Food in Video Games

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All right, boys, we have two Michelin reviewers in the restaurant tonight, and and so I need this food to be top of the line, precise, from start to finish, no mistakes.

Are you ready?

Yes, yes, Chef.

Are you ready?

Yes, chef.

Let's get moving.

I need some red choo-choo jelly.

Yes, chef.

I need an ancient core.

Yes, chef.

Yes, chef.

I need a Keese eyeball.

Behind, behind.

Yes, Chef.

I need a Stammelish room.

We just, we just, we just, those are the best.

Give me a fucking stamina shroom.

We have Hylian shrooms.

A Hylian shroom's going to work?

Hylian shroom will do.

Hylian shroom, give me a full ship fruit.

Yes, chef.

I need blue nightshade.

Yes, chef.

Octorock eyeball.

Yes, chef.

I need Nadra's claw.

Yes, chef.

Yeah, do you know what that is?

Naidra's claw.

I can throw a fruit in there.

I need raw whole bird.

Yes, chef.

Hyrule bass.

Yes, chef, chef.

Sorry, just to clarify, I threw a raw whole bird and a bass into this pot.

You just want me to do that, throw it in an adjustment.

Put this wing, put it in the pot.

Yes, yes, chef.

I don't want to hear you guys talking back.

That Michelin star reviewer is out there, and if our restaurant gets anything less than two stars i'm gonna blow my brains out here in the kitchen yeah yes yes chef um let me hear you yes chef any room for a swift carrot in there chef yes behind behind i need hinnox corner corner hinnox guts okay yes chef yes chef 86 hinnox guts we are out i'm sorry you're out of guts no i gave you the last guts but 86 those all day chef we've 86 the guts all right i'm sorry okay we don't have the fucking guts i don't really want for me all right i'm gonna go in the walk-in i'm gonna jack off because i can't take this anymore i would jack off in the walk-in and then maybe I can focus in the fucking kitchen.

What are you gonna be yelling at me?

Trying to make this dish because I don't know what we're making, okay?

I'll be right back.

I'm gonna go jack off.

You know what I see when I see that man?

I see the next top chef.

That man right there.

That stress level, that intensity.

A man telling me he's gonna go jerk off in our refrigerator.

I'm hanging out my apron.

All right, I'm done.

What's up?

Where are we at?

Is that ready?

Can I take it?

Can I take take it to the table, Chef?

We need to cook it.

Oh, we got to cook it?

We cook a stew during a five-second jingle and heal with a meal as we discuss food and video games 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, Nick Weiger, and I'm here with our third host, Matt Upodak.

Hello, everyone.

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the premiere video game podcast, where this week we're talking about the deliciousness that you can only find in virtual worlds.

It's food in video games.

Wow.

It is such a bummer that food is fake, that there's like not food in the real world, that it's only in video games.

Yeah, I mean, but that's part of the like the fantasy of playing games.

You get to experience what it's like to like, you know, ride a horse or also find the back of a dragon, which is real.

Yeah, that's real, but the horse stuff is like so crazy and yeah, and eating, it's the same sort of thing.

It's just one of these impossible scenarios that you get to live out in a virtual world.

But we'll talk all about that.

We'll talk all about that.

Nick, I gotta say,

usually you have three beverages, right?

We talk about this.

That's right.

One of your beverages, if spilled,

huge disaster.

More so than usual.

You got it shelves a smoothie right there with what I can only describe as

a paper straw that is deteriorating by the minute one.

And the hole for the top of the smoothie is basically an open cup.

It's too big.

It's like a McFlurry-sized hole.

And then this is like a, it's like a paper boba straw, which just does not work.

But it's not a boba drink.

It's a smoothie.

Yeah.

That's, that's like kind of the

texture and color of marinara.

Yeah, it looks like it's, it's good.

It probably looks like

blueberry forward, probably a lot of

it's a blood.

It's a human blood smoothie.

It's a human blood smoothie he described it accurately it's fucking marinaris like it's the color of blood it's human blood oxidizes it turns like brown a little bit it kind of does look like that uh but so all i'm saying is um

you better watch yourself with that damn thing don't be careful don't spill it if i do spill something it's first off i already spilled my water so um i think it's already changed

today but If I do spill something, I don't think it'll be the smoothie because that's the obvious choice.

It'll be something else.

That's how the world works.

Yeah.

We're talking food and video games today.

One thing I think we should give everyone an update on is that

I think we've kind of collectively decided to not do a we play, you play on Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.

Not that we're not going to talk about the game, but I think timing-wise, we realized that Heather and I were going to have to both sprint through it and neither of us wants to experience the game that way.

And that also, you know, by the time the episode would come out, it'll feel kind of dated anyway.

So we're not planning as of now to do a full Final V7 rebirth episode, but we'll all give updates during our what are your plans.

Yeah, and also, I mean, you guys have to sprint through it.

I'm

like 28% done with it.

And I've put in a lot of time.

You have.

I've put almost 40 hours into this.

But you're also doing a lot of side quests.

I'm doing a lot of side quests.

But my understanding is that's the way to experience it.

Yeah, but

I would be sprinting as well.

I would be deciding to not do any of that stuff.

It's a big meatie game, but we will have updates about it

in the coming weeks and

indeterminate amount of time

until we're done talking about it.

Can I shout something else out real quick before we get into the meat of the show?

Hell yeah.

Meat of the show, very fitting.

Given our topic.

Okay, somebody's hungry.

Again, wish I was in a video game so I could eat.

I know so we can experience eating food.

You know,

we're pro-worker here, and in particular, people who work on video games, since, hey, that's what we talk about, and that's the medium we love.

I'll just read this headline.

This is from Polygon.

Sega of America workers ratify union contract protecting 150 employees and their union, Allied Employee Guild, Improving Sega, Aegis is the acronym.

I'm just reading from the article here right now, which is by Michael McWhirter and Nicole Carpenter.

One important concessions with Sega America as part of the contract, including base building raises for all employees, layoff protections, and a commitment to crediting people on games they've worked on, including early QA testers, which is huge because, you know, in any creative industry, your credits are how you get your next job.

So that's all great.

So congrats to everyone over there.

Solidarity with all these Seg of America workers and their union.

That is really great.

And it must be said, Aegis sounds like...

some organization from the world of Sonic somehow.

It does, yeah.

A humorless cutscene where like the president of the world is talking about we must destroy Aegis and Shadow is our only hope.

Sonic lore.

I don't love Sonic games a lot of the time, but the lore is good.

It's all funny and good.

Well, because it's a lot of that is also bad in the way the games are bad, but because it's so insane, it like ends up being fun.

But some of the games are just like not flat out not fun to play, which is a bummer.

You can't escape.

You fool, Aegis will soon rule all of this domain.

There's been rumors that for the new Sonic movie where they're because they haven't officially announced who Shadow is, who's voicing Shadow.

And the rumors I've heard floated are Robert Pattinson or Hayden Christensen.

And I say, give me either or.

That's good.

That's good stuff.

I just want somebody who can really sell being, I'm a little mad, angry, little guy.

I'll do it.

I saw Boy in the Heron.

I saw both the sub and the dub.

And the dub, Robert Pattinson, is the Heron, and it's an unhinged performance in a glorious way.

It's so great.

He's great.

I love him.

Such a good actor.

But all that to say, I mean, guys, we could talk about this all day.

We sure could.

We have to talk about food and video games later on, but there's usually something.

That we got to get to.

A question we always ask so we could find out what's going on in the games we're playing.

And Nick, I don't know, you ask it usually, but do you mind if I ask?

I do mind, but it sounds like you're going to.

So, oh, if you mind, then I won't do it.

No, no, you should do it.

Oh, no, I kind of don't want to.

No, you should do it.

Go ahead.

Ask the question.

Because I like

kind of like your thing.

No, it's,

I mean, it's not my thing anyway.

I mean, you know, we know whose thing it is.

Well, that's true, isn't it?

No, go ahead, Matt.

I want you, I want you to ask it.

Go, please, tears up.

If I may,

what are you playing what are you filleting hi as me the resident evil merchant and as you can see i'm covered in ground beef here for our special food episode of garbage

of

of the foods you could have been covered in i'd say ground beef one of the more upsetting ones yeah really yeah

Well, look,

I knew it was special.

I knew that it was something that you guys really needed some support on because you're out of your element.

This guy, he doesn't even know that you can eat food in the real world.

And this other guy, well,

like, I, yeah, I'm just, I've got your backs, gentlemen.

I got your backs, and I am the Resident Evil Merchant asking, what are you filleting?

I liked the rolled R on that.

Yeah, a lot of fun.

Kind of fancy.

What are you filleting?

Very clever.

Thank you.

Resident Evil Merchant's good.

Yeah, that was hey

a positive force in the show overall yeah

yeah we like the re merchant well yeah that's that's that's new but i agree i we do like the the resident evil for merchant just maybe in the future we could and and and uh rochelle we could just be on top of this kind of just uh maybe put down some plastic in case he does wander in uh covered with ground beef or some other foodstuff yeah some other just honestly substance it could be anything let's treat let's treat treat all entrances for the Resident Evil Merchant going forward like

a late-night bit show at a comedy theater.

Let's just get the tarp out.

Yeah, just like kind of think of it as in terms of like we're going to have some live birds in the studio.

And so any precautions you would take for that, let's just take them for the Resident Evil Merchant.

Annette would be a good thing.

That would be great.

It would be awesome to have a net.

Wait, do you guys want me to bring live birds?

No, but

again,

we don't want it.

We just don't want this

in the cards.

But again, this is the kind of contingency we should plan for.

