Console Draft: Nintendo Switch

This is a Head Gum 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 and participation may vary.

Audival's romance collection has something to satisfy every side of you.

When it comes to what kind of romance you're into, you don't have to choose just one.

Fancy a dalliance with a duke or maybe a steamy billionaire.

You could find a book boyfriend in the city and another one tearing it up on the hockey field.

And if nothing on this earth satisfies, you can always find love in another realm.

Discover modern rom-coms from authors like Lily Chu and Allie Hazelwood, the latest romanticy series from Sarah J.

Mas and Rebecca Yaros, plus regency favorites like Bridgerton and Outlander.

And of course, all the really steamy stuff.

Your first great love story is free when you sign up for a free 30-day trial at audible.com slash wondery.

That's audible.com/slash wondery.

All right.

I mean, we should get recording.

Have you seen Heather?

No, I wasn't sure if she was going to be remote today if she was coming in.

She said she was here earlier, but I don't see her.

I haven't seen her yet.

I thought it was...

Hearing some weird distant moaning.

Yeah.

Where's that come?

I hear it too.

is that coming from that cabinet in the corner?

Oh god.

Um we just guys, I made a mistake.

I made a mistake.

Heather

is hold on look.

Don't don't don't don't don't don't look.

I'm embarrassed.

Okay, I was just gonna open the door so we could hear you better.

You could get some more.

Don't I'm embarrassed.

Okay, okay, I won't.

I'll leave you in there.

What's what is happening?

I love the Nintendo Switch.

Yeah, we all love the Nintendo Switch.

We were drafting Switch games today.

And I got to thinking, you know, you can walk around with it in portable mode.

Uh-huh.

And I was like, that's like us.

We're all in portable mode.

We can walk around.

Oh, interesting.

I guess I hadn't really thought about how portable automatically.

And then I was like, I've never considered what it would be like.

Cause, you know, when you plug the Switch into the dock, it makes it fancier and the screen is bigger.

Sure, puts it on the

So I thought, well what would happen if I dock?

So I docked.

I docked myself in a Switch dock.

You docked yourself in a Switch dock.

You docked yourself in a Switch dock.

Don't open the cabinet.

I'm embarrassed.

You crammed your physical form into the narrow slot where a Switch console usually rests?

Three quarters of my body are docked.

Oh my my god.

Do you want us to call, like, you know, but it does

Nintendo?

Yeah, call Nintendo.

No, I don't know if Nintendo is necessarily.

I was going to say some first responders, you know, get like an ambulance out.

Well, I think Nintendo will also not, first of all, I don't know why you wouldn't be embarrassed calling Nintendo.

I sort of think in either scenario, neither party is going to know what to do exactly.

Yeah.

This is for sure a first for everybody involved.

Yeah.

look i can i i know you don't want us to look in there don't look in the cabin could i maybe like hand you like a flathead screwdriver or a pair of pliers to see if that'll helply maybe help free yourself oh no nintendo screws are proprietary oh no

oh no what happened what heather what happened i'm getting updated oh god would it help you if we like turned on the tv or something yeah why don't we turn on the tv because you know this the dock the dock does have the hdmi cable linked to there.

Okay, yeah, just turn on the TV.

We're throwing open the cabinet.

Okay, open the cabinet.

We'll turn the TV on.

We're turning on.

Hey, Wow, there you are on the TV.

It worked.

Yeah, we can see you.

Yeah.

Oh, wow.

Oh, man.

Hi, guys.

That makes me happy.

I thought this was all for naught.

Yeah, you know,

maybe this isn't the life you hope for, but this can just be your life moving forward.

I only did this for an intro, and I think it's going to kill me.

We swap in a bigger micro SD card and weigh our favorite mute protagonists as we draft from the Nintendo Switch library 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, Heatheran Campbell, along with my fellow host, Nicholas Weiger.

That's me, Nicholas Weiger, and I'm here with our third host, Matthew Apodaka.

Hello, everyone.

Hello.

Hello, everyone.

And welcome back to the premiere video game podcast, where we used to talk about bad games, then we talked about good games, and now we talk about any games.

Yes.

Any and any games.

As far as I'm concerned.

And we usually go by nicknames, but sometimes we go by full names.

Today we're formal.

Yeah, that's formal.

Yeah.

For no particular reason.

I want to start this week off by saying...

We're not recording in court or anything.

Yeah, nice.

I have spent a week astonished that Matt Apodaka didn't like Kingsglaive, and I cannot, I'm stunned.

You're stunned.

I'm still stunned.

I feel so bad about this because I haven't thought about it a second more since we recorded it.

Poor Heather keeping her up at night, staring at the ceiling.

Why didn't he like it?

No, I do.

I weirdly do think I'll revisit it at some point.

Like whenever I'm about to start Final Fantasy XV, I think I'll pop it on again and give it another shot.

All right.

Rochelle, our producer, aka Ranch, did you watch Kings Clay

the Final Fantasy movie?

No, I did not.

Okay, great.

You made the right move.

Yeah.

Yeah,

that's interesting.

It's been occupying your thoughts.

We don't need to re-litigate it.

We've talked about it.

We don't like it.

We definitely don't.

I just wanted to open up by saying,

I'm shocked at the emotional impact it had on me that...

that I was so certain about something.

Also, this is an interesting, we don't usually have continuity in our podcast.

And this feels like to be continued on just a thought, which is that I can't, I just can't believe it.

Can't believe it.

But I also did not know you had such affection for this movie.

I thought you were kind of like, oh, yeah, King's Clave, it's pretty good.

I thought it was the opposite.

I thought you were like, oh, it's bad.

We should watch it because it's bad.

No, it's so it just falls

deeply in between those two posts.

Got it.

So you don't think it's pretty good and you don't think it sucks.

You think it's like...

It makes me, certain elements of the movie make me feel, we don't have to do this.

We did this last week.

All right, then let's not, let's move on.

Let me wrap up your thought.

Me?

Yeah.

I'm Kingsglave pilled.

Hey, I should give everyone a heads up that we weren't going to do a we play, you play,

but we decided to swerve and do one.

Not of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, but of the other big game of the moment.

We are going to do an episode about Helldivers 2 next week.

So We Play, You Play, Helldivers 2 coming next Monday, March 25th.

That's right.

I look forward to that.

I know people are playing it in the Discord.

Yeah.

Yeah.

None of the three of us have started playing, so it's not like, oh, well,

I've did my.

I've spread a little democracy.

Yeah.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

Wow.

Yeah, the point of the game is that what they're doing in the game is good, right?

Yeah, yeah.

I'm just taking it at face value.

Yeah, it's good, and I'm confused and mad when people say that it's bad.

Yes, yeah.

But I think it's because I'm an idiot.

But it rocks.

I can't wait to.

Honestly, I mean, off pod.

Let's pencil in a time to squat up.

We are 100% going to squat up.

Oh, yeah.

Rochelle, you mess with the Helldivers too?

I have it downloaded, but I haven't played it yet.

Okay, well, you're going to have to get it.

You're welcome to, John.

Oh my God, I would love to squat up.

Hell yeah.

Yeah.

Look at us.

I feel like playing with Ranch is going to be pure chaos.

I'm more excited to do it now.

I was like, oh, Ranch is going to play this.

It's going to be good.

Has this ever happened to you?

You've been traveling abroad and you want to watch one of your comfort shows or perhaps even a sporting event.

and then because you're somewhere else in a different country that doesn't have that, you can't freaking watch it.

Well, I got something for you.

Nord VPN.

Protect your private data like bank details, passwords, and online identity.

NordVPN can switch your virtual location, allowing you to save money by purchasing flights, hotels, and subscriptions from other countries at a cheaper price.

So, look, NordVPN can do all sorts of crazy stuff.

You can make it think you're somewhere else.

You're wherever you are, you're not getting the the best deal.

Switch to somewhere else.

They might have a better deal.

That's huge.

Protecting your data whilst traveling, and yeah, I said whilst, and using public Wi-Fi, NordVPN protects you wherever you are in the world.

I kind of theory.

This is why they haven't been able to apprehend Carmen Sandiego.

She's using NordVPN.

They'll never find her.

The NordVPN threat protection feature protects you from viruses, malicious malware, and phishing sites.

Unless that phishing site is fastpro.com.

No protection required there.

It's the fastest VPN in the world.

No buffering or lagging while streaming and stops your ISP bandwidth throttling.

ISP bandwidth throttling, a thing of the past with NordVPN.

