Blue Prince is the First Must-Play Game of 2025

Hey guys, is this anything?

If you want to build a man or just go ahead now.

If you're an architecture planner, just go ahead now.

And if you want to solve a puzzle, just go ahead now.

And if you

inherit.

Draft a hole.

Find a key.

I'm the lunch.

Okay, so this is...

Draft a haul.

Find a key.

Yeah.

Get that gem.

Is that a spoiler, Russ?

No, it's not that it's a spoiler.

You've got to make the lyrics more general.

I don't think you can make song parodies about games that haven't been culturally like

they haven't clicked yet, except for about 30 people on the internet.

Do you think that's the problem for our audience?

You don't think it's that they're like,

gym blossoms, not familiar.

They're definitely familiar with the gym blossom.

Was that?

I'm pretty sure that was spend.

So you're right.

I'm sorry.

You could say I was a little miss, can't be wrong, but I was wrong.

Little Mister must be wrong.

Yeah.

Hey, you know what?

Getting Van Names right, it's my pocket full of kryptonite.

That even rhymed.

We're not going to do better than that.

No.

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

My name is Kriffin McIray.

I know the best game of the year.

Deal with it.

My name is Christopher Thomas Plant, and I know the best game of the week.

My name is Russ Russik.

I know the best game of the week.

Welcome to the Besties, where we're going to talk about the latest and greatest in home interactive entertainment.

It's a video game club, and just by listening, you, my friend, have become a member of our illustrious ranks.

This week, we've got a double header free.

We're going to be talking about the Nintendo Switch 2 and Blue Prince.

Russ,

you know about the Nintendo Switch 2.

We don't need to clarify that.

Plant.

What's the deal with Blue Prince?

Blue Prince?

Is it a puzzle game?

Is it an adventure game?

Is it the greatest game of all time?

I don't know.

We'll talk about it.

I don't know.

We'll talk about it.

Figure it out.

We'll have an answer for you right after this.

When you live a busy summer boy lifestyle like myself, racing between appointments, waxing, surf competitions, it can be hard to find time to eat a delicious meal at your home.

Good news for me and cool people like me.

Factor is here to help with exactly that.

With tasty chef-prepped meals that are delivered right to your door, they've got over 65 weekly meals to choose from.

There's so many ways to fit a real meal in wherever the day takes you.

No matter what kind of food you prefer, whatever dietary restrictions you may be on, Factor has absolutely got you.

I've got nothing but really, really good stuff from them.

Scratching any number of itches that I may have had.

I mean, culinary itches, it can't help me with like a rash or something to my knowledge, but food-wise, like they're absolutely crushing it.

Eat smart at factormeals.com slash besties50off and use code besties50off to get 50% off your first box.

Plus free breakfast for one year.

That's code besties50off at factormeals.com for 50% off your first box.

Plus free breakfast for one year.

Get delicious ready-to-eat meals delivered with Factor.

Offer only valid for new Factor customers with code and qualifying auto-renewing subscription purchase.

You know, it's funny, guys.

Last week, we recorded our sort of like last-minute Switch 2 things.

And because of the timing, we didn't quite know what was going on with the Switch 2 yet.

Hilariously, even if we had recorded our Switch 2 reactions after the Switch 2 announcement, but not the next day, we still would have been like out of date.

Like, we still would have been out of the league.

It's a moment-to-moment fluid changing situation.

Things are moving quickly.

We still can't pre-order the Switch 2.

We still don't know when it's actually coming out in the United States and Canada.

Poor Canada got literally.

Sorry, by the way, Canada.

Our president's so bad that you can't pre-order the Switch.

I think they said it's still planned for the June 5th release.

Does that rise?

But we don't know when it comes down.

That assumes you believe anything.

Yeah.

I mean, I think that that is the...

I mean, okay.

Let's not get in the waves.

Let's talk about the big picture.

We're coming in late enough on the switch 2 conversation that I feel like we can maybe vault over some of the brass tack stuff.

I would like to know, I did not get to hear your guys's like

first blush.

I'd like to hear the fun before we get into the mechanics of, you know, political, geopolitical currency manipulation, like let's uh let's talk first about would you would you you touched it, right?

I mean just me.

I'm the only one who touched it.

I'm looking at you.

You're the one

above my in my it's very clear that I'm pointing at you in my touch.

I don't know how much on a scale of one to fun.

How fun is Mario Kart?

Point

nine fun

out of

living full fun.

One is it's a binary system.

I don't know why you're being so difficult.

Look,

I think we should start with the basics: is what is it like to pick this thing up?

Because guess what?

Every single game requires that you at least pick this thing up.

Great.

Sure.

And

got it.

I kind of wish it was better to pick this thing up.

Oh, really?

It's better than the Switch 1.

I will say that.

Okay, can we stop?

Let's stop right there real quick.

Do you want to talk about your first reactions to the Switch 1?

Because you were pretty notoriously, epically wrong about the Switch 1 in a way that was like catastrophic.

Was I predicting?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You were very down on the Switch 1 after your first time with it.

You were like, I don't really get it.

I don't know what they're doing here.

And it became a massive success.

So I feel like your track record in here is like really bad.

listeners.

If you go back and clip out Russ being wrong, I'm not sure if I can do it.

Yeah, please,

please do.

Uh,

I just, it's been eight years, and yeah, I just kind of wish that like someone was looking at the ergonomics and being like, we could do a little better.

You're talking about the lack of sort of like hand holds.

Yeah, it's just not

still not great to hold.

It's better than the switch one, mostly because of the size, like because it's taller, so your hands can actually like grip the whole thing.

But how is this?

How is this screen?

I've heard good things.

The screen seems fine.

It's bigger.

I don't know.

It was nice.

I'm not like a screen junkie, if you will.

It was bigger.

You know, the ergonomics was what jumped out at me initially.

I don't think it's bad.

I think if you have a switch one and you're fine with it, this will be fine too.

It just like it bums me out that I will definitely need, if I want to play in handheld mode for any length of time, I will definitely need a grip for sure.

Yeah.

Is it, is it, okay, I'm wondering about that, right?

Because I've been messing around with a lot of these like portable computers, like the, like, you know, the, your,

your ROGs.

Your ROGs, your Odins, whatever.

A lot of those ergonomics are coming in aftermarket, right?

Because people are getting like the solutions that they want for them, right?

So if you're traveling a lot with it or you're just going to use it docked in a lot of ways, like maybe that's, maybe you don't want the extra bulk of like good ergonomics.

You know what I'm saying?

Like, I'm wondering if like on a default, there's those really good Joy-Cons where it's like you can put those on and it's like more of that, but you're

trading

the flexibility.

I think that's Nintendo.

I didn't get this quote, but I think that's Nintendo's rationale is they want, they needed to design something that could work.

not only in handheld mode, not only something that you could dock, but also something that you could take the Joy-Cons off and use them sideways and not have them be a total disaster for your hands.

And if something had like a grip on the back of it, you're not going to hold it sideways.

Now, the number of times I actually use the Joy-Cons sideways for the Switch 1 is about three.

They do feel better sideways now, I think because the larger size and they made the L and R buttons easier to press, but it's still like not great.

But it is

that feature a shocking amount for Switch 1 when I'm traveling and Henry wants to play like a multiplayer game on Switch.

And that is one of the big selling points of Switch 2 is actually being able to use those

as controllers and have it not be like almost, almost unusual.

Yeah, you you could like actually press the trigger buttons on the new switch too, which is a real improvement.

Yeah, I get the argument, and it is tough to make something that is going to work for all people.

It's just a little bit of a like, I don't know, man.

They have a pro controller.

I guess that's your solution.

