Don’t Miss the Switch 2’s Hidden Gem

There's gonna be a fun tension this episode, knowing that at any moment, the chainsaw-wielding burglars who have been terrorizing Russ Freshdick's building, his entire building, for the last 24 hours, could appear at any time.

And then Russ is just gonna disappear, and his criticism will be missed.

There might be a heist going on in my New York City apartment on the wherever it is.

Oh, fuck, chainsaw heist.

How have we not made this movie?

Chainsaw heist, that is, that's at least $100 million.

Now, it should be noted, chainsaws are not designed to cut through hard things.

They cut through wood.

I know, Justin's the expert here.

My understanding is they cut through wood, but when it comes to like stealing things from a bank, you probably don't want a chainsaw.

It's probably not going to do the trick.

I was under the impression, Juice, that you did not use a chainsaw much in your wood carving.

I

have a chainsaw just because sometimes trees fall in my road and someone on the road needs to have a chainsaw to cut the trees apart so people can get off their hills.

You're that guy.

I have a chainsaw.

I'm that guy.

Whoa.

That's the kind of hill I'm on.

All right.

If you look around your hill and I'm the guy cutting the trees out of the road, you need to move.

Now, have you ever become the guy for me?

Have you ever felt heisty with that chainsaw?

Have you ever felt like you wanted to break into a bank?

Yeah.

I mean, sometimes I feel like I want to carve into that beautiful wood and take home a slab for myself, but can you do that?

What?

Can you, if you leave enough for the tree to be, to live, are you allowed to go into the woods and just get yourself a little bit of wood?

Wait, are you saying if a if a tree falls in the woods, can you steal it?

Is I think that's not what I was saying, even a little bit.

No, that's not what I said.

If you leave the trees where they fall, they are purely decorative and riddled with bugs.

The only place to get wood in the way that we think of it is at your local home goods store.

That's cool.

And I do hear, I believe, the sound of

burglar's artifact in the middle of the intro.

Quickly, Russia thwart them.

They are knocking, which is very polite at the very end.

Cool, cool, cool.

The power tools will come later.

Yes.

My name is Justin McElroy and I know the best game of the week.

My name is Griffin McCroy.

I know the best game of the week.

My name is Christopher Thomas Plant, and I gotta go fast.

My name is Russ Froschik.

I know the best game of the week.

Welcome to the best news, where we talk about the latest and greatest in home interactive entertainment.

It is a video game club, and just by listening, you at home have just become a member.

And this week we're going to be talking about a brand new release.

Across platforms are just Switch 2.

You were so confident last week.

I know it was so ready.

It's just Switch 2.

It's just Switch 2 right now.

So, we're going to be talking about Fast Fusion, and it's a cool one.

What is Fast Fusion, Chris?

Fast Fusion is a racing game in the style of Wipeout and F Zero, and it is actually a continuation of an ongoing series that's quite delightful but underappreciated.

And did I mention it only cost $14.99?

We'll talk about more after the break, after we recover Hooms from whatever pit he has fallen into.

He's a real existential depth.

Hard to remember and harder to put down.

Fast fusion.

Finally, the fast franchise is coming at us.

Yeah.

I think this is the second installment in the fast franchise.

This is the fourth installment in the fast franchise.

Good job.

I was counting.

I tried.

There was Fast Racing League.

It came out in the Wii Shop channel in 2011.

We had Fast Racing.

And a name like that.

How did it not burn up the charts?

Fast Racing Neo was on the Wii U in 2015.

Fast RMS

enhanced version of Fast Racing Neo came out as a launch title for the Switch.

And the Fast Fusion is a launch title for the Switch 2.

And may I just say,

one of the better launch titles on the Switch 2, I think.

It's definitely up there.

It is, though, such a silly name that when people asked me what I was playing, I...

pretend that I didn't know the name of it because I didn't want to say Fast Fusion.

It sounds like you're describing a genre of restaurant.

There's new fast fusion plays out on Delancity.

So, Chris Player, what is this game?

So, the best comparison, like I said, wipe out F-Zero.

It is doing what Nintendo doesn't seem to have interest in doing.

It doesn't seem like it wants to bring back F-Zero.

So, this series has a history of filling that gap on Nintendo's behalf.

It is a futuristic racing game in which you zip around these gravity-defying racetracks, doing loop after loop.

but the hook here this time around is well there's a few one it looks fucking great and that is because it is using all of the new like whiz-bang technology that allows you to like turn low resolution graphics into high resolution it's 4k HDR at 60 frames per second fucking looks pretty wild killer the second thing that it's doing it's a racing game that lets you jump and it turns out that's cool

as hell to be able to jump in your racing games and the third thing is the boost pads.

They're these boost pads that go all around the track, and they are two different colors.

And I'm not sure what colors they were for you, Russ.

What were they for you?

Did it work?

Are you addressing me?

Yeah.

How bad is it over there?

Do we think this is going to work?

Is this going to be good?

I need Russ Frussik.

I don't care if there's grinding behind literally.

What colors were the boost pads?

They looked to me like red and blue, but okay, great.

Is that a good thing?

So you can go you you shift your your your your vehicle's color to match the boost pads if you are the right color if you match you're zipping through the course but there's a risk reward here because if you're the wrong color it drains your juice drains you dry yeah there's also a boost meter that you're working up by collecting coins on the map and you can steal those from other people by boosting into them uh or landing on top of them heavyweight style um but the really important thing to know about this game is that you're going a million, billion fucking miles per hour.

