Hello, and welcome to side Quest.

This is our weekly video game show here at geek Verse.

I'm your host, Delmilsnight with me the Biker Kirkland Patzer.

How are you doing today, my friend?

I am fantastic at the end of a long weekend.

Got some nice R and R and uh yeah, ten days to Japan countdowns on It's It's crazy hell yeah.

Yeah.

We have a fun episode here.

We're gonna talk about the games we've been playing, of course, as we always do.

We're gonna be talking about a nice Halloween tiny topic here, talking about scary moments and non scary games, which I'm really glad you kind of sent this along my desk because this is a really fun kind of thought experiment through think through.

And then we'll also talk a little bit of a sports sports video games soundtracks that are memorable to us, So kind of a nice millage of strange topics here should be a good one.

Kirkle, The very first thing I want to do here is, I don't know if you remember, it was probably around a year ago I was telling you about Metal Slug tact Tactics.

Yeah, and is that the one that was like one plus two HD remake or is that something else?

I think I'm thinking of Advanced Wars.

You're thinking of Advanced warsoot camp from the Camp, Yes, yes, remember that.

But yeah, Metal Slug.

We were talking about Metal Slug and I was telling you that, like, I have a distant nostalgia for Metal Slug, but I don't know why.

And then you brought up like a flash game or two, and I forget what the name of that flash game was, but I realized it came up recently on a podcast with Taylor.

When I went through me and Taylor, I went through his like entire history, his full game in history, and we were talking about flash games for a bit and he brought up Helly Attack two and I realized that is the game that I was thinking of when it comes to Metal Slug tactics.

So you go Helly Attack too, and see if you also played that one, because that one I was like when I saw him, like, oh, yes, this is absolutely played as a kid.

Yeah, you and.

Taylor all have that shared memory.

But yeah, that is the game that I was nostalgic for for Metal Slug because it just kind of rips off the metal Slug aesthetic.

Even though I guess.

I never played a metal slug as a kid, So I had to share that with you because I thought it was so funny that through this random conversation with Taylor he dug that one out.

He also dug out Bowman too.

I don't know if you remember, uh I remember that game.

Yeah, so that was a really fun episode of Anyone.

I mean that was a few weeks go now, definitely worth a listen.

But the flash game sequence was was a very fun part of that discussion.

So, yeah, shows a Helly attack too, A true a classic of our time.

Oh I just seen that that like aesthetic just takes me back.

I think the one I was thinking of is Commando or.

Is yeah Commando two.

There was a couple of different ones that you had mentioned, and I was just trying to find the episode.

I don't know what the title that episode Wasn't we talked about that, so I couldn't find it in a quick search.

Oh it was Commando, Yeah, Commando too, mini clip and it was on like my my my history for searches, so I must have searched that up on purple Link.

Yeah.

Yeah, so I had to share that with you.

But for sharing that, yes, of course anytime games have been playing anything new on your playlist here from this last week here, Kirk, you know, but six days ago, so not tons of time.

Not tons of time, but uh you know, within that time, I had a sick day, so I was home all day, which you know enables a lot of free time.

And one game I picked up which I had heard of before, but it wasn't until we were talking about a different title from these these crews which I can't evenmember with it with the new games called but this one's called Downhill Bike Ride Lonely Mountains Downhill.

There you go.

That's the snowboard one.

This one is the bike Yeah, the biking one.

I'm playing the biking one on the place.

Yeah there's no riders.

Yeah, Lonely Mountain Downhill.

Yeah, whatever it is.

I finally I finally jumped into it, and uh, man it is.

It is a really cool, unique game.

I really really appreciate the aesthetic and uh reminds me like not really because of the like the art style or anything, but like in a way, like the Trials, like those types of games.

It just it scratches that three D Trials, Yeah, three D Trials and man, like really difficult.

Actually, like I feel like it's it's bigger to entry.

It's pretty simple to just get through the like the level or or whatever, get through the certain obstacles.

But it's not until like you start to try and get the unlocks and like beat the the times that you're just like redoing these runs and like you're just flying down these mountains and because of it, like it's three D, like like you have to go around these obstacles and I'm just like flying down these corners smacking a rock and then it just ruins my my certain run.

But it feels so flimsy in that game, you do feel very flimsy.

But like man if if you actually like chain together like a couple quick little like clean corners or maybe like a nice jump that just that you land perfectly and you just like carry that momentum, it's so satisfying.

So I was having lots of fun.

I only played like a couple hours, but just going through I think I went through like three levels, but I would just kept like redoing them as I was going through and just like seeing some of the challenges where like let's say I finished the first run in like three minutes or something, and then you know, the next one's like two and a half, and I'm like, Okay, I could probably do that, you know if I if I clean up some of my transitions here and there, maybe if I like find a little shortcut, like I'll be able to get it down.

And then but like as it's going down, I'm just realizing that, like you can actually cut those times in like half if you like know the right areas to go to and just yeah, like certain gaps that you can perform that it seems like you're just gonna like crash every time, but if you land on like a certain rock on like the side, like you just it's it's pretty crazy, the like the skill ceiling that that that game can have.

And yeah, lots of lots of fun.

Not one that I think I want to like just grind and like master, because it just seems like it would takes so long and it'd be one of those where you get like everything done right and then you make like one mistake and I feel like I would just get uh in rage.

But really really cool game.

I really appreciate the physics aspect to it, and yeah, just really cool aesthetic and definitely.

I'm not going to race to it, but I do want to try that that snowboarding one when when when it eventually comes out, just because I'm I'm a fan of this one enough and yeah.

Yeah, it's Snowriders, didn't I think it's just skiing.

Actually I think I said snow World, but I think it's just screen.

That one didn't didn't hit for me, And maybe maybe it's a seasonal thing.

Maybe I should download it again in the winter when it's actually well, not that I get much snow in Vancouver now, but maybe that maybe the vibes will be right at that point in time.

But yeah, especially because I love that game so much, and that's one that like, you know, the Switch and even the switch too.

Not a lot of storage space on that bad boy, but that one always stays installed because like, every once in a while, I want to come back to it.

And it's triggy to come back to it because then you're like kind of like, oh, I don't remember like the shortcuts and stuff.

But I think that's such a fun part of trying to get those times down is there are so many shortcuts.

Some are obvious, some are not so obvious.

And some of them are like not even really intended.

It's like, oh, yeah, if I just do some crazy bank off this rock, I can like jump.

Over this hill.

But like mixing and matching of like okay, all I need I just need to shave off five seconds somewhere.

Do I add this shortcut or do I do these other two that are maybe a bit easier kind of lower risk, but like they don't save as much time overall, And like, yeah, going through that element of the game is really really fun.

I like that it kind of reuses the same mountains and the same maps, but like changes the direction you're going, so you're kind of encountering places you're familiar with, but now it's like recontextualized.

And then like obviously when you get into the upgrades and stuff, it gets like a super in depth.

But yeah, that game is is great because I love trials back in the day.

I haven't played one recently, so I feel like that's kind of taken over for me, and like that same niche of like the the physics biking game is like a very specific niche that I I love and also is when I played back in Mini Clip back in the day, there was a Trials all the way back then.

So yeah, I love that game.

I'm glad that you picked it up because that's kind of perfect for you.

Yeah, one hundred percent.

And I feel like the like it was because we were talking about it on a side quest like that that that snow Riders one is what put this one on my radar because I think I had seen it and I'm like, Okay, that's a video game, but not until we really talked about it and I double backed on it, and then I was just perusing through the catalog, so I was on there and yeah, gave it a shot, and I'm like, I don't know, I'm gonna keep playing it for a little while.

I like I said, I don't think I'm gonna like fully challenge complete the whole thing by any mean, because like there's some of like the challenge requirements in there.

I'm just like, I'm never gonna be able to do this, Like this is absolutely it's just insane.

But I it I played like just the right amount of it, because yeah, it's not when I wanted to just beat my head against the wall.

Just it's good to have a challenge.

But some of them are just like insane some of those later mountains and stuff.

Yeah, no, I would imagine it was funny too.

Like there was one where I was like, what, like, I'm just gonna see what crazy things like can do, Like, yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna crash and whatnot, but let's just see what I'm able to do.

And I just like fully was accelerating, like going down a hill, and I literally just got like the cleanest chain of like turns and just like narrowly avoiding these rocks.

For I just like was zooming down this like super super steep incline and just like avoiding these trees and rocks.

For I was almost just shocked that I hadn't hit anything.

Uh And then of course if I if I were to try to redo that, I'm sure I would have failed miserably.

But yeah, a lot of funny moments too that just occur in that game.