And then these third-party companies that are hopefully not based in China, if they stick around, will make grips and things like that.

So, yeah.

Now, they weren't letting you sort of like

if there was a big new feature, and I don't know that they would necessarily agree with this, it's probably the mouse, the game chat.

Whoa, okay.

So I was thinking the new button, the game chat, like that they have prioritized chat to a point where it is a button that you press to like access it.

And you couldn't mess with that, right?

That wasn't like on display.

I know.

I mean, you could, well, the button was there.

It wouldn't really do anything.

And how was it?

It was great.

It was a great button.

Was it more of a nubbin?

It kills me because you do need a subscription service to use the button.

Amazing.

If you press the button and you're not subscribed to Nintendo Switch Online, it just pulls up an ad for how great Nintendo Switch Online is.

That's great.

I love that show, man.

I love it when the

Pluto button on my remote does that too.

I love it.

It's like, hey, don't you want to subscribe to Pluto?

We got an old button for you.

No, thanks.

Yeah.

So I don't know.

I personally don't view Game Chat as like a major feature because it's kind of table stakes at this point uh but okay wait see this is what i want to talk about i want to talk about this because i feel like

if you are to me i kind of got what they're going for and i don't or at least i think i do and i don't know if it will work but i think that this is at least the idea since we have like our kids have gotten old enough to play games uh like griffin and son henry and my daughter charlie have played games like pretty sporadically, right?

And Charlie will play with her friends.

It's a communal thing, right?

Like we've seen Minecraft do that, roblox stuff.

I think that it, if you, if I as a parent knew that like we could put them in the Nintendo ecosystem and I knew that the kids, and it's really easy to talk with your friends, and it's recognizing that like the game is something you're doing while you're doing something else, but it's like actually

making that easy to a point where I could link up Henry and Charlie time and they could chat to each other without Griffin and I setting up, which right now what it is, is us like calling each other on Facebook Messenger or something, whatever app

is open at that time.

Then we'll connect them that way.

And then they're playing on, sometimes it's like three or four devices before you get this all like going.

So I think that if...

I think that they're trying to get ahead of a market that is playing games in maybe like a different way than we did when they tried game chat before.

I think that's true.

I think

a few problems come up along the way.

One is a big if of will a Nintendo internet thing just naturally work?

Or will your kids be running to you screaming because it's not working and they don't know how to find it.

Is this a zero or a capital O in my friend code?

I think there's that.

I think there's also the reality of

kids are younger and younger in knowing how to use Discord.

And things that seem really complicated to us or to someone designing this system don't realize that if you actually just hand a kid an iPhone at like nine or ten,

they're going to know how to do a fair amount of this stuff already without any help or support.

I think there's like the question of do you want your kid being able to do that?

But like, right, there are a lot of kids.

I mean, no.

Yeah.

Yes.

I mean, like, yeah, no, not at all.

Right.

But I think when you get like, when you narrow this down to like, okay, parents who are going to be protective in that way, who also are familiar with the Nintendo brand, who also have kids who are not just going to circumnavigate it, but are smart enough to use it.

Like, it's a really small window of people versus people like adults who are just going to use Discord.

And let me add this as well.

On PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Xbox platforms, the idea of game chat already exists and doesn't require a subscription service.

You can chat with your friends, play any game you want.

You don't have to be in the same game together and just have a chat going, a party chat going, and it doesn't require subscription.

You won't get it.

Is that true?

You don't need PS Inter Xbox Live?

Correct.

Guys, I feel like you're kind of like

you've missed the metaphorical value of having it in the device.

Like, if we're talking about what can be done, you have always been able to pick up your phone and call your friends while you're watching.

It's in the device of the PlayStation.

It's in the device of the Xbox.

Like, it's built in.

Yeah, Fresh is saying, saying, like, Game Chat just not new.

The surface level, where it is surfaced is different, right?

Like,

you're right.

Like, that is a thing that has been in there, right?

It is very different from I push a button, I'm talking to my friends.

That's what I'm saying: is the way it has been prioritized metaphorically by attaching this

button and part of the press conference to it.

Like, I feel like if they're looking at how popular the Switch has been, right?

And they're like,

the one thing that we wish we could change, we're going to keep yeah almost everything the same the one thing that we wish we could do better no that's a fair point i don't know i i still don't i'm still not saying it's gonna work

like i'm not so stupid

with you in that sense that it's just such a big if of the software if this ends up being the problem for me right now is it looks like just copy paste of discord and if it truly is something where you hit that button and there is a group of 15 friends that are your go-to friends and when you hit that button you're thrown into a room where you will always be talking to them.

It's literally as simple as hit the button and you're there.

And I mean, you'll need to add people.

It's not going to like automatically.

I don't know.

I'm saying what is my best version of it, which is it should be as painless as possible.

You want to be in a game chat with 15 friends?

That's your best version of it.

That does.

What I'm saying is I don't want it to be...

If this truly is as natural as any other Nintendo thing, it shouldn't be like Discord.

It should be like,

hey, I can exactly

describing.

Like, I hit that button and I am here with my family and we're having a nice time.

I would love to hear from what Russ thought was the big transformative feature of the mouse.

Did you actually get to play anything in mouse mode?

I played two things in mouse mode.

I played Metroid, which I know you don't really care about, and I played Welcome Park.

Nice.

No, no, no.

I agree with Russ.

Metroid's Metroid.

Tell me about this Welcome Park.

I I didn't know Metroid, maybe I wasn't paying close enough attention, was a

mouse-equipped game.

It is exactly Metroid Prime 4.

Yeah, yeah, Metroid Prime 4 is extremely mouse-equipped, such that at any given time, you could either use mouse mode or like hold two or two Joy-Cons like normally and switch back and forth.

So the second the game notices that you're using mouse mode, it'll just switch to mouse aiming,

which is pretty wild from an

accuracy standpoint.

Fucking fantastic.

like incredible totally responsive incredibly accurate um

from a

pressing button standpoint i'm a little concerned because if you think about a joy-con and you put a joy-con on its side try pressing the face buttons in that scenario

oh yeah it's a problem uh they're a moment they're like activating like the ball does this does this feel good are you okay let me ask you this okay if you're playing something in mouse mode right if you're playing with a computer like the like the number one thing you would be doing is clicking like a left mouse button with an index finger right yes what's the like main action like what's the shoot the shoot is is that bumper button it's the does that feel good like that feels good it might be the only sorry i keep doing this i know i see you the listener can't see it it's just you do look like the fucking crip keeper every time yeah i'm gonna stop doing it

the maybe the one button that feels good to press while in mouse mode is that bumper so at least they nailed that part of it.

But I do have concerns.

Yeah, for the other buttons that might be required,

it just doesn't feel super natural because it just like the thinness of it and where your hand rests, it's just a little tricky to like hit any other button on there.

That being said, like...

You know, it didn't feel, I didn't feel like I was constantly needing to reach those buttons when I was playing Metroid Prime 4.

And with Welcome Park, which is obviously the much more anticipated game, for people that don't know, it's basically like a tech demo for all the features in the Switch 2.

Those games were like, move a UFO to dodge the asteroids.

And so you're really

pressing any buttons.

You were just like, Tell me why.

Tell me why are they charging for it?

Why are they charging for it?

I have no fucking idea.

You are a bit.

Hey, Russ, can I say something to you right now?

You are on real ass.

like television networks that are talking about business about video games they bring you on as the person who's like, explain this shit to us.

So, Russ, I'm asking you as a friend.

I don't know if I have to pay your rent.

Do you want to do it?

Do you want the honest answer?

Yeah.

Yeah.

