Candy Crush Saga

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Hey, Nick, um,

this is such such an uncomfortable question.

I'm so sorry that I'm asking.

That's okay.

Hey,

can I borrow some money?

Yeah, man.

Oh, yeah, whatever you need.

What what happened?

I just, um, you know, it's, it's been a tough time.

Uh, I yeah, I mean, it's been a tough time for a lot of people this year.

Well, for me the most right now, um, because I...

What is it?

You can tell me.

I spent a lot of money in

Candy Crush on micro transactions.

Just trying to, I couldn't.

I had a hard time playing the game.

I couldn't match.

Yeah, I mean, those games are just kind of designed to kind of suck you in and get you addicted and then get you to open the purse strings.

But it's gotten way worse than that, even.

Yeah.

Well, what happened?

What's going on?

You know that like Yeti?

that's in the game?

Yeah.

He told me if I didn't pay up by the end of the day, he's going to break my fucking leg.

Oh my God, Matt.

That guy's serious.

He's a fucking

he's huge.

He will fuck you up.

He's a cryptid.

I can't believe you got in debt to the Yeti.

I mean, what's the damage?

What do you need to pay to make yourself whole?

I mean, do you have like $10,000?

$10,000?

It's so much, but I was just like, how did you spend your fucking whale and candy crust?

I just spent $10,000.

I'm so bad at it.

I can't ever figure out which ones match.

I mean, you probably got pretty far in the game, though, at least.

I'm on like the third level.

You spent $10,000.

You're on level three?

I feel like that's like the tutorial.

That's like the early tutorial.

I'm so bad at it.

Oh, my God.

Like, I'll match it and I'll be matching the wrong one.

I'll waste a turn.

It sucks that Yeti's going to kick my ass.

Hold on.

Let me, let me, let me see.

I don't know if I have $10,000.

Like, I'm liquid enough to give you $10,000 cash, but I think I know someone.

Can you ask Mitch?

You want me to ask Mitch?

Could you ask Mitch?

Okay, hold on.

Hey, Mitch.

Hey, buddy.

Hey, Matt Abadaka wants to borrow $10,000 because he spent a lot of money on Candy Crush Saga.

No,

this isn't like a prank.

It's not a prank.

Okay, I'll tell.

Oh, okay.

No, yeah.

No, it's a real.

Yeah.

Okay, I'll let him know.

All right.

All right.

Thanks, dude.

All right, see you soon.

Yeah, Mitch says to fuck off.

Oh, my God.

I mean, he said Matt should fuck off, but I just simplified it to fuck off.

That sucks.

So now he's mad at me, as mad as the Yeti is.

I got two guys on my ass now.

You get two big bearded guys who honestly want to inflict physical harm upon you.

Nick, I'm so fucked.

You're in bat.

You're fucking deep shit.

I kind of wish you didn't call.

Okay, well, I'm sorry.

I can't undo that.

I wish you didn't spend $10,000 in Candy Crush to try to crash the third level.

I'm ruined.

I'm so fucking ruined.

Can I see your phone?

Just give me your phone.

Just look at it.

Let me look at it.

Hold on.

All right, so let me open your candy crest saga here.

Okay, let's see.

And

I don't know what I did.

I spent another $10,000.

Mark, I'm so sorry.

I am so, so sorry.

This fucking sucks, man.

Are you kidding me?

I'm going to have to suck him off.

You don't have to suck off the Yeti?

I'm going to have to suck off the Yeti.

You know what, Matt?

I'll do it.

That's how good a friend I am.

Nick, are you serious?

That's how good a friend I am.

Are you fucking serious right now?

I'll suck.

That's how good a

That's the nicest thing.

Yeah, I'll do it.

I mean, I'll do it.

I've already done it, so you can just go ahead.

He's ready for you over there.

Wait, you've already done it?

Yeah, I like doing it.

Yeah, I mean, we all like doing it.

Why do we have this pretense of spending money on candy crust just to suck off the Eddie so he doesn't beat us up?

He won't let me do it unless I spend the money.

That's the thing.

It's like, what is going on here, dude?

Just communicate.

Like, can we just have like a conversation and just be like, hey, this is what each of us wants out of this?

I'll do it.

I want to suck you off.

Matt wants to suck you off.

We all want to suck you off.

Instead, you have to have this threat of physical violence based off of us being like, you know, financially in debt to you

in order for this to happen.

And it's just like, let's just remove all the subterfuge.

Let's just do it.

Let's just have fun.

You know what?

Get Mitch back on the phone real quick.

Okay.

Your call has been forwarded to an I went to voicemail.

I think he's sucking off the Yeti.

We sugarcane pay to win as we celebrate Valentine's Day by discussing mobile mega hit Candy Crush Saga and other match 3 games this week on Get Played.

Wow, it's Get Played, your one-stop show for good games, bad games, and every game in between.

It's time to get played.

I'm Nick Tiger Weiger, along with Matt Abadaka.

Hello, everyone.

And to Tiger, I say, RARRR!

Wow.

Hey, buddy.

Heather is out, unfortunately.

As you may have noticed from her absence from the intro, she has laryngitis.

So we hope she's doing well soon.

Hope she's feeling better to record next week.

But for this one, it's just the fellas.

It's just the fellas.

And guess what?

I hope you're listening to this in a fucking locker room.

Because we're talking all about that talk.

Yeah, there will be some.

I mean, actually, Ranch is also here.

So I guess

we should probably tone it down.

Ranching?

Ranch with one of the boys.

We should mention something.

This is a thing we were just talking about before we recorded.

Yeah.

You know, I certainly have my issues with Netflix as a company.

I'm not a big Netflix fan, but it is ubiquitous.

Everyone has Netflix.

A game that came out last year that was a sequel to a game that we did an episode of,

Case of the Golden Idol, Rise of the Golden Idol, is now available on Netflix games.

This sounds like branded content, but I'm mentioning it more because it's like, that's a game that kind of slipped, I feel like, kind of was under the radar in the crush of year-end releases last year.

It's a game I really like.

I still got to play through it to the end.

Our friend of the show at Eva Anderson played through it, loved it.

Stylistically, aesthetically, it's a really awesome.

heightening slash new direction of the previous game, but it's on Netflix games.

So if you have Netflix, you can download it on your mobile device and you can just play the Sunbitch.

Yeah, I'm excited to to dig into it on my iPad.

But it's like, it's just like, you know, we were talking about it

in the way of the, you know, the monkey paw curls a little bit.

You're like, I wish there was good stuff on Netflix for me to watch.

And it's like, okay, you can't watch this.

There's this game that is good and you'll like this, but there's, you know, not what I'm paying for the service.

I think whoever is overseeing, I imagine they're completely siloed departments, but whoever is overseeing the game curation at Netflix games, I think is doing a good job.

I mean, they had Into the Breach on there.

Into the Breach Breach Rocks.

I believe Hades is on there.

Civ 6 is on fucking Netflix games.

Yeah, so, I mean, there's...

Look,

I would just say if you have it already,

this is a way you can try out this game that I was not aware until you told me that this was an option.

I have it on my phone right now, but I'm not going to play it right now.

Yeah, no, we got some other stuff we should be talking about.

We should certainly not be playing other games while we are going through the episode.

But, you know, we have some business we have to get to at this point in the episode.

And unfortunately, you know, Heather's out.

We also received news that the Resident Evil Merchant is unavailable for today's episode, which is, it's kind of a bummer.

You know, Resident Evil Merchant is such a fixture.

Yeah.

So unfortunately, I'm a little afraid that we may have no elegant way

to transition into our next segment because that's usually who tees it up.

Usually, the way things are going is that I say something and then we kind of throw it to the Resident Evil Merchant and they take, they, you know, take the ball and run with it.

Yeah, the very fabric of the show

is

teetering on a razor's edge right now because we actually have no way to continue without this TM.

Resident Evil Merchant is kind of the fulcrum upon which the show

rests.

And then

I don't know exactly how it's going to all hold together, but I guess we should just continue on and I'll just ask the question.

We'll just see what happens.

The question for the room is, what are you playing?

Curse you, Bail!

Oh, wait, it's

Egon from Elden Ring.

It's Egon from Elden Ring.

Oh, my God.

Oh, Bail!

The pain!

My arms!

My legs!

Each lies a bloody ruin!

Ah, the exquisite pain!

So

yeah.

Egon knows Ranch.

Yo, what's up, Ranch?

Hey, what's up?

Egon, the thing about this is, you know, the Resident Evil merchant comes in usually and is like, is, I will say, disruptive to the show, but stays on task and, you know, gets us the next thing.

You are still just yelling at Baal.

Well, Baal is vile.

I yell.

Curse you, Baal.

We don't, we're not, Nick and I are not Baal guys either.

I will soon feast upon your heart.