And yeah, wait, wait when you ragged all into a tree or a rock or something, it's pretty it's pretty gruesome.

There's there's some blood that just spews out of your character.

But uh yeah, lots.

Lots of fun nice that's great.

Part of me.

Another one I'll shout out which I just jumped into today, which is a very well known UH franchise, which has not one that I've really like thought I was gonna get to eventually, Like I I've only heard amazing things, but I acquired on a super good discount the legendary edition of the Mass Effect series, So I jumped into Mass Effect one for the first time in my life.

All I know about these games is the character's named Shephard.

I think there's like a blue alien lady, and then like just an alien looking dude named Rex.

Like that's all I know about this franchise.

I don't know.

I didn't know like the gameplay or I guess I knew it was an RPG with with character dialogues and whatnot, but like, I had no idea you could like customize your character.

I didn't know there was like different classes that you choose your character.

The male and female like protagonists are both like fully voiced.

And Yeah, just a really well regarded game that I finally jumped into and jumped into it today for the first time, got a couple hours into it, and man, it is just it's totally roping me in.

I'm so getting just invested with the characters already, like the certain side characters, Like right at the very first cut scene, like Seth Green is a voice of one of the characters in this and it just totally tripped me out.

And uh, there's been a couple other voices that have stood out.

I haven't like googled the cast listing, but the voice actress for the character of like the female shepherd, the female protagonist is Bastila from Knights of the Old Republic, and like right away, it just like stood out to me.

I think that's also.

A bio BioWare game, so it kind of makes I was gonna ask, I know Kotre is one for you, but yeah, I guess is this your second BioWare game or has there is there another one that you've played over the years, Yeah, dragon Age.

Dragon Age?

No, I never played dragon Age.

Maybe.

Yeah, that's cool that you like recognized that voice from because you probably haven't play Kotor in a.

While, but like not in a very long time.

Yeah.

I sometimes I get that though, We're like all here, just like a voice and I'm like, I know this from somewhere, and then to when I pull up the Google to see where it ties to.

There but yeah, no, I think this is really the first one.

I think I might have like seen a friend play Dragon Age or something along those lines, but then then Kotor of course.

But yeah no, I'm I'm totally vibing with it, and uh, hopefully I just keep going with it and get invested in this story.

It's cool too that I like, since I have the Legendary Edition, it's like Witcher where you can like carry your saves over like to the next games.

And I've heard that it's it's just a great thing to be able to start from the like the first game, and then you you get like the relationships with the characters and those like evolve like throughout the games.

And yeah, no, I've just heard the characters are fantastic and so far I'm really digging into the gameplay was like at first, it seemed like a little dated and goofy to me, but like, as I got going with it, it's actually really really fun.

I just chose like the most basic soldier class because there's like some like tech ones, and then there's like I think it's called Bionic.

It's like the superpowers of this universe.

And I was just reading like the descriptions a little bit too.

I'm like, I just need like something basic just to get in there.

I don't want to get too overwhelmed, and I'm happy with my choice.

There's been a couple additions, I guess, like the Legendary edition of the game, Like apparently before in the old style, like the classic version, you wouldn't even get max level unless you like redid the game on New Game Plus.

But apparently now in Legendary you can get to at least like all the unlocks for your character.

And then I believe also in the original classic version of the game, you couldn't have access to all the different gun types, like if you were a technician, for example, you can only use like a pistol and maybe a sniper, whereas now like you have access to all of them, which is kind of cool.

And yeah, like it's I think I think I got it on like PS four that was just like the version of the game that that it is available on, and like, I think it looks really really great.

I think they did a great job with the remake.

But yeah, I've no nostalgia for the series by any means that I'm still really really interested in this game.

That's a little bit older.

And yeah, I'm curious how much has been changed to for or like quality of life changes as well as like new upgrades and whatnot for the second and third game.

If I eventually get there, I imagine these are quite lengthy games, just because they are big RPGs.

But yeah, no, it's it's good.

Yeah, it's funny you mentioned that like a New Game Plus feature, Like that doesn't make any sense to me because it's like a game that's based on your choices.

So like if you play through you like New Game Plus, you're making different choices, then you carry over to the second game.

Like that seems wacky as heck.

So yeah, if they fixed that or made that better, that sounds good.

But that seems like it could be problematic.

Yeah, no, I don't know how that works either, like because there's also like a reputation system.

It's kind of like how in like Red Dead Redemption, you're like an outlaw or like a more honorable character, like you have an alignment in this it's called it's called like paragon and renegade.

I think.

So you kind of go down to avenues.

There's the classic like aggressive response, like where you're an asshole, and then you kind of go down the more renegade path, and I feel like I'm mostly neutral right now with with the like the responses that I'm just naturally getting.

And that's some one thing too, I'll say, is like compared to something like Fallout four, where like your characters just feel so like robotic in conversations sometimes where it's like somebody will say something and then it's literally just like aggressive response, happier response, or like neutral response, and like it's the same outcome essentially, no matter like like what you say that you're basically saying the exact same thing, Like I'm sure the NPC has the exact same reaction no matter how you actually respond.

But in this the dialogue options like come up kind of as like the other characters talking, so like you kind of have time to like think about your answer and then if you like select quick enough, like it just feels like a very fluid cut scene.

So it just seems like when you're making those dialogue decisions, like it doesn't feel like I'm I'm stopping like the flow of the natural conversation, if that makes any sense.

It just seems like the responses too, Like I think there's like five or six that you can like quickly choose from, and I don't know, it just feels a lot flowier than I'm kind of used to in those types of games where especially when a character has like a voice actor to it, I feel like that's when it can feel the most jarring because maybe if the person I'm talking to is saying something and then in my head like this is how I would respond, and then I like select the answer and they're just they just sound really weird or they or they respond differently.

Like That's usually why I tend to prefer when you have a silent protagonist character when I'm playing an RPG, whether it's something like Elder Scrolls, like, it just feels more natural or maybe not natural, but it just feels like it's I'm more immersed the to the responses.

But I've been pleasantly surprised by the actual voice actors for for the character of Shepherd, and really really impressed by the first couple hours of the game.

So that's always great because as someone that's you know, I can be deterred from a game pretty early on.

I feel like I'm I'm totally totally vibing with what's what's happened, and you're just like the world building too, Like the kind of the players that play I annoyed this universe was like based in like Earth, and like they're just going over like the uh, the mass effect technology, which is actually this it's basically their version of like Spice from Doune where that like it allows them to do space travel and stuff, and like they found it on Mars and you're twenty one forty three.

It's so yeah, it's just like I'm totally vibing with the world bilding.

I imagine it just gets pretty crazy since there's three games, because Andromeda is not in the series, right, I think that's a separate game.

I don't really know too much about.

Yeah, I don't think your choices carry over to Andromeda.

I don't.

I don't think it's a prequel, but yeah, it's kind of a separate John.

I'm sure there's a couple of characters that pop in there, but yeah, I think it has that carryover save future.

Yeah, so yeah, I reckoon a mass effect.

Yeah, that's that's a big blind spot for me for sure.

Me me and Travis were talking about because I think there's a show that's announced or something and like maybe try and line up when that show is happening to like do a retrospective work through that.

So definitely keeping the loop for that when we can all do.

Oh yeah, that'll be fun.

I'm curious what is like the structure of the game, Like, is it like, Okay, you go to this level, you fight some guys, and you come back to the base.

There's some cut scenes go to next level, or is it more like open Like I don't know what is the actual structure of the game.

Like in many ways, it reminds me of Nights of the Old Republic, where like like at the start, it's very linear, like like you you have a cut scene and you get landed on this planet and then you're just going through, like you know, to your objective in that order.

But then you get to I think it's called the Citadel, which is kind of like their hub.

So so you go there like in between missions sometimes and that's where you kind of like explore and like go talk to npcson and whatnot.

And there is a couple of different areas that are like that, but that's kind of like the main hub where you're that's like when you're in between missions, you're kind of just talking to your h like your squad mates, and then like or maybe just other NPCs and that's when you get like miscellaneous quests or side quests and stuff like that.

And there is a lot of side quests where like maybe my main mission is to talk to this person to go this location, but before I do that, I want to kind of do the like like my squads side missions to kind of progress down there their storyline like that.

So yeah, it's it.

It is open, but like it's not like a big, massive open world.

You kind of go to like this open area and then that's when you when you interact with that stuff.

But uh so yeah, yeah.

Sounds kind of like a Midnight Sun's structure in a way to me, based.

On yeah, like you choose your mission and then you go to that location.