The honest answer is I spent, I had an interview with Bill Trennan, who's a VP at Nintendo, and I spent about seven minutes asking him very direct questions about the overall pricing of the Switch, the pricing of the games, so on and so forth.

And I kept asking and he kept seeming a little uncomfortable about it until PR told me to stop.

That's

what happened.

Great, great, great.

So I probably would have gotten there, but okay, did it feel like we've been doing this a while.

Did this feel like maybe a decision that NOJ made that in a way is like, I don't know why.

Quite honestly, I think practically every decision when it comes to like major decisions come from NOJ.

Oh, yeah, baby.

I don't think In OA is calling in.

In a way, obviously, Nintendo of America is making big marketing decisions for the region.

Sure.

But broadly speaking, if it's like a global, like, hey, are we charging for this or not?

It's going to come from the head office.

And yeah.

Look, I'll be honest, what I played of Nintendo Bark, pretty fucking fun.

It looks great.

It's actually legit fun.

And there's like,

there's a mini game where you are moving the mouse across a line and you are trying to guess where the strongest vibration is.

And so it's like this weird.

That's got big one-two switch energy, man.

It does feel like one-two switch.

I mean, if there's like a a party game element right now, I only played it in single-player, but if there's like a multiplayer element, a lot of these minigames would be like legit fun in multiplayer.

So

I was hoping, I was holding out hope for a Nintendo land too.

Oh, yeah.

So the answer is because they can.

Is that

the answer is because you'll feel like, I don't know.

It just feels

like for someone

else to not charge for an or include with the Nintendo account.

You know, it's like you're trying to incentivize that anyway.

In the way the goodwill that Sony got from Astro's Playroom being like a thing, it's just totally vexing that they needed that extra $10 for whatever they're going to sell.

Like, it's crazy.

It's so weird.

It's so weird.

Anyway, can we talk about the other games you play?

Did you get to play Donkey Kong Bonanza?

Can I touch on?

Can we talk about the mouse for a second?

Yeah, sure.

Oh, yeah.

Because we didn't really, I, I,

I wanted to float this thought because I've been thinking a lot about, I've been messing around with a lot of like the, the,

that, this form factor, right?

With the handheld gaming form factor.

And

I think that power-wise and like the usability-wise, it will be outpaced pretty quickly by a lot of these devices.

They're coming at a really rapid pace and they don't have the same standards that Nintendo has to live up to.

But

the ability to play mouse-based games in a portable form factor could be like really, really major.

In a way that we're like, it makes it the device.

Because like there's a, that's the one thing that's holding me back is if I'm thinking about like a game for travel or whatever

It's it's just it can't be something like I'm not gonna put something on my Steam Deck that's like feels better as a mouse and keyboard Yeah, or even like a mouse-based right thing things like

Even stuff like like Bellatro or things like that where it feel nicer to play I mean civ is kind of like the obvious

civ that would but this is my concern I agree with you juice I think that that would be so rad there's a base there's a big chunk of mouse based PC games that I think that they could release on Switch

that would look great and haven't been done to death on consoles yet.

I agree with that.

I also, however, know Nintendo's track record with kind of like specialty hardware stuff and their ability to court third-party publishers.

into supporting that.

And the fact is, is it is not a mouse and keyboard-based system.

It is maybe a mouse-based system.

So they are going to require some sort of hybridization of like with the left Joy-Con plugged in, you can do some stuff, and then with the mouse, you do the mouse stuff.

And that's going to require like no short amount of.

So I'm actually, Griff.

I'm actually thinking less mouse and key.

I'm actually not talking about mouse and keyboard games.

Cause like, by and large, a mouse and keyboard game, I think, is better served by dual thumbsticks, right?

I'm talking about

clarify what you just said because a mouse and keyboard game isn't necessarily better with dual thumbsticks.

Okay.

If it has to be portable in a portable handheld gaming console, then what I'm saying is, there's, I do not find myself wishing that I had a mouse and keyboard to control first person or third person a shooter, right?

I don't want that.

But I do wish I had, like, for deck building games, for example, is that it's the massive one, right?

Like, it would just feel better.

I hate poking cards and dragging it with my finger.

I feel shit.

I think to address what Griffin just said about the third-party support, my impression is

it seems relatively, who fucking, I'm not a game developer, quite honestly, but it seems relatively easy

to just program a mouse, especially if your game is already designed for it, a mouse functionality such that I agree that you might not see a ton of first, after a couple of years, a ton of first-party games coming out.

I think you will see a ton of third-party games coming out that will support the mouse if you want to use it and if it makes sense.

Interesting.

I just don't think it's that hard to implement.

Like, that's my read on it.

I could be dead wrong, but

I think you will see it.

I would love to hear about some of the other games you played, specifically the new Donkey Kong game, if it was hands-on at this event.

I thought you wanted to hear about Dragon Drive.

No, Donkey Kong bonanza.

Like, Dragon Drive, obviously, a wild one

to include.

Dragon Drive hit like at peak Nintendo ass energy during that direct when it was like, oh, they got a new, oh, they did a new arms.

It's like, oh, okay, Nintendo's did a ditto arms again.

That's fun.

That's cool.

Yeah, no, I didn't actually play Dragon Drive.

I watched someone fight it.

Dragon Drive looks, and according to Chelsea,

yeah, it's not great.

But that's, but

I have learned firsthand that trying to shoot a basketball using Joy-Con motion controls is a non-starter.

It does not feel amazing.

Yeah.

We'll talk about Donkey Kong because I played that and quite enjoyed it so donkey kong bonanza and it's spelled like banana but bonanza um

when i first saw the trailer and i'm curious if you guys got the same perspective didn't you just think like oh this is just like mario odyssey with donkey kong i i thought it was odyssey until i saw that ape yeah but even when you saw the ape didn't you think like okay they just slotted in yes um i figured it was due indestructibility as a big feature was what i i thought it was it seemed like kind of red faction was the impression i got but but that might have been wishful thinking on my part no no no you were spot on justin you you you got it uh it is

uh it feels like a hulk game is what it feels like you are like oh

kind of let loose in these environments and donkey kong's eyes are like that of a like a true obsessive he needs this whatever the material is it's like gold banana material okay he needs it he's obsessed yeah it's his cocaine he's obsessed with it and you go around like fucking Hulk or like the Tasmanian devil, just fucking wrecking everything in reach.

Every single button except for one.

There's a jump button, and then every button and every trigger triggers some sort of fuck shit up action.

That's how it's for.

He's slamming the ground or punching a wall or throwing a rock or ripping rocks out of the wall.

Everything is destructive.

Like everything is focused on destruction.

I wouldn't say everything's destructible.

It's not like you can, you know, level the entire level.

Take the thing to the studs.

But I was, of what I played, kind of blown away by how much of the environment was destructible.

And it was all happening very, very quickly, such that it was clear this was not something that could have happened on the Switch hardware, like much more involved than anything I would have seen.

I'm glad to hear that.

Very excited.

I think both of my kids are going to like this game a lot.

Why the fuck is it coming out a month after the launch?

Obviously, like games, there's no telling like how hard it is to get them across the finish line, but you would think like a month

from being a launcher.

My interpretation is I think it's done.

I think the reason they're doing that is because it's going to be a pretty light year from a first-party standpoint, and they want to spread things around.

Okay.

That's my interpretation.

Because people, they expect people when they buy the console, they're going to buy Mario Kart.

That's the system seller for them.

And Mario Kart's going to take them a chunk of time.

And then by the time Mario Kart is starting to wane or whatever, July hits, they buy

Donkey.

It's also different quarters.

Also different quarters.

I'm not sure.

You know, you're in business boy over here.