Mark my words.

You too shall know fear.

It's kind of, you know, also, can I just say, it's kind of just like embarrassing that you're like mad at an animal?

You know what I mean?

Like, like, Bail is an animal!

Yeah!

An animal who has betrayed me!

An animal who has left me a scorched pile of flesh!

This is like if I was like at a zoo, like yelling at like a dolphin.

Is Baal at a zoo?

Because I'll go there and yell at him!

No, he's not a dolphin.

Curse you, Baal!

I understand the plight too.

Like, you know, obviously the dragon.

Dragons are, you know, I guess, uh, sentient in a way similar to humans, where they're able to sort of conduct themselves in an evil way, I guess.

Do you know what Baal even did to me?

He like fuck your wife or something?

He fucked my wife.

Curse you, Baal.

You know what?

As a recent convert to being a wife guy, I don't like that.

And you know what?

That's not cool.

Curse you, Baal.

Under some circumstances, in certain relationships, that can be okay, but we do not have that kind of arrangement.

And you know what?

That's for those of you to sort out on your own.

That's like not, you know, that's not Egon's bag, man.

And that's okay.

It doesn't have to be.

You know, I subscribe to the Print Wall Street Journal.

I know it's kind of old-fashioned, but it's just a thing I like.

He's been stealing it.

Bail?

Bail's been stealing my newspaper.

That is a crime akin to...

That's like, that's, that's really, really bad.

Because, like, you you know, you're just trying to support print media.

I'm just trying to support print media.

Thank you, Matt.

Solid of scale, you may be, foul dragon, but you do not steal a man's Wall Street Journal, and you do not fuck his wife.

And you certainly don't steal his Amazon packages.

This is, Bail, you know what?

The evidence is stacking up against Bail.

I was not ready to make a judgment earlier.

I now am on the other side of this, and I have to say, I do think Bail is a bad guy.

You see what I'm saying?

Yeah, okay.

Yeah, Bale.

We're all on the same page.

Yeah, I wasn't sure before, like, you know, obviously

him being a dragon and all, I wasn't sure, like, you know, what he knows that he's doing and isn't doing.

But now.

No, he's fully aware.

He's fully aware that he's fucking your wife, stealing your newspaper and your Amazon packages.

Two of those beats, I will say, are kind of the same.

What are you giving me notes?

This is my lived experience.

i know i know i'm just like if it was like a third thing i would sort of maybe have picked a i don't know there was a big dragon turd on my lawn how about that is that different enough for you curse you bail

that is pretty bad you know what speaking of

there was a big turd right outside my door yesterday and it made me mad

Might have been Bale.

It might have been Bale.

And it makes, it would make sense because there are, you know,

there are coyotes in the neighborhood.

Oh, you got coyotes.

Yeah, we got coyotes.

And,

you know, I was lucky that it was just a turtle, not a fucking hole or something, or

painted the wall to look like it was a tunnel or something.

You know, I could have got tricked by a coyote.

You're worried about some sort of mad cat mischief.

I was worried that I was going to open the door and a freaking animal was going to fall on my head.

Well, look,

we all have our problems.

Mine is Bail the Dread.

Butter question for you.

Yeah.

Matt Apodaka, what are you playing?

Thank you so much.

Kind of rude that you didn't ask Nick at all.

So I will say, look.

I think the question to me was implied.

Yeah,

it certainly was implied.

I've been playing a couple things.

I've rolled credits on a game that I started this weekend.

That game was Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep, a Fragmentary Passage.

Normal title.

Normal title.

And I was able to roll credits on it so quickly because it is a three-hour long game.

It is a follow-up to the PSP Kingdom Hearts game, Birth by Sleep.

Great.

So it sort of, if it follows that story, takes place a cool 10 years after it.

What platform is it on?

It's multi-platform.

So this is the thing.

It also only exists in

the Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue compilation, which has

Dream Drop Distance, HD, and then a couple of other titles on it that are just viewing only, not

playable.

And I gotta say, I loved it.

It really kicked.

Like, well, last week when we were doing the

backlog Thunderdome, not playing Kingdom Hearts 3 all the way through, sort of.

Knowing that and knowing that it was still available to me, I was like, I have a couple of other Kingdom Hearts things to get out of the way before I get to this, I think.

So I was like, that's a quick one.

I can clear that pretty easily.

And I enjoyed the experience quite a bit.

I played it on my Steam Deck and that, and that thing made that Steam Deck chug.

It was sure.

Because it was going crazy on that screen.

A lot of action, a lot of fast movement.

It was really going crazy.

But then I was like, you know, I started

Dream Drop Distance on PS, on, you know, on PS5 through the PS4 disc.

I have it here on Steam, but I have this 2DS sitting right here.

Yeah, right.

I got to play it on the original hardware baby so i started it up on there i'm playing it on original hardware uh ranch was here when i dropped my 2ds on the concrete floor of head gum and it made a sound that i will say none of us like to be wrong

pretty upset and i uh the hinge seemed like it was all up but i'm happy to report it's fine it's fine now nintendo hardware is sturdy as hell i mean this is this is the thing about things you can say about nintendo good battery life and the shit lasts forever yeah great battery life Yeah, that's not going great so far.

No, the way that hinge that hinge does not sound good.

Yeah, that didn't sound good.

It sounded fine earlier.

It was snapping after a couple of opens.

But it still works fine.

It still works fine.

I'm going to have to look at that hinge, I think.

It's actually

devastated.

It's designed for kids to throw around.

It's like, you know, that's one of the pluses of it.

I wonder who I can complain to here about head gum about the floor being too hard.

Probably Anya.

Probably Anya.

She'd probably love to hear it.

Yeah, I'm, you know, just going to sort of start complaining about the

floor is too hard.

So I'm playing that.

Because, yeah, I went, I'm Kingdom Hearts pilled right now.

I was just at Disneyland, bought a Kingdom Hearts pin.

Very rare to see Kingdom Hearts merch within the theme park.

I feel like they're doing more of that, though, right?

They're doing more of it at Oogie Boogie Bash around Halloween.

The characters come out in their Kingdom Hearts costumes,

which is really fun.

And then I went to, over the weekend, I went to a Square Enix pop-up pop-up

downtown in downtown LA

and bought a bunch of stuff,

bought stuff for me, bought stuff for Zig,

a friend of the show, Cody Ziggler.

What did you pick up exactly?

I got a set of keychains.

Here's the thing.

I didn't buy enough stuff.

Yeah.

I bought the shirt that I'm wearing that is like official merch from the bar, Seventh Heaven from Final Fantasy VII.

That shirt is cool as hell, by the way.

It's really cool.

It's a, and is that a, because I thought it was a crew neck sweatshirt, but it's a long sleeve tee.

Long sleeve tee.

They had a short sleeve.

It's in that bad boy.

It's pretty thin.

It's not, it's not too crazy.

They had a short sleeve tee, but I didn't like the blue.

It was like a very like powdered blue.

Yeah.

It wasn't really for me.

So I got this.

I got a Sora plush.

Hell yeah.

That I've

had to put.

like on a shelf because I was like, I think I like holding it too much.

I'm like, I'm very comforted by it.

It feels very soft, but it also has little beans in it.

I was like, this is like nice to hold.

But I was like, I can't be walking around with the plush.

I have a wife.

I can't be.

I can't be doing this.

I got that.

I got a set of keychains that are, it's a Keyblade, Mickey, or Donald's, like, magic staff, and Goofy's shield.

I got,

gosh, what else did I get?

Oh, I got like a little acrylic stand.

Did you say Garsh?

Garsh.

Yeah.

I got an acrylic stand of Sora that's like of the art of him like standing on like the beach.

Very cool.

And I got a statue of like a little statue of Cloud

that's like a stylized like sort of like not full-on chibi, but he looks it's awesome.

I love it.

Is it kind of like the aesthetic of the PlayStation 1 game?

Like the original?

Like is it kind of that blocky sort of chip?

It's not really blocky.

It's sort of like it, I mean, it kind of to me looks like

that, but like smoothed out.

Okay, okay.

So it's not like the classic low-poly version.

Got it.

They did have like a sprite version of him that I was like, that's cool.

I would get that.

But I left without getting a couple of things that I did want.

And it's still active until like for a couple weeks.

And I think I might go back.

I might have to go by.

Yeah.

The line was very, very long.

Weekend, bad day to go, I gotta say.

I can imagine.

Yeah, they were like, during the week, it's pretty chill, but weekend

was pretty tough.

So I mean, that's what I'm playing.

I'm just in a full Kingdom Hearts mode right now.

Excited to eventually get to three.

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What about you, Nick?

Matt, what I'm playing is a game that you played and a game that you heartily recommended and a game that I am playing

largely based off of this endorsement.

Alan Wake 2.

