The Besties - The definitive list of perfect portable games [The Resties]

Episode Date: February 8, 2022

Here's an episode for everyone, whether you fell in love with video games on the Game Boy or the Nintendo Switch. In honor of the Steamdeck launch this month, The Resties construct the *perfect* list of the best portable games of all time. To accomplish this worthy task, they first uncover the key components of any magnificent portable game. Discussed on this episode: Spelunky HD, Hades, Tetris, Mario Golf Advance, Fire Emblem Awakening, Fire Emblem: Blazing Blade, Into the Breach, Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time, Persona 4 Golden, and Gravity Rush. 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!

hello everybody my name is christopher thomas plant my name is russ fresh jake and welcome to the resties a video game podcast where the rest of the best talk the best of the rest i did it yeah that's that's interesting. I thought you were going to say talk about, but you don't need to talk about. You could just say talk the best of the rest. Like, we're just talking. But you know what? It's better when you explain the concision of the sentence.

It makes it much more enjoyable. I think so, too. Brief status update on the bet is what I have on my thing. I don't remember writing that yeah i wrote it i added it to the rundown because i didn't want to forget i want us to forget um as people might recall a couple episodes a couple resties ago plant and i had a prediction rundown for the year of 2022 and we both guessed a bunch of things and uh if if one of us is more right than the other one, the other one loses and has to do something.

Now, the initial discussion was that the other one would have to buy a video game statuette for the other person. And I'd like to suggest an alternative to that. Oh, I thought you were going to give me a status update on how you're already losing. We're going to cover that as well. So don't worry. That's next. What's your alternative? My alternative is this.

I think the person who wins gets to tell the person who loses what character they are cosplaying as. And that they have to cosplay as that character and take a photo of it and share it on the besties twitter this is uh that's that's brutal now i i'm not encouraging anything that's like too revealing sure it's entirely up to you what level of commitment that you make to this but i wanted to do this early before it really gets decided who's going to win this thing. Okay, so you did not tell me about this before the show. That's true.

And I feel like I'm going to need, I'm going to need a beat to think on... You're going to have to digest. Yeah, I need to chew on this one a lot. Okay. Because I can see this going a lot of bad ways for me.

That's true. You don't trust me? I don't at me i don't at all that's what good friends are we are that level of friend where i know for a fact you would have no problem making me dress like a near automatic character look there are a lot of dead or alive characters that i think would be perfect uh you can think on it that's i'll think on it and then and then also the other update is that you already have have lost one part of your that's true and i think you maybe i thought there was one where you lost one as well well possibly so the one that you've lost for people who are keeping

track is fresh dick uh had a claim that tom cruise in in mission impossible tom cruise yes would show up in fortnight that is no longer i mean 99.9 unlikely because mission impossible has been moved to 2023 that is true and i and i would add some people were saying that the reason i shouldn't have bet it in the first place is that appearing in video games is against Tom Cruise's Scientology beliefs. And I did some research into that and I could not find anything specifically citing that. So I think it might be apocryphal, but I wanted to mention that people were like,

what do you think? What do you, why? You know, whatever. I do not know this bit of minutia. Yeah, that does seem very specific. But yeah, the one that I might lose is it sounds like Apple's VR AR headset has been delayed to 2023 because of a lack of parts. Yes. But that's like, that's some like big like Apple rumor mill stuff.

So. Well, and also you do still have two headsets that could come out and i think you win the bet right that's you don't need all three to come almost certainly i i actually think i'm gonna win this bet because um oculus has two headsets that are likely to come out this year i believe a new oculus quest and like a higher end headset and And yeah, I think there's no question that Sony will release a new PSVR by the end of the year. Yeah, we'll see. So I'm feeling pretty good about that.

Anyway, this week, we are talking about what makes a great portable game and our favorite portable games of all time. And why are we doing that? Because talk about another piece of hardware that I can't believe actually is coming out finally maybe uh the steam deck is actually going to happen maybe it is i'm i have i've i have adjusted my my bets to firmly the steam deck is coming out at the end of this month now there might only be 20 of them. And they might be only shipped to the first 20 people who made orders however long ago.

But it does sound like, for real, the Steam Deck is coming out. And the reason that I think this is, at first, you know, like months ago, we would see large video game developers showing their games running on Steam Deck. And a week or so ago, I saw, oh my gosh, I'm blanking on the name now, but it's kind of like an indie game inspired by Bushido Blade. And the developer of that game had their game running on Steam Deck. Samuragon? You're talking about Samuragon?

