Game and Tell: Super Mario RPG with Django Gold

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Okay, Matt.

If we go into this labyrinth and retrieve the chalice of destiny, we can save our kingdom.

All right, Nick, I'm ready.

I have my equipment.

I have my items.

Let's make it happen.

Hollamiz.

We're just up against such incredible odds.

And with just the two of us, we really could use a third-party member for this quest.

I don't, you know, I think we can do anything together, but it'd be a lot easier if we had just one more person.

Well, wait, look.

Hey guys.

I see that you want into this labyrinth.

Ah, it's a monster.

Ready your attacks.

Yeah, ready your attacks.

Or we could join forces,

and I could be on your team warning of this challenge of destiny.

What say you, boys?

All right, let's squat up.

Welcome to the party.

Wait, hold on.

Nick, hold on, hold on, hold on.

Tank, what's your clearly evil?

He's on our nah, this is this is great.

This is, we need, we were just saying we need a third.

This is exactly what we need.

Man, what's wrong with you?

Are we sort of Matt's not a

bad guy?

You think I'm a bad guy.

Matt's not a bad guy.

He's my friend.

Thank you.

Yeah, I'm not a bad guy.

I'm just, you know, you're sort of, you came out of the shadows.

You sort of, you know, appeared out of.

Where I live, I live in the realm of darkness.

And it's just, you know, usually usually RPG party members You know, we're sort of all kind of on the same page.

We're all you know sort of happy the lucky positive

precedent.

There's precedent.

There's precedent.

Yes in Super Mario RPG

You got Bowser in the party.

I believe it's

Sapphiros joins up for

short period of time in Final Fantasy VII.

So I

befold

it's cool that in our reality video game systems and

RPGs like exist and we played them and know about them.

It is cool.

Just makes it makes for an first of all, it's cool because it's fun to play.

And second of all, it makes this discussion easier because we have we know we have like a shared understanding of what we're talking about.

Yeah, so that's great.

Yeah, I totally

have to say I was a PlayStation monster myself.

I what were you guys?

Where were you?

What was your memes?

We actually had, like, my dad was really cheap, so we had a PC engine, which was released as the German graphics 16 in North America.

Yeah, yeah.

But, like, he got it as a discount at Sears.

Sears.

He worked there.

So, like...

Wait, which Sears?

Which Sears could do that?

Yeah, the Sears on the Sears on Brock.

Again, it's great all this stuff exists in our world where we're going to the labyrinth to find the Chalice of Destiny.

I'm on your side.

We have a shared goal.

enter the labyrinth find the challenge of destiny drink

from the waters of life

and become immortal

thus granting us unlimited power

also i do know that seers nick i can't believe your dad worked there

we

were

we would have been friends in another time i think Isn't that weird?

Isn't that wild how that works?

Yeah.

Maybe we could maybe we could unequip Matt in the party.

You're going to take me out of the party.

You and I.

We can't boot Matt.

He's my friend.

I'm really sorry I'm out of breath.

I ran up a lot of stuff.

Oh, so you sound like that because you're just tired.

I thought that was your normal voice.

I live 40 floors below this.

40 floors below this place.

Well, that's low.

We're so close to the base.

You live

below the labyrinth.

We traveled from a different realm.

That's like way farther than 40 floors.

But like, we, you know, we rode like where tigers over here.

So

I'm giving myself a headache

doing this.

Doing this?

Like, being alive?

You just want to not do this?

Yeah, let's just not do this.

Okay, fuck the chalice then.

We're not.

I'm out of here.

Look at these were tigers.

I'm going back home.

Yeah, let's go.

Let's hit up that Sears.

Let's go see your dad.

I remain the undefeated boss of the labyrinth.

We party up with Bowser and throw down with Boyer as we discuss the beloved and soon-to-be-remade Super Mario RPG 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 heatherann campbell along with my fellow host nick weigher that's me nick weiger and i'm her here with our third host matt appodaka hello everyone hello everyone and welcome back bucket whoa

i had to do it it's back

the long dorman catch race has returned i um I was on the street in Amsterdam the other day, and somebody rode by on a bike and shouted it at me.

And I was like, holy shit.

I got to bring it back.

Wow.

Also, that story seems fucking fake, but it was a thing that happened.

Fake news.

Yeah, you get three Pinocchios from PolitiFact.

Oh, my God.

Okay.

Well, boys.

It's a, here's the thing.

I'll be seeing this on Snopes.

Here's the thing about a catchphrase is that

it can become something of an albatross.

So just be wary of deploying it too

readily.

What do you mean, Nick?

How do you have any experience with that in particular?

I don't think wow counts as a catchphrase.

I think it's just a thing you say.

Hey, man, Trump said it in his latest press release.

So

the world is listening.

The world is listening.

His press release opened with Wow, all caps exclamation point.

He was president for four years.

Good times.

I'm surprised he never

got a motherfucker out there.

like when he when he was like like addressing the nation like what's up motherfuckers how is that possible?

This look this isn't a political podcast and so our comments I mean all everything is politics.

So by that I mean I don't mean we're not apolitical because that's political.

Right.

But we this isn't a show where we talk about politics.

We talk about three things.

We talk about

we talk about

Rise of Skywalker.

That's right.

We talk about video games.

Let me just add some questions for our guests.

Sorry.

And we talk about Hideo Kojima.

And that's about all we do.

Yeah, that's correct.

Hey, we have a guest today,

a writer and comedian.

His new stand-up special, Bag of Tricks, is coming this fall to YouTube.

Django Gold is here.

Hi, Django.

Hey, everyone.

Hi, gamers.

Wow.

Wow.

Hi, gamers.

Addressing the nation of gamers.

This is me, Django.

We're recording over Zoom.

Yes.

And the first question I have for you is: you have a map in the background, and I love maps.

What is this map?

This is Vietnam pre-U.S.

involvement with the U.S.

war.

Wow.

Wow.

Not a political podcast.

Not a political podcast.

No, no, no.

It's truly an apolitical fascination with the country, not even the history of that, just the country itself.

I used to be a big Vietnam guy, and I ordered that on Etsy.

And I foolishly didn't realize it was pre-U.S.

involvement, making it almost worthless for my interests.

So it's all the, yeah.

Django, I want to ask you, because we're, you know, this is a video game podcast.

And I, a, I, I, like, are you someone who is, because I know you were a big video game fan when you were younger.

I know some of the games we talked about in

leading up to this record

are from your youth.

Uh, are you someone who still plays video games, or is that more of a lapsed hobby for you?

Yeah, I'd say I'm what you would call like an intermittent gamer

where half of the time I'm not playing any games and half the time I'm like devoutly really into a game such that it starts like affecting my sleep and health.

Right, yes.

Like when the Resident Evil 4 reboot came out a couple months ago.

Oh, hell yeah.

There's like a week and a half where I was doing nothing except playing that, like staying up to like 4 a.m., waking up, like going through the motions of like, today will be a normal day.

Oh, I will wash the dishes for 30 minutes, and I will eat a delicious breakfast, and then like play Resident Evil for like 12 hours straight.

So I have like this

addicts mindset where like you know, it's like binges and purge sections, but when I'm gaming, baby, ooh, it's binge season.

Talking about RE4, did you play it on the GameCube, I assume, or on PS2 back in the day?

No, I actually only played it on the PS4 like three years ago when it got it it got like kind of a crappy port yes ps4 but still very very very fun and then the rebo is obviously fantastic

uh so like what are your what are some of your favorite and i know we're going to talk about a game that's important to you in a little bit but i'm curious like what are some of your favorite uh like video game either individual titles or franchises i gotta say like as the pandemic was it was really getting to the heart i played most of the resident evil games and they really wow they really did it for me i think i think they're just really fun yeah it's kind of dumb but like the puzzles are so easy because they're like designed i love i love an re puzzle i love it's like find the red you know the red key and put it in the red slot and like i would like solve the puzzle and i'd be like i did it i solve the puzzle designed for a child yeah to do in 1998.

i like it's like so dumb like find the wolf key and put it in the wolf medallion like yep what can i say i guess i have a gift

solve this cipher.

And it's like, C-T-A.

Hmm, these letters are out of order.

Yeah, I got it.

They really make it so easy.

And yet, like,

these games, like, they really, like, they are perfectly designed to tap into whatever endorphins you want.

So I would genuinely feel like accomplishment.

Like, by God, I've done it.

Maybe I'm not such a failure after all.

I want to like, that also points to something which I think is,

those have value in the, in those games.

And I think in games in general, I know Heather like kind of loathes shitty puzzles, but I think they're so important for just like pacing and just sort of like breaking up the action.

Like, I'd rather have a good puzzle, but sometimes it's just like just an unending string of combat in a game that's got a narrative.

Uh-oh.

Oh, here, Heather's, Heather's vigorously shaking her head.

