A Minecraft Movie + Nintendo Switch 2 Direct

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Hey, I'm really excited to talk Switch 2 with both of you.

I'm, you have no idea.

I'm pumped.

I'm so stoked.

I've got talking points.

I've got takes.

I'm excited.

Oh, yeah.

I got a couple takes, too.

I actually

came up with a joke about the, just from watching the Switch 2 directed.

Oh, okay.

I'll maybe say it on the show, but I can try it out with you guys.

I'd have to hear it.

Absolutely.

All right.

All right.

Here's the joke.

Nintendo announced the price of the Switch 2 in the U.S.

will be $449.99.

If you're wondering why it's so expensive, it's because it comes bundled with a carton of eggs.

You get it?

It's kind of like about how, you know, stuff is so expensive now because of,

you know, inflation and everything.

Did you get the joke?

Hello,

hello.

Is anyone there?

Did you hear my joke?

I'm Weiker.

Hello.

Well,

we sing about Lava Chicken and discover the mysteries of the C button as we discuss a Minecraft movie plus all things switched to this week on Get Played.

Welcome to Get Played, your one-stop show for good games, bad games, and every game in between.

It's time to get played.

I'm your host, Heather Ann Campbell, along with my fellow host, Nick Weiger.

That's me, Tiger Weiger, along with our third host, Matt Apodaka.

Hello, everyone.

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the premiere video game podcast, where this week we're talking about a lot of stuff.

We have kind of a weirdly newsy episode today.

I guess not weirdly, because the Nintendo Direct way about the Switch 2 just just came out, but we're also like, we're not like the most topical podcast.

You know, we're not, we're not journalists.

We're not usually given the inside info, but a lot of the stuff is just kind of inescapable this week.

That, that changes today.

Today, we are your number one first stop.

If you want news, if you want updates, if you want all the takes on the latest gaming gossip, that's, that's get played.

That's right.

I'm wearing one of those hats, one of those like sort of flat-brimmed hats with like a little piece of paper sticking out of it.

I'm going full journalist mode over here.

A little little press tab.

Yeah, that's right.

Did anyone ever wear those or is that one of those things that was like an invention of cinema?

It has to be, I mean, it has to, all cinema is truth.

It's all based in truth.

Yeah, I know.

That's a good point.

Like the clumps was real.

That happened.

We have a big newsy episode today.

Along those lines.

Our buddy Diston, Sean Diston, who's been on the podcast before, was, I guess, haranguing us because we never did a reaction to the Death Stranding 2 trailer.

Again, we're not like the most topical podcast, and so we just didn't have a window like that came out.

And it came out at a time we weren't recording.

So we didn't have a window to react.

But I think we could all say that we thought it was good.

We thought it was good.

I had dinner with Distin the other day, and he goes, Why the fuck haven't you guys talked about the Death Stranding 2 trailer?

I gotta know what you guys think about it.

He said, I've been waiting to hear what you guys think about it.

And I said, Look, buddy, I don't know what to tell you.

We loved

we think it's good

it looks great uh i like that there's like you know um there's like a

a guy that looks like solid snake in the trailer there's a there's a metal gear in the trailer it's like it's crazy stuff and yeah he's a madman and i can't wait to see how he pulls it off soon i like all the floating guys in the sky that's one of my favorite things is the little tiny tiny floating guys i think that image is really iconic yes um I like all the floating guys.

I'm into floating in general.

Yeah, floating.

The thing that wants to float.

Floating.

Pennywise over here, this guy.

Pennywise floating.

We're talking about Baron Harkinen from Dune.

We're talking the whale from the whale.

All these floaters, I'm into.

Floating is more threatening than flying.

Yes.

Wow.

I agree.

That's a great take that I've never heard, and I completely agree with it.

Really, really good.

Speaking of Dune.

Yeah.

When they're like exiting that big ship and they're sort of like floating down to the surface, or is it reverse?

Is it they're going up?

They're going up.

yeah, yeah, they're going up.

The way they handle

anti-gravity is like the technology feels so futuristic because you don't see any impact on the environment or hear anything.

Yes, it just, I remember seeing that for the first time and being like, oh my god, yeah, just because

of the way they were floating.

Yeah, it's rad, great, really, really, really, really good.

I guess the thing that the other thing we can touch on before we get into the meat of the show is this just dropped as of this recording.

There was a poll that BAFTA conducted

on

the, you know,

I guess this was just a poll of users.

This was just a poll of fans that ended up ranking the top 20 most influential games of all time.

The headline here is that number one, I'm sorry, most 21 influential video games of all time, according to BAFTA's poll, number one was.

Why don't we go because we've gotten this complaint before?

Yeah.

Why don't we go from the bottom up to the top?

You want me to list all 21?

Yeah, why not?

We've done 300.

Okay.

I'm just just going to say them and then we can talk about them.

And we say whether we've played them.

21, Grand Theft Auto.

Okay.

1.

20, Skyrim.

19, Grand Theft Auto 3.

18, Dark Souls.

17, Final Fantasy 7.

16, Baldur's Gate 3.

15, World of Warcraft, 14, Metal Gear Solid, 13, Pong, 12, Tomb Raider, 11, Tetris, 10, The Sims, 9, Half-Life 2, 8, Super Mario 64, 7, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, a game that came out in 2025,

listed among the most influential games ever made.

6.

Minecraft, 5, The Legend of Zelda, Ocarine of Time, 4, Half-Life, 3, Super Mario Bros., 2, Doom, and number 1, Shen Mu.

Yu Suzuki's Magnum Opus, Shen Mu listed as number one.

Kind of a wild choice.

I understand how people got there.

Yeah.

But,

you know.

If it wasn't for the inclusion of Kingdom Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 as an influential game, which

it can't be.

Also,

similarly, Baldur's Gate 3 too recent to be considered influential, even though it's my favorite game.

I do think that Baldur's Gate 3 possibly has influenced the development of video games moving forward since it's released.

For sure.

Right.

I feel like Kingdom Come Deliverance 2

just came out.

So maybe there's been a couple of meetings, but that doesn't make it an influential game.

And what would your meetings be?

Hey, it's like Skyrim, but realistic.

So, do we want to do this?

And not that this indicates influence, but how, like, has Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 like sold gangbusters?

Like, is it like a huge?

I mean, I know it's like it's popular, but like, yeah, but I think this is this is this is people self-selecting for this poll are going to be enthusiast gamers, and they're excited.

This is the game that they are excited about from this year.

So, so, with that excluded from the list, I do think overall those are very influential games.

With maybe Grand Theft Auto I not being that influential, I don't see a lot of people being like, Grand Theft Auto I is something we're emulating in this upcoming title.

I do think that people have been like, I want it to be more like Zelda Ocarina of Time.

I think Shen Mu at the top of this list speaks to that nobody had done something quite like it previously.

And then the games that came came after it, like Grand Theft Auto 3, where it was like, what if you could go inside of places and play video games or talk to anybody or whatever?

I think all of that is sort of

set

as a possible area for game development by Shenmo.

I don't think the list is terrible in terms of everything that's on it.

There's certainly some things that I don't think belong on this list.

I certainly don't think you need both Half-Life and Half-Life 2.

And I also don't think you need three FPS in the top 10.

No.

But, you know, things like World of something like World of Warcraft and Pong should be way the fuck higher.

They're very low on the list based on their import to video games in general.

A notable absence for me is Street Fighter 2, which was just like, you know, again, a massively influential game in terms of the arcade scene and then basically inventing or at least popularizing the fighting genre.

And then just in terms of like what it did for multiplayer and then gaming as a community in general.

The other thing I would say is, I feel like this list, like, like, like, fine, maybe Shenmue finds its way on here somewhere, but if you're going to have Shen Mu and then Grand Theft Auto 3, then that's like the sort of thing of like, well, you should have Ultima online before World of Warcraft.

If that's what you're saying, if what you're saying is like the one that pioneered this genre as opposed to the one that popularized it and made it mainstream is the one that we're going to acknowledge, then I think there's some other games that you could probably toss on here.

But where Pac-Man?

Pac-Man, yeah i don't know is pac-man what a top a 20 a number 20 top 20 most influential game of all time still maybe it is i don't know maybe not but but i i do think there are probably some early pc rpgs that could be on here that certainly like did a lot to uh you know

define what that genre is the other thing i think that is maybe missing, maybe notably absent is some sort of predatory mobile game.

Some sort of like thing like

Honestly, you look at things like

Farmville.

I don't know what the right pick is, but some game that just sort of like made that entire sector of gaming into the

nightmare that it is.

Or PUBG.

Or PUBG.

Because PUBG is the one that launches the Battle Royale genre, which is now like an add-on for almost all of those major games.

Yeah, that's a great point.

There's no MOBA on here.

There's no Battle Royale on here.

Those are huge genres.

I mean, that might also just be who's self-selected for these polls.

This might be who are a little bit elitist about those genres.

Do you think that number 22 is Kingdom Hearts 2?

I would think that Kingdom Hearts 1 influenced Kingdom Hearts 2.

No.

No.

Like is Final Fantasy VII even?

Great game.

Fantastic game.

Is that more influential than, say, Dragon Quest I?

Which basically makes JRPG this massive genre?

I don't know.

I think there's an argument to be made for both of them being on the list because I do think 7

changes the trajectory of console RPGs.

Yeah, I guess if you would think it's influence in terms of also basically deciding a generation, you know, a generations console battle and then also like, like, make, like, you know, being part of how Sony ends up becoming this dominant presence in the industry.

But, yeah, I don't know.

It's, it, it's, it's an interesting exercise.

I don't think Shenmu is number one of all time,

um, but

I did, I, let me read this paragraph from the Polygon article.

Quote, responding to the accolade in a statement, Suzuki said, I am deeply honored and grateful that Shenmue has been selected as the most influential video game of all time.

At its inception, we set out to explore the question, how real can a game become aiming to portray a world and story unprecedented in scale and detail?

This distinction serves as a powerful reminder that the challenge we embraced continues to resonate with and inspires so many people even today.

It is truly the greatest of encouragement.

Don't you read that statement?

It's like, all right, tell you, let's get you to it.

Let's go.

All your games are number one.

We love you.

Just so sincere.

Yeah, very, very nice.

Gosh, I mean, I have not spent a lot of time with Shen Mu.

My uncle played it.

I remember being a kid and being like captivated by it for some reason, even though nothing was really happening, just kind of just like watching this guy walk around and do stuff.

I was like, this is.

For some reason, I can't take my eyes off of it.

Yeah,

I really do.

Again, I understand why, Nick, you're like, I don't know about Shenmue being number one, but I do think that when it came out, people were like, wait, you can make an entire town and go anywhere in the town.

Right.

And not in a JRPG way, in like a, you can walk down a street and go into a building and do stuff inside of that building.

And that has become commonplace in games.

And Shenmue is the one that, and I know that Dagger Fall comes before that.

I know that there are, there are PC games where it's like, okay, you can go inside of a building.

Yeah, that's

another can of worms.

Which Elder Scrolls belongs on here?

Yeah.

You know, is it Skyrim?

I don't know.

It was an earlier entry.

But yeah, I mean,

it's, it's, I don't know.

It's, I, I don't, I don't, like, like, I think we were landing on earlier.

I don't think this list is quite right, but it's not terrible.

Right.

Uh, and uh, yeah, you know, I mean, probably

a big part of it is just like, do you want to argue for the thing that came first?

Like, is the legend of Zelda more consequential than Ocarina of Time?

Is Redent Evil?

of them?

Is Resident Evil, which creates an entire genre of games, supposed to be on that list?

Those Brits, I tell you.

What are you going to tell us?

Like, what's all this then?

They make their lists all crazy like that.

Yeah.

Nick off the cheeky Nandos.

Knows what they're up to.

They go get themselves a little cheeky Nandos and, you know, have themselves a spot of tea.

Do they know how excited we are when they say

in it?

Oh, yeah.

I mean, yes, they talk about it, though.

And you know what?

And they're putting it on.

They don't say it that much.

They don't need to say it that much.

They say it because we like it.

Friend of the show, past guest Libby Watson.

We were texting once, and I don't remember what I texted exactly, but I texted her something with like a bit of British slang in response to something she said.

And then her response was, she gave it a thumbs down and then sent one word back: disgraceful.

Rochelle, we got to talk, our producer, Rochelle Chandrash, we got to talk about your experience you're telling us about in text.

You did an IRL Big Brother.

What is that?

What is that?

These two guys host a local game of Big Brother.

Okay.

Not involved with the actual show, but they just kind of put on their own version of it.

Hold on.

I don't know.

what is that?

Big Brother is like a CBS reality show, like a reality competition show where people go into a house and they're like monitored the whole time and there's like challenges throughout the show.

But what are they?

What is the game?

Maybe Richell.

I imagine you could maybe explain it better, but it's kind of like one of the OG reality shows.

It's kind of like Survivor in a House.

It's basically, yeah, the simplest way to say it's Survivor in a House.

So they vote people off each week?

Yes.

And you play games to get immunity?

Exactly.

Okay.

Or you play games to be the person who gets to pick two people who are going to be up for elimination each week.

Okay.

Okay.

Got it.

Survivor in a house, perfect.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

So these two guys host a game in their little apartment and there was 15 of us.

Do you find about you?

Are these friends of yours?

Do you just find out about this on social media?

I had a friend.

who I've played like a group chat version during COVID with, who has done these a couple of times, and he's been telling me to apply and I finally did it.

Wow.

And how did you, how did you fare in the, in, in the game?

Um, I was voted out second.

Okay.

Second.

Second.

Second to last or second first?