And it's so, so fast in that, like, I remember the first time I played, I think it was Wipeout on either PSP or PS Vita, and just being like completely mind-blown by

the fact that I was playing a handheld thing and playing a game that looked this good and this fast.

And I feel like that, I don't know, I was shocked to have that same experience on

2025.

You are going a billion trillion miles per hour, but you have an astonishing level of control right out the box of your vehicle.

So it's really easy to get around the course.

They want you to have the joy of moving really fast, but they don't want you worrying so much about the like

racing the track as they do you making the decisions, these risk award decisions.

Like, hey, should I jump to try to get some extra boosts?

like boxes,

risking putting myself into the air and like running into a billboard?

Should I boost past a enemy knocking them out of the way, but then not having enough boost Basically exposing myself to like attacks from other racers It's all these like little choices that you're making and then the racing is kind of I don't know I found it kind of surprisingly simple and easy because it gives you so much control of your vehicle Yeah, it feels feels really really good.

There's something that's smart.

It's doing about the the view range and the angle where you're your ship is so close to the camera that even when it's going really fast, you feel like you've got a ton of control.

Like it still feel, it doesn't feel like you're not able to keep pace with what it's doing.

Most of the times that you die, a lot of the times, at least, it is your fault.

Like it is for me, a lot of times it was seeing some like boost tokens in the air and thinking.

I want to grab those.

Yeah, for sure.

But then deciding to grab them like, about five seconds too late, just smashing right into a bridge.

There is also an element in this that you don't see in a lot of these arcade racing racing games.

I guess F-Zero is probably the closest analog.

There's no randomness.

There's no, oh, you hit the thing and you get a slot machine of like, what are you going to get?

So that actually makes it fucking Christ.

Why did you guys make me come here?

This will probably be the last good insight I have this episode because Jesus Christ.

But I did appreciate.

the fact that there you weren't having to do the slot machine item pickup blue shell thing every time i'll build on that a little bit in that this is the kind of ideal companion to arrive alongside

mario kart world for me because i i really enjoyed mario kart world and i do want to give everyone an update on my colonoscopy it went great and i played a lot of mario kart world while preparing for it i don't think we just talked about it

no that's kind of like a you thing that's a side quest that you went on without us the your friends

i assumed it was a resties thing so i'm glad to hear you fill in the...

I figured while I was away, that was like the number one topic.

Why would you have Chris Grant on if not to talk about my health?

Anyway, I played a lot of it.

The frustrating thing about that game is you race and you race and you race, and then you get third place at the very last second after being in first place the whole time, and it's maddening.

That said, I absolutely adore that game.

But this is the opposite.

I'm sure there's rubber banding behind the scenes, but it largely feels fair.

When I lose, it feels like I deserve to lose.

When I win, it feels like I deserved to win.

It feels, while like an arcade racer, like something more competitive than Mario Kart.

Also, the,

I don't know, Hoops or Griffin, if you can talk to this, the unlock path of this game, I really enjoyed.

Yeah, it's cool.

So you get money by collecting these boost tokens on the map, but you get more money for, you know, placing really well in a race.

There's another mode called superhero mode where you can also get a lot of money, and that involves you coming in first in a race, and also you can't explode at any point.

And it's very, very hard, but you can get lots of money for doing that.

And then,

sorry, I just ran up and down the series.

There's a time attack mode also that is

you versus developers times, and it is tough.

Like, I expected, oh, I'll be able to win the first race after a few rounds.

And no, they really want you to figure out every little angle of the race.

What I can't get over,

and I know we usually don't talk about like price on this show,

but $14.99 is such a

bizarre price for this game in that it feels as feature-rich as any other launch title I remember playing on any other video game console.

Now, I don't know if it's just like they assume that everybody will buy it if you price it.

I mean, I think it's just standing out so much more in comparison because the,

you know, killer app, at least from Nintendo's side, the big new game is Mario Kart World, which costs $80.

And there's been so much discussed about that to have another racing game come out that, I mean, frankly, guys, I have not played, I don't think I've played Mario Kart since last week.

It was kind of dead on arrival, I feel like, at our house.

We've been playing a lot of Switch 2, 2, but not

that.

And this is obviously not as big and ambitious as Mario Kart, but I do think I have had some more fun with it because it looks so good and it just feels really, really good to play.

It feels like an onboard, like a total, like, how can we get the most amount of customers at any given time?

I'm sorry, Rachel.

Poor Rachel is going to have to work with this audio.

To be fair, people can't see it.

The chainsaw is right behind you.

It's like coming through the audio.

He's feeling it as if he's into into his office.

And I want this to be a 40x experience for the people at home.

So please jam a vibrator under your seat if you won't mind.

And you know what?

If that's going to work for you, so much the better.

You're talking about the res motion controls.

Yes, correct.

Yeah, only use the res motion control.

I didn't actually finish my thought about the economy of the game.

Please.

Like you get the boost tokens, and then you can use those to buy new tracks, access to new tracks, and you can buy new ships.

And then you can fuse the ships together to create new ships.

And those are like unique in their own way.

And I, it does, I mean, the ships do feel kind of different from each other.