I've been thinking about this this week specifically because of our WePlay You Play of Final Fantasy 16.

Yeah.

And I think my, my ultimate design of a video game would be that the first

encounter you have with a creature

would be the combat that you did for 60 hours and you both scaled in power and learned new moves, but it was just one encounter and you didn't have to do anything else in the game.

It's one fight.

Yeah.

You're fighting the same enemy repeatedly?

Just, no, you never stop.

You never stop.

It's one ongoing fight.

One ongoing fight where you're both powering up and learning new abilities.

Oh, I see.

And like, maybe there's like a flash on the screen in the corner that's like, now you can press X and triangle in order to unleash your inner fury.

Yeah.

But it is a non-stop combat for 60 hours against one enemy who maybe gets bigger, fancier.

That's a cool idea.

But no fucking thing.

Fancier.

No fucking anything.

Just one guy.

And

you could call it the the last fight.

You want to play Gandalf versus the Balrog, and just stars are wheeling overhead, and every day is as long as the age of an earth while you're just engaged in combat with this

undefeatable foe.

I kind of like that.

It can be like combat, but also, you know, the two of you might do a quick little puzzle battle at one point.

See, no, I like that pitch.

No.

At one point, oh, God, it's three keys.

No.

Now, so I'm someone who can run into one of these Resident Evil 4 puzzles and be like,

all right, so what do they want me to do here?

What's going on?

Why do they make it so impossible?

Yeah.

You need to have 160 IQ to play this game.

No, there are no

hexagon and this other crystal shaped like a triangle.

Where is it supposed to go?

A baby's play set is what it is.

It's the equivalent of moving the thing along the set track to the other end of it.

I have that and then a wall of red yarn just being like, what does it mean?

Yeah.

It's like object permanence.

So, so you mentioned you're kind of a feast or famine in terms of your gaming habits.

Yeah.

Did that, like, you know, I imagine, and especially, I think you've been in New York this whole time, you know, super affected by the COVID pandemic lockdown when that happened.

That's when a lot of people, like, I feel like got really, really into video games.

So, did that affect your habits at all?

It was true.

Like,

March 14th or something was when I saw the writing on the wall.

The first thing I did is I went on Craigslist and I got this used PS4.

I was like, you know, this is the time to do it.

Yeah.

I think the first thing I got, I believe, was Death Stranding, which had just come out.

Wow.

Yeah.

That is an alpha move.

That rock.

Yeah.

Just like immediately started hauling crates along

a a gray landscape.

Like, yeah, the pandemic's not so bad after all.

I'm essentially a gig economy worker.

Yes.

That was my escapism was

delivering shit.

Yeah.

So it was that, and then the RE4 games and Last of Us Part 2 came out sometime around that time.

So that was like a pretty solid pack of your

gaming.

We,

and I'm not sure where

it goes in

your hierarchy of fandom, but we here on this podcast, like, Death Stranding is a game we all like love and gush about repeatedly.

I mean, did you find yourself connecting with it?

I enjoyed it a lot.

I mean, I thought it was just like so weird.

And like, yeah,

like one of my pet peeves in games is like when they have a lot of dialogue or lore that you kind of have to, like, I would always, like, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh.

So, unfortunately, that was one of those games where there's like jam-packing you with that, which, you know, it's not my favorite thing in the world, but I just, I like the mechanics of it.

It's like so dumb how, like, you would get better at balancing so you can carry more gear.

Like, it's like crazy, like, such a strange reward system where, like, instead of upgrading your weapons, you're becoming better at walking.

Oh, this slope isn't a problem for me anymore.

You know, like, it was just like so crazy.

Like, how it just kind of allows you to reset your expectations.

But yeah, I thought it was great.

It's like so creepy and like sad, you know, all the things you want.

Yeah.

To be sad, be alone delivering boxes.

And like a strange game for the times, too.

Like, I felt like playing that and then playing The Last of Us Part 2 when it came came out had a certain punch, you know, like just like in public when you'd go on your like daily sanity walk and be like, oh, like that person's not wearing a mask.

I better go over there.

They're gonna, they're, they're a clicker.

I gotta get out of there.

Yeah.

I feel like Death Stranding was like such an accurate, and we've talked about this before, an accurate like dilution of the loneliness of COVID.

The surprising side effect of Last of Us Part 2 coming out when it did was I envied the crowd scenes.

I was like, oh man, there are all those people just hanging out.

Camel Crossing.

I'd be like, hey, my friend's coming over.

That's not going to happen.

Yeah.

I mean, like, whatever.

Maybe we would have figured out how to fit whatever game that came out at the time into the narrative of like this speaks to our reality.

But there is

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Treble times.

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Okay, so Django, you mentioned something about like

a deluge of dialogue and like a lot of lore and stuff in games.

But I also know that

there's another type of game that you mentioned, which is LucasArts Adventure Games.

And those are ones that kind of like live in a lot of dialogue and story and stuff and puzzle solving.

But you like those games as well.

What works about those games for you?

And what are some of your favorites?

I mean, I think that was actually, that might have been my first real exposure to gaming was that in like whatever

grade I was in, we had a PC in the classroom that we had like...

the Secret of Monkey Island uploaded to on, you know, 3.5 discs or whatever.

So I think that might have been the first one.

And I think as a kid, they're just funny and kind of quirky.

And the dialogue for that wasn't that bad because it was interspersed with jokes, you know.

So

that makes it like a little, like,

a little more, like, I can latch onto it a little more.

As opposed to something where it's just like blocks and blocks of text without any real interruption.

I get like, I started feeling a little silly seeing a character somberly explain like the history of their world or all that.

But Monkey Island, Sam and Max, all that stuff was just kind of fun and zany in a way that appealed to me as a kid, I guess.

Yeah, I love Sam and Max Hit the Road.

I never really messed around with the Telltale Salmon Max's.

I'm not sure if you

got around to those.

Is that the newer incarnation?

Yeah,

there was a newer version.

It's really the LucasArts game is the only one I ever played.

But I do like, yeah,

I mean, those games were extremely my shit of just like Secret of Monkey Island in particular was my introduction to that type of game,

not gaming in general, but that type of game.

And then, you know, Full Throttle, Grim Fandango.

We covered

Day of the Tentacle on here and Maniac Mansion.

We covered both on the podcast.

And yeah, I like, again, games like Heather.

Oh, yeah, Loom.

Yeah, we do.

We haven't done it.

We did a song.

I tell you, the thing in Loom, where, so Loom, it's like you're kind of a spellcaster who uses a hooded sort of mage who uses

music to do your spellcraft.

But when I like learn, and it's a trick that happens in

Ocarine of Time as well.

But like the mechanic of that you can play a song backwards to reverse its press.

Oh my God, you're right.

It's like that's such a cool thing.

And it was one of those things like, oh, like I get, I don't know.

It's one of those moments when the concept of game design kind of clicked with me as a kid.

Yeah.

It's very abstract for a child to play.

It's really kind of cool to assume a kid can do that.

That was also an era where I would be writing down like

tricks.

I would write down a spell like a line paper, so you had to call back to it.

It's very much like

a full project.

They don't really hold your hand at all.

Did that game make you feel like an adult?

Because the other ones were all kind of jokey, and that one's like kind of a more serious, straight-ahead tone.

I was like, oh, yeah, this is like a mature game.

It is.

It really is.

And it's not at all.

I mean, you know, compared to Wacky Maniac Mansion, I guess.

And on that note, there was another game I know you mentioned is Myst, which is a game we actually haven't talked about much on the podcast.

but

that's something you latched on to?

Heather is shaking your head.

Don't stop shaking your head.

I don't want to be a hater here.

Yeah.

But Mist, if you'll recall, it came out was like a smash sensation.

It was a huge game.

Huge game.

Like on the coast.

The new game that's like shaking up the world.

And it isn't really that fun.

It just like it's like visually kind of like interesting and neat, but it's like a slideshow style game.

You click to go to a new destination, and you're automatically transported.

And it's just like, even as a kid, I'm like, this is kind of lame.

It's like, that doesn't have a sense of humor to it.

It doesn't really, you don't really feel like you're exploring in any real sense.

I never really liked it.

And looking back on it, I just don't get what the appeal was.

I guess because it was just like a new visual kind of language

for people in the 90s, but I don't think the game itself is really that cool.

And I remember the puzzles being kind of frustrating and not like that logical, really, in a way.

They just kind of like play by their own rules.

So I I think I'm a missed hater, I gotta say.

I love that take.

Choose no book.

This is the best guest we've ever had.

Down with Mist.

I, I, uh, like, Mist is one of those games that people would, like, my dad has played so few games in his life, but Mist was like a game he played, I think, because

he liked technology, and that was a game that showed off the powers of a CD-ROM drive.

Yeah, it's just like graphically was so much

like, like, you know, had all this, this, these pre-rendered tableaus that

at the time looked like looked cutting edge.