Premium cybersecurity for the price of a cup of coffee per month.

Now that's what I'm talking about.

One Nord VPN account can be used on up to ten devices.

Your phone, your iPad,

your mom's iPad, your laptop.

Maybe even your watch.

Who could say?

That's and that's not even 10.

You surely have some more.

Perhaps a proprietary browser on a video game console or something.

To get the best discount off your NordVPN plan, go to NordVPN.com/slash get played.

Our link will also give you four extra months of the two-year plan.

By my estimation, that's 28 months.

There's no risk with Nord's 30-day money-back guarantee.

The link is in the podcast episode description box.

NordVPN, you heard?

Hey, buddy, is the state of the U.S.

making you want to escape?

Take the first step and learn the language before you go.

Babel makes it easy.

Start speaking a new language with confidence thanks to Babel's conversation-based technique that quickly teaches you useful words and phrases about the things you actually talk about in the real world.

There's over a dozen languages available to learn at your own pace so you can achieve your goals with a material tailored to your individual proficiency level, interests, and time availability.

Me, I've been learning some Spanish or Espanol using the Babel app, and And I've been having a blast and making a lot of tangible progress.

It is handcrafted by over 200 language experts.

Babel's lessons are voiced by real native speakers and built with science-based cognitive tools like spaced repetition and interactive features to fit any learning style.

It's like having a private tutor in your pocket.

For me, some of my favorite ways to learn a new language are personalized review systems based on my progress designed for long-term memorization.

There's Babel games, which are fun for sentence building and spelling reinforcement, and culture bytes that deliver content and insider knowledge about the language.

Studies from Yale, Michigan State, and other leading universities continue to prove Babel works.

One study found that using Babel for 15 hours is equivalent to a full semester at college.

With over 16 million subscriptions sold, Babel's 14 award-winning language courses are backed by a 20-day money-back guarantee.

So get talking with Babel.

I want you to learn another language, so I'm teaming up with Babel to gift you 55% off subscriptions, but only for our listeners at babble.com/slash played.

Get up to 55% off at babble.com/slash played, spelled b-a-b-b-e-l dot com/slash played.

Babble.com/slash played.

Rules and restrictions may apply.

Let's talk about some video games we're currently playing.

It's time to ask, what are you playing?

What are you playing?

Hi, it's me, the Resident Evil Merchant, and I'm coming in to ask you what it is I'm playing.

You guys heard about this musical guild?

Yeah, I mean, yes, the union that represents musicians who perform for film and television.

So if you sing a song, it's yours and you make money off it.

So that was the what have you been playing song?

Your contract.

No, this is the thing that I know what you're trying to do here.

You're trying to add things to your contract so you can get paid more.

You get paid a lot for what you do.

And I think it's a really actually, you know, this is kind of messed up.

It's, it's, it's not very nice that you're trying to add stuff to your contract like that.

I call your pay rate exorbitant.

And hey, I support performers being paid fairly.

That's right.

But you are paid a lot for what you do.

But yeah, you can't just be like adding services on top of what you're contracted for.

You don't want to song.

Is that what you're saying?

You don't want to.

No.

I don't think we necessarily need a song for this point in the show.

In my experience, songs typically have music as well.

You kind of just said things in a way.

Yeah, if

what you just did to you comprises a song, in your view, I would just disagree with that assessment.

Yeah, 100%.

I would call it something else.

Is it legal for me to sing happy birthday yet?

I think it actually is legal, man.

It's legal for a long time.

Well, not for a long time, but for in fairly recent past.

But there's no reason for you to sing it because it is, as far as I know, no one's birthday in this room.

Yeah.

What if it was my birthday?

Is this a circuitous way of letting us know that it's your birthday, Resident Evil Worship?

February 22nd, 1941.

Okay.

Don't date this because this is going to come out,

it's going to come out later, okay?

So just don't make it seem like that's the current date, because it's clearly not.

Right.

What?

It's not?

Did I forget my own birthday?

I mean, today is, if we're going to time stamp it, it is March 14th.

Yeah.

March.

And what date did you say?

January 22nd.

I said February 22nd.

February.

Yeah.

I thought you said February.

I heard January.

Yeah.

Yeah, your brain was trying to process it into a normal month name.

Yeah.

Not some invented month.

No, it's not.

You just got different months than me.

That's fine.

We've already done this calendar thing.

We can't do this again.

People who are like, didn't want to hear about it.

We can't do more calendar stuff.

But also, like, you know, there is a, there is a, uh, a question of what reality the Resident Evil merchant actually lives in.

Do they live in some sort of parallel universe where there is a month of February?

And so what they're saying right now is nothing particularly abnormal from their perspective.

Well, and we know that there's a different president of the United States.

There's definitely a different president.

Yeah.

Not my president.

Right.

Matt.

You said it so I don't have to.

But there also are things like the United States and Spain.

There are like real territories.

So there's some commonalities there.

Do you want to know where I'm from?

Yeah.

So you know multiverses are like

side to side on a universe, right?

Like, oh, the universe to the left of you.

I do know this.

Okay.

The universe to the right of you.

Sure.

My universe is five seconds behind you.

Always chasing.

So you're just in kind of like an alternate timeline

of our reality.

Just five seconds.

Just a little bit behind us.

Got it.

I do remember saying earlier that our show doesn't have continuity.

Yeah.

Well, no, it does.

It's a little bit of a mind fuck trying to think of what that means to be you're living five seconds behind it.

That does that mean that everything that's happening to us is about to happen to you?

Yes.

Oh, wow.

But it sucks.

I can't do anything about it.

I'm like, Dr.

Marx.

That sounds awful.

Sucks.

It's like

if I'm in your house and you guys are like taking a shit.

Oh, God, now I'm taking a shit five seconds later.

I mean, that's how it works.

I'm hoping you're not in my house while that's happening because you were not invited in.

And I hope you're also on a toilet, I guess.

And also, I guess I need more than five seconds.

I'm now like just putting together all the piles of human shit I found like in my hallway.

But in a sense, it's probably also a relief.

Yeah, at least I have some clarity on where that's coming from.

It's not just like a feral man living in my crawl space.

I mean, I guess there kind of maybe is.

Yeah.

Guys, I saw something.

Speaking of contracts, I saw something in my writer that

I want to run past you guys because it's going to happen at some point in the future.

Okay.

I do get to appear for one complete episode.

That is true.

That is in your contract that you do have a guest spot.

Why did we put that in?

It was like one of those things where it was like, look, this will close the deal if you just agree to this one thing.

You're like, all right, fine, yeah.

And we thought we could just kick it down the road in perpetuity.

But at some point, the chickens are going to come home to roost.

Resident Evil Merchant can book themselves as a guest.

Yeah, I'm going to do it for one of the weeks that Heather can't be here.

And it'll be great.

It'll be great.

We're going to have a good time, boys.

Maybe I'll do it in studio.

Sure.

Yeah, that's an option.

As long as you keep the locker room talk to yourself.

What?

I know that sometimes.

You guys have a locker room?

I've been changing on Sunset Boulevard.

No, I just know sometimes you like to run that mouth of yours in ways that Nick and I don't find appropriate.

Metaphorically, we don't have a literal locker room here at Headcount Studios.

Well, it's not going to be this episode, so I'm just here to ask you, what are you playing?

Wow, what are we playing?

Are Heather and I still playing the same game?

Or have you stopped?

I

so my schedule just changed a bit, and I have continued to play

Final Fantasy Rebirth, but

it is not until, say, tomorrow or the next day that I will be able to put in any significant time.

And that is in part because the new Fortnite chapter dropped.

And that's what I would like to talk about this week.

Please.

Because, holy shit, it is so fucking good.

It is the best season I have yet played.

Wow, really?

Yeah.

So it's Greek Greek god-themed.

They've added

two new POIs or like areas

where there are

Greek gods to kill.

And when you kill those Greek gods, you gain their powers.

So if you go and beat Hades, who is not like Disney Hades, he's like a dude who sits on the throne and calls forth the minions of the underworld.

If you beat him,

you get a power that allows you to drain the health and put it in yourself of anybody that you kill.

So it's siphoning.

Oh, that's cool.

If you kill Cerberus,

you gain the ability to teleport three times, which then recharges like his three heads.

If you kill Zeus on the other side of the map at Mount Olymbus, which is very, very beautifully designed, huge...

high mountain overlooking the entire island with a giant statue on the top and you can go all the way to the top of the statue and you can snipe from there but if you if you kill Zeus,

you get like a super sprint and sort of like an ultra jump, like, you know, the way a god would jump.

