clamber on top of the jug or climb inside the jug.

There's all kinds of wonderful- There's all kinds of activities you can do with jugs in this game. That's true. The only limit is how many jugs you're able to summon at any given time, which your partner, who's I guess, it doesn't matter, but he's a magic guy, he's helping you,

and he gets more triangles as the game progresses that allows him to summon more jugs at once. You can get four jugs going pretty quick in this game, and here's my walkthrough on how to speed run the jugs. To just go back to Plant's very astute summary, when you think of, like to the past era, I think you think of a relatively rigid, like there's a way to solve this dungeon.

And when you think of Breath of the Wild slash Tears of the Kingdom era, you think of like, oh, here's like 16 different ways I could solve this dungeon. And this is somewhere in between the two. And I'll tell you what really works for me with that is that my only quibble really with, I think Tears of the Kingdom is maybe

the best game ever made. But I do, there is something in the Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom era of the like, dungeons, not feeling like classic Zelda dungeons that are a little bit more, I don't know, scripted isn't the right word, but there is a route through them, there is a progression to like,

you have to go here, find the key, so you can open this door. You're talking about the classic dungeons. The classic, the more classic, and this game does kind of both, and I think it does it really, really well. I've really enjoyed this sort of dungeon design and boss design.

I mean, just the moment to moment playing of this game is really incredible for me. I mean, I really do. I find it like, once you realize that there is not going to be a like standard default melee attack that you use, you know what it kind of reminds me of? It's similar, it put me in a similar head space as like Undertale in a weird way. It's like your main way of interacting with the world

is not necessarily to whack stuff. And I feel like that, just that small change is like. I mean, you do get other people to whack you. Yeah. Yeah, that is the thing. I know guys, you could also like magically transform, which I think is kind of a cop out, I don't like that, that you could just magically transform into Link

for a little bit, I think that that's kind of weak. It's just his outfit. What? It's just his outfit. His outfit. Yeah, all the similar characteristics. You try to push any buttons while that mode was active, but you're actually able to use his magical sword.

Like, what are you talking about? I do think the puzzles in the game are great. When you are traversing the world, you feel a lot of the time, like you can just break the shit wide open. Yes. Very soon in the game, you get what is basically a thwomp, and you can just get on top of that fucking guy

and ride it 20 feet into the sky. And then all of a sudden, like most of your platforming issues have been solved. So you can really, you feel like you can go wherever you want. I do think starting out combat is not so great because a lot of it boils down to like, okay, I'm gonna spawn this Moblin and watch him

like very, very, very slowly kind of chip away There's a lot of kiting. But eventually like you do get more lethal options or if you can get clever with it one of the first powers you unlock is Basically a tether you can shoot out and grab objects and move around or tether yourself to them So you can shoot it at a bird and then ride it up into the sky, which is very cool. I would put down a path blade, which is one of those circular things that just goes back and forth with like a whirling blade on it,

grab it with my tether, and then all of a sudden I'm chainsaw Zelda. And that did make things in most cases a lot a lot faster. But it does take a little bit of time. cases a lot a lot faster but it does take a little bit of time. You can do that with the big enemies too and in fact we use them to like dodge where you are sure to load up the hit But I do agree. I found the combat rough, especially at first and I'd be letting you have the sword and the shield just feels to me like a tremendous mistake. Like it should either be let me have it

or don't let me have it the whole time. I agree. But the second I had it, it was like, oh yeah, there's that flavor I love. And then it runs out of energy. And I was like, no, like what? You let me know how good this feels. I could have forgotten.

I could have eventually fallen in love with the other stuff. This is what I'm saying. You can balance it for one or the other, right? I feel like they should have balanced it to where that isn't an option that's available to you, right? Because I like the idea of just making somebody that's keeping somebody else busy while I do what I need to do. I like creative ways of offing people like that. I just don't know that the sword and shield was like, was necessary. Yeah, there are a few things that I think balance wise, it gets a little wonky.

I think on a good balance side, Zelda is very frail. Like if you get hit, you take like four or five hearts. It's tough, it's a fucking tough, tough game. But I would counter that by saying like, the more I've played, I feel like way overpowered now because I can summon like four Moblins at once and they all just fucking wreck shit and I don't do anything.

And those are the parts that I actually like, I wanted to talk about this in the context of like Tears of the Kingdom. And this is gonna require a little bit of setup. Justin, you remember one of your critiques, which is a fair critique about Tears of the Kingdom was that there's this resource going to require a little bit of setup. Justin, you remember one of your critiques, which is a fair critique about Tears of the Kingdom, was that there's this resource aspect to it where you couldn't just like build anything you wanted.

You needed like currency to be able to like build a blimp or something like that at a random time. Yeah. This goes the other way where, so long as you have the mana, if you will, like the total mana, you can summon infinite enemies and they die and you can summon another one a second later.

And that to me took a little bit of the like risk reward system out of it. Because I just like- If you can summon two Moblins and they're just chipping away. And one dies and then I can actually- The fastest way to like engage in a melee fight is to spawn a sword Moblin.

He doesn't attack pretty quickly and then you immediately erase him and spawn another one. The fastest way to engage in a melee fight is to spawn a sword moblin. He doesn't attack pretty quickly and then you immediately erase him and spawn another one. So he doesn't have to- The fastest way is to get sea urchins and just summon them on their asses. Just drop them on their asses. I think it's cool that there are so many different approaches.

Like you guys have talked about things that I, like I didn't use the sea urchins barely at all or the thwomp I didn't even find. So I've found alternative ways of guys that do basically the same thing, but that makes me feel like I have more personal control over it. But I don't think that the combat itself

feels super engaging. It feels like a little bit of an afterthought. We have actually, though, talked about the combat more than the game thinks about combat, I think. You can fight the monsters. You spend a lot of time with combat. I kept thinking that, Justin, where I was like, this is a puzzle game at its best, and yet when I would look at my roster of things I could create, how many enemies?