Well, for

I got, I was voted out second first.

So there was someone voted out.

That sucks.

My number one ally.

The fuck?

I was voted out second.

Why?

Why would they vote you off?

My guess is that because I was kind of, I seemed close to this first person,

Ryan Elder,

that they didn't like.

But also.

We should have known Ryan Elder, an extremely talented composer who some of us have worked with.

And then

my real friend, Karin, was actually playing that day too.

And she put me on the block to be eliminated.

Wow.

So I went home on

her on her reign, on her kind of household.

But I was able to battle back into the competition.

Oh, so there's like there's like a last-chance kitchen sort of thing, exactly.

Uh, so I won.

I got to come back, and all bets were off.

I was like, I don't care about any of these people.

They voted me out.

How many people are left at this point when you get back?

Um, there are still 13

left, okay.

And I clawed my way up to second place.

Wow,

that's wild, second to second, second to second.

You said this in the chat, and now I think having heard the story a little bit, I have to agree.

Ranch is terrifying.

That's wild.

How long did the game, how long is that?

How much of your day is the game?

Like, is that a long day?

72 hours.

It felt like that, but it was 9 a.m.

to 10 p.m.

Oh, my God.

Oh, Jesus.

No, I was kidding.

Did you put in, was there like a pool or anything?

Did anyone win a prize?

You'll win $100 if you want.

Okay.

Yeah.

And like, is food being ordered?

Pizza was ordered.

There were snacks.

And there was also a round taking place at Albertson's.

And there's 15 people and it's once.

So

there's a vote every, how often?

It's one, every hour?

A round every hour.

And you could really fuck up that game by showing up with, with a stack of hundreds and being like, it doesn't matter.

The money doesn't matter to me.

The winning does and each round that you don't vote me off i will i will give a hundred dollars wow to each person at this table yeah if you let me continue that's really funny i'm gonna try that next time

it's a lot of money though

i just

think your brain because i'm gonna i my friends i'm gonna go on like a group trip in the summer and my friends want to play a game of traders like in the house.

Oh, yes.

So I'm going to have to learn a little bit

how you play.

I fucking love Trader so much.

The TV show itself,

the UK show, I don't watch the other ones yet.

And also the game, the game proper.

The game's good.

I fucking love it.

It's really good.

I will say I played a game of Survivor on a group trip of like my real friends, close friends, and

the fallout was bad.

When they pushed it to me, I said, look, I'm ready for a new group of friends.

I don't need this.

Yeah.

I don't need this.

Congratulations.

Yes, thanks for watching.

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Hey, let's talk about some video games right now.

It's time for what are you playing?

What

are you playing?

Ask me the representative movement.

And I'm going to ask my friends what they're playing.

Hit that

chat.

We want to hear from you.

Wait, you mean we don't have a live chat?

I guess people will.

We're not live streaming.

Well, that's how the camera's rolling.

I thought we were live streaming.

Yeah, I noticed you're a little camera shy.

I mean, you don't need to worry about that.

We don't, we're not going to to put you on blast here.

We're not going to put your image up online.

So you didn't have to worry about that.

But yes, no, it's not a live stream.

This is just video recorded for later release.

How do you get an audience to sign a waiver?

I guess you'd probably have to do it as they were entering the venue.

No, I mean, like, if you post a clip online of me,

you need to have the audience to sign a waiver to watch.

To see you.

Yeah.

I don't, that sounds like a logistical headache.

I'm sure it could get sorted through some sort of web form or whatever, but that might just be more trouble to me.

Yeah.

Easier for us to not put the video of you up.

Yeah.

Do you think I would be voted off first?

So you're talking about the thing we were previously talking about?

I will say yes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You probably get voted out first.

I think just based off of your appearance and your demeanor, those would be the two main factors that would say this person would be voted off immediately.

But if there was a savvy player in the group, would, I would sort of make an argument to keep you because you're you are the obvious first vote.

That makes sense to get you out of there based on how you behave and how you look and the rest.

But

I think it would be good to sort of keep you as like a as like as a sheep for the slaughter later.

So, Matt,

can we form an alliance?

Yeah, we'll form an alliance.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Matt, can I ask you, what are you playing?

Well, Resident Evil Merchant,

I think we could open the floor to all of us, all three of us here.

What is everybody playing?

We all had a little experience.

We had a shared experience.

We had an experience.

Just before our record.

So recording this is the day this film opened nationwide.

We went to the earliest screening we could find and came straight from the theater to the studio to discuss a Minecraft movie directed by Jared Hess of Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre most famously.

And Jason Momoa, Jack Black.

I'm looking through my text.

I have no record of being invited to this.

Yeah, I guess it was just, I mean, it was me and Matt.

Everybody went.

We invited Rochelle, and Rochelle couldn't make it.

But yeah, it was just kind of the same.

So you even had an extra ticket?

I guess when you put it that way, yes, we did have a ticket that we got for Rochelle, and then Rochelle couldn't make it.

So, yes, there was an empty seat next to me that you could have occupied.

I forgive the oversight, but next time,

next time I want to know where you're going and when.

I mean, in all fairness, you would have been sitting next to me and then next to a small girl.

And I don't know if she would have enjoyed your presence.

I don't know if I would have.

I'd protect her with my life.

And another thing, just for future reference, because I've been in a movie theater with you.

Yeah.

You can't talk back to the movie.

The movie can't hear you.

All right.

Just tell me which one it is.

Which movie?

No, whether it's the ones that listen.

No, it's typically not.

Just in general, good behavior in a movie theater is just to sit quietly.

I know, I've seen a movie where they react when you talk.

No, that's a play.

That's different?

That's different.

Oh, the movie's the flat one.

You know what the movie is?

The flat one, unless you've got glasses on and then it's a 3D movie.

Unless you're seeing a 3D film.

Just don't worry about it.

That's That's going to be confusing.

Yeah, just for now, don't worry.

Some are 3D and you can't hear them.

Some are 3D, they can't hear you, and then some are flat.

Well, if they can hear you, again, those are live actors doing a theater.

When 100% of the flat ones can't hear you?

Yes, Craig.

If it's flat.

So it's 50-50 on the other end.

I would not say 50-50.

I would say it's whether you're in a movie theater or whether you're in a like

a playhouse.

Oh, we have players where you're sitting in a...

A play is like like a movie a what like a boring movie oh no no no no i i'm a connoisseur theater i'm just kidding and all its forms i like a movie play yeah teleplay

i like a

flat play

and the 3d play

you are a connoisseur that's all the kinds i i would just say generally

They don't like you talking.

They don't like you talking in any of these shows.

Yeah, don't, don't, just don't talk at any performance experience and you'll be okay.

All right, well, next time I'll go and I will not talk.

Okay.

To anyone except the little girl.

No.

Okay.

Okay.

So here's what I'll say.

This movie is.

This is an it's an interesting thing to talk about.

Yeah.

This movie has been in development for a while, and there are six credited writers on this movie, which is not a good sign generally.

I mean, it's usually a sign that they got too many cooks or that this thing has been in development for so long that they keep throwing new bodies

at it to try and figure it out.

And so you end up with what this movie feels like, which is very messy and cobbled together, like a script that's been assembled from a bunch of previous drafts.

What I will say is it starts off in a way where I was like, wait, am I going to like this movie?

Because

it has such a rapid opening.

Where I was like, okay, of course they're going to

start this in the real world.

And then it's going to, you know, then we're going to go to the Minecraft reality.

Like, that's just how all of these do.

The Super Mario Brothers movies like that.

Sonic a little bit different.

They come to our reality, but there's always some insistence that...

that we can't just occupy that video game reality.

We have to have the real world have a presence as well.

Yeah, I like to think of the reality that Sonic is in now as our reality.

I like the idea that he's around, possibly, that we can see him.

It's also weird because in Super Mario Bros., the movie, there is no real reason to have Mario, who looks like Mario,

pre-exist outside of the Mushroom Kingdom

where he also looks like Mario.

It's not like, oh,

it's Bob Hoskins, and when he crosses the threshold, he turns into CG Mario.

Yeah.

Like, it's Mario on both sides of the plane.

Yeah, it's the illumination illumination to look all the way through.

The only reason to do that is just, again, they've sort of

the inertia of what Hollywood already does, of that existing formula of them being like, okay, well, we can't just have a thing that takes place in the Mushroom Kingdom, even though that would probably be, you know, maybe just a more efficient movie.

Okay.

That's what the second one will be.

They don't have to do any of the

setup.

I have a great idea for a movie.

I have a great idea for a movie.

Okay.

Oh, no, this has already been done.

God damn it.

This has already been done.

No,

I was going to pitch somebody who comes to our reality and treats it like one of these video game movies where they're like, what is happening?

Like to everything, but that's enchanted, isn't it?

Oh, yeah,

yeah, yeah, yeah.

Or last action hero.

It's last action hero.

It's like the first act of the Kenneth Brad of Thor movie.

Yeah.

Oh, well, whatever.

It's fun.

Yeah, it's fun.

You can do it with a video conversion.

ET is effectively that movie, too.

It's also like E.T., yeah.

If you were an alien, if you were one of the E.T.

aliens watching E.T., you'd be like that.

Yeah.

So,

you know,

the way this movie starts there, but it is like basically like a five-minute montage with narration from Jack Black that just kind of is like a speed run from our reality into the Minecraft reality, into the overworld.

And it's just like, oh, okay.

Hey, we're just here.

Now we're just, we, we skipped all that bullshit.

Yeah.

And then we have that the title card.

We have the main credits.

And then we go back and meet a whole slate of new characters and then spend another 20 to 30 minutes just in the, in the, in our reality, or just something akin to earth reality before we go back into minecraft.

Let me tell you when I thought we were in trouble.

Yeah.

In this montage that opens the movie where he's explaining how he gets into the Minecraft area and what the what the stakes are.

There's this orb that he's like that he finds that sort of creates a portal from his world to the Minecraft world, which I also don't know of a better way to get into the movie, but I did not like that.

Then this evil person gets hold of the orb, and then in the the same montage,

he just steals it back.

And I was like, okay, so like this is just, this didn't, none of this mattered.

You're just telling us that this happened.

It was, but, but when that happened in, and again, we're not in spoiler country because this is the first five minutes of the film.

When that happened, I laughed out loud.

Oh, yes.

Because I was like, oh, is the tone of this movie like.

like making jokes about the structure of these kind of films because he's like so then i had the orb and this lady stole it but i got it back yeah i thought that i thought that played as a joke i like yeah i guess i didn't i didn't hear it as a joke i was just sort of like well it might have been stealing yeah yeah yeah it might not have been it might have been just like hey we're fuck we got a bunch exposition we got this huge lore dump we just got to get out as fast as possible i think i threw my arms up a little bit i was like i was listening to you now you told me it was a it was a lie there's uh the other the other thing i so anyway so then we go back and then we meet a bunch of other characters and then it's just like it kind of gets bogged down and there's just there's just too much going on hold on yeah hold on because you say bogged down for what is arguably the funniest part of the whole thing.

Well, here's the thing I was going to say.

So Jared has, again, the director, Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre.

There are moments where it feels like his sort of aesthetic, his sort of tone, his sensibility gets to creep through.

And one of those is, so there's two kids in the movie.

And

one of the kids goes...

One of them has a job in a potato chip factory.

She looks 11.

Yeah.

She has a job at a potato chip factory, drives a car, and the other of them is at middle school.

And the middle school is, for lack of better terms, a wacky middle school.

And I'm watching this and I'm like, I just want to see the movie about this wacky middle school.

A wacky middle school movie would have been preferable, I think, because it was...

It was not like anything else in the movie.

No, yeah.

Yeah, and this isn't us being like, oh, wow, I really enjoyed this part more than the other parts.

This was, there are like five minutes of just excellent written comedy

suddenly in the middle of the fucking Minecraft movie, like the opening third of the Minecraft movie, like hard laughs.

We have to shout out a moment where not just the three of us, but like a lot of the theater was laughing like audibly, like the hardest, like serious, consistent laughs of this movie, which is Hiram Garcia is the actor as the character Mr.

Gunchy, who's the art teacher slash like coach of one of the teams and has like a lengthy monologue where he just explains his dire financial situation

This is great.

I'd love to see more of this

It's just kind of a one-off the delivery was a master class It was the funniest fucking thing I've ever heard.

It was so funny.

I didn't like I want to do it, but I couldn't do it just also also at that point.

I was like, oh fuck, is the Minecraft movie gonna be like a

massive mega hit?

Yeah.

Because I was like, if this, at this point in the film, even though I know that there's like Minecraft story stuff, like, if this is the tone of this entire film, I will have no problem, one, seeing it again, two, telling people like flat out, you have to fucking see the Minecraft movie.

Unfortunately, it feels like that tone was either vestigial from a different script,

or that that sequence worked so well that they just never changed it because it is not similar to the rest of the film.

I have no idea what the actual internal process of this was.

My, my, again, just completely unfounded speculation is that was a little bit of Jared has getting and his

team getting to be get a little bit of his stuff in there in what could have just been a bit of exposition.

But also, it's like every character in that whole sequence says like two insane things for a person.

There's like two kids like, so they're the main kid, Henry, I believe is the character's name, as i said is like drawings you know like he's he's drawing art and there's two kids who are bullying but the kids who are bullying him are saying like insane like funny stuff like they're bullying in an insane way

and all and they're extremely specific details like the kinds of things that's like And this is like an example of the structure of this kind of joke, not an actual joke from the Minecraft movie.

It's like a bully being like, you're going to wake up and I'm going to have a, I'm going to put a bat in your backpack.