And then if you kill Aries,

also in the Mount Olympus area, you can get

stronger weapons.

All the weapons you pick up are stronger than normal.

In addition.

They have added lightning bolts that you can hurl from the sky as if you are Zeus.

Wow.

And Icarus wings.

And the Icarus wings allow you to fly.

So now the game has become this sort of like

it's not just a horizontal game, it's also a game that involves the area above you significantly.

Wow.

And my favorite part about the Icarus wings is they only last a certain length of time.

And the way they've visually represented that is that the feathers on the wings burn as if you're flying too close to the sun.

Wow.

It's just, it is such a fast-paced, fun,

like reinvention of Fortnite.

And I have been playing with people on the Discord and also my

main squad of IRL friends.

And

we have not stopped laughing, which is, which feels like old Fortnite to me.

It feels like the first time the three of us played and it was like, yeah, you can jump on this warthog and ride it, or you can get in a car and fill it up with gas or plant a plant.

Like, it's so much

stuff

that just read as chaotic.

And now all of those

disparate flavors are mixed together under a

Greek god theme.

And

I fucking love it.

I love the battle pass because you can get like Aphrodite or Medusa or...

Like,

I care about those people so much more than say, and I know this is going to, you know, not be a home run in this room, but like, I would rather have

Cerberus as a skin than Peter Griffin.

How dare you?

I'm done.

How dare you criticize our modern myths?

Yeah, get off the show.

How dare you?

Did they ever do like a, like a, you know, what, a

Greek myths?

style family guy anthology episode where like brian was cerberus it seems like a natural thing they could do.

That's, I, I, I'm on board.

I love it.

Uh, if you like Greek myths, maybe you should watch the show on Fox that I wrote for Krepopolis.

Wow.

Which is about, yeah, it's out.

I'll watch it.

Check that out.

I love Greek myth.

Check it out.

Yeah.

Can I ask?

Yeah.

Can I ask real quick?

Because you were talking about you kill a god.

How does that work exactly?

Is that like a raid thing?

Do you need to get a bunch of other players to do it?

Or can you take, can you take them down one-on-one?

No, you can take them down one-on-one.

uh it is you go into their temple and in the funniest bit of like fortnite animation there's a statue of of them and you go up to it and you grab it and you top topple it onto the ground which angers the god and so they send first usually a a wave of their minions or followers or wolves or whatever at you uh you kill all those guys and then the god shows up and it's kind of just like a regular boss battle in fortnite um

So it isn't it isn't oh you've got to get like 18 to 20 people to take this thing down.

You can take it down solo or in a squad

but you also you take it down with regular guns

which is funny or if you have the ability to drive a car into it you can hit it with a car like all of the standard Fortnite antics apply.

Wow, that's cool.

That sounds fun.

I love it.

I love

Matt, what are you playing?

Well, I'm still playing.

I'm trucking along in

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.

And I don't want to, I'm not going to like, I haven't gotten to anything that would be considered like a spoiler, right?

Sure.

I'm still in chapter four.

I did text you guys over the weekend that I was 26 hours into the game and only

like 23%

done with the game, but

my remake play time was 52 hours at 100%, like of finishing the game.

Yeah, so I think I'm gonna be playing this game for a while, so I think it's good that we gave ourselves a month buffer because it's it's pretty meaty if you're doing all the side stuff.

Um, but I've been really impressed with some of the stuff that they've brought back for this one from the original game.

Because, like,

uh, there were a couple things while I was playing the original that I was like, how are they gonna,

how are they gonna do this?

Like, this is like such like a, like, the

there's like a a mini game in the original where you have to like, you're, you're with, um, like this Shinra army that you have to, like, make your guns, you have to do like a little, like, thing with the, you flip the gun around and stuff.

Right.

And, like, you know, do like your like in color guard or whatever.

Um, but they have that in this game, but it's like a rhythm

mini-game.

And it is so fun.

It is just like so like delightful and fun.

Um, and you have to like go around finding all these like different infantrymen to add to the squad.

Um, that was really great and then there's the of course right before this there's a moment where you have to um

ride like a dolphin there's a dolphin in the original one that like you have to go a certain way so it can toss you up on like a pillar so you can uh do this next thing and they made that just like a like a timed like little race thing that you have to do with the dolphin i was like i I love the dolphin.

Like,

that was really great.

But I've been really just enjoying switching out my party, playing with a bunch of different of the characters, and just really, it's just, it's all I've been thinking about recently.

Like, I really love the game.

It's, um, it's really taken over my brain in a very significant way.

I, I, I love it.

It's, um, uh, I had a thought while I was playing it.

I was like, is this like my favorite?

Is this like now my favorite game?

I'm not even done with it.

And like, it's just this, like, Final Fantasy VII

has been such a big part of my life for the last two months.

Yeah.

And it's like, it's, it's everything to me right now.

It's, it's, it's wonderful.

What, who, do you, do you have like a favorite party member to play with or favorite crew?

You know, I love Tifa.

And I know that this is like a basic...

It's maybe I'm basic.

Because I see a lot of people arguing, you know,

Aerith versus Tifa.

And I hate to draw a line in the sand.

I would die for Tifa, I think.

I remember from a combat standpoint, I remember Tifa being fun to play in the first remake.

Yeah, because she has like fast punches and does like somersault kicks and stuff.

And that's pretty cool.

And Aerith is good and fun to play as, but the magic is a little slower to me.

And I like to get in there and

I like to finish a fight quick.

So my team right now has been

Cloud, Red 13, and Antifa.

And

it sounded like I said, Antifa.

And that's kind of like what they are.

Yeah.

That is what they are.

It is.

Yeah.

They're eco-terrorists.

Yeah.

And,

but I just, I love it.

And, like, I,

I, I, I know what I'm, I'm, I'm about to get into like the next like chapter, I know.

So I'm really excited to keep proceeding.

Um, but those are the updates I have for it because I don't want to spoil much more of it.

Wow.

Okay.

But Tifa, if you're listening, I'll do anything for you.

And Tifa, if you're listening, we'd love to have you on the show.

Yeah, Tifa, yeah.

If also, yeah, if you're a video game character and you're listening, you can come on the show anytime.

Resident Evil Merchant Art is definitely going to hear that.

Well, he's been on it before.

I know.

You guys are familiar with Hall Pass, of course.

Everybody's familiar with The Hall Pass.

Yes, what are those movies like

Sliding Doors or like The Bucket List where no one actually likes the movie, but it made an indelible imprint on the culture by giving us a phrase that's shorthand for something?

Yes.

So, would you say that Tifa is your video game hall pass, Matt?

Um

hmm.

What can I say so my fiancé doesn't get mad?

I mean, you could start by saying Tifa is not real.

Tifa's not real, so it's allowed.

Yeah.

Mitch Hedberg used to have this joke where he was like, people would ask me if I have a girlfriend, and I would say, no, but I have somebody who would be very mad if they heard me say that.

No, look, it's just a harmless little crush on Tifa.

I'll never meet Tifa.

She's just good at fighting.

It has nothing to do with her appearance and how she treats me in the game.

Sure.

Like a million bucks.

Like I'm the best guy in the world.

If she said, I love you, I wouldn't try to kiss my TV or something.

Okay.

So.

So, yes, she's my hall pad.

Wow.

You said it.

I guess I'll ask myself, what are you playing?

Well,

thanks, Why Girlfield this one.

No, Nick, I was just kind of coming down from like an experience I was having.

Nick, I'm dying to know, actually.

What are you playing?

Matt, I'm playing Baldur's Gate 3.

But I'm not going to talk about that

because, as I said,

playing my Baldur's Gate 3 Dark Urge Honor Mode playthrough, and I'm not going to give any further Baldur's Gate talk until I finish it.

Instead, I'm going to talk about another game, A Little to the Left, which just showed up on Game Pass in February.

This is a puzzle game that was developed by Max Inferno and was originally released in November of 2022.

I remember hearing lots of pleasant things about this.

It is a cozy, cozy game about sorting household objects.

And

kind of like WarioWare,

but without the time pressure, if that makes sense.

They're kind of like, oh, oh, here's some really small, contained, discrete tasks that you just sort of figure out and then you do, and you lazily do it at your own pace.

You're not judged by how long you take, and then you move on to the next one.

And it has this, you know,

the art of everything looks very hand-drawn.