I've got some birds I trapped in a tire outside if you want.

In a tire?

In a tire?

Like a truck tire?

They're just like flying around the loop, not sure how to get out.

Birds aren't that bright.

Well,

I've got it covered in wet towels.

And I just keep them in there.

It's like a big rubbery nest.

Well, make sure to feed them every once in a while.

I'm not a monster.

Okay.

But don't feed them like how birds get fed.

I don't want to hear about that.

Chewing up the food and spitting it in their mouth.

Yeah, you don't know you go to those lengths.

You guys would be surprised if there's any special requests that you have.

I can really pull off a lot.

I would say my request for you was.

Do you need half a carpet?

I'm good.

I don't really need, yeah, I don't really need any portion of carpet, honestly.

We're pretty much set in studio.

What about a 1981

radiation detector?

I mean, I would.

Yeah, I mean, this is setting off a number of alarms from my end.

So, I would just say, yeah, I'd want to stay far away from that.

What about a MetaQuest one?

Even less use for that.

Yeah, honestly, I'll take the radiation detector that at least has some nostalgia value.

MetaQuest 1 is just outclassed by the competition at this point.

Okay, well,

how about this?

Because of a slight miscommunication between myself and a certain client, I also have a full set

of national phone books from 1996.

What could the miscommunication have been?

A client?

You have clients?

I'm a merchant.

Yeah, I guess people who shop.

who buy items from within your trench coat are, I guess, clients.

I guess you could classify them as that.

um and i guess you probably sell all sorts of wares not just ammunition uh so uh there's green herb right there's red herb yellow herb egg and then and apparently phone books yeah yeah out of date phone books at that 1990 like if you want to know where hold on ross stevenson i got another one here this is uh

Charles Chambay.

If you want to know where those guys were in 1997,

I've got their names right right here and some numbers.

I'm going to stop you right there.

85 vinyl.

What?

I said, I don't care where.

I don't know those guys.

Those are two names that shouldn't even be on the same page, I think.

Probably also like disconnected residential numbers that are no longer.

I mean, if someone is still at that address at that same number from 30 plus years ago, I would honestly be shocked.

My grandparents have lived in the same home my entire life.

Oh, okay.

Wait, what year is it?

What year is it?

Hold on.

It's 2024 currently.

Why does Nick think that 1997 is more than 30 years ago?

I thought you said 87.

I'm sorry.

I originally heard something else, too.

I just want to check because as we've established canonically, I have a different calendar.

So I just want to make sure.

You got to get up a little earlier if you think you're going to get us on something.

We ask the questions here, all right?

27 years the same ballpark as, right?

Yeah, it's in the same ballpark as more than 30.

Hey, guys, is this the episode where I'm on the entire time?

I'm gonna tell you right now.

I don't think so.

No, I don't think so.

Hey, we are, you know, since we are talking food and video games, do you have a favorite Resident Evil food stuff?

Do you like an herb?

Do you like a black bass?

A golden egg?

I do love the black bass.

Yeah.

Love it.

It's so, it's spicy, crispy, wet.

Three favorite types of food.

So you like, you like maybe pan-fry it and throw some seasoning on there.

Sounds like that's your preparation.

Fry.

Huh.

That's a good idea.

You did identify three good

food types.

Spicy, crispy, crispy, wet.

Yeah, these are all fun qualities.

That's good.

I love it.

I love it.

That's why the

BK Big Fish is my favorite of the BK items.

Yeah,

boy, you know, BK has kind of stepped it up a lot lately.

I don't know if I'm going to be able to.

I'm saying BK is back yet.

Well,

there's some good fish sandwiches in fast food.

A lot of them are seasonal.

Arby's has a great fish sandwich.

But yeah,

Fish Delight, of course.

Yes, of course.

McDonald's Fish Delight, Trump's favorite item.

Yeah.

Makes going to his internet browser of choice and going going to his favorites for his

booked marked fast food fish.

Well, no, I just want to look at the Bird King menu.

I want to see if they had the big fish currently.

I can't remember.

I want to say that if we did a

food podcast, the three of us, like, I think it could be a hit.

You mean me,

Matt, and then not Heather who stepped away, but the Resident Evil merchant.

You're saying that's the trio.

Yes.

I think I'm thinking a third tier on Patreon.

I just

feel like people would be confused.

I feel like they would just not understand what the show was.

Yeah, I don't think you know it's two guys and the Resident Evil Merchant, and they're just talking about food.

And even if it was just two guys, like, who even gives a shit?

That's honestly a

broader thought.

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I had to put in my fucking address to see the menu.

This is a

big pet peeve.

Would you say that?

Websites and apps.

The app is crap, I think.

The app might be crap.

No, the Berking app is good.

I just don't have the app on my iPad.

Okay, hold on.

Let me see.

I'm glad we're doing this still.

Because the thing is, they will rotate.

We have to find out if the big fish is on the menu currently.

Well, because they'll rotate out.

They're going to be to leave pretty quickly.

But I feel like at this point, anybody who's still listening in the podcast is disoriented.

Like, we're going to hear about car wrecks.

They, they, because the thing is with fish items, it feels like a lot of times they rotate them out periodically because just based on the price of product, they're like, okay, well, that these, the fish isn't, we're not taking a profit on it anymore, so let's just take it off for now.

But the big fish is currently on the menu, and there's also a fiery big fish, which I have not had.

That sounds great.

I am interested in it.

Spicy, crispy, wet.

Wow.

R.E.

Merchant, you nailed it.

R.E.

Merchant is good.

R.E.

Merchant is good.

I just thought of a fast food item that I think I'd like to, if McDonald's is listening, I got it for you.

Crispy McShrimp Wrap.

Interesting.

It's shrimp fried in like the nugget fry stuff.

That's interesting.

Do they have shrimp at McDonald's?

They don't.

They'd have to get shrimp.

Yeah, that's fast food shrimp.

Is not like right now, it's like Popeyes or like Long John Silvers.

There aren't a lot of places that do a shrimp.

Maybe a Del Taco.

Maybe a Del Taco periodically, but that's an interesting new frontier for fast food.

I think this year's thing is shrimp.

I'd love to see it.

R.I.P.

Bubba.

Yeah.

All right, Resident Evil Merchant.

Well, anything you'd like to plug?

Yeah.

I've been doing a one-man show

down at...

It's going up with the Dynasty Typewriter soon, right?

Great venue.

You know, it was hard to book, but I got it.

Dynasty Typewriter in Los Angeles.

Resident Evil Merchant presents one man, one question.

Wow, wow.

That question naturally being, what are you playing?

Heather, do you want to start us off?

What have you been playing?

Yeah, I was wondering if I can sit back down.

Can I take my seat back?

Yeah, I think so.

Yeah.

I,

let's see.

I've been playing.

I hate it.

She was just so agreeable.

He's like, oh, sorry.

I hate it when he stands in the middle of the room.

Like, it's uncomfortable to look at.

yeah sleep paralysis demon good grief especially such a hulking presence yeah uh well i've been playing fortnite of course um

that's it like i'm you

uh

you don't need to apologize for playing a game you love it's okay

i know i know but like I see the thing is like if you're on the outside looking in it's exhausting to hear me talk about it every week Even if it's a game that changes, even if there are new weapons every week, even if there are new balances and new

modes of play and

outfits and collaborations and music drops.

Like,

if you're on the outside looking in, I would want me to be playing a new game.

And so, I'm going to make a promise.

Wow.

I promise to play a different video game for next week's.

what are you playing?

Wow.

Just for a little bit.

And you know what?

I'll go a step further and I'll say, I won't play Final Fantasy VII

rebirth.

I'll play something else by next week.

Have you fallen off of Rebirth?

Have you just not had time for it?

I have not had time.

I've not had time.

I am, of course, busy also going through the final couple of weeks of active cancer treatment,

which is great.

Fucking like

sledding down that hill so fast, almost at the bottom, almost crossed the finish line.

You know how I'm going to celebrate?

Eggs and pancakes.

There you go.

I'm going to go straight from my appointment and I'm going to eat some eggs and pancakes.

I'm so looking forward to it.

I might have a suggestion as to where.

Maybe later on in the episode.

Well, like Burger King?

What are you talking about?

Maybe you got to go fast to IHOP.

Yeah, maybe

that tails two by two by two.

It's not gonna happen.

I'm not going there for my celebrate.

Like, I'm letting me give myself cancer after just getting rid of it.

That's not true.

I love IHOP.

I really do.

I love a fucking chain diner so much.

Yes.

But yeah,

that's what I've been playing.

Fortnite with members of our Discord, discord.gg slash get played, the battle bus.

People are always online.

They're always throwing together a good squad.

I've been getting those Victory Royales,

getting those medallions.

It's been excellent.

It's been a real fun time.

And I think, as I told you,

boys, maybe in the last week,

my main squad, who are some IRL friends, shout out to Barrett, Darius, and Stephanie.

We

looked up our stats and we're in the top 0.3% of all squads for win rate

in the world.

And that's

that's upsetting.

Like

it's a good brag, but it's also like, what, what is life?

Like, what is because we're none of us are particularly good.

Like, we're good, but we're not, you know, like what I would call streamer good or like competitive good, but we're extremely good communicators.

And I wonder if there is like

in the same way that like a superhero team might get a ranking and it's like, well, this team's super powerful.

That team's super fast.

This team communicates well.

I don't think any of us are like, you know,

ninja fucking style

stream murderers.

But we all know when to push and when to exit and when to what you like, it's just really good communication.

And I wonder if that gives us an advantage.

Anyway, love playing with those guys, love playing with the Discord.