But yes, I agree.

The puzzles are very obtuse.

And then also kind of tonally, it's kind of up its own ass.

It was kind of like a proto-Jonathan Blow game, but less interesting.

And yeah, I just like, I agree with that.

Do you remember the pissed P-Y-S-T?

There was a missed parody game called Pissed that was like released.

You could buy it at like fucking Comp USA or EB Games or wherever they do that with like anything like jurassic park would come out and there would be quick a quick to rush like parody called like jurassic pork or something like that

right yes

yeah there was a mark there's like the like like the the the mad the full full-on like mad magazine parody of something would just be released and it was just like it's it's such a it was such a different climate um

well uh well look uh i we could talk about these old games all day and we're gonna talk about an older game in a little bit but i think we should uh step ahead ahead to the present and Django, ask you and everyone, what are you playing?

Yes.

Should I go first?

Heather's

going to go over there.

No.

No.

Django, you go ahead.

Heather didn't very much look like she was going to go first, though.

No.

I'm just saying.

I am not playing anything at the moment, but what I am doing, as I mentioned before we start taping, is I have been fanatically watching very short clips on YouTube of people beating Elden Ring bosses, particularly one-shot videos in which a player who has, you know, amassed all the upgrades they can,

many playthroughs through, has figured out the exact combination of buffs and spells and equipment they need to do to beat some of these later game bosses with one hit.

And so it's like it's really great, satisfying thing you watch where a guy like spends like the first half of the video taking his various tonics and potions and casting his various protective spells and all that, and then goes in there and just lays out the boss with one hit.

So I've been watching those like, you know, for about a week and a half, I'd say.

It's just like, yeah, get them.

Got that fucker.

I don't know that I've ever used this descriptor on the podcast before, but

those videos sound sexy to me.

Oh my God.

These guys are studs.

They're absolute alpha males destroying these fake goblins and such.

I love that shit.

I love seeing mastery

of any field because that's something I will never achieve.

And just when someone's like, oh, you've dedicated your life to this one thing.

And I honestly, like, the more trivial, the more impressed I am.

Like, just like, like, like, whatever.

Yeah, you did a, you did a blindfolded Sekuro no-hit run.

Like, that's, you know what?

That's fucking unbelievable.

What a ridiculous thing to do.

Uh, but honestly, it's such a great use of your time.

Like, it's such a great thing to, to just like have that achievement.

I mean, half the internet now, or not half the internet, but like the good portion of the internet is just like watching someone be good at grilling, watching someone get

playing guitar.

It's just so satisfying to watch someone who has it down.

And like, yeah, it's like very calming.

And you do feel like carry a sense of accomplish, like accomplishment, like, we did it.

You did the work, and I was supporting you.

Look at this fucking dude, Dice Cantaloupe.

Jesus Christ.

He's a surgeon.

Yeah.

It's funny to think, like, I've never really thought about the internet in the way you just described it, but it used to be like,

I don't know, a hundred thousand years ago in your tiny caveman tribe or your

tiny, you know, your

hunter-gatherer tribe, that there would be the guy who was good in your group, but you weren't seeing the best guy.

You were only seeing the good local guy.

And it wasn't until circuses

started traveling that you'd be like, holy shit.

Oh my god.

I thought

my television was that guy doing.

Yeah.

And then television exposed us to like the Olympics.

I mean, if you lived near the Olympics, you could get to see the Olympians.

But like, generally speaking, you'd be like,

but, but now, because of the internet, we have seen the best guy at every fucking thing.

There is nothing you can think of.

Like, there's somebody who is really good at chopping carrots.

and there is a video that they've made and if i were to look it up i'd be like that's the best one that person is the best at it and there's also so many people who are like like it's just like because the population is so vast and everyone has access to social media like the point

zero zero one percent of like fucking anomalous genetic freaks are overrepresented and so i think that leads to like whatever i mean like the the bad side of that leads to like body dysmorphia because you see these instagram fitness models and who like are just at a

like at a level that no one could really achieve, but it, but it looks like that's everybody because they're overrepresented in that group.

Yeah, it's fucking men.

Yeah, go on.

Sorry, getting insecure about your own ability to chop carrots.

Yeah.

Oh, man.

I'll never be good enough.

The thing, we've talked about this on the podcast before, but you know,

there's a streamer and she beat

Millennia, the Elden Ring boss, with a dance pad.

She beat two Millennias, one with a dance pad and one with a controller at the same time.

And it's just like, that's fucking unreal.

Like, I can't believe that someone was able to achieve that.

And I think I could spend a thousand hours attempting that and not be able to do that.

And like, I don't know how much time this person spent doing that, but it's just like,

I don't know.

Like, you know, you know, even if you're that talented and even if you're that

dedicated, like, like, you can still, like, there's still so many hours of practice that have to go into it.

And I guess that's what I appreciate about it.

Yeah.

So I was watching Steph Curry jack up three pointers.

Well, the question is,

jack off?

Jack up.

It was not jack.

You said jack off three-pointers.

I said jack up three-pointers.

What does jacking off a three-pointer even mean?

I don't know.

What does jacking up a three-pointer mean?

Take it a shot, man.

Jacking off three times in succession, or is they call that bowling turkey?

Also, something else has to do with a bowling.

But it raises the question, I was just thinking: like, so let's say you can play, you can beat Melania with your feet and your hands.

Can you become a violin maestro?

Or is this like,

like, is it in these people's power to do that as well?

Or is certain people's brains only

equipped to do like this very esoteric video game skill?

right is that specialized when you say it that way it also makes me think that we that the person who beat millennia with a dance dance revolution pad

is a superhero

like she's like that we have i've seen footage of her yeah she's a superhero right what an increase like i've i don't know sorry i'm i guess i'm just geeking out for a second here about how we've all seen superheroes now because of the internet like real ones and sure their feats have become less impressive over the years but

sure a superhero has gone from scaling a building to flipping a water bottle on its

you know on its uh on its edge but right

no i i don't know i think i kind of think that it's just like there are people with the that those that that degree of aptitude in any population is just what you dedicate your time to it's it's it's like

whatever it it it it it's it I think it's like you see the same thing in certain athletes, certain sports are concentrated in certain countries because those have a culture of doing that or like, you know, an environment where you can practice that skill.

I don't know.

So I think that

I would guess probably yes, but also it's kind of more interesting if the answer is no.

That it's like, no, that's the one thing this person can do.

It kind of makes me wonder what my thing is.

Because there's a jillion opportunities, but there must be one thing out there that, statistically speaking, I'll never try that I would just like dominate at.

And it might be juggling, it might be, you know, playing dance dance with my, you know, being millennial with my feet.

I'll just, I don't think I'll ever find out.

Most of us never do.

Yeah.

Podcast number.

On that note.

Matt, what are you playing?

Okay, so I have some updates.

Last week I said I'd finish Final Fantasy 3, which I did do,

and I loved it.

I thought it was a really great, really fun game, satisfying final boss fight, really fun.

I started Resident, not Resident Evil, I started

Final Fantasy 4, and like when I say I started it, I like,

I just like barely started it, so I'm not, I don't, I haven't played enough of it to like

really truly speak on that, but that's like sort of the next thing that I'm gonna knock down, I think.

Still chipping away, obviously, at 16 as well.

But my major update is that

I bought a used 2DS from eBay.

Wow.

Love, I love it.

I love it.

It's I because my 3DS has seen better days.

It's running pretty slow and the

stick, like the little analog stick,

the top part of it has like come off so it like kind of like hurts to put your thumb on it.

And so I was like, oh, the form factor of the 2DS is really funny.

Like I have it right here.

It's pretty, it's pretty nice.

It actually, it wasn't terribly expensive either.

And it also, like,

has like, it was, like, brand new.

Like, there's not a single scratch on this thing.

And so I've been playing with this quite a bit.

I hadn't beat Metroid Samus Returns for the 3DS.

And so

I've started playing that a little bit.

I had never held one.

It's a weight on that bad boy.

Yeah, because I don't think I've ever held one either.

It's not very heavy.

It's like, I mean, it's like, I don't know.

I'm so bad with

stuff like that.

You asked me an impossible question.

But compared to a Jersey Mike sub,

I mean, this is like the last bite.

Oh, wow.

Okay.

It's like it's pretty, it's pretty light.

I don't know.

I'd say, probably, like, maybe there's like two or three bites left.

It's, you know, it's going to depend on the sub, the contents of the sub, you know.

Right.

What do you put in that bad boy?

Yeah.

Uh, it is soaked.

It is.

I did get it Mike's way.

Soaked in vinegar.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Uh, but it's also like

I had read a lot about some of the 3DS, 2DS models, and I ultimately landed on the flat one

because everyone was like, that one is so sturdy.

It is built, it's built like a fucking truck.