We need you on the BBC.

Get you up on there.

Yep.

Yeah.

I can lie.

Did you play Mario Kart World?

I did play Mario Kart World.

Fun is fun.

Super fun.

All good.

It's nice.

I'm not a.

Did you get to fuck around with like the 7.9 out of 1?

Go back and tell us about that.

Yeah, what's that 0.1?

What more can Mario do for you?

So

I'm not a huge Mario Kart fan.

I like those games, but I'm not like, oh, I'm obsessed and I'm going to play it all in my spare time.

I think most people are like that.

I think it's a great party game, but not necessarily a game you would spend a lot of time in outside of that.

It does feel like they're trying to flesh out the like,

for lack of a better term, single-player experience with that open world.

Like you can between

matches.

And if I had to guess, they didn't show this, but I have to guess.

I think there's a dedicated like open world exploration mode in so it's some I think it'll be something like a Forza Horizon, if you will, where you're in this environment and you're unlocking characters and costumes and doing like side fun side challenges and things like that.

To add to the depth of like why this is an $80 game, it feels like, apart from the fact that they can sell it at $80 and it'll sell, I think they will make it pretty meaty.

What I played, there was like 34 playable characters.

You could play as the fucking coin purse from Super Mario Land.

Like,

there's some deep-cut shit in there.

That's cool.

Oh, yeah, sure.

They're just showing in the demo.

So it feels very robust.

The actual driving, to me, being like a kind of a layman, felt very, very similar to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

The maps were much, much bigger.

Like the tracks felt like much more wide-ranging.

And because it's all open world, you can have a track that's like, you start in the snowy Alps and you go down into the valley and then suddenly you're underground because you're like mixing and matching biomes within the same track.

Right.

So that's pretty fucking cool.

It's really interesting thinking about

this in terms of like the Mario Kart announcement seemed very surprising, right?

But I mean, it wasn't.

How was it surprising?

Well, no, no, no, no, not the Mario Kart announcement.

To me, the open world.

It's a big departure, right?

It's interesting when you look at Bowser's Fury.

Yeah.

Because I feel like Bowser's Fury.

in hindsight was really even more of a test case than we knew.

I think it was really Nintendo saying like, how can we, let's like practice this?

Like, let's see, because if you look at it, it didn't make a bunch of sense in their strategy strategy, but it really feels more like a test case now in hindsight.

Where, with, with Zelda too, I would argue Zelda probably started it.

It's like, hey, we made this an open world.

How do we shift these other franchises to that?

And like, this seems like the next, the next.

And I think they see the playtimes of those games.

They see like Zelda playtimes and they're like, oh, how do we port this over?

And the more playtime someone's spending in it, like, I could easily see them launching like fucking car passes and things like that in mario-kart world where people are continuing to spend money in this thing a year or two in advance after this right you know i think that's the incentive it would be i feel like it would i don't know they're they're missing i think the value they could have captured by making it more of a social thing by lowering the price a lot.

Like this is not going to be, if you want something where you're going to be like, it's more of like a social space hangout thing, I think it's got to be a lot cheaper than 80 bucks.

So they, so you're right, but they are working on it.

We didn't see it and it wasn't even talked about, but they have been working on an MMO, a Nintendo-made MMO for years.

There was like a play test of it a couple years ago.

I think that is their solution for solving that problem.

Who knows?

That might be like free to play, and then there's like in-app, whatever, currency stuff.

So I think that might be their solution to that.

How much credit do you think I should get for these cool new video games?

A lot, I think.

Yeah, probably.

That's what I thought.

Because, like,

I think we all remember five years ago, I wrote a letter to Miyamoto that said, Yeah, give me Forza Horizon, Red Faction, Gorilla, Nintendo, now.

Yeah.

And I was out of ink, so I did cut the letters.

And you wrote some pretty threatening shit.

Yeah, I wasn't too.

That part I'll have to bring up.

But it did lose the needle.

Right.

Right.

And it seems like it worked.

Yeah.

The only weird thing about the Switch I would say that I could think of is that we have no idea how much it'll cost.

Yeah, that's it.

That's actually the

sort of big thing is it could cost anywhere.

I'll tell you this,

but it's not going to cost less than $350.

$450.

I don't, well, it's certainly not going to cost less than $450.

Yeah.

Griffin.

I don't think it's going to cost less than that for sure.

Yeah.

I mean, as of right now, the tariffs on Vietnam, where Nintendo produces their consoles, are 46%, which is a lot.

I'd imagine.

As a business reporter, would you say more than 40, less than 50, Russ, to give people sort of a base?

46% generally considered more than 40, but less than 50, correct?

Yeah.

If you crunch the numbers on 95%,

crunching the numbers on that, I'm getting 657

on my calculations,

which is rough.

That's a lot.

That's quite bad.

That is that travel back and forth across some different things.

It's it even more complicated pretty quickly.

I don't think that's possible.

Honestly, the original chart was generated by AI.

I don't see how this could be any less complicated.

We're in PlayStation 3 launch territory, gang, and this thing does not have cell-powered processing.

You're going to have to get a second job, but the joke is we don't have any other jobs either.

It's just kind of bad.

Right, right.

Is the gimmick.

I think the bad thing is, I think 450 was the ceiling, and they knew that.

And now they're like, well, shit.

Well, they were charging 500 for the bundle but right yeah right um

russ was there anything else from the event that you wanted to touch on uh i mentioned this in resties but every room that we walked into they would have people clapping at us which is a very bizarre experience when they're just there to play video games

so weird i want to play i want to mention i played uh breath of the wild and tears of the kingdom in 60 fps

and that feels fucking gorgeous is it the so this is is that

was that the switch to enhanced edition or was that just the regular edition of those games running at a faster frame rate?

I don't know

I don't think I think you need in order to get the frame rate increase I think you need to pay for it or you need to be subscribed to Nintendo Switch Online.

I don't think it'll automatically update.

There are titles that will automatically update for free.

Mario Odyssey being one of them will update

some aspects of the game for free.

But I think with Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, if you want to play at 60 FPS, 4K, whatever resolution it is,

you will need to pay for the upgrade, which I think.

But some of the, God, that's so fucking confusing, man, because like the thing that Henry took away from this most is that Kirby and the Forgotten Land is getting new content.

It is with $20 paid.

But right, right.

So it is with that, which is like fine.

Like, I'm not, I'm accustomed to paying for DLC to a certain extent.

It's a little weird that they're doing it for just like resolution and performance.

Right.

That feels bad.

Their justification, whether this is whatever, is that it now has Zelda notes in the app, which

allows you to, I guess there's new voiceover stuff from Zelda within the app, only in the app, not in the game.

But it does have a feature that I was pretty enticed by.

And I think it'll allow you to actually find all of the Koroks without ruining your life.

Because I think you can use the app to like help you guide to the Ku-Rocks.

And it just talks to you, right?

And it talks to you in Zelda's voice.

It talks to you, but it recommends great books.

Yeah.

that's how it all gets you out of it

when you're talking to your your your colleagues to what extent was the absence of a big new mario felt because uh i feel like there was a a sense i think i was kind of waiting for it the whole time you know to to drop the big new mario and it wasn't there how was that vibe i think

Donkey Kong Bonanza was obviously their like solution to that problem.

Sure.

Donkey Kong Bonanza, I think, gets you like 70% of the way to like kind of scratching that itch, but obviously isn't the full-on, like, holy shit.

That's why the launch date thing is worse with Donkey Kong.

It's like, you're Donkey Kong, dude.

You need to be there day one.

We would wait for Mario, but like, you're Donkey Kong.

If that's the launch game, like, you got to be there at launch.