There's like heavier ones that go much faster when they boost.

And then there's ones that accelerate faster.

That's not the most novel concept, but it is just kind of enough to, I don't know, put that extra little carrot on the, on the stick.

I feel like it's just a really good blend of like,

the amount of focus that you have to give it and the layering of the mechanics.

it feels like when you're in the pocket, almost a little bit more like a rhythm game where, like, you are, you know, the sequence, you know, the next thing you need to do.

You're like, after you do a big, long, like, blue trail, I would sometimes start to like just go ahead and flip to orange automatically, thinking, like, okay, the next thing I'm going to do is over here.

And especially as you repeat the tracks over and over again, you start to get a sense of like, oh, that's right, this jump is coming up where I can hit that line and then I'm going to land.

And if you're getting those mechanics, like, like Plant said, the racing becomes almost secondary.

And I like that so much more.

I'd much prefer that where I'm learning game mechanics than I am to like actually like

dueling someone for like trying to drift behind them and get a few more seconds of my time shaved off.

That's such a great point.

And the fact that the track itself kind of looks like a track in a Guitar Hero game brings that home even more.

The dueling other racers, what I do love about that, and we briefly touched on it, is you build up this boost meter and it does give you some speed.

And it's especially useful if you've come to a complete stop and you need to catch up to the pack.

But really, it becomes this offensive move for taking people out in that constant feeling of, okay, I have somebody in front of me and I can take them out, but I know I have two people behind me.

And if I boost through them, I'm going to be empty on my boost gauge.

And that means the two people behind me can take me out.

And it becomes this.

It becomes like croquet, right?

Because it's like, I have to hit this guy in front of me me so I can steal his boost.

So then I can boost past these next, these next people.

Because if you're not boosting in this game, the boost feels fucking great.

If you're not using it constantly, you slow down to a point where you are going to get past.

So managing that bar is really important.

If you run it out to zero, you expose yourself defensively.

And it's like that.

Yeah, the head games are, I mean, playing against robots, but yeah, it's something special.

I think it's great that this and Mario Kart are just going to be cooked onto mini Switch 2s.

Day one is killer.

Griffin, I was thinking, you know, like last fall, we went to a lake house with some of our friends together.

And I imagine like having both of these games, I want both.

Like, there are some people I want to play Mario Kart with, and there are some people, like, I cannot wait to play this game with you.

Playing Mario Kart with you, that'll be fun.

But, like, playing this, I feel like we will.

For the real gamers.

Just say for the real gamers.

For the real gamers is what I'm trying to say.

I think this game rules.

I think it's genuinely,

it's some of the most fun I've had on the Switch 2 in the week and change that I've had my hands on it.

And I think at 15 bucks, it's a steal.

Hell yeah.

Cool video games.

Should we take a break and then talk about other games?

I would love to do that.

Russ, how are you?

Russ is holding his face in his hands in a really good way.

Can I leave?

Is that possible?

Yeah, I think that would cause.

Thanks, Russ.

Thank you so much, Russ.

shit man.

Sorry about everything Russ

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We talked a little bit about, I think, last week about how little fanfare there was with the Switch 2 launch.

And we kind of wanted to revisit it this week to see where everybody's head is at now that the, you know, we're past all of the

hubbub, the lights, the glamour, the glitz.

How's your

Switch journey been, y'all?

I mean, we've been playing it quite a bit.

Mostly still

Tears of the Kingdom, the updated Switch 2 version.

Henry has finally kind of like taken a shine to that game.

It's a very complex,

he plays a lot of games at this point, but like there's so much shit you can do in that game and just so many kind of buttons to juggle to like do all of that stuff.

But it seems like he's finally like clicked with it.

And so we've been having a lot of fun playing that.

I honestly, I love having Fast Fusion kind of on the docket because it is a fun like five minute game.

It's a fun game to just like pick up and do a little chunk of.

But I've yeah, I've been playing the Switch 2 quite a bit at this point.

I have a couple things on my ROG Ally X on my

to-do list to go to, but it is maybe because it is significantly heavier,

I have been trending towards

the stuff on Switch 2.

So yeah, it's been getting a lot of play over here.

I love this damn thing.

It's so good.

You weren't here last week, right, Chris?

Yeah, I wasn't here last week.

My take, and I'm glad I had the extra time to play it, and I'm glad I had a cool enough so I can really get to know this thing, and it can get to know me.

It

I will just say, like, the obvious bummer of it out of the way is not actually to do with it.

It's to do with just everything in games now, which is we have locked into the iterative era of hardware.

Gone are the days of the Wiimote and the Kinect and all of those things, whether you like them or not.

And here are the new days of the iterative console release but what i can say uh as a huge compliment to the switch 2 versus the xbox series x and the playstation 5 is i want to turn it on with both those consoles i just had no desire pretty much immediately um you know i worked through demon souls but beyond that it they the systems they are a means to an end of playing the thing on my tv the switch 2 is the opposite so far uh i've really enjoyed Mario Kart.

Even if it frustrates me in all the way Mario Karts has, I've really enjoyed Fast Fusion.

I've loved digging into the GameCube catalog.

I have not even done that yet.

Dude, Soul Calibur 2 is just a killer game.

And it just being on my console, ready to work whenever I want it, is absolutely perfect.

And I love that things run well.