No, no, no, no, no. It's like a 3D I swear I'm going to get it before the end of the show and then we'll put it in here. But this game is running on the Steam deck and you know i thought like hey if a very independent developer is getting access to this they're probably ready to start shipping these they have sent it to a lot of developers yeah so i i'm excited i'm i'm genuinely excited about this

but i think first we have to talk about hey what are people even going to use this for because you know the world of PC games is not necessarily appropriate on the Steam on the Steam Deck one thing though if you do not care about the Steam Deck

if you did not spend a lot of money on it if you don't even know what the Steam Deck is no problem because we want to make this episode accessible to everybody so we'll be talking about what makes all portable games good from the game boy to the switch to everything beyond and we'll be doing that right after this break okay so for uh the top of the show fresh i wanted to talk with you about what makes a good portable video game because i think there's a big difference like sure the nintendo switch revolutionized the world of games you know you can play it on the go you can play it on home but there is a difference between the games that i want to play on a small screen when I'm, you know, on the airplane and like what I want to play at home or on a computer.

Yeah. And we should also clarify that. I don't think, correct me if I'm wrong. We're not talking about mobile games, which I think is another category entirely. Correct. Yeah. We're not talking about stuff that's like, to me, a good mobile game we can get out of the way is something that I can play for five to ten minutes, touchscreen, extremely low impact. Yes. And that's not what we're talking about.

These are games that, you know, these are commute games. These are play them on the couch games where I maybe have reruns of your favorite show on, that type of game. Yes. Should we get into it yeah i mean yeah i'm just i'm just waiting if you have what's your what's your big idea do you have a thing that you're like this is what i need first yeah well well i'll start i'll start with one thing i don't think 3d games are very good for portable gaming huh that's interesting because there's this game called breath of the wild and we've talked about it a little bit on the show we have but i don't know that it i mean you can definitely

play it breath of the wild in portable you can definitely play it but unless you have like a hoary like those big like thumbsticks that i use that's a pretty miserable game to play in portable mode like it's not fun to play that game in portable. I'm going to correct you here. I only played it in portable mode. Yeah, but you didn't get hand cramps while playing that game? No, not really. But I also don't play many games for more than an hour at a time.

Oh, well, there you go. You're a baby. Yeah, that's true. I get what you mean. Having to, like, navigate the, I don't know, the camera. The camera, yeah. That's a pain. For me, it's like controls in general.

I just need them to be simple. And I don't mind a 3D game if it's not demanding like rapid control response, right? So I don't mind Breath of the Wild. I think that's like a pretty chill place to be on a portable game but you know i tried to play doom on a switch and it's impressive that it's there but i have no desire to do a shooter on on really any current portable hardware and why do you say that because it because managing the camera at that speed and those reflexes does not feel good to me. Same with fighting games. I mean, there's an exception here or there. There is a fighting game on Neo Geo Pocket Color that I think is fantastic.

But they also stripped down a lot of the controls to make that work. And I don't think like... I know that you can play Super Street Fighter 2 on a Switch, but I don't want to. It's entirely based on how the... It's not the fact that it's portable as much as the controls were not designed with those sorts of games in mind. So it always feels like you're sort of jamming them in.

Yeah, yeah. That to be portable, you are going to have to make simpler, I guess, like looser or tighter or tinier controllers. Yeah. Is that right? Yeah. And that just doesn't work.

I say this, but then I think both of us like the backbone, which is the thing that you can wrap around your iPhonehone or android phone to play well mobile games but also to play like xbox game pass streaming games yes and i do enjoy 3d games a bit more on that um but i guess the thing that i still struggle with there is big triple a 3d games it's not that they're 3d it's just those games happen to also be games that expect more of an investment from me like there's it's almost like 2d games because they are you know they've been around since the beginning of all this but especially you know like 80s 90s era of like arcade games or even nintendo games where they just things were broken up into levels they were digestible i don't know it's almost like there's kind of a language that's assumed with a lot of 2d games that 3d games like no we're

going to be big cinematic we're going to expect you to sit on your couch for a long amount of time yeah you can't really appreciate the scale i think as much when you're playing a portable game even if it's like a big portable game like breath of the wild or um monster hunter rise it doesn't quite have i mean it's just i don't think it was what it was designed for necessarily it's playable it works but it just doesn't feel like quite the right fit you're the christopher nolan of video games like oh that's true. You're going to watch my movie on an iPhone? Everything needs to be seen in a theater. Yeah, yeah. No, I think you're right. I also think we are in this kind of funky spot right now, right? With Switch and with Steam Deck,

where a lot of presumptions are being challenged of what is a mobile game and how much does any of that matter. I also think the reality is, who are you and when and why are you playing like you look at kids playing fortnite on their iphone is that the most comfortable way to play fortnite well they're probably not doing it on their iphone because not their iphone their android phone or you know minecraft on their iphone like is that the best

place to do it no not at all but it is the place that's available yeah and like that makes it the best um so i think for us you know being grown old people uh who have a lot of choice when it comes to this it's like we're talking about like ideal places um and like i think the ideal place for most 3D games is on TV, but I think that they can work here. That said, I think there are some genres that, like, just straight up don't work, like, at all. Interesting. Do you, like, do you, is there anything for you? Because for me, like, RTS, I...