Wake.

Now, I started this a couple weeks ago, and then I went back to do the, you know, I went back to finish up Metaphor, and I thought I'd get back to Alan Wake 2.

Started it basically, it was the first game I booted up

outside of Stardew Valley on my new PC.

But now I've had some time, now that I've rolled credits on Metaphor, I've had time to get into this.

And I've got about five hours hours of playtime as of this recording um in aw2

i will say i'm playing it on pc

the epic game store

has

these achievement notifications that are so obnoxious ranch you're nodding along are you also because you're playing you've been playing this as well right yeah i just started yesterday so the thing about this is and i had to figure out how the the problem is you can't just turn off achievement notifications you have to like do not disturb every notification like like like globally that's the only toggle you have and then i also think you have to do it on a per game basis you have to do like a global no notifications for this particular game while you're in game but like because it's so moody and atmospheric and then the sound is so intrusive and then also it's the biggest achievement notification i've ever seen it's like right in the center of the screen like top center of the screen it's like a huge box with huge text yeah aesthetically does not mesh with the game at all and then it's like boonk like it's like so intrusive yeah i i just like i found it really immersion breaking And because you know, also know when achievements hit is they oftentimes hit when something pivotal happens, you know, in the story as well.

So it's just like I that once I turned that off, my gameplay experience improved notably.

But it's the kind of thing it's like, I don't know how

I'm rooting for the Epic Game Store.

I'm rooting for all of these non-Steam.

Even though I like Steam a lot, I just think it's good for there not to be this hegemony because at some point in the future, maybe Gabe Newell retires.

Maybe, you know, like whoever owns Steam decides they're going to sell it to some nefarious corporation and then they figure out something.

And all of a sudden, software is being delisted.

The library you already own.

You're not going to have access to all sorts of shit, like shitty things are happening, but you're locked into this one ecosystem.

And if it's the only thing that only game in town.

You've described a very specific nightmare of me not being able to play the hundreds of games that I've bought on Steam that I've never played.

Yeah, I know.

But I mean, this is the kind of thing, like, I don't, I don't predict that to happen, but I think it's, it's good for any of these digital spaces for there to be competition that exists.

So I'm rooting for the Abu Game Store, but that's one thing that's a little bit annoying.

I've also got this minor audio glitch, which I guess is like a known issue that some people are getting from running the game not on SSDs.

I'm running it on SSD.

I'm running on it on a new fast SSD, so it shouldn't be an issue.

And other people are also running on SSDs and are having them, but it's just like, there's times when the audio goes a little bit out of sync, drops out, and then goes a little bit out of sync, particularly during cutscenes.

And it's just a little bit annoying.

That's one of those things.

I like gaming on PC, but it's just like, I don't want to have to fucking deal with this shit.

Like, I don't want want to have to debug an issue.

I just want the limited time I have to play games.

I want to be able to use to play games, you know?

I wish there was like

a central hub

that you can log into your Steam library.

You can log into your Epic Games library and have one interface, like one OS.

Yeah, there are some third-party, like, you know, middleware solutions.

There are things like, like, you know, Razor has one.

What's up?

How's it called?

Razor Central.

And, like, a lot of your library can show up in this.

I think in in GOG,

you know,

which is the CD Projekt Red digital store.

I think in that one, you can integrate in other games from elsewhere in your library.

So there's some functionality for that, but all those are kind of clumsy.

None of it actually is, it kind of works as like kind of a catch-all solution.

Yeah, I guess, what am I talking about?

That's like me being like, I wish I could just play my Nintendo games on my fucking PlayStation.

No, but you're right, though, Matt.

It's like, you just want to play a video game.

That's what it's like.

I just want to play a video game I don't want to have to go into all these different things I don't want to have to like hey I have to remember I've got to this one's actually even though you know Activision Blizzard is now owned by Microsoft this game I did not purchase through

you know the Xbox or the PC Game Pass store so I've got to actually boot up the Blizzard app or whatever you know I mean like you don't want to have to worry about all that shit yeah I wish it was all just like unifiable like

Like how on like an Apple TV, you can have all your things kind of just there.

Yeah.

That'd be great.

No, I mean,

that sort of like, you know, seamless or semi-seamless integration is nice.

But relatively minor, and I will say, Narancha, I want to get your take as well.

I really like this game.

It's really, really awesome.

It's really cool.

Yeah.

These, the art direction is absolutely stellar.

Just a gorgeous game.

I mean, in every way.

I mean, these character models are so detailed and

the environments are so rich and so lush.

They feel lived in.

They feel inhabited.

They feel spooky and atmospheric.

The cold open of this game is absolutely harrowing.

You start as a nude man running for your life and then getting murdered is absolutely

fucking cult.

One of the bleakest things I've ever played.

I'm just like, this is fucking horrifying.

But

it's so well done and

it's such a unique bit of

such a unique exploration of the immersive side of this medium.

You know what I mean?

And where that leads me is to the thing that really rocks in this game is the Mind Palace.

What a cool idea.

The idea that when you are, and for people who haven't played this game,

basically

the detective character, one of the protagonists, you can go into

their mind.

And this is kind of like a it's a physical space you can navigate within the game world, but it's meant to be this kind of abstract representation of their kind of thought catalog.

And within it, you can kind of put clues together, like on a board where you're attaching things with red strings.

You know, there's file folders.

There's all sorts of, again, just physical representations of

intellectual concepts.

And it's just really fucking awesome.

I like going in there.

I like that when you're in there, the game is still happening.

Like it's like real time is still passing.

So it's like, it's like, oh, I'm using active time to think.

And this is also not a thing I can do like when I'm in peril or whatever.

You know, I do think that's really just mechanically, really awesome.

Speaking of the art direction, the sound design, similarly, so creepy, so atmospheric.

The scoring is really good.

And having just watched twin peaks for the first time last year rap david lynch i a huge fan of his movies yeah you know love his films but i just twin peaks was just one of those things i've never committed to actually watching the tv show until last year and just you just see things like deadly premonition was the big one but this one is deadly premonition is is even closer but it's just so funny how directly inspired this is from twin peaks i mean it's like the small town uh you know murder mystery with the fbi getting involved it's just it's just like such a direct a to be sam lake um

who is the yes uh you know the the hideo kojima of remedy the the the leader there the uh

i think as ashley iskeda called him the david lynch of hideo kojima

um

uh like when david lynch passed away he tweeted about how sad he was about it and like I was I was like sad for him because I was like, I like totally get it just based on the games that I've played and like understanding like the things that you value about

like like art and like creating stories like it 100% makes sense that you'd be very affected by that loss

I want to get to what Ranch thinks about it too yes but I think I mean it kind of feels like it's gonna be too late at some point but I feel like once everybody's done with it we should do like a remedy verse episode because I think that there's a lot to talk about there.

I would love to have you pilot that.

I think that would be awesome.

Rochelle, what is your experience with the game?

I think you said independently you were thinking of playing Alan Wake 2 and I was like,

Ranch, I've been playing it.

But like,

you were planning on playing this already, and you just decided to dig in?

Yeah, I was planning to play it because of Matt, actually.

He was like, that's the next game you should play.

Yeah.

By impact.

Little Ranch is getting all grown up.

But you're, so you're, you're playing it.

You're playing it on your PC.

On my PC also with keyboard and mouse.

Okay.

I was, I've been using controller, but I've been using keyboard and mouse for cert certain for like the again, the mind palette, it kind of like works, you know, there's there's some more cursor sort of stuff there.

Yeah, yeah, I don't have a controller, so I don't really have a choice, but I mean, I think it's been working really well.

Okay, I've had no issues like controlling the game.

I have like a spare Xbox controller that you can just have.

Yeah, I also have spare controllers.

I'll bring it for you all.

That'd be sick.

Yeah, I have two, and my wife never wants to play with me, so it's uh, you could have it.

Also, while we're at it, do you need like four HDMI cables

and all this other bullshit that I can't get rid of.

But how does it play with mouse and keyboard?

Do you typically like you play Fortnite mouse and keyboard?

I play Fortnite mouse and keyboard.

I guess it's not shocking because that's probably a lot of people play like that.

I like can't, I'm like such a non-mouse and keyboard gamer that I like can't ever wrap my head around it.

That was for the longest time, that was the only way I could play FPS games.

I was just so not used to the dual analog stick and I was so used to the WASTA movement and then the, you know, the mouse look.

I mean, like that, that's like,

for lack of a better phrase, like that's like what I grew up on, you know, like playing like Quake back in the day and then moving on.

And then as the genre progressed.

So it wasn't really until even Goldeneye, I've talked about on the podcast before, Goldeneye felt weird to me, you know, and Halo, I think, was the first game that I could kind of play with.

with controller, but for a long time after that, still, I was just like always preferring the PC version of FPS games.