Yeah.

Odyssey wasn't a launch game, though, right?

Odyssey.

Odyssey was not.

It was a couple months after.

Yeah, Zelda was a very good job.

This is a very long time since Odyssey.

Like, it's been a very long time.

Oh, God.

Believe me, I know.

They're definitely do.

I don't think this is going to happen this year, but I I definitely think there is more.

There's probably one more

first-party game that's going to come out from Nintendo that they haven't announced yet.

Air Riders is scheduled for this year.

Kirby Air Riders.

I don't personally care about Kirby Air Riders.

I know Plant's excited.

I'm in.

But I think that's the, right now that's the only like...

Q4 holiday title that they've announced, like a 2025 title they've announced.

I think there must be one more.

I don't think it's going to be the 3D Mario.

I think that's probably a next year thing, if I had to guess.

But at this point, like Nintendo's been announcing and then releasing games in a fucking three-month span.

You look at Echoes of Wisdom, which was announced in like June and it was out in September.

So I was speaking of shocked when they announced the release date for the Switch 2 being June 5th.

Oh, really?

Which is...

Shocked.

I thought for sure it was going to be a holiday.

Oh, yeah.

No.

A lot of the rumors were pointing to about that timing.

Oh, like June.

Yeah.

What's up, Justin?

You seem torn.

Um,

Natalie and Brugley over here.

Yeah.

So we can't pre-order it.

Correct.

I don't think they're going to have any problems selling them.

Yeah, they'll be fine.

That's going to be fine.

I think what will be

what I think is going to be really probably will end up being the biggest story of the Switch 2 is this weird pricing situation, right?

Where they have...

They announced a price, and now we don't really know, like,

obviously these tariffs have not been formally like we, we don't know if they're going to be rolled back, they could change it any minute.

But if Nintendo starts doing pre-orders, they're kind of locked into a price.

Like, there's a couple of different realities where, like, Nintendo charges a lot more because they have to, right?

They're saying, like, look, you see this, we have to do it.

Yeah.

Um, and then the situation changes, and then it's like, well, we've already normalized this price.

Like, do we cut it back to react?

I don't know.

I think they hold off just based on the fact that, like, this is

imagine it's, you know,

10 years ago, any other administration, the idea, like, when a game company announces the price and release date of their console, that shit is etched into tablets taken down from the high heavens from God himself, right?

And now it's a situation where it's like, well, if it is, if it stays this way, like, we can't do it for 450, but nothing else about the tariff situation has stayed that way for longer than like 48 hours.

So it's hard to like, it's hard to imagine them kind of like committing to that knowing that the sort of volatility of this this sort of insane economic I think they will frame it as

some sort of to account for the global trade what up

the price is $600 just for argument's sake price is $600

but make it very clear that it's the reason the price is $600 is because of this thing and if things change on that front seemingly in a permanent way the price will normalize to but they can't do pre-orders correct until that right like if they start pre-orders at 600 and then the tariffs get rolled back those people that paid 600 have paid 600 there's no rectify best buy is not going to be like yeah let me get you back your 150 dog no problem i i i think the thing is exactly what griffin said which is this is a month and a half away from when they're going after almost two months from when the thing actually releases This is changing on a 24 to 48 hour basis.

There is no world in which the tariffs as they exist today are the same on May 1st.

That's not to say that they couldn't be worse or better.

I don't know.

But they will be 100% different.

That's for sure.

There's already signs of that being the case.

I also think that Nintendo is smart enough to not have to say the thing that you said, Fresh, of, hey, here's why we raised the price.

If they have to raise the price, it will be after car manufacturers are raising the cost of their cars by by 10K, 20K, right?

So I think that they would hold off on raising that price until the subtext becomes text across the entire economy.

I would also like to remind listeners that we do record this show in advance of when it comes out.

Not a joke, not a joke.

Like

when this thing comes out, who the fuck knows where we're at?

This has been a very long discussion, and we could talk for longer, but I think we do need to wrap it up.

And we have a hell of a game to talk about.

Yeah, no kidding.

Speaking of, Russ, do you want to address the game after the break?

Yeah, sure.

So you guys are going to be talking about a game called Blue Prince,

which is a first-person, kind of missed-style puzzle game with a lot of secrets in it.

I was pretty excited about this game.

It's been described to me as like the new animal whale, if you will.

And I actually started playing and found that I really couldn't play with a lot of confidence because the game is incredibly color sensitive.

There are a lot of colors, even more colors as you go deeper, is my understanding.

And

it was creating some problems because a lot of the puzzles in the game are very subtle.

And if I don't know when colors are important for a puzzle, it really messes with me.

There was a moment where I made the total wrong decision because I was like, I for sure have green rooms in my house.

I did not have green rooms in my house.

That's like a very basic level.

So a couple of things I want to mention.

One, if you go into settings, there's a settings option, and in there is accessibility.

And they do mention colorblind mode in there, and it's grayed out.

And they say I have a note underneath it saying, Hey, we know how important this is.

We are working on it.

But as of right now, it is not in the game.

I don't know how long it's going to be until it is in the game.

But I wanted to make that clear, A, for colorblind people like me, obviously, you, I think, will have a lot of difficulty playing this.

And B,

given the fact that it is such like a secret heavy game i don't have a lot to contribute and i also don't necessarily want to like totally blow up the experience for myself not that these guys are going to give spoilers but without having really any context of like where the game goes it didn't feel like it made a lot of sense for me to participate so i actively said i didn't want to participate in the b segment of the show where they're talking about the game because i really have only like scratched the very very surface hey rich to what extent does steam and other digital platforms like surface

that kind of information?

Oh, like whether it's supported.

Like, is there a.

I've never really looked for it.

Is there like a warning on games?

Yeah, that's like a system-wide warning.

Obviously, there is like a couple things.

One, Steam supports, you know, returns if you only play a game for under two hours, you can just return it.

But I've never seen like system-wide games.

Obviously, for people that it's like a real concern, certainly do your research before playing any game.

But yeah, yeah,

you know, we've talked a little bit about accessibility in the past.

This is not the first time I've experienced it.

It is one of the first times in a long time where it was like so integral to the game that I really couldn't participate.

But again, I would reiterate that it's very clear to me that the developers realize how integral it is

and seem to be working on it.

And I don't know how long it'll be, but that's sort of like a long preface to say I will not be in the second half of this episode.

While Russ is away, the Us Will Play.

You can say the next episode is better.

It's called Nuita, and you gotta play it.

All right, let's take a break and we'll be back right after this.

Bye, Russ.

You know, people don't tell you this about coffee, but even if it seems like it's just a few bucks a day, those few bucks really add up.

Eventually you're paying six bucks a day every day for a delicious Cold Brew at your local cafe.

And then all of a sudden, you get a knock on the door and they won't let you in anymore because you haven't paid for two months because you're out of money there's a solution for you you can get your delicious cold brew a little bit more affordably but also no less deliciously with trade trade sources beans from over 50 top roasters across the us and for you cold brew lovers out there they've teamed with up to 15 roasters to create a special collection made just for cold brew i tried this myself a delicious ground blend i'm not a big cold brew person because usually it's such a hassle but this was easy and fun and it made it so smooth and delicious.

You know, normally I love coffee and sweeteners in my coffee, but I drank this just as is because it was so smooth and delicious.

And it made me have the energy to face the day, which is no small feat.

Right now, trade is offering 50% off of a one-month trial at drinktrade.com/slash besties.

That's drinktrade.com/slash besties to get 50% off one month.

Again, that's drinktrade.com/slash besties.

I feel like this could get out of control very quickly.