Like, it's just like, it's like very weird, crunchy specifics

that that then that that that are said and acted so well and it's really weird that the rest of the movie doesn't have that tone yeah i guess the only other thing that kind of has that is the jennifer coolidge c story but that also like since that keeps the the way they you know when they cut back to that which is taking place in the real world we need to get into exactly exactly what it is but that's that's like a minecraft character getting in the real world that's interacting with jennifer coolidge who's still in the real world who's the vice principal of the middle school that's the stuff that maybe starts to feel feel like that a little bit.

But, but it's that also is like because that's interrupting the momentum of the main story, it doesn't quite hit.

I wonder if there was a draft of this script where the mind where it wasn't they go into Minecraft, but rather Minecraft comes into our world.

It almost feels like Heather.

I think that's a good theory that at some point, like 17 drafts ago, there was a version of the movie that was that, and they just kept the stuff they liked from it.

There's parts, how, how just insane this town is.

Yeah.

Is are the elements that feel like that kind of a setup.

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I expressed the theory to Heather

that there's no way, I mean, I don't know if this is possible.

I sort of think the original draft and maybe the draft that Jack Black signed on for was animated.

I think it was going to be fully animated.

My only reason for thinking this is that they did not change his look at all, and he just looks how Jack Black looks all the time, which is a great look.

It's a strong look, but it's not what Steve looks like.

And so I think that he's been doing a lot of animated stuff.

His last like four movies, maybe five movies, have all been animated stuff.

he has not really been in a live-action movie in some time even borderlands which was live action and by the way i really did not like borderlands a minecraft uh borderlands makes a minecraft movie look like ratatouille like these are these are on different planets in terms of like i i didn't think i i don't think minecraft movie really works but it's not as unwatchable as borderlands is borderlands is another one where he's it's another video game adaptation where he's just all voice he's voice in in mario there's a couple other ones too where he's just like not on camera he's a voice the most recent come to panda movie had just come out um so i think he signed on maybe under the impression that it was going to be a fully animated movie or that he would be animated and then uh it got too late in the stage uh of the contract where he couldn't like not do it so he's like i'm just not changing my look and then that's what we're stuck with here interesting i i i i don't know um but i i mean i get i guess that's a possibility i just also kind of wonder because jason momo is credited first at what point i'm sure this is something that can be looked up at what point did each of them come on board interesting because they're kind of competing for who's the lead.

We never really center on a whole bunch of people.

MMO is a producer, too.

Yeah.

I think this film is going to be a success.

And obviously, everyone who hears this podcast will know on Monday whether or not it did well, right?

Yes, well, because they listen to this podcast and read the trades at the same time.

No, but I mean, like, every, like, when a FOBO for

when a film is a flop, though, it like hits regular news.

Yeah, I think this is going to be a success.

I think that, that, people, that

I, I, I think there's so much fan service in it for people who like Minecraft that I can't see it failing.

Because, like, if you're like, oh, I want to see my guys, but real.

Yeah.

This is a film where it's your guys but real.

Yeah.

I mean, like, yes, but from a fan service standpoint, like,

I mean, it feels like all the building is front-loaded.

And then we keep going.

And there's like some crafting, but it's just also like, that's what I think of as Minecraft is just building crazy shit.

And And it feels like there could have like that's an element I would have liked to see more of.

Instead, we have kind of some set pieces that don't really seem to be even based around necessarily, you know, they don't necessarily seem to be anchored in Minecraft.

At a certain point, they just have stuff.

Like,

they just like have like weapons and things like that.

Um, I will, I do think this movie probably will be big only because of what I've seen on TikTok.

People have just been memeing like Jack Black-isms to death that are in the movie, like, where he's like chicken jockey and uh you know uh i'm steve and and all and all that and all his little all his little lines that lava chickens going crazy online right now it's going nuts the the one thing i wonder other thing i wanted to remark on is just in terms of of the movie's content so the the like in terms of of capturing the the look of it they kind of went with We're going to have like pigs that are blocky, but they also have like a fleshy texture covered with some fur.

You know, like the villagers obviously have this uncanny valley aspect to them where they like blocky, you know, humanoid features.

And again, just like that, that weird sort of artificial flesh over them.

And I don't know, obviously,

you know, whatever.

It may be will succeed financially either way.

But just purely from like a visual standpoint, I was like, I almost wonder if.

If they just committed to just like, hey, let's just have real actors interact with these sort of blocky,

you know, textureless sort of like in an ag basically stuff that looks like it's inside the Minecraft engine.

Because some of the stuff I just feel like, man, this just looks like almost like Cronenberg.

It's just like upsetting.

I didn't, I didn't really, yeah.

And there were a couple of things too.

Like when they were, there was a part where the mean,

you know, the Eve, the, the, the villain of the movie, Evil Pig Lady, the evil pig lady, whose name I don't remember, um,

it's just gone.

It's

it's like Malouche, it's something like that.

Something like that.

Um, but she like stabs one of the pigs, and it, I I audibly reacted because to me it was disgusting for some reason.

She just like stabbed a pig in the chest and it becomes like a piece of meat.

Yes.

And because it looks a little bit more alive, it's just like, wait, now that seems a lot more violent than it is for the game.

I think it should have been

maybe it's too similar to Jumanji.

I think, I mean, but this doesn't happen in Jumanji.

You know, the kids from the Jumanji, from the newer Jumanji movies, go into the video game Jumanji, and then they're the avatars from the video game, but they're

human people.

They're Jack Black, The Rock, Kevin Hart, and Karen Gillen.

I love those movies.

I think they're great.

But in this, I think it should have been, they somehow get maybe not into the game of Minecraft.

They could keep the portal or whatever, but I think they go into the portal, and they are Minecraft.

They're blocky.

It's a blocky Steve.

We're seeing.

It's a blocky those kids.

It could have even been in the same Cronenberg-y style where where it's like skin style But I think they should have been blocky skin style I think it was a mistake to have them be human and just be aware you know we know how movies are made.

I was just very aware that they showed up to a green room and you know danced around all day.

It's certainly sort of an awkward coexistence, but I also think just you know knowing how Hollywood works they were basically probably like hey we pay for Jason Mumo.

We're gonna see Jason.

I guess yeah.

Anyway,

it's I don't regret seeing it.

Yeah, I think it's just the experience.

It was certainly it was certainly a lot different than I expected going in.

I do think this movie, although it's not for me, is definitely for people.

Right.

And I think those people are really going to connect with it.

It's not a movie for me.

I will say, just to circle back to the time that I think the three of us all laughed the hardest we've ever laughed together.

Certainly more so than anything I've ever said.

That one, just that one line in that one monologue, just an outstanding performance.

We were laughing for well after it, and then it had gone by two scenes.

We were still laughing, talking about it afterwards.

Yeah, but also, it's like it's because you weren't expecting that scene to be in this film, it was like you went to the zoo and heard the best joke that you've ever heard.

Like, it's just a very strange context for that, for that sequence.

Yeah, it's like the sort of thing like you would expect in that movie for it to be like a stern teacher being like, you know, Henry, are you paying attention?

You need to expect something like that, not to be like, Here, here's this weird character actor who's going to come out.

Tell you his life is falling apart.

He's fucking a freak.

Yeah.

It was really, really crazy.

Really loved it.

Let's, hey, Ranch, can we bring up our video game movies tier list?

We did a few weeks back.

When the hell did we do that?

You know what?

We could have done that 18 months ago, and I would be like, I don't fucking know.

It was certainly before.

Or last week.

I have no idea.

It was before the 300th episode.

Okay.

Was it this year?

It was this year.

Okay.

Yes.

And I have to just clarify real quick.

I just, one of the last things I said while discussing the Minecraft movie was, I loved it.

I loved that scene.

I did not love the movie.

In fact, I did not like the movie.

Where does this rank among our, where would we put this on the tier list?

Okay, so now the movie is.

So let's looking at some of these.

So

in the,

for instance, the C tier, we've got the Super Mario Brothers movie, not the animated one, the Illumination one, the OG one with Bob Hoskins and John Leguizam with the live-action one.

We've got

Need for Speed.

It's better than any of those C tier movies.

You think so?

You'd think they'd put that higher than C?

I don't know if I would.

I think I like Super Mario Bros.

movie.

I think I like that one as a weird object more than I like Minecraft.

Oh, man.

I definitely like Uncharted more than I like Minecraft.

I think that there are, there's like three sequences in this film that I actually, legitimately, without irony, enjoyed.

And that is higher than Uncharted, Monster Hunter, Warcraft, Need for Speed.

Like, none of those films have anything in them that I enjoyed.

I mean, Advent Children and Super Mario Brothers, the movie, are separate things, which shouldn't be in C tier.

But

with both of those in C tier still, I think Minecraft is a B movie.

I liked Warcraft more than I liked Minecraft.

Okay,

okay.

If we're talking crafts.

I think

I would argue for this in D tier, although I probably...

Shit.

I mean, like, I don't know.

Isn't it kind of like, it's got a couple things that I like, but it's also so much of it is so boring.

It's so cluttered.

You laughed harder than we've ever laughed as a group.

And you want to put this in D tier?

I did laugh.

I do think.

I want to put that sequence alone in C tier.

I want to take Silent Hill that you all insisted we put in D tier.

I want to put that up in A tier.

So we're going to have different tastes here.

And here's the thing.

To say what we were saying about that one scene, just to belabor this point.

That scene, that sequence, that joke was funny.

I don't think it was the movie's fault.

I think it was like, it was just that was an anomaly.

That performance

could not be contained by the movie.

Because there's also a thing that the villain says at the end that made me laugh.

So fucking funny.

That was funny.

Like,

it's not an isolated joke.

There's like, there's like serious hard jokes through the whole script that are from some writer.

And that, and that, and, and you can't say that there are serious hard jokes.

Like, there's not even serious hard action sequences in Uncharted that compare to the comedy structure,

like authenticity of some of the jokes in Minecraft.

I can't believe I'm arguing this point.

My thing I would say is

it is a reductionist thing that I've said before.

Movies are something you look at and listen to.

I thought that this could have had much more of a Minecraft-esque soundtrack.

I don't think the score for this movie really honors the IP.

And I really don't like the visual look of this movie.

And you spend 90% of it inside the Minecraft reality.

And I'd much rather look at the bizarre, you know, city of lost children

sort of

like

neo-noir slash cyberpunk aesthetic of the Super Mario Bros.

movie or of, you know, or just the action of

Uncharted than it would this movie.

I certainly like Mortal Kombat and then the new Tomb Raider, which we have in B tier.

I would take both of those over at Minecraft.

I don't think I could put this up in B.

No, it it just can't go in B at all.

If you want to argue for it being in C, I will reluctantly agree to that.

But I think this belongs in D.

All right, I put it in C.

I think it goes in C because I think

I think I would rather watch this again than

The Spirits Within or Final or

Silent Hill.

But that Mortal Kombat movie now, the whole now, I feel like this

Putting Minecraft in C has me wanting to recontextualize the entire tier list, which you don't have time for, and we don't have the capability to do so.

But I'm happy with it in C.

Well, okay.

And let's just like,

it doesn't belong lower than D at minimum.

Because if we look down at F, we've got Double Dragon, we've got the Street Fighter movie, we've got Wing Commander, we've got Doom.

These are movies that are unwatchable.

Yes.

These are just like absolutely wretched, like non-movies.

A Minecraft movie has a few things that kind of

work for it.

All right, C tier it is.

I'm shocked, but this is the curve of the of the video game movie tier list.

If this was a movie tier list,

it couldn't touch C with a 20-mile pole.

No.

There's no way.

And a reminder, we have

all Sonic movies are in S tier.

That's right.

And Sonic 3 specifically is in S.

Along with Detective Pikachu, my personal favorite.

Oh, yeah.

Really, really good.

You know what we could do at some point?

We could do another one of these that was not

video game adaptations but movies that had video games as a central element things like we're talking like last starfighter or the wizard or rain over me yeah reign over me

honestly

would you put war games in there perhaps i think war games yeah for sure could be good

yeah oh man all right tron's getting up you know what nick that's a good idea seeing a minecraft movie was worth it to get to that idea that's really good uh we also we rochelle was going to come rochelle was not able to make it you texted rochelle wait what did you say i'll read it verbatim okay and i'll read it as flatly as i texted it here we go ranch the movie was really good and then i replied we got pinks too you just you believe both of these things

i did

also i feel like i have to point this out before we move on to the next thing I bought a t-shirt.

You did buy a t-shirt that you're wearing.

I'm wearing it right now.

It's a Minecraft movie t-shirt, and it looks like complete shit.

If this wasn't made with AI,

then I like that artist should find a new husband.

You bought it

before we saw the film, which was bold.

Well, I bought it because I was like, no matter what, this is going to be really funny to have this.

And then when the movie ended, I wish I hadn't done it.

Well, it doesn't look like...

Okay, so it's from a sequence in the film involving Jason Momoa and Jack Black.

But on the shirt, they are not wearing the outfits they are wearing in that sequence.

No, it's like the scene was described to the artist over the phone, and they didn't have any context for, like, they didn't have any stills or

an animatic or whatever or some footage to see what they were actually wearing because the wardrobe is completely off.

But it's also funny because knowing what the sequence is, it's funny that they were like, now this is the big, this is, we got to put this on a fucking shirt.

It's a moment where,

you know, Momoa is flying and Jack Black is riding him like a mount.

Well, I don't want to spoil it.

They've fucking 69 each other in this movie.

It's played for like a big, like, big laugh.

Yeah.

Less funny than that teacher talking about his financial situation.