Oh, yeah, I don't think I can play an RTS on a TV either. Like, I think I need a mouse keyboard set up for that. Yeah, I think it's like a double whammy for RTS because it's like, yeah, I need mouse keyboard. There are some exceptions. I know the Halo Wars series can do control relatively well. But also just anything where it's the itty-bitty pieces on a screen like that, I just can't get it.

I mean, I just hate RTSs in general. So maybe I'm a little bit tainted on the genre overall, but it's just too much to keep track of. My brain can't handle it. Whether it's on a small screen or a big screen, it's just like, I feel, I always feel like I'm not committing my resources in the most effective way possible.

And I'm failing whoever the designer is behind this game. Yeah. I, I, I agree with that. We have a number of people on Twitter who are regularly asking us to talk about, you know,

like Forex games or RTS or, you know, we're not, I can't, and it's just like, I apologize. You wouldn't, they wouldn't,

nobody would enjoy it. You know, I've tried for what it's worth. I've tried playing those games, but the total respect for those games. I'm just a moron. I've tried. For what it's worth, I've tried playing those games. Total respect for those games. I'm just a moron. It is funny, though, because we talk, you know, I think we agree that RTS is definitely not good for portable.

The flip side of that is turn-based strategy games may be the best genre for portable. What do you think? Well, explain. So, games, when I say turn turn-based things that jump to mind fire emblem x-com uh final fantasy tactics these are games that have turn-based strategy mechanics and allow you to at any moment after any turn shut the game down and you lose nothing. I see what you mean. So when I said Pokemon, wrong. What you're talking about, yes, slightly different.

Pokemon's a turn-based RPG. Yes. Yeah, I think that's a good point. So now that I can play XCOM on my Steam Deck, that might be like one of the very first games that I should dig up. Yeah, it would be up there. My only fear with a game like x-com which was not designed initially for a handheld is it's a lot of stuff on screen i think a game like fire

emblem which wouldn't be on steam deck necessarily but like games that were like a little more natively considered to be portable games would be better but i don't know x-com might work it's hard to say i mean you mentioned that are there other things where you're like okay this these are things that i when i see it in a video game i much rather be playing it on portable than on a big tv yes um reading and and it's funny that i mentioned fire emblem because this applies to fire emblem as well there's a lot of reading in fire emblem like a lot there's a lot of dialogue and talking to random people around town and blah blah blah and whenever i'm doing a lot of reading on in a console game i feel like i'm wasting time just sitting in front of a screen as text

scrolls in front of me i don't know what it is it's weird because i'm not necessarily being more productive doing that in portable mode maybe it's because I want more of a book reading experience. I don't know. In portable mode, it feels like a book. It's in your hands like a book, right? And then I feel like when I'm playing a reading game on TV, it's like, well, I should just go read a book. Yeah, well, it makes me think about when I tried to play 13 Sentinels

and couldn't get through it because I was like i'm just wasting my life away yeah the the pickle of 13 sentinels and switch is the best platform for this is yes that's true it does i think it will work better on a switch where you can read it like a book but the art is so gorgeous that you do want to be able to check it out on big screen now and then. Like, it would be a waste not to see some points of the game on a small screen. Yeah, I mean, Persona, definitely same sort of thing. I have a tough time playing Persona games on consoles. But when they do come to portable, I know 4 Golden was on Vita. And I don't think any of the mainline Persona 5s have come to Switch yet.

But yeah, that's definitely where I would look to play them. Are there games on PC, speaking of Steam Deck, that come to mind as like, oh, that is why I would want to own a Steam Deck? Well, yeah. So immediately jumping to mind is Rogue Legacy 2. This is a game that we played and talked about on Besties like a year or even more ago. That was in early access, and it's finally closing in on actually releasing.

And under normal circumstances, this is a game that I would prefer to play on Switch because I like playing those games but portably um but if i were to wait for the switch port it might be another six months before that happens and here the second that it hits 1.0 on steam i can play it portably immediately so that is the immediate like first game that i might boot up yeah mine are all rp. Like I, you know, I've sunk a good amount of time into Tales of Arise and Scarlet Nexus last year. But I kind of just haven't gone back to them because I stunning and I want to see them on a high definition TV. But you're in settings for long enough that, you know, I can do both. I can see how it looks and experience that.