Yeah there's side ones you can do in training and random shit.

Yeah yeah cool.

Yeah, I that's someday I'll knocked it off the list.

I think back in the day, I was just not a big sci fi guy, and that's why I like was never really that interesting.

I also like not like RPG's is a big blind spot for me in general, So I was like, Oh, I got to play this new like critically claimed RPG back when I'd see yeah Eddy three or whatever, but now I love sci fi.

It's one of my favorite genres in space setting and teams and cruise and all that kind of stuff.

So I feel like I I'm probably primed to really enjoy my time with that one.

So yeah, I'll knock it off of this sometime.

I'm excited for you to eventually get to Split Fiction also because the sci fi elements in that game are.

I've played like half of Split Fiction now.

I think I've been waiting to like finish it to bring it up, because I started when Amber was here at my house and we played through a bit, but she was only here for like a day or two, so we played through like a bunch of it, and then Jessco was here and we played through like the next couple chapters.

So next time someone's at my house could be you Kirkland play the rest of it.

So yeah, I've played like probably half of it now, and yeah, I kind of just waiting to like finish the whole thing to bring it up.

But yeah, I like that main sci fi city one that you get like early on there is a location yeah, yeah, yeah, and it's like a long, long, longer than I was expecting based on like the other what was the studio it's his light games, Like yeah, that area was like super long hours just for that one.

Yeah, level, it was pretty cool.

Oh for sure.

What was I gonna say?

Oh yeah, last thing I was gonna say is because you just talked about like how you saw the game back in the day, Back in the day, like I thought this was just like a Halo essentially, like a third person Halo game where it's just kind of like Gears of War where you just have like your protagonists, which is like in all the games, you just have this like same look in His name's like John Shepherd, which is like the most like just just vanilla name ever, and like that's literally what he is, Like he's just like a blank slate.

And then you can customize your version of the character.

You can change their first name, but their last name is always Shepherd.

Same thing if you have the female version of the character.

So yeah, it's it's big surprise going into it, but a welcome one to be sure.

Nice good sci fi connection there.

Awesome, Yeah, I'd love to hear that.

I have a couple Let's see, I have three things.

How do I want to tackle these?

Let me let me start with a couple of quick hits and then we'll come back after the break and talk to the rest of these.

So first I wanted to quickly shout this out.

I've been playing a lot of just Smash Ultimate again lately.

I think I've just been I feel like the amount of time that has passed now since Ultimate came out is probably like more than any of the length of time between any other Smash Pros games.

I think I'm like in my head now like there should be a new Smash Games soon, and it's probably not gonna be for there like two or three years or something like that, but I feel like I've had that on the mind, just thinking a lot about Smash and what the next Smash is gonna look like.

So jumping back an Ultimate and you know, there's always stuff to do.

But I finally unlocked all of the challenges in that game, which is essentially like the achievement list.

I guess you could say if there was like a trophy or like a platinum that you could get in Smash Ultimate, I think I finally did that.

There was four that I had not done for years, and so I finally went through and was like, okay, two of them are just like kind of hard challenges you just need to get like a lot of specific kills against like level nine CPUs.

I never just grinded that.

And then a couple with like the story mode of like having to find some it just there's so much shit to do in that main story mode takes forever to find that stuff, and so I think I just had to spend a half an hour or an hour just like running endlessly moving my cursor on the map try and find these battles I haven't done yet.

And so I finally did that, and yeah, complete all the challenges, so it feels like I've beat the game now finally.

I think I still have a couple of classic modes I haven't done.

You don't need to do that for the for all of the challenges in there.

But yeah, man, I just love Smash.

I'm because I had to whip that out on the stream again and play some more with you guys.

Just such an evergreen title, that one, and I think it always will because I don't think the next Smash game is gonna have all these characters again, so I think it'll be one I always come back to.

I think, Yeah, no, it's definitely my favorite Smash just in terms of the roster.

And it's just such a beautiful looking game too, like like those battles are just so cinematic, and I love just like the zoom in close shots of like DK's reaction or something, just all the Yeah, the attention to detail is fantastic and yeah, stellar, I don't e think I've played like with all of the DLC characters that have been added, Like since there's one name Hero, right, Hero from Dragon Quest?

Yeah, Hero from Dragon Quest.

I think, like what was one after that?

Or was that the later one?

Soro was the last one.

I think after Hero is like Steve from Minecraft or Kasia from tech In Maybe I'm trying to think of the order those were kind of the Bilith was like one of the in the second phase.

I think I remember Biolith for sure, and Joe was in the mix somewhere in there, right Yeah, yeah, Okay, I think, well, because I think I have played against Sora, So if that's the last one, then maybe I had the very last one added, but you could buy them piecemeal because you own that game, right or did if you just played it?

Okay, I have it.

Did you get all the deals here or did you just buy like certain characters that you.

Want to think I just have like Piranha plant, like PD Purana, that guy, and then like maybe one other one.

But I don't think I have all of them because I didn't get the game whatever.

It's called the battle pass whatever.

Yeah, the battle pass is.

It Isn't it weird that it isn't actually p D Puranha.

It's just a Parana plant.

It's just a nondescript plant, Like it's not a character who has a name and a personality.

And it was like a big villain in Brawl, like there was a big boss fight against Pete Purana, and like that's not the one they went with.

They just did Piranha Bland.

I kind of like that though, Like let's just get just a Koopa in there, you know, or something.

That's what man next one, Like give me just a hammer, bro, Like I'd be down for that, like throw some hammers right around on his shell like Striker's style.

Like.

That would be so down for that.

That's be fun.

But not before Wallwigi.

He needs to be the next Mario character.

They and Baby Wallawigi while we're at it, Just get two of them in there.

Oh yeah, the new baby wall Owigi.

That would be crazy if he's like the only baby in there.

I'd love that.

From Mario Tennis.

What the fuck is that new one called Power Smash?

I don't mean, I have no idea what that races or something like that.

Yeah, yeah, geez, that's already fleeted from the brain.

Oh, it's some fury.

It's like fury something.

Right, It's like furiosa Mad Max tail.

Yeah, Mad Max Tail.

Jesus, I can't.

I can't remember what it's called.

It's it's a bad title.

If we can't, I can't remember.

It should just be called Tennis Mario Tennis.

Just not even Mario Tennis, just Tennis.

Tennis Nintendo Presents Tennis.

Yeah, the other game.

This is a very very quick hit.

But Kirkland, did you know that a new Fire Emblom came out like three weeks ago?

Is it like the phone game or something?

Yes, there's a new mobile game, a new Fire and the mobile game which they shadow drop the day it came out, so like zero marketing put into it, super super weird.

I don't know.

I my tinfoil I put my tinfoil hat on for this one.

I feel like the investors were like, oh, you need a new app game every year, and so Nintendo's like, Okay, we'll just put this one out and we don't really care.

We're not gonna put marketing budget into it.

We're just gonna put it out.

Fire and Bloom Heroes makes a shit ton of money.

The investors will like if we put a new Fire and blomobile game that probably is riddled with micro transactions out on the market, which I feel like that's kind of I don't actually know.

I don't know.

I assume there's micro transactions.

I've only played like a couple levels and it hasn't gone to the point where it's pushing like you want to you want buy some gems over here, you want to buy some fire emblems so you can continue to play this game.

Because like I was watching randomly, I just got hit with I think it was because of the announcement for like the next Fire on them.

I just got like an itching for whatever.

So I was just watching this random YouTube video is breaking down just some lower elements for three Houses, and I think that's when it led to that game, and I assumed it had already been out for like a long time, because like the big selling point is that it has like every character right from like every single Firemal game that.

You have heroes.

I think you're thinking of heroes maybe, I think maybe that one then is that cel phone.

Getting out Finn?

Yeah, yeah, that and how I feel like it's been around since like before Three Houses even came out.

Like, Okay, that must be the one.

I think of that, So I don't know about this one, so inform me.

Yeah, well well heroes.

Heroes is fine, Like you know, it's a gotcha game.

It's you know, you got to log in every once in a while get your stuff.

But it does have like every character, and there's like fan service everywhere, like there's just you know, get your bikini version of what to get your But it actually is like fire Emblom gameplay.

You know, it's like the weapon and it's like a grid and all that.

So this one is still a grid.

It's I don't think I've said this, ye, but the game is called fire emblem shadows.

It is on a grid.

It's like a six by six grid, but you don't it's an auto battler, so you don't actually like move your your player around like strategic position.

It's on a grid.

The character moves around, moves up two opponents.