And, you know, just kind of like this sort of general fuzziness to it, that I guess chill wave would kind of be sort of an aesthetic some people would would would ascribe to this.

I'm not sure if that's exactly right, but it's that sort of thing that's sort of like a coffee talk, like a sort of chill vibe sort of game.

Okay.

So the way these puzzles work, it will be things like, for instance, an early one is there's a bunch of photos that are on a wall and they're all like a little askew.

And so what you have to do is just take all the framed photos and put them aligned so that they are all,

you know, they're all correctly at right angles and they all look straight.

And then if that's, if you succeed at that, you move on to the next level.

But there'll also be things like there's a bunch of frame photos on the wall and they're already all aligned.

And so you have to think for a second, okay, what exactly does the game want me to do here?

And so for instance, there's one where what you have to do is line up the horizons in all the photos.

So you see see some of the photos were taken at an angle and what the straightening that you have to do is actually skewing the photos so that they look like they're gravitationally correctly oriented.

There's things like arranging pencils in order of how much lead is left.

But then there will also be like an alternate solution to a puzzle like that where you'll be like, okay, you can also

get an alternate solution by arranging them in terms of how much eraser is left

from

most to least or vice versa.

And there is a very

just spoon-feeding in-game hint system, which you can use and which you're not punished for, which is basically just like a drawing of the completed puzzle that you can use an eraser to scrub off as much or as little of it as you want and use that to guide you in terms of how to find a solution.

It's pretty good.

That's pretty good.

I like that.

But the thing is, you don't have to figure out just the solution.

You have to figure out what they want you to solve.

And that's where the in-game hint system comes in.

Because I will say, as much as I am enjoying this quite a bit, it is very fun.

It is very cozy.

It calms you down.

But some of the puzzle solutions to me feel a little arbitrary and unclear.

Like

what you will be like, okay, I think this looks like some sort of solution, but what it actually wants me to do is something a little bit different.

For instance, like

the books are arranged by height,

like, okay, well, I got to ascend these, like, uh,

I got to arrange these like ascending stairs.

But what the game actually wants me to do is ascend them so and have them set up so it's like uh they can they go down like a valley and meet in the middle at the lowest point, you know, uh, which is a sort of thing like you can you can eventually figure out by experimentation.

Uh, but to me, those are ones where I'm like, well, I'm not sure why this one solution works and this other one isn't what they're looking for.

But there are other ones that are very satisfactorily like, oh, I see exactly what they're doing.

Um,

and those are really, really fun when you figure, when you puzzle those out exactly.

I'm not sure if it's an easy game to play, if you're someone

who has issues perceiving color, because a lot of the puzzles or a good number of the puzzles are reliant on like the color spectrum.

And

I don't know if the color blindness mode that's in this game,

what that does exactly to adjust things.

So that's a thing to be conscious of.

But, you know, it is on Game Pass.

So I think it's a great Game Pass game to to just sort of check out and mess around with.

And I know a lot of people played it when it came out, but it was new to me.

And I'm glad I've spent some time with it.

Also, Matt, I should note, this is a cat game.

It's a big-time cat game.

Okay, yes.

Cats are a presence, and cats, as you know, like to cause disarray.

And that's a thing that happens in this game.

So you'll get your, you'll have your little plate of breakfast foods all arranged, and all of a sudden a cat ball reaches in there and musses everything up.

But it's a lot of fun.

Yeah, I have this game wish listed, but now that I know it's on Game Pass.

Check it out, mess around.

check it out yeah because it's not super long it's not it doesn't have a ton to a lot to it but what it's trying to do it does very well i was sold as soon as you said it was like wario wear with no time limit and i'm like that's like that's my zone yeah i love it um love it i also there was that well did you mess around with that the new you messed around with the new wario wear

no not the newest one okay because there was a there was two new ones there was the one that came out for switch and then there was one that you had to get up and move your body yeah i played that at a at a party and i was like i loved loved it.

Yeah, it's good.

It was so, if, if there was a visual component to the show, we would have to do it.

Like, it's so, it's so funny.

It is a hilarious game.

Um, but I don't own it.

So, um, maybe someday.

DraftKings Casino has your playbook for gaming action all season long.

Play thousands of popular slots for a shot at jackpots.

Over 400 million has already been awarded.

New players get 500 spins on Huff and more.

Puff over 10 days.

Download the app, use code GET Played, and claim your spins of your first $5 wager.

Get in the game with DraftKings Casino, home of the largest jackpot win in online casino history.

The crown

is

yours!

Gambling problem?

Call 1-800-GAMBLER.

In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling.

Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org.

Please play responsibly.

21 plus physically present in Connecticut, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia only.

Void in Ontario.

Eligibility restrictions apply.

New customers only.

Non-withdrawable casino spins issued as 50 spins per day for 10 days, valid for feature game only, and expire each day after 24 hours.

See terms at casino.draftkings.com/slash promos.

Ends October 5th, 2025 at 11.59 p.m.

Eastern Time.

Here's the thing, guys.

I have been traveling recently.

I went over to the UK and I'll admit, the Wi-Fi speed, the internet speed when you're traveling abroad, those roaming data cap shit, like you have to buy like a 50 quid, I don't know, it's tough.

It's tough when you're abroad and you've badly needed an internet connection with no Wi-Fi spot in sight.

So you understand what a difference a local SIM card can make.

An eSIM provides an internet connection wherever you travel and saves you money on roaming fees.

That's where Saley comes in.

Saley is a new eSIM service app brought to you by the creators of NordVPN.

Here you can choose from several affordable eSIM plans in over 190 countries and eight regions.

With a Saley eSIM, you'll always have a connection when needed.

Download Saley once and you won't have to install a new eSIM for each country.

You can avoid scammers selling fake SIM cards outside train stations and airports.

And there are a lot of those guys, believe me.

There's no more wandering around looking for a public Wi-Fi spot.

With a Saley, you're always connected.

They provide 24-7 support and you get a full refund if your device isn't e-SIM compatible.

Download the Saley app in your App Store.

Use code GETPLAID at checkout to get 15% off your first purchase or go to saley.com slash get played.

That's S-A-I-L-Y dot com slash get played.

All right, let's get to the meat of what we're doing today.

Nintendo Switch Draft.

Now, look, we've done console drafts in the past on the podcast.

PlayStation 1, PlayStation 2, Nintendo 64, Nintendo DS, the GameCube.

Only Nintendo and PlayStation Systems so far, actually.

We should probably, Sony systems.

We should mix that up.

But

we wanted to do something a little bit more contemporary, and it feels like, you know, the Switch is kind of...

drifting towards its end date.

Was that your way of teasing that maybe we might do a Dreamcast, Dreamcast, a Dreamcast draft?

I'd love to do a Dreamcast draft.

Dreamcast draft, Xbox 360 draft, you know, draft cast.

Yeah, we could do a draft cast.

Yeah, we can do a dreamcast.

I'm doing one now.

Oh, well.

You mean, you mean Dreamcast, though?

Dreamcast natural draft cast.

No, now I understand.

Yeah, that is really good.

That is good.

Yeah.

Shen Mu.

There it is.

I guess Mac is the number one pick.

The Switch launched globally on March 3rd, 2017, north of 139 million units have shipped.

It's closing in on the PlayStation 2, which is still the number one console of all time with 155 million units.

And at some point, it will surpass it.

Moby Games says there are 10,888 games that have been released for the Switch globally.

It's a lot of games.

I think...

Pound for pound, dollar for dollar, it's really hard to argue that the Switch hasn't been best system of all time.

And that is saying that I say that having not really picked up my Switch in like, I bet a solid nine months at least.

I still think it's like, it's astonishing that it exists.

I think that all of the next consoles will probably be similarly, I don't know, like it, they're, I think it's going to be all Steam Decks or Switches next, right?

I hope so.

Just as long as you can actually download games to it.

Not everything has requires an internet connection at all.

Yeah, that'd be really nice.

I was thinking about how I think on my Switch alone, I think I have a lot of games on various consoles.

I think the Switch has a bulk of my games by like a lot.

Like there's because they always have like indie games on sale and stuff.

Not ever Nintendo.

first party games on sale usually but no i have all those like i there it has a there's a lot going on on the switch look the case for switch is strong first off it is both you play it use it at home console and you can use it as a handheld uh secondly as you were just saying there is a a vast indie library of great games that are are very very playable in in in some cases they're ideal form on switch um and then of course there's nintendo's first party uh wares which

are uh are very much their their own thing and are represent some of the the very best that gaming has to offer.