But yeah, okay, so you're playing

with mouse and keyboard.

You're playing on PC.

I mean, what do you think of the game so far?

It's like exactly the vibe I want.

Oh, that's awesome.

Like, I love Twin Peaks.

Yeah.

I love Hannibal.

I love True Detective.

And it just feels like all of that.

It is very Hannibal.

I didn't think about that.

Yeah, for sure.

The flashbacks of

her doing the profiling.

The profiling is awesome.

It's so cool.

It's so sick.

Yeah.

It's like...

That stuff to me works so much better than the interrogations in like LA Noir or something.

Like it's such a clunky mechanic, but like the interrogations in this game are like actually useful information, like good stuff.

And like, I don't know, like the characters are all interesting.

So you kind of want to talk to them for a little while too.

And they get pissed off you asking too many questions.

It's great.

I do have a lot of fondness though for LA Noir just because it's like it's it is kind of janky but it's like kind of it's charming in that way and then it's just like you know my favorite thing about it is that it was just so novel to like recognize um like an actor yeah like in a video game.

So you're playing it and you're like, it's that guy from Mad Men.

It's that Mad Men guy.

I'm playing the Mad Men guy.

Cause like nobody, I mean, I guess there, I mean, actors have been in video games before, but

it was rare at that point for them to lend their exact likeness to the video game character,

which I love.

Yeah, that was a thing that was, I remember, I think the first big one was when Bruce Willis was in like a PlayStation 2.

That's right.

I love.

What was that

the

that Sam Lake is just in the game.

It's so funny.

It rocks.

It's so funny.

And he's voiced by the guy who is Max Payne.

Yes.

I don't want to say too much about it, but it's great.

You guys are going to really love it.

It really scratches a very weird itch.

I was like not expecting to love it as much because I liked Alan Wake fine.

I loved Control.

And then Alan Wake 2 comes out and it's just like the exact game that I just love.

And it's also fucking scary as hell.

This is what is going to be scary.

You and I, and Heather would be making fun of us, and rightfully so if she were here, but like you and I are famous cowards.

Like,

I'm not great with scary games, and I can get through them, and I can appreciate a good game that happens to be scary.

I feel like you have maybe a little bit less tolerance for scary games.

This game is quite unnerving.

It's really scary, but also like there's so much in the game, too, that is, like, funny is not the right word for it, but, like, it is, like, I don't know.

I had to think it maybe is the right word.

Some of it is funny.

There are characters in the game that are legitimately so funny and so weird.

Wait, this guy's just like a dip shit?

It's just fucking stupid.

These fucking,

like, Finnish brothers are just like

in, like, these shitty commercials.

Like, that stuff's really funny.

The sort of, like, meta stuff is really good.

And, like, there's a sequence later that, like, if it hasn't been spoiled for you yet, I'll be so happy and so surprised.

There's, like, just great stuff in it that I can't wait to hear you guys talk about it more once you get closer to finishing it or finish it because it's great.

Well, because this is going to be my big thing, and this is where it's going to land with my little Alan Wake 2 chunk here.

You think I should see this through to the end.

I have enjoyed it.

But you would say, like, because I'm looking at this, I'm looking at how long to beat.

I know that I always take a little bit longer to get through games than the people who self-report to that site.

So I'm thinking, like, I got a budget 25 to 30 hours, something like that, sound about right for this game.

You know, and this is a time of year where it's not a lot coming out, but I Citizen Sleeper 2 just came out.

I love Citizen Sleeper.

I want to make sure I have some time for that.

Yeah, Civilization 7 will be out maybe by the time this episode is out or shortly thereafter.

And I mean, that's going to be just that may be a life ruiner for me.

And then

we did our backlog episodes every single time.

We're going to have a foot left to ruin.

Wait a minute.

Also, though,

I think

you'll get Civ 7 will always be there as the.

Yeah, that's true.

And it'll get patched and it'll get expansions and it'll end up being

a better overall package over time.

So I don't need to be in a rush to play that extensively, although I do want to mess around with it a lot.

But I think like

I guess

I was leaning towards playing through this anyway.

Yeah.

But I just kind of want to just make sure that it's not the sort of thing where it's like, oh, it's front loaded with the best stuff.

And then you can kind of like, you know, see through the end if it's really gripping you.

You think the whole thing is worthwhile regarding I think it's like one of my favorite like game stories like it's okay and but also like I've I love it I'm fully bought in on like the remedy stuff so like the connections really worked for me I had just come off of finishing control I jumped straight into it so I was just like fully immersed in it and I do I think I think the DLC is incredible like I think that stuff is extra worth it too like I it's yeah I got it was all on sale so I had to get the DLC as well so the DLC will actually I had to play it separately I think it'll sit in where it's supposed to go within the story of the game.

So that'll be really cool for you.

I kind of want to play through it again.

Maybe I'll play through it again just to see it where it goes in the actual story.

But I think it's great.

And it has, I don't know,

it has like that type of, I don't know, that weird stuff, that like severance, that like lost type stuff

that I really, really love.

So it's, I, it's 100% worth seeing through to the end.

One thing I really like is the environmental design, just as a level design guy.

Like, I just like,

there are

times when it's kind it's so subtly steering you towards it where it wants you to go yeah but it makes it feel like it's your own discovery and that i think is also satisfying which is like like oh you feel like you've discovered a hidden path even though the game is pointing you towards this path yeah like when you like have to figure out like how to use the lamp for example and how like the lamp will you know you if you turn it on or off will um show

like a new area that you can go to and you're like, oh, I'm supposed to go to this.

Like, that does feel, you feel like a million bucks when you figure that type of stuff out.

But also, it is, it is very, very scary.

There are just shadows everywhere saying wake, and it is fucking horrifying.

It is so scary.

Rochelle, any other thoughts?

Anything else you want to add?

Oh, I'm excited.

I just want to live in the world.

Hell yeah.

Love it.

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Can I say one more thing?

I meant to add this into my metaphor Refantasio monologue or series of monologues in the previous weeks.

I did want to say about the final boss because there was one thing that I said, and this zero spoilers.

We're not in spoiler country.

I won't say anything.

There is a final boss in this game,

if that is a spoiler.

I talked about the combat at a certain point heightens in difficulty to where it just kind of turns into a war of attrition.

The final boss is kind of like, is naturally kind of like the end point of that.

And it is the point where it just kind of feels like there's one kind of way to contest this.

And it just sort of,

you know, it's very tanky.

All the different forms, I won't say how many there are, have enormous health pools.

And it just feels like it's just like, man, this is just taking forever.

And I'm not necessarily even challenged here.

Challenged to some degree.

I'm in some amount of peril, but it's, but it is more just a sort of thing of like,

I don't know.

Like,

it, it's, it's, uh, a microcosm of the end game in general, just like, there's just so much, it's so expansive, you know, I mean, and, and, and, and it just kind of like feels a little bit overstuffed, even though I overall was, as was extremely positive on the game and really, really enjoy it.

Um, but the final boss was another thing.

It was like, man, I feel like we could have just

streamlined this a little bit, you know?

Yeah, I, but but, but then again, maybe they're like, hey, at the end of a, of a, you know, 80 plus hour game, we want to make sure you have a huge set piece to kind of send you you off on your way i like aspirationally put the the disc back into my ps5 it's like you know what like if it's i can't play it if it's not in there

so if it's in there maybe i'll boot it back up and see what's going on but i've yet to to press uh you know play on that that fucker again but i i want to get back in there it rocks it's just a lot and and but it was a game that by the end of it i was very ready to be done with

which you know it sometimes happens with a game of that scope and that size uh all right let's talk about this week's topic you know hey it's it's valentine's day or roughly valentine's day yeah so we're talking about a game that is one of the most successful products in financial terms in gaming candy crush saga

so matt had you messed around with candy crush saga prior to this this was my maiden voyage with candy crush okay i had never played it before uh rochelle you ever messed around with candy crush i played it for the first time today but i have watched my mom play it for years.

So this is the thing, and we'll talk about the parent side, because this is a big part of why this game is so huge, is it is a game for non-gamers.

Yes.

And succeeding at that is its own achievement.

But this is a game that like it is, again, because of the ubiquity of smartphones.

It's everywhere.

And a lot of people who like are just want to pass some time while they're standing in line or on the bus or whatever the fuck, they end up with this.

And this is what they're.

I mean, I see people just playing Candy Crush on the train or similar match 3 games.

So it goes back to a Russian developed puzzle game that would become arguably one of the most influential works in the genre.

You may be thinking Tetris, but it's not Tetris, it's Shariki, which translates to the marbles.

The marbles, Shariki, was the first ever match 3 game.

It was developed by Eugene Alemjin.

and released for PC in 1994.