At the end of their turn, they attack if they're next to someone, and maybe there's like archers you can get later on, and then it goes to the enemy turn and it's like, you know, ten seconds for each turn or something.

They walk around, they decide where they want to move, and then they strike and then the interactive part from you is that you have like different spells you can cast, so you can like drag the heel spell onto your unit.

You can drag like a fireball spell onto this, and then kind of like that sword axe, lance, weapon wheel.

They kind of have that with magic as well.

There's like, oh yeah, like red magic beats green magic, green magic beats blue and that sort of thing.

So there's also that kind of element to it.

So that's like the basic gameplay, and I'm guessing it's kind of small.

It's like maybe there's like at most like seven or eight units on the board at any time.

Usually it seems like you always have three on your team, and I'm guessing you like pick those later on.

So for in the first early levels, it just kind of like is forcing me in to hear use these characters not characters I recognize, by the way, So I think maybe there are new ones in here, but I'm sure it will or if it doesn't already incorporate all the characters you know in love and that way you spend a lot of money to see them in bikinis.

Right.

But then the weird, the extremely weird part about this game, because all that sounds okay, fine, you know it's a grid based game, but we do out of battle the sure that sounds interesting.

The weird part about this is that it's also kind of like among Us, Like there's you're battling, you're fighting enemy units, but then one of your units on your team is an impostor and they're like a they're a trader, so they're casting spells on you.

But you have to deduce which one of them is doing that to you.

And then so at the end of a battle, assuming you win, you pick who is the impostor, and then the all you know also CPUs or maybe it'd be other human players when you get far enough, are like, oh, I think this person was the imposter.

I think this person was.

And then eventually you can obviously become the impostor as well, and then you'd be put into an online game, I guess, and you can like try and screw people over, so you have to kind of be subtle about it, of like, I don't know what the strategy is and I'm not gonna take this time figured it out.

It's a weird game.

I played it for the curiosity because hey, a new free Fire game came out.

I got to see what this is about.

It's really weird, though, But I think just because of that like Fire, the mobile game, like Heroes, throw in that really popular like social deduction element that's like all over games these days, that seems like investors will be happy we'll make this game.

So maybe I'm very cynical about this, but it just seems like a strange, strange little release for me, especially the fact that they didn't announce it at a direct, which they've had, you know, three directs in the last like three months.

They could have had an ample opportunity to show off this game in a bigger way.

But I don't think they are really that proud of it.

So I think they just kind of like kicked it out, said, you know, you're eighteen, now you gotta you gotta move you gotta move out.

You know, just good luck out there, kid kind of thing.

So, I don't know, weird, very very weird.

Yeah, definitely not one I'm gonna be seeking out.

That's crazy because I I do recognize, like seeing this thing foreshadows.

I think part of me thought that was like the new one, like the new big one that they that they announced.

Fortune's Weave, which is another name thank you forgetting too, just like Mario.

Yeah, yeah, but uh that's cool.

Hey maybe someone's a joining it and you know what, good for them.

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Okay, we are back.

So one more game that I had to shout out here, well kind of kind of two in one here.

So now that it is officially October, Halloween, spooky season, all that kind of thing, I've queued up a few downloaded a bunch of horror games, jumping in different ones.

The first one I jumped into was Resident Evil zero, So there's there's two.

I have Resident Evil zero and the original Resident Evil like the remastered versions of them, and Resident Evil six all downloaded, and I didn't know which one I was going to jump into, but for whatever reason, I jumped into zero.

And I've played through a couple the first couple levels of it.

But man, I think this kind of happened recently.

I know you you jumped in and played some Dino Crisis, but then it was like, man, this is hard to like play this game, like the you know, the set camera angles, the tank controls, the oldness of the game, and even though this is like a remastered version of Residevil zero, it still has those same things, and I wish I could get into those games, but I just can't.

I just don't like the set camera angles, I don't like the tank controls a whole lot.

The inventory system in this game is horrendous, Like you can carry so few things.

It just drives me absolutely nuts.

So I've played a couple levels, but I don't know if I'm gonna keep going, Like I have really enjoyed my Resident Evil Journey, but for me, it is hard to go back to some of these old ones that don't have the remastered version.

I think the coolest thing about this game is that it's Kirkland.

Did you ever play the Hazel game?

Actually maybe it's before Hayes like was created.

But Brothers a Tale of Two Sons?

Oh?

Is that where you have like two you're controlling both of them right with like the two analog sticks.

Yeah?

No, I never played it, but I knew.

I knew of it, so I thought that that was like a novel mechanic.

I thought that was new, But that's actually what this game did and did like years before Brothers came out.

I think maybe maybe not, maybe I'm lying with that, but I think that's might be true.

Or yeah, you have two characters, each one on the control stick.

You can also just swap and play as one solo and then like put them on the other one on auto if you want what you you know, you'd have to do in a lot more maybe puzzle sequences or like certain combat sequences, but if you want, you can just kind of truck through the mac check map with both of them at the same time and then whatever one is like your primary one and that's one you would like aim and shoot with.

You can't do that with both at the same time.

But yeah, like a pretty novel interesting mechanic.

Like no other Resident Evil game does that as far as I'm aware, but residin Evil games always have an element of like, oh, you have maybe multiple characters you can pick and you can do different playthroughs, or you can play through the game a second time.

And now it's different if you're playing as Clear, then if you're playing as Leon, or there's this DLC he plays ad and so I think it's cool to take them and rather than split them apart.

Now you can actually have the characters bonding because they're next to each other and they're interacting with each other, whereas normally they're always like on an ultimate timeline kind of path, so interesting for sure, It's it's just just not my cup of tea unfortunately, So I still have a download it.

I might continue to stick with it, but I did a couple levels and somewhat bounced off of it.

But what I bounced off of it too is one that I've really had on the list for the last couple of years and finally given a shot here, The Evil Within.

I've been playing through The Evil Within, which is the Tango horror game from God.

I don't know.

I think this is a three sixty era game.

It might might even be early Xbox one era.

I'm not sure exactly when it came out, but yeah, this is one I've always had on the list.

Like, I don't really know much about this series.

I just remember that Evil Within two is one that we all talked about a lot on the podcast, you know, just E three's all the Bethesda show cases.

Weld always see those traditions like damn, this game looks cool, but even more so just for the vibes and the visuals of it, not necessarily like having much of an idea of what the gameplay is, but yeah, I guess that the quick history that I didn't know but I kind of suspected while I was playing then confirmed I looked it up.

Is that Shinji mccamieh who went over.

He's the director of this He went over to tango or found a tango.

I forget what the order of it is there to make this game direct it.

He is the original director of the first Resident Evil and then he came back for Resident Evil four.

Specifically, he also created Dino Crisis, so funny going back to the doubts thing.

So obviously like kind of a super important name in the world of survival horror, and like specifickly kind of those kinds of games, the third person ones, the set camera angle sort of ones.

And yeah, so I think, what when I was playing through this game, there's a one sequence that feels like almost like a new take on like a certain level, like the first main level from Resident Evil four, where it's like a dilapidated village, you know, wooden structures.

You're going through you have to fight a bunch of guy.

The boss at the end of it is a guy with a chain saw I was chasing you, And so I was like oh, this game has to be Like I knew this guy the director had something to do with residn Eevil.

I couldn't remember exactly what is buzz what it was, but when I looked up that he did one in four and I was like, oh, yeah, this is like he's just doing the best hits almost of like Resident Evil four again, which is cool.

But yeah, I think I'm a maybe halfway through this game now, and i gotta say, I freaking love it.

It is so cool, such an interesting game, super trippy, like crazy visuals.

I feel like constantly you're just walking through a level and then you know you're you're walking through like a swampy area that's actually like a pool of blood, and then you just get sucked underwater, and then you're just teleoured to a new area and now you're just continuing on this new path and who cares where you just were and what the logic of it is.

I think it's part of it is like this insanity or like your character kind of losing it.

And I'm sure a lot there'll be a lot of reveals later on in the story.

Right now, I don't know what the heck is going on.

I just know that there was a weird tech at a hospital.

I was a cop.

I was sent there to check it out, and then I've been just been going on this wild ride ever since.

I was in this dilapidated village castle area, I was in some insane asylums Outlast style, going through like bloody sewers.

It just goes like all over the place, And I think that totally works for a game where the narrative is something about, you know, the evil within.

Even that name itself is kind of implying something about I don't know, some dark side of yourself or like some insanity something like that.

And there's a lot of brain imagery in here too, so I think they're definitely hitting it over the head of like, yeah, your character, you know, he's seeing things, these human things that not that might not necessarily be there.

So really enjoying that part of it.