And then I can throw it to handheld mode and do the grind and work through the story. Yeah. Just so you know, I literally remember the name of the game that we were talking about. Oh, good. The Bushido Blade game. The Bushido Blade game is Hellish Court. People want to check it out. I apologize.

It took my brain that long, and I have no idea why it just flared up into my head. I like the branding. It's good. It's very good. And I'm very excited to play that i think like that is weirdly what i i'm most excited about for the steam deck which kind of defies this entire conversation we're having is if it works and it truly is kind of pick up and play and it's just hey i have 15 to 20 minutes here and i don't want to go back into my office and all that um being able to just kind

of pick at video games yeah now and then is is my dream and it's why i hope that there is a easy way to dual boot on it and have game pass on steam deck because that's the real dream um yeah game pass or yeah other services who knows subscription service that would that would rule um and i have a feeling that they will quickly figure out some version of that and if in a steam deck doesn't i i it seems like we're gonna see quite a few competitors before the end of the year and oh that was one of our bets too wasn't it oh there'll be like a big oh that razor will do a razor or uh alienware i think we're i feel that we way more confident about that one now than i did even a couple weeks ago um yeah i think i think that is right um okay should we should we take a break do you think

yeah we can come back we can talk about our best portable games love it okay cool let's do that we will be right back okay we we are back and i think we're gonna start a fight is my this could go really well i could be wrong but we could start a fight using the metric that we just talked about you and i are going to choose the top five portable video games okay of all time we're not going to each choose five we're going to work together and we have to agree on the top five. Okay. Seaman. That's not a portable game.

So step one, they have to be portable games. Understood. I'm glad we're setting out the steps. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I see how you're confused because Seaman has a microphone as its controller. And microphones are portable. And Leonard Nimoy was in it. True. And he was in it. True. And he was in Star Trek.

He got around. He did. He did. That's a good point. He wrote songs about The Hobbit. He was in Star Trek. He varied career. Do you have a nominee that you want to throw into the ring?

Sure. I think a Fire Emblem game needs to be included in this. No, I'm not um i think it does and i'm going to tell you why because i think it checks a lot of the boxes that we were just talking about okay um it checks the reading box that we're talking about it checks the um turn-based strategy box that we were talking about. These simple graphics that are easy to make out, not a ton of stuff on screen at any one time.

It feels a lot like you started with this answer in your head and then you went back. I did. So you knew that you were going to make this case and you're like,

okay, I'm going to lay the groundwork. Well, because they're related. You were asking me what are the best elements of portable games, and then you're asking me what portable games are the best. Okay, okay, okay. They are directly related. We'll see. I'm writing down a Fire Emblem.

Well, I can be more specific than that if it's helpful. Yeah. I would say Fire Emblem. Better be the Switch one. No. I think Fire Emblem proper, say fire emblem better be the switch one no i think fire emblem proper which was the first fire emblem to come to america so it was the first one on gba in america it was called fire emblem and in japan i think it was called fire emblem blazing blade because it was like the sixth fire emblem at that point okay So the most hardcore one.

It's not. It's no, no, no. It was the first one that I ever played. And this was back when I was a young child. And I didn't even know anything about this franchise. I just know that people liked it. So if ever there was an example of a way to introduce people to this franchise, it's probably Fire Emblem Awakening.

That was like the big breakout game. Yeah, that seems like it. breakout game but it seems like it we could change it to awakening that's fine okay i'm gonna put or awakening here i mean neither of them are gonna make it so oh i mean we'll see we'll see we'll see okay i mean i'm being open-minded i do respect that a lot of people love these games and i do respect that i should be shamed for not having devoted more of my time to three houses they're great they're great that's what i hear you can have time babies they're amazing let's see your pick this should be the game that i like and not the game that you like i know it's very surprising

i do not generally like these games but it's strange um i'm gonna nominate one that i i know we will agree on because i i come i wanted to start this from a place of peace and prosperity. Okay. Wait, you've started writing it down and all I see is SP. So maybe I could guess off of that. Okay. What do you think it is? I think it's Sponic the Hedgehog.

And then Splatoon. Oh, no. No, hard disagree. It's Spelunky. Oh, okay. Good. Good. Spelunky. Hard disagree. It's Spelunky. Oh, okay, good. Good. Spelunky rocks.