I'll say, just on the balance, less funny.

We've also set up that that sequence as the funniest thing that has ever happened.

I think it's it is extremely funny, but it's mostly that it was inside of the Minecraft movie that shocked us and said, like we, we were like,

we were in a virginal state for comedy.

Right.

And so like any joke was going to hit harder, like when you're breathing in pure oxygen on an airplane.

Right.

So like I'm, I wonder if it was as funny as we thought it was or if it was just that we had sat through 20 minutes of Minecraft movie and then suddenly there were really good jokes.

I think that is part of it.

And I think if people were going to watch this movie

anticipating that scene, it probably won't hit us hard.

Yeah, it just kind of hit us out of nowhere.

But I will say, I'd like to see this guy in more stuff because I thought he really brought it.

And he had an interesting look.

I was like, this guy's a good, he's a good actor.

Before we move on, Heather, you got a pizza and I,

from the AMC, I also got there earlier at the Grove, a shopping center here in LA, a lovely Rick Crusoe property.

And

we love Rick.

I got a, I went to the Cheesecake Factory and I got Renee's special, which is on their lunch menu, but it's the same, like some of the, the lunch menu portions are smaller for a smaller price.

So you pay less, you get less.

The Renee's special, you get the same amount of food you would on the normal menu.

It's just discounted.

So you get a salad, a soup, and a half sandwich.

And

I was in heaven by forks.

It was great.

And you said that you didn't get dessert, but what dessert would you have gotten if you were like, let's be bad?

Vanilla bean cheesecake.

Oh, my dog.

Hell yeah.

That's a good one.

Amazing.

Yeah, vanilla i had the uh i had the pizza at the movie theater um it was

without exaggeration the worst pizza i have eaten in my entire life

i opened the box and it had been

it like the cheese i showed it to matt yeah the cheese was black from being burnt yeah And then they had over the top of it taken a parmesan shaker and shaken a huge amount of parmesan to cover up the fact

that that the cheese was black yes um it had the uh ultra processed quality of like a dog cracker

and

yeah

and i was so hungry that i ate the entire thing and every bite i was like I need to stop eating this.

I am miserable.

But that's what I had.

Wow.

Matt, Matt, did you eat anything?

I did.

I ate Wendy's in the car on my way there.

Fucking hell.

Yeah.

And it was really, really good.

What did you get?

Spicy chicken sandwich, of course.

Can't go wrong.

Did you get fries?

I did get fries.

What do you think of the fries right now?

I haven't liked them in previous rounds, but I thought today they were actually pretty good.

Sometimes they're hitting.

They did a refresh of their fries a few years back, and I don't like their fries.

But

I always do chili or baked potato at Wendy's anyway.

I almost never want the, I mean, a baked potato would have been an absolute debacle as I was driving the car.

but oftentimes I kind of don't even want the fries, I kind of just want the chicken sandwich, you know?

Yeah, uh, but then I don't think to, I'm like, I'm gonna get a drink, I might as well just get the convo, you know, it's like a whole, it's a whole thing.

Wait, that reminds me of something else that happened during the movie.

So Jennifer Coolidge's thing, like the, the kind of, you know,

she goes to, so she goes, like, there's a, a villager gets out of the, goes through the portal, comes to the real world.

She like, like, is like, ooh, a new man or whatever, takes him out to a restaurant.

I guess she's horny or whatever.

Like, I don't know what exactly is going on.

I mean, she's recently divorced.

She's recently divorced.

So the idea is that she's like, oh, there's a, there's a, I can, I'm going to date this guy.

She takes him out to a restaurant.

And during the restaurant scene, the waiter is bringing over like a plate of food and offering it to Jennifer Coolidge's character.

And she says, oh, no, thank you.

And Matt, you go, that's not how restaurants work.

I think I first said, What?

Which got Heather.

And then I said, Yeah, that's not how restaurants work, which got you.

But it was a joke.

Like, it wasn't, it wasn't like some strategy.

It was a choice made as a joke, was that they brought up food, and she went, No, thank you.

I guess for me, what I was experiencing was what you experienced with us all the time, which is like, I didn't understand why they were joking this way.

Well, I think, again, just in the like it because the movie kind of just feels anarchic, you can't quite get your bearings

so those moments of like absurdism that kind of like are are meant to be presented to comedy sometimes they they they hit and sometimes they don't i will say i you know even in this movie i'm always thankful for jennifer coolidge always just happy to see her i want what i want is a movie written by whoever wrote the whole school sequence yeah um directed by this director that is just a standard 80s at kids adventure, but with all of that tone.

Yeah.

Like that would be an awesome film.

I mean, gosh, because I'm just thinking about, I'm thinking about seeing Napoleon Dynamite in the movie theaters.

I'm not aware of like directors or writers, really.

I'm just like, I gotta go see this movie.

Everyone's talking about it.

For a long time, that was like the hardest I've ever laughed and the most laughter I've ever heard in my life.

Yeah.

There's like people going crazy watching this movie because they've never seen anything like it before.

And I sort of do think that like whatever that, whatever that was in this movie, that's just maybe the jared hess touch and like he could just do that yeah like that like that i feel like that character could have easily been in the napoleon dynamite that yeah

he understands whatever that unique tone is yep uh and they maybe the studio was like okay look we got you on this That little tone you do, we can't do that because like we don't do that.

This is a

huge, this is gonna be a huge movie.

I'm sure this was an impossible movie to make with all the the hands that were involved with, you know, how much meddling there must have been from Top Brass.

But yeah, but I mean, Napoleon Dynamite, where that comes from is like them making an independent movie that is without all of those interference, without all that studio interference and without those guardrails, where it's just like, hey, these are creative people getting to make their own vision.

And yeah,

it's a bummer to.

kind of see that get smothered by the studio system, but it's nice that some of that got to emerge, at least in this all right shall we talk about the nintendo switch 2 let's do it wild because that's supposed to be the topic of this episode i knew it was going to be hard to contain all of our thoughts about the minecraft yeah a minecraft movie a baffling title to me because hope but they're hoping they're going to do another one yeah a minecraft well there is a post credits tease yeah a minecraft movie and a working man are in cineplexes at the same time how about that articles are back they really are they really are uh nintendo switch 2 which i i'm still amazed they didn't seem to to mess it up because Nintendo tends to

just go in wild directions with their next generation.

But they're just like, we're just going to do a better version of the Switch and we're just even going to call it the Switch 2.

It's very uncharacteristic of this company historically.

Yeah,

typically it's like you get the Wii gangbusters, then you go Wii U, not so great.

Then you go

Switch, gangbusters.

Then you would probably get something like the

play cactus.

Right.

And you'd be like, what the fuck is the play cactus?

Oh, it's Nintendo's new

thing.

Yeah, it's shaped like a cactus, yeah, and you play it by twisting it.

Yeah, like, what?

Okay, but it has the best Zelda ever, so you're like, I guess I'm buying this fucking thing, which is also playing one game on it.

Game Boy, great, Virtual Boy, colossal failure.

Yeah, well, yeah, Nintendo DS, great, right?

Yeah, and well, that's even like like Game Boy, Game Boy Advance goes even to Nintendo DS, Nintendo DS obviously ends up being a wild success, like I think the best selling portable hardware ever still.

But like, even going from the, but that, that even was a weird decision.

It was like, they got two screens, they got a stylus with touch screens.

Like, what exactly is going on here?

They could have just made a more powerful Game Boy Advance.

Then they go to the 3DS, which is an even other thing of just like the core gimmick of the 3DS, the 3D.

uh you know projection without glasses actually worked surprisingly well but it was never really like ape selling point for the system the system succeeded despite that anyway they didn't do that with this they made the switch 2.

They're making just a more powerful, slicker Switch.

And

as mentioned earlier,

it costs $449 in the U.S.

It launches on June 5th, 2025 worldwide.

And pre-orders are on April 9th.

Which means, Heather, you have won our bet.

Which means, which means,

which means.

So to recap for anyone who hasn't heard this before, we did a bet on when the Switch was going to launch.

Heather came closest, and the prize for getting the Switch 2 date correct was you get to pick a game that we're all going to play.

Fucking shit, guys.

And Heather selected, Oh my God,

we are going to be covering Mother 3.

Yeah, that's right.

We're going to do a wee play, you play of Mother 3 later this year.

Fucking shit.

Still only available in a fan translation.

Never localized my intent.

Sure, never localized by translation.

It is readily available online.

You can also purchase cartridges with the fan translation

pre-loaded into them, which is what I got you guys as a gift.

That's right.

Mother 3 is an extraordinary game.

I think,

here's why I'm excited for you guys to play it.

I think

from everything I've learned of what you guys like in the last however five, six years,

I think that this is going to be a treasure for you.

I'm certain I'm going to love this game and I like being compelled to finally play it.

So I'm very excited.

Do we want to set what month that is so that, because it is, you know, it's an RPG.

Yeah.

We'll figure that out.

we'll offline figure that but but i mean july

yeah right when there's like switch stuff to be done yeah yeah right the same month uh death stranding 2 comes out

just and yells at us again why aren't they talking about it

so uh speed of games for the switch 2 uh mario kart world was the headline will be a launch title it will have an open world approach where you drive between courses and there's a dedicated nintendo direct on that game specifically coming in mid-april but Mario Kart World, I mean, what do you think of this bad boy?

It's Forza Mario.

It's just Forza Mario.

Yeah.

You can fucking grind on rails and like do little jumps on walls and stuff.

It looks tight as hell.

It does.

It like it.

Look, I'm not the biggest Mario Kart guy.

I buy every single Mario Kart.

And I just because

I do like the games.

It's not a genre that I'm necessarily crazy about.

It's a thing I enjoyed more when I was younger.

I don't really play them as much anymore.

But it looks like a really interesting evolution for the franchise.

And

I don't know.

I mean, it's just kind of crazy that we're getting

such a consequential game for the next generation like right away.

This is like, I believe Mario Kart 8 was Nintendo's best-selling game on the Switch.

I could be wrong, but I think that they sold the most units on the Switch.

So they're just like, we're not fucking around here.

And I feel like that's kind of my overall

takeaway of this is like, it feels like they're not fucking around and they're just sort of like kind of going for it in terms of taking this generation.

Am I insane?

Or did Mario Kart 8 come out for the Wii U?

It did.

It did come out for the Wii U and then the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the one that we have for the Switch.

But it's still like, it's a huge, huge game.

So I think that what it represents is that at some point they were like, okay, we've got an incredible Mario Kart game here that nobody played because it was on the Wii U.

So we'll re-release it for the Switch.

At the same time, they're doing their internal development of the next Mario Kart game.

And I think they were just like, let's just hold it for launch.

Oh, that makes sense.

Yeah.

Because there's, because there wasn't a proper Mario Kart game for the Switch that was a brand new experience.

They had like expansions with more tracks and stuff, but they never really

added

like, you know,

new features to the game, just like more characters and more and more tracks.

The hypest thing,

according to the social media that I've read over the last couple of days, in Mario Kart World is cow.

cow.

The cow is really good.

Everybody wants to be the cow.

You can be the cow.

You can be the Mario Kow.

I like that you can be the cow.

I like that you can be the cow too.

I'm indifferent to cow.

I like it.

I think the cow is good.

Ranch, how do you feel about the cow?

What?

The thing about Mario Kart World that I know a lot of people are

stuck in their craw, and I think for good reason, is that it costs $80.

$80.

$80 for Mario Kart.

Isn't it $70 for digital?

$80 for physical?

You know, I actually don't know.

I know that they are talking about doing, sort of like experimenting with different prices digitally and physically.

But in the bundle, the launch bundle that comes with Mario Kart is $500, making the game $50.

I am old enough to remember

that when Chrono Trigger came out for the Super NES,

it was

$69.

So $70

in the 1990s.

I know that people have argued that the difference between something costing $70 in the 90s, which adjusted for inflation is like, you know, almost $200 fucking dollars, and $70 in the year 2025 is that wages stayed stagnant and everything else got more expensive.

So it's not that a $70 Mario Kart game is insane, especially given that we can can remember in the last 30 years games costing that much.

It's that eggs cost

$17.

Yes.

So it's hard to be like, oh, God, I have to absorb an additional $10 of expense or $20 of expense just to play a video game.

That is brutal for people.

It is.

And I saw a lot of comments to that effect of people being like, you know what?

I might skip this generation entirely.

Like they were like,

they feel like they're being

price gouged out of their fandom kind of.

I've looked through a few sources and it seems like the $80 is the price for digital and it will be a premium on top of that for physical.

Holy shit.

One thing I do suspect because of the existence of the bundle is they're just trying to get people to buy the $500 bundle.

Yes.

By having like there be a substantial discount for buying it together.

Yes.

But yes, it's $500 for...

uh the a bundle of the the console plus mario kart versus 449 you know plus the separate $80 for them separately.

I know this is this is not a news podcast.

I know we are not games journalists,

but I do think it's important to point out right now that there is a Japanese-only version of the Switch 2, which is being released, which will not

service any other languages.

Every menu

across the board, it has to be in Japanese.

Region locked is back.

It is a region-locked.

You can still, I think, use the games from any region in the

only switch but they will be locked to japanese language and japan japanese menus that version of the switch is 100 cheaper yeah so the question is is this price reflective of a certain political moment that's happening and trying to price in uh you know international trade wars and for local gamers in Japan, it's like, well, we don't have to import the fucking Switch.

So

we'll just, we'll just have it be the actual price.

Because

it's a huge price difference.

They're going to bring it down once the tariffs hit.