It was like, you can create all of them. See, I think puzzle game isn't accurate either. It's like, because I feel like for me, a puzzle game hints at like a solution. I think what makes this game fun and special is the play aspect, like the experimentation aspect. Yeah, it's a puzzle game in a way that Scribblenauts is a puzzle game,

where it's like, you could, yes. There's probably an intended solution that you are showing me with like environmental clues, but also I can just down a bed jump on my thwomp ride that shit up to glory It it is interesting to see how where it bumps up against like what I think I want from video games and what I actually want from video games right like This is requiring me to think a lot more actively about how I'm engaging with situations. And I find that like, I'm not doing this isn't good or bad, but like, I'm not listening to other stuff while I'm playing this game, I'm not like engaging

with other media or whatever, I really kind of have to focus because I have to actively think a little bit. I'll give you an example. That tether thing that you could do. I would forget that I could do that for like 20 minutes. There were so many things in this game where I'm like stuck and then I'm like, well, there is the one button that lets you like pick stuff out of the ground. And it's like, I completely did not keep track of that.

Like I just wasn't thinking about it. Why you forgot that, for me, I had the same issue and it's that this does not feel like a like capital N Nintendo game. And the number of times where I forgot something because the buttons were just uncomfortable. The tethering, the way you tether things and then like attach them feels yeah, not great. And even just early in the game, I mean, this is within the first half hour when I'm scrolling through The items that I can create and I'm like wow this is the beginning of the game and I'm already doing this it it

It really helps you appreciate the magic of other Nintendo games where they make this promise It seems impossible and then you play it and it's all intuitive. Oh, I don't think the game is I want to be super clear I don't think the game is bad because of this that this is the challenge of it just being released by Nintendo Is it in being a Zelda game it is in a franchise where it's gonna draw that comparison? But yeah, it does not have that that same kind of But yeah, it does not have that that same kind of Polish that or intuitiveness that a Nintendo game has but anyway Griffin. I'll throw I'll throw right back to you Yeah, I was just gonna say like it does there are time I'll this game is so fun to play It is so fun to just fuck around in this game

And every time you find like a new echo that you your brain puts the pieces together of like oh I can think of 20 ways that I can start employing this Echo, this is fucking rad. Which is good because a lot of the other economy of the game kinda sucks when you go through a mini puzzle dungeon and you get to the end and it's like, you found 10 pieces of kelp. It's like, that's nothing for me.

Oh man, there's a lot of smoothie making in this game. A lot of smoothie making in this one. A lot of smoothie making that is kinda wild. Like, I don't know, man. That whole aspect is a little flaky. It does seem, I do feel like it's a bit undercooked though. In, with like, like, systemically, the list of echoes is just one long, one long row that you just have to.

You can sort it. The sorting, choosing the right filter is actually, like you can sort very quickly. And I think that that's actually what helped me is when I started being a little bit quicker on the trigger. Cause you can sort by like last use, last learn, most used. And between those three. And cost, I use cost all the time because when I'm like,

oh, I have a tough fight, I'm gonna drop my strongest mob one in there and he costs like five fucking mana. Between those you can usually find what you're looking for pretty easily. But I would love a favorites system. Yeah, something I wish Tears of the Kingdom had and didn't. I was watching like, you know, pro tips on YouTube

or like wild things you don't know you could do in Echoes of Wisdom. And one of the tips was, the guy watching like, you know, pro tips on YouTube or like wild things you don't know you could do and echoes of wisdom. And one of the tips was, the guy was like, okay, so you go over to this corner by the water and you pick out one of the echoes that you like, and then you just, you like spam it for like 15 minutes, like put a podcast on and then just spam it, spam it, spam it. And now it's always gonna be at the top whenever you want it

because it'll never get passed. I was like, wow, this is all right. Why didn't you learn the lesson, how many times do you need to learn this lesson, is don't watch the pro tips videos? The pro tips videos are what the people see. I do like them. So it's helpful to know.

And listen, I, yeah. And I think in your business, you should encourage people to watch all of me. That is a good one. Yeah, Fresh is always out here being like, And I yes, and I think in your business you should encourage people to watch all Is always out here being like can you please make sure that our business falls apart Some else man. I this game is also like it gets real talky in dude. That was what I was about to say Really? Yeah, I just did this. I'm in this section. We're like the Zoras are fighting. Yeah, and their complaints with each other are are fighting and their complaints with each other are interminable. They take a very long time to elucidate.

Like, I don't care, you're Zora. I'll see you next game. It is another instance, I feel like, of the game being undercooked, where the sections between the dungeons or the sections of the game that aren't exploring and experimenting aren't very good. And it's tragic because I started playing this game

with Henry, we started playing together on his Switch and he fucking loved it. He's never played a Zelda game before. He has never, he played like 10 minutes of Breath of the Wild and all the buttons were like way too confusing for him. So he played this and he was obsessed for a few days. And then we got to the first one of those like, okay, now go run a bunch of errands for the Gerudo,

and he's just fully stopped. And I had to start a new save file because he had done a bunch of stuff I didn't see. There's a lot of stuff also where like, you have a quest marker for a location, but the quest marker is not pointing you towards where the next thing for the quest is. And a lot of it is you go to where the quest marker is

and then someone will say something kind of ambiguous like to the east, there's a platform where you'll find, but just like, just tell me where I'm going, man. Like I- That is funny, because I feel differently. I feel, I would rather, honestly, I would rather no quest markers at all, but this at least gives me some work

I don't want to know exactly where the fucking magic flower is that I need to find Cuz that takes any sort of discovery. That's true. Okay. Here's what's tough for me about that the rest This is where I struggle with that. I can get a lot of places in this game Sure I can get to a lot of weird blind alleys where I'm like not supposed to be at and it's not close to where I'm Trying to get to like at all. There's a lot of square footage and just telling me like a lot of times like I'm not interested in trying to like decode what they're wanting me to do. I want to get back to actually like playing it because you know when I'm running around doing these errands it's just a lot of talking.