Other match 3 games that owe their existence to Shariki include pre-social media casual sensation Bejeweled, kind of the Candy Crush saga of its era.

I don't remember how big like Bejeweled was, and I mean, for my age, would have been like dorm rooms back then.

You know, I feel like everyone was playing this game.

I always play games.

I always think Bejeweled is Bubble Bobble, and I like Bubble Bobble.

Yeah, but a Puzzle Bobble or Bubble Bobble

is a,

I think Puzzle Bobble is called Bust a Move

Overseas.

And it's a, it, that game, I actually do really like that design.

It's a different sort of thing because it's kind of like got the Pagel aspect of your shooting,

you know, your game piece.

You're not just moving things around to match them.

Yeah.

But it's a similar sort of thing.

You're matching pieces to eliminate them.

But Bejeweled is kind of Puzzle Quest was another game I played.

That was a game I actually got my wife to play.

We played it together for a time.

So that was kind of like a match 3 game with some RPG elements.

Pokemon Shuffle.

I don't know if you ever played Pokemon Shuffle?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But there was a Puzzle Quest game for the DS that I can never, I can't find again.

Oh, interesting.

Or it was like a similar thing that I, and I was obsessed with this.

Yeah.

And it was like, I had other games for the DS that were like more like tailored to my taste, but I like could not stop playing Puzzle Quest, and I don't remember which one it was.

Match 3 is such a, like, it's such a shockingly vibrant genre.

There's so many Match 3 entries.

There's so many games that are developed.

And of course, my beloved Honey Pop.

Also a Match 3 game.

So Candy Crush Saga was actually the fourth Match 3 game designed by its creator, Sebastian Knutson, or Knutson.

Knutson, I actually don't know how to say that name.

But however you pronounce it, Sebastian,

who works for Swedish-based developer King.com Limited.

was making browser games, moved on to Facebook games, and then mobile games, which was basically the trajectory of the company.

Candy Crush Saga existed in all three forms.

I actually didn't know it was a browser game at first, but it makes sense.

Yeah, yeah.

Like it's just some like board office person like playing a game

in a PC.

Yeah, and that window they minimize when their boss comes by so they can reopen their Excel spreadsheet.

So then it turned out, yeah, and so it, but what it really took off was when it launched on the App Store for Apple phones in 2012.

And King.com or King was acquired by Activision Blizzard.

I believe in 2015, I could have that year wrong.

And then subsequently, that company, of course, acquired by Microsoft.

It's difficult to get exact stats, but Candy Crest Saga grosses

estimated annually over $1 billion in revenue.

Like it's an absolute fucking cash gal.

It makes sense because

while playing this for the first time, I almost accidentally spent money almost every time I was playing it.

It's very easy to spend money in this game and also imagine if you were like 70.

You know what I mean?

And I'm not trying to say anything.

Look, I'm old as shit.

I'm not trying to say anything about God blessing.

They're stupid as hell.

You're dumb as fuck.

No, I mean, like, I just like,

I even feel it now as I'm getting older.

It's just like easier to get tricked by things.

And I feel like it's like, this is the sort of, this is the thing with this game.

And from what I've read about this developer, Sebastian Knutson, it's like, seems like a very earnest guy, seems like a very talented guy who really like analyzed what works about match three games, really figured it it out figured out how to implement it in this game but it's impossible to divorce its design and i don't even think this is necessarily the developer's fault i think this is the publisher's fault it's impossible to divorce the design from the nature of the game which is pretty predatory it's like kind of like Imagine if Bellacho had microtransactions that were being offered up all the time.

I would be in fucking jail.

Like I would like

my life would be ruined.

But it also kind of like ruins the experience of like, ah, fuck, I'm going to fail a run when it just is like, well, I could continue this run if I spend two dollars and 99 cents right now you know what I mean it like it just it's just a different feeling experience I just had it this is a complete aside a complete tangent a complete waste of time to even mention this but can you imagine

we're getting waved at by Griffin Newman and Anya and and Chef Kevin as well actually Chef Kevin is like this I'm over it

doesn't seem happy at all no no no um I I had I had I had an aside I want to bring up

staring daggers at me the yeah well she's she's probably hearing about that I'm going to complain about the floor being too hard.

You said that the developer's name was Sebastian.

Yeah.

Can you imagine if it was Sebastian Maniscalco?

What the fuck do you mean match three?

I don't even want to match two, okay?

Just give me one and I'm out of here.

That was good.

You had a back pocket Maniscalco.

I thought you were going to do a, I thought you're going to do Sebastian from under the sea.

No, no, no, no.

I can't do that one.

I don't know if any of us want to commit to that voice.

So

I have played this previously.

Question fucking candy, okay?

Does he cuss?

No.

That's the thing.

I think he's like a clean comic.

My take on him is that he cusses.

Is that he cusses?

Yeah.

I love my mom's fucking lasagna, okay?

Tastes so fucking good.

A lasagna.

He's like so popular and like so beloved by people who like that.

Yeah.

Can you imagine if he cussed?

He'd be the biggest name of all.

He'd be the president, probably.

Would he be bigger?

Because I do feel like a lot of the biggest comedians do work clean.

Yeah.

Brian Regan.

Yeah.

Brian Regan.

Like, I feel like these are just like, I feel like being, I mean, there's also a unique challenge to working clean.

So I don't know.

I don't know if he would have a higher ceiling if he worked clean.

But, you know, at one point, Dice was selling out Madison Square Garden.

He was too filthy.

That's a great point.

So maybe maybe the thing is, you either go full, you go all the way, you go super blue, and you're just the foulest, most offensive comedian, or you go super clean.

But the murky middle ground is when you get into trouble.

Either way,

we protect our own.

God bless stand-up comedians.

So

I have played this game before, and I bounced off it pretty hard, but it is the sort of thing.

I'm gonna put my DS on the floor at headgum.

I think the thing is,

the game is,

how do I say this exactly?

I know exactly what it's doing to my brain.

It's one of those games where it just completely removes any sort of layers of abstraction that make it feel like, you know, like I know exactly what it's doing to my brain in the same way I do I feel when I'm playing a slot machine or I'm playing video park.

You know what I mean?

I know what you are doing,

but I also can't really stop playing once I get going.

And it's not even necessarily an enjoyable experience for me.

Although I do have some ad, I do have admiration for how aesthetically pleasing it is.

I do think the soundtrack is really charming.

I think the sound design is really like, you know, like

the low voice that comes in.

The haptic feedback in the hand is very good.

I think all the feedback is really nice.

Like it's constant visual and audio rewards and textural rewards from the forced feedback.

But I'm not even necessarily having fun, if that makes sense.

No, I would go as far to say that I think the game might be evil, actually.

Because like, yeah, the idea that it's ranking in these billions of dollars a year and it like that it is probably tricking a significant population of the the player base into spending money um

i was

i was pretty shocked when i was playing it nick like i'm not gonna lie yeah you were shocked i was shocked uh just because i had not i knew it was a match three game but i just didn't know that it was like um that you could, I guess, in theory, play it for the rest of your fucking life, that you could just like sit there and just play it.

And knowing that I was having to play it for the show felt, felt for the first time in a long time, felt like a chore.

Like, cause I was like, I was not enjoying this, and it was like, guys, yeah, something about it.

I felt the

I felt the like creases in my already pretty smooth brain just like finally, just like fully sealing over.

And like, I was like, this, like, I was like, I get why people just sit around and play these, like, these mobile games like this, but like, I, like, I feel dumb playing it, and I, I don't, I, I, I did not enjoy it.

And also, not some of my favorite candies to look at, I gotta say.

Oh, interesting.

I kind of like how the candies look.

They look fine.

I would pick different candy because I just like different candy.

You're more of a, what, are you more of a chocolate guy?

What do you mean?

I mean, there's not enough gummy in here, I gotta say.

And I know that you're a gummy skeptic.

Yeah, I say gummy, ate, yummy.

You say gummy, ate, yummy.

I'm a gummy freak.

Ranch, where are you at with candy?

Where are you at with gummy?

They're fine.

Hmm, the Goldilocks, right in between.

The Swedish fish will show up.

The Swedish fish will show up.

So are they like, but they're like not the Swedish fish, are they?

No.

I don't know if they're officially licensed Swedish fish.

They might be.

I would like them to be more officially licensed candies.

Get some Smarties in there.

Get some Starbursts.

Why not?

Like in the way that Fortnite can just have anything, like, let's get all the candies in there.

That'd be great.

Matching three is pretty...

I mean, it's easy and it's like fun.

It's like a game that anybody could play.

Look,

I think match three mechanics are...

Pretty genius.

And I think they are, they are, this is one of those things where

it's...