So

the other thing is that the Joy-Con 2,

the Joy-Con 2 has a C button, and people are like, what the hell is a C button?

The C button opens game chat, which does require a Nintendo online membership, a paid membership.

There will be like a trial period, but whatever.

You have to pay for online chat.

And there also is the Switch 2 camera, which is basically like a way where you can like effectively FaceTime while you're playing games, which my understanding is, Heather, I don't know that you do this with any of your groups that you play with, but my understanding is that younger people, a lot of them will just have FaceTime open while they're gaming.

Like in little Discord or whatever.

They're just playing with fucking FaceTime.

I, all of my gaming is done over,

or group gaming is done over PS5, and it's just audio chat.

Like we aren't fucking staring at each other because, you know, the game we're playing is too intense to look at anything else.

I thought this was was weird that one it takes up a certain amount of visual real estate like the game chat mode right you can shrink it or expand it but the fact that like opening up game chat while playing mario kart puts colored squares at the bottom of your screen with little blinking sort of uh uh star fox icons of your friends i was like i don't need to see

That like that's strange.

I also don't need to see like someone's dick and balls Which maybe they'll have some sort of like algorithmic filter to keep you from seeing that.

But I remember like the days of Uno on Xbox One,

on Xbox Live Arcade, when someone will just like show their fucking hog.

Or like, what was the PlayStation one where they like day one of it?

Like I was like railing his wife on

the most depraved shit is going to happen immediately.

With the eye toy or area.

But like the, like,

I feel like people aren't going to do that.

I hope.

I for sure they are.

They They 100% are.

The question is: will they have any, because Nintendo is usually so locked down from the parental control standpoint?

Yeah.

Like, are they going to have some sort of way of

automatically nipping that in the butt?

Or maybe you'll only be able to do that with your friends, like in your friends list.

Right.

Not just like, yeah, you open it up to random strangers, you're going to see somebody's asshole.

Like, you're just going to.

Yes.

But if you do it with your friends, you'll maybe just see your friends' asshole.

I do do bet you're right, Matt.

I bet it's that you can't have camera chat unless you're friends,

which is going to create an entirely new form of grifting, yeah, where you are befriending somebody over a course of weeks.

Yeah, because I also bet there's a time limit because it's going to be like, oh, I just played Mario Kart World with this guy.

I'll add him as a friend.

I bet you have to be friends with that person for several weeks and have a certain hourage

of playtime before you're allowed to turn on the camera.

And I bet the the first thing that somebody does is show you the day.

So the switch shoot camera is $50, I believe, is the retail price they give us in the U.S.

It's interesting and there are some games that integrate with it.

We'll see how much those become a thing or if they're just novelties.

My big thing is I just wonder if this is going to be, because there's a little bit of a point of friction because it doesn't come bundled with the console, are people not going to go to the trouble of buying this and then just still FaceTime with their phones?

I think probably, right?

Yeah, I mean, there's like things, I mean, it's probably just seems easier to just do that.

Like, or even just like open Discord, you know, chat with your friends there.

I don't know if there needs to be, you know,

a proprietary camera.

That being said, the Hoary Piranha Plant camera certainly feels like a good Piranha plant.

Oh, it's just that.

That looks rad.

I'm buying it the second it's available.

I'm going all in on stupid bullshit for

the Switch 2.

Wait, can you just describe it?

Because I'm not sure if all of our listeners saw that.

All right.

So the Nintendo Switch camera looks like a webcam.

Like, it's just like a ball on top of a pole with a plate at the bottom.

And you just have it on your tabletop.

There is a Hori licensed Piranha Plant camera, which is the Piranha Plant from Mario Bros.

with the camera inside of its mouth.

And then for privacy, the mouth will close to hide the camera.

Yeah.

That's pretty good.

Fucking let's go.

I think it's a really slick designer.

Did you, did you hear or were

I didn't hear this in the Nintendo Direct directly, how they are handling the

bots

and reserving a system?

So yeah, I did, because I reserved.

So what you can do is you can go on like your My Nintendo or whatever,

and

you can register your interest in ordering one of the Switch bundles.

Yes, I wrote down the

copy because I did this myself.

Now, hold up.

What the fuck?

I, quote, signed in with my Nintendo account and registered my interest in purchasing a Nintendo Switch 2 system and select accessories from the official My Nintendo store.

Yes.

And then you get a thing that says, we'll be in touch with an invitation email once it's your turn to.

Is it Nintendo Switch Online?

How do I do this?

Why didn't I fucking know about this?

It's via Nintendo Online.

I'm not sure.

I imagine it'll be randomized.

I don't think it's going to be first, come, first shit.

I thought it was based on the number of hours you've played your Switch.

So yeah, it's based part of it in terms of eligibility.

Yeah, for eligibility, you need to have had Nintendo Switch online for over a year.

You need to have had at least 50 logged hours of game time.

Over the course of what?

How long?

Yeah, up until

the day of the

direct on the second.

But is that on, like, is that using online or is that just any sort of gaming on your?

I don't know.

It told me, like, you know, like when you do the,

it'll tell you, like, at the end of the year, your game time.

Look, I'm blasting past 50 hours.

I just, I I just wonder, because I've used my Switch much less in recent years.

There have been a lot fewer games.

And then, so I don't know if it's like over the lifespan of my console.

Fine.

If it's over, if it's 50 hours of Nintendo Switch online within the past year or something like that, then who knows?

Either way, let me fucking do it.

So I assume I'm okay.

Yeah, but you're also, that's not the only way you're going to be able to get one.

Like, that's like if you want to buy one directly from Nintendo.

The pre-orders for

all major retailers are

the the ninth this week as of release.

Right.

So you'll be able to get it from any of the stores that you prefer to.

If you can beat the scalpers and

I just registered as we're recording.

I'm never going to get this system.

No, you're going to be fine because I bet it'll be randomized.

And also, you'll just get it from Best Buy or something.

Sure.

Yeah.

Wait.

I mean, we talked about when it happened.

It's years ago at this point.

I don't know if all our listeners, maybe sorry, newer listeners, don't realize Heather Ann Campbell got me a PlayStation 5.

That's right.

While they were scarce, you tracked one down.

And I mean, I paid you for it, but like, you, like, you found one for me.

Yeah.

You did that for a few people, I think.

Such an ingredient.

Such a gracious thing to do.

I don't remember this.

I think you did it for at least one other person.

Okay, great.

Okay, cool.

Well, was that you?

No, it wasn't me.

I got mine on my own.

You just blew it on his finger guns.

That's what that sound was.

Blowing on finger guns.

Maybe you saw the clip.

No, no, no.

Come on.

The clip happened already.

Come on.

The clip's long in the past at this point.

The thing that I want to talk about with the Switch 2 are the magnets.

Okay.

Okay.

I want to talk about the mouse.

So why don't you go first?

I know that we sort of talked about the magnets when we heard about the magnets.

I like the magnets.

They showed how strong it is.

It's a tough tough magnet, it looks like.

I watched a video of them

at some press event trying to get the thing out.

You got to really kind of work to get that thing off the magnet.

I like the magnets.

My only concern is: I'm looking at it and I'm like, how the fuck do these work?

Nick,

you know I love it.

You know I love it.

We have done this.

Except, I did it last time.

Yeah, you explained what it was

to me because I didn't even know what it was.

Yeah.

And that didn't make it funny this time.

I enjoyed it both times, especially when I said it.

Yeah,

it was better when you said it.

I liked it more too because I got to experience it.

It wasn't one of my toxic thoughts that I had to get out, expel.

So the Joy-Con, the Joy-Con 2s, which we can talk about in general,

they don't snap on anymore, which is always a little cumbersome.

And if you like, God forbid you

try to put it in the wrong way or whatever, the fuck, you know, it'll all get messed up.

So it attaches with magnets now.

I hope they are secure.

I imagine they figured that out from an engineering standpoint.

I always worry about something that isn't actually physically anchored in place.

I worry about that over time.

It is kind of, I don't know, it seems pretty sleek.

Seems pretty cool.

I like, I mean, I know it's not that different looking.

I like the look of the Switch 2.

I like, it looks a little sleeker to me.

It's all black.

It looks a little more round somehow.

Yeah.

They closed this little weird gap at the top.

Yes.

There's this Joy-Con gap in the current one that there's a tiny, tiny little gap

at the attach point.

That's not there with this because it's magnets now.

You like the mouse mode.

I like the mouse mode.

Here's why.

I really liked Mario Paint back in the day.

Yeah, of course.

And I am hoping for a Mario Paint redo now that you have a mouse bundled with your system too.

My biggest point of friction between picking up mouse aiming as a first-person shooter or a third-person shooter gamer is that I don't like keyboard play on my left hand.

What I want is a joystick in my left hand, mouse control in my right hand.

And I think they've already showed that as an option for the style of play.

And I was like, that's a fucking, that's huge for me.

So you got one Joy-Con that you're holding as a, as a, you know, a Joy-Con, the other one you're rubbing on a surface.

Yeah.

I mean, I, I, like, I learned to play first-person shooters, you know, on, on PC.

So like, I'm, I'm, even though I'm not, I'm not good at them, but I'm like, I, I know the, you know, KBM control.

Like I, I understand, but it, like, it takes some time for it to get in your bones if you're not used to it.

I had the opposite problem, which for the longest time, I could not play, uh, I could not play FPS with controllers.

It just felt so weird.

Yeah.

Now I, now I just sort of manage.

The thing I wanted to say is bigger analog sticks.

Yes.

Hopefully sturdier, and hopefully they fixed any of that drift.

Because as the, I'd like, I feel like everyone experienced analog stick strict drift at some point on their Switch one.

I don't like, you know, I know that we liked, I just said that I liked the all-black look.

I hope we get some fun colors for the joy.

We're all 100% going to get fun colors.

We're 100% going to get a hardware refresh because it's an L C D screen,

which I was hoping for OLED, but of course they're going to make you buy an L C D and then later an OLED.

Yeah, and they're definitely going to release after the OLED a Zelda OLED that you'll want more than the original OLED.

Yeah.

But the screen is bigger.

It's a girthy 7.9 inches up from the 6.2 inches on the base switch.

So it is a it's a big boy.

And it is a 1080p, 120 hertz screen, which was, you know, it was like a 720p, and I think, was it 60 hertz?

I don't, I have no idea what the, what the next refresh rate was on the original display.

This was one of the more shocking parts of the direct to me.

Yeah.

To hear Nintendo saying words like Hertz and like refresh rate and things like that.

Because that's stuff.

That's okay.

Yeah, that's stuff that they don't say.

I think they were.

Again, I think this, they're not fucking around.

I think they're going for enthusiast gamers.

I think they're trying to be like, hey, you who like either has a PlayStation 5 or is still waffling on whether you want to get a PlayStation 5 or an Xbox Series X, you know, like, or a Steam Deck, we've actually got like a proper piece of hardware now that's going to be able to play all of these, you know,

all these games that are available on other platforms, which, you know, we'll get into and all of their third-party stuff.

But.

Yeah, I mean, and it also is a better stand, which I'll say.

It ain't nothing.

Sometimes use the stand.

The stand looks cool because, and I like the stand because I take it to the park when my friends are playing basketball And then I play Switch with some other friends while my other friends are playing basketball.

Or I'll go to like a rooftop party or something.

Yeah.

And I'll bust it out there and people are like sort of conversing at the rooftop party.

But then I'm using the stand on my Switch.

This was from the commercials.

Everybody did this.

From the original Switch.

Everybody did this stuff.

Yeah, no, I've done this all the time.

Yeah, I'm going to bend mine all the way down.

Sick f ⁇ ing.

I'm going to take that stand.

And I'm going to take it right from where it's resting flat against the back of the Switch, and I'm going to bend it all the way down.

I do kind of like,

there are circumstances where I will use the stand.

And so I like having a sturdier stand.

Well, you play a lot of your games like Ethan Hunt dangling down from the ceiling, right?

Ethan Hunt from the Mission Impossible movies, children.

Can I say something that shocked me about the direct?

Yeah.

Yeah.

And this is a take.

Oh.

I realized that somehow over the last few years, I've gone from loving Nintendo characters and like being an enthusiast for Nintendo first-party characters to being an enthusiast for Sony first-party characters.

Wow.

And the thing that

made me realize that was watching this direct and being like, I wish it was Astrobot.

I wish it was Astrobot going through these worlds and all of the worlds were Sony worlds, but it was still a fucking handheld.

Yeah.

And I was like,

I was like,

I would audibly gasp to myself if I was that kind of person having that realization.

Yeah.

Hold on.

Are you saying that you'd prefer Astro's Playroom to the Nintendo Switch 2 equivalent Nintendo Switch 2 welcome tour?

That costs $10?

Yeah, that's not free.

Yeah,

I would prefer it.

But also, Sony has done such great brand management over the last five specific five years, I think, where they have started to like encourage an emotional connection with their IP in a way that they hadn't done before.

Like Crash Bandicoot's on the fucking screen, but they're not saying he's your friend.

Yeah.

You know, like they've done that so much in the last five years that I was like, oh, but Kratos is my guy.

The Last of Us people are my guys.

Fucking Astro's my guy.

Like I was, I was kind of shocked.

Astro's, Astro's a guy as we talked about Astro's like kind of their guy now a lot of this I think that this nostalgia is yeah it's just it's just that enough time has passed since the PlayStation 1 PlayStation 2 heyday but I think also

the Astro franchise specifically Astro's playroom and Astrobot has so much nostalgia in it that does make you be again you know we talked about we did our our Astro bot episode of just being like I'm just seeing Spyro the Dragon.