Like, it's, because this one was designed for kids, like for like young kids, because it doesn't have any hinges.

So

the weakest point in the system has been eliminated.

So it is just like a piece of bread

form factor.

Were kids snapping those earlier ones?

I think they're like, Yeah, maybe a little rough with it.

Or like, you know, if you drop it, like, that's like a sort of like a weak point in

the hinge.

But like, since you could, I'm not going to try, but I think you could drop this thing and sort of be all right.

Unless it, you know, fell on the screen side, of course.

But

I'm having a blast with it.

It does, it also feels very comfortable in the hand, very comfortable in the hand.

It's so comfortable in the hand.

Matt, the screens are different sizes, right?

And in just,

yeah, they're the top screen's bigger.

The bottom screen's a little smaller.

I think it's kind of like that in different aspect ratios.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I know that's how it is on the actual unit, like the 3DS unit.

I do wish that the

just

for the aesthetic.

I wish that the screen surface area on the bottom screen matched the surface area of the screen on the top screen, but only the portion that was required lit up.

Hmm.

You just mean aesthetically.

Yeah, aesthetically.

I see.

I'm going to want the whole thing filled in.

Hmm.

I can't, with the,

you know, widescreen bars or something on the sides.

I don't, I don't, I don't want it in 4-3.

You know?

I would want it to match and be full too.

But also,

they have the 3DS XL models, and those have bigger screens.

And that's honestly like probably what I should have got.

Because let me tell you, you guys know this.

Yes.

Start getting, you know.

As time goes on, let's say.

Okay.

Your eyes start to hurt a lot.

Yeah.

Like, not hurt, but like, they just are, things are getting harder to see sometimes.

So like a smaller screen, I'm really like, I'm getting in there.

You know, I'm wearing glasses when I'm playing at nighttime.

That's just like, that's just the reality now.

So.

Does the Switch not have that problem?

I don't have a Switch.

I'm just curious.

The Switch screen is like, is like eight inches, so it's like basically like a full Jersey mic sub.

But it is

the screen's bigger and like the text is usually bigger.

This is like, I mean, this is smaller than a phone screen, you know?

So like this is sometimes sometimes I'm like, what does that even say?

It's also a lower resolution, but yeah, I think the,

yeah, I mean, even the Switch screen, though, I don't want to stare at it for too long.

No, you know, I usually play docked if I'm playing, unless I'm playing at night, obviously, but like if I'm,

if I have my drillers, I'm playing on the TV so I can not be like, you know, what does that say?

That's it for me.

Heather, what are you playing?

Well, I've been preoccupied playing this week's game for this podcast, as well as our WePlay You Play for the End of the Month, which I have dedicated hours every day,

which has saddened me a little bit because I like, you know, enjoying Final Fantasy games like a fancy meal.

Like, they don't come around very often.

You really want to experience it.

And I feel like I'm pushing through a little bit faster than I normally would.

But that brings me to

a point about the soundtrack for Final Fantasy 16, which is, I guess what I've been playing this week?

The soundtrack was released on CD, and I've thought about buying it on CD because it is interesting discs.

Whoa.

It's an eight-disc soundtrack.

And I think back to like the soundtracks for Final Fantasy, you know, seven, eight.

They'd be like three discs and you'd be like, holy shit, so many discs.

What an enormous amount of music.

Eight discs.

That's a lot of discs.

Yeah.

Also comes with a great sticker of Torgle.

One sticker, eight discs?

One sticker, eight discs.

Terrible ratio.

What the hell are they trying to scam you out of this?

It should be one to one.

I also

realized because I was emulating Super Mario RPG,

I never think of the computer that I have as a game system.

I only think of it as a writing system or a Photoshop system.

And playing Super Mario RPG, I was like,

I might cozy up with some retro games this week.

Oh, I might play a little.

Yeah, you have that in your power.

A little something, something.

A little nice type.

So yeah, that's, I've just been fixated on the Final Fantasy soundtrack and that eight-disc collection.

I wish they would release it on vinyl.

I wish they would, you would have to buy

40 pounds of vinyl.

The warmth, the grooves.

It's 199 songs.

That's a lot of music.

I feel like I hear three songs when I play the game.

Jeez.

But that's what I've been playing.

Wow.

That's it.

Well, it falls to me.

Wow.

No one's going to tee me up.

No, I think we're good.

Yeah, I think we got enough.

We're good.

What am I playing?

Someone might ask.

Hey, Nick.

Yeah.

What are you playing?

Thanks, Matt.

So I've been.

I think I've been playing Final Fantasy 16, but I've also been

finding things to play other than Final Fantasy 16, which maybe speaks to my overall assessment of the game, which we'll talk about next week when we play you play.

But one of those games is the Case of the Golden Idol released some DLC, Golden Idol Mysteries, The Spider of Lanka, in June, and I finally got around to playing it.

It was on Steam sale.

I picked it up.

This was developed by Color Gray Games, and I finished two of the three scenarios that are in the DLC, and I'm eager to dig into the third.

So just a refresher for anyone who...

Maybe you heard me talk about this game at length last year.

It's one of my case of the Golden Idols is one of the games of 2022.

It is basically, you know, we're talking about LucasArts Adventures earlier.

It's not exactly that, but it is the same sort of thing of you have, rather than

thing where a player character, a scenario where a player character is interacting, you are viewing a tableau.

You are viewing like a moment in time with a bunch of different characters and objects in a location or locations, and you can examine each of them.

And it basically comes down to a sort of a lateral thinking puzzles of figuring out what exactly is happening in this scenario.

So, for instance, in the first one in the DLC, you are at some sort of card game, and there are just a bunch of dead bodies everywhere, and two or three people have survived, and you're just trying to figure out what happened.

And the puzzle is, first off, what are the rules of this invented card game?

And then also, who murdered who in each order?

And you just sort of deduce that from all of the clues that are present in all of the scattered objects.

A character will have like a business card or a letter that's on their person that you can examine, and that will give additional context.

There'll be a sign on the wall and there will also be like bloodied murder weapons and so on.

So it is a lot of deduction.

It is a lot of lateral thinking.

And it's really, really fun and really, really satisfying when you finally solve one of these puzzles.

Also, it has like it's it has a great, it does a great job of like dispensing just enough red herrings where what you think is the obvious solution to one part of the puzzle later on.

This has happened to me with both of the scenarios that I finished.

And

I suspect this is not specific to me.

What you think is like, oh, well, that's obviously that.

I'll take care of that and I'll set that out for later, set that aside for later.

Then, like, eventually got tripped up.

I was like, why is this not all syncing?

Why is this not all adding up?

Why am I not getting the satisfactory sting that I solved this thing?

It's like, oh, wait, that one thing that I thought was correct, was obvious was actually had another layer to it that is hidden in all the depths of detail that are present here.

So the gameplay is super duper satisfying if you like puzzles,

aka not Heather.

It also has like this,

just the world of it is so fun.

It's like this invented world that's akin to like an 18th century Earth.

It's, you know, colonialism is a big theme.

And

I think by virtue of having an invented reality, they are able to just, you know, not get married to Earth specifics and invent a bunch of other stuff like a fucking poisonous blue cricket and that sort of shit.

And then also like

the art style, which I talked about when, and people have, I think it's a thing that some people find repulsive.

It is disgusting, but I really like it.

Like it looks like it's kind of like a VGA sort of 256 color palette, it feels like.

It's looking first like kind of an older pixelated point-and-click PC game aesthetic.

And then the character designs are, they all look like just like nasty people.

They're just like kind of all like, you know, they have, they have weird expressions on their faces.

They're all kind of intentionally repulsive.

I mean, it's clearly a choice, but I really dig it.

And I think it fits with kind of the nastiness of the reality that they're establishing.

Also, the soundtrack, too, it's kind of like dissonant and

unharmonious.

It's like that's kind of jarring in its own way.

And it all kind of works for this unsettling, violent reality that you're trying to get to the bottom of.

I want to note one other thing here as I read about this.

There is a Switch port available for this game.

I've been playing it on Steam, but for those of you out there who just are on, who are on Switch or

don't have access to a gaming PC, you can check it out that way.

And I think it will be very, very playable on Switch because, again, it really is just a point-and-click mechanics and really is just examining a tableau.

So I love this game, and I really, really am enjoying the DLC.

I think it does a great job of heightening what's already in the existing package.

This is an absolutely true story.

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And then they locked me on a roof.

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That's a true story.

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I eventually got off that roof when the sun rose.

But you know, it's another great game.

Super Mario RPG.

This is our game and tell format.

And Django, when you emailed me via mutual friend,

you sort of introduced yourself.

And I think we knew of each other and we worked on some of the same things, but never really crossed paths.

But in your introductory email asking about, like, you know, hey, maybe coming on the podcast,

you asked,

can we talk about Super Mario RPG?

So So this was clearly kind of at the top of

your mind.