I love the decoding. I mean, we've talked about this before. I love the decoding. I mean, we've talked about this before. I love the decoding. Like that is one of my favorite parts of video games is like trying to mind melt with the developer. Okay, what are the different strokes then? I enjoy that stuff too. It's just that most of the time that stuff pops up

during these kind of boring, Yeah. like, transitional sections of the game. I like it in the dungeons for whatever it's worth. I like dungeons that are a little bit more open-ended in how you can approach them, because I know that it's all confined to this one area. This game's dungeons do a great job of,

you get to the end of it, and you have the boss key, and you're about to go in the door, and then you open your map, and you see there's like four rooms with treasure chests that you missed. And now you gotta go back to find those treasure chests. Now, most of the time, those treasure chests is gonna have some grapes in it,

which is not the most exciting prize. Sometimes they have like the equipment, the amulets, which is something that I wish Tears of the Kingdom has, which is they divide the armor, the like cosmetic armor that you get in the game from your like passive abilities. So you can get equipment slots that let you climb faster or swim faster, whatever it is,

and you add more slots to that. So you can actually like passively impact your character without having to wear this specific set of armor. The armor switching shit in Tears of the Kingdom was always one of the least fun parts of it. So I thought that was a huge improvement. I do wanna say one more quick thing about the slow bits, the talking bits. Tears of the Kingdom has this stuff too, but

why it works in Tears of the Kingdom and is not as, I guess, annoying as it is here, which it definitely is, is because the space in between those moments is much longer. You'll do a quest with a lot of talking in it it and then 30 minutes will go by as you're trying to like do whatever they asked of you or just wandering around the map and then you'll get to the next stage and they'll talk up a lot more. But I think that's the difference here, whereas right now you're getting them all stacked one after the other. I mean the middle stuff in Tears of the Kingdom is just better than the middle stuff here. I'm not saying I understand the pacing of a Zelda game requires that stuff,

but the middle stuff in Tears of the Kingdom is learning to fly upwards through a tornado, climbing. And in this one, it's like run up to the Zora village at the north side and then down to the Zora village at the south side and go talk to those guys. And it's like, that's not very interesting. Yeah, I think part of the problem is that this game, which is the first like brand new,

you know, mainline Zelda game since Tears of the Kingdom. But realistically, like it was Tears of the Kingdom, it was Breath of the Wild, and it was Link Between Worlds with the last three brand new mainline Zelda games. And those are three of the best video games ever fucking made. Yeah, they're really, really good.

And this is not at that level overall. It's better than I, I genuinely, this game is better than I was worried it would be. I was worried it would be just gimmicky and that's it. Yeah, it doesn't feel gimmicky. It doesn't. It feels like a whole ass Zelda game and a good Zelda game.

But it does feel a little bit B-Team. Like it does not feel like the, which is true, Grezzo developed this. This is the team that made the Link's Awakening remake. It also made- Also made, I think the 3DS remakes of Majora's Mask in Ocarina of Time. So they've made remakes, which are very good,

but they're not originally designed necessarily. It would also maybe explain why this game kind of runs like shit. Oh, gosh. Oh, man, I just played it for the first time, docked. It looked bad. Like, the frame rate when I docked it, it was like flickery. Yeah, I haven't watched the Digital Foundry. I'm sure they go into it.

But Link's Awakening had the exact same problem, the exact same engine, and it is shocking to me that Nintendo can't be like, oh, you can't run it at 60? Put a cap at 30 or something just to keep it stable because it just does not feel good. I will say, other than the frame rate, art direction is so good. The soundtrack is great.

I have had the overworld theme stuck in my head and it's not the, you know, da da da da da da, it's like a new thing. And it's, it's gorgeous. How's it go, Griffin? Can you just do it? Da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da. Oh God, Nintendo's lawyers.

Oh, that's perfect. Oh, fuck. That's really all it takes these days. I wanna ask you guys a question. Do you think that, and this is kind of a really tough thought experiment to do on the fly, do you think when, if this wasn't a Zelda game, and not marketed as a Zelda game, but just taken on its own merits, do you feel like our discussion would have a more positive tone?

Because it does feel like such a departure and really on a left field and I'm wondering if it's hampered by the fact that it is as you said Russ competing with like some of these like all time honestly I feel the opposite. Like if this has been scribbled on since the perfect comparison for me like if this has been released by Warner Brothers and didn't have the Zelda trappings, which is what I enjoy most about it. I would be like, this is a really cool rough draft. I can't wait to see what the sequel looks like. But I think that there's a little bit of the old Nintendo like the flavor of Nintendo adds a lot to this game. And I think the things like all of the lack of polish that we talked about of navigating the systems All of the lack of polish that we talked about of navigating the systems and the combat would feel I Feel like I would be less likely to forgive it I mean, I appreciate I think there's a version of this if we had recorded this episode ten years ago where we would love it just because

Games that tried new things were so rare and exciting but games that try new things come out every week. Well, and Zelda is now the franchise of trying new things. That is all it does. And that's fucking crazy. I'm glad that they released it. I really hope that they do a sequel to this because it really feels like step one of an idea.

And I think it's totally reasonable. Like, 4A, step one, it's really good. But I know it can be better. It kind of sets up, who fucking knows, but if I was Nintendo, kind of seems like the merging of both a Zelda game and a Link game in an open, like their next 3D game, where like you can summon monsters and you can build shit.

Like that's a pretty fucking compelling idea in an open world space. I also- This is obviously limited by like some perspective stuff of what you can really do, but like the potential is kind of endless. It is also kind of great to play as Zelda. If for no other reason than when you meet people

out in the world, they're like, holy fucking shit You're the princess of the realm. How can I help you? I wish they'd made more of that. Honestly, I was playing as Zelda felt like If you're gonna do it like I kind of wish she talked like I can't Making her playable you take away her ability to speak because of some weird. She does speak. You just don't hear it. You don't hear it. So she gestures like she's conveying information,

but you don't actually hear it. Cause people understand, it's like, you know, people understand when she's saying stuff. That's fine. I'm just saying it would be cool to have a protagonist in the game. Like if you're going to put a different protagonist in this franchise, why not have them feel

like a different person? I mean, the fact of the matter is she puts on Link's clothes like immediately. I kind of wonder the fact she's wearing his robe all the time. I kind of wonder if they wanted to like be able to back out of it. Like, no, no, no, that's Link. Just kidding.