I think the other thing too, is like Resident Evil as a series, a lot of it especially feels very action movie, you know, feels very film like, very cinematography focused, all that kind of stuff.

You know, obviously there's like the gameplay, but then like specifically the cut scenes and like the set pieces and this game is very much that.

Like it even defaults to have letterboxing for the screen, which I turned off all was immediately because I'm like, I got a big TV and I want to see the whole thing, you know, I don't want to lose you know, forty percent of my screen or whatever.

And then there's even like I can't tell if it is like a film grain kind of overlay or if it's just like a three sixty er game and it looks kind of old and Jagi, especially on like a bigger TV.

But either way, like the combination of that, and like, this game has a ton of big cut scenes the opening of the game, there's not much gameplay for the first like half an hour.

There's a lot of like big cut scenes, big set pieces, things exploding, driving chase scenes, like all sorts of crazy stuff happening before you really get into the gameplay rhythm of it all.

So yeah, really enjoying that part of it.

And then I think, you know, gameplay wise, it feels very similar to Resident Evil.

You know, it's it's there's three third person action combat very much like you have very limited most you gotta be really precise with your bullets or deciding is it even worth it to shoot this enemy?

Should I just run past this one?

That kind of stuff.

But I think there's like a better or more interesting focus on like stealth gameplay, and as a big fan of stealth things, I'm really enjoying it.

Like the first big village sequence you go through, there's like two or three different separate zones.

You can kind of sneak around behind him and he's get the free stab kill on them, you know, try and not get caught.

But the enemies see you through like a window, and then they'll just run up and smash through the window and they're ta down, which is great because I'm like, oh, I'm in a building.

There's they're not gonna be able to see me.

But then I stand up and they see me through the window and then just like chase me down weapons style, just like smashing through it.

Yeah, it's not too too terrifying yet, I would say, but there are certainly, like you know, there's some invisible enemies.

There are really jump scares.

I think that's why it's not you know, shocked me too much so far.

But definitely, like man, the AMMO is always just above zero, like it always like these cuts, these set pieces, I should say, really feel like perfectly tailored, Like the balance is right there where I'm always just using my last grenade, my last shotgun shell, I've ran out of stuff, and then i can load up before the next one.

So uh yeah, this game's really really great.

I'm really enjoying it.

Do you find like like you're you're always at you know, one shotgun shell to empty, like just cause well you already said that you're not really like just melting clips into people, like you are being strategic, but like, is that something where like you find this is the mechanics, So therefore I'm like gonna hold onto everything, Like are you being very strategy in that sense?

Or is it just the way the game is naturally playing out?

It just it's kind of working out, Like do you have to think about that a lot, like that element of a balancing it, because I'm sure that just also adds to the scary element of the game because we are so limited big time.

I mean, I think so far there's really good flavors of like that village sequence, there was a ton of opportunity for stealth, and so I could go around, I can get the free stealth kills and that way, I'm not using any AMMO.

And so when I when I did get to the point where I either got caught or like the Boss, you have to do a big fight with him.

You can't just stealth kill a big out of the chainsaw, Like Okay, I had enough AMMO, like barely, just enough to get through that.

And I don't know if I was gunning down everyone, I don't think I would have had enough for the Boss, So I don't even know what I would have done.

I guess i'd just have to die, restart the checkpoint and like try again, and then other sequences, like you know, a big part of it is like every shot counts, but also like the tight corridors, I'm missing shots, and man, when I miss a shot, it feels horrendous because like I know how much that really means.

So yeah, it really is like frantic, and some of these areas are really claustrophobic, and so it feels like perfect.

And I think if you really run around the arenas, you'll find like a couple pieces of AMMO, And usually I find those like after the battle's done.

I just don't have time to like search every cover, like while I'm mid battle, right, so it's like, Okay, maybe I can reload after but where it came to worse, maybe I could have found some extra AMMO somewhere.

But yeah, I'm definitely like, okay, I'm I out of pistol amma right now completely.

So I'm maybeven gonna take that off my hot key and like put on like a grenade instead in that position until I find some more of this.

And then you have the one like regenerating source potentially regenderate you have is one of your weponces a crossbow, and then you have different crossbow types, so you can get like explosive tips.

You can get like a harpoon shot, electric shot, that kind of thing, and you can make AMMO for that, and that AMMO is generated from dismantling traps that you find in the maps.

You're also you're also incentivized to really explore.

Oh I found a bear trap, I'm gonna take that apart hopefully instead of getting caught by it.

There's explosive traps, there's like spike traps, all sorts of these things, and when you find those and you disarm them, then you can turn that stuff into the AMMO I think only for the crossbow.

I don't know if other guns you can make AMMO for.

And there's like a shop where you can buy like upgrades for your character, but I don't think you can buy like AMMO.

There you can buy like AMMO capacity, So yeah, it feels very limited in that way.

And there isn't like a resident evil shopkeeper yet, Like there's those upgrades as I mentioned, but no one where you can buy actual AMMO from.

So I think there are some systems later on that you can on walk to like get some of those things more consistently, perhaps, But yeah, I'm like feeling like I'm kind of always on the ropes and some of these sequences you can't sell them, like there's just no way.

It's too narrow, too much of a corridor, and then other ones where you can.

I'm trying to be like, Okay, this is a chance where I can conserve some AMMO here.

But some of these bosses too, man, they're just tanking shots all day long.

So it's like, I guess I'm just gonna keep blasting them and try and hit, like hit them on their next new explosive bear all things like that to save AMMO.

But yeah, it's like, uh, these these boss frights are really intense so far, and yeah, that makes it freakier for sure when you're on the ropes, especially when you have to defend a guy.

I've had a couple escort missions, which, oh, this is funny when you when you mentioned, uh, you know, just like that voice actor that popped up and you kind of recognize them, And this happens for any time this freaking actor is in a game, but you're Lowenthal, the voice of like Spider Man and the Spider Man games.

He's in here as like some detective guy, and like it.

It almost it takes me out of it.

His voice is so iconic to me, especially when I'm making a scary game and I'm like just hearing Spider Man over there with like his dopey glasses on and all that.

Uh So that that was a funny character pop up in here as well, So uh yeah, I yeah, this game's really good.

Like it's really challenging, even on just like the standard difficulty.

Usually I play these horror games on like easy, Like I'm gonna try survival this time around.

We'll see how far I get.

And I think you can unlock higher difficulties once you beat the game.

But yeah, like there's a pretty extensive like RPG mechanics of the level of your character, basically things like health and AMMO.

But then like different up you can all sorts of upgrade for your weapons, each one it's broken down into.

So there's there's a lot going on here, and I'm sure there's a replayability because Resident Evil games kind of always have that, especially four, which is another game that he directed, of course.

So yeah, it's cool.

This is a studio that, like I played High Fi Rush when that came out, which is not a horror game from them, and that was a really cool game.

But you know, knowing that their roots are more in like this scary ass horror stuff, it's really cool.

So yeah, I'm really glad I'm knocking this on off off the list because it feels very distant, like a cousin of Resident Evil for many reasons.

So yeah, I really recommend The Evil Within.

I probably won't play two right now.

I'm probably just gonna play through one at the moment, save two for next year or something like that.

But yeah, this has been a good, good game so far.

Nice, that's awesome.

Yeah, That's that's one.

It's been a blind spot for me on on purpose.

I always just thought it looked terrifying.

And I remember that on the shelves actually at Target, Like that was that era when that iconic box for sure, Yeah, box art was chained, not not inviting by by any means.

And Yeah, I was talking to you about like wanting to try to get into the scary game sphere, and one one series that I think would actually be a really good point for me.

You know, resen Eva might be a little too much for me, especially when you're you're managing your your your shell shots and and all that stuff that the survivor elements that adds the scariness is the Alan Wake series.

Especially both games are on the PlayStation catalog, so I do have access to both of those, which is really cool.

And uh, like the first one they have like the remake of the remastered one on there, and I feel like that's a good middle ground where it's probably not not so intense, but there's there's moments of scariness to it.

Yeah, I mean Travis just played through that.

You should ask him if you'd recommend it for you in terms the scary factor.

And then I mean, I only make Two as a game that I think every gamer should play like.

It's just such a crazy game, so impressive, not even not even just like as a horror thing, just like it does so many crazy things, and it's one of the most gorgeous games ever, so nice.

Definitely recommend that one, but you should probably play the first one first.

It's been so long since I've played that one that it's hard for me to comment on how scary it was.

It terrified me back in the day, but I was also scared of everything then and now I've been a lot more of these things.

I don't know how much it would affect me.