What is it about this game that has connected with you so profoundly?

I think it might be the best and S and ES game.

Wow.

And that's

a great console that has a lot of classic games on that really stand the test of time.

The Super Mario RPG, and I'm not even a huge RPG guy.

It's just so much fun.

And

there's just something about that game when it came out.

Like, it was just so different and like silly and weird, but also the mechanics of it are really tight, and there's a really strong sense of exploration where you know you have like a lot of like kind of disparate world zones that feel genuinely like fun and like kind of you're excited to explore them.

So, I think it's just a it's a combination of the exploration and the humor.

And I think the game mechanics are also very fun, and that really just like kind of makes it for me.

Yeah, it's a game I played when I was younger as well.

And I, you know, I did not have as

strong of a reaction to it as you do, but I did like really, really like it.

And I do think it's a really cool game.

And I love what it led to, which is, you know, the Paper Mario franchise and the Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga games.

You know, non-Square developed, but so clearly inspired by the success of this one.

The game was released in 1996 for Super Famicom and Super NES.

Pointedly not released in PAL, which is just one of those weird Nintendo quirks of the era of they're just like, ah, fuck it, Europe doesn't get this one.

Developed by Square and published by Nintendo in kind of their symbolic final collaboration, I guess you'd say.

I mean, the next year, Final Fantasy VII releases for PlayStation 1.

So it's kind of the end of the, I guess you call it the second party era of Square is

developing for Nintendo consoles exclusively.

And

Shigeru Miyamoto was somewhat involved, was heavily involved as producing this project.

And right now, of course, Nintendo being Nintendo, even though there is a remake

about to come out, it is currently unavailable.

You can't either, you know, you have to play it on

emulation.

Have you, Django, have you revisited this game in recent years at all?

Not recently.

I think like 10 years ago, I got a ROM hack, and I played it then, and I found it really, really held up.

Last night, in preparation for this, I went back and watched a few videos.

I was like looking through the Beastiery, which is like 700 or so monsters or so like that.

So I was really, really, I was i was really kind of taking taking it my toe back in the waters and what you're just talking about now about when it just came out it just occurred to me i completely forgot about this which is that when i first as a kid dropped 70 bucks for this game and brought it home for the first time at first i was like what the fuck is this because yes right i thought i was getting a mario game yeah which is two degree side scrolling power-ups and all that and the the game as it opens just is so weird and different like bow like bowser is like immediately like sidecast like, you know, out the door.

You have this other, like, weird kind of like industrial era villain.

It was just so, so different and strange.

But I'm glad I sticked with it because it really was like a great experience as a kid and you know, 10 years ago.

I had the same sort of experience, and I'm curious about Heather encountering this game because,

Heather, I don't think you played this game before.

No,

I had not played the game before

because

when

I saw the previews for it, I was like, that's not Mario.

And also, I'm

Sega forward.

So

to go to Blockbuster and rent the console in order to try this Mario game was such a huge barrier of entry that I was like,

I don't think that's going to happen.

And when I did eventually get a Super NES and started building my library, it wasn't one of my priorities because it felt like this strange stepchild of Final Fantasy and Super Mario.

Yeah.

It does have.

Yeah, for sure.

When you put it in that term, it does kind of feel like a strange Mario knockoff of the Final Fantasy

series.

Also, imagine the slap in the face for Nintendo to give Square their main dude to be like, hey,

you guys make great games.

Make a fucking RPG.

And Squaresoft's like, you got it.

And they make Super Mario RPG, beloved by all, like, fantastic game from what I've played on it, uh, of it

this week.

Um,

and then immediately they turn around and make Final Fantasy VII for the PlayStation.

Oof.

It's rough.

Yeah.

The,

yeah, it's a,

I,

you talked to like not tracking it down when you were building your retro collection.

I think this is one of those gate those carts that became oddly, or not oddly, but became just like super expensive.

Like, I think it was like kind of a, even though it was a, was a relatively successful game in North America, I think it was pretty pricey to track down in the secondary market.

Well, also, I mean, Super NES games, we talk a lot about how expensive games are getting now, but Super NES games were regularly $70.

Yeah, right.

Like,

I, like, Mortal Kombat, when it came out for Super Nintendo, was $69.99.

And if you lived in Canada,

those prices were $89.99.

Like, it was, it was not an inexpensive bargain system.

So the cartridge itself, probably also, if you went to Electronics Boutique or however you got your games in the 90s, what was the other one?

Babbage's?

Babbage's.

Oh, yeah.

If you went to Babbage's, like you ask your mom, like, hey, can you buy me one game?

Or your dad, can you buy me one game?

And how many kids were going to be like, I want the Mario that's that's not a Mario?

Yeah.

Well, one that challenges my expectations.

Yeah, I'm going to, like, I know it's going to cost you $70 with tax, dad,

but the game I want is the Mario where you can't control his jump in real time.

I want a time-delayed jump.

A huge learning curve.

Yeah.

Well, yeah, and also being kind of, you know, like isometric, like everything about it was a little disorienting at first if you didn't have the expectation that this was going to be an RPG.

I mean, I'd played some, it sounds like Django, this was not a genre you were as into, but like I'd played some other RPGs and other square RPGs on

Nintendo Super Nintendo when I encountered this game for the first time.

So I kind of knew more what I was in for.

But the things that I think were refreshing for it were, by the way, I always love doing this

because, you know, you talked about games, how expensive games used to be.

I just, I brought up an inflation calculator and a $70 game in 1996 is what would be like $130 today.

That's absurd.

It is weird how video games are still $70.

Like they haven't changed that.

Why is that?

Is that just like a number that people associate with a game?

They also went down in price.

They went down a little bit.

During the CD era, it was so much less expensive to produce a game, like to physically produce it, that the prices dropped.

And now they're back up there.

The thing that really

connected with me is another thing that

shares in common with Chrono Trigger is there are no random encounters.

And that's the thing I always found so fucking annoying in RPGs is just going around the map and then just randomly, I mean, Matt, you're encountering this right now, playing those old school Final Fantasies.

Yes.

Like you just like, like you're just trying to explore a map or a dungeon, and then you randomly get pulled into a combat situation.

Here, you see enemies on the in-the-world map, and that's how you encounter them.

Yeah, but like, I, I, I, this is, I, I had not, I had never played this before.

And when I saw that they're just on the map and you can avoid them if you want, I tried doing that a little bit.

But then, you know, like any RPG, there is like, you know, a leveling system, right?

So I was like, oh, like, you can't avoid all of them.

Like, you have to, like,

do some so that you can get experience and then, you know, upgrade your health or upgrade your attack or something or upgrade your flower, which is mana in this game or whatever.

And

I was like, I was, because I was trying to avoid them because

I don't like the combat in our intern-based RPGs usually.

But once I started getting into

like, you know, when I get a new party member, for example, or like, started actually leveling up, I was like, okay, like, there is like, there's rhyme in reason to this.

It is like fun.

I was enjoying it.

Yeah, I mean, I like JRPG combat.

I assume Heather's the same, but like, I actually think this combat is really kinetic and fun and active.

And it's meant to be, uh, and it's meant to be like, you know, hey, here's a, here's an introduction to how these sort of com this sort of combat can play to someone who's like less familiar with the genre.

It also was a system that

in some ways Square ends up using in Final Fantasy VIII.

Right.

Like the, as soon as you're about to land an attack, press the button again to add bonus damage stuff.

Like that's, that becomes like a square thing for a short while.

And then then also

mother does the same thing.

The mother games are like, click it on the beat and your attack is more powerful.

And that feels a little bit more like actual combat.

Yes.

Like just giving me the button twice, I'm like, okay,

okay.

There's a little bit of something here.

I got to time this a little bit better.

Yeah.

And, you know, obviously rechain for Paper Mario and Superstar Saga as well.

It's like those, they all sort of are were like, okay, this is how a Mario RPG is supposed to play.

I'm curious, Django, like, okay, so

you don't play this type of game generally.

You're kind of more expecting a Mario game.

Like, how do you start to really have a connection with it?

Like, at what point are you like, oh, wow, this is really working for me as a kid?

Man, I would say probably like, I mean, this honestly might have been my first ever RPG.

Wow.

Which is kind of

a momentous occasion in a young boy's life, obviously.

Your first baseball glove and your first kiss and all that.

But yeah, I think it probably was like once I started developing the idea in my head, oh, as you progress, you can boost your stats.

And that's like the part of my brain that really is like, oh, yeah, that's the good stuff.

Like,

you give me any numbers that can go up and make myself more powerful.

That is what gets me.

So I think that was probably what it was, like realizing, oh, I'm getting better.

I'm improving.

you know i think that sense of accomplishment is kind of what tends to hook me on these games and i think that's also why a lot of these like you know basically every like action game now has this type of system where like you know you can upgrade your weapons you can upgrade your stats and all that that is like a very like important like mental part of these games i think

uh yeah i i totally totally agree and i i think also the

Like, I mean, that's the thing I love about RPGs.