I'm like, oh, I didn't realize how much I love Spyro the Dragon.

Yeah, I think it was an incredible piece of marketing and a great game.

And I was like, I feel more about Astro's guys, like not just Astro, the character, but all the guys he showed me again.

Yeah.

Than I did seeing Yoshi Mario Luigi again.

Yeah, well, I wouldn't go that far for me, but

I love that for you.

Yeah, I think, I mean,

you know, it was...

It was a patch direct.

It was an hour long.

There's a lot of information in there.

A lot of third parties.

I mean, I feel like almost the focus was

sort of wider third-party support than previous iterations because the hardware couldn't previously handle it so like it was light on uh like proprietary characters like i was expecting like you know a a 3d mario like yeah a new because it's been eight years since odyssey uh i do think it's a little soon for a new take on zelda which is why they probably did the um the enhanced versions of breath of the wild and tears of the kingdom yeah I'm watching this thing, and the thing I wrote in my notes is: Am I going to double dip on both these fucking games?

The answer is yes.

Are you going to rebuy Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom?

I mean, I'll buy the upgrades

just to see what's going on.

Which I would not be shocked if they cost like $30.

Yeah, I mean, $40 even.

Like, I would not be surprised if the Galja sold out these upgrades.

I guess I'd be less inclined to do it if there was that much, only because on PlayStation, the upgrade path for

PlayStation 4 games is pretty typically $10.

Like, if you own The Last of Us 2 or Death Stranding or any of this other stuff, you know,

Horizon,

it's a PS4 version, even if you own the disc, the upgrade is $10.

And then you just have to download the whole game and then it runs off.

The disc is a key, basically.

Right.

But I mean, like, has Nintendo had, I don't, if maybe this, maybe this has happened.

I don't know if they've had to upgrade paths, you know, from a Wii to a Wii U version or a Wii U to a Switch version in the past.

I just think they have a tendency with their first-party stuff to put a premium on it.

So I wouldn't be surprised if it's, again, in the wake of a Mario Kart World costing $80, I wouldn't be surprised if these were more expensive upgrades.

And I'm not some saint where we're used to.

I'm weak-willed.

I will also do it.

Do you know what the most exciting part of

this direct was for me?

And it wasn't.

From soft.

Yes.

Which we should talk about.

Yeah, we'll talk about.

It was that I can finally fucking play Wind Waker again.

Yeah.

So

here's what I was going to ask.

So the GameCube is coming to Nintendo Switch Online.

And I'm like, hey, how pretty exciting.

And then they have this fucking dedicated GameCube controller with a C button that I'm absolutely for 100% going to get.

I'm buying that.

The games they announced, they featured, and I imagine there will be more at launch, are Zelda Wind Waker, of course, you know, absolute beloved classic at this point, although a bit, a bit polarizing at its release, Soul Calibur 2 and FG Row GX.

Wind Waker HD, that is only on Wii U, right?

Yes.

That's bound to Wii U.

So are we only going to get the fucking GameCube version of Wind Waker?

Probably.

I sort of think for now, yes.

And that's stupid and fucked up.

Because it was also 4-3.

Yeah.

And I think Wind Waker HD is widescreen.

The only thing that I think that maybe we could eventually get the HD one is that

there is a Mario Sunshine release for the Nintendo Switch.

There was a time where you could get it in that bundle.

Yep.

And that is coming to GameCube

via Nintendo Switch Online later on.

So there's precedent for them having the Nintendo Switch online version and then also the newer version of it or whatever.

Do you want another take?

Yeah, please.

Here's another take.

The reason they're not doing Wind Waker HD release is because it was ugly as fuck.

Like they fucked up the cell shading and they fucked up the hard lines on the cell shading.

And

I think that it is not as good looking as the original GameCube release of Wind Waker.

And I bet they are either toggling it or totally redoing it.

They did say there were some, some of the GameCube games were available in a higher resolution.

So who knows exactly what that means.

But yeah, maybe it will be, maybe this will actually be the best version of Wind Waker.

I'm excited for Soul Calibur too, one of the top games of all time.

Yep.

Here's what I would say.

Here's what I would say.

I think Soul Calibur still was ranked higher.

Was Soul Calibur higher?

Yeah, the first one.

If we're talking games we're excited about and we're sticking first party, Donkey Kong Bonanza.

I mean, come on.

Bonanza.

We have a full-fledged 3D platformer with Donkey Kong running around when pants and suspenders and like a geode cappy just like busting shit up.

It looks fun.

Bonanza is really, really good.

Bonanza is a wonderful portmanteau.

I love it and it also uh it made me realize that what i want to be able to do in a mario game is punch yeah punch because i was like oh

you just like punch through stuff yes that's going to be more exciting for me the full sale environmental destruction looks really fun uh there there haven't been a ton of games that have like that much you know i like i i who knows how extensive it's going to be actually be from what i've read from people who have had hands-on impressions there you actually can bust up a ton of the world there was a but there is a lot of just like like busting through shit which evokes a game that i've heard other people uh my buddy van robicho was comparing this to to the incredible hulk ultimate destruction yes still one of the best like in terms of being a pure power fantasy superhero games where you can just run around bust shit up as hulk really really cool game um

the one of the first party games that they announced toward the end

not to get too far ahead i'm not necessarily going in any order yeah um

i know that there's a lot of affection for curvy air riders i am not i'm not an enemy.

Stand down.

Okay.

Stand down now.

And stand by.

Stand by and stand down.

And roll over.

You fucking dogs.

Here's the thing that I think is crazy.

That is a racing game.

They started the presentation with a family-friendly mascot racing game.

They ended the presentation with a family-friendly mascot racing game, but it's directed by the Masahiro Sakurai.

So that

has me interested.

That's sort of like, okay, well, wait, what's going on here?

This could be, this could be good.

I don't previous, it's also been 20 years since Kirby Airride, and I know that there's a lot of affection for it.

Stand down.

I'm just like, this was an interesting one to hear about.

Kirby Airride being 20 years old, just made me type in my notes.

Jesus Christ.

I don't have, I don't like, you know, I didn't have like a strong connection to that game.

Yeah.

But obviously, you know, who knows?

Maybe Sakurai reinvents it.

And here's the thing.

I love, I love Kirby.

I love Kirby.

I love Kirby.

I'm getting that expansion for Forgotten World.

That's the thing.

The new Forgotten World content

is pretty great.

And that was unexpected.

And I'm excited to see how that one looks

in 4K.

Because, I mean, like,

there's so much stuff that was announced.

So many of these were third-party games that are going to be multi-platform.

I guess we should touch on things like Metroid Prime 4 Beyond, which will be a cross-generational title that will be on Switch and also Switch 2.

You can use mouse controls on Switch 2.

This was a thing you were talking about earlier, Heather.

I really wonder how that will feel.

Maybe it'll be great.

I don't know.

Yeah.

I want to, somebody's got to solve the problem of me sitting on my couch wanting to use mouse controls.

Yeah.

Because I

like, if I'm, I want to play on the big screen, I don't want to sit at a table, but I somehow need to be able to move the mouse.

Yeah, you don't want to, and you don't want a big lap board necessarily.

Yeah, that's weird.

That might also not be ergonomic.

Yeah, I don't know.

I'm planning on just going like this.

On my coffee table, just leaning forward really well.

He's leaning forward and awkward.

He's hurting my back.

It hurt now to do it.

I like the move to do silent space work on a podcast.

And that's not the clip.

It can't be the clip.

So, this is one of those games where they announced that it will offer both a 4K 60 FPS mode and a 1080p 120 FPS mode.

I'm going to say, I have 120 hertz monitor.

This is maybe just old eyes.

There's a point in my life where I just sort of reached.

I was like, I think 60 FPS is enough for me.

So you're saying 120 hertz?

No, I'm not.

H-U-R-T-S.

I'm so happy you finally got him.

Matt.

You finally fucking got him.

I'm not saying that.

Finally.

I'm not saying that.

It sounds like that's what you're saying.

No, I'm not saying that.

Give me.

I'm shaking on that.

Don't shake on that.

You didn't get me.

Because he fucking got me.

You didn't get me.

I saw his pain was my pain.

Yeah.

But it was in his face.

Can I be honest?

It hurt to do it.

I didn't want to hurt my friend this way.

It didn't.

Like, I don't think 120 hurts to address

your theory.

I, because it's more so that, like, once we pass the 60 FPS threshold, I'm not necessarily seeing.

And again, you know, I'm not complying competitive multiplayer FPS.

So like whatever, but I'm also like a fucking old man and I feel like once we hit 60 FPS, it's smooth enough for me.

Yes.

But I don't know.

I mean, we'll see.

Maybe I'll notice a difference.

In competitive gaming, I play at 120 and I fucking love it.

So this, I'm really excited about this.

Yeah, I'm never really paying attention to that.

And like oftentimes, even on games that offer like quality or performance mode, I'll toggle between them to see which one I like.

And sometimes I don't know.

Like, I don't, I just don't know.

I think that that, so quality versus performance mode for me comes down to whether or not it's an environmental game or an action game.

Okay, like I'll do performance mode if it's an action game, but if it's like fucking Star Wars Outlaws or something where I'm just like looking at shit, then it's quality mode.

Okay, yeah.

I played Allen Wake 2 on PC this year, and I just cranked everything the fuck up.

And my frame rate was great, but it was a sort of thing of just like, again, it was just like the atmosphere and the environment was so engaging that I kind of almost just like, yeah, that's what I was prioritizing is just like overall visual fidelity as opposed to everything being as smooth as possible.

I do think that my eyes are not as good as they used to be.

So sometimes when I'm toggling in between the two modes, I'm like, I don't know, I don't know.

Yeah, it's getting old.

It fucking sucks.

It's coming for us all.

Yeah.

Speaking of something that's coming for us all, Pokemon Legends ZA, is that what it's called?

Yes.

We're also going to have a Switch 2 edition.

Matt, how are you feeling about this?

It's interesting because on the one hand, I'm excited about the prospect of a Pokemon game that looks good.

Right.

On the other hand, I know that a higher frame rate doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to have good textures or backgrounds or anything like that.

So it's been a run of disappointing Pokemon games.

Yes.

Wait, is there,

I'm sorry,

like you, you're, you're, you're basically our Pokemon guy.

I only peripherally follow the franchise.

Again, old man here.

The

there isn't a version of Pokemon Legends ZA out yet, right?

That's a future.

That's an upcoming game.

This is an upcoming game.

And so, and like the big thing with, I, my note from a Pokemon enthusiast is

like the gameplays felt a little bit stagnant or...

Yes, this one is going more in the direction of Pokemon Legends Arceus, which is a game that I really liked.

Yeah, you loved Arceus.

But I don't think looks that good.

Right.

It has like sort of like, it to me kind of looked like Breath of the Wild, but also like Breath of the Wild doesn't look that good on the base switch in handheld either right like it has more of art direction and like it sort of has a a cozier vibe but uh it had that sort of look to me um with this one it's sort of going in that zone a little bit more but in a modern setting and it's um i think in place of like a two

you know a two color version where it's like with the last one being scarlet and violet which is getting a free

graphical update for switch two which i think is cool we should address that for a second though too um but with this one i'm excited about it because yeah it's gonna it's more of what i liked in the legends arceus game just a little uh more polished and it's cool that it's gonna be on switch and switch 2 which i think is you know they say about this about current about the current gen the you know the xbox series s holding back what the xbox series x games can do right because like they have to sort of develop for both and it has to play on both yeah and i mean if and for it's it it seems to kind of be progressing for that, but like at least for the first couple years basically of the PlayStation 5, basically every single PlayStation 5 game was coming out on PlayStation 4.

Yes.

And so with this, with the dual release, I'm happy that it's going to be

available for everybody that's going to want to play it and maybe won't be making the upgrade.

But

I'm not confident that it's going to be the most gorgeous Pokemon game ever.

It might be by default, but

it's not going to be because it it earned it, I think.

I'm happy to be wrong.

I'll be there day one when that game comes out for sure.

A couple more of the

Nintendo exclusives that were announced.

One is Drag Drive.

It's Drag X Drive, but I imagine the, I don't know if the X is vocalized.

Yeah.

But this is a Murder Ball game.

This is a wheelchair basketball sim that uses mouse controls with both Joy-Cons 2.

Joy-Con 2s, rather.

And then there's also Hyrule Warriors Age of Imprisonment, which is another one of these, you know, Dynasty Warrior style Muso games.

I, you know, neither of these are probably

for me.

I mean, I maybe, maybe Drag Drive ends up being super fun.

It also kind of feels like it's maybe going to be the new arms where it's like a gimmicky thing you mess around with a little bit.

Yeah.

All right.

I, that one sort of looked plain to me, kind of.

Like, it just didn't have a lot of personality, which I thought is weird for like a Nintendo, like a new Nintendo thing.

It kind of had a generic feel to it, visually.

Yes, but I'd be interested in, you know, trying it out at going back in time, giving a switch to to my cousin and then going to their house and playing it there uh but i i i i think i'll give it a try like i i do like like i don't know rocket league is cars and soccer wheels and ball is good i think that's a fun that's just good i like that y'all ever seen murder ball i have not that's a fucking incredible documentary it's really good oh watch it yeah wow it's a documentary called murder ball it's a documentary about uh competitive wheelchair basketball players in the paralympics and it is so, it is like one of the most emotional sports movies I've ever seen.

Cause these guys like, like, they care so much, but they're also so competitive.

Yeah.

It's, it's fucking rad.

It's awesome.

Anyway,

they had a huge list of third-party games.

And again, you know, you were talking about the tech specs they're getting into.