Matt, what are you playing?

Well, I'm playing a game that's come up a little bit on this show that I think maybe Nick's still playing as well.

Oh, yes.

Deep Rock Galactic Survivor.

Let's go.

I'm very excited to be able to have someone to talk about this game.

And,

you know,

I had to dust off my Steam Deck.

Right.

Wow.

I dusted off my Steam Deck and I downloaded this thing because I was at Chef Kevin's wedding.

Congrats, Chef Kevin.

Friend of the chef.

Listener to the pod.

Friend of the pod, listener to the pod.

Helped us out with an episode in our early Interhead Gum day.

That's right.

John Gabris was at the wedding.

I didn't speak to Gabris the whole time I was there until he left because he shook me.

And all he said while he stared straight into my eyes was Deep Rock Galactic Survivor.

and i was like i gotta i guess i gotta check this out yeah i gotta see what's going on here and

i got in there and it it's it's great it's really so much fun but i i'm curious because i wonder you spent a little more time with it nick yeah i don't have much i'm like unlocking stuff like as i'm going through runs.

I haven't completed a dive.

Yeah, it took me a little bit before I could, I could finish runs

at all, let alone consistently.

I think a big part of it is,

and I mentioned this when I was talking about the differences versus vampire survivors that it very much is inspired by and plays like as an auto shooter,

is taking advantage of the new mechanics that aren't as present in that game, specifically like kiting enemies.

I think a big part of survivability is using, because you can mine through rock and mining through rock to create paths that you want enemies to follow you through uh so you can create you know bottlenecks where you can annihilate them or or what have you i think also part of it is like as you go you're unlocking additional classes um and um

uh because i'm forgetting i i think the i can't remember the what the name of the first the initial class is if it's the scout uh i i it may not be that but like you ultimately unlock like the engineer um and uh you know uh some of these other classes just have some some different mechanics that may just

sync with your playstyle a little bit more.

Like the engineer has all these like autonomous weapons.

So like you'll stand in place and he will like drop turrets and those turrets will remain in place.

So you can really kind of, you can play it pretty strategically in terms of how you're deploying your armaments.

But also, I think the other thing is, because between each level, there's a screen, there's kind of a store where you can, a company store, if you will, where you can use minerals that you've collected to upgrade your arsenal.

And

so, a big part of like the mining part is just like making sure you're budgeting time to collect minerals so you can take advantage of that as well.

Cause that's one of the best ways to improve your character.

I, the thing that I love about it is that

not unlike it's, I mean, it's, it plays exactly, it plays very similarly to Vampire Survivors.

Yeah, for sure.

But this is a good game that I've been playing while my fiancé and I watch 90 Day Fiancé.

There you go.

Because I'm just like, I don't got to really be paying attention to either of these things.

I could be, I could check in, see what's going on with Jasmine and Gino.

Yeah.

What an abundance of stimulation options we just have.

You have one screen going, two screens going at once.

Neither of them you're really focused on.

I could be watching like the worst thing I've ever seen and then also playing Deep Rock Galactic Survivor.

Just watching these people just like ruin their lives.

But that's like what I've been doing.

I've just been putting that on because it's like it's a passive experience, but then also having that on the background.

We like to watch that show together and just be like, this is crazy.

But I feel like I can still very much engage with the show while doing this.

But this game's not fully mindless.

Like you have to, like, like you're saying, like, you know, you have to find a good route between the rock and stuff to

get them going.

And then, you know, I've been really paying attention to my upgrades here and there.

And there'll be, you know,

there are heavy enemies that come out that have their own attacks that you have to pay attention to.

And particularly, like, like run bosses will be like, oh, they've, he's got a, he's got a an AoE attack that's the, that's a, you know, time jump to a location.

So I gotta, like, I, you can't really dodge, but I just gotta make sure to be out of the way when that happens.

So there are some things that you need to track a little bit more closely.

I've been like, I don't have like a strategy yet

that I'm like really working on, but so far, like my main things that I've been trying to upgrade first are

um like my main three are damage movement speed and um

reload because I'm like it fires everything fires at a pretty good rate but like once you get rate of fire going that like sort of like does pick up the pace a little bit but I also try to get the one a gun that shoots in four directions as quickly as I can oh sure uh because that just sort of like creates like a nice little buffer I don't love the um

there's like an incendiary grenade I don't love that one, but I like the ice one.

Yeah, because it slows down enemies.

Yeah, the ice one is good.

Yeah.

Um, but but I think, but I think a big part of the fun of any of these sort of run-based games, you know, I feel this with like a slay the spire, and you've certainly experienced with like Hades is just like

you sometimes have that one where like, well, okay, these, this is not my, my number one draft pick as far as the weapon I'd pick, but this is what I got to just make this work and try to try to survive.

And I think there's a lot of fun in that.

And it also makes it when you do get what you're looking for and you do get to upgrade like the, the, your weapon of choice all the way.

Um, and then you just feel invincible.

Like, that makes that feel even more satisfying.

Yes.

And then

it says mission failed when you, when you die.

Yeah.

And I've died enough times where it doesn't even hurt my feelings anymore.

It was such a bummer the first couple of times.

But like, I, I, I understand that, like, replaying it is, is the thing.

Well, yeah, because there's also the roguelite element of you get to upgrade every

all your characters overall as you collect more minerals.

Health regen.

Exactly.

Movement speed.

Yeah, luck.

You get to increase all these statistics that just make sure it increases your survivability.

Yeah, I think the other thing is just like,

and I've talked about this in previous episodes, but so when you defeat whatever the,

you finish whatever the objective is for that individual level, there will be a an escape pod that you need to get to and there's like 30 you have like 30 seconds on the timer to do it another thing i found is just like being greedy with that time and just trying to hoover up all the you know remaining experience orbs that are out there uh and again just trying to collect more minerals and i i'm ideally trying to to to walk up that ramp with like you know two or three seconds left just really cutting it close um just because it's a time when you can you know that the heavy enemies are out of the way you can just get as many resources as are still available.

I try to get it close, too.

Yeah.

But one time I missed the shuttle.

Yeah, I've had that happen too.

And then you just fail the run.

And then you're dead.

And, you know, it's sort of like you have to then confront your own hubris.

Exactly.

But

it's really easy to get back in there and do it.

And it did sort of make me...

I know there's been DLC for vampire survivors that I just haven't really checked in on.

Yeah, I played some of it.

This is a good type of game.

And I'm glad that there are more lovers of it now.

Yeah,

I love it.

It's really good.

I love this newish genre.

Can I say what you've just described in this game is the number one reason why I'm punished in Fortnite and across video games, I think on the entire gaming spectrum, which is there comes a point when your greed oversteps your sensibility.

Yes, yes.

And any

like notion of reason is somehow extinguished.

And you're like

i only have say in fortnite i only have 20 health but that guy has to be low i can push and i feel like if i could

train myself to listen to reason when i'm full of adrenaline i could become excellent at at anything really yeah but it's always hubris that that kills me.

It's almost, I mean, like

currently in Fortnite, it's also sniper headshots from somebody I never saw.

But like,

but like, if I'm going to die to a squad, it's because I'm like, I've got them.

I've got them.

And I never do.

I never have them.

Yes.

That, that is, so two things that's making me think of is bosses and from soft games.

I particularly felt this with Sekiro when I was making my way through that.

Remember when you beat Sekiro?

Yeah, I do.

I think about it every day of my life.

So sick.

It's like very, very tight that you did that.

Yeah, thanks, buddy.

Yeah, but that was a game where like when I'd lose, when I was getting a boss down, and then it's like that last 10% of health.

I mean, you feel playing Elder and you feel playing Dark Souls, any of these games.

You're just like, oh, fuck, I'm almost there.

I'm almost there.

And you have to remember, like, no, keep playing the fucking game.

Don't just try to like stack damage onto the boss to like push it past the finish line because that's when you get murked.

That's when you're punished.

Those games are great about that.

But the other one is that it's making me have another run-based game.

But I got so consistent with FTL that I could basically always finish a run unless I got greedy.

And once you get more confident in the game, it's really hard to not get greedy because you're just like, oh, yeah, well, whatever.

I'll go to a few more systems.

I'll get some more resources.

I'm sitting pretty.

I just got to get some more scrap.

I'll be

set.

And it's the same thing you're just describing, Heather.

It's like, I felt like ultimately, most of my failed runs, most of my deaths of that game were purely hubris.

It was purely greedy.

Yeah.

I just saw a TikTok like this last week.

It was Howie Mandel talking about a dealer no deal.

And he was talking about...

It makes.

I just love the way.

It's going to make sense where you're going, but just the way you set that up.

Yeah, it's an interesting.

It's dropping Howie Mandel out of me.

I just knew that me saying it was going to be insane.

I held out as long as I could.

But he was talking about how on that show, they very rarely gave away the million dollars.

I think they did it like three times, like in the entire run of the show.

Of course, it's back now hosted by Joe Maganello.

Love that.

Nick, do you care to fill us in what just happened there a second ago?

Maybe nobody.

There was maybe a near spill?

Yeah, there was a near spill.

I was trying to, I took the lid off to get this last little bit of smoothie out.

Of what drink?

The smoothie.

The smoothie?

The one you said you wouldn't even, you wouldn't spill?

Yeah.

Well, but you didn't spill, but you almost again.

in my favor.

But anyway, he was talking about.

Yeah, I took the lid off and it toppled over, but then it caught it before anything spelled.

This was almost exactly what we're talking about, which is your hubris getting in free.

Yeah, I didn't need to have the last eighth of this cup of smoothie.