I love numbers going up.

But also,

I think the other thing that that, that, in terms of like stuff that like kind of blew my mind about this game is that Bowser can be in your party.

Yeah.

Like Bowser eventually being like, like, that is like a crazy thing for a kid to wrap their head around.

And, and he also reveals that he's putting on a performance.

Yeah.

Like you're when you first encounter him and he's outside of that tower, he's like,

He's like, um,

ah, man, I really miss the good old days when it was like James

fucking Mario's like there,

and then he sees Mario and he's like, oh, I've got to, I've got to be confident.

I got to

hit on the facade.

They give him an inner life, which is an astonishing thing at that point in time.

Three-dimensional characters with like lost, loss in their heart and such.

Yeah, I didn't see the Mario movie yet,

but I wonder if that sort of becomes the canonical take on Bowser is that like the dude is a little bit like

he's pushing a little bit with his whole persona

well yeah I mean I think that's definitely an element in the Super Mario movie uh I think there's there but you know

again I'm gonna mention these games repeatedly obviously but like you know like like in Paper Mario it's like that's that's 100% an element that's retained is him being like a semi-tragic figure and I think that there's a part where you're playing as as Peach in one of the I think I think the GameCube paper Mario, and like you find Bowser's diary, and it's got all these kind of stat entries.

That's right.

And it's like,

I don't know.

I think it's a really fun take.

And I'm glad that element's been retained.

Yeah, I guess

this did establish a lot of

Mario canon in a way, or just like Mario conventions, if nothing else.

What we're talking about NPCs and what we're talking about party members, you know, you get Mellow early on or Mellow, however you want to say it.

And like, I think he's your first party member.

And then

as time, as the game progresses, there's another party member who I feel like we just kind of have to mention because I think Super Mario RPG enthusiasts are going to expect it.

Because I know he's like a fan favorite from this franchise from this particular game, which is Gino.

Gino,

the marionette come to life.

Django, did you connect with Gino at all?

If I recall, Gino is like the badass, right?

Gino's like the really like, he's like the most powerful warrior in your party.

So like, yeah, I think I must have connected with him.

So like Mario is like your basic character.

Malo was like kind of like a healer, magician type.

Gino was a badass.

Bowser was like a brutish badass.

And then Peach, I guess.

Hey, Peach was a healer and Malo was the magician.

Malo's the mage?

Does that sound right to you guys?

They both have magical, like I didn't revisit it for this particular discussion, but like they both have like, yeah, they're both magic users and

the, yeah, you're, you're, Gino's more like, yeah, DPS, just like a heavy hitter, like you were saying.

What's DPS stand for?

Damage per second.

Very cool.

Yeah, it is cool.

We all are like, that's cool.

Yeah.

Yeah, Gino's cool.

I don't, I don't, I'm not sure if Heather and Matt, if you got far enough to encounter Gino yet, but I've not met Gino, but I'm I'm excited to meet him because that was kind of the fun thing about

visiting this game for the first time, visiting.

I wanted to say revisiting, but I never played it before.

But visiting doesn't sound right on its own.

I think you can say that.

I think you're fine.

I'm visiting the game.

And

I was playing it on my analog pocket, and I was like, oh, this is a perfect pocket game.

Like, it's so fun.

And, like, the thing that really struck me about it was that, like, I, I, because I'd heard about this game, I just didn't know,

I just didn't know, like, what it was like, and to see RPG conventions mapped under Mario, and it all works, I was like, oh, this is, this is unbelievable.

Like, I can't believe that this game actually exists.

Like, the fact that there is, like,

like,

there are magic users, and that there are, there, that there, there could be a healer within the party.

And then, like,

just like, I don't know, all the other RPG elements of it all like it really works i i loved it it's it's it's such an interesting game

i i kind of like

what i what i appreciate about the game is is

again it was a like you were saying it was it was a bold gambit for the time um it it looks great which we haven't really talked about oh yeah

and um

And it, you know, it kind of set the template for how like Super Mario RPG style games might play.

And if anything, like it kind of bums me out when you when you compare when you look at this game and you look at the first couple paper Marios and then you look at like where that franchise ended up going and it got so far away from like the more conventional sort of

like the the Mario the Marioed up and with some action elements but pretty conventional RPG approach that I think works so well for this game.

I think one of the best parts of this game is the lack of tutorial and the simplicity of telling you what you're supposed to do with the buttons.

Like Like the first, the your first encounter is just it just shows the buttons that you can press above Mario, and you press them once and it tells you what it does.

And that's like

that's such an excellent system instead of bringing up a full menu at the bottom of the screen that you then cycle through each of the things, select that, then select it again, then select it again to enable it.

And I know that there are eventually with Super Mario RPG, there are eventually multiple menu presses within your,

we'll call it a crucifix grid.

Yeah, that's

that sounds right.

Yeah.

But it was, I was like, when I when I started, I was like, did I skip something?

Because it just brings you into that first encounter and expects you to be like,

All right, cool.

Press some stuff, figure it out, which is also what Mario games do.

Like instinctively, the first, you know, creature walks at you, and you have to do something because he's walking at you.

And that's how it teaches you the game.

So it really,

I was, I was mildly impressed.

I thought it was a good, I think it's a good game, guys.

And that's not a surprise for anyone.

I also had to look up when the game was

when the game was developed.

And

the initial development of Super Mario RPG began in 1994, right?

Final Fantasy VII

also begins its initial talks in 1994.

Now, we all know that they thought they were going to produce Final Fantasy VII for the N64

disc attachment, like the drive, the hard drive, but that it wasn't feasible.

And so they start shifting in 1995 the development of the game to PlayStation.

So this game, like they know,

they've got a mistress

and they're still looking Nintendo in the face

while these two things are happening.

Yeah, I mean, it's great that this game is so good because they very well could have just taken every cool idea from it and just give it to Final Fantasy and like turn it into some kind of slot.

But it is kind of

based on that background, it is kind of cool that it turned out to be this good, this, this different than Final Fantasy VII II.

The flavor is very, very Nintendo-y.

Yeah.

Uh, it's a, it's uh, it's also the weird, like, kind of timing of the era, and because you know, this is like one of the last gen or the end of the console generation.

This is towards the end of the life cycle of

the Super Nintendo, Super Famicom.

I mean, I just looked it up.

This came out in March in Japan and May in the U.S.

in 1996, and the Nintendo 64 comes out in June of 1996.

So it's like, you know,

this was really kind of the dying of the light for that era.

I guess, though, that happens a lot.

Like, I think if we probably look back and we're like, we're just talking about The Last of Us Part 2, it's like, well, that came out at the very end of the PlayStation 4 life cycle.

So, you know, that should happen sometimes.

Two things.

that I want to say before I forget.

One is that Gustavo

Santoya

Gustavo, there you go.

Thank you.

May have leaked a

Last of Us Part 2 remastered for the PS5, which makes sense because then you can play it

and watch the HBO show, which will come out in like eight years.

And then, also, we talked earlier about the graphics on this game, the

look of Super Mario RPG.

And there is this

modern tradition to make pixel remasters and pixel graphics as the way that an emulator looks while playing a old 8-bit or 16-bit game.

And that that wasn't the way they would look on CRTs.

And if you play this game on an emulator without using scan lines, it is fucking ugly as shit.

It is just a mushy

color garbage.

Like you can't like differentiate between anything that's happening on the screen.

But the moment you drop on those scan lines, it's gorgeous.

And I wasn't a huge fan of this pseudo 3D look in the late Super NES life, like the Donkey Kong Country, the Super Mario RPG, that plastic play action figure look.

But I do think it's extremely well implemented.

And the remaster of this game that is coming out has gone back to those original assets and redone them.

And those assets look amazing.

Yeah, it was the kind of the silicon graphics era of like they did use those workstations to pre-render stuff and that was the big Donkey Kong country thing.

And I assume the same process was used for Super Mario RPG.

They, you know, it's certainly they look like the same sort of models, but I think it's, again, it was the end of the kind of the 2D gaming era of dominance.

And they were just like, I don't know, what else can we do to make things look interesting?

Yeah.

Yeah,

I have a couple other things I want to talk about.

One is, and I think this is another character you probably, Heather and Matt, haven't encountered, but Django, you may remember Boshi.

Yes.

This dude,

let me see if I can just share this

tab here.

Here we go.

Boshi.

Badass Yoshi.

Bad Yoshi.

Nice.

He's a bad blue Yoshi with sunglasses.

A spike collar.

Yeah.

How is this the first time I'm learning about Boshi?

Boshi's great.

You really seem to catch him.

Boshi's a Chad.

Yeah.

Boshi should be in every game, in every Mario game.

What did they do?

Oh, that's right.