I mean Two was scary as well, but it was just Two is chocked full of jump scares specifically, so it's a different kind of scare.

But it will just crazy, big face, scary face in front of you with loud music.

So it does that prepare you.

Some people's cheap, but it works.

It wakes you up, that's for sure.

You said that the you know everything would scary back then, but at least you were, if I remember correctly, you were at least doing the game properly where you had like the headphones on, didn't you.

Yeah, that probably didn't help because I was already scared in them with all the lights out.

Yeah, that didn't help.

But Evil Within I've been doing when it's later and I don't want to wake up by eight other people who live in this house.

I put the headphones on and I've been having that, and like the sound design is great.

And that's such a wet game, just drip dropping, dripping blood and walking through soggy water.

It's it's a very moist game so far, but successfully so it makes it gross.

I feel like there's just so much symbolism and like just just moisture and and it being related to death and just decay and things like that, just rotty and like stagnant water just being attributed to like just disease and awfulness.

There's something to it.

Then you have like flowing water, like a nice river, and that's like that's like, you know, life's nectar.

So it's crazy how differently to two different versions of the same the same element can can can lead to.

Yeah, I mean it's seventy percent of our planet, right, I guess it has to have some variety to it, you know.

It's true and us isn't it like seventy percent that Yeah.

We're just like the planet we live on.

Well, even with it is a scary game by all measures, but sometimes there are scary moments that happen in games that aren't scary at all.

This is something you wanted to talk about.

So what what jump started this thought for you?

What shocked you.

With this one?

I don't know what jumped out at mean to like think of this.

Maybe it's just because where it's I mean, it's October thirteenth right now, at the time of there's recording, there's spookiness in the air.

We're leading them to Halloween, and I think that's I'm just thinking about spooky stuff.

And something that's always been a fun idea is that concept of like a non horror game that has just like a really freaky part in it that I don't know, whatever it is, it just scares the bejeebers out of you.

And I quickly thought of just like a handful of ones that I feel like I've never had, like completely out of my mind, like a couple of ones all off is like those are like core memories to me that like to the point where maybe I'm just I'm it like scared me so much that it just scarred my brain and I'll just never be able to get past those certain elements where like man, at that point in time, that was probably like the scariest experience I had was playing this mission with this game.

It's like a rated E for everyone game, but just because of the environment whatever it is, it just it was so terrifying and just stuck with me.

And I feel like some of those, like I noticed a trend too, Like on my list, a lot of them have to do with a character like chasing you the player, and I feel like that is like the biggest scary thing in a game.

Is like, yeah, if you're watching a horror movie and someone's being chased, like it's scary, but like that's not you.

You know, you can always close your eyes, look away, and like the movie is still progressing.

But when you're playing a video game, like you are that person being chased, so like if you run the wrong way, you're gonna get eaten or whatever it is, So there just adds so much intensity to it.

And I mean, I'll just link right into my list to some of the ones on my list.

If you don't if you don't mind if feel me too.

The first one on my list, this is the first core memory is from the very first Harry Potter video game, The Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

There is a mission where it's, uh, you know, if you've seen the movie, it's the troll in the dungeon sequence.

Harry and Ron, you know, they go to the girl's lavoratory to to find Hermione and there's a troll in the dungeon and the video game plays a little bit differently.

You are, it's like a chase sequence, so a picture like Indiana Jones with the big like rock chasing you, big boulder chasing you, but it's it's the troll and like you're leaping up objects stuff like that.

And not only is this just like a chase scene, but it also is attached to another sequence of a mission where you actually have to like get a key and like go over like these different obstacles and like you can't be caught by the troll.

And it's just so terrifying of like the music elements to it, where it just has like that intense music when it like sees you.

Audio design is such a big part of making things scary, even in Harry Potter way back in the day.

And mind you, this is a PS one game, so like pixel pixelated looking creatures probably added just the scary level of it where it just looks even more monstrous.

But yeah, that I remember playing distinctly with Hidalgo, good old Tyler g.

He was over at my house and we were like screaming like little school children.

I mean we probably you know at that age we were sense but just so terrified like playing that game and just like one of us had the remote and the other one was just just freaking out with the big troll chasing you.

And yeah, just a core memory of mine that I'll never forget about.

And I think it just like that's such a real thing of just things chasing you, Like it's just such a freaky feeling, like whether you're a kid and your parents chasing you just to like play around, you know, like it's just just a fun, freaky element.

And yeah, Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone definitely captured that essence.

Hell yeah, no, I love what you mentioned there, just like the creepy pixelated troll because I feel like that's a big part of it for me, and maybe it's just a scared little kid.

But when you first mentioned this, like a lot of N sixty four games came to mind for me, And I think part of it is like the textures were so low reds, the polygons, you know, were limited.

You could count the polygons to the point where like you would almost like see things that weren't actually there, or you'd like imagine things, or like it made it freakier because your mind had like fill in the details whereas versus now where it's like it obviously, you know with some of these four K looking games have the scariest looking face, but like at least that's a knowable thing, like you can look at it and know exactly what it is.

But even still, you look at some of these old N sixty four games and it's like what am I even looking at?

Like I feel like there's gotta be some N sixty like Mario sixty four air Like obviously there's like the Booze Castle, which can be a little bit freaky, but I also, like I was thinking of like Donkey Kong sixty four.

I know there's a couple of areas in there, like the music's a bit creepier, like the gloomy Galley, like a little bit of a freaky area.

Things are looking weird, You're feeling like out of your depth a little bit.

But the two that are come to mind, and because these are not scary games, but these are intention scary moments.

Is Zelda Opera of Time and Majora's Mask both have like terrifying moments in them as a kid, And for me, I never beat these games as a kid.

I would just like vibe in these worlds.

I'd walk around in like the early playable areas, and I just never knew how to progress that I would just like I would just hang out.

There were chill games for me, But an Ogurat of Time, like when you're going through and with like adult link version going through like the City of High Rule and there's like the zombies there and it's just like a completely dead, isolated town.

No one's there anymore.

Like that shit is terrifying, Like the music that plays there is horrifying, and that almost has like a I don't know if this was intentional, but I feel like it has a resident evil.

It has like a set camera angle for that, like it's not third person in those moments, it's like a weird zoomed out version where you're seeing the talent from like a distance almost, and so you're like kind of walking through it.

So it's hard to navigate because one it's like early three D, but also the camera's in a really weird angle.

It's like really low to the ground.

I feel like, so that made it freak here.

And then I mean Majora's Mask not a horror game, but I think it is supposed to be terrifying right certain moments, Like obviously the music if you just listen to that theme, if you're just on the main menu alone, just look to the theme.

At first, it's fine.

Then I guess there's some really weird places, the creepy as hell, and then man, that freaking moon when that moon is coming down, And once again, I could never get far in Majoritis Mathic.

I don't even know you.

I didn't know you could rewind time.

I didn't know any of that.

So I would just walk around town and I would look up every once in a while see that moon coming down and that creepy freaking face, and then like it starts to like gyrate, and like the game is like you know, vibrating.

Everything's like shaking when you do to that.

I would just like go into like the hotel in the town.

I would like go on in one of the bunk beds.

I'd like hold up my shield.

I remember doing this.

I would like terrify that I was about to die to this like moon.

Not that like a shield would protect me.

It's the moon crashing down on the earth.

But man, majorits mask and alkerative time terrifying games for me as a kid, just in certain moments, certain places.

And then obviously sometimes it's like nice jovial overworld music where you're walking around in towns and there's dogs and chickens and all this fun stuff.

But definitely I think that's like the earliest like scary game moment for me that I can think of.

Yeah, no, that's a great, great mentions.

I feel like Majorit of mass is the big like stand out one.

I I never played Majora's Mask, but I remember being over probably Hidalgo's house watching like his brother play it, and just yeah, it just terrified, like me as a kid, just the imagery of the mask or the moon like just had no right to be that scary for you know, a kid's game.

I actually have a Zelda game on my list, Okay, mine definitely less scary, especially that it features tune length.

This is gonna be a win.

Waker showed out my favorite Zelda game of all time and not really a scary game by any means.

There's a couple of freaking moments, like maybe the first time that you experienced like the big tornado, like like cyclone that that develops and then it pulls you into like the big octopus like that can be freaky.

But for me, this has to do again with like kind of being chase, but it's when the first time that you go to the Forbidden Fortress and you get launched there in the cannon and you get separated from your sword.

So the entire it's like a forced stealth sequence from this point on, and like the aesthetic, it's kind of like it's kind of a haunted castle type thing, like there is some ghosts in there, but there's a sequence where you have to escape from like your your prison cell, and you're using barrels as like a stealth mechanic.