But how he was saying that, like, the thing that would stop most players from even getting a good amount of money on that show was their greed because they have these cases in front of them.

They think they have the million dollars in their crosshairs.

I think the next five cases, I'm going to pull one of them's, you know, the million dollars.

But then the

banker, if you don't remember how that show works, there's a banker that calls you up, uh, makes a deal to Howie, Howie relays the deal, and it's usually it starts off pretty good based on what's left on the board, right?

Because they don't want to give away the, they don't want to give away the million dollars.

Yeah, Howie picks up the phone's like, uh-huh, uh-huh.

Yeah.

Oh, really?

Okay, I'll let them know.

The banker is offering you $38,000.

Yeah, that's not a small amount of money.

That's more money money than you came in with.

That's a winning amount of money, as far as I'm concerned.

$38,000 given to me right now, that's changing my life.

That's making my year pretty nice.

Right.

You know, for a little bit until I go to Vegas and blow it all on a horse or something.

But

what do you think Vegas is?

There's horses there, too.

There are horses everywhere in America.

That's where I do the big horse.

Also,

in that scenario, you're just buying a horse in Las Vegas.

Yeah.

a sick, dry horse.

Matt bought Teller's horse.

Weird.

It's in half.

But

I guess

I bring it up only because it was analogous to the hubrist of the player

getting in the way of them actually succeeding at all.

They could have walked away with $50,000, $80,000, $100,000, but they think, what's more than that?

A million dollars.

And they almost,

three people in the whole show got the million.

Yeah, it's the burden hand is worth two in the bush.

Yeah, it's just like, but it's the complete, it's the, but your brain works differently.

You're like, oh, they get, they get the opportunity.

I want to go on a game show, get the first offer.

It doesn't have to be deal or no deal, but whatever the situation is.

Just cash out immediately.

Just be like, that's good.

Walk away after the $1,000 question on who wants to be a millionaire?

Right.

Yeah.

I named all of

Snap, Crackle, and Pop.

Gave me $1,000 piece.

Is it Snap, Crackle, Pop, or shit?

I'll use all my lifelines.

All right, 50-50, it's down to crackle or shit.

Yeah, yeah.

And I like this version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.

It's like airing on Spike or something.

All right, 90% of the audience, 99% voted for Crackle.

Yeah.

What do you want to do?

Has there ever been a game show?

Hold on, hold on.

A game show, like a real game show, not like a pornography game show or like a no.

What are these women got two different boobs?

Which one weighs more?

Man, not like that, but like

the guy game.

Like, it's it's Jeopardy, but the answer is like,

uh,

uh, which of the following was stuck in Richard Gere's ass?

Gerbil be a rabbit

by Urban Legend.

Yeah, it's also, it's funny.

I, I, I got stuck there in my brain, pitching a million things I couldn't say even on a podcast.

And I was like, things that would change our opinion about you.

Going through like the file cabinet of my brain being like, nope, nope, nope, nope, can't say, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope.

But yeah, like

a wheel of fortune where the answer is

piss and shit.

That's a good idea.

It is a good idea.

It's funny.

I mean, that's kind of what the Steve Harvey family feud has turned into.

It's kind of like a raunchy, but all-ages, you know, game show.

It goes right up to

the perceived line, kind of.

But I think if you go, I think the issue is once you get into, you know, M-rated territory, then the expectation is going to be it's going to be just a dirty show.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But it's a good idea.

It's a good idea.

Game shows don't have to be for everybody.

They can just be for sickos and perverts, too.

But that's, if that's all.

Oh, boy.

All right.

I'm just going to peel back the curtain in a second, can I?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I don't usually drive the show.

I'm just trying to keep us on the rails and stuff.

I feel like I was not used to it yet.

I haven't really done it.

You're doing great.

You also have to do it.

That sounds like a call to action.

No, no, but it's not.

It's absolutely not.

No, I'm just, I got it.

I have an outline in front of me, but sometimes when I have, when I'm not just going off the dome, it's easier for me to just speak.

This is also just not true, from the top of my head rather than reading what I have to do.

Sure, yeah.

Right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's easy to get bogged down by bullet points.

You're doing great.

And also, yeah, I think you're doing great, Matt.

I believe in you.

Thanks.

But also, if you need me to enter a flow state and just like talk my way through the next hour, I can do it without interruption.

I'll let you know.

Are you now covered in ground turkey?

I can tell it's a different ground meat.

Well, it's it's it's getting colder, I think, is what you're looking at.

Oh, that's what's happening because it came in hot, but now it's kind of gray

because it's cooling off, right?

All right, guys, I'm gonna head out.

Yeah, yeah, feel free to get out of here.

That was

what you've been playing.

Wow,

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Video games and food.

Food and video games.

There's a lot of good food in games and we'll talk about that stuff, but

there were two news items this week about about this and that's sort of what brought us to it.

One of the ones was the food, the realistic-looking food in Dragon's Dogma 2.

That is one of the things that they're talking about

in addition to all the microtransactions in Dragon's Dogma 2.

But somebody on Twitter shared a very realistic-looking lamb shake, and everyone's like, why does it, Shank, why does this look so good?

People were saying.

They were like, it looks delicious.

Yeah, you know, I was planning on honestly playing Dragon's Dogma 2, and then all the stuff about

the microtransactions kind of put me off of it.

But I will say that that is a toothsome-looking lamb shank.

I mean, it's really impressive.

But this is a piece of art.

It's video, isn't it?

Isn't it just video of a lamb shank?

Is that what it is?

Yeah, I think it's film.

It's like, hey, you know, it would be easier than spending a million billion hours coding realistic looking lamb.

Why don't we just film one in a pan?

That's smart.

It looks really, really good.

The fact that I've been hearing more about that than people enjoying the game

has maybe

got me to not get it.

Yeah, but I don't know.

I've heard some positive things, but I just like it's like the it's got kind of onerous DRM on Steam and the PC version I think doesn't run great.

And then also just like it's a you get a single-player game with microtransactions.

I understand that you can acquire this things other ways, but it's a thing Capcom's done before that I'm just kind of of like why are we why are we fucking doing this?

Just yeah, just make it so that the game is fun and good again.

It's greed greed is the killer Wow, I heard fear is the mind killer, but I think it actually might be greed Yeah, well ultimately look I don't want to get into spoiler country for dune part two, but you know greed is certainly

greed is certainly a factor in how the the whole dune saga plays out I people listen to Gordon Gecko too much.

I know that there's a lot of

grumbling about Dragon's Dogma 2, but there have been very few games since Elden Ring that look to me like something I want to play, mostly because I've seen so many shenanigans.

Sure.

Like, I've seen somebody get on the back of

a monster and then

that monster flies them into a different district.

And it's like, well, I guess I'm going to this other district.

Or like a guy who was

he like aggroed a

very large Cyclops and then ran back to town thinking, oh,

once the monster hits the invisible barrier of town, it will turn around.

But instead, the thing came into town and every NPC left their stands and their houses and stuff and started fighting the monster.

And I was like, man, that looks like fun.

That looks like fun.

Maybe I'll play it at some point.

It does have some really cool looking elements.

It does.

It does.

So I think if you play it and you just don't do the microtransaction stuff, it's just a video game, right?

Yeah.

I guess my whole thing is like, if I'm going to commit $70 and 30 plus hours of my life to something, like any sort of barrier for me to make that commitment

will just be like, I'm just going to do something else.

I'd rather play Stardew Valley 1.6 than buy this new game that's got some things that are going to annoy me.

And you only get one character for your save?

Yeah, and I guess they're going to patch that, but that is a thing that's just like,

it's just, it's, it's, it seems like some,

they just kind of whiffed on a few key things there.

Yeah.

Um, the other news item that brought us to this, this topic is um,

there's a,

as of now, unconfirmed, but seems like it's pretty, like it's happening.

A leak indicating that a Sonic-themed menu is coming to IHOP very soon.

So soon, in fact, that the the stuff, if you Google IHOP and Sonic, like I was doing yesterday, the links appear.

No, it's all there, but it doesn't direct to anything right away.

There are like paid links, they're like ad links for the menu on IHOP's website, but they're just like dead links.

But yes, this is the Sonic the Hedgehog menu.

There are a few items on here.

Yeah.

There is the Tails 2x2x2.

There's the Dr.

Eggman's Benedict.

There is Sonic's Blue Blur Special, Amy's Sweet Strawberry Delight, Knuckles' Chicken Sandwich, and Shadow's Chaos Chocolate Pancakes.

Now, here's my issue with this.

I fear, I mean, obviously with Tails, it's just the case.

And I get the two Tails, whatever.

That's clever, I guess.

But it's just two pancakes, two eggs any style, and two strips of bacon.

Like, that is just a thing they already have there.

You've just rebranded it.

And, like, at least give me a new sauce.

At least give me a little like, you know,

Tails mango barbecue sauce or something.

Not that that would be good with the, with pancakes, but you know what I mean.

Just give me, give me some sort of like

Tails, Tails

Foxy syrup or something.

You know, he's got like a, he's got a cinnamon maple syrup or something.

Just give me something that is distinct to this character.

Sonic's Blue Blurry Special, the same sort of thing.

I think this is just the existing menu item, which is the double blueberry pancakes.

Like, that's a thing they have on their menu: blueberry pancakes with blueberry topping.

And it's just like, are you just going to rebrand that as a Sonic item, or are you going to actually give me some new fucking Sonic pancakes?

I have a take about this as well.

The pancake should be blue.

That would be something.

The pancake should be blue.

Give me the blue pancakes.

I know food coloring, not great.

And IHOP, look,

IHOP went all out with the Wonka menu.