And I feel like,

one, we make a promise up front that we're not going to spoil anything.

It's impossible.

Go ahead.

It's impossible to spoil something?

It's impossible to not spoil something.

Just by talking about it, you're going to contextualize the game in a way you're giving things away already.

I already know five puzzles just from listening to you talking.

Okay.

So Russ is still with us in spirit, which I can.

Sorry, yes.

Okay.

Okay.

He's out.

Okay.

You've purged him out.

Blue Prince is

one of the most exciting, best, like most consuming games I've maybe ever played.

Good.

And I've been so stoked to talk about it, even though I think it's going to be kind of a challenge because there's not really a game that has existed like it before.

It does have a lot of sort of familiar components, though.

So maybe we start kind of there.

I want to try something because I think that

I think you could best understand Blue Prince like a single player board game, right?

Okay.

Imagine Blue Prince like a single player board game and your board for the game is a 9x5 grid.

And you always start the game at the bottom center position of it.

And then you draw three cards.

And each one of the cards is a room.

After you've drafted, you can choose which room to play.

Some rooms have a cost of resources that you've accumulated, hopefully, in other rooms.

Yes.

But the important thing is that the orientation of these rooms and the assemblage of these rooms is randomly generated every time by you as you explore through the house.

You're building this house.

as you draft your way through it.

A touchstone that may be helpful for some folks is Betrayal at House on the Hill.

If you have played that board game where you are placing the tiles down and building the house as you go, that is very much the system here.

Right.

There are

a truly dizzying array of interlocked puzzles, both mechanical and sort of like narrative in nature, that are

all interlocked, but in order to like fully maximize their abilities, a lot of times you're having to

synergize the rooms that you're pulling.

So you may need one room because of the effect that it can have on another to progress your

overall understanding.

And really,

that's the currency, right?

Like that's the number one currency, I think, is understanding.

I'll layer one thing on top of that, which is it is a series of more challenging games to actually reach your goal.

So your goal is to find the 46th room in a 45-room estate.

right

in theory at the beginning you draft these rooms and you want to draw a line from the room that you start in to an antechamber on the other side of the house.

So in theory, you could do that by just picking rooms that make that line from point A to point B.

But added a layer, you have a limited number of steps that you can do, and you have some locked doors.

So now you have to start using rooms that do not actually give you as clear a pass and may actually terminate pass, but those rooms have the jewels or they have keys.

So in theory, now the game's good.

But as you get further, you reach rooms where the keys don't actually work.

Okay, well, now you need to find a computer terminal.

And the power computer terminal, and suddenly it just keeps cascading on top of this where you are now, you know, those are the first two or three layers.

You're 30 layers deep of, oh, but if I need to do that, I have to do this.

And it's a bit of a give a mouse a cookie puzzle game.

Now, to...

To add another thing.

Yeah.

And hopefully you're still hanging with this, right?

This idea of every time you play the game, every in-game day, you are starting over and building a new house with this randomized draft every time, trying to solve the puzzles.

You have to take fucking notes.

You have to take screenshots non-stop.

You will have to take screenshots non-stop.

You will be mad at yourself.

You'll be so pissed.

So you don't know when the next time you'll see this puzzle again is, and you kind of got to have it like stored.

Don't take screenshots non-stop.

We're kidding about that.

Cause a lot of the stuff that you're going to encounter early on, you'll encounter a lot over and over again.

Don't take screenshots there and don't write it down because I, the first five days, I was on a plane for like four hours, just writing down every little thing where I'm like, oh, well, there's a picture of a pawn.

And I wonder if I'm a pawn in the greater scheme of things.

Yeah.

So the game, for the most part, is how do I draft these rooms in a way where I can solve, start to figure out what these puzzles are and start to solve them.

Right.

And it's hard.

When you start the game out, it's almost impossible to actually guarantee that you can make progress in any given run trying to make these two goals interlock however it is also a roguelite and there are a lot of ways where you become more powerful where you have more options and that power curve, I think, is more elegant and more satisfying than like any like RPG, like my strength went up two points because you've been trying to get these two rooms to draft together for fucking 10 runs and it's killing you.

And now you, but you just found this upgrade that is permanent that is going to facilitate that.

And now you're making progress, which then leads to more puzzles and more upgrades and more.

Like it is, it is in a sense the dark souls of thinking.

That's very good.

Rather than learning the enemies that you need to fight and getting really good at fighting those enemies because you fight them over and over again.

What it really is, is you're learning the vocabulary of this house and you're learning the way this house thinks and the way this house communicates with you.

And that is what you are getting.

That is how you start to feel confident navigating this house because you know it so well because you've been in the rooms over and over again.

So when you realize you've walked past the fucking thing that you've needed to look at 30 fucking times,

then you really can savor it.

That's,

Justin, that's very elegant because the learning is the hook.

I have bounced off other games that have been the Animal Wells that Fresh mentioned earlier or even

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes.

And what I really appreciate about this game is it is a puzzle game, but the vast majority of the times, it is actually telling you how to solve its own puzzles.

Yes.

If you look around for the answer,

it is happy to just literally hand it to you.

But you have to keep your eyes open and you have to be curious.

That's the thing, because it's not going to hand it to you in the right order, guaranteed.

You will find a hint that makes no fucking sense to you and won't until you find this room you've never seen before 30 hours into the game.

And you're like, wait a second, that has to do with this.

And hopefully you've taken a screenshot.

What's great about that, and if you know this, especially going in, is, yeah, you can try to solve some of the puzzles, and there are some that you can solve without those hints.

There are a lot you can't.

But often in puzzle games, I get to a point where I'm stuck on a puzzle and I bash my head against it and I just don't feel smart enough to solve it.

And then I just walk away from the game.

Where here, I get to a puzzle and I can trust that, hey, I don't know the answer to this.

I should just keep moving, just keep going and doing other things because eventually I will find an answer for this.

I really think that there is a, a there is a

the learning curve of this game, I would say is steep but short to get to like a point where you're enjoying it.

Yeah, I think that right at the first,

when you first start going, and this is not a knock against the game, but it's sort of like a heads up or the way that I wish I was more comfortable experiencing games at first.

It's much more about just having your eyes open and looking around.

Yeah.

And

that's it.

I I mean, it's really like, and waiting for stuff to come to you.

The business is a lot of fun.

You're going to build some shit houses, which is my favorite experience was when Juice and I were on tour and you would just out of nowhere just be like, great fucking house, great shitty, because each room has a different number of entrances.

It's so easy to lock yourself into a situation where you have drafted five roobes and then there's no more exits.

And you're like, well, that's my run for the day.

Okay, goodbye.

But even then, you learn something about those

thing, right?

Like there were times where I built a house and I built a path that was maybe a room away from the antechamber on the other side and got a dead end.

But I had an entire path on the left side of the estate that I could go kind of rebuild.

And I knew I wasn't going to be able to make it far enough to get to the antechamber, but I went and just built, just to build, just to see what I could get.

And I ended up discovering something that blew my mind.

That completely reframed the game for me.

And did that have anything to do with in that run getting to the goal?

No.

But that was, honestly, looking back, that was when the game really clicked for me.

Because then I started to realize it truly is not about just reaching the goal.

And it is about solving its greater mysteries.

What I feel like, if I had to, to put a knock on Blueprints, if I had to like complain about something,

it's that I feel, and this is more of a warning because once I tell you, it won't be a problem for you, but I feel like Blue Prince makes it feel like

that you are playing against the passage of time or that you have a time limit or that like time must not be wasted in a way that is not accurate.

Like you are seeing signage for like, there's a sale on this certain day.

And it feels like I started thinking like, well, I got to be ready for that.