I totally agree with what Heather is saying.

I mean,

if I have to pick one platform, I probably pick PC.

But if I have to pick one console and it's like, hey, this is your console, this is your only option, I guess I probably do go with Switch.

Because, yeah, again, you get the Nintendo first party and then you get just so many other games and you can play them wherever.

In doing the research for this draft,

I came across two games on the Switch that I've never even heard of that are in the top 25 Metacritic ratings for the Nintendo Switch.

There's a couple, yeah, there's a couple of visual novels that I think are really, really well regarded that, yeah, I have not played.

Yeah, it one, one of them is, yeah, so like one of them, a game that is more highly rated than

tears of the kingdom on the Switch is it's called, it's a visual novel called The House in Fatimor Morgana.

And

I've never even heard of this game.

And it is a 96.

Like if you had to sit, if you, it's like, okay, you've got to, you're, you're stuck with one console for the rest of your life.

It feels like the Switch has, again, outside of, say, Steam Deck or where it's like a PC library that's infinity, like it feels like the best console.

Yeah.

Another one that I, that I heard of that

now I want to try and I want to download as soon as we're done with this podcast is uh

a Castlevania Metroidvania uh game based on one of my favorite old anime record of lotos war and the graphics look just charming as fuck yeah i have heard of house in in feta morgana uh it is a

i i think it's it's it's multi-platform um but it is one where i think it got a plussed up switch port that is you know maybe i'm wrong there but i think it is at least one of of the definitive versions of it.

But let's get into this.

Should we do the snake style?

I think snake style works.

Okay, great.

Snake style.

Exactly.

Which of us wants the first pick?

Because I feel pretty flexible and pretty able to go wherever.

So I think that ranch should think of a number.

Okay.

And we should each say a number, and then whoever comes closest to that number

gets to go first.

Okay.

Are there parameters for the number or is it just like any number?

I one to 100, I think.

Okay.

Okay.

And then what if when we ask Ranch what number she's thinking of, she says a button?

Just says something insane that confuses us.

Ranch, you're not going to do that, right?

No.

So yeah, any number between 1 and 100.

Don't tell us what it is.

And we're guessing.

We're going to guess.

Okay, got it.

Got it.

I like that this is like,

this is the first time we've ever, like, we've ever randomized it.

Yeah, we've done some randomizing here.

I'm going to say my number first.

Okay.

57.

All right.

Great number.

Good number.

Jimmy Buffett number.

R.I.P.

I was looking at Nick, so I was just saying his age.

I wish I could order off the Denny Sr.

menu.

Honestly, I wish I was in my mid to late 50s.

It would just be great.

I'm going to thrive.

I'm going to say the number 36.

Okay.

I'll go higher.

I'll say 80.

Ooh, okay.

Now, Rochelle, you have an opportunity here to do this however you'd like.

You could do it prices right rules, closest without going over,

or you could still just do closest to it, whichever, whichever.

I guess there's only two options.

Yeah.

So you have two options yeah

i guess just closest okay because price was the right rules no one would get in wow wow oh what was what's what's the number a button no

okay rose which number is closest to a button

27.

27 okay heather is closest all right

snake style that means heather then Matt, then me, because I was furthest away.

Okay.

Oh, yeah.

That's it.

And I'll do two picks in the turnaround.

Honestly, this worked out really well.

This worked out perfect.

Thanks, Ranch.

Okay.

How many do we get to draft?

That's a good question.

What's a good number?

We can do a 35.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Let's do a five.

All right.

So just before we start, I just got to tell you, the listeners.

Yeah.

You're going to be mad because there's no way we're going to name everybody's games.

There's just five games apiece, 15 games total out of, do we say 10,000 on the Switch?

Out of a vast library, and I'll just say I made a short list of games that I would personally consider for this.

It's 23 games long.

Wow.

So, we could, like, my personal entire list is not even going to be drafted here.

So, there's a, there's a very good chance that your game of choice is not going to be among our starting fives.

But we want to know what your starting fives are either way.

Yeah, we still let us know.

We love the information.

But, Heather, the floor is yours.

Number one, with a bullet, my first pick for the Switch draft is Disco Elysium.

Wow.

This is the console that I played Disco Elysium on.

I cannot imagine letting my boy fall into your hands.

So I must choose him as the lead character of my Switch draft.

Disco Elysium, Disco Elysium, Disco Elysium.

That's my first pick.

Matt, you're up.

Fantastic game.

One of my favorite games of all time.

Not a game I played the Switch port of.

I played it on PC, but that's great to hear that it's a really good way to experience it.

It's how I have the collector's edition of the Switch version, which came in that like truck-sized box.

And I'm going to, I lovingly open it once in a while, look at all of the items, touch the items.

I'm happy that they exist and close up the box and then put it in a place where there is no sunlight.

Yeah, it's it is always fun.

Touching items is a bit underrated, isn't it?

Yeah, you just gotta touch an item.

It's really nice.

Okay, my number one pick.

I feel like I have some other ones that I'm worried about getting taken, but I feel like this one could be on any of our any of our lists.

I gotta slide in here and I gotta get it.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

Wow.

Wow.

Because this is a game that

anybody can play this.

You put the controller in someone's hand who doesn't really know games.

Within minutes, they got it.

And it's fun to play with people.

It's fun to play online.

It's fun to play with friends on the couch.

It's great.

So Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is my first pick.

It's a great pick.

Yeah.

And an endlessly playable game.

And a signature game for the Switch.

Here I am sitting in the three spot, and I'm in Hog Heaven because I got two big boys I can take for myself.

Oh, fuck, you got two picks.

First up, Legend of Zelda, Breath of the Wild.

Holy shit.

Now, look, I know a lot of people are like, hey, Tears of the Kingdom is just a strictly better version of it.

And I get what you're saying, but I think that this is like one of the games.

It's a launch game.

It's one of the games that define the platform.

It's a game I put a ton of hours into.

And unlike Tears of the Kingdom, which I bounced off of eventually,

I actually finished the shit out of this game.

And I loved every second of it.

Fantastic game.

One of the

an all-time game for me and an all-time game for gaming.

So someone's got to claim it.

And I'm glad it could be me.

The other one, I'm taking a little bit more tactically, like the two of you, just because I could see Alpadaka claiming this one for himself.

Like Heather, this is a game that I played.

primarily on the Switch that I finished that I got the true ending of on the Switch.

And it is an indie game.

Uh, it is a game that is multi-platform, but I think the Switch version is a wonderful way to experience one of my favorite games ever.

Uh, the best roguelike ever made, Hades.

That's fine, I'll allow it as long as it got picked.

You know, it's a great, that's a great one.

Got picked, all right?

Got picked by me, got picked by Nick, hell yeah.

Uh, Matt, back to you, back to me.

Okay, you know, this is a, I feel like based on what I know so far, this next pick is safe for me to, to, I could, I could save this to the end, I think.

Wow.

Because I'm the only person in the room that played it or that finished it.

So I think

out of, unless you guys were to take it out of spite, I could leave it to the end.

However, I'm going to pick it now because I am scared.

So I am going to claim the Legend of Zelda, Tears of the Kingdom.

There it is.

The other Zelda is off the board.

Excellent.

Nick said why.

It's just just great.

It's really, really good.

And I get why there was a lot going on when it came out.

It's easy.

It's easy to bounce off of.

Big games are easy to bounce off of.

Yes.

Because there's just the, you know, there's too much to do.

Yeah.

And I totally get it.

The Baldur's Gate 3, kind of impossible to pull yourself away from.

I know.

This guy's addicted to it.

Whole thing.

We're not talking about it.

Doing the dark urge over here.

His dark urge is to keep playing the damn thing.

Heather, you have Disco Elysium on your roster.

You have two picks in a row now.

All right.

Pick number two for the Switch draft is going to be Persona 5 Royale.

Oh.

Which I haven't yet.

I have yet to beat.

But if I'm on an island and I only got one console and the console's a Switch and I have I only have five games on it, then I want one of those games to be Persona 5 Royale.

Incredible game.

Incredible game.

Fantastic

version of the game.

In part because it's not, you know, it's not a taxing visual game.

Like it's not asking, it's not trying to be God of War or The Last of Us Part 2 or I don't know.

What's a visually compelling?

I don't even know games.

How did I even get on this fucking podcast?

You're doing great.

You're doing a great job pretending that you know.