The Wonka menu was, yeah,

they came up with a bunch of new bespoke items for Wonka.

They got a chocolate sandwich in there or something?

I'll have to look up what the menu was.

It was pretty wild, and honestly, it was pretty bad.

But they did go for it.

And so here, now we're just like, we've just got a chicken sandwich, and it's just called Knuckles Chicken Sandwich.

I'm like, oh, this is just a little less exciting.

With a side of gold onion rings.

Those are just onion rings.

They're not gold.

Yeah.

Dr.

Eggman's Benedict.

The names, they got, I will say that they got the names down.

The names are great.

Like, Shadow's Chaos Chocolate Pancakes is a great, like, 10 out of 10.

That's great.

Amy's Sweet Strawberry Delight is nothing.

Like, that's like just, they just kind of put Amy's name on it.

Yeah.

But no ruse to that.

The chocolate chips in Shadow's pancake should be bullets.

They should have said

Shadow's bullet-ridden pancakes.

They should like handcuff you while you eat it.

Um, I know it says, go ahead and be a little chaotic.

A four-stack filled with chocolate chips is the ultimate, bold and underlined, ultimate pancake experience.

These sound like chocolate chip pancakes.

I think they are.

But they don't sound like anything that crazy or unique.

Yeah, it's kind of a bummer.

But.

Okay, wait, hold on, hold on.

Before we get, before we move on, IHOPS Wonka-inspired menu.

Had Wonka's perfectly purple pancakes, purple buttermilk pancakes layered with cheesecake mousse and topped with purple cream cheese icing and gold glitter sugar.

So they just went all out with Wonka and Sonic.

They're like, eh, fucking whatever.

They're like, what do we have left over?

Yeah.

Hover chalk pancake tacos.

Three silver dollar chocolate pancakes folded and filled with chocolate chips, cheesecake mousse, sliced strawberries, and a chocolate drizzle served extra strawberries on the side.

So they were making straight-up pancake tacos.

That was a new thing.

And then the Wonka burger, I think, was pretty conventional.

I would do it.

I have a different approach for the pancake taco.

Because it sounds like there's chocolate chips in there and that's what makes taco.

We're getting that.

That's done.

Yeah.

Pancake tortilla substitute.

I'm putting eggs in that damn thing.

I'm putting some

bacon or sausage on that thing.

And you know what I'm doing too?

Instead of salsa, I'm putting syrup.

That's honestly, it looks like a thing they, an issue with the Wonka menu is they kind of went all towards sweet, and you need some savory in there.

Well, I'm excited to go here for Heather's big celebration breakfast pretty soon.

But this had us thinking about food and video games.

There's a lot of video games that have some interesting food in them.

I guess where should we start?

Should we talk about food?

I want to start.

I want to start.

Because it's all downhill from the apex, from the summit of Final Fantasy 15.

Well, honestly, you should go last, I think, then.

No, we want to start strong and have nowhere to go.

Let's start strong.

So, Final Fantasy XV, as we know, had an extremely lengthy

development cycle.

And the rumor is,

or the conjecture is, that

somebody set about to make food for Final Fantasy 13 Versus, which was the original incarnation of this game, and then continued to make food all the way through the decade development cycle before the game became Final Fantasy XV.

And that food is all in the game.

There are

so many.

You know what?

I'm going to Google.

How many recipes in Final Fantasy XV?

It is

a total of 104

different recipes,

each with individual

rendered

food display moments on actual Coleman

camping dishes.

And I've got a montage that I shared with you guys,

which we can put up on screen right here.

And I've started it out like, and this, by the way, does not include all of the items of food that you can only get at restaurants in the game.

But this montage

is

20 minutes long, and it is just

the food.

So it's just...

Item after item after item, and it's so many items, it literally takes as long as an episode of television to put down all of these items.

And the

montage

goes in order of complexity.

So, if we go towards the end of this montage,

then you'll see

extremely complicated, like oven-roasted trout, fried tide grouper,

lasagna all forno, crown city roast, smoked behemoth.

Like, you, see, like

items that are, are, are given to you with like flowers and decorative icing.

You see cup noodles, which was a sponsor in the in the game, and all of them are, uh, are put down on your table in the in the game with this lovely piece of music that I've also shared.

So, why don't we play just the background camping music for the boys?

This

cooking

sequence

in

the game was so complicated, so needlessly complicated, that a fan cookbook has been released with all of the recipes.

It's called That's It, the unofficial Final Fantasy 15 Community Cookbook, which was available for a very short time as an actual hardbound book and now is available as like a PDF.

It's

111 actual world recipes complete with photography of those dishes as if they are in the game, but in the real world.

And if you compare the real world dishes with the video game counterpart, they look identical.

It is,

it's stupid.

Yeah.

That's such an interesting amount of detail for a game like that.

Like

the fact that then the ingredients all line up and it's like real food is, is, is amazing.

Yeah.

What, you know, that that that immediately makes me think of is Yakuza Zero.

And, you know, I've been meaning to play more of the Like a Dragon slash Yakuza series, but I loved Yakuza Zero, finished that game, and that similarly does not have a cooking system, but it has

so many restaurants, so many eateries, and so many different dishes that you can get.

And that there's also like, you know, kind of in-game achievements

goals for eating every dish at a particular establishment.

And,

you know,

they've got the high-end cuisine and then they've got like, you know, fast food joints and everything in between.

And yeah, I just, it's, it's one of those more is more things where there's just like this massive diversity of options that don't have a ton of influence on gameplay, but just sort of add color to the world.

I, I love it.

Yeah, I love that shit.

I love it so much.

I love the food in Yakuza games and I love the food in Persona games.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, coffee and curry.

Forget about it.

Delicious.

Yeah, that's, I mean, that's like, look, that's the,

we talked about that, I think, fairly recently.

But yeah, the coffee-curry combination

in

Persona 5 Royal is just, that hits the IRL as well.

I made, I made curry from scratch for the first time last night.

You did?

Last night?

From scratch.

Not using like Japanese curry paste, but like

item by item, caramelized onion.

Then you add your vegetable stock, then you add your tomato, then you add your seasonings, then you add, like, like it took three and a half hours to make curry from scratch.

Um,

I fucking love curry so much,

so good.

Wow, let her cook, I guess.

I'd love to cook.

I do.

I was going to ask that.

I think we all, we're all of us us in this room, I actually don't know this about Rochelle.

Maybe you can weigh in.

I love cooking.

I know Nick likes to cook as well.

Heather likes to cook.

Rochelle, where are you at with cooking?

Yeah, I love to cook.

Let her cook.

Ranch, what do you like to cook?

I mostly cook Thai food.

Hell yeah.

And then I dabble into Korean food.

Do you have a go-to dish?

Lob.

Oh, wow.

Okay.

Wow.

It's very easy.

Is it really?

Okay.

Very simple.

One of my go-to things that I make is just like a whole whole chicken.

I'll just get a chicken, the Thomas Keller method, salt and pepper on the outside, pat it dry first,

bake it for like 45 minutes at 450,

and it comes out a nice, juicy bird.

It's a whole ass chicken.

I love it.

I love it.

That's my number one.

Do a lot of, I just do a lot of cast iron.

I just look at that.

I feel like it's just so like, you know, you get it in a nice sear on the stove top, and then you finish it in the oven.

It's usually pretty low degree of difficulty, but

pretty high, high ceiling for results.

Yeah.

So I find myself doing that a lot with various proteins.

I would like to take like a class, like a cooking class and like learn some like new stuff.

Because I have like

maybe like eight or like

probably between like 10 and 15 things that I make.

And that I just cycle through and it's like, okay, well, what haven't we had in a while?

I'll make that.

Right.

But it'd be nice to have like a

instinctual

way to cook rather than just me following the same like few things that I already know that I like.

I do have a list here of

not necessarily like games with food, but food from games that I'd like to try that I wish were real.

Okay.

We've talked about this before, but I really would like to drink a potion.

Oh, yeah.

I want to taste a potion so bad.

Like, like, and you mean like, not like a branded energy drink that's called a potion, but like an actual potion that restores your health.

I want, I want, because, because if it's making you feel better, it's restoring your health.

I have a feeling that it kind of tastes like sprite.

Like, it's like refreshing and

cool.

I think it might have some bubbles in there.

I think, because there's some science involved, right?

Like,

I don't think they're like naturally sourcing these potions.

I think

there's alchemy at hand.

So I would imagine that there's bubbles, some carbonation.

And I do feel like, even though soda is not good for you, every time I drink a sprite,

I do feel a little bit better.

But

I think what we'd be dealing with is like...

Because

if it's made with high fructose corn syrup, you get kind of that syrupy, sort of lingering,

you know, heaviness.

So I'm thinking we're dealing with something that's made with cane sugar where you're not getting that it like it goes down smooth and you're not you're not dealing with the um uh a uh the the kind of a thick spit in the after yeah it could be a glass bottle sure right you know from from a non-us region it could be it could be from anywhere yeah um that's one i want to try a rare candy from pokemon these boat these give Pokemon the ability to level up without any

experience.

and

i mean they're rare but they're not that rare you can kind of find them all over the place but i would like to see what what they taste like i have no i kind of picture like a hard candy like a yeah almost like a warhead that you bite into to not a warhead what's that called jawbreaker oh sure um

the cake from portal

Cake is a lie, Matt.

You weren't paying attention.

I kind of, but I know it's a lie, and I knew we'd get into this.

There's got to be some cake around somewhere.

Yeah, Debbie,

I would ultimately want to eat that cake, so I'm on board with you there.