Just kidding. Press the link. Oh, you're upset? Press the link button. Press the link button. Yeah, it's Link. Don't worry about it. I was reading an interview that was saying that they originally had this as a Link game and he could summon the ship,

but he also obviously had his sword and shield. And they were like, it just kind of conflicted. Like, monsters would get in the way of your sword and shield, so you would just use your sword and shield instead of the monsters, which obviously happens in this game at times. And that was the impetus for them making Zelda the protagonist. Russ, the fact that that is the lineage of this game is 100% apparent.

Like it's like the proof is in in the pudding with this, because it feels like something that was going to be something else for a while. And then it was something different. And man, our slate's looking pretty empty. Let's see what games we can get out. All right. I am dying to know if this was planned as a Switch two game. I think we'll know for sure if the Switch two comes out and this

immediately runs like fucking perfect. Yeah, sure. You'll kind of know. Uh, but I am like, can you imagine if they fucking shadow dropped a Zelda game at launch that, uh, of the Switch 2 that no one fucking knew about would have been wild. I mean, that would be cool, man. I'd love to do Dreamcast too.

What if they did like Panzer Dragoon on the Switch 2 just like surprise. That'd be sick. I like nights into dreams. If they made another one of those, but it was on phones and free, that would be kick ass, man. Stuntman? Well, they did.

Hey, why don't they bring back Vianetta ice cream cakes? What the fuck is that? Have we said our piece about Zelda? I think this is a good game. I don't think it's the best Zelda game ever, but I think it's a very, very good Zelda game. And as Plant said, I would love to see them evolve this idea further.

It's really fun. It's really fun. It is, it's really fun. I've enjoyed it. Good in short bursts too. Like I've been playing it while also playing other stuff or like it's easy to pick up the Switch and just play for five minutes while the kids are eating dinner

and just like do a little mini dungeon and get a new echo and yeah, it's great. The checkpoints and the fast travel and all that stuff, very accommodating. Very, very generous. Yeah. All right, let's take a quick break and we'll come back and talk about more right after this. Break that stuff, very accommodating. Very, very generous. Yeah. All right. Let's take a quick break, and we'll come back

and talk about more right after this break. Okay, we're back. We talked about Zelda, hooray. I thought it might be a good time, given the fact that it's October, we just kind of quickly summarize what is left on the docket for the rest of the year. Yeah, because I get depressed.

I didn't know this game was coming out, and then you guys said it was, and I liked that, but what else do you magicians have in your hats? Because I don't follow this stuff at all anymore, so it's a complete surprise to me every week when the show ends. I have no idea what games are coming out. Yeah, it's cool.

How do you feel about playing Silent Hill 2? Yeah, man. For sure, I already done that one. Is it a remake? It is a remake of Silent Hill 2. Good man for sure I already done that one, but is it a remake of Silent Hill 2? Those are scary Um, I was way too scared to play the first one. So this might be the time Yeah, that game was too spooky for me. We got it on Xbox and I was like no way man Did you even see Pyramid Head? That doesn't make a damn bit of sense. I didn't even get to Pyramid Head. Nope I went into a school and I saw a little ghost

and I was like, bye. Is someone singing ring around the rosie? Turned it off. Is that the radio one, Silent Hill 2? There's a radio in that, scary radio? I think there's a scary radio in every Silent Hill game. It's like the key blade. Okay, next up we have a Diablo 4 expansion coming out.

Pretty soon. Let me say this. I've been hearing some shit about Diablo 4 expansion coming out. Pretty soon. Let me say this. I've been hearing some shit about Diablo 4 from people I trust saying it's gotten good and it's like, man, I might get back in for an expansion. Sure, why not? I was sort of in that mindset with Diablo 3 and they fixed Diablo 3, so maybe Diablo 4's fun. I mean, it was fine at launch.

It just wasn't, didn't keep my attention. I think you could also start playing it now because a lot of the features of the expansion came out earlier this year Yeah, yeah the loot 2.0 stuff. Yeah. Yeah We have a game coming out next week called. Let me not get the pronunciation right I think it's next week after it's next week.. The 11th. Yeah, 11th is next week. Oh, you're right. Yeah! Metaphor Riffontasio.

Everyone's gonna say the name of that game in a different excitement. Persona Fantasy. Can't we just say Persona 6 with Fantasy? That's an easy way, Fantasy Persona, yeah. Fantasy Persona, yeah. Understandably, I am looking forward to that video game quite a bit. After that, we have Nevo, which is this quasi-sequel to Grease,

which is like that weird platforming. That's also when I'm gonna be playing Metaphor Riffantasia. That's nice that that lined up. I'm kind of excited for that. I didn't play Grease, but people seemed to like it, and I like Journey, and it seems Journey-inspired. Mario Kart... Pretty fucking wild, there's a new Dragon Age game. I don't know if you're going in chronological.

Oh, I was, sort of, but yeah, there is a new Dragon Age game. And, like, the early game is so positive. I can't remember seeing previews for a game that are so... Is that true? Yeah, the previews for this game are like, well, there's our b gate for this year or like there's our game of the year. It's that good It's well, I don't know if the game is that good, but it's it is saying but the previews never lie the previews Hey, you know what they said suicide squad would be the dog's breakfast and it was So

Mario Party Jamboree, like, what is our take on this? Is this, you know, how many times can I be Charlie Brown in the football? And yet, I feel myself, I feel myself lining up being like, this is it! This is the time I kick that football. I don't think we can do an episode on this game. We probably won't. No. We just, like, logistically speaking, we do not have, none of us have four friends is the problem.

Oh, well yes, that too. I thought you meant just like, you know that I'm gonna take a old swing of football and miss dramatically. The only people I would have to play this game with would be my kids and I would not introduce them to this fucking stochastic, hateful franchise. The idea that I would willingly have my kids join in a Mario party and then at the end of it,

fucking Mario and all of his friends come out and like one of you is the best kid. Cause it's not me. No fucking way man. I lost on purpose hours ago. But the fact that they would set that up like never, never in a million years. I'll tell my kids Mario Party doesn't exist. If they hear about it at school or whatever,

they're just lying to you kids. Apparently the Mario Party diehards are excited about the fact that it has a quote pro mode, which is removes all of the luck based party games. So it's just the skill based party games. Sure, man. If you play it right, it's all skill-based. I've got a system. It's about streaks. It's about maximizing your streaks. Okay, a few more to go through. We have Black Ops 6 coming out.