It has an, it has a dazzle.

Persona 5 has a dazzling aesthetic, but it's not trying to represent reality in the way that some of those other games are

or approximate some version of reality in a way that's a little bit more technically intensive.

Yeah, I think I could have said Cyberpunk 2077, and that would have been a good pick for demonstrating what Persona 5 is not.

Visually.

But I didn't do it.

Because also it

looked good when it came out.

Huh?

I guess the graphics were never an issue, really.

With

just like everything else about it, it was not.

It was a little, it was a little janky on release in all, in all aspects.

But your hog was like clipping through your clothes.

It was yeah, you know, I would call that a graphical issue, wouldn't I?

Yeah.

Okay, okay, okay.

So now I

try to tell HR.

It's just a graphics issue.

But the thing is, HR is not even calling you in.

You're going in.

I'm going to pick my third game based on the sound of his feet in the sand.

Super Mario Odyssey

is my third game.

There is no way it was going to last when it got back to me, but I was hoping when it gets to me.

Because I love the sound of his feet going

in the sand.

It sounded so good.

The rest of the game is also fantastic.

But sometimes I'll just like remember the sound of his feet in the sand, Lil Mario's feet in the sand.

Yeah.

And I,

and I, and I, it makes me smile.

And that is

emblematic of everything about that game where every decision is an attempt to make you smile, either in frustration or joy.

Super Mario Odyssey.

So Disco Elysium, Persona 5 Royale, Super Mario Odyssey.

Those are my first three picks in the snake style switch draft.

Okay, so it's back to me.

And there's just so many.

The thing about this exercise,

there's just so many great games for the Switch.

We're really blessed with this thing, aren't we, folks?

I have to pick this one.

And

because I've said it, I've said it before.

If you ask me on the right day, I might say this is my favorite game.

I think I know where you're going with this, but please continue.

But the best part of it being on the Switch is that it comes with a second game also.

Yeah.

Super mario 3d world and bowser's fury wow great

pick uh that was uh that was definitely both you both took picks here that i was weighing for my next couple of picks so it's just it's a game that i i just love it i've said i've talked about it enough it's it's just great it's my favorite mario i could have picked there's there's other marios i could have picked for the switch but i picked i picked that one I haven't finished the new one.

I know you did.

I did.

And you know what?

It's my next pick.

Super Mario Brothers Wonder.

Holy shit.

He picked it.

It's really good.

It is good.

It is really good.

I just haven't finished it.

Yeah, I mean, I will honestly say Super Mario Brothers Wonder is my third Mario I would have picked in those of those three, but I felt like I had to get a Mario game, this being a Nintendo platform.

And it's also, and still, and a fucking amazing game.

Yeah.

And it's just a terrific

2D,

I guess you could call it a two and a half D platformer.

But

it's just such an incredible game with such a tremendous sense of joy and continuous graphical invention and audio invention.

Just the way it uses scoring and sound design throughout its levels.

It's a terrific, terrific experience.

And it goes on my roster along with a game, again, that's an indie game that I played through primarily on Switch and that I have a poster of in my office at home.

Tremendous game, one of my favorites, Celeste.

Wow.

No, I had to do Celeste.

I knew you had to do it to him.

Yeah,

here's how well I knew.

Yeah.

As you were starting to say it, I wrote it down.

Wow.

I knew it.

I know that Nick loves Celeste.

It's a game that I've purchased a lot.

I have it on multiple platforms.

I just haven't started it.

Hey, you know, I'm the port king.

I'm the port authority.

I've definitely bought Celeste on more than one platform.

And I'm happy to, it's one of those things where I'm happy to throw a developer

who made a game that I really like a little bit of extra cash as appreciation.

It's

a wonderful game.

I'll start it someday.

And tremendous story, a lot of heart, just a great,

you know,

just a great difficult, but not quite rage game platformer,

just an absolute joy to play through.

And a really satisfying end game.

Okay.

Matt, it's back to you.

Back to me.

I'm sitting pretty.

I could stop.

Like, I have enough that I think I'm good, honestly.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Legend of Zelda, Tears of the Kingdom, Super Mario 3D World plus Bowser's Fury.

Yeah, you got a plenty of gaming there.

You know, but this next one,

this is a game that I played all the way to the last boss and never finished.

Oh, man.

And

I let too much time pass.

So every time I've tried to go back in in there,

my save is at the last.

It's like the only thing there is the boss.

And I can't go back and like relearn how to play.

So I have to like,

I intend to start it over again at some point so I can actually beat the boss.

But my pick for my fourth slot, Metroid Dread.

Wow.

Metroid Dread is one of the most incredible games I've ever played.

It is exactly what you want in a modern Metroid game, a modern

side-scrolling

Metroid game, rather.

Obviously, people want more Metroid Prime, but it just rocks.

It has a true sense in the way that Super Mario Wonder has wonder.

Yeah.

Metroid Dread has actual dread.

Sometimes you're playing this and you're like, oh, Jesus Christ, this is crazy.

It's really, really great.

I love it.

It's such a sleek-looking game, too.

And I also, having played through some of the Metroid games in the last couple of years,

I think some of the lore in Metroid is some of my favorite video game lore.

It's just good stuff.

I love it.

I love Samus.

I love that she always gets on these planets with all these fucking big freaks.

It rules.

That's what she's up to.

I will say that with a bunch of games have been listed so far.

All the games with campaigns that have been listed are games I finished.

Metroid Dread, I have not played yet.

I never got around to playing it.

And I know I would love it.

You know how that is?

You get that game is just like, oh, yeah, I just never carved out time for it, but I know this is very much my shit.

That it's in your top five is yet another data point.

And there are other games I could have picked that are like that.

I mean, I won't name them just in case, but

they're like, but this one is like the best one of those to me.

So Metroid Dread is my fourth pick.

Wow.

Heather, back to you.

Two more picks to round out your roster of five.

Okay.

Okay.

I'm going to go with two games that there's no danger of you guys choosing.

Wow.

Pick number four.

One of my favorite games for the Wii, which had a better re-release on the Switch, No More Heroes.

Wow.

Wow.

I

love

the

tone and the

style of the game and i love its sensibility i love how firmly anchored in the

late mid 2000s the the game is both uh

in what it what it's capable of doing on the the game itself and also what it evokes from me so um no more heroes

uh is my my game four

again no threat of you guys picking it and then game five is a game that I

own

and don't talk about much, but own for the Switch.

And that's Ikaruga, which is a shooter.

Fucking shooter.

Like a plane.

You're a plane and you're flying and it's a shooter.

Yeah, schmuck.

Except unlike

most shooting games, you can change your polarity.

of your ship.

So let's say there's like

there's one color bullet and another color bullet.

And if you change the polarity of your ship, you can allow certain bullets to pass through you and other bullets not to.

So it adds an entirely new dimension to just a plain schmupp shooter game.

Ikaruga is my final pick.

Yeah, Ikaruga is a great game.

I mean, that was on, it was Dreamcast.

I think they re-released it on GameCube.

Does that sound right?

I think so.

Yeah.

I was not aware of the Switch port.

Or maybe, you know what?

I bet you told us about the Switchport before and then I just forgot about it.

But that's a great game.

Great pick.

The switch version allows you to play the game in vertical mode.

So you can take your switch and you can put it vertically.

And that is sort of the way that it is designed to be played, like an old arcade cabinet.

So,

I mean, come on.

Yeah, that's cool, though.

That's great.

Yeah.

I had a, I guess in, in practice, what you would do is that you would turn that on end and then you'd play it with a controller, right?

That's how you'd make the work.

Yeah, because I had a, I had an import Dreamcast shooter back in the day.

What the hell was it called?

Gunbird 2?

That sounds right.

And it was a Capcom game, but you could, it did have that mode, but it involved actually taking your CRT and I had this like shitty little 13-inch CRT and I would like turn it on end just to play it in vertical mode.

Um, and it was so cumbersome that like I only did it a couple of times, but it was really amazing that it was included.

There you go.

Yeah, I hadn't even considered that that it's like possible.

Of course, it's possible.

Yeah, that's that's I really love that.

Yeah, it's a lot of those, you know, those old arcade cabinets, you go in there and it's got it's got the tall screen form factor.

It's as crude as they just had a CRT monitor on end on its side.

I wonder what else I just don't know,

probably just that.

What kind of other obvious stuff that I just don't know?

Now, I have one more pick.

You have one pick left.

And I have something down.