Like I got to be ready for that day.

I got to be ready for that sale.

I got to have my stuff lined up.

I got to be ready.

But like it, that doesn't matter.

Like, it doesn't matter.

And it doesn't.

And the passage of days was a lot more frustrating for me when I would have like dead end days like that because I, I thought

the way that days are like counting very

definitively makes you feel like there's a time pressure and it's not.

And I wish I had realized that earlier.

There is, there is not a time pressure.

I think that that is, I think the reason that that is there, and I agree with you, I've also had that same feeling of frustration of like, well, if I don't get ready for this sale that is on one side for some reason,

I'm going to be fucked.

I think the reason it does that is because this game's big trick is you think you understand the scale of it, and then something happens and you realize that you don't.

And there is not, I'll say definitively, there is not a game that has ever been made and released that pulls that off as many times sequentially as Blue Prince has done in the

like 120 hours that I have spent with it so far,

it just

do you think

one of my favorite concepts in games that I love to think about is the

create the hand of the creator, right?

Yeah, that brings us joy to feel the creator in the work because they have put themselves into it and you can feel them guiding you.

Like when you are having a good time in a video game, a lot of times you can feel that creator present.

They've thought about this.

And a lot of times when you're not having fun, it's because you can feel like the creator of the game didn't really think about this experience, like what this would feel like, right?

Because they didn't put their...

There's a sense in this game where

when you find something, sometimes it's so hidden that you can almost feel a press.

Like you can feel someone speaking to you.

Like it's like that concrete, like, yo, you found it.

Okay, good.

Cause I've been waiting for you to find it.

And also

30 other things that have just kind of been floating around in your head have just like simultaneously clicked.

And the pleasure of it was such, and Griffin saw this a couple of times.

I would set the video game down and just let the pleasure of that like wash over me because it is so perfectly orchestrated and satisfying.

And it keeps happening over and over and over and over and over again.

And every time it happens, you think, well, that's that's the bottom.

And it's like, wait, it is on some Animal Welsh shit, which I do appreciate.

I think that it is easier to solve the thing, like Chris said, like it's easier to solve this stuff than it is in Animal Well because you will constantly, it, it shows its hand a lot if you are paying attention and you're looking around.

But it is also on some animal well shit where like, I know the three of us are on different

strata of

the game.

Yeah.

And so like talking about the game is,

I think, pretty difficult.

I think you will have a hard time chatting about this game with your friends until you have guaranteed that you all have reached a certain like checkpoint together.

I will say this, though.

Speaking of Animal Well

and this, I bounced off Animal Well soon before I will bounce off this.

This is a much more deliberate and orchestrated and laid out.

There's a lot here, but I think it's more fairly laid out and more obviously signposted than in Animal Well, which it clicks more for me.

It's just a personal.

Oops, I wanted to share a detail from a call I had with the creator of this game.

because you were talking about how it really feels like they are whispering to you.

And this will make a lot more sense as more people play the game.

But everything in the game, again, can feel like a clue.

So I'm on the call with him, right?

And behind him is

Tonda Ross.

Yes, that's the name pronunciation.

I believe so, or Tonda, but I, yes.

So I'm on a call with him.

And he lives in LA, and he used to work in the film industry.

And behind him is a poster for Nightmare Alley, the original film from 1947 right and i'm like oh

love that movie and i think that's really interesting because nightmare alley is about a confidence man like somebody who's kind of like creating illusions and tricking people and he's like oh yeah yeah yeah i hadn't thought about it but you know like everything feels like it's kind of part of the game and then there were two other movie posters next to him and i was like oh like what's up what's up with those like Those are old movies, but I don't know if they have anything in common with Nightmare Alley.

And he's like, yeah, no, I don't like those movies as much.

I really like Nightmare alley but i don't really like those as much it's like why why do you have them on your wall and he's like oh they were all released in 1947 and my address is 1947.

so like that's what you're doing

this is my dude

i immediately just like vibrated of holy moly you're incredible like that you are this game it's it There's like nine different brilliant things about this game.

The puzzles themselves are brilliant.

The microcosmic puzzles, the bigger puzzles.

The writing is fantastic.

The story, once you start to unpack it, is quite gripping.

But it is the way that like you have this one half of your brain that is thinking about this board game drafting deck building sort of mechanic.

And that is keeping some plates spinning in your brain.

And then you are also trying to figure out all these puzzles and how they all interact.

And the

way that your brain works as it is trying to do these these two things at once keeps you from getting frustrated and locked in on either thing, right?

Because in Animal Well, you're trying to solve puzzles and you aren't making any progress, you're stuck, right?

But in Blue Prince, you have like this other game that is also going on.

And if you keep playing that one, it's going to move you along the path on the other hand.

There's a meta layer, there's a couple different layers you can see how it that it works.

When I had started talking about

the

comparing this this to Ann Loywell.

Yes.

The thing that I wanted to say, and I really, I'm never this cat, but like

you really, really, really shouldn't try to look up any help with this game

because

thinking about it, and I wonder if this is part of the idea, it would be almost impossible.

to extract information that you need without

ruining

many other things for yourself.

And I swear to you, I am the first person to go to guides if I feel like something

is unfair.

Or I mean, I have no qualms about it whatsoever, but I really,

in this one scenario, am telling you that you will ruin this experience for yourself.

It is fair.

It's there.

It's not.

It's very deliberate.

It's there.

Small, small checks.

Don't try to look.

I agree with you.

to the credits.

And then maybe after that, chat with friends.

That's why I think it does get to a point where you're going to want to chat.

I'm saying a hundred.

That's a huge, I very much agree.

I'm putting that in a separate bucket.

I think talking to people about stuff, it's a lot easier for a friend to be like, okay, Griffin has had some very like

weird, cautious, like, what do you know that I know?

Like,

help me try to figure out where you're at.

So that's a lot easier, I think, than Googling.

Yes.

It's, it is my, it's my game of the year so handily

right now.

And I, uh,

I don't know what's on the horizon that could unseed it because it has truly had some of the most memorable moments, most satisfying solutions.

I can't stop thinking about it.

I've been having the dreams where I'm rotating floor plans in my slumbers.

It has really, really, really

got its hooks in me.

And I think it is a truly once-in-a-generation like having a lot of have you left the credits rolling what's that have you left the credits rolling no i left the credits i left it on when i left to go start

uh i left it the menu and when i went back in the credits were rolling

and i started watching the credits the things that are being highlighted in the credits and watching like the different shapes in the credits and none of it was anything but

you've lost your mind

I don't know.

It's, it's, you know, I think listening to this, if this is your shit, if it sounds like your shit, it's going to fuck you up, man.

It's really, really going to get you pretty good.

And I am excited for more people to play it.

And even if it's not your shit, try it.

I believe there's a demo.

Give it a shot.

I don't think the demo is available anymore.

I think it was up in Next Fast Wild.

I strongly encourage people to check it out.

No matter what, this is the game that feels like an exception to the, even if you're not into the genre, because this is so not my thing normally.

This is so normally what I bounce off of.

And give it a try.

And the rule is, if you're getting frustrated, if you feel like it's impossible, literally just play one more day.

There were so many times where I was like, I need a guide.

There's no way I could figure this out.

I may have audibly text said out loud, fuck this game.

I'm never playing this again.

This fucking sucks.

And then I did play another day.

I was like, okay, that's much better.

Yeah, it's easier.

Now I understand.

This house is, it was just a bad house.

Just had a bad house last time.

No big deal.

It is also, I think, fair warning, just based on the critical reception to the game.

Like, this is going to be the game that people are talking about a lot this year.