You know you're wandering, and then when when when the guard's coming, you just stop moving and then you wait for him to go buy and man, if you if you did that like close to where they are without like like giving them enough time to like fully get past the barrel, they'll like suspect that you moved and they'll like quickly like swing over.

And of course it's tied to like just great like game sound designs.

So just so many times when I thought I was fine and then like you would quickly like switch over and again, like as a kid, like that was just that was like my horror game.

So I just remember being totally freaked out certain sequences that maybe I think I'm fine, I keep moving, and then I noticed that he's actually noticed me, and he's just like running over with his big lantern, and like there's nothing you given do you of a sword or anything, and you're just like freaking out screaming at the screen.

I think there's a couple of times where I just quickly paused the game or just turned off the game cube.

I just couldn't handle it anymore, so that that'd be my legend of Zelda shout out.

But like in those games, there is moments of just freaky stuff going on, whether it's like Twilight Princess.

I remember having a lot of freaky, eerie moments, whether you're in like the Twilight Realms and just some of like the monsters in that we're a little bit freaky.

But I think I was a little bit older by the time I played the Twilight Princess.

But yeah, early Win Waker just just freaked me out getting chased by those big, those big monsters.

Yeah, I mean I feel like, you know, Twilight Princess, like obviously that's like quite a darker tone of game.

But I don't know, there's somebody about these Elda games that seem to always have some scary factor to them.

I guess that's like it seems like it's in the DNA there.

Like definitely Tears of the Kingdom has a lot of that with like the dark world underneath, the underneath the surface and all that.

Even just having dark link as like a villain, right, Like that's just like the dark side of that character.

It's freaky.

Another early one for me is, uh, Marwin.

I mean Marwin has some like freaky sections to it of just like you know, part of the aesthetic of that game is everything looks like there's always like a dense fog because you know, obviously, like they put that there because the game can't it doesn't have like a big draw distance, so like they do that because they can't jet like you know, load all these sectors far away, and you can like remove that now with like mods, because any modern device can easily render all that stuff.

But because of that, like you could never really see too far, so it'd be like this creepy fog over top.

And then sometimes there's like a big sandstorm that rolls through and it's like it's loud, and now you can't you can see like even less.

You might be in an area where there's like little pools of lava or like the terrain is all like burnt because it's like, you know, the center of the map is like a giant volcano.

So it's just like a weird, creepy area, the kind of weird alien world, just feeling like you're in the middle of nowhere.

Maybe you haven't seen a road sign in a while, you don't know if you're like on the path anymore, or because the textures for the path are kind of like minimal, so you might just be totally lost, and then you may make maybe the battle music starts up and you're like, what the hell, like, what's coming to attack me?

Most often it's like, you know, the freaking cliff racers coming in, like the annoying like tarodactyl looking things to come to attack you.

But it might be something else, might be some creepy thing on the ground, a little bug, a rat, or like a highwayman.

You know, it's a freaky thing like that.

A lot of a lot of robbers out on the streets of Marwin these days.

So yeah, that game definitely has some freaky moments in it for sure, or if like even just going to like some tombs that have like ghosts and other creepy you know, harder enemies in them, and that stuff's always freaky as well, especially because the game is so dark and the drawst distance suck sucks once again.

So Marwin definitely had some freaky moments for me because also is playing that probably younger than I should have been to play that game, but that one definitely had some creepy moments.

Nice, yeah, good shout out.

I mean I feel like I even had some of those moments in Skyrim also going through like the just the Drogger that like you're going through a tomb and like you know, they would rise as you're going through, so you just stand there looting, and you turn around.

He's just right there.

Like I definitely had some job scare moments like that.

So yeah, good shout out.

Next on my lists, have you ever heard of the game iron Storm iron This is a first person slash third person It's like a World War two game, but I think the era is like nineteen sixty four, like Germany.

It's as if like the war just never ended or something.

Just a really obscure PC game that my dad had back in the day that I remember playing on the on the family computer, and one I was definitely probably too young to be playing.

It's probably like a T for teen or you know, M rated game, but really cool aesthetic.

Like looking back on it, like I think I only got like the second mission just because it was so difficult, Like, as you know, I had no idea how to play the game.

It's like the first time I played hit Man forty seven back in there, like I had no idea what to do really, like I would just water around the maps.

But in this game, I think it's the first mission.

Actually, it's like trench warfare.

So you're going through these trenches and at a certain point, like you know, you got your classic troops that you're shooting or whatever, but at a certain point they release these like hounds into the trenches that are chasing you.

And not only that, but they're like strapped up with like suicide bomber dogs essentially, so when they get close to you, they just explode.

But also just like the audio effect of them just barking as they're coming down, and like like it's a pretty old game, so I don't know how accurately I remember this, but like back then, I also just remember like as the barks are getting louder, like they're just coming and like you know, you pull your scope and you're trying to snipe them, but like if you miss one shot and then they're just like barking and getting closer and closer to you.

That's another one where like I just remember like missing, missing, pausing the game, just turning off the like the whole game.

I'm like, I can't even handle this is too scary, But I have distinct memories of like doing that turn off the game, like a week later, being like, oh that game was pretty cool it's back in there, and then having like the exact same occurrence where I just fail it and uh yeah, just it was also like really loud.

I probably didn't think of like turning down like the audio SETNS or anything like that back in the day.

But yeah, just there's those barks man, there's I mean Resident Evil one two, like famously those dogs in that mansion, like the first time they burst through the window.

It's just so scary when you have hounds chasing you in video games, but especially when they're strapped with with dynamites.

So shuts up to iron Storm.

Anyone that that has played that game.

I remember talking my friend Carson, who like he was out of my house and he's like, oh, you got iron Storm too, like like you just knew the game and it's like the most like niche title that like nobody's really heard of.

So it's just funny little memory there.

But yeah, shuts up to iron Storm and it being a pretty freaky game.

Mm hmm.

Yeah, I learned about a new game today.

I've never heard of Ironstorm before, So thank you for that.

File that away somewhere and maybe it'll come up some day.

Yeah, the remaster.

Next one for me.

This is probably gonna be a I don't know if you had it on your list, but definitely would be a shout out for you.

Two games here, I'm kind of lumping together, but there's other ones in the genre that makes sense.

But what remains of you To Finch and Gone Home, which you know, not games that most are supposed to make you feel good, but they're certainly not horror games or like scary games, or at least I wouldn't describe them like that, right, but like they definitely have their moments of just like creeping around an abandoned house.

You are trying to find someone, so you're trying to find something and maybe you do, maybe you don't find stuff, but like yeah, just just creeping around this house where like things are kind of abandoned, things are kind of left untouched.

Like what happened here is you know, you need to finish.

There's like a whole story, but like a serial killer, right, and it's like you're thinking about Jesus is that guy?

Like exist is he in this house?

What's going on here?

And I mean you To Finch has its like terrifying moments for sure, but I think even just like the little moments of like the things that shouldn't be scary but just creeping around the house, looking through a keyhole, opening a or never really know what you're gonna find there.

Yeah, I feel like those games in that genre in general are definitely like close to being like in that horror space, even though they're not really like a thriller.

They aren't like supposed to be scary, but something about them like super creepy, and probably because it's like hyper realistic graphics feels like a very it feels like in a real place, you could be in an actual house, So I think that definitely adds to the creepiness.

Of it a hundred percent.

Yeah.

I like while playing through any of those games, even Firewatch, I would shout out like yeah, just because you're going through like an area that there's nobody in it, but like at the same time, I'm just waiting for someone to be there or like like waiting for something to happen.

So it's like the possibility of what could come is what's freaking me out the most, especially like you said with Edith, like you're looking through key holes, I'm just waiting to get like a face looking at me or something, so yeah, good, good shout out.

I didn't really have it on my list, but yeah, I definitely would would throw those out because there's just certain moments or like the one story you're going through and you're like through the perspective of the monster, Like it's a really freaky sequences shouts up to those games.

Okay, another there's like a light little honorable mention, not one that I like thought of initially, but uh, just the flood in Halo.

I think yeah, I think I think I would shout out like in Potato the first Halo, just because it's the first time that you're like experiencing them and it's just so different than like the sleek Covenant that you're that you're shooting, like you know, you're you're fighting they they have their blaster pistols and they're monsters to a human level, but uh, or like if if you're compared to a human but like it's still kind of humanoid.

But like just seeing like the face hugger things and the flood and like when they're just just super gross and especially like Halo always had such I'm sure it doesn't stand up to you know, today's standard, but like Halo won back in the day on like the original Xbox, just like having a flashlight in dark corridors was such a cool like element of like lighting.