Like, they run really, really well.

I wasn't sure about the like upgrades to Zelda and stuff and I was worried about it because that sort of stuff in the past has not been Nintendo's jam and they've absolutely nailed it.

And I think what I just had to do as I was playing it more and more was let go of my feelings about consoles basically of the past.

And if I thought about this in the same way that I felt when I played the Switch OLED, it's like way past even that.

Like I'm I'm loving this way more than I did that upgrade.

And we talked about that.

That was such a more marginal upgrade than that.

Yeah, but we all loved it, right?

Like, it was a great screen.

But

the moment when I realized, like, oh, it's really clicking for me was

we have to acquire code for games that we talk about on the show week after week.

And I've started to want to go back to asking for Switch code instead of Steam.

I haven't done that for years

because the Steam deck was my default and then other options.

And you're right, Griffin, like it's so much lighter and just more comfortable.

And being able to get that same amount of power and ease, but also having it not weigh so much is.

It matters.

It like really does matter.

So yeah, overall, I like it.

I do feel like we are living in a period of an embarrassment of riches.

And I think that's overall really good.

I do wonder if we're also barreling towards like our own version of the modern console wars, where people are like very picky about what they want from a handheld.

Yeah.

But I don't know.

So that was kind of my rant.

It's so weird to think of Nintendo competing in that.

Like they've been so clearly doing their own thing.

But the fact remains that like for the past two, three years, whenever the Steam Deck came out, I basically kind of put my console stuff to the side almost entirely and was using that except for Nintendo games.

And now, I don't know, man, I will cop to last week being so

being a little blustery about like, well, my ROG Ally X is stronger in every conceivable way.

And I don't know, after

playing more tears of the kingdom which just fucking looks and runs so good like i don't really even feel that way particularly strongly anymore uh i'm sure that there are some some big show piece games that will still maybe stand out but um yeah it's it's it's it has really asserted itself around here yeah what about you juice because you were you were much cooler on it than than we were last thanks griff i always try to be Very, very cool.

I appreciate you noticing that.

I had a couple of good contextual experiences with it where I needed to be, we were like at the theater and our show got rained out and I had it with me and we were like backstage in the shell and I was able to like pop off the controllers and put on the little

doohickeys, which is a bad solution for that.

That's stupid.

I hate having to have that with me.

They help, but it's like another thing.

You're talking about the Joy-Con

rails attached to it.

Yeah, that's, yeah.

You're supposed to use them for mouse, but also like it gives you a bit more grip when you're doing like the individual Joy-Con things.

Um, but we did uh some Mario Kart, and I just had like me and Cooper did two-player like battles and stuff, and then we had a couple other people play.

And it's you know, you put it in somebody's hand, and it's the screen's big enough that you don't feel ridiculous popping out the kickstand and actually like playing a little bit.

So, for that, like, uh, it was good.

Um,

not the like ideal game for it i guess for me just because it's not my favorite but like it that worked well i went out and got actually um

a couple of the wheels wheel things they've got like a uh two pack of the wheel handles for these so i want to see how the kids uh if the kids enjoyed those they did not um they thought it sucked to do they hated it they cried literally

I've got them at the house.

People could use them, but not my kids.

And I bought a camera, Griff.

I don't know if you're going to get a camera.

No, I've seen so many pictures of just like best buy display units of just like all them switches gone, all them memory cards gone.

There's like 50 cameras because

it is that that feels,

I really feel like if the camera was going to be a thing,

I really wish it had been packed in.

It really does feel like,

you know, it even feels weird.

Like, if I see people on and i have the camera like it feels presumptuous like i see them playing something else and i'm the one with the camera and i want to be like pardon pardon mind hello it's all it's all weird but griffin get one so we can like i would say i will say there was a cool application for it in um when we were playing mario kart because it let you like um move a circle to where your head is in the room yeah and that was like your icon for the game so like as you like, whatever you did in the room, like, that was still your like little icon.

It really feels when you see it.

It really feels like I could wait four months and get it for $9.99 at the local Circuit City.

It feels, it feels like that.

Yeah, but you'll already have spent that $10

on Welcome Tour, so you won't have it.

That's a good point.

That's a good point.

That's still Welcome Tour.

Does Welcome Tour have incredible video functionality?

I bet it does.

It's hard enough on Welcome Tour, but I guess we don't need to circle back around on that.

There's so much of it that's invisible, and you just have to wander around.

That thing's a stinker.

Um,

I will, I, you know, what it is, it is, I don't know how much value there is to grouseing about this before the year is out, and there's like a whole other suite of stuff, right?

That Donkey Kong game looks killer.

I wish that was out of launch.

I think I'd probably be a lot more excited about it.

And if I would be more excited about it, if that Donkey Kong game was out already, then like

who gives a shit?

Right.

You know what I mean?

It's like, yeah, then, then wait.

You know what I mean?

You baby.

No, but don't buy it so early dork we talk about we talk about console launches in their own kind of way like it is right it isn't a a a

contextual sort of self-contained event because it is it is like i don't know it's a it's a it has such an impact on the industry and the like year and the future of like what what gaming promises like it is an impactful thing and so i it is i think kind of kind of shitty to have such a what would almost certainly looks like could be like a first-party

killer app at launch, not be at launch.

It really feels,

now that I have a little space and I'm actually like a little less like frustrated about it because I see where it sort of fits in the landscape a little better.