Are we gonna play this one? What do we think? This one isn't in the 90s. I haven't played one of these. I haven't played the last one. I keep telling myself I'm gonna play Call of Duty and then I just don't and I can't. I don't have the hard drive space is the problem. Like 300 megs, 300 gigs.

500 gigs. This is still October, right? Yeah, we're dipping into, I think. Hey, this one's maybe not gonna hit for everybody else. There's a new Pokemon trading card game coming out on mobile, Pokemon trading card game Pocket, that's like all about how good it feels to open up packs of Pokemon cards.

I think that's gonna be a hit in this household. Griffin, are you playing that TCG simulator? No, I mean, there's a couple of those. I've dipped into that genre in the past, but it's never really hit. What is that genre? I mean, you's a couple of those. I've dipped into that genre in the past, but it's never really hit me. What is that genre? I mean, you run like a card shop and you get packs that you buy with your finances

and you can open the packs and maybe you'll find a card that you can resell for more, you know, it is a simulation of that whole kind of business. But like there's no IP or anything, so what is it? No, no, no. I mean, it's like Power World. Got it, okay, understood. Stalker 2, do we think that's actually gonna come out? Or anything so what is it no no no I mean it's like it's like power world got it okay understood Stalker 2 do we think that's actually gonna come out until dawn that we

That's a remake. Yeah, that's for PC and PS5. Yeah, okay. I mean I'll play that fucking game again I love until dawn scary very scary Come out this year.. I feel positive about that. They've bumped it a few times, but I think each bump is a little shorter than the last one. Also, I believe that they're going to do previews or something, which would suggest that they have code. This game, if it hits, I feel like it's be exceptional. Yeah. But that's a big question, right? Like, it's a big if. I'll tell you back to back, I am very much looking forward to Mario and Luigi Brothership on November 7th,

and Dragon Quest III HD 2D remake on November 14th. Lot of big RPGs here towards the back. I mean, and Dragon Age drops the week before that. It's gonna, Jesus Christ, I'm just now realizing like, metaphor into Dragon Age, into Mario and Luigi, into Dragon Quest III, it's a, I mean, it's good. I'm eating good over here, but I'm also, I got a bit of a tummy ache.

First of all, I cannot believe you guys are gonna skip past Shadows of the Damned, Hello Remastered. Oh, that game is awesome. I love that game. The Game of Rules. That's the game of the Damned, hell of a remastered. Oh, that game is awesome. I love that game. The game rules. That's the game of the year coming out. I genuinely, what?

I don't remember Shadows of the Damned. You would if you looked, Really? It's a gun talk, look up my trailer for it, you'll love it. Came out in 2011, it was great. Oh, was it one of the fucking killer seven, Grasshopper? It was on the Shogun comedy. From the Resident Evil 4 guy.

It's a very sassy kind of middle ground between Resident Evil 4 and Devil May Cry. Yeah, this was a grasshopper game. It was fun. Yeah, man. I do remember this game. And can I ask you guys about one other thing? What's Retro Realms?

There's a couple of games I'm seeing listed as Retro Realms Halloween and retro realms ash versus evil dead I have no fucking idea way forward. I think it's like a six like a 8-bit version of like horror horror stuff Sort of like how they did with like stranger things did with like Stranger Things? I don't know. Oh. I spent the last five minutes trying

to figure out how to add Dragon Quest 1 and 2 HD 2D remake into our document. Because for the life of me, I was literally reading it, and I couldn't transcribe it. Is that dropping day and date with Dragon Quest 3? I thought Dragon Quest 1 and 2 comes out, and then 3 comes out later, but I for the life of me can't figure it out.

Did they call it that because they wanted to make a 3D remake of 1 and 2, but they wanted to save that for later? Oh, fuck. Maybe. Russ, there's- Why specify? I don't know. There's-

No, 3 does come out on November 14th. You're all okay, you can all take a deep breath. Do you know what else comes out on Halloween, Russ? Is a DLC for Blasphemous 2. It's, guys, it's stacked out here. It's looking good out here. So Ash versus Evil Dead and Halloween are 16-bit platformers that WayForward is making.

Oh yeah. Coming out on October 18th. It looks like both of them are coming out in like 16-bit platformer form. Okay. There you go. Also there's an Indiana Jones game coming out. Yeah baby, I can't wait.

What? You think it's gonna be bad? That's a good developer. Yeah. They make good games. Hey, it's gonna be bad? That's a good developer. Yeah. They make good games. It's a spiritual sequel to The Fate of Atlantis. Guys, I know that it is a controversial opinion. If you wanted a yes man on the show, go get Jason Schreier back, you know what I mean?

He's at the company, T. I'm saying, listen, you watch that trailer, okay? And then think about anything you see in that trailer for that game that you wanna do at home. Tell me one fun thing, you wanna run from a boulder? I like brushing dust off of artifacts. No part of that trailer's fun, guys. I'm gonna get out in front of this one

and say that game is gonna be a disappointment. And when it is, I'm going to look fucking smart. And if I'm wrong, I got a fun Indiana Jones game. So what's up? You say disappointment. I don't think it's like gonna be in the running for game of the year. It's like I think it will be a six. That's what I think.

I think it'll be Peter Jackson's King Kong. OK, that's a huge success. That's a great success. That's an eight point five that it's in. We're gonna get 8.5. Todd Howard executive produced this King Kong game. This is Todd Howard's King Kong. I'm so into it. I hope that I am wrong.

Yeah. I will say that. The second thing I'll say, I really am. I think Troy, what's his name? What's his name? The voice actor? Baker? No. Troy Baker.