I wrote something down here, but I'm starting to second guess the pick, and I think I might change it.

Wow.

But it feels sacrilegious to do so.

You can always talk about it later.

I'm trying to, but I think right now, what I'm sort of wrestling with is I could pick this game and have that and be happy with it.

Yeah.

Or with my final choice, I could have like a bang for my buck choice.

Interesting.

And so I'm sorry, Pokemon Legends Arceus.

You're not on my list.

Wow.

A Pokemon game not on my Switch draft.

Can we believe this?

I mean, that's nuts.

I can believe it.

It's crazy.

I can believe it.

I can believe it.

I mean, just given how Pokemon games have been recently.

But Legends Arceus is one of my favorite games.

I know you liked Arceus a lot.

But it's not on the board.

Wow.

It's no longer in my list.

But instead

i'm going to choose the final fantasy pixel remaster collection wow wow and yeah i bet you're wondering how am i doing that and guess what it's actually six games for the price of one it counts it counts they're all on the cart it does count it does count all in the cart and that's pretty exciting to me so i i'm going with the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster.

I've played through three and some of four.

Skipped one and two because I've played them a lot.

But I'm interested to get back in there, especially for five and six.

And

I think I'll be doing that soon.

But those are my picks.

The Pixel Remaster of Final Fantasy.

It falls to me to end my roster, finalize my roster, and end this draft.

Of my top 10, two games remain, Metroid Prime Remastered, and Into the Breach.

Everything else has been drafted by myself or someone else.

Some other games on my short list that I'm strongly considering.

Sonic Mania Plus, of course,

fantastic game.

Of course,

this is the game I did not put as many rep, I do not think of as much as a Switch game, but Cuphead plus the DLC,

fantastic.

And again, an all-time game for me.

Dragon Quest XI,

the Switch port.

Dragon Quest XIS is great.

Undertale.

Wow, Undertale.

Yeah, but

I got four video game-ass video games on here.

I got Breath of the Wild.

I got Hades.

I got Super Mario Bros.

Wonder.

I got Celeste.

I had to fucking chill the fuck out.

I had to spend some time with Tom Nook in the game, Animal Crossing, New Horizons.

Holy shit.

I cannot believe it's still available at this point in the draft.

And you know what?

It's one of the defining games of the Nintendo Switch, and it goes on my roster.

It was on my short list.

It's on there.

Yeah.

But

I just couldn't.

i just couldn't pick it because then yeah you could play that forever you could play that forever you could have that be the one game you had yeah and and i think like i just looking at like at the way my roster is constructed you know i got some bangers in there but i think just something to break it up would would be a nice uh nice sort of salve wow that's that's a huge picnic congratulations congratulations to everyone because everyone wins here I think I think that, because

I looked at the Animal Crossing and I was like, there's been no greater friend to me as a game during a time of distress right than than that game when we were all in lockdown and it also made people who don't game game it's true yeah the games that have helped me in times of distress animal crossing during the pandemic and crash team racing on 9-11 when i had to go home from school wow that is intense yeah

like i don't know what's going on but uh i could guess i could play some crash team racing you were like wow that's a pretty terrible plane crash but i've got a different crash in mind

and your mom

says verbatim oh my god matt no and you were like no you can't use the tv

Heather's roster, Disco Elysium, Persona 5 Royal, Super Mario Odyssey, No More Heroes, Ikaruga.

Matt had Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, The Legend of Zelda, Tears of the Kingdom, Super Mario 3D World Plus Bowser's Fury, Metroid Dread, and the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster Collection.

And me, I had Legend of Zelda, Breath of the Wild, Hades, Super Mario Bros.

Wonder, Celeste, and Animal Crossing, New Horizons.

Let us know you're five.

It's tough to get it down to five.

It's tough to get down to five.

There are so many options.

I do think.

Doki Doki Literature Club Plus.

I thought about throwing that one in there.

Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu?

Yeah.

A lot of great games.

We're just naming games now, but these are good games.

I wouldn't have picked that one, but there's so many great ones, and I do think it should be said, we picked the the best 15.

We picked the best 15.

Can I also just shout out the actual MVP of the Nintendo Switch?

Big micro SD card.

You got to have a big micro SD card.

Yes, absolutely.

This console is unusable with the built-in storage.

You got to get that card first thing.

Yeah, and there's days where sometimes I have a big one in there.

Yeah.

About 256 guys.

I got a 256er.

I thought about bumping up to five.

I thought about it.

Apparently, it sports up to two terabytes, which to me is insane.

What?

You're going to have every game in the Switch store on the damn thing?

Two terabytes would fill it faster than you'd think, I bet.

Yeah, I'm sure.

Well, on like the PS5 for sure.

Yeah, put four games on there, and then it's done.

Put one Call of Duty to

game size.

Hey, that was the Nintendo Switch draft.

It's time to take a trip down memory card lane with our own Heather Ann Campbell.

She's got a game for a retro collection in the segment, regrettably called Heather's Hole.

Heather's ho.

Oh no.

Heather's ho.

Oh, God.

Guys, I've shown you.

Yeah, we haven't been here in a while.

It's been a long time.

I have a, you know, for new listeners,

I have a retro game collection that is filled with odds and ends.

I've talked about a lot of stuff in this segment, but we haven't visited.

Like, for example, I have, I don't know, 30

still-in-box Super NES games.

Beautiful, beautiful.

Wow.

Wow.

I think I once talked about an N64 watch that was handed out to managers of electronics boutiques on launch day

in the 1990s.

But I don't know that I've talked about this.

And I think that this is important because it will lead to a larger topic.

I'm holding in my hands a copy of Final Fantasy Tactics

for the PS1.

That's right.

It is factory sealed.

Wow.

So like the original plastic is still on this copy of Final Fantasy Tactics.

The price range for this game on eBay goes from a respectable $70

all the way up to $2,000 for a factory sealed greatest hits version of Final Fantasy Tactics.

Not even the original.

So, this is like people who got in on the second run of Final Fantasy Tactics.

Yeah, I hate that.

Why did they have to put that ugly, like, green, greatest hits thing over already, like, gorgeous box art?

I think to differentiate it, because it was also sold at

a lower price.

Yeah, 100%.

But I just kind of wish, like, I wish that was just like a sticker on the plastic as opposed to being a part of the jewel case.

But you can also find on eBay a Wadda-graded 8.0 version of Final Fantasy Tactics Greatest Hits sealed

for

$699.

Wow.

And

last year, I believe it was last year.

Nope, two years ago, the video game grading firm Wada had been was sued by the

Central District of California

and it was

sued for manipulating the retro gaming market in a class action lawsuit.

Wada, according to the lawsuit, was engaging in affirmative acts to manipulate the retro video game market, engaging in unfair business practices, engaging in false advertising, making false statements about the turnaround times for grading services, and failing to disclose material delays to customers.

So not only is this company grading the games and then putting them out for heritage auctions, which then funnels the money directly back in a circle between the two companies in order to inflate the price of games.

It is also putting certain retro games.

I think the actions by Wada at the beginning of the pandemic was what suddenly and artificially inflated the prices of retro games across the board.

Right.

And has blockaded and barricaded those games from purchase, enjoyment, and

casual collectibility.

There is no fucking reason why a copy of Super Mario Bros.

should be whatever it was, $30,000 or $300,000 or like...

Right.

The insane one was like a, wasn't it like

a sealed Mario 64?

So not even that old of a game that was like sold for hundreds of thousands, right?

That was, that seemed like kind of the big bubble indicator.

I can't remember exactly what it was.

Yeah.

um it was a yeah it was a sealed copy of super mario 64 which ended up selling for 1.5 million dollars insane

and i don't know when i when i look at my sealed copy you took the seal off just kidding

well you want to know what like honestly yeah i look at it and i think about taking the seal off of it because i think i feel like i'm maybe spiritually opposed to the idea that these games shouldn't be available to people.

And it makes me a little weirdly emotional.

Yeah.

And if this was a video podcast and there would be visual proof of me doing it, I think I would just take the fucking label off.

So I'll save that for a time that we're doing on Twitch.

Wow.

It's, I don't know, it's, there's something rancid about it.

And, and.

That's why I took all of my amiibo out of their boxes.

And I put them in this nice little display case.

And I love my little display case of amiibo.

And in fact, you know what?

I'll grab that and show that to you.

Are they stepping away?

I've seen this amiibo case IRL.

It's really nice.

Yeah.

Like, I got this nice display case from.

That's a lovely case.