Again, all the third-party shit is not necessarily a thing Nintendo would lean on as much, but this is a thing you touched on earlier.

Like EA Sports, for instance, did not release, to my knowledge, Madden NFL, NHL, or NBA Live for Switch.

They just completely ignored the generation as they have ignored some previous Nintendo generations.

They're bringing EA Sports FC, which is now what they call FIFA because of some stupid fucking licensing reason.

Yeah.

It's so much brand equity in FIFA.

And I think both FIFA and EA Sports just completely like, you know, messed up that relationship.

Now they have EA Sports FC.

No one knows what the fuck that is.

And Madden NFL are both coming to Switch 2.

Again, games probably not for any of the three of us, but games that are huge for the general public.

Yeah.

And also, they like really gave a lot of attention to Elden Ring, Hades 2, Street Fighter VI,

Borderlands 4, Civilization 7, Deltarune, Into the Gungeon 2, Cyberpunk 2077, Final Fantasy 7 Remake.

A lot of this stuff feels like it's targeted not just at Sony and at Microsoft, but at the Steam Deck.

Because if you're like,

if you want to play Elden Ring on the go, right now your option, if you're not going to be some psycho who buys a PlayStation Portal like the two of you,

like

wait a second.

Wait a second.

Why would you say that?

I played mine the other day for the first time in three months.

You take that back, you son of a bitch.

You've basically, the Steam Deck is your only option, right?

Yes.

So it's like, so I don't know.

This feels like,

I don't know how worried they actually are internally, but it does feel like they're at least addressing it.

And it's also, you know, the main target being exclusively Nintendo players that don't have like PCs or anything like that.

They're like, oh, maybe you heard about Cyberpunk and you didn't play it before.

Now you can play it.

And maybe it's a worse version of it.

Who knows?

I'd be interested in checking it out.

The reason that's okay.

I'm excited about these third-party ones.

Yeah.

Particularly Elden Ring and

Ponyhox Pro Skater 3 and 4, which I've just decided I'm going to immediately double dip on and have it on everything.

But with this, with Cyberpunk and Elden Ring, I could play those on Switch, or not on Switch, on Steam Deck if I wanted to double dip and buy them again, have them on Steam Deck and have it on something that probably runs it a little bit better if I wanted to.

Yeah.

Or I could play it on over Wi-Fi with my PlayStation Portal.

I could do that if I wanted to.

Yes, that's what they know you.

I know you have the option.

I could be on Wi-Fi with my PlayStation Portal and I could play it and it would look as good.

Right.

It would look probably the best version of it, actually.

Yeah.

You want to sit at your dining table instead of

imagine how good

because there's performance upgrades with the PlayStation Pro, the 5 Pro.

So imagine how good it would look on a portal with the 5 Pro.

It's an interesting thing to consider.

The reason I'm excited about having the idea of having these games on Switch

to me is that I could have it portably, which of course is an option available to me currently if I wanted to.

But I could have it on the same device that I could play Donkey Kong Bonanza on.

I could have

all of my stuff in one device instead of bringing a bunch of different niche devices with me.

I could have the Switch 2, maybe run a worse version of it maybe.

But the other thing I want to point out, some of these bigger games coming,

like Street Fighter VI,

they're getting physical releases also, which people don't like the box art for some of these new games.

I'm agnostic to it.

I don't particularly care about how the boxes look.

The carts are red.

And they're the same shape.

And my big hope was that they were going to be the same shape for some reason.

I really wanted them to be the same shape and I got my wish.

I was very happy and then I said, ooh, they're red.

But the thing that's very char-asnable of you.

Make them red.

Some of the games, some of the bigger games coming aren't, they don't all fit on the actual cartridges, which is not new.

That's the case on a lot of, you know, PlayStation games, a lot of Xbox games.

You're buying the disc and downloading the game and then running the disc to play the downloaded game.

And that happens on Switch also.

The Metal Gear collection is not all on the Switch cartridge, it's an additional download.

There's always been additional downloads.

They've updated the language on this, which I think is good because it's going to help inform decisions for me

going forward.

They're calling the cartridges game key cards.

So, what that means is that there's an additional download, and that you'll have to, you can use this key, this cartridge as the key to play the downloaded game.

And to me, that means I'm buying that game digitally.

I'm not messing with it.

I'm not doing any of that.

Cause what's the

difference?

Yeah.

But Cyberpunk fits completely on a cartridge.

And I think it would be really funny to have it on a little cartridge.

So I'm going to get it.

That's really funny to me.

That is funny.

I had this thought about cyberpunk.

Yeah.

Will this be the first game that's ever been on Nintendo hardware where you can see Hog?

Interesting.

Like, has there ever been Hog on any Nintendo system in the past?

I don't think there.

I can't think of it.

I don't think so.

But maybe, maybe there's some

Japanese-only Dragon Ball game that was never released where you see Goku's a little dick or something.

I don't know.

But

I think you customizing your character and deciding penis one, penis two, or off, I think is maybe going to be the first instance where you can see a big swinging dick on a Nintendo system.

So the file size for Cyberpunk in general is like it's around 100 gigabytes.

The

cartridge for the Nintendo Switch 2 is 64 gigabytes.

I don't know what they've done, what they've compressed, what they've taken out.

What if they took out the hog slider?

It's possible.

What if they took out like 56 gigs just on the hog slider?

I wonder if...

So...

Do you guys think that it is less powerful?

I haven't read any of the stats.

Is it less powerful than the base PlayStation 4 4 or base PlayStation 5?

I heard it's comparable to the PlayStation 5 Pro, but Triple Click was just talking about this, I think, where they were saying that it's like,

it's that that was what the report was, that it was going to be closer to those specs, but

it's newer hardware, so it's a little bit better than that.

So, yes.

Is Grand Theft Auto VI going to come out on the Switch 2?

I suspect it will.

Holy shit.

I know, which is crazy to think about, but I suspect it probably will, will because that sort of like, you know, is in keeping with their strategy of just putting that game as many places as possible and getting as many people in the ecosystem and playing Grand Theft Auto online.

So yeah, I kind of suspect that.

My big thing I'm wondering is

over the course of their lifespans, I wonder if it will probably be GTA 6, but could Mario Kart World give it a run for the money?

for its money, like in terms of sales?

I don't know.

I don't know.

Not in terms of how much it grosses, obviously, but I wonder if you got a lot of money.

I think the people that want to buy Grand Theft Auto 6 are not going to, I mean, it will have a user base on Switch 2 if it comes to Switch 2, but the people that really want it are going to be getting it elsewhere.

Like if you add all three, you're not getting it for Switch 5.

But if it's more powerful than a PS5 Pro,

why wouldn't you buy it?

No,

PS4 Pro, not PS5 Pro.

You said PS5 Pro.

I meant to say PS4 Pro.

Okay, I was like, holy shit.

No.

No, no, no, no.

Big mistake.

Yeah.

Absolutely not.

No, it's not more powerful than a PS5 Pro.

Okay.

Meaning it's less powerful than a base PS5 Pro.

Then I am less.

I think it is less likely that Grand Theft Auto VI will be on the Switch 2.

I think they'll probably try to figure it out.

I think the user base will be so big.

Here's my thing I will say.

As a PC gamer, I have been holding out about getting a Steam Deck.

I still have my OLED Switch, which I use for portable gaming, although I use it less and less these days.

This,

like all the, the, the outlay of everything that's going to be happening with a Switch 2, even though I know a Steam Deck will still be more powerful, I like Nintendo's first-party games enough where I'm just like, if I have my gaming PC and I get a Switch 2, I'll probably be good.

I think that'll just like cover everything that I need.

I think I'll be able to play everything except for, you know,

I guess Sony first party exclusives that they don't port to PC later.

Yeah, which is very good games.

I think one Demon Souls, right?

Yeah.

So it is less powerful than

the old Steam Deck?

I just know.

I mean, like, there will be a, like, I have no idea where the Steam Deck is in terms of specs these days.

I would imagine that the most expensive Steam Deck now is more powerful than a Switch 2.

I have no idea.

But

certainly...

If you wait a little bit, there will definitely be a Steam Deck that outstrips this for sure.

So Steam Decks decks get up upgraded yeah i think they've done some refreshes iterated like not like steam deck 2 or whatever but they've done a there's an oled model now and there's like a

yeah didn't know

i guess i'm not a games journalist after all we got to talk about uh duskbloods yes this is the exclusive from soft game

that is coming in 2026.

There is an interview with Hidataka Miyazaki that's going up on Nintendo's website after we record this, so there'll probably be some original context.

I will say, even though this is multiplayer, and I know that has kind of gotten some people a little bit, you know, less hyped about this, I saw that there was a train

and I was in.

And I also feel like

this multiplayer Elden Ring, Elden Ring, Night Rain, depending on how that goes, will definitely inform my enthusiasm for this.

Because I will say, what I've seen of people playing Night Rain, it looks pretty fun.

I have not seen a second of that yet.

I don't know why I've avoided it.

I am very interested in Elden Ring.

I just moved some stuff around and I was like, I have,

I bought these like three big books, these Elden Ring books that have all the like information.

Like art books?

They're like art books, but they have like, you know, there's information about like Ranala and there's information about like how to.

There's a bunch of lore inside.

Yes, and there's like, and then it's also like, it's, I guess like a sort of bound, like,

there's like strategy things too, like, and like for your builds and things like that.

And I was looking at these and I was like, wait, I forgot.

I love Elden Ring.

I love Elden Ring.

I was obsessed with Elden Ring.

So I should check into Night Rain Dusk Bloods.

When I saw that there was a robot guy, I was like, I got to see what's going on with this.

That looks cool.

I didn't.

Yeah, this is a little Victorian, a little steampunky little people.

As I've said before in the podcast, I've never played Bloodborne.

Huge blind spot for me.

I intend to get to it at some point.

I did beat Sekiro, but I like it.

A lot of people are saying that it evokes Bloodborne very much.

Yeah.

I think it does.

I was kind of cool on it.

Cool on it.

You didn't like the frog with huge tits?

I mean, I know I'm going to get it.

And I know that like a month into it, I'm going to be like, I fucking love this game.

It's incredible.

But

I was like, I'm a little tired of

the world of being this depressed depressed while playing a game.

Yeah.

And I, I, I, I was like, I don't know that I want to feel this feeling of like sick to my stomach while also moving forward in a world.

Yeah, they should make one that's fun.

Well, they're all fun, but it's just like when it was like, you know, sad fucking dude with a mask on and like a lady hand touching his hand and her being like, oh, for all the worlds unbounded,

let us yet again sing forth the praises of blood or whatever.

It's like, oh, it's these guys again.

And I felt a little bit like,

I do think it's going to

be hard to say the Dusk Bloods.

I don't really like the Dusk Bloods.

The Dusk Bloods.

Doesn't really roll

to me.

Well,

I think they were.

It's blood.

They want to roll blood in the title.

You know, if it was called Elden, you know,

the Elden King, you'd be like, oh, it's an Elden Ring thing.

Yeah, yeah.

I don't know what the fix is.

I like the Dusk Bloods.

The Dusk Bloods.

The Dusk Blood.

It feels like an early 2000s indie band.

Yeah.

I mean, it sounds like a slur for vampires.

Oh.

The Duskblood.

I can say that.

I

was overall pretty, like,

I came away pretty encouraged from this.

Again, I just feel like they're not fucking around with this.

It feels like they are correctly just enhancing the formula that works so well for them, the prior generation.

And there's a couple of games, including, I will say for myself, Duskbloods, I'm pretty excited about Donkey Kong Bonanza, even knowing as little as we do.

Donkey Kong Bonanza looks fucking great.

I love platformers.

And I, I'm, of course, getting a Switch 2, but that game alone would be a system seller for me, a new, a new first-party Donkey Kong that's just like a straight-up mascot platformer.

Me too.

I'm really excited about that.

I'm super pumped in general.

I know that the price point is a sticking point for a lot of people.

I feel lucky to be able to participate

when I'll get the chance to.

I'm just pumped.

I'm just pumped.

I'm always just pumped for new games.

This is like exciting because there hasn't, I feel like, I don't know,

there hasn't been a first-party Nintendo game in a little bit where I'm like, I can't wait to play this.

It was the last one.

Was it Kirby?

It might have been Kirby.

And that was like three years ago?

Yeah.

There's something we're forgetting.

I'm sure there's something that we talked about and maybe did an episode about.

Yeah.

I spent two hours discussing.

You could remember forgetting about.

But I'm just super pumped and I can't wait to hopefully be able to get my hands on one at launch.

I'm pumped.

Yep.

Any other thoughts?

No, I think it's time for a segment.

Let's do a segment.

All right, it's time for a segment.

We've got some video game-related food, and we're going to find out if it powers us up or lowers our HP.

It's game gruel.

And today, we've got McDonald's, a Minecraft movie, Nether Flame Sauce.

Let me read the copy here.

Like the lava falls of the fiery dimension, this exclusive spicy nether flame sauce will singe even the feistiest of mobs.

Okay.

Feel the heat of the nether with crushed red pepper and flaming cayenne.

Crafted with fiery flavor.

This hot sauce gives hints of savory garlic and subtle sweetness.

So we have some McDonald's that we ordered here today.

And then I also have some extra nether sauces that I procured on a separate McDonald's visit earlier this week because I didn't know.

A lot of times with these promotional sauces, they run out real fast.

Yes.

And we live in the long shadow of the very dark.

McDonald's Mulan

Shezuan sauce incident from Rick and Morty.

No, it's fine.

It's fine.

So, so, like, I was just like, I want to make sure I get there early.