Troy Baker, thank you. Thank you. An amazing Harrison Ford impression. Sure. Okay, okay. So it is amazing. The only problem is it's like a deep fake face where it looks so real, but then like,

I don't know one percent of the time it just completely misses which makes it all the more unsettling it's when it when it bounces off because it's so good thing it's the first person game mostly it's wild that's true that's true it's wild what a departure this is this Indiana Jones in December when we were starting in the business, like mid 2000s, the, you would never see anything released after Thanksgiving. Like once Thanksgiving hit, you were done. Like there was nothing until a lot of times like March usually, but like

absolutely nothing in December. That's where, that's kind of why like game of the year stuff, I think became such a big deal in video game coverage because you had this whole month where fucking nothing was happening Yeah, it's also I'm a little worried about this game at least in its state at release because coming out in December feels like we are running to the wire I'm also just a little like I to the wire. I'm also just a little like, I hope this game is excellent, but it's a strange choice for machine games to be like, hey the number one thing we are good at is shooting stuff. And they're like, cool, cool, cool. So what are you going to do next? Like

a game where you don't shoot stuff. I have to imagine he gets a gun at some point. You gotta shoot that whip guy. Yeah, but he doesn't get like a shotgun when the bullets bounce off walls. No, it is weird. It kind of makes me wonder, I wonder if Microsoft maybe just needed to be able to say something

was coming out in 2024 and December 9th is just about as late as something can come out in 2024. Well, something else did come out in 2024 and it's called the Starfield expansion package, which we haven't discussed yet. I think it's out today. Is it out today? I'll play every fucking second of it.

I would love it. What if I play it? I'm not sure, actually. What if I fire it up and it's like- Is it out this week? I think it might be out this week. Oh man, what if it's great? Wouldn't that be, what if it's just great?

Justin, are you gonna play that while we play metaphor? Is that what you're gonna try to get next week? I will do that for you guys. Justin are you gonna are you gonna play that and while we play metaphor is that Listen I walked around space and got all the dumb powers I would love a reason to use my stupid space powers on something the fact that you would rather go back and play Starfield rather than play fantasy persona six makes me sad in a way that I am I would not be able to describe to you. It's for the listeners. No, no, no, I know for the listeners. Yeah.

We have each other, Griffin, and next week is gonna be you and I, we're gonna have our time to shine in the sun. Wonderful days are ahead. Okay, do we have any, I think that more or less summarizes the release slate for the rest of the year. Do we have any honorable mentions

that people wanna talk about? I got two. I'm gonna say I've been playing Bellatro on my fucking phone. Careful guys. Careful with that. Uh oh, be careful. It'll get you.

Is your progress crossover? No, but I'm like so good at Bellatro I can re-unlock all that shit in like a couple hours probably. It feels great, it kicks ass, it whips, it's good. If I'm shooting a Duke, like I'll just plop down and I'll like knock out a couple of antis, no problem. Do you prefer playing on phone

to whatever you're playing on? I do think that is true, yes, because I can do that shit anywhere. I always got my phone on me, don't always got my Steam Deck on me, most of the time. It's littler. I wanted to give a special shout out to the Golden Bachelorette.

Now listen. Yeah. This is an older lady, and she is from the season of The Golden Bachelor, which is the last one. Consider, if you will, a bunch of 60 plus year old men go into the Bachelor Mansion house. and imagine what that is like,

what that moment is like, because it's mostly these older men walking around and talking about how nice the appliances are and it's them talking about how do you make your, how you, there's one scene in this most recent episode where one guy starts grilling hamburgers and like six dads come up to him like, oh, gotta take those off soon. He puts barbecue sauce on them, he's like, yeah, this is New York style. Everyone's like, you don't put barbecue sauce on a hamburger, like, it's, you've never seen

this many old men together and it be good and it not be some sort of meeting of commerce. Of course to socialize. Just to socialize. These are old, old widowers for the most part. They're so lonely and now they get to hang out with a bunch of like-minded older men. This shit hits so fucking correct.

It is unbelievable. I only wanna watch it. I wanna go get, can I sign up for the show just to go hang at the mansion with all my elders, pick up the scraps of knowledge that they're dropping for me? I wish, I wish there was an apprenticeship position that you could sign up for on this show.

This is our poor boy, Justin. He just laps up the stories. I was worried when they announced this season because I was like, man, you get a bunch of older dudes together. Sometimes, old dudes suck shit. But these are lonely, older men. And there's no villain arc, as far as I can tell,

which is unique to this franchise. It's just, it is. They're all looking for companionship, really, of any kind. Any kind, any sort. And yet, what they're finding. Yeah. It's just episode one. Ooh, I like this. They're all looking for companionship really of any kind any kind any sort finding Yeah, it's just episode one like this episode one is usually so cutthroat people trying to like yeah carve out little bits of time and screen time and time with the the lead and in this one episode one Would because they're all whittling no episode one the dudes are like it. Oh worse not

Widow Episode one, the dudes are like- Widowers, not- Widowers, right. Widowers. I thought they were all whittling. No, they're not whittling. Episode one, there's more than one guy who says something like, she would be lucky to have any one of this great group of guys. And it's like, that's so good. That's never happened here before.

I'm fucking loving it. I'm having a ball watching this with Rachel. Do you think that this is more of like a kind of like karmic spiritual Cleansing of the bachelor mansion that they need to do this now every year maybe maybe I all of the I Watched some of Jen's season I watched I think all of the bachelor before that and the golden bachelor Jerry like that one hit pretty good, too Because it was a lot of older ladies. It's like a totally different demographic,

totally different vibe. It feels like a completely different team of people making the show, just in terms of like how nice it is. Anyway, that's my shit this week. I want to talk about the Ion Neo Pocket Micro, which is a very bizarre device. I was sent a production model. This is not the final retail model, about the Ion Neo Pocket Micro, which is a very bizarre device.

I was sent a production model. This is not the final retail model, but I imagine they're pretty close. By Ion Neo, they sent it to me and I've been playing it for the last week or so. Oh my God, is it a Game Boy Micro, basically? Let's see it. It is bigger than a Game Boy Micro.

Okay. But not by much. Let's see it. God damn, Russ, this looks good. Okay. But not by much. Let's see it. God damn Russ, this looks good. Imagine it, if you will. Hold it up so I can see it. I don't have it right here. You can just Google it.