It really does feel like Nintendo making good on sort of what.

I feel like this is what Sony and Microsoft have wanted to do in terms of the like seamless trying to get to iPhone levels of like just seamlessly replacing your hardware on a cycle that they can dictate and try to like, you know, that the individual numbers were just like cycle, it's a platform, you know what I mean?

It's less about the numbering.

I feel like Nintendo has actually like done that in a way that feels really, really genuinely iterative that has like kept continuity in this product.

Where like, I don't think Microsoft and Sony have ever had the discipline to make a five feel like a successor to four, but I feel like the Nintendo Switch 2

really does do that.

It feels like a direct expansion and continuation of that whole thing.

I agree with that.

And I think a lot of that is in the UI

actually working.

Sure.

So much of what has been really nice about this console is not things that kids get excited about.

It is, hey, I hopped on the store and it loaded.

And then I picked a game and I bought it.

And it didn't take like a million headaches, little tiny headaches to do that.

And everything just actually works.

And when I connect to online stuff, it is totally fine.

And it's all these little small things that are not appealing back of the box cases.

But I always wondered why Nintendo didn't just fix on the Switch 1.

And I'm wondering how much of the problems that they faced were like foundational.

and how they had made things and they simply could not fix them until they did a ground up rebuild.

And that's a lot of what we have here.

The only like,

and this is, they don't need my worries,

but

there is plenty of clues that this was made to come out years ago, as in like when the motherboards were printed, things like that.

And

I, it feels like the right amount of powerful right now.

for running all these different things, but I'm not sure how much like kind of runway it has.

Yeah.

I enjoyed having that kind of three years of the Switch really feeling

like it was enough.

A contender.

Yeah.

Yes.

And I'm a little worried about that.

But again, like that's not, they don't need my pity.

And that's not

that person's concern.

My thing.

The excitement I feel for the Switch 2 would be considerably tempered if tomorrow.

Steam or the Republic of Gamers were like, yeah, and here's the Rog Ally light.

It's 30% stronger and it's 40% lighter.

I'd be like, well, fuck, that sounds actually really good.

I would actually love to go ahead and hop on that.

There's a whole lot of fucking around that I don't have to do with this guy that I've fucked around with a lot of like PC handhelds, Windows handhelds, Steam handhelds, Linux handhelds, Android handhelds a lot recently.

Right.

And I will say that even though I enjoy that a great deal, there is something to be said for it's going to work.

It'll work.

It's going to work.

You put the thing in and it'll play.

And it will work.

True, yes.

You want them really close.

Together in the open world of Mario.

I let Henry use my old

Steam Deck OLED after I got the Rog Ally X because there's some games that are not on Switch that he wanted to play and he bounced the fuck off that thing because of, I don't know, having to just navigate

any of that UI and manage that stuff was not

compelling to him.

I actually used the

virtual game card system.

Yeah, what did you was that with survival kids?

No, I used it with so, okay.

Yes, I did use that for survival kids.

That was just like redeeming a Steam code.

That's what the cards are like.

It's just like redeeming a code.

That's not that cool.

But the virtual game cards are kind of interesting.

So I'll tell you the way that I used it.

When I transferred my Switch to my Switch 2, it took a lot of my most recently played games and it put them into my library and started downloading them and it said that i had the virtual game cards for these things loaded into this switch and then uh i had nintendo disney streamlight valley on my switch on the switch 2 had moved over charlie wanted to play it on my switch one

uh well and i couldn't make that happen because it was the virtual game card was in my switch 2 right so basically i downloaded it on the old switch and then i ejected the game card from my Switch 2.

Yes.

And then my Switch 1 could load the virtual game card, and then it was working.

Yeah.

The way it used to work, because I've done this once too, actually, before the Switch 2 came out,

I had to move over the virtual game card for Minecraft from my Switch OLED to my Switch Lite, so I could

play multiplayer with Henry.

The way that it worked before was just my Switch Lite was not my primary console.

So anytime I played a game, either starting it up or resuming it or playing it, it was making online checks to ensure that the other Switch was not being used.

So like there was some bullshit where like I would have to put Henry's switch in airplane mode if we wanted to play Animal Crossing together across our two switches.

It's a huge pain in the ass.

And this seems like the solve for that is it's just like, yeah, you have, you have a little transferable license token.

That means you can play the game without constant, you know, on online checking.

And that's what it is.

It works pretty good.

It works good, yeah.

I thought you were talking about the game share option, where I did not try that.

I know that Survival Kids has that equipped.

I'll complain about this.

Some

little things that didn't bug me until recently.

This nonsense right here with the buttons where the chat button is right beneath the home button.

No, thank you.

I never want to press that C in my life.

Put it on the fifth side that is away from me, not right next to the extremely useful home button, please the home button is raised a little bit but that feels like an admission of guilt doesn't it that you needed to raise it to remind me that that's the button i'm looking for put that c anywhere put it next to this circle i've never pushed have please but a whole no man's land if you can make an apps folder like i have on my phone for the things i can't delete that'd be great have you all tried that jeff grubb patented kickstand grip trick

Kickstand grip trick where you pull the kickstand out put your fingers in it as a grip That's insane and play the Switch.

It works quite well.

Yes.

It's pretty nice.

It feels pretty good.