Spelunky 1 HD, I believe, is a perfect portable game. Yes. Despite not being built for that originally, but it is much of what we talked about. And it very, very simple controls, despite it being kind of a hard game to learn very start and stop friendly you know you can pick it up you can put it down uh runs relatively short especially when you're learning the game and the cartoon visuals are very easy to read yeah um so like it's conveying a ton of information but you never really struggle reading it which is a different type of reading that you were talking about but reading nonetheless yes i completely agree

totally cosign there was a moment where i was considering whether spelunky 2 would have been a better pick but i do think the difficulty spike yeah probably better off with spelunky hd as sort of the broad portable pick yeah yeah yeah yeah i think it's also just like historical i mean that game defined the playstation vita i don't know if you want to bring that in but i mean it didn't really super run great on the playstation vita but it was spectacular so it's great on switch now um. Okay, give me another one of yours. Yes, another one of mine. I think, yeah, I don't know if you're going to be down with this,

but I'm going to go Binding of Isaac. So, I'm writing it down. Okay, write it down. My only problem with this is I feel like we have this covered with Spelunky. Okay, that was my hesitance. That's why I hesitated, and I do have a backup, which I don't think... I think is different from Spelunky, but maybe not different enough.

The other game that jumped to mind as a great portable game is Hades. Spelunker. No, it's Hades. Hades. Oh! Now, all of these are roguelikes, but... I think Hades is different different hades is a more narrative

game than any of them it um has amazing artwork but it's also very simple insofar as it's easy to like again as you were talking about read um repeatable gameplay uh something you can like pick up and put down every room is like two minutes long so you can always just pause at the end of a room i think it's pretty great i i yeah i did you play a lot of hades portably i didn't i played it almost exclusively on pc yeah but i wish i played it portably because i put it on switch yeah it feels way better uh as as that sort of game um yeah especially like the the the the story stuff in that game feels like it would be much more enjoyable just kind of hanging out um okay i i do agree with that there are two here

that i feel very confident in the next one i also feel very confident in okay and that is gravity rush for the place no no it is let me let me let me let me make a case oh my god let me make you just made your entire anti-case to gravity rush in the entire first segment go but so that that that is my point gravity rush breaks all of the rules it is the controls are not particularly simple you use uh like the what is it where you can gyroscope gyroscope controls to rotate your playstation and you can send your character flying and redirecting gravity in this massive open world that is like way more vertical than basically any open world uh ever but that's what's amazing about it. What is so cool about this game is the audacity of it all.

They made a game that would have been too ambitious on console and then tried to squeeze it into a portable handheld. And I would love to know the story of why and we will probably never know um but it sure feels to me my like you know like fan canon of it all is that sony was like yeah you can make that game we're not going to give you money to do it on ps3 or ps4 but if you know what if you can if you can pull it off on vita sure why not they're like they'll never do it you know like that's that's not possible and then the team was like sure you know what we'll give it a try we will we will attempt the impossible and it is a seven out of

ten and by that i'm not saying like literally i'm giving it a score i'm saying it is a as a philosophy it is a seven out of ten it is broken in many ways is repetitive at times but damn if it isn't trying it's hard out and i've made my case do i think it's going to make the final five no i don't you made a terrible case well i'm writing it down just in case we change our minds. You made a case for a very broken little bird that appeared on your doorstep one day. This has nothing to do with making a great portable game. If anything, it's the opposite. They made a not portable game, then jammed it into a portable console. I guess your point would be that they made an HD re-release on PlayStation 4, and it is better.

Yes. It's better. I liked Gravity Rush. Don't get me wrong. I actually liked Gravity Rush, and I played through it all on Vita, so I did actually enjoy it, but I also acknowledge that, like,

using that right thumbstick nub sucks. It's not fun, and using the gyroscope sucks. Not fun. So. Okay. I think we can cut it. I'm not'm not well i'm leaving it on the i'm fine until we can list other things fine yes yeah yeah yeah yeah um now i have to pick like an actual pick

and not like your ridiculous pick there's there's two very good games that have not been mentioned yet well there are a lot but i'm trying to like diversify so like a game that sprung to mind was that turn-based alien fighting game where you control the mechs that isometric game you know i'm talking about yeah into the breach into the breach spectacular game but i think that's too similar to Fire Emblem. If you wanted to replace Fire Emblem with Into the Breach, I would be okay with that. Okay, I'm putting that there as an option. Okay. You know what? I think what we

need on here, we can kind of work together. Yeah. I think we need a good RPG. Yeah, that's going to be tough because I hate most of them. Well, that's true, but I think i there are some that you like persona 4 definitely comes to mind i did fall asleep and didn't actually play that much of persona 4 i like routinely fell asleep while playing all of those games. I'm not proud of it, but I did.