Now here's the thing about the INEO Pocket Micro. Now I have to guess how to spell that so I can see what it looks like. It's in the rundown. You could just pull it from there. If you wanted to play basically NES through, let's say, PS1, you're going to have one of the best experiences, I think, on any of these handheld devices. And I think it even goes kind of head-to-head against the Analog Pocket, which is also

kind of designed for this era of gaming. It's a different technology. You're using software emulation instead of hardware emulation. Fucking dorks will yell at me. I get it. But because it's running on Android, you have the versatility of like everything that an Android device can do.

I love the look of this thing. It's a very cool device. Those thumbsticks look a little low on that. Thumbsticks were fine. Here's the issue. The triggers are stacked triggers on the top. They're like flat stacked triggers. So if you're playing anything that has extensive trigger use,

including like racing games, things like that, you're going to have a bad time. It's just like not designed to support that thing. Which arguably you could kind of say a little bit about, you know... Most of these devices. A lot of these devices, which is pretty typical. This one, it feels a little overpowered and price-wise is a little high.

I think it's $200, which is in line with the analog pocket. But if you're just looking to do software emulation for like later systems, even though this has the horsepower to do that stuff, I think the form factor is not there. Is that gonna replace the, the Miu mini? The Miu mini is like still my, my weapon of choice for like. I think at this point, just to bring everyone up to speed

for where the handheld gaming space is right now, I think the Miu mini is kind of the grandpa. It is the golden bachelor of the group. Such that it just kind of caps out again at PS1. And a lot of the handhelds these days are doing, you know, PSP, even GameCube, PS2, 3DS. But it's hard to do that in a form. The form factor for these things is like the number one concern for me, because I have, I could play PS2 games, you know, on my Odin, whatever.

Why on the, I'm saying, so I'm looking at the actual website. First off, this says coming soon. There's a little bit like you can get this, yeah. There is a way to order it now off of Indiegogo, actually. Weird. It says premium horizontal retro handheld console, a delicate play thing you won't want to put down. Why are you marketing this as delicate?

Yeah. There might be a translation situation going on. It's a Chinese manufacturer. The retro game corps review of it is like, I would not take this out of my house. I haven't dropped it, but it seems pretty durable to me. I wouldn't actually push against that, Russ, just based on the fact that on the manufacturer's website it says that it is delicate. So that would be my sort of counter to that. I think they probably meant fancy. Fancy.

Maybe, yeah. Delicate the way that like a nice croissant is delicate. I think if you're looking to run like every game of the last 30 years, this is not necessarily the device for you, but if you are an obsessive about that, like NES to I would say PS1 era, this is like a very good device for that.

And again, I was able to play Fortnite on it, which is, you know, you can't say that about a lot of these handhelds. Through the Android? Through Android, yeah. Well, through the Epic game stores. Yeah. I think the only way to do it.

Every frame of Booger Man. Oh, you read that? Perfect. It is a very weird, interesting space. A plant, I think, mentioned Retro Game Core, which I think is one of the better YouTubers covering this space. I also really like the subreddit SBCGaming,

which stands for single something chip gaming. Single board computer. Single board computer, thank you. And they, I think, do a very good job summarizing where the state of this market, which moves incredibly quickly. They release new handhelds every three fucking weeks. It's nuts. But this one's a very cool one,

and I think if someone's looking for a daily driver these days, I'm a big fan of the 35XXH, which is from Anbernic. Unbelievable that you take up our time with this. the 35XXH, which is from Anbernic. Unbelievable that you take up our time with this. Oh boy. I know, I'm here for it, man. Talk to him personally.

The fact that you're using a broadcasting channel to have these discussions with each other is truly nauseating. It is immoral, I would say. Justin, before we recorded, you were like, I think I'm gonna get one of these things. Did I just remove? You know what I'd do if I was gonna do that? I we recorded, you were like, I think I'm gonna get one of these things. Did I just- You know what I'd do if I was gonna do that?

I'd just ask you, like, directly. I wouldn't respect you to broadcast that. But now you don't have to. You don't have to do that. Because he, now the whole world knows. Yeah. But you know what? After I ask you about it, okay, I just put the order in,

you'd be like, actually, there's this new sick one that I just heard about. I mean, yeah, that is the problem with this space. And this is not the, the turnover for Russ and his handhelds is like- Weekly. Weekly. No, I'm- And then I'll see a new, here's how it works.

It's the same every time, and it's happened eight times at this point. Russ will be like, here's the sick new shit. And then Plant, for some reason, always sweeps in his like, here's a tutorial for how to set it up super easy on YouTube. And then I'm like- They're in cahoots, for sure. Shoot, like, there's a tutorial for how to set up good. And then I. And then like, shit, like, there's a tutorial

for how to set it up good. And then I get it all on and I go, I got it all set up and I get it from China and I get a box and I open it up and I'm like, what the fuck is this? I'm like, oh yeah, it's the new thing. So I go find it and I load up Booger Man, I'm like, absolutely, put it in a box.

Have you noticed if you reverse I-N-E-O, it spells fresh stick? Yeah, that's cool. Kaiser Soze is Frustick! Justin or Chris? I saw Transformers 1 twice. Hell yeah. Is that it?

I think that's it. It's a confession. Don't get me wrong, Justin's been talking about Transformers 1 across our whole slate of media offerings So I don't have a ton else to like survivors back Update you on from real quick if you Yeah People are dying the things continue to happen on from currently a woman is Excavating in her basement with a shovel because the outlets aren't real and there's no wires in the courts. And she's trying to figure out where the electricity comes from.

That way, is that what the from in the title means? That you are not the last the last shot of from season one is a tour bus pulling into town. Oh, so now they're trapped in studios tour. They're coming trapped in from. It's like the Universal Studios tour. They're coming in the way. They're trapped in From. Is the town called From? Every, that's why I call it, because no, I don't, no, the town is, there's colony town and then town town. There's colony house and then regular town.

And then colony house got busted into by a bunch of the monsters that live in From World at night and it got busted into. So everybody left colony house to go move into town, but nobody likes the Collie House. It's New England lost, basically. Yeah. Yeah. From continues to air. Keep doing it.

Hey, if you want to watch something good that actually seriously delivers, if you like spy stuff at all, Slow Horses on Apple TV is kind of its fourth season. It is a really that's a show that like might've gotten lost in the glut of overspending on streaming shows. Like it was one of that wave where it seemed like all of a sudden there was 30 things to watch all at once, but it has continued to deliver really, I would say increasingly good seasons.