You have to beat him in a race.

He's like the

hot dog, like fucking

badass Yoshi in town.

Oh, God.

He's Mario Sonic.

Wow.

I wonder if that was kind of the inspiration.

That would totally track.

And then, and the other thing, and I'm curious if you have any thoughts on the score, Django, because the score is by Yoko Shimomura, who we've talked about on the podcast, but

very...

prolific video game composer, the Kingdom Hearts franchise,

Street Fighter 2, Live Alive,

which the remaster came out recently.

And I have a couple tracks I set you, Matt.

It's hard to distill the soundtrack just down to a few things, but I pick just, well, let's just play this worst, this first one: Fight Against a Somewhat Stronger Monster.

That's the title of it.

Yeah, it's one of the battle themes.

She's also the composer in Final Fantasy 15.

Just want to

give it a little bit.

Hell yeah.

So, you know, put a little stank on it, but

also, if you want to get a little ethereal, a little mystical,

you can play a track like

listen to something like Beware the Forest Mushrooms.

Such Traverstown vibes on this scene.

Yeah.

Like this, you can really hear her Kingdom Hearts work.

More jaunty than Ethereal, at least in the beginning, but you get what I mean.

They should...

They should have...

You know how there are Final Fantasy characters in Kingdom Hearts?

They should have

They should have put Boshi in Kingdom Hearts.

It's a licensing nightmare to make that happen, but I totally agree.

They should throw Boshi in more things.

That first song is a banger, man.

That really took me back.

I forgot about those huge drums.

It's like very, very, very percussive.

And then they have the fucking, like, the shitty 1990s DJ scratch, like, like, keyboard preset sound every so often.

It's a good thing.

It's like an accent.

That's so funny.

That track absolutely rocks.

And yeah, that second one was awesome, too.

Very, very

renaissance-y, I guess I would say.

Do you have Django?

Is there anything?

I feel like we kind of been all over the place in terms of adding our own thoughts, but I'm curious: is there anything we've missed?

Anything you want to talk about this game that we haven't touched on?

One thing that took me,

brought me back to it, was

looking at last night, was just like the overall sense of humor it has.

Oh, yeah.

It's a very silly game with lots of funny little moments to it.

And a lot of it is made possible through some really great physical comedy with Mario, who never talks.

So

because he never talks, it gives you a little bit of an obstacle and he has to communicate with other characters.

So there's oftentimes it was like, Mario, explain what happened.

And he has to mime through it, which can be done either by like motions, but then like

he'll imitate another character and transform into it.

And then

show what happened with that.

So it's just a lot of small touches like that that make the game very funny, which I really appreciate appreciate.

Like, there's not a lot of, like, Mario is always a very funny franchise because it's all very silly and you're in a giant boot, et cetera, et cetera.

But this game really hits the sense of humor in a way that I really enjoy at the time and is, frankly, kind of making me want to go back and play it again.

You might have to buy one of those little SNES

ROM things they released recently.

Oh, yeah.

Well, you saw the Switch remake is coming.

I did.

Is that going to persuade you to get a Switch?

Ah, God, I really want to play the Zelda games.

And so that might put me over the top.

The problem with this this is I know any game like this is just like, bam, 100 hours of my life gone.

So like it's really hard.

Like, like I have so much shit to do.

Like, can I really stand playing Mario RBG a third time?

Maybe.

Yeah.

That's the that is the exact quandary we face every single week on on this show.

Yeah.

I did take two screenshots in the game that made me laugh.

They were from really, they were early on, but you're talking to you or, you know, Toad is talking to you.

And he's like, oh, this bad guy went that way.

I'd go do it myself, but I can't because I forgot my bazooka at home.

He has a bazooka, a military-grade weapon that he just like has.

Yeah, they wisely do not have guns in this game.

And then in this other one,

just a little further along,

I was talking to like this little kid character that was like running around.

It's like a little, the same thing that Malo is

running around and it says Mario let's say you and I get hitched in a few years okay I was like what

stop running around me and a good woman

and Mario's a catch yes

I'm yeah it's it's a it's a it's a really cool game I mean I'm glad we got to talk about it I

think it's like

you talked about the sense of humor I think that's a really great thing to drill down because, again, that's that was retrained in a lot of these in these Mario, all these Mario RPGs that came from Nintendo.

But I also think, like, you know, I suspect, I don't know, he's probably fucking talked about it in an interview, but I suspect Undertale was partly inspired by the Tonally by this game, because it's the same sort of thing.

And I, I, you know, I know that the games that have been cited are like things like

like the like the mother series, like Earthbound.

And, you know, this is kind of in that same sort of world.

So, I assume this one also

drew a squiggly line to that game.

So, yeah, it's it's uh it's I don't know.

It's really cool.

Heather, Matt, any other thoughts?

Uh, I'm very, I'm very excited for the remake.

Uh, I, you know,

uh, would like to press on with this, but just the reality of

what I have in front of me right now, I probably like won't spend that much more time with the original.

But when the remake comes along, I'm all in.

I'm ready.

Yeah, the remake,

like just watching the trailer for the remake again, having played the limited amount of it that I've played now, I'm like, oh, wow, it's it's the same cutscenes, but they have new camera angles.

I also love the look of the characters being ported over that same design sensibility of that little squat, a little squat Mario, the little guy.

Yeah.

Yes.

No longer the felt sexy Mario that we identify now.

I mean, the dude's been in like a bathing suit recently.

Don't even talk about it.

I'm going to get too horny.

I don't want to hear it.

I'm going to.

Yeah.

Does he have

a belly button and nipples, or is he one of those?

He does.

Okay.

And like a single

hairs or something, too.

It's like

all

triple Italian.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Homer Simpson amount of chance.

All right.

Hey, let's do a segment.

Okay.

This is a new segment.

I'll explain what it is after I say what the title is, okay?

The

oh God, I'm so nervous.

Okay, here we go.

This new segment.

Yeah, also, just for everyone listening to this, Matt, the only context Matt gave us is that he has a new segment and he's unsure about it.

So we don't know anything else about what's about to happen.

No, but I think it's going to be, I think it's going to be good.

I did sort of

in a panic

prepare this last night.

So here we go.

The segment is called What's Their Age Again?

Now it's time to say the age to me.

Are they 19?

Are they 23?

Is it canon?

Is it just a thought?

The magic research probably not.

Can our contestants guess their age?

What's their age again?

What's their age again?

Wow.

Wow.

So I have some video game characters' ages.

So good, man.

And you have to tell me what.

Nick is frozen in laughter.

He's enjoying himself.

So I know that this is like a thing that Nick does.

That's why I was like extra nervous about it.

And I just really wanted to make him proud.

That's all.

Matt, I'm beaming.

I'll never have a son, but

you can have me

someone that's like eight years younger than you.

Okay, so here we go.

The premise of this segment is I have some video game characters' ages, and you guys have to tell me what you think their age is, and then I'll tell you if you're right or not.

Okay.

So they all have canonical ages.

They all have.

canonical ages and I will say some of them are looser than others, but this is what they've they've said.

We'll start with an easy one.

Sonic.

How old is Sonic?

Micro, I know this.

He's 15.

All right.

That's a point for Nick.

Sonic is 15.

Oh, my God.

He's always been based on the image of an edgy teenager with attitude.

And his Wikipedia entry lists his age at 15.

And it's also noted on the Japanese Sega website.

So that's one point for Nick.

15 is also when your body is exploding with hormones, covered in acne.

Sonic is having wet dreams every night.

Like, this doesn't feel like it's not.

Yeah.

He has like shame about jacking off.

Yeah, I don't think he's that confident, but anyway.

It's a little too young.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I would say 18 would be a better age, but nonetheless.

Yeah, he should be.

Yeah, he should, maybe, whatever.

You want me to know that he could make him 17, but like, yeah, like 15 is too young.

He's always pregnant, so that, like, that's kind of like a layer, too.

That's like kind of that's another thing.

That's weird.

That becomes dark when he's 15.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And he's pregnant with Shrek's baby.

Here's the next character

just recently discussed.

Mario.

How old

is Mario?

Heather.

Heather.

I believe he's the age of the Christ, 33.

Heather, that is incorrect.

I was going to say, yeah, 35, something like that.

Okay.

Django also incorrect, Nick?

I think he's younger.

I think he's in his 20s.

I want to say he's 27.

Ah, just over, Nick.

So no points awarded here.

Mario is about 24 or 25 years old, according to

Shigiru Miyamoto.

That's a depression era, 24.

Yeah.

That's like back when you had like five kids at age 24.

When life expectancy was 37.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

God damn.

So Nick's still ahead, one point.

How's this going?

This is like fun, right?

This is funny.

Yeah, we're having fun.

Okay, here we go.

This one's maybe a little trickier.

Okay.

Solid Snake in

Metal Gear Solid 2.