Is there a portable? I kind of liked, what was that GBA RPG series? There was two of them. No, the Golden Sun. Golden Sun. Those are pretty good. Oh, no, forget about it. Ignore what I just said.

I've got it. Ready? Perfect. Mario and Luigiigi partners in time not joking that's a serious answer i'm not gonna explain it if you want oh yeah i mean i definitely do okay have you played this game i not in a long time okay so the mario Luigi games, in case you're not familiar, are inspired very back. I don't remember the exact beats of the story, but you do travel back in time as Mario and Luigi and meet baby Mario and Luigi.

And they like work together. And then Bowser's there. And he's like friends with you because someone else is like screwed over Bowser. Um, and the graphics look great on any screen. That's like really clean and smart and, uh, approachable and constantly like, again, it's one of those things you could just pick up and put down. It's not like up its own ass about like resources and all this like systems management and stuff like that.

It's just like, oh, can you jump on his head two times or three times? Three times is more damage. Let's do that. It's great. These games are great. I love them. I think that's great. These games are great. I love them. I think that's fair.

I think Superstar Saga and I think Inside Story are better. Do any of those have baby Mario and baby Luigi? No, they don't, but they do have good game mechanics, which is a pretty decent trade-off. Partners in Time has basically the same game mechanics. The writing is definitely better. It's been a while, though. But I'm pretty sure. We'll just say a Marley and Luigi game here.

I'm putting Persona 4 Golden as an option. I'm just straight up cutting... Gravity Rush. I'll have to name it at the end of the show. But it sounds like it's not making it. Right now we have Spelunky we have hades which are kind of overlapping we have a a tactics game we have a rpg here we're getting we're getting into the thick of it

because there's there's a lot of good stuff that is not on this list. Like, I think GTA Chinatown Wars is one of the best portable games of all time. It is extremely good. And I think it was designed really well for being portable. My only hesitance with GTA Chinatown Wars, even though it is one

of my favorite GTA games ever, there is a little bit of dumb touchscreen stuff that I don't particularly like. Mmm. Yes. I think that's true. But the rest of the game is great.

Yeah, I guess it's also this thing of, is it meeting the criteria that we set out for here? It's close. It is close to that. It out for here. It's close. It is close to that. It feels very close. So I'm just naming some games

that we have not talked about. Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker. Really any Monster Hunter game, right? Monster Hunter. That's what I'm talking about when I'm talking about Peace Walker. They're the same type of game. Oh, yeah.

Talk about up their own ass resources and systems management. Well, also like collaborative. You know, playing with friends. We haven't talked about Tetris. Yeah, Tetris might be the best. I think Tetris needs to be on the list. I feel like Tetris has to be on the list because Tetris to me is the definitive

portable game. It sold the Game Boy. It sold the Game Boy. We didn't talk about Sword and Sorcery, which is a mobile game, but is also a portable game. It doesn't spring to mind. My mind is like...

It's good. I liked it. Not essential in this caseness there is a game that i actually want to suggest it was a game that came out originally on console but was later added to portable devices the switch included and that is mark of the ninja from clay entertainment you ever play mark of the ninja of course course I did. We played it together. Did we? Yeah. It's all haze. You don't remember. I think that's true.

At GDC, I think we played an early build of it. Amazing 2D stealth game. One of my favorite stealth games ever, and one of the very few games that I think really captures the thrill and diversity of a stealth game in a 2d format um tons of ways to approach like enemies and areas but all like very cleanly presented in a very simple way okay okay so here's the problem here's the problem with that good not not like a profoundly great portable game.

A good game. A very good game. But I would not say a great portable game. And the reason I say that is here's some other games that we still have not mentioned. And I'm sure there are people now at this point throwing their iPhone or whatever it is, their laptop. Don't do that. Across the room. Because we haven't said the word Pokemon.

You know what? I have repeatedly in my brain thought about Pokemon. Because Pokemon was the very first portable RPG I ever played was Pokemon Red. I'm putting that down as our RPG. It is an RPG. But I'm so fucking burnt out on Pokemon. Well, I agree, but I'm saying we're talking about favorite portable games. These are like iconic, perfect portable games.

That says something else. Are we talking iconic portable games or are we talking favorites? Because right now, if you ask me favorite portable games, Pokemon would not be on that list. So we're getting into some real semantic weeds here. It's important. I guess what I would say is favorites of all time. You know, when they were writing the Declaration of Independence, you know what they said?