I think the 30s. I can see that with the old man. 100% and I confuse it with old dogs. I can fuse that with the Old Man. 100%, and I can fuse it with old dogs, and I can fuse it with wild hogs. I can fuse it with all of them. The Old Man is back too, actually Russ, hilariously. Your Old Man needs, between the Golden Bachelor, the Old Man, and slow horses,

Old Men are really back. It's time for Old Men to have a little some power They have they finally have 50 consoles that could play all their favorite board games What about you Chris I got two things to shout out real quick one friend of the show Johnny Stanton is the co-creator of a tabletop project called Sync. That is a fifth edition supplement of D&D, but it's got pirates and it's very cool. And I'm going to include it in the newsletter so people can check it out.

And then also because it is spooky season, have you all heard of Ghostwatch? No. Ghostwatch is one of the best things ever. I'm so excited you're gonna talk about this. I knew you would be the one. Ghost Watch aired on BBC on Halloween of 1992, and there had been a series of kind of crime, almost like talk shows, where they would be like, okay, we're going to talk about local crime that's happening. And then you're going to call in and help us try to solve these crimes.

And these are real crimes, like real, like newsy programs on the BBC. And then they're like, okay, now we're going to do one for ghosts and people are like, oh great, on Halloween? Cool, ghosts. We're gonna have real, you can call in during the show to tell us about your like ghost experiences. Yeah, and there's, we're going to go to this house.

That's like a local neighborhood house that is actually haunted. And over the course of the show, things go very, very, very, very wrong. And it is absolutely horrifying, and it ends up being a movie that they had made, but it was presented to everybody as if it was real. Down to the point where it was an hour long show and then it runs an extra half hour and like, hey, things are getting out of control here. We're going to go over the next episode behind us.

Freaked people the hell out when it aired and it just made so many brilliant decisions, like using non-actors and newsy people to like fill all the roles. It is unbelievable. And it is on Shudder if you wanna watch it. It's on Shudder, yeah. You don't have to like track it down wildly. Now you can just go watch it on Shudder. And if you want more context,

this feels weird to do like a double, there's a Sawbones episode on my medical history show about Ghostwatch because it caused such a panic at the time that a lot of people treated it as like, it was a legitimate medical concern because people were so freaked out about it. And like, a few yokels are, this is like a bit, it was a, it was an issue. It was a big problem. So you mean more from like an anxiety standpoint?

Yes, like it caused people like, to a point where it's like, is the BBC liable for my like mental distress that I have experienced? Sure, yeah. It's a wild thing. Go watch it on Shudder. Free of context, it's not gonna like chill you to your bones, but watching it and trying to imagine being in that head space, it's so well done.

And it's really good. And it's pretty chilling even without that. Oh yeah, I just don't want people to think that it's like, it's not gonna make you insane from terror. Yes. It's not the video in the ring, it's just like. Cool, we did it. There's a, I'm doing, I'm actually,

I'm watching something on Shudder right now, Sydney and I paused it, it's called WNUF. Oh! About a local broadcast doing the same thing, that it's like very much recreating the time period, but it's like a similar concept, like non-actors and doing a... Yeah. Explanation.

I'm a total sucker for that stuff. Same thing with Late Night with the Devil, which came out a while ago. Thank you so much for listening to our program. Next week we will be talking about Metaphor. ReFantazio. This week though, we talked about so many freaking games. Legend of Zelda, Echoes of Wisdom, we talked about, here we go, Silent Hill 2 remake, Diablo

4 expansion, Metaphor, ReFantazio, Neva, Mario Party Jamboree, Black Ops 6, Mario and Luigi Brothership, Dragon Quest 1 and 2 HD 2D remake, which I don't think is coming out this year. Dragon Quest 3 HD 2D remake, Dragon Age Veil Guard, Stalker 2, Indiana Jones, Pokemon Trading Card, Game Pocket, Plasphemous 2 DLC, and then the I-Neo Pocket Micro, the Ambernik 35XXH,

Johnny Stanton's tabletletop Game Dive expansion. What was it called? Sync? Sync, not dive. Ghost Watch, Bellatrum Mobile, Golden Bachelorette, and Slow Horses. I also wanted to thank the people on our Patreon. You can go to patreon.com slash the besties.

I forgot to write down the names this time, but thank you. I remember Kazookle from last week, and I'm gonna just call out Kazookle one more time. Yeah, sure. Feature Kazookle. Thank you for supporting the Patreon. We have a new Bracket episode, which is live right now. We talked about the very best launch games of all time, and here is a clip for that episode.

The promise of the Dreamcast is a surprise launch, right? And then it had way too many games. It's for it to be like successful. It like way too many games. And it came out way too early. And the promise of that launch is, man, this thing's gonna fucking flame out, but it's gonna be a hell of a show.

And then it delivered on that exactly, like 100%. I love you guys so much. If you're suggesting that Sega said, we're going out like a beautiful, dying pulsar. They see the end of the runway, the gas is running out of the plane, and they're like, fuck it it and they just keep rolling. On all the fucking like advertisements were just bald cyber men just going

9 9 9 Sega's gonna fuck this one up bad in two and a half years, but you're gonna have some good times with Shenmue That's not how that happened The Dreamcast would have been a better console than it was I want it to also. I love it so much. Some shocking twists and turns in that one. You never know what's gonna happen in those bracket episodes, even though they're a science.

That is, now I can tell you officially, right? That next week is metaphor refundalsio. Is that? Yes. Now is the moment. And also possibly the starfield DLC. If Justin has just changed that in the document after I've said it out loud, the first possible moment that it could be not helpful

is the moment he has chosen to change it in the document. Thank you for posterity and to have it say it next week, it'll be wrong all next week until we change it. So that'll be- I guess I'm gonna play a metaphor with Fantasio, even though I have not clicked with a Persona game yet. This is the time that's gonna happen for me. That's gonna do it for us.

Until next time, my name is Justin McElroy. For all the besties, I wanna say thank you for joining us. 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!