So, I went the first day that this was available.

I went basically right when they started, you know, serving lunch.

I was on my absolute best behavior because we don't want any sort of incident here.

I don't want, we don't need a video on the internet of me crying in a McDonald's.

But I had heard about how you were behaving, and they were like, this was actually, that was worse, actually.

This was too much.

I'm a good boy.

Can I get my sauce?

Can I get my sauce?

So, you can only get the nether flame sauce with the Minecraft meal 10-piece McNuggets.

So it's the only way they'll give it to you.

I was just, you know, through the app, you can make some things the franchisees won't necessarily honor.

You can like just ask, you can ask for the sauce a la carte.

But they're like, we can't do that.

We can only get it with a meal, which is fine.

So I had to get two meals to get four sauces.

I had to get two meals.

Oh, no.

I got the.

Yeah, I did.

Can you believe it?

I had.

20 McNuggets and two medium fries.

What the fuck am I going to do with all this stuff?

Just put this in my body.

I know that that you've done like the McNugget power hour before and you've eaten quite a few nuggets in a single sitting.

What do you think is like the max comfort level of nuggets to eat?

I think probably kind of like wings.

I would, I would say in the 12 to 16 range.

Once you go past that, you're really indulging and

you're going to feel bloated.

I agree with you.

But also, you know, YAMMV depends on, depends on the size of the individual and your appetite.

So anyway, but I had to get two meals to get four sauces because I wasn't sure we were were going to get them.

And then Heather ordered this additional meal here.

So all in, I think we are north of $40 for the sake.

Oh, for sure.

It cost how much to get it delivered here, Heather?

$27.

Okay, great.

So we're over $50.

And

the closest McDonald's to us is very close.

Yeah,

we could have...

gotten it on the way in,

but we didn't really have a plan.

No.

It was kind of, you know, anytime McDonald's is delivered, I feel like I'm at the bottom of the dystopia or the top of capitalism.

And this was kind of magical to open up to pull out a golden

extra-sized happy meal box with a basic Minecraft like skin on the box

and a Minecraft version of the McDonald's logo.

So far, we actually, we don't know if the Minecraft, we have the extra Minecraft.

We don't know if if the nether sauce is actually inside.

Let's open the sum bitch up and let's see what's in there.

Okay.

Ranch, do you like yourself a McNugget?

Hell yeah.

What's your favorite?

What's your go-to dipping sauce?

Sweet and sour.

Oh, okay.

Okay.

That's a good, that's a good thing.

We thought it was a good sauce.

And but we'll start with McDonald's sweet and sour.

We got a 10-piece McNugs here that we're going to share.

30 apple pies.

You guys,

we got the soda.

We got two additional sauces.

All right.

Two additional sauces.

So I do like the branding of the Minecraft art on the chicken McNugget box.

That's also really good.

Yeah,

I like the box.

It's basically like an adult-sized happy meal.

And that box.

Yes, and

the McNuggets box itself.

You're right.

And then we actually got Matt's sneaking surprise.

I snooked some fries.

We actually also got

the toy this time, which when I got my two meals on the first day of the promotion, neither of them included the toy.

Again, it's fine.

It's fine.

I'm not going to cause a fuss.

I sort of made a big fuss before we started, and I said, when we get to have a meal, I get the toy.

the toys are Grimace Egg Birdie zombie hamburgler McPotion Big Mac crystal and fry helmet Would I have liked a zombie hamburgler?

Sure, but I honestly like Matt I think you should have the toy.

Well, here's the thing.

I only want it if it's Grimace

So you'll get the burglar.

Okay.

You'll get Grimace.

What are the other options?

Grimace Egg, Birdie, zombie hamburger, McPotion, Big Mac Crystal, Fry Helmet.

Jesus Christ, that's so many.

So Fry Helmet?

Yeah.

That could could be Ranch.

Do you want Fry Helmet?

What do you want?

I don't want any of this.

Heather, which one do you want?

Again,

let's figure out everybody else's position first.

So we've got

Fry Helmet for

you.

No, zombie hamburger, burglar, grimace egg.

I think you call one, and then the other option is trash.

God, what is it?

What is the other options, Fry?

Birdie.

Birdie.

McPotion.

Big Mac Crystal, Fry Helmet.

Potion.

Okay.

Okay, potion goes to Heather.

God, I hope it just looks like a potion.

Otherwise, I think the option is we put this on Anya's desk here.

With the fucking receipt.

We got to eat these McNuggets before they get clean.

We got to eat them.

Yeah, I'm just going to tear the box open.

Matt's opening the box.

It is a.

I'm having a fry.

Oh my God.

It is a.

It's got to be a fry helmet.

What else would it be?

It's the fry helmet.

It's the fry helmet.

But honestly, I am going to keep it.

Okay.

no argument here i do like it i'm gonna try to put it on my kitten that's that sounds cute it's not gonna fit she'll be mad yeah all right so i'm opening the sauce which does have you know i've

a sauce i do i've given up sugar uh a few years ago and it does have sugar as the third ingredient so i am going to indulge for the sake of the pod uh in the the water vinegar sugar chili peppers cayenne red pepper et cetera, sauce.

It came with a

card.

Yeah, I'm not sure how visible the sauce is on camera.

It stinks.

It's got a little, yeah.

Oh, my God, it stinks.

It smells like kind of like a chili garlic.

Ugh, it smells like, smells like a dumpster.

And I see some sort of like peppers in here.

Oh, my God.

It's stinks.

There's something visible.

Crushed red pepper.

That's what's visible here.

Oh, God, it stinks.

It smells like cat food.

Oh, wait.

That card's really cool, though.

The card's really cool.

I like the card.

The card is what comes with the

McToy, the Minecraft toy.

The card is nice.

Yeah.

Okay.

I'm getting a single nugget.

Did you get a nugget?

Not yet.

Get a nugget.

Okay, I'll steal one.

Other take one, and then we'll offer it up to Ranch.

I'm going to have two nuggets because I'm hungry.

Okay.

Yeah, you know what I'm going to do?

There's 10.

Wait, hold on.

I'm going to have two also.

Just by the doing some math here, we each get at least two, right?

We get at least two.

Okay, great.

There's three left.

Here goes.

And then whoever is the best and does really, really good gets an additional nugget.

Does good?

at what?

I guess not this.

Ranch is putting the box on her desk, and I think we're all too lazy to go get it.

So I think she gets the third nugget.

Yeah, you get the rest of the nugget.

I'm taking a dip in this bad boy.

Yeah, I got a nice head.

I'm putting it into the stink.

Now, look, I'm a bit of a heat seeker.

I'm used to tasting the purportedly fast, hot, fast-food spices yeah

and sauces and being like this is nothing this one does have a little bit of a noticeable burn to it a little bit

nothing i think the cayenne is doing a lot of work this is the best mcdonald's sauce i've ever had wow wow

it's really good it's the best one i've ever had I thought because we had a different, didn't we do this once before?

Yeah.

We had the jiu-jitsu Kaisen sauce.

That was disgusting to me.

You also had you had had COVID and didn't have your

taste buds back yet.

Was that right?

Yes, that's right.

I have no memory of what I said about the Juju Kaisen special gray garlic sauce, but I know we had it on the podcast.

So

this is amazing.

This is really good.

Those are really good.

Lives up to the hype.

Oh, maybe it's because I haven't had sugar.

Do you think?

But it's not particularly sweet.

Does anybody?

Yeah, some of it just went down the wrong way.

Do you think this is what lava chicken tastes like?

Hmm, interesting.

Can I have some french fries?

Yeah.

I'm going to dip them in this nether sauce.

Fries are being distributed.

What I will say is that you mentioned the sugar.

This is not particularly sweet, though.

This isn't like a sweet heat.

Yeah, but if you haven't had sugar in a long time and then you have sugar,

like there have been some accidental sugars that I've had in the last couple of years.

And every time I think it's the most delicious food I've ever eaten, I think it's just like wired into our brain.

I did a version of the keto diet many years ago, lost a ton of weight, and it was like six months in.

We were at Disneyland and I had not had any sugar for, you know, again, half a year.

We're there and I'm just like, you know what?

Fuck it.

I'm going to get a cookie.

I got a chocolate chip cookie.

Yeah.

You know,

one of those like really indulgent ones from some Disney bakery.

Yeah.

I bit into it and it was like biting into like a coaster.

of a coaster sized sugar cube basically it was like pure sugar it was so sweet i thought it was disgusting and i was just like like, oh, so we just numb our tolerance for salt and sugar to the point where

we're eating this processed food all the time.

And we just, when we have actual food, when we eat how we're supposed to, you know, we, we can't handle it anymore.

It's a, it's a, it's a crying shame.

Yeah.

Like, I, I, there's so much stuff just has sugar in it.

And you can't just like, I mean, this sauce, there's no reason for there to be really any sugar in there, probably.

Um, but it,

man, this, the sauce is, the sauce is good.

This should be a a sauce that they just keep god damn it i love this sauce it's really good it smelled so bad though before i had it it smells pretty pungent but that's part of what works in its favor roche what do you what what do you think over there i think it's good you like me are a bit of a heat seeker i know you like a like a spicy foob kind of like a sauce is this is does this fit with your spice tolerance are you feeling any burn from this it's like it's a nice little tinge just a little singe yeah it's spicier than i thought it was gonna be yeah 100 taken from something for mcdonald's yeah because i mean you know Holy shit, that's so good.

They have a wow.

That's.

Joe More Fries?

Oh, yeah, I do.

Oh, man.

We should say that.

So Heather eats the healthiest of the three of us.

Yeah.

I can't speak for Rochelle.

But

you have a...

You had the McDonald's app on your phone already.

Matt and I were shocked.

No, no, it was shocking information.

It was because of the Pokemon.

Yes.

Because

I needed the hourglasses for

Pokemon Pocket.

This made it make sense when you said it was not because of the food it was for to get pokemon pocket bonuses i got it uh but this sauce is amazing i can't fucking believe it i'm remembering that in when we did this for the jujitsu kaisen sauce i had said that it was fine on the nuggets yeah but i think that that sauce in particular would have gone pretty far on some like wings yeah imagine this sauce on a fucking flat this is like a banger this is a straight-up wing sauce basically yeah this is like what they call like the spicy garlic at beat ups yeah do not put this clip.

Don't put this on the internet.

I have signed no waiver.

It's so good.

I mean, gosh.

This is the best thing I've ever eaten in my life.

It's great.

Here's the thing.

We just like this food.

We like that's true.

We like the nuggets.

The nuggets are always going to hit.

I don't know if I've ever gotten the nuggets where I was like, they didn't do it today.

Here's a question.

Worth watching the Minecraft movie to taste the sauce?

I say yes.

If that was a prerequisite, it was like, hey, you got to watch the Minecraft movie and then you can taste it.

The sauce is kind of the best thing about the movie.

I agree.

It's my favorite part.

So, yeah, I guess if I had to, the only way to get the sauce was to watch the movie.

Yeah.

I guess I would have to watch the movie, but I wish I had never seen the movie.

I'm a huge sucker for anything licensed.

Yeah.

Like if there's a cereal based on something,

I love any promotion.

I love

special shaped dishes.

You know, like when a cereal used to come with like a special spoon.

Yeah.

So I would be less likely to see the Minecraft movie without the sauce at the end.

Right.

Yeah.

But if they were like,

you have to watch the movie to get the sauce, I would be there day one

to get the sauce.

Are there fries left?

Yes, there are.

Can I have some fries?

There should have been a Mickey 17 sauce.

Natural tie-in with McDonald's.

That movie's a lot about sauce, too.

It's a sauce movie.

It's a sauce movie.

And not very many movies, you could say, are sauce movies.

No, you can authentically say that that's a sauce movie.

Like one of the main things in the movie is sauce.

Yeah.

Hey, that game girl's a winner.

This was good.

I liked that we did this, and we should find other things to eat that aren't just nuggets.

We do

the nuggets.

Here's the thing: it could be the nuggets segment.

I love nuggets.

Well, well, definitely nuggets will continue to be an element of game gruel, but we will find other game-related things to taste test.

And hey, if you got any suggestions, pop them over on our discord.

That's right.

I mean, there's tons of energy drinks with video game themes.

There are so many.

I'm more nervous about putting that in my body than nuggets.

Yeah, I don't, I would never have an energy drink this late in the day anyway.

No, but I mean, if you put Sonic the Hedgehog on an energy drink and give it to me at 7 a.m., I'll drink it.

Yeah, sure.

Why not?

I would try that blue Sonic curry that gets floated around as a meme every now and then.

100% I would.

Why not?

Hey, that's this week's Get Played.

Our producers, Rochelle Chen.

Ranch, yard underscore, underscore, sard.

Our music is by Ben Prenti, BenPruntyMusic.com.

Our art is by Deck Brigade, DesignDeckBrigade.com.

You can find our merch, including apparel, pins, stickers, and more at kinshipgoods.com.

Link in the show description.

Also, check out our Patreon, patreon.com/slash get played, where you're going to find our entire pre-head gum back catalog, plus ad-free main feed episodes

and our Patreon exclusive show, GetAnimate, lives there as well.

Matt, what's up this week?

We're back on Gur and Lagon, baby.

We're we're taking our drills and we're piercing the heavens and we're having a fucking blast.

Uh, show reps, patreon.com/slash get played.

And you guys, you know what?

What I think I actually got

freaking Steved.

Oh no,

Steve got my ass.

You got Steved?

I got Steve.

Wow.

Did he fuck you?

All I'm saying is, I got Steve.

That was a head gum podcast.