Hey, we don't need to get the details. We're getting too semantic. It's true. It's true. This is like basically the second most important document. It is. In the history of the United States. Fuck you, Federalist Papers.

So my case for Pokemon, and I say this as somebody who I also, you know, I'm burnt on it. I'm not feeling it right now, even though I did like that new one. Yeah. right now even though i did like that that new one yeah i think if i talked about like hey if somebody asked what are your favorite portable games of all time i wouldn't think like right now this is what i recommend you go play i would think like wow these games like really left a positive impression on me i love these games and it would be hard for me not to say that pokemon isn't on that like short list well if that is the rubric that we're going for

I have something that checks both boxes and it's a category that we have not discussed because immediately it does not seem like it'd be good for portable but it is and that game is Mario Golf Advance the best golf game

ever made that's pretty true rpg it's an actual rpg which they haven't done since mario golf advance and advanced tour is actually the name of the game and um it it's so fucking good it's got like little mini challenges where you're trying to like level up your character by like hitting a mole that's on the core on the course and it's got um you can like build your character in different ways and there's like secret clubs you can unlock but again it checks the box of after every swing you just pause the game and turn off your whatever device and um you can continue it later i have replayed this game so many times it holds up 20 years after it released super fucking good marigolf advance i i'm locking it in i would fight to the death i i think that's good i think so

here's where we're at we have spelunky HD, which I feel is pretty locked in. Yes. Hades, which also feels pretty locked in. Even though those games are similar, I guess Hades is getting a little closer into the visual novel thing. Really stretching that term. Because we are lacking a, like, Danganronpa or, I mean, any visual novel. I think Hades I think Hades is enough of a visual

novel to check that box. Okay. Then we have Tetris which is just a pure you know portable game at its finest. Skinny piece, L piece, S piece everyone loves it.

It's so true. They're called Tetronimos, but sure. We have Mario Golf Advance, which is counting for both sports and RPG. So, again, some real concision here that I like. Here's my wild card round, because I think we do need the wild card. Wario-Ware Twisted. Yeah, well, I have an alternate that I was considering. WarioWare Twisted, for those that don't remember,

was the WarioWare game that had the gyro built into it so all the minigames involved twisting the... It was on GBA, right? Or was it DS? It was one of them. I think GBA. I think it was on gba right or was it ds is one of them g i think gba i think it was gba um so it had that so similar but different kirby's tilt and tumble it's not a bad idea here here's here's the the thing against kirby's tilt and tumble which is game that is pretty good but as you you know, I hate ball rolling games. It's come up a couple of times.

I'll reiterate it here. Hate to roll balls in games. And Kirby's Tilt and Tumble is entirely about that. So I don't know that I could do that. I don't have a lot of fondness. Even though it is a well-designed game, I still think the original wario ware micro mini games is the best wario ware game but that's just me okay okay i actually have our our experimental

game you inspired me okay kirby canvas curse no do you remember this one? Yes, with the stylus. No. You draw, and you draw like a lot. It's pretty good. Didn't like it. No. Here's why I'm going to tell you. You always surprise me. We've known each other for so long, and you continue to surprise me. I'm going to tell you why I don't like Canvas Curse.

You don't like the game. Because it's not a good portable game when you constantly have to play the portable one-handed because your other hand is on the stylus. That's not a good portable game. That's bad game design. See, I like that because that feels much better than playing it on the Wii with a Wii pointer. I mean, you're right. Both are bad.

Fair. Fair. So, I mean, what is our... I will tell you what we're missing. And you're not going to like it. We are missing right now a turn-based strategy game. No. We are.

How did we cut it? How did I... I lost track of the numbers. You're right. Yeah, you moved them down. That's... I mean, is there another big, portable, friendly genre that we're missing?

I don't think so. I think we're missing a turn-based strategy game. I think it's Fire Emblem. I would give it to Into the Breach if you really want to groan about Fire Emblem, but Fire Emblem. No, I don't. And the reason I want to give it to Fire Emblem is I know the second I do make time for the series, I'm going to love it. And I don't want to come back and not that I ever go back and listen to these shows. True. But just in case I do, I don't want to come back, you know,

two or three years from now, a big Fire Emblem fan, you know, and then be like, Oh, I was the one who shot it down. That would be but I'm gonna say Awakening, not because I've played it. But because I've heard it's good and you know what's also good about awakening is it channels a little bit with mario and luigi partners in time because they both have time babies sure if that's what makes you feel good about it not making it does i'm okay with it i'm good with that i'm good with that um okay so we did it our five favorite portable games you would not let not portable games. Not in any order. Not in any order, except for Spelunky is number one.