The gang's all there.

From the Muji store.

For these, yeah.

For these items that unlock like...

extra fish.

Yeah, Legend of Zelda.

Right.

Tend to be relatively useless in gameplay terms, but they are nice little figures.

Yeah.

They're adorable.

They're adorable.

And they're, they're a really good size and a really good detail level.

I love, I love the amiibo.

No complaints about amiibo.

But I don't know.

I, there are things in there.

I think part of why I haven't done this segment in a while is because it's starting to make me uncomfortable.

Because like the things that we, when we first started doing the segment, would talk about, and it was kind of like, check this out, guys.

I've got Chrono Trigger with the maps and it was like wow yeah

all of that happened pre-pandemic and now when i when i pull out those games i'm like kind of talking about like a disgusting amount of money sure that it represents and

also that it is no longer about the the treasures that i have but rather about their sort of like brag ability.

I don't know.

It makes me,

it bums me out that

so much has changed in just the last four years of doing this podcast.

So that, yeah, unless it's like something extremely weird that I have,

like the

slime controller that was shaped like a slime.

Like, I love that guy.

What a, by the way, did speak, you know, in the recent aftermath of Toriyama's passing, what an I saw someone make the argument that's just like like the best character design in gaming, the Dragon Quest slime.

Oh, yeah.

And there is something about it.

You look at it, it's just like, it's, it's, it's like the, you know, like the New Mexico state flag.

It's just so simple, but it just like pops immediately, catches your eye, and it like everyone knows what it symbolizes.

It's just, it's, it's such a, it's such an incredible bit of design.

That's a great controller.

Like a really cool like it, like, I don't know how it is to play with, but it's like cool that it exists.

Yeah, it's cool that it exists.

Kind of like the Resident Evil chainsaw controller.

Yes.

Cool that it exists.

Yeah.

But yeah, that's been my feeling about this

whole area of gaming.

And I'm not,

I hope that my tone comes off melancholy and not like complaining from a place of privilege.

I am extremely privileged to have held on to all of these things my entire fucking life.

Like, that is awesome.

And I'm grateful that, you know, baby Heather gave this gift to adult Heather.

And the truth is that this, I remember getting this was I was doing games journalism at

Square Enix.

And they were just like, hey, do you want to like come into the back room and grab?

Like, we have so much stuff.

Do you want anything?

And I was like, oh yeah, let me see what you have.

And I think I grabbed like three games and this was one of them.

So this didn't even cost me any money.

Wow.

I love that it still says Squaresoft on it.

I don't know.

There's nothing we can do about it.

So it just makes me a little sad.

That's all.

It's unfortunate that like bad actors sort of like made this hobby like, um, like all things

for capitalist gain.

Like, uh, like Logan Paul did the same thing with

Pokemon cards.

Like he was got, he got into opening Pokemon cards on stream and then

made that

like chasing of a first edition Charizard.

He single-handedly drove the market up for Pokemon cards, and then everyone's buying them, and they were hard to find.

It was a whole crazy thing.

But

this doesn't happen with books or anything like that.

I bet it does, though.

I bet if you dig deep into any hobby, they've all had their thing, their

situations where speculators have gotten involved and are treating this hobby now as an investment.

And then that leads to people trying to pile on for the gold rush.

So, yeah,

Heather, I think

you sound appropriately melancholy.

And I think

your tone and your words are exactly conveying what you're trying to do,

which is, yeah, it sucks that this comes from a,

it sucks that you are someone who just is like, has

purely has a passion for this thing,

but then you feel associated, it seems like, with, you know, people who are in it just for the money.

Yeah.

There was like a funny mid-period where I was like, you guys, this copy of Pokemon I have is now worth $300.

Cause like it was kind of, I don't know, amusing.

But like, the longer I've sat in that sort of chilly aftermath,

the more blue it's made me.

Um, because yeah, wow.

It's, it's weird that people, because like the people who do want to play a Game Boy game today,

those like legitimately, like like go into a store and be like, hey, I kind of want to play a Game Boy game.

Yeah.

Like those people don't have access to, or maybe they do, but like generally speaking, an enthusiast for like old technology isn't necessarily going to have like 500 bucks to drop on Pokemon Yellow.

Right.

Sure.

Yeah.

And I know that emulation has bridged the gap between these two things and you can play anything you want, but there are people like me who really enjoy playing it on the original platform without that like additional emulation lag where it feels crispy.

And

yeah, I don't know.

It just

bummed me out a little bit.

That's all.

That's why this, I think that's why this segment hasn't

been around for a bit.

Well, we don't have to do it again.

I mean, we can,

but I like maybe I'm going to try and find stuff that's a little weirder

to

chat about.

Herein.

Headers.

It does make you wish we had like a public sector, you know, that actually cared about the arts and more, you know, the larger than that, that video gaming was considered an art because this is the sort of thing of just like.

Libraries should just have, we should have big, huge libraries that have a bunch of shit, a bunch of services that are available.

One of the things they have is that they have retro consoles where you can play old games.

And that's just a public service because these are works of art that should be available to people

in some form.

The other thing I was going to say is that your story about getting a free copy of Final Fantasy Tactics from Square Enix made me just, it just reminded me of a thing I hadn't thought about in a long time.

So as I've said in the podcast, I used to work at Activision.

I worked in QA and I worked in customer support.

And

two of my bosses would just hand me and the other workers there just like free Activision games all the time.

And so like, you know, it was just like a routine thing of this like, hey, hey, this, what, Tony Ox Underground 2 is out or whatever.

Like, you want it?

I was like, yeah, I'll fucking take it.

And I got like a bunch of free games.

Some of them I even had no interest in playing, but they were free.

And then so I would in turn like be like,

to pay someone back for a favor, I'd be like, hey, you want a free copy of a game?

They're like, holy shit, you know, because it's like I just handed them a a $50 bill or whatever.

Yeah.

But it's something I got for free for work.

Anyway, I had this huge stockpile of free games of the era

that I got from this job.

And then at a certain point, I shifted back to QA.

And then someone I used to work with found me and was like, hey,

do you hear

the two guys?

Our bosses got fired.

I was like, holy shit, what happened?

He's like, yeah, they were stealing a bunch of games.

Oh, my God.

I knew whatever, because this is the thing, this is what you can almost guarantee from a Wager story.

Yeah.

That the ending is going to leave you speechless.

Just brazenly just handing them out to people who worked in the department.

That's so insane.

And I just thought it was like a perk of working there.

It feels like it should be one, but like

it absolutely should be.

But that's so, that is so funny.

That's like when like, friends of mine that have worked at Disneyland

have signed people in, like, or, you know, signed me in, and we, uh, like for free or whatever.

And you, like, you want to pay them back, and they're like, you cannot, you're like, you can't do it.

It's like against the rules.

And then, like, but, like, I'll buy their lunch or whatever.

And it's like, it's kind of.

You should have said no to that too.

Yeah, for sure.

If it's, if it's a no for me.

Go with the letter of the law.

Yeah.

Uh, but I wish,

I wish I got anything for free.

Be sick as hell.

Yeah.

If you have free stuff that you want to give us, send us free stuff.

Yeah, send us free stuff.

Yeah, we love free stuff.

We sure do.

Thank you for that

trip into Heather's Hole.

That was really, I don't know.

It was a really thoughtful,

just sort of a bit of discussion from you.

Yeah, I loved it.

And, you know, there's always interesting stuff in there, whether it be items or information.

Wow.

There you go.

That's this week's Get Played.

Our producer is Rochelle Chen Ranch, yard underscore underscore sard on social media.

Our music is by Ben Prunty, BenPruntyMusic.com.

Our art is by DuckBrigade Design, DuckBrigade.com.

Check out our paywalled show, Get Animate.

Matt, what are we watching this week?

We're in our solo leveling era.

We're watching

solo leveling right now.

And

we're on episodes three and four, and it fucking whips.

It's awesome.

It is a really, really great show.

Come check it out with us, patreon.com slash get played.

You're going to have a fucking time of your life.

A lot of fun.

Great show.

You know, even if you're not someone who's necessarily into anime, if you're into video games, this I think is a great like video game adjacent show

to check out.

You can get the Get Animated along with our entire pre-head gum back catalog of get played episodes and new ad-free get played mainline episodes.

You can get all that only at patreon.com slash get played.

And just a reminder, next week on the show, we're talking Helldivers 2.

That's right.

So get in there, help spread democracy, and you got played.

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 and participation may vary.