And so there is a certain element of like, if being a part of those conversations is important to you, which is why it is so

disappointing and such a huge fucking bummer that our dear friend Russ Freshdick, who's, this is absolutely his shit, like, can't play the game right now.

I think we will do a spoiler episode at some point this year.

I would like to talk like a full, how does this game work?

Let's crack it open.

Yeah.

That would be cool.

We would have to separate it into chapters based on what strati you are.

Sounds very,

I'm going to make an executive decision.

to skip emails.

Yes, I think.

And we're going to go straight to honorable mentions.

Have you guys played or watched anything else that you've enjoyed?

Well, friend, this past weekend, I took my wife and kids to see the Minecraft movie.

Ooh, yeah.

I will say this up front is that

the teenagers have discovered irony, and that is a challenge.

I didn't realize what was happening.

Packed.

Packed fucking house when we went to see it on a Saturday at 2 p.m.

Been making a lot of money.

Very much.

Yeah, sure.

Unsurprising.

And there were a lot of teens and preteens sitting directly in front of us, talking the entire film, cutting up, joking.

And also then at certain points, it seemed like everyone in the theater except for us would quote lines from the movie that had just come out two days ago.

So it's trailer lines.

That's what the gimmick is that they are.

This is a TikTok thing.

People are getting thrown out of theater.

I know this now, but I did not know this when we went to see the movie.

And the first time it happened, I looked at Rachel and was like, What the fuck is going on?

So it is very much that same thing that happened when

Minions.

Oh, gosh, was it Minions?

Yeah, Minions, where kids would come dressed up in their Sunday best suits and tie.

When the movie let out and the lights came on, and all these kids stood up, sure enough, they were all dressed in suit and tie.

So I'm assuming this was the third or fourth time that they had seen this film.

That nice.

So, like, that gave it sort of a rocky horror energy that I was not expecting.

I had a great fucking time at this flick, though, man.

It couldn't be anything else.

Like, it is so...

Like, imagine how you would make a Minecraft movie and make it actually, like, extremely Minecraft and not like the 1993 Super Mario Brothers, where it's like lightly inspired.

Like, imagine how you would do that.

And then think about how sort of like threadbare that would actually be.

And then how you would solve for that is just put Jack Black in it.

Like,

have Jared Hess direct it.

And have Jared Hess direct it and have Jack Black delivered lines in really, really, really silly ways.

And that is enough.

That's enough to hold the film together.

Henry loved it.

He's a big Minecraft player.

Like, there's a lot in there for kids like that.

And

it's like,

it is not.

The characters aren't the most fleshed out and the plot isn't anything at all.

But if you just kind of like vibe with it, I had a pretty good time watching the Minecraft.

I'm happy that Jared Hess made Napoleon Dynamite a cultural phenomenon and then decades later made Minecraft in a weird way also a like it's going to be a midnight movie I think for years the SpongeBob movie has become one in ways that like blows my mind when we show it at our theater in California

sellouts like I mean people get so hyped for it and I weirdly think that we will see this in like a decade somehow be a cult movie which is bizarre Yeah.

It's also funny that like if you want to make money for your project, you got to get Jack Black.

I feel like my, our generation of people is like one of the few ones who are like, we found that one.

He was good, right?

We kept him around.

He's good.

Right.

Nailed it.

We did good with Jack Black.

I finished the third season and I guess it's supposed to be the final season.

I guess.

I don't know.

That could be hearsay.

You never know with these stuff.

But White Lotus.

The

It's just a really, really well written and acted and performed TV show.

And the third season, which was, like I said, a sensibly wraps up of the show, I kind of hope it does.

It's very much,

it makes it very clear what the show is about and what the show has been trying to do.

And I think it sticks the landing in a really, really remarkable way.

And this is, each season has been about something else.

I think the first season was very much focused on income inequality and sort of like an upstairs, downstairs thing.

The second season was very much about sex and the power that has over people.

And this is

a season about death.

Like, so like that we've been hitting the big ones, right?

Money, sex, and death.

But the way that this is, it's really about

the way people bring meaning to their lives and the power of like spirituality and religion and the place that that has

in a modern world.

And it's a really thoughtful, nuanced take on that.

Parker Posey is doing some incredible work.

Jason Isaacs is doing some incredible work.

They feel like people that I have known in my life

in the way they sound, not necessarily in their socioeconomic standing, but it's wonderful.

It's really wonderfully done.

Walton Goggins is sort of like TB's Jack Black at this point.

Like if you want to make money on something, you got to get Goggins.

It's great.

It's really well done.

It's a fantastic show.

And

it has a clear point of view It's really well executed and Mike White has been on survivor so and he did really really well So what more do you need one quick thing one long thing quick thing Ann Shirley is now on crunchyroll It is an adaptation of Anne of Green Gables Everybody should watch it because it's beautiful and you can watch it with your family longer thing Children of time.

Hoops.

Whoa.

Have you read it?

Do you know about this?

It seems like so extremely your shit.

Okay.

So it's a book.

Well, really, it's the first in a trilogy by Adrian Tchaikovsky, and it is a set in the future.

Their

Earth is absolute garbage, and scientists want to make sure that humans can survive and that humanity thrives in its own way.

And they create, I believe it's called the exaltation

plan where they are going out and seeding planets.

And the idea is, hey, we have this like arc full of monkeys.

We're going to shoot it into this planet that is somewhat Earth-like.

And we're also going to fire a virus into that planet that makes creatures evolve.

ultra ultra rapidly.

So in the span of like 50 generations, monkeys will evolve into humans.

And once they get to a point where they can like communicate with the solar system, it'll ping our satellite and we will know, hey, we've created effectively a new group of humans, a new Earth.

Goes terribly wrong.

Monkeys get blown up.

This all happens very early.

But that virus still gets shot onto the seed planet.

And instead, spiders become the dominant life form.

And it is an entire sci-fi universe about what would happen if...

spiders evolved at the pace that humans had and like how would society work if it was spiders instead of people which sounds at first on its face silly until you realize it is basically kind of a perfect metaphor for what if the internet was sentient, because spiders can communicate via web and it is like all about

extrapolating that out to its like furthest extent.

It is unbelievably thoughtful and creative and smart and like takes its premise seriously without being burdensome.

And I am blown away by it.

There are two more of them that are about other animals.

I believe there's one about ravens or crows that came out recently that is kind of more of a metaphor for ai but the series is

so far awesome it had been recommended to me forever i put it off forever and i am so glad i have started it and again that's called children of time

uh that sounds sick i love alien spider like spiders that's like absolutely my stuff um

hey what do we want to do next week that's a really great hey that's just that's me and you hoops it's just

a boys.

Oh, that's right.

Yes, Russ and I will be absent next week, but Chris and Justin are talking about a game I desperately wish I could be a part of.

I am so excited.

We are talking about Promise Mascot Agency, which is the new game

studio that did Bestie's favorite Paradise Killer.

And this game looks like Yakuza, but with like local mascots.

I don't know.

Amazing.

It looks incredible.

Who wants to talk about the Patreon?

Russ isn't here.

That's normally his thing.

I'll say thanks to the following members for joining the Besties Patreon and supporting this show.

Stacy, Matt, Adam, Sue.

That's some pretty straight over the plate.

Love that.

Thanks, Russ.

Thanks, Russ, for that.

You can join at patreon.com/slash the besties, listen to the Resties episodes, listen to our monthly bracket bonus episodes, and support our show

because you all are the reason that we are able to make it.

And yeah, patreon.com slash the besties.

Help us out.

That is going to do it for us for this week on the besties.

Be sure to join us again next time on the besties because shouldn't the world's best friends make the world's best games?

Besties.