Um, maybe it's more like, maybe it's like an like a potion is like a Gatorade.

I feel like you sometimes get like a blue Gatorade when you're like really thirsty or you're like a little hungover, and it's just like, oh, that's exactly what I need.

There's something to this because,

well, one time in New York City.

Okay.

I was having a night, right?

Yeah.

I was out till like six.

Bolden pizza slices in half.

I was actually at a bodega and I got a chopped cheese and a gator.

There you go, yeah.

Ate half the chopped cheese, drank half a Gatorade before I went to sleep.

Woke up two hours later, chugged the rest of it.

Yeah.

Ate the rest of the chopped cheese.

Went back to sleep.

Woke up, somehow not hungover.

Wow.

That chopped cheese saved my life.

That was like a decent, like a Del Close marathon in 2017 or something that I went to at the UCB theater.

But Gatorade a real one for sure.

That is very potion-like.

I'd be interested to see what a one-up mushroom tastes like.

A one-up.

Wait a minute.

Hold on.

So I assumed he was eating the super mushrooms to get bigger.

But I never assumed that he was consuming the one-up mushroom.

You think he was like applying them to his skin or something?

Yeah, I thought it was maybe just like something you hold under your arm.

And then when you die,

you are grown out of the mushroom

alive.

You thought that instead of him eating it?

Well, what does it mean if he eats it?

Yeah,

it drops off in an infinity.

Like, where does he come from?

You're eating something and you feel like you have like another life now.

Like that is just kind of like hard to think about.

I don't know.

I'm thinking about the one-up mushroom.

The more we're talking about it, the more upsetting I find it.

Like, I feel like another soul has grown within me that will persist after this soul dies, but will retain like my memories and abilities.

Is that what I'm feeling when I'm eating one of these things?

I guess he doesn't eat like the cat bell.

Yeah,

some of the stuff is definitely not eaten.

They're not consumable.

Double cherries.

are we eating those or not?

I mean, they are cherries.

That to me is like drugs.

Yeah, right.

That's more of a psychedelic and now I've multiplied my form.

Yeah, you know, I was just

looking through this kind of like from a historical lens, and I was trying to think of when food in video games really got established.

Okay, yeah.

Like, obviously, like, it's like you go back to Pac-Man.

That was a big early one where you had Pac-Mans chomping on cherries and oranges and and what and various fruits for bonus points yeah um and also like just eating is the core mechanic uh another single-screen arcade game of that era the uh burger time

uh which is a game i don't love but i love the idea of burger kang burger time like it's not to me it's not like the funnest thing to play although it's like it's weird to like have that criticism about any early arcade game because they were just trying stuff out that you know That is one of the only video games that my fiancé likes.

Yeah, I think that's a good thing.

She loves Burger Time for some reason i think it is i think it is well i think it is well designed and i i think it it maybe just doesn't click for me mechanically but i love the idea of building burgers as a building giant burgers and you're a chef that's all i'm also

you're the burger boy so yes every every time is burger time

that's my life

um that's my time zone i would like to i would like to bite into a lump of fruit from crash band of yeah that's a big one that does look good because it's like it looks like a peach but it's not there's so much fruit in in video games.

Yeah.

And it's funny because you don't think of gamers as like a group of people that consumes a lot of like fruits and vegetables.

But it's like you would think it'd be like chips.

Yeah.

A lot of like chips and fucking like beef jerky.

Yeah.

Monster energy drink.

Yeah.

Well, that's a real one.

That is a real one, but it's also in Death Strange.

That's what I was going to say.

Yeah, that's a real one in the sense that it's in a video game.

And also, I want to try

the.

I guess I could just have this is the thing.

Cause like this seems like it's real.

Yeah, but the sea salt ice cream bars from Kingdom Hearts 2.

You've talked about this on the show.

Yeah, they seem good.

Yeah, Rochelle said, like, gave a hell yeah, nod.

Because that's just, I mean, I like salty ice cream, though, too.

Sure.

Like a sweet and salty kind of combo.

Yeah.

Yeah, I do love that.

Is that wait?

Is that is that is that your go-to?

Like a, like a salted caramel?

Honestly, no.

Uh, like, but i do i like it but like there was like for a time there was like um

there was a ben and jerry's um

jimmy fallon flavor that was the tonight dough late well he has the tonight dough but when he was the late night with jimmy fallon it was called late night snack oh right it was a salty caramel swirl with chocolate covered potato chip clusters oh i remember that wait it was so fucking good was it a different flavor from tonight dough it was right because there's because tonight dough is just like it's just like cookie dough like extreme yeah right and then this is like salt it's like sort of this this is giving me the munchies late night snacks um

it's that one was i think the superior ice cream it was really really good did they rebrand that and can you still get it or is it just discontinued i think that one's done wow because it was it i like i I like cookie dough ice cream fine, but I've had it.

I've never had ice cream with chocolate-covered potato chips in it before.

Yeah.

That was so, so good to me.

God damn it.

I know.

Fuck.

And I don't know who to blame.

I don't blame Ben or Jerry.

I blame Fallon.

Discontinued in 2015.

Wow.

I wonder if you can still get like something that's been sitting in a deep freeze on eBay.

It's all melted.

Don't say that.

Nobody wants that.

Do you have any

nine-year-old ice cream?

How long?

Well, because I, you know, how long long can you freeze dairy for before it goes back?

I don't know, but also it's so funny that I've, I, I, for some reason, in my mind, they stopped making this ice cream like three years ago.

The fact that I just had to reckon with that I've been mad about this for almost a decade sucks.

Um, but I used to love that ice cream so much.

But you were saying, yeah, like holistically, like

food coming into video games.

An early one I think of, obviously, a game that I haven't spent a lot of time with, Wall Chicken in Castlevania.

Oh, sure.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And that's obviously referenced in Vampire Survivors as Floor Chicken.

Yeah.

But yeah, that's the wall meat was a big, that was a big beat-em-up thing or action game thing, is that you have food to restore health.

And I think the first time that actually came about

was Gauntlet.

At least that's that's the earliest thing I could recall and the earliest thing I could find reference to.

Gauntlet, the

top-down arcade.

Would you call it Heather, would you call it a shooter?

It's kind of a shooter, even though it's set in a medieval

sort of world, but you're going around like flinging blades at enemies.

Like a projectile-based medieval-skinned shooter?

Yes, yeah.

It's kind of like that, but then you, the, you know, elf needs food badly, or warrior needs food badly, is a thing.

Warrior needs food badly.

You had to like acquire these to survive.

And similarly, the

PC RPG series Ultima, a weirdly defunct series.

I would think Ultima would have some cachet and they would bring, they would make reboot Ultima at a certain point, but it was a big, big series in the 80s and the 90s and into the early 2000s with Ultima Online.

But that was an early one that had food as like a as present as part of a mechanic and more as like a on the RPG side, which I think is where we see most food these days going back to Final Fantasy XV or

Persona or Yakuza and certainly like the Skyrims of the world.

I feel like that's like a central thing now is that RPGs have a crafting system and a cooking system.

Let me say that the food in Fortnite also looks great.

Like in that it's like, oh, I want to eat the food in Fortnite.

Like recent season had a pizza that you threw, like you would, oh, you'd take out a box of pizza from your inventory and there'd be a tiny

Italian instrumental cue that would go like,

and then you open up the pizza and you throw it on the ground in box, and you and your friends could eat pizza and restore your health.

You can also find corn on the cob, coconuts, and currently an item called banana of the gods,

which

is a banana that restores your health and also gives you super sprint and super jump.

And then you can go fishing.

And this is a little bit more upsetting as a idea of a consumable.

You can go fishing in Fortnite and pull up

fish that restore your health or fish that restore your shields.

But the way your character eats those fish is just housing the entire fish.

And that's like compared to like the way that you would eat like an apple.

in the game, you're like, it makes a good crunching sound and your character goes,

and it's nice.

When you eat the fucking, like a fish,

it's like, oh man, you just, you just pulled that out of the water.

And like, this water is so polluted that sometimes you pull up ammunition from the water.

Right.

And you're going to just jam that whole fish in your body.

That's a, that's gross.

That blue stuff.

The slurps?

That

that shit looks good.

Yeah, that looks good.

I want to try that.

And then also, they don't just drink it normal.

They like

they won the Super Bowl dump it on their faces.

I bet there is Fortnite food here in the real world that you can order and eat.

I got to try Slurps.

That's making me think of the time I spent with Lego Fortnite, which and survival games, another one where food is like a central part of it.

I mean, you just have to eat to even stay alive in these games.

But

yeah,

there's cooking in that.

And

you have like a grill or like your oven and you make like Lego food, which is fun.

Yeah.

That's its own,

you know, it's matching that aesthetic.

But what you were just saying about like being upset by eating fish, that's another thing of just like in these games of the ones where you have to associate eating with killing.

And it's, it's, it's like Stardew Valley notably does not have that.

Like you have animals that you can have on your ranch, but you, uh, you have their eggs or you have uh their milk.

Um, you're not actually slaughtering them for meat.

But like in

when in like Breath of the Wild or, you know, when you, when you shoot a bird and it just like turns into drumsticks, like I, like I, I, I fucking nailed a gull with an arrow and now I like pick up two hunks of meat.

Like I always just like find that like a little upsetting.

It's like, I know that's what happens.

I know when I'm eating chicken wings, I know that an animal was killed so that I could enjoy this.

But like, it's just when you remove that, the abstraction involved in this and directly connect it to this thing is alive and now it's dead and now it's giving me hearts, you know.

Or like when you, like in Red Dead Redemption 2, you can go hunting and then you can skin the animal.