I have a quote here this is from a 2014 Polygon piece by Tracy Lean according to Knudsen this is the developer it's easy for people to be myopic and make sweeping generalization generalizations about entire game genres and categories when they're not familiar with them but to a player who regularly plays match three puzzle games the differences between them are clear and the differences matter he told Polygon the copycat and cloning criticisms the company faces tend to come from outsiders people who either haven't or aren't interested in playing King's games or are or any match three puzzle games.

This is a quote.

You can always say that all card Solitaire games are the same, but there's tons of people who love them, who appreciate the different variations that are out there, he said.

So I think you either play them and appreciate the difference or uniqueness, or from the outside, you just judge them all as the same type of game.

I think that's actually

absolutely true.

I think the Solitaire comparison is very astute.

And I will say that, like,

there are differences between these games, and some of it is just like, again, aesthetics.

And I do think this game is quite pleasing to experience.

And

like,

just as a match three game, I think it's pretty fine.

Better than fine.

I think it's, I think it's a good implementation.

Yes.

And I think a lot of the mechanics that it adds, like things like

the jellies that you have to break or like gum that explodes, you know, the way when you match match four, match five, you get, you know, a special candy that can be combined with another special candy to have some sort of spectacular effect like i think all those are are rewarding and interesting explorations of what this genre can be the thing that so i like all that yeah and like i mean like i mean I don't like the game, but I like the things that it can do.

One of the things that I don't like about it is that I kind of feel like you don't even really have to play the game, really.

Like, you don't have to think that much because

if you kind of look at it for long enough or you let it sit for long enough, it'll highlight a piece for you to move or like the section that you want to move or it'll

like once you get to a certain point, it'll just like make the rest of the moves kind of like for you almost.

It does do that in the early going.

It does highlight like, hey, like it just does basically if you leave it idle for a second, it will show what the AI tells you is the ideal move to make.

I don't know if it's always steering you in the optimized direction, but this is another thing where it comes down to because the game wants you to spend real money, because that's the core business model behind this.

Like, you reach a point where it's like, can I trust the AI or is it trying to set me up and set up some traps to make me make some non-optimized moves just so I will have to spend money to keep playing, to buy more lives or whatever.

But

I mean, like, part of that also is just the hand-holding inherent in any of these sort of free-to-play games.

I mean, Fortnite does the same fucking thing where you start the game off and you're matched up against low skill level bots yeah and so you know i think i talked about when we way back when we did our fortnite episode i don't ever play those kinds of of battle royale games i don't really play online shooters at all but like you know i got crowns on like two of my first three or all three of my first matches or whatever and it's just like that's just designed to make you feel like oh i'm good at this game so i'm gonna keep playing it yeah it's the same principle here they're like here hand holding your hand through the mo through all the different moves you can make so that like you can be you can just follow what they're telling telling you to do and then succeed wildly at the game and get get a crown and get three stars on every level you know but that but that's like more in the early going and also this game just like continues on forever yeah i i mean like rochelle do you have a do you have a sense of of how long your mom played this for because i i talked to my dad My dad played daily for years.

I will say he never spent money because he's cheap as shit.

But he's played every day until basically ran out of lives and then would wait for it to recharge.

I asked him what level he got to by the end before he gave up.

He got to level 4,647.

So that's, you can play this game for a while.

That's amazing.

Yeah.

And it's, it feels like it's like good progress that he answered your call, actually.

He's usually stonewalling me.

Rochelle, do you know like how far your mom got?

At least, I mean, I don't know what level she is, but she's at least.

At least seven years.

Wow.

Is she still playing it regularly?

She's still playing it regularly.

Wow.

She has like a little rotation of mobile games like that.

Do you know if she spends her own money?

No.

She doesn't know how to connect a credit card.

So,

you know, that's good.

We had to like take stuff like that off of my grandpa's phone because we were just like, he can't, if he can put his credit card on here, it's over.

Like, there's just nothing left for anybody.

I don't know if we ever talked about Mario Run, which I was really disappointed by.

I messed around with a little bit, but I handed my nephew Mario Run when it was new.

Cause like, like, man, kids love if if you have games on your phone, kids love it so much.

Um, but anyway, so I was like, my nephew, I handed him my phone, uh, and I had Mario Run going.

I don't know how he did it, but like, within like 15 seconds, he like spent money.

Like, how did you do this?

How did you charge my credit card immediately?

Double tap on the power button.

Yeah.

Um, I assume that all of your relatives just look exactly like you.

You'd be able to use the facial recognition.

It's like the Flanders family reunion.

Hey, buddy.

Yeah, I mean.

Gosh, my mom does play a lot of iPad games, too, but she's playing a lot of like word

sort of things, not like your,

what was that one?

Wordle?

Wordle, yeah, God.

Oh, my God.

See?

It's finally fully smooth.

It's done.

I'm cooked.

I like, I was, I was, I did get back into Wordle for a time, and then I was like, eh.

I played a game on LinkedIn.

Yeah.

I kind of loved it.

What was the game?

It was kind of like a, it was almost like a Sudoku with shapes.

Oh, wow.

But it was like very, it was much fewer squares.

Like on the website, LinkedIn, like you logged in and on my phone, I'm like on the app.

Oh, on your, on the app.

Yeah.

I didn't even know, I guess, I mean, of course, there's a LinkedIn app.

And there's like a, you could do like a streak.

sort of like you can keep a streak going.

I was like, I can't be involved.

I can't be on LinkedIn like this.

Yeah, that feels like LinkedIn should not have games.

Yeah, I'm trying to, I'm trying to work.

Do my fucking job But it was a very satisfying thing But once I figured it out I was like I can't do this because it was like a you have to put a moon where

in an opposite place of the Sun, but you can't put too many shapes that match together in a row.

It was great.

I thought it was very good, but

I can't be messing around like that.

Back to Candy Crush.

Yeah.

I will say,

there's a Candy Crush game show.

Is there not?

I think there is.

Wait, is there?

I think there is.

I think there's a Candy Crush game show.

I'll look this up because this was a thing I did not look for in my research.

What is it?

2017, one season.

Only one season.

What was it?

Wait, who hosted it?

What was it?

Probably like Rob Lowe or something.

Mario Lopez.

God.

Would have been the second guess.

Mario Lopez, yeah, the game was just called Candy Crush based off of Candy Crush Saga.

I'm just reading the Wikipedia here.

It was featured tile matching gameplay similar to its namesake, but with players suspended at a height in front of one of two 30-foot touch screens.

Oh, man.

That sounds dumb.

That doesn't seem good.

Candy Crush was very poorly received by critics and viewers.

It is Slat of the Verge considered to be, quote, an unmitigated train wreck that's banking on the lasting popularity of its lead-in, Big Brother derived Sunday night viewership.

Wow.

That's pretty tough, but I think this game does a better better job of representing candy than that of Wreck-It Ralph.

Wreck-It Ralph

is a candy movie, isn't it?

Wreck-It Ralph is a candy movie.

Now, did Wreck-It Ralph predate Candy Crush?

Wreck-It Ralph is like 2017, I think, or same year, huh?

2012, also 2012.

Okay, so there was not necessarily any influence from one to the other.

Because I would be like, I could have seen it happening either way.

Either Wreck-It Ralph, you know,

the Sugar Rush game there inspires Candy Crush saga or vice vice versa.

They were like, hey, let's do a Mario Kart slash Candy Crush sort of, you know, game.

And so has it always been called Candy Crush Saga?

Yeah, that's the full name, but I think people just call it Candy Crush.

Because, yeah, I mean, I was just like so shocked that, like, you could just, like, I wasn't able to, were you able to pick your avatar?

Because we became friends.

We became candy friends.

Yeah, we are candy friends.

I think that, like, a lot of the stuff happens as you progress.

Okay.

And I don't know.

I didn't try to change my avatar.

I think that is a thing you can change.

I'm just like a little hamster that I'm not confident isn't AI.

And, I mean, he's cute, I guess, but I'm at level 32, and I'm pretty sure that once we're done recording this episode, this thing is leaving my phone, and that's where it'll stay.

I mean, that's probably the smart move, because the thing is, it's like, it's a, if you do get addicted, I think it's a thing that you're going, that's going to, that you're going to spend money on.

Yeah.

You know, and like, well, like, whatever.

I don't, like, I'm not putting

I'm not trying to judge how people spend their time.

Do whatever the fuck you want.

You know, I'm not like that.

We certainly spend money in dumb ways.

We spend money in dumb ways, the dumbest of ways.

But

like, like, like, for me, in terms of my experience, like, it's just a little too,

I don't know, it's the modern version of the

quarter eater arcade game, you know what I mean?

Where it's just like, like, I know that if I just, I can just play this endlessly as long as I keep putting money into this thing.

Yes.

And that kind of removes any sort of tension that could exist because it's like ultimately you have a

the only fail state is when you refuse to spend additional money.