I mean, I would not be opposed to it.

I will say it has been rough on the old carpal tunnel.

I've had to

not hold it very, very much.

It is a beefy, beefy console.

And I know the Raw Galaxy is bigger, but it feels better ergonomically.

And honestly, that thing I usually put on a table

with a kickstand up while I'm using it.

The lack of ergonomic options right now for the Switch 2 is troubling.

I think for all the Switch iterations I have had, I've had put some sort of case on there that gave it a handle, a couple handles on the back because otherwise you're kind of having a cradle empty space with

your palm, which isn't great.

Also, this is a minor complaint, but I have also modified all of my old switches so that the left set of four buttons is a D-pad.

I don't know if they ever actually sold Joy-Cons that were like that.

I feel like they did at a certain point but it is like a very common custom mod is you swap out the shell and then you can replace those four disconnected buttons with a with a d-pad

and uh not having that has been i don't know kind of kind of annoying uh yeah that is i guess the challenge for something that is iterative like this is over the course of the last what eight years we got all these little tiny fixes that allowed us to make the switch one to our liking and then you just restart that i'm sure that shit's going to come out um i'm sure horri is like you want to buy more stuff please we're happy to sell it to you hey talk about some emails sure

strong you seem upset no i i think that sounds great i love you

um yeah you want to go ahead go for it first up we have from rob Griffin made a reference to the Hitman team needing to just go ahead and make a bond game.

And I just need to know if he's aware they actually are making one look sick as hell uh fucking cool man i didn't know uh not being in the industry anymore has been pretty uh

not being on the industry anymore and twitter completely fucking turning into an unusable

unnavigable horrible wasteland has really kind of

affected my ability to stay totally on top of what all of the uh all the games coming out are which is maybe not something that you want to hear your

video game critic of choice to say out loud.

But

yeah, I didn't know.

007 First Light from India.

I catch you well enough, man.

And the listener.

There's a trailer actually came out last week.

Yeah.

Fucking with some of the stuff.

You're young, James Bond.

You're in your 20s.

You're just

chasing scum.

Fuck yeah, blasting scum.

No, this looks cool.

Awesome.

Hey, thank you, dear reader.

I guess I don't have to, you know, I don't have to be fully aware of every game coming out because then people will get, it takes a whole village to raise a child.

Next up, we have from Nathan.

It's very funny that they replaced Chris Plant with Chris Grant and Russ with Good Russ.

I guess they should replace Justin with the other Justin McElroy if he's back from the rainforest and Griffin with a Griffin, presumably.

I mean, Griffin Newman is the official sort of

alter Griffin.

Yeah.

Justin, I didn't know there is another Justin McElroy.

Justin with Canadian journalist Justin McLean.

CBC Justin McElroy, though.

though.

Yeah.

We should do one episode.

He's back actually from his sabbatical, I think.

We should do an episode that's just Chris Grant and Good Russ and Griffin Newman and Canadian Justin McElroy.

I'd listen to that.

Yeah, that would be good.

Yeah.

That'd be really easy to record for us.

Sebastian says, I don't completely understand this hang-up about the Switch 2 not having a gimmick.

I was pretty sure the consensus for a while has been they definitely should just make a better Switch instead of doing something weird that will flop.

Would a new Xbox or PlayStation have this problem or they just need to be better i bought the first switch to play the games on it not because i was excited about the joy-cons it's it's a fair point but the new xbox and playstation do have that problem i don't i i was not excited really that much about the playstation 5 launch this i did not adopt a series x or whatever until way way way the fuck after that came out.

I do think that those platforms are not particularly exciting.

I do think the the Switch 2 isn't a big enough bump in quality and power enough that that has, I don't know, settled in as the gimmick.

But I don't think it's unreasonable to want something exciting that your technology can do that it couldn't used to.

And

I definitely, I don't know, the mouse thing is such a, when Henry found out that you could use one of the Joy-Cons for a mouse, one of his friends told him when they were over playing Mario Kart last weekend.

he thought he was like lying because he thought it was so ridiculous it is i don't think i think it'll be a while before they come up with any reason for us to use that uh metroid right like that's the man even that i don't i don't i i don't i i think the the trouble here and it's it's a good question but microsoft and sony

are explicitly in the video game console business.

Nintendo, in its own words, has been in the toy making business for most of its existence.

I mean, card business before that.

But it expressly, expressly pursues novelty.

It has talked at length about the importance of novelty in everything it does.

So for it to do that,

it's fine.

It just is going, it is a contradiction of its own philosophy and what it states to be.

Yeah.

Which it can do.

It just, that is, I think, where the disappointment comes in versus the Xbox or or the PlayStation, where not only do we not expect them to do it, but when they do pursue novelty like the PlayStation Move or the Kinect, it tends to be a bit of an embarrassment.

Yeah.

Yeah, I don't feel that strongly about that.

I feel like anymore, just because I don't know, I am surprised by how much I've been.

When I saw the launch lineup, I was thinking like, okay, you know, we'll play it quite a bit that first week and then bounce off.

But I don't know.

I don't feel that strongly anymore that it needs, it needed that, that thing.

And I am kind of glad that they didn't tax some extra shit on.

That made it.

They did tax some extra shit on, but

it does not get in the way of my enjoyment of the thing.