Spelunky HD, which is available. I can say where these are available. Available on the Nintendo Switch. You can play it right now. Hades, also available on the Nintendo Switch. Tetris. Those, for what it's's worth will also be available on steam deck yes in like a second tetris available versions of it are available on switch actually

i believe tetris connected that the new one is on 99 obviously yeah uh but that that new tetris is like oh no tetris is yeah time tetris best Tetris's of all time. Tetris Effect. Effect. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Mario Golf Advance, which is only available on the Game Boy Advance. And legally acquiring it is not cheap. So, good luck. And Fire Emblem Awakening, which is also Game Boy Advance.

No. No DS. Only available on the 3DS? the ds i think that one's yes that one i think it is it's oh my gosh and it was published on the 3ds in 2012 there you go we have been doing this for too long yeah um so that is available on 3ds that actually that i think we talked about it on besties oh my gosh it was the first fire moon game we talked about on besties christ um okay so that is our top five um i you know what i'm gonna i'll save the recap for the end and just in case people skip ahead to that for whatever reason. That's it on the main stuff.

Do you have any recommendations for this week? No. I'm continuing to watch Peacemaker. It's my favorite show on right now. It's so fucking good. It's on HBO Max. I've talked about it before. I don't know how much more i could really say but peacemaker rocks i need a fun show and like i that seems like it would be my speed i watched a little um abbott elementary that oh yeah is

very chill i'm into that i'm getting into that one um but my recommendation because i have no chill is um a new book called how high we go in the dark and um it's just depressing i don't honestly i feel like i'm a parody myself and i shouldn't be recommending it uh i finished station 11 and i really enjoyed the especially the tv adaptation of it. And then I was like, you know what I need? More depressing post-apocalypse fiction about how what we do after a pandemic destroys the world. So fortunately for me, this new book came out

and I'll be real with you, not super far into it. But from what I understand, it's a novel, but it's like a series of short stories that are all connected and building on each other and going further and further in time. It's like Cloud Atlas. Honestly, yeah. It seems like it reminds me of that in some ways,

but very dark. There's a talking pig i've been told um and i have a feeling that some people who listen to the show would like that and i also have a feeling that there are some people on the show who would very much not like that because i'm sure you're not talking about babe oh no i'm actually talking about babe too okay uh pick in the city got it yeah yeah that hey that movie's good yeah directed by uh one and only mad max director what's his name yep that's him's name that's his name he did it he did it he directed mad max okay it's not george romero it's something like that george miller yep yeah i'm got it god i gotta

watch you suffer um okay here are the games that we talked about this week uh splunk hd hades tetris metro metro golf mario golf advance fire emblem awakening fire emblem blazing blade uh into the breach mario and luigi partners in time and all the other mario and luigi uh portable rpgs persona for portable RPGs. Persona 4 Golden Gravity Rush. It's a good batch of games. Yeah. Especially Gravity Rush, which once again is mentioned on an episode of The Besties and immediately thrown in the trash bin

by my friends. The new near, everyone. Printed on the back of the box that'll never be released. That's it we did it what do you want to do in two weeks that's a good question uh there are so many fucking games coming out in february i'm like totally stunned by how many games are coming out in february probably the busiest february in video game history that is not hyperbole. So I have no idea,

but it will be something new and exciting in two weeks. I actually have to read this. This is from a story that went up on Polygon a little while ago from Nicole Carpenter. She just listed out what is coming out right now. We have Pokemon Legends Arceus, Horizon Forbidden West, Destiny to the witch queen elden ring tiny tina's wonderlands kirby and the forgotten land dying light to babylon's fall uh sifu ghostwire tokyo and like more that's just that's just some of the

games we actually i edited this piece we had to cut out some of the names of the games. We actually, I edited this piece. We had to cut out some of the names of the games because it was just getting too long. Too many games. Too many games. I am very excited. This is a very good problem for us to have. I worry a little bit

about these games like, you know, selling. Financially? Yeah. Like that seems like not great for all of the good stuff to come out at the same

time but why do i know i'm not an economist they i assume that they know what they're doing um thinking if you're curious why they're doing this and how the hell this is possible and if it is financially reasonable you should actually go read that story uh why a new huge video game is being released every week on polygon and you know what i'll drop a link on twitter because it is much smarter than anything that i have to say um and that's a great place for us to end by me being self-deprecating love it we did it we did it another episode of the resties in the books i i it's 2022 it's still doing this love it yes i love it um uh cool that's it for us uh until next time i am chris plant and this is russ fresh yeah that's fine we'll roll with that this is my buddy russ fresh dick and this is the resties a video game podcast where the rest of the best talk the best

of the rest