Here's a shot of Candy Crush Saga the TV show.

I've changed my mind.

It's actually good.

They are suspended on wires and they are in midair and they are touching giant versions of the candies on it looks like they're those are just like a huge stack of touch screens.

It doesn't seem like that like being suspended in the air is necessary, actually.

It doesn't seem like it's adding anything to the game.

No, just like that player discomfort, perhaps.

I wonder if that was the kind of thing where it was just like the executives couldn't quite understand

what the appeal of the game was.

And they were like, I don't know, turn into a stunt thing.

Because like Wipeout and like Holy Moly and like other shows like that are big.

They're like, we got to have

an action element to it

of some kind.

Yeah, because otherwise it's just like people touching a big screen.

It's a game show of all Vanna Whites.

You can't do that.

Rochelle and I outside before we started recording learned an interesting fact from Chef Kevin.

What's that?

Chef Kevin told us that he read something that Candy Crush is Michael Jordan's favorite game.

Interesting.

And I said, more than basketball?

All right, so that was just a setup for you to repeat that joke.

Yeah.

Got it.

I liked it.

I'm glad you did it.

Rochelle rochelle like it twice

hold on michael jordan candy crush saga i had not heard that i'd be i mean i guess i wouldn't be shocked but like you know he's always holding that ipad and crying

it's because he ran out of lives

i had to spend 299 on a gold bar

I don't know.

I don't, I can't find any context on this.

Kevin's from Chicago.

Maybe he heard it on the streets of Chicago somewhere.

And, you know, he's like, hey, I got a little hot tip for you.

One of the bulls, one of the big bulls loves Candy Crush.

The badgest of all.

Yeah.

Well, if it's not true,

Chef Kevin, you're now officially an enemy of Get Play.

You're persona non grada around here.

Let's not go that far.

Yeah, honestly, like within a few, within a few,

I got Bing open here.

And with a few, it's just like a, here's a stable diffusion prompt, Michael Jordan playing Candy Crush.

And it's just like a fucking AI.

Well, if it's not on Bing, it's certainly not anywhere.

The game did sort of make me want a little bit of something sweet.

You know what I mean?

Oh, for sure.

Because

you're seeing all these candies.

You're sort of like, you know what?

I can go for a little bit of candy.

But I just like, I don't know.

I don't like, I'm not really into like a hot tamale or this like lollipop or any of any of this.

The gummy, the grape gummy sort of is like the one that I would want to eat.

There's like a Werther's original sort of looking candy.

You know what I like when you do a match five and you get that like chocolate truffle that's covered with all the multicolored sprinkles?

That is pretty cool.

That one looks toothsome.

I would bite into it to see what was going on.

Another thing I like about just the look of the game is that they've got all these, you know, I think the one character is called Tiffy, that is kind of the princess character, but there's a bunch of them.

There's an abominable snowman.

They're all like cardboard cutouts.

They're all like noted, like Paper Mario style, like

notably, you know, 2D.

And I don't know.

I think that's kind of fun.

The aesthetic is fine.

It's just like, yeah, I guess it's like, it's easy enough to look at for a long time if you were like just like doing this.

Yeah, it's all kind of soothing.

Yeah.

And

I do feel like if this was a game where it was a

like, again, like Balacho, if this was a $9.99 one-time purchase

and it was just a thing that you could play and it was all, you know, skill-based once you got in there,

how far you were able to progress.

Then I think

I would just like it more.

But again, that's not what the core design is.

And obviously, that's way less lucrative.

And that probably doesn't lead to King being purchased by

one of the biggest publishers in gaming.

I feel like at the start of this, we said that we're covering this because it's Valentine's Day.

I think we have to go a step further and just clarify.

Valentine's Day is a candy holiday.

Valentine's Day is a candy holiday.

I think that's fair.

It's probably one of the, I mean, we could have done this at Halloween too, I think.

Well, Halloween is also a candy holiday, but I think Halloween is also a spooky holiday.

And this is like such, this is specifically, we should say, to anyone who's not played it, this is love candy.

Like, Candy Crush's candy is love candy.

It's not Halloween candy.

No,

it's love candy, not scare candy.

Maybe they re-skin it.

And in fact, I would not be surprised if this was a seasonal event they did in October, the spooky season.

They re-skin it to be like kind of a haunted candy crush.

Maybe they do a candy corn in there.

Yeah, maybe just or just kind of got kind of like a nightmare before Christmas aesthetic.

Maybe they kind of lean into that, but just as a

in its default form, it's akin to Valentine's candy.

This is love candy.

It's all love candy.

It's candy that you would give to a loved one.

Yeah.

And hey, some of our loved ones enjoy this game.

None of mine.

None of mine.

Wow.

My wife is also not a big candy fan.

I got to say, she doesn't like it.

You know what?

My wife is also

not a big candy fan.

I think there's something crazy for this stuff.

Yeah, I mean, like,

I think a lot of candy is...

What's your favorite candy?

I mean, it's going to be in

different divisions.

If it's like chocolate, I like...

I like bad chocolate.

Like, I love Kit Kat.

Like, Kit Kats is like number one in the chocolate division.

Yeah, I had no complaints with Kit Kats.

Have you had a Canadian Kit Kat?

No.

Holy shit, they're fucking

like,

it's, it's transcendent.

Wow.

Because I've had the Japanese ones.

Those are great.

Japanese ones are great too.

But the Canadian Kit Kat is just a chocolate Kit Kat, but it's just a much better level of cocoa.

Because it's one of those things where

the Canadian one

has to follow like the British standards for chocolate manufacturing.

And they're just like with confectionery, they're just like much more stringent about how much cocoa needs to be in it.

Where in the American version, it's like mostly high fructose corn syrup or whatever the fuck.

So it's like, it's just a, it's a much cheaper execution.

And when you have them side by side, there's a noticeable difference.

In fact, next time I think I have an American Kit Kat, I think I'll just be like, why am I doing this?

I'd rather have a Canadian one.

I'll have to source a Canadian one because that sounds really good.

I like that.

Fucking RFK Jr.

That's the kind of, like, if he did that, you know what I mean?

That's the thing he could be doing that could be at least be some net good in our fucking horrible world.

Yeah.

If like there's one thing, it's like, hey, you know what?

We're going to have good chocolate.

We're going to make sure they serve real beef at McDonald's.

We're going to have beef tallow at McDonald's fries, and we're going to have real fucking chocolate in our candy bars.

We're not going to have this shitty American chocolate anymore that everyone, the rest of the world, thinks tastes like vomit.

I think we should get rid of our red dye in the fucking Gatorade.

It's like, shut up, you fucking loser.

But

gummies are my number one.

I love like a sour gummy worm, like a trolley,

like sour gummy worms.

Those are my jam.

I also, I love, I love red vines.

At the movies, I get red vines.

I used to love red vines.

Or Twizzlers.

I also love Twizzlers.

I'm agnostic.

I would like get like get my parents, I beg my parents to get the fucking big ass red vines tub from Costco.

I was, I love that so much.

And these days, like, and I used to think the coolest thing in the world was taking a red vine and then like sipping a sprite using a red vine cutting off both edges.

Yeah.

That was like my favorite thing to do.

And then now I just, I don't, I'm not really into them anymore.

I go crazy for those.

And you know what?

Actually, have you had a nerd's gummy cluster before?

I know you're not a gummy guy.

I've had one.

I don't really remember it specifically.

I love a nerd's gummy cluster.

I just nodded.

Yeah, it's good.

You get the softness of the gummy, but then you get the crunch of the nerd.

That's pretty good.

Yeah, I mean, look, I love to crunch on a nerd.

A lot of fun.

Crunching nerds every day, dog.

All right.

Shoving them in lockers and all that.

I'm a bully now, by the way.

I don't like your bullying phase.

I'm going to start bullying everybody, and you know what?

Things are going to start finally going my way, I'll tell you that.

Wow.

Jeff Kevin

could never bully him.

He's too nice.

I know.

A good friend of mine.

Someone here I want to bully is the thing.

Yeah, no, no, no, no, no.

I will be mentioning that the floor is too hard, but I will not bully anybody.

Any other thoughts on this game or match three games in general?

I mean, I will say, like, I have enjoyed a lot of match three games over the years, and I think just the ones I enjoy, I think match three is like a cool mechanic.

The ones I've enjoyed are the ones that exist as games, the ones that aren't like mobile games.

And this is this is the, I guess, this is just

what this turns into is just the issue with every mobile game:

the way they're monetized is that they are supposed to be free products that free-to-play products that are trying to get people to spend as much money.

But unlike something like Fortnite, which is all cosmetics, you know, it's

here, it's like things, you know, it's not skins.

It's not an alternate wardrobe.

It's things that actually give you an advantage in the game.