There's also a difference between what I think would probably be a good

business decision and what I, as a human, would greedily want to

spend money on and mess around with.

I think we're always desperate for novelty.

Like that, that makes sense.

I think that it...

It's a bit of a bummer to see video game consoles going the way of like

buying the latest TV or whatever where it's like you spend five minutes kind of messing around like oh that's fun and they kind of connected to this and this is a little bit higher res but it is like it does feel

it feels iterative in a way because everything is so connected like it feels for something to go too far out out of bounds at this point with like

how portable it feels like games need to be now to to to really make sense.

I don't know if that we're going to see those like huge departures, those big swings like Nintendo

was used to.

Although they can do a lot more in the portable space probably before it starts to feel

right, like we used to have the DS and the 3DS.

Back in my day, we had Johnny Cash, Bob Hope, 3DS.

What else are y'all enjoying right now?

Hoops, you enjoy anything?

You watch any TV shows where like a mystery happens?

Oh, man.

Do you guys want to hear about the best new reality show?

This is my favorite new reality show.

Yeah, Destination X.

Destination X with Jeffree Dean Morgan?

Jeffree Dean Morgan's game.

Where the X are we?

I saw a commercial where someone said, guys, where the X are we?

This thing is primo.

It is Jeffrey Dean Morgan is just like looking sexy in a bunch of different rooms, and he's like barreling the camera, like, this is my game.

I think the players are going to love where I've gotten them this time.

It's Destination X.

And then the whole episode is about these people have been driven to a remote location wearing Jeffrey Dean Morgan's patented electric blindfolds and then they take them off and they're given a series of challenges where they have to figure out where they are.

That's the whole game is like where they are.

So it's like geo-guesser, but you're like in it.

Some of it is geo-guesser.

Some of it is wild shit.

Like Jeffrey Dean Morgan was interviewing people in these rooms and they'd come in.

He was like, well, where do you think you're at?

What are you thinking so far?

Are you enjoying your time?

And in one of the rooms, there was a a picture of Jennifer Aniston.

And in the other room, there was a picture of Ava Longoria for no reason.

They were just in there.

And they don't reference it as a viewer.

You're just like, hmm.

And then it turns out they're in Geneva.

It's like you were supposed to get that you combined Jennifer Aniston and Ava Longoria to get Geneva.

That's just one of the many, many hits.

That's awesome, man.

I feel like geography is one of the things that I am stupidest about, and that is saying something, bro.

Let me say, I feel so, so stupid about geography that I actually, genuinely, no bullshit, feel like I am learning from this bottom-of-the-barrel NBC reality show.

This, I say, bottom-of-the-barrel, but it is a highly produced format.

This is actually a format there's a huge bidding war for internationally.

It's one of those that you're going to see like a lot of versions of this concept.

Um, because there is a fun idea of if you participate in these challenges along the way, where you're sort of racing, you will get information, but only the first person to obtain the information gets accurate information.

And the other people get inaccurate information or red herrings without really knowing whether or not they've gotten good or bad information.

So a lot of it is about information sharing, what you have learned, what you can glean from other people, because you're kind of not sure what you can and can't rely on.

Because it's not just like I'm in France.

It's like I'm in in a specific city, specific area in France, because the eliminations bit is the five players or four players or however many are selected.

They're brought in what's called the map room with Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

And they have to put a mark where they are at on the map.

And whoever's farthest away from where they're actually at, they're eliminated.

And the way that works is Jeffrey Dean Morgan takes you out of the bus and he's like, here's where the fuck you are.

Look, it's the Eiffel Tower, you stupid son of a bitch.

And then you have to be like, fuck!

The Eiffel Tower is right there?

And I thought I was in Rome?

Fuck!

Jeffrey Dean Morgan always offers to go get the person a treat.

Every episode, he's like, let's go get some ice cream.

That's good.

I like that.

Is every episode a different destination?

Yes.

And it's a different destination.

And you learn a lot about the destination.

Like,

you see all the famous people there from there.

And like, again, I'm an idiot about this stuff.

I feel like I actually learned a little something.

And it is challenging for me to play along because I'm so stupid.

Yeah.

That even I, without my digital blindfold, am still unable to geo-guess the Destination X.

There's like four episodes up, I think.

It's pretty good.

It's pretty good.

Okay.

I don't know if you were trying to tee this up, Chris, but I've been watching Poker Face.

Rachel and I started the new season, season two of Pokerface,

the Natasha Leone

Mystery of the Week show, and it's fucking great.

It's really fun.

Did you guys watch the first season of that?

I watched the first,

and I don't know why, other than it being on a

streaming service that I don't instinctually turn on all the time.

I found it a little sluggishly paced for my tastes.

I felt like it moved kind of slowly in the couple episodes I watched.

I did not watch very much.

It is one I would like to return to.

It's one I like in theory.

And when I see a show like that get picked up for another season, it makes me think there's other stuff going on that I would probably dig.

Oh, by the way, Andor is the best Star Wars thing that's been.

Oh, good.

Yeah.

If you want to watch that, if you want to see the best Star Wars thing.

Chris, I think you're the last one.

And yes.

I am the last one.

I actually was curious to use, I guess I'll just use my time to throw back to you, Griffin.

Yeah.

I saw you playing the 100 line.

Yeah.

Can I finish Poker Face real quick?

Because I did want to spend some time.