And it, they do show you quite a bit of

process.

Then you can take that meat and you could sell the meat or you could cook the meat at your camp.

And I know Heather was pretty interested in the cowboy food of it all.

I

love I love it so much.

And I

can't, I wish they would release.

I can't dedicate myself to playing that game

without the knowledge of whether or not they're going to release an upgrade.

Oh, yes.

Yeah.

Cause it's like it's so

long and

to some

wrong people, boring and bad.

But it's.

I see that take more and more.

Like, I didn't like it.

It's too boring.

No.

I wish you could turn off the voices in that game as a side note.

Because I do.

Yeah.

I don't want the sort of parody voices of that world where you like walk by somebody and they're like, where Arrow gap?

He's got a gun.

Like, I don't want that shit.

Like, I just want to be like, I want it to be a subtitled silence.

Like, I want it to be realistically

quiet.

And then I want a new track of you doing it.

There is a, I mean, there was a PC release

and, you know, maybe there's a, maybe there's a mod that you can.

that has that functionality.

But, but as far as like an upgraded version, I think probably the PC version is the closest you're gonna get the food in we talk about this food probably a lot too, but the food in a lot of the food stuff in in games like this though It's it's a it's a mini game.

It's a means to an end.

It's a you it's a crafting mechanic.

Yeah, how do we feel about a mini game?

Like do we do we like like a little bit of like oh, I got to do the yeah, like I don't want to do like a match three or something and I and

I I kind of like the level of like, I've got some ingredients and if I have the ingredients, I can just auto assemble something on a cooldown.

Yeah.

Like, that's kind of how

a game with a

last year's fucking, oh, God, why can't I remember it?

I hate having an old brain.

A

RPG that came out last year, classic sort of JRPG aesthetic.

But there's a character, Garl the Warrior Cook.

I love this game.

Why can't I remember the title?

But the, but there's like, that's the.

Sea of Stars?

Yeah, CF Stars.

Thank you, Matt.

Where that's basically like it's, it's, you've just got, if you've got the ingredients and you're at a campfire, you can just prepare these things.

Like, that's kind of what I want.

And I don't even necessarily love the Zelda thing of like where I'm not, it's not auto-remembering recipes for me where I have to remember what ingredients I have and what they do.

It's just like,

that's too much to keep in my brain.

In the Pokemon games, they've added like making curry or like sandwiches.

And a lot of times there's a mini-game involved where like for the curry one, it was on the 3DS, so you got to like use your stylus and stir it.

But every time I was doing it, I was like, I don't want to do this.

Yeah, this doesn't, this isn't fun.

Yeah, I don't, I, and it's for like, I don't think that much of an added benefit, but like in Tears of the Kingdom or something, or Breath of the Wild, where let's say you don't have the snow armor yet or something, but you have all these chili peppers, so you can make hot food that increases your

resistance to cold climates.

That

I like that.

No, I love,

I love when food is basically like a buff.

Like

the health restoring is one aspect, or if it's like a survival game where like I have to eat just to to for my, like that's just, it's different from my health pool.

I just have to eat to stay alive.

Like that's interesting to me.

But when it's like a buff, that's like, that's like, oh, okay.

It's, yeah, it's like we're in potion territory.

And then it becomes just like part of the crafting system where instead of something like armor or weapon where you get something that's permanent, you get something that's temporary.

And it's, it's another thing that you can just sort of like, I don't know, use, use to optimize the way you want to play your character.

No, I love that shit.

And, you know, not every game has it.

So I also, I like it when it's there sometimes, but also, like, if there was food in Elden Ring, it would be the grossest, nastiest food you've ever seen, probably.

Yeah, the world is horrible.

Right.

I'm glad you don't have to eat in a game like that.

Hello, traveler.

Would you like to eat this soup from a witch's hat?

It's cursed.

The chef who is making it is right behind.

No, they're dead now.

Never mind.

I want to try the potions from that game, though, too.

Because they make a nice, kind of satisfying noise when you take a sip from them.

I don't want to try anything from that world.

Anything.

I don't want to touch anything from that world.

Any other thoughts on food in games?

Well, what about like a game like Overcooked, which I don't know if you guys have dabbled in, but there are games, there's an entire world of games that are just about the food as opposed to like side quests or like consumables.

Yeah, like Cooking Mama.

Yeah, Cooking Mama, Fruit Nippy, Cooking Mama 2,

Barbie's Cook It All,

Barbie's BBQ,

Cooking Overcooked, Overcooked 2, Wrath of the Egg.

Like, it's.

So, I,

the times I've played Overcooked, I've been been like, oh, this is fun, and you're sort of dissociated from the food, but as you play it, you get hungry, and there's no way to avoid it.

Because, like, you're chopping endless carrots and making soup, and you just are thinking about food.

Nothing has made me hungrier than recording this podcast.

I don't know how one could

make a podcast about food every week and not, and not

like

say, get seriously sick.

He doesn't care.

He does, he's not even, there's not even eye clogging.

The IV bag that he's hooked up to right now is clogged.

I also want to showcase two other video game food items,

which I think I've talked about on Heather's Hole on the show.

But in case you've missed that episode,

I'm going to pull out these items while you guys fill for time.

Okay.

I was just going to say

the thing that was that Cooking Mama was making me think of was just like how much the Wii

was,

I feel like in some sense responsible.

And I guess the DS, but just having those control mechanisms that were more conducive to some sort of cooking action and them developers kind of thinking like, oh, let's try to get cooking in games were responsible for these genres that have persisted in the aftermath of these consoles.

But I do think a big part of it was just like came from like, oh, yeah, we can do a cooking game with this controller.

I think that the next switch should be the third Wii.

So they had the Wii, the Wii U, and this will be like the Wii 3.

Yeah, the Wii 3.

I mean, it would confuse a lot of people.

But yeah, I also, I think another thing that I wanted to shout out

is

games where there is where there is a food level.

And a recent one that came to mind is Super Mario Odyssey Luncheon Kingdom.

Like, I love being able to run around like a food world.

Oh, yes.

That's a lot of fun.

Like, hey, there's like a giant ice cream stack or there's, there's a, oh, here's a, here's a bunch of a pancake summit, you know?

Or here's a talking fork NPC.

All that stuff is a lot of fun for me.

That is really good.

I do like that.

That does immediately, of course, remind me of Wreck-It Ralph, the candy movie.

Yeah, we don't need to get into the candy movie.

But it looks like Heather's got her thing.

yeah yes so like a round four candy movie in the video game okay get over it um

this is also sad because i've given up sugar and this is sort of like a uh legacy of the sugar consumption in my life but i have

um video game themed

cereal boxes that i've collected over my life okay um including from the

uh from 1998 or the year 2000 one of the two so this is 24 years old now.

The original Pokemon Kellogg's serial.

Look at that.

I remember having that cereal.

The art

is not quite official.

Yes.

Like they're a little bit off model.

And you compare that with the more recent

release of Pokemon Cereal.

And you see, like, oh, Pikachu looks like Pikachu now, as opposed to this, like, sort of

runty little.

Yeah, he looks like his neck.

Yeah.

Okay.

Also, major licensing coup for General Mills, stealing that, the IP from Kellogg's.

Yeah, you go from Kellogg to General Mills as you go through time.

We have the

limited edition

Super Mario cereal where the box itself is an amiibo.

He's wearing Cappy there.

Yeah, he's wearing Cappy.

This is recent, but you can touch the box to your Switch to get items.

And that works also in like any, like Zelda.

You can be playing Tears of the Kingdom, take out your box of Super Mario cereal and tap it to this, to the screen and you get, I think, consumable items.

Now we're going to go farther back in time.

We have the original Nintendo cereal system.

Wow.

which it had had a box that was split in two between Mario and Zelda cereals.

And then the box art is a hologram, a 3D hologram representing old 1980s Mario art and old 19, or maybe this is 90s.

I don't know when the fuck this came out.

But

one side was fruity, one side was berry, and you could turn in the cereal box for

a t-shirt.

And instead, I remember that, yeah.

I kept the box.

And then even farther back in time,

Donkey Kong cereal.

Look at that.

Look at him.

This art is so old that Mario is not even a protagonist yet.

Yeah.

He's like just a regular Italian man.

Yes.

With a hammer.

With a hammer hitting a barrel of cereal thrown by Donkey Kong and making an impressive crunch.

This is from Ralston Purina.

And do they even make cereal anymore?

No, I think they're now just a dog food company.

So those are my wow.

What a collection.

And I like, I don't, I used to, it used to be the first aisle I would go down in a grocery store was the cereal aisle.

And I would buy and try any cereal, which was just recombined elements from other cereals.

Yeah.

Very rarely would you get a truly new cereal experience.

And when you did, it was either an enormous failure or a complete success.

One of my favorites was Powerpuff Girl cereal, which came in a very thin, long box and was rice krispies

with pop rocks coating.

So they were extremely loud rice krispies.

Didn't stick around.

Those are those look at those boxes were

quite a haul you have there.

How's it though?

You want to see the whole stack?

Oh, sure.

And those are just cereals that you like?

Are they all video games?

Look at those.

At some point, I started collecting cereal boxes because I had this idea that in my future kitchen, I would frame them in 3D

drop boxes.

Uh-huh.

Like those glass, like those 3D cases for like three-dimensional art.

And I would put them all along the

ceiling.

like that, like I'd build a shelf near the ceiling and they'd go all the way around the kitchen.

I have given up on that idea because I don't think it would be nice.

But like, here's Star Wars Episode 2 cereal.

Wow.

More like attacking the marshmallows.