Yeah.

And that to me is just like

it's more abstract in something like Marvel, Snap, or Hearthstone, but it's the same sort of problem with those games where you're spending real money for advantages in gameplay that kind of just skews the whole sort of

the balance of everything.

I guess I have a question about since you're like a big match three guy.

You know what the difference is?

It's the difference between diablo immortal and diablo 4 yeah diablo 4 has like you can buy stuff but what you're buying is cosmetics diablo immortal you can just pay to straight up pay to win it just couldn't it just completely like ruins the experience yeah um i don't think it outright ruins candy crush saga but it's just inherent to what it is because like i guess if you if you can't if you can just pay to not lose then like what are we what are we doing like the game is not actually like you're not being good at the game you're not like being rewarded for your skill at the game right yeah um would you say this game or um honey pop is hornier?

Probably honey pop because that game has actual hentai in it.

It's probably the game with

it's a straight-up H game.

It's for adults only.

Honey Pop is a really well designed puzzle game.

I have a segment.

Yeah.

Let's do it.

You can turn on censored mode and honey pop if you want, by the way.

You can play, you know, you can play just a little bit.

You can turn on censored?

Yeah, you can, no, you can turn on like, you know, you don't have to play it the dirty mode.

He can, it's in there, but it's like the main thing.

I mean, it's not that, so the main thing, I'd say the main thing is the core is match three gameplay, which is really well implemented.

Hmm.

I got a segment.

Just saying, like, you don't have to be in it for the hentai.

You can just be like a normal guy.

You can be a normal guy.

Not to say that it's abnormal.

But you can just like be playing the game because you think the game is good.

All right, let's do this segment.

Sort of if you're hard.

Who cares?

Okay, I got a segment for you guys.

Nick and Ranch have to guess how long it takes to complete a game.

This

is game overtime.

Wow, game overtime.

Okay.

This is a so I mentioned this earlier when I was talking about how long to beat with Alan Wake 2, which is the last game I looked up.

And my thing that I will say, Ranch, and I know you've observed this game before,

I think that they tend to, the people who,

it's a selection bias thing, where the people who choose to submit for this are more avid gamers who maybe get through games faster than average.

So maybe use that to...

Maybe skews things a little bit.

That's the one observation I have.

To grade on a curve.

Now, are we, you're going off of how long to beat?

I'm going off how long to beat.

And which

main story only.

Main story only.

Okay.

So that's like the least amount you can do.

Yeah.

If you're just sort of beelining through it.

Yes.

Okay.

So I know we just mentioned it.

I do have Alan Wake 2 on the list.

What do you think it says on the list?

I think I looked on this, so maybe we could just do this as a warm-up.

But I'd say if Ranch actually gets it, maybe Ranch can just have the point.

But I think it was like,

I think it was like 21 hours.

What do you think, Ranch?

I'll go 18 hours.

Ranch gets it.

It's 19 hours later.

Wow.

So Ranch is already on the board.

Next game on the list.

Is this pricer's right rules, by the way?

Or is this whoever's closest?

Yeah, but nobody likes price's right rules.

And to that, I say, who fucking cares?

So, it is price's right, it's right, it's price is right.

And guess what, baby?

The price is right.

Hey, you, you do have bully energy.

I'm fucking pissed off.

I shouldn't have had that Coke Zero before we started.

I'm all jacked up.

It's late in the day for caffeine.

I'm going to be paying for it later.

I'll tell you what.

Falling asleep with some headphones on tonight.

Next game on the list here, Inside.

Oh, Inside.

Oh, boy.

Inside.

Inside.

Which I believe you've played, Ranch.

I have played that.

Yes.

Mainline, just main story only.

I want to say,

are there decimal points in here?

Are there halves?

Halves are allowed.

Four and a half hours.

Four and a half hours.

Ranch, what do you say?

Six hours.

You both went over, but I'm going to give it to Nick, who went the least over.

3.5 hours on inside.

That's a pretty quick playtime, but I guess if you know what you're doing, you can kind of sprint through it.

You can get through it.

Yeah, you can get through it quick

if you know what's going on.

Next one.

Okay, so it's one to one.

One to one.

Got it.

And I did kind of do a theme here.

These are games that I know that Ranch has played because I wanted it to be fun.

Wow, that's fun.

Thank you, man.

You're welcome.

Or at least played a little bit.

Okay.

Hollow Knight.

How long to beat Hollow Knight?

How long to beat Hollow Knight?

Based on the limited experience that you've had with it, Ranch.

Pretty decent, yeah.

And

I've played it just a little bit myself.

It was on my backlog list when we did our backlog Thunderdome, and I have committed to playing Hollow Knight.

I really do want to play through it.

I think I'm really going to enjoy it.

It's right up my alley.

And I believe main story only, I'm going to say 29 hours.

I think it's bigger than people

think.

29 hours from Nick.

Ranch, what do you think?

I think it's 40 hours.

40 hours.

Nick's going to take this one again.

27 hours for Hollow Knight.

Wow.

That's a beefy boy.

A beefy boy if you're mainline only.

That's crazy, right?

It's a big, big, big game.

Big boy.

Look what daddy did.

Next one.

I think I feel like you played this Rochelle.

I think you did.

Resident Evil 4 remake.

Ranch did play this, right?

He did this around this.

Yeah, I am.

Resident Evil 4 remake.

Mainline only.

17 hours.

17 hours from Nick.

What do you think, Ranch?

I'll go 18 hours.

Ranch is going to take that one 21.5 hours.

Oh, okay.

21 and a half hours.

Not nothing.

Also, an all-timer.

Yeah.

So fucking good.

Was that the remake?

That was the remake.

Finally.

What's the score now?

It's tied.

It's tied.

This is the final.

Is it two to two?

It's two to two.

It's two to two.

Okay.

Next one takes it.

Wow.

How long does it take to beat Mary Caiton Ashley, Sweet 16, licensed to drive?

Okay, so this is Ranch has an advantage here because I have not played this game.

I've only heard about it secondhand.

I haven't played this in 20 years.

Yeah.

And have you, did you ever roll credits on it?

I mean, it's like a Mario Party-esque game.

Got it.

Okay.

So we're talking about like one rat, one.

Yeah, I wonder what it's, what it's measuring with the main story only.

It had a time.

I'm going to say three hours.

I think 30 minutes.

Nick's going to get it.

Three and a half hours.

Wow.

Three and a half hours.

Three and a half hours to finish.

Mary Kate and Ashley's Sweet 16 License to Drive.

Wow, okay.

I guess Nick's going to like it here.

That's the song from the game.

And I know because my wife sings it.

And that's this week's Get Played.

GG Ranch.

Our producers, Rochelle Chen.

Ranch, yard underscore, underscore, sardo.

Music is by Ben Prunty.

Ben BenPruntyMusic.com.

Our art is by DuckBrigade Design, DuckBrigade.com.

Ranch, you streaming lately at all?

I actually just streamed Alan Wake, my first portion of Alan Wake 2.

Wow, that's a rad.

People can see that.

Your Twitch channel is yard underscore underscore sard.

Yeah, yeah.

People should check that out.

Check out our Patreon, patreon.com slash get played, where you can find our entire pre-head gum back catalog, plus ad-free main feed episodes, and also our Patreon exclusive show, GetAnimateMat, where we're watching Danadan.

We're watching Dandadan, and it's a damn-to-damn good time.

Fuck, that was good.

Dandadan, Dandadan, Dandadan.

Patreon.com/slash get played.

And you know what got played this week?

Candy Crush Saga.

Because we did do it.

Because we did do it.

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone.

We love you.

We love you.

They would be so upset.

That was a hit gun podcast.

Quick, time to choose a meal deal with McValue.

The $5 McChicken meal deal, the $6 McDouble Meal Deal, or the new $7 daily double meal deal.

Each with its own small fries, drink, and four-piece McNuggets.

There's actually no rush.

I'm just excited for McDonald's.

Price anticipation may vary.

What's up, everybody?

I'm Kyle Mooney.

And what's up, everybody?

I'm back by.

And man, ooh, we got something to tell you.

Oh, yeah, we definitely do.

Yes, it's a brand new podcast on Headgum.

That's right, and it's called What's Our Podcast?

Yep, and that's because we don't have a single idea what our podcast should be about.

Yeah, we don't.

So we actually have guests come on and they tell us what they think our podcast should be about, and then we try it.

Yep, guests like Mark Marin, Jack Black, Brittany Broski, Cape Berlin, Bobby Moynihan, Make Stalter, and Tim Ball, Landon Axler,

Joni McGrease,

and Dender.

And Dender.

New episodes release every Wednesday.

So subscribe to What's Our Podcast on YouTube on YouTube or any of your favorite podcast platforms.

Yeah.

I'm going to go do it right now.