I do think this second season, I do think the first few mysteries of the first season

are the most sluggish.

I do think that they get a bit more outlandish, and that turned out to be kind of the fun part of the show is you start to, it starts to just have like shit in it that any other mystery show, you would just be like, oh, it's so convenient that the killer just happened to, X, Y, or Z happened to say this in front of them.

So, uh, and then the second season goes 10 times as hard on that shit because I think they, I don't know, realize that that's the stuff that people liked about the first season.

So if you like a mystery that does not take itself particularly seriously, I think the second season has been, we've only watched a a few episodes, but they've been really fun and really great.

I have, I did start playing Hundred Line

to

put my cards out on the table earlier this year.

I replayed, before I knew about the existence of this game, I replayed Dankonrompa

because I had, I was just jonesing to play that game.

And so I feel a little bit.

Like I just sort of played the like it's so much it's so much

a Dangon Rompa game.

Like so much that I do, it hasn't really grabbed me I think just because I just spent a long time with it so this is this may just be like a timing a timing issue um

but it is certainly that is certainly a a a genre uh reminiscent of a franchise that I really really do like uh I haven't had a great time with like this

SRPG kind of like combat stuff so far, but it also seems like the kind of thing like a fire emblem or whatever that once you have more units that can do different types of shit, it probably gets a little bit more interesting.

So, too soon to tell on that one.

Um, I did want to shout out one more mystery thing.

I've been reading a uh a book by one of my favorite fantasy authors, a guy named Robert Jackson Bennett.

Worse than Scott Hart.

No, Robert Jackson Bennett wrote the Divine Cities trilogy, The City of Stairs, City of Blade City.

Oh, yeah, that's good stuff.

Those are fucking some of my favorite fantasy books ever.

Uh, and the Founders trilogy, Foundryside, Vigilance, and Shorefall, which are also super, super rad.

Last year, he published a

book that is, I think, the start of a new series.

The book is called The Tainted Cup, and it is a murder mystery.

It is a fantasy murder mystery set in this

sort of kingdom surrounded by violent oceans where they have mastered

sort of like genetic modification and plant modification uh to create humans who can do incredible things like there's one type that can remember everything that they see uh and and and there's ones that are really good at math uh and it is like a very very much a sherlock and watson murder mystery set in this like fantasy world and uh i'm like maybe a third of the way through it and it's fucking great It's really, really good.

It's called The Tainted Cup.

And if you haven't read any of Robert Jackson Bennett's stuff,

this one has been very fun.

I think the Divine Cities trilogy is really, really essential.

Like essential in the sense of to read before?

No, not essential in the sense of to read before.

I think it is like if you enjoy fantasy novels, then you should definitely read those fantasy novels.

I'll throw one recommendation on just because we're doing a Pride series at our theater this month, and it is a reminder always to watch, but I'm a cheerleader.

You mentioned Poker Face Natasha Leone is in this movie.

It came out in 2000.

It is about a teenage lesbian who is sent by her fundamentalist parents to a conversion therapy camp, which sounds like it should be not a fun movie and super depressing and probably not hold up after 25 years.

But let me tell you, it is a delight.

RuPaul is in it and is just absolutely lovely.

Clea Duval, so many great performances in this movie.

It's like

it's a bit like a John Waters movie if you wanted it to be not quite as prickly, if you wanted it to be a little more silly and slapstick and even a little cuddly.

It's just yeah, it's like a friend.

It's like a friendlier John Waters movie.

Yeah, yeah.

It's like a John Waters if he made a sitcom in a weird way.

Like a Mayford, like if you watch a John Waters movie on a plane.

Yes.

Yes, yeah, we don't have to be ashamed or sorry.

Right, it's a cup for TNT version of a John Waters movie.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Cool.

We got anything else?

I don't think so, man.

Cool.

We did it.

Yeah, it's great.

Thank you so much for listening to our podcast.

What are we doing next week?

Oh, next week, we're going to be talking about the fucking beach, dude.

Oh, dude.

Dude, yeah, man.

Just stranding two to the beach.

I am so

excited.

You got to get pumped for that, man.

It's my time to shine.

I can't wait.

So much more.

We're going to be loving it, living it,

taking the journey together.

I will have played it.

That's going to be the Chris this week on the bestie.

Well, we got the Patreon.

We should have played the Patreon.

Oh, but Russ, that's Russ's job normally, so that's why I forgot.

I'm sorry.

But if you want to support Russ's walls,

he's going to need to rebuild them.

The Chainsaw Maniacs have really done a number on the wall.

He's been muted, but his video's on.

He's okay, but his place is like fucked up.

It's

you can find it at patreon.com forward slash the besties you get the besties battle brackets every month you also get uh two episodes the resties every month it's a great deal for only five dollars a month and we would appreciate if you checked it out yeah thank you

that was it now now we're done now we can do it you can wrap it up yeah that's gonna do it wait i have one more recommendation oh

the the episode of post games about the switch to launch i found very edifying and i feel like i learned a lot from those discussions and i feel like if you want a little bit more context in where this launch fits in the world and you want a good place to get on board with post games i would highly recommend it because i i really enjoy that episode thank you that's pretty nice of you yeah check it totally out that's going to do it for this week make sure to join us again next week for divestines because shouldn't the world's best friends pick the world's best games

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