Here's the aforementioned Power Puff Girl cereal.

Fizz is in your mouth.

wow that i i that's i i would want to try that one it was because i really i i already like a rice krispie that's just good yeah

and then i have a lot of variations on captain crunch like sprinkled donut crunch

yes that could go one of two ways i think the captain was experien experimenting in all sorts of ways um you know the original oops all berries yep wow what's everybody's favorite i i take it it you're a Captain Crunch head.

Yeah, this one.

This is just Hershey kisses cereal.

Something about it is that sounds revolting.

Sensual.

Oh, it's fucking nasty.

Yeah, that is.

That's too horny.

I, I, I was like, I did like Captain Crunch a lot.

Captain Crunch, I apologize.

The issue is what, Space Jam cereal?

Oh, that's the Space Jam a new legacy cereal.

Wow, that wasn't in the last two years.

Yeah, because I was still, I like, this has been a lifetime of eating cereals until

there, until two things happened.

One, I had a recurrence of cancer.

Two, they linked processed foods to cancer.

Yeah.

My guess is that's probably why you skip the avatar way of water cereal, which I actually, I, I, I like.

It was a frosted flakes.

It was a frosted flakes with a blue Pandora moon

or

whatever they were.

They were blue Pandora orbs

that were kind of blueberries.

And

oh, that sounds delicious.

The only thing is, and look, I complained about this in other podcasts, but the.

Which one?

Don't worry about it.

Also, I want to say

just to finish my thought.

They did not make Tony the Tiger into a Navi.

That was my only complaint.

Stupid, dumb, dumb oversight.

It's too bad because he's kind of got the color.

Like, if you just made him blue, he'd kind of have like the body art.

Exactly, but they did, they overthought it.

Sorry, go on, Heather.

I just want to say that I

part of,

can we talk about a sponsor

in an episode where they're not sponsoring us?

What's the weird?

Anyway, the point is, I was really grateful for Magic Spoon because it came out and there's not sugar in it, and I can eat cereal again.

My guess is they would be thrilled that you're

just said.

Yeah.

The two things I want to touch on that we haven't gotten to yet are both two substances that you can drink that are both disgusting, but are ones, one, one is very recent and one is in the distant past.

But one of the first foodstuffs that I remember being

a big focus for me in a game is grog in the secret of Monkey Island.

And grog is like the pirate beverage.

It's some sort of like alcoholic, you know, potent sort of cocktail.

Yes.

But it's just, but they talk about it so much, like how disgusting it is and how it's like completely like pirates love it, but it's like the most undrinkable uh imaginable and it has qualities like it'll just like make you go unconscious or uh you know will will this will thicken up your spit that you need to solve various puzzles uh throughout the franchise um but yeah it's it's really central uh in that game and um that's one i think about but the one that's more recent in stardew valley 1.6 they added the ability to uh drink more substances that you can craft um one of which is straight mayonnaise

So you could in the past like craft mayonnaise.

You can like have chickens or ducks and then you can make chicken.

You can make mayonnaise or duck mayonnaise and you can sell it.

But now you can drink it and it's actually like very efficient to just craft mayonnaise and drink mayonnaise.

And then, and, and so

there's like a meta element of just thinking about what you're actually doing.

Yeah, of course.

And like, okay, I'm working outside in the fields in the sun and my energy is low.

And to restore my health, I'm just going to down a jar of mayonnaise, and that's going to, I'm going to keep going all day.

Yeah, it's truly revolting when you think about it, but I love that it's been added.

So now you're going to point to this when you're caught doing it.

What?

What?

It's a great startup.

Heather, it's funny that you brought up cereal because I have a segment.

Oh, is it did he or or didn't he?

Did he or didn't he?

Oh,

like the podcast?

Yeah.

I felt like I could try to swing at one of your jokes, but

I liked it.

It's actually worse.

It's time for a segment.

It's return of our true or our false quiz segment.

You don't know, jack off.

C, real or C, fake edition.

And now, Heather, you didn't know that I was going to do this.

No.

But so some of the cereals that you had actually are on my list.

So we know that those are real.

Donkey Kong cereal, Nintendo cereal system, real.

Pokemon cereal, real.

But

I have some other cereals on here, real and fake ones.

And you have to tell me which ones are which.

All right, Ranch, you want to play?

Okay, here we go.

Oh, yeah, let's get Ranch in here, too.

You can tell me if these are real or fake.

I'm so hungry from recording this episode.

I cannot tell you.

Everyone's making fun of me for drinking a smoothie earlier.

I wasn't making fun of you for drinking it.

I was making fun of it, you for sure, almost spilling it.

A prediction that almost came true.

I'm the Nostradamus of you spilling.

Okay, so here's the first cereal that we got.

Pac-Man cereal.

Ooh, Pac-Man cereal.

Ding, ding, ding.

Heather.

It is real, and it's one of my holy grail boxes.

Oh,

it is real.

And the cereal had marshmallow versions of Pac-Man and all the ghosts.

Love that.

A little bit of information about that.

It's fucking delicious.

It's so, it's, it's, I believe it was like

kicks with marshmallows.

Is it what were the Pac-Man ghosts?

Inky, blinky, pinky, and dots.

Does that sound right?

Clyde and Sue.

Oh, there's Clyde.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

How many are there?

Six?

No, I think there's just four.

I think I just got, I got, I got some.

There's as many ghosts in Pac-Man as there have been dead people in the real world.

Oh my god.

So five?

Okay, so Heather's on the board with Juan.

Here we go.

Obviously, we heard about

the Donkey Kong cereal.

Yeah.

Donkey Kong Jr.

cereal.

Weiger, fake.

I'm sorry, Weig.

Real.

It's real.

It is real.

And Donkey Kong Jr.

cereal was made up of fruit-flavored and fruit-shaped pieces.

Wow.

I feel like I have to recuse myself from this segment.

No, I know.

I know the boxes for these.

You might know the boxes, but I think some of these, you might be surprised.

Here's it.

How about this one?

Okay.

Cuphead cereal.

Hmm.

I mean,

it's

man, I wonder if these.

Now I'm just wondering, are you doing, are all these going to be real?

But I feel like that one is recent enough and

the game

came out like it would like I think there was like some uncertainty in terms of how it would be received and how it would be performed that I maybe they didn't license a cereal right away.

I'm gonna go fake with this one.

Maybe I'm wrong.

This one is fake.

It is part of the branding for Funko cereal.

There's this Funko branded cereal that has different Funko

characters on the box.

Rick and Morty Funko cereals.

He's so the Funkos,

but they have different characters and the characters come in box.

Interesting.

So, Nick's on the board with one.

Insomniacs, Spider-Man 2 Cereal.

Insomniacs?

Heather.

Heather.

No, fake.

It is fake, but they did have a branding with Wheaties.

Miles Morales and Spider-Man Peter Parker were on Weedies at the time of release for that game.

Kind of fun.

Neopets Island Berry Crunch.

Ranch.

I hope it's real.

Ranch, you're in luck.

It is real.

Wow.

It's like Trick Cereal, but it only has two colors.

Wow.

Based on berries that exist in the world of Neopets.

You ever play Neopets?

Was that for your generation?

Yeah, that was my jam.

Wow.

Where did you get a Neopet?

Like,

what platform were you playing it on?

And I mean, was it PC only?

I don't know.

It was just a website.

Yeah.

It's just a website.

Okay.

How many hours did you put into that?

Oh, every day after school.

Wow.

In elementary school.

So five years every single day.

Here's the next serial.

Yeah.

Sonic's Golden Rings.

Weiger, I'm going to say,

I'm going to say that one is real.

It sounds fake, but which makes me think it's real.

It is fake.

There is a Sonic

Funko serial.

Yeah.

But, and there was also a Sonic campaign where where he was part of the marketing for Cheerios when they were marketing the Sega Genesis at the time.

Okay.

So in 1994, he was on Cheerios boxes, which those, we could agree, are as close to golden rings as you can get.

A honey nut Cheerio.

Yeah.

Natural fit.

But it is sadly fake.

And then finally, Minecraft Creeper Crunch.

Minecraft Creeper Crunch.

Heather.

Heather.

Real.

It's real.

It is real.

It is a cinnamon cereal with marshmallows shaped like familiar Minecraft items.

Wow.

And

cinnamon cereals, for the most part, across the board, a home run.

They're all good.

Yeah, I do.

I do love a cinnamon toast crunch.

I mean, that was a, you know,

that's how I mount cereal more.

Yeah.

Minecraft, another game where food is a big part of that.

That's true.

And so that was...

C real or sea fake.

Heather is the winner.

Wow.

Got most of the ones correct.

What a, it was too late to pivot.

Heather brought out a cereal box.

This worked out great.

But I'm glad we were thinking the same thing.

Cereal's good.

Cereal is good.

I do like cereal.

I also don't eat it really anymore.

Yeah.

There was a time in my life when it was a big deal.

I just wish I could have a consequence-free bowl of cinnamon toast crunch right now.

Well, Matt, let me tell you about our friends at Magic Spoon.

If Magic Spoon had a cinnamon one,

they do?

They do.

Maybe one of those falls off a truck, Magic Spoon, and lands in my doorstep.

What do you say?

Promo code played.

Hey, that's this week's Get Played.

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And also check out our paywall show, Get Animated, Matt, where we're watching solo leveling.

Yeah, we're watching solo leveling, and this week we're talking about episodes seven and eight.

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It's getting, I mean, it's crazy, but it's really getting nuts now.

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And I don't know if anybody got played this week, but maybe we got filleted.

I think we did get filleted, actually.

We should probably lock the doors before he comes back in.

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