Heather.

Heather.

24.

Heather is incorrect.

Jenga, do you play the Metal Gear Solids at all?

I have not played them at all, so I'm just guessing purely off like the poster art.

If you like Death Stranding, you might want to try a Metal Gear Sanders.

They're absolutely worth revisiting.

There's the HD

remasters are coming out of

the originals in October.

Maybe wait until then so they're on more modern platforms, but very playable.

My guess on the posters

38.

Okay, interesting.

Interesting, but no vertical.

Interesting or correct?

Interesting or correct.

I want to hear what Nick says.

I think he is a little older in Metal Gear Solid 2.

I think the chronology.

I'll guess the over there, and I'm just going to say he's...

I don't think they would do this, but I'm just going to say he was 40.

That is incorrect.

Django is closest,

but there's actually two answers.

Oh, God.

Love this.

Because

there's a large swath of time that is covered in Metal Gear Solid 2.

Right.

There's the prelude that you play, the tanker mission.

So he's 35 when the tanker sinks, but then he's 37 when the Big Shell incident occurs.

So I'm going to give Django the point

for being closest.

Okay.

38.

We're getting points for getting closest.

I feel like I should have gotten it.

But you were like two over.

One over, I'll sort of like, okay, yeah.

Sounds like the rules are kind of changing on the fly here.

It is a fly.

Are we still having fun?

Is that sort of like

that's okay?

Having a little less fun now.

but go on.

Okay.

Kratos in God of War Ragnarok.

How old is Kratos?

Weiger.

Heather.

I heard 19.

19, Nick.

Okay, so now you're having your own fun.

Kratos is the dad.

Kratos is the dad.

Kratos is the dad.

Heather.

35.

35.

That's a great guess.

It is incorrect.

Oh, goddamn.

You have to think about.

Ragnarok is the most recent installment, right?

Ragnarok's the most recent installment.

But you also have to think

he's.

Oh, shit.

He's like a demigod, right?

He's in the Greek mythology, and now he's in the Norse mythology.

Oh, goddammit.

I think he's probably in his 50s at least.

I played the game before that.

Part of it is kind of breaking down a little bit.

So I got to say 55, maybe.

Okay, you would be correct if you added 1,000 years.

Well,

he's somewhere between 1047 and 1055, based on like the sort of context within the games and what people have been able to figure out.

So it's tied up.

One apiece.

Nick and Django.

Heather, you can still get on the board.

Heather, you technically still could win, actually.

There's a couple more here.

Wow, I don't think it's going to be.

How old is Leon Kennedy in Resident Evil 4?

I'm I'm a white girl.

I'll buzz in, and I'm going to guess 26.

Okay.

I'm going to hold.

We are holding.

Heather.

Heather.

24 and 27.

Is there a flashback in that game?

No, but Heather, the game takes place over like

it's like two days or something.

Yeah.

It's a long weekend.

Yeah.

I think, God, I think 24 might be right.

Someone says, say 25.

Okay, Nick is closest.

Leon is 27.

He's 21 in Resident Evil 2 when he's a rookie.

But then six years later in Resident Evil 4, he's 27.

Hmm.

Didn't Heather say 24 and 27?

Yeah.

Wait, did you say 27 also?

Yes.

Okay, then Heather gets to give two wages.

Yes.

Wait,

she gets two guesses and she gets one of them was right.

In that case, I have a range of guesses

to populate the board with.

Don't poke holes in my little game.

It's all tied up.

Okay, it's all tied up, and that's actually lucky because this next one is worth two points.

Wow, great.

How old are Joel and Ellie in The Last of Us 2?

You have to get both right.

Exactly.

This is just.

I think this is just established in the...

I'll let someone else go first, but I think this is just established in the game.

I mean, I think this one, there is like a very clear answer to,

or at least based off of what's established in part one.

I think Ellie's probably like 19,

and Joel's like 51.

I'm going to let everybody guess.

Okay, so

Joel, start of Last of Us Part 1,

has a teenage daughter,

20-year time gap,

and then another five-plus years between the end of that game and Last of Us Part 2.

I'm going to say

56 and 17.

Heather?

Joel is 53.

Ellie is 18.

Okay.

So we both, we have to get both right.

So So it's possible that none of us got any guy

gets a point here.

That's very possible.

Yeah.

None of you got it both right.

Okay.

But this, this,

this one is worth two points.

So I could award one point

for a half point.

Does that make sense?

I mean, yeah, if you just want to keep changing the rules as you go, I guess it makes perfect sense.

To the bonus row.

Whatever.

It's fucking in our game.

Joel and Ellie in The Last of Us 2 are 56

and and 19.

Wow.

So Nick gets a point, and Django gets a point,

which leaves our game still at a tie.

You know what?

Ty goes to the guests.

Ty goes to the guests.

Django wins.

This is the first for what's for what's his age again?

What's their age again?

That's

the inaugural What's His Age Again winner, Django gold.

I didn't prepare a speech.

This is huge.

Congratulations.

Thanks to all of you.

Thanks to all the fictional characters for being the age I thought they might be.

Django, before we wrap up, I have one more question I wanted to ask you earlier, and I'm just curious, like, when you play a game where you can customize your name, having the name Django, do you play as Django?

Very seldom.

Really?

I want to escape my current reality when I play video games.

So I give him a cool name like Thrasher.

or Wiz.

But Django is a cool name, isn't it?

It is.

I just, you know,

for some reason, yeah, I want to escape.

I want to be someone else.

I want to be a different character.

So I always either stick to the default like a normal, or I, yeah, just pick some random silly game.

I, however, am very against names that are too silly.

Like, I'll never just call my character like Ass Man or something like that.

Like, that's, like, that's a sin.

Yeah, that destroys the reality.

I'm with you there.

Well, hey, that's this week's Get Play at our Engineering is by Alex Gonzalez, Dead Air, Alex G on Twitter and Instagram.

Also, we have Get Anime.

Heather, what are we talking about this week?

We're talking about the Melancholy of Harihi Suzumiya season two,

which we are continuing our watchdown in broadcast order, beginning with episodes 8 and 12 on Crunchyroll,

which are episodes 1 and 2 of the second season of the Melancholy of Harihi Suzumiya.

You can check that out on patreon.com slash get played for new episodes of get animated and old episodes of get animated as well.

So check it out.

It's us talking about anime.

And it's now, you know, Stitcher Premium's demise is now the only place you can get that.

Patreon.com/slash get played.

That's check it out.

And there will be more on that soon.

I feel like people have been asking and have wanted an official answer about what's going on with the back catalog and other things that are on Stitcher Premium.

We still don't know.

So we don't know.

That's our official answer at the moment.

As soon as we have a better official answer soon.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Django Gold, our guest.

Django, thank you so much for joining us.

What an absolute delight.

The special is Bag of Tricks.

It's coming in the fall.

I want to give you a chance.

I've been doing this with guests right now.

But if you first off, if you want to share any thoughts on the WGA SAG After Strikes, because I know this is a big thing a lot of people are dealing with.

If you have any personal experience you want to share on that.

And then also, yeah, yeah, plug the special and anything else, social media, anything else you want to talk about.

Sure.

I can get that out of the way real quick.

Just follow me on the

various social apps at Django Industries, one One Word.

And then you have the special Bag of Tricks will hopefully be out in September.

There is a joke about video games in it, listeners.

So if you

want to watch the whole thing front to back to get that one joke about video games, I think you should.

But it will be...

And share it with friends and see if they can find the joke about video games.

But no, the special will be very good.

It's my first special after 12 years of doing stand-up.

And I got to say, it's looking very, very funny, interesting, and different.

So please watch it.

As for the SAG After WGA WGA strike, it's just really weird to be in a situation where the villains are so cartoonishly evil.

It's just like odd because

in most conflicts in life, you can see the point the other person has and like you can try to find a common ground.

But the studios and like specifically like the few dozen people at the top, the studios have been acting so maliciously.

and unfair and bring such little value to the table.

It's just bizarre to be in a conflict like this where you're fighting like an incompetent Darth Vader who's looking to

privatize the Death Star or sell it off for parts.

Like it's just so shitty and bad.

And they've just been doing such a bad job at messaging.

So

we have the morale, we have the righteousness, and hopefully we'll come out of this with a way that people can actually support themselves, creating the things that people like.

and that people want.

And on the other side, you have these people who just do nothing except like harvest and deplete that which people like.

So it's really

an ugly foe to be going up against.

I'm confident a few more months of this, we should be hopefully in a better position.

Awesome.

Love that.

Yeah, love it.

Django, Django, congrats on Bag of Tricks.

Very much.

And thanks for being here.

Thanks for having me, guys.

And at AMPTP,

this week you got played.

Oh, shit.

And that was the turning point.

I was going to say, if we find out next week that this is all over, it was because we did it.

Yeah, that's worked too.

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