It just looked really really cool.

And when you come around the corner and just see these these gross flood coming at you, definitely definitely terrifying back in the day.

And I feel like it only got scarier as the games got looking better and just just more and more crazy.

So yeah, shouts out to the flood from Halo.

Nice, I'm running low.

I got a couple more here, two quick shows, I mean shows to mister resetting animal crossing terrifying to me as a kid.

I mean, this guy would come in and heckle me for not saving my game.

Oh my god, did you delete my save?

All this kind of stuff, different kind of fear.

Return of the Openden as well.

I don't want to spoil anything about this game.

It is a mystery game.

It is a creepy setting, I guess, but most of the time not really.

But there are some moments in that game that, like whoa, that it really like cranks up the intensity of it all, and then I guess this is I'm kind of bundling these three together here that I have to shut out because I think this is pretty common.

Again, a lot of games have a day night cycle, and a lot of games therefore have like, oh, the nighttime part of it comes with some creepiness, but you can't see as well, you don't know what's around the corner.

Maybe different enemies come out.

And so the first one that came came to mind for me in that way is one we talked about when we did like our best Zombie ranking episode, which is Minecraft not a game you think of as like a scary game, a horror game, but man, when you're deep in a cave and you hear that zombie, that zombie sound, a creeper, the little the little you know whatever, that's singing sound, whatever you want to call it.

Or when you're outside and like a spider starts jumping at you or climbing a tree, you see the beady eyes of the spiders right outside your window, and that your glass window.

I mean, Minecraft can be a terrifying game, and maybe yeah, like yeah, often like half the time it's I think the day is longer than the night, but it's like it is terrifying, like half the time pretty much.

And eventually you get your base build up so much, you have so many lights, it's like, Okay, I can kind of chill.

I don't have to worry so much.

But anytime you're digging in those caves, anytime you're out at night, there's always a little bit of factor of like I don't know what's gonna come get me, what's gonna surprise me.

A lot of jump scares in that game.

Surprisingly, absolutely, no, that's really good.

Shout out.

I feel like that game is it's more than others where like it's just a stark contrast between the times that aren't scary and that are scary, like like you know, if you're just adventuring your chopping wood, like it's just such a chill vibe game like like Super and like of course has a casual mode, but who does that unless you're really trying to be artistic, But like, uh, but yeah, I remember the first time I play that game and just being told of like, hey, we gotta we gotta get torches, like as soon as the night time comes, like you know, you gotta keep things lit.

And it's like, well, why, like like what's out there?

And then realizing just like how creepers kind of spawn and like like how they work in that sense, or even if you're just like not really noticing, creepers are the ones that explode, right, Yeah, yeah, Like if you're just not paying attention you turn around, it's just like as if like a bomb's going off with two seconds ago, like it's just it's and then it blows up your base.

You're super devastated.

But yeah, good shout out for sure.

Even like the dark caves can get really scary too when when you're going down there.

Yeah, and then you know kind of like the same as Marwin but like Fallout sometimes the perfect storm of a web, the effect it being you're getting jumped by something.

Also, you were you were mentioning that the dogs earlier.

I feel like that is an enemy type in games that is the most terrifying.

Smaller you know, not in your like usual height range.

They're they're really fast, they're really small, they're really like low down, so they're hard to hit.

The sound they make you don't have much time to react, So I feel like in general that's like a like thinking of like inside obviously that is like a scary game, but like that sequence that you're jumping over the fence with the dogs chasing you're trying to bite your ankles and stuff.

Yeah, freaky enemy probably the most freaky, like realistic enemy type because obviously there's like a strange monstrosities that are terrifying, like resident evil or whatever.

But yeah, like dogs are just like one of the most terrifying, basic ass things that you can encounter in a game.

That's a really good shout out because I didn't really have it on my list, but one of my favorite games all time Inside has like some of the scariest dogs chase scenes in it with like just great audio, and then of course the water sequences in that game are terrifying.

Also, Oh yeah that that like Mermaid or not, whatever the heck that fucking thing is.

Oh, it's it's freaky, But yeah, dogs, that's that's probably one of like my least favorite enemy types in all of the Soul's game is just the dogs, because like you encountered them early on and it's like, Okay, they're not that hard to deal with, but like just their their movement, it's just I never can like I'm like, yeah, okay, two strikes, I get this, but like they just they like they're like auto canceling or something like.

It's just it's ridiculous.

They like glitch through terrain because they like have the horizontal body.

They're like always more than one, so they're just like constantly jumping at you.

It's ridiculous.

In zombies, the fog comes in, fetch me there.

Sick dog.

Yeah, yeah, dogs are scary, but at the same time we love them.

Uh, go any morning list.

I had one last shout out here.

It'll be a quick one because it's similar to the other ones.

Its plunky and Splunky two.

Uh.

You know, there could be different level feelings every once in a while, like a level will just have like a certain theme added on top of it.

And one of them you can get in both games is a dark level and a dark level you just can't see shit.

The music gets all creepy.

You can't see two feet in front of you.

Start with the torch, but it's very easy to lose that torch or if you fall in water, that torch gets snuffed.

So the dark levels in Spiloggi can be freaky sometimes, especially if you're like, you know, one HP.

Anything can tap you and kill you.

A bat starts coming out nowhere, a little little jump scares so, but I think that's kind of just general.

You know a lot of games that have a night night variation.

Yea, it can be kind of freaky, even if it's not a freaky game by default.

Oh absolutely, all right, this is a really quick one.

Tony Hawks Underground.

The opening sequence.

I don't know if you remember this, but I think it's like the Never Saw or whatever the I think it might have been the Act Division or like Never Soft.

It never start of the eye stabbing thing that.

But also there's in the loading screen I don't even remember what, like like company it's shouting out, but there's a skatery comes up and he does like a kickflip on a manhole and then the manhole opens up and there and there's like the creature comes out and just grabs the skater and pulls them down.

Man.

I have like distinct memory in my cousin's house playing this at like midnight and just being so scared, Like he's asleep and I'm like, I'm gonna play some Tony Hawk and that happens scared the ship out of me as a kid, and deep should pull that up on YouTube.

It is terrifying, especially if it's like a skateboarding game, like you know, like that's the last thing that you're expecting.

And I think that was like like a skater that you could unlock with like cheets or something that you could play as the monster.

I'm pretty sure it's thug like the original Tony Hawk Underground.

It might have been a different pro skater.

But yeah, maybe I thought you were gonna mention in Tony's Underground on the Hawaii level when you jump into that tiki and you get taken a hell and.

Oh that's a good shadow too.

That was actually scary, but it was like definitely the first time you do it, it's quite a shock because yeah, wait what it's such.

Like crazy little extra things they had in those skater games.

Awesome, Okay, I oh, I got four more.

Next, I'll shout out Half Life specifically Half Life two.

I feel like all the Half Life games they have like certain scary elements to it, but in Half Life two specifically, there's a mission it's called Raven Home, which you're going through this uh it's like this town and it's basically just like a haunted town that you're going through and they really play on like you have the face huggers with like like they're on the humans, and then like those are the zombies, but they're just in like certain areas that it's like, Okay, this is their like scary game that they're making within their scary game.

Just like every little nooking, nook and cranny of that level is just setting you up to be in those situations, where as if it's like a resident eval game, it's like, Okay, there's two creepy things laying down that on that corner, but I have to go that way, Like I imagine they're gonna stand up and try and grab me, and that's exactly what happens.

And yeah, just just really dark elements in that specific level.

And the game has scary stuff, like there's monsters and whatnot, but that level in particular is just so scary.

And that was one I remember playing like in my basement at like probably in the summertime, like two in the morning or something, and just so scared.

All the lights are off and I'm just totally freaked out.

I will never get over the fact that Arcane had a canceled Draven Home game.

I would have been a dream.

Oh yeah, I'm sure it would have been terrifying.

Yeah, in another world, I'm sure we would have reviewed that and had a great time in a better world.

Yeah, atter, this is so I mentioned that I started with Harry Potter.

That's like definitely a top tier one in my memory bank, But like these next three are also like top top tier.

I think I'll finish with the big one at the end.

But Spider Man one for the PlayStation one, phenomenal game, so fantastic.

The final boss mission is against Carnage, and after you defeat Carnage minors spoilers for this game came out in nineteenninety six, but it after you defeat him, the symbiote finds its way onto doc Oc and it becomes doc Ock Carnage, So like doc Cock with the big or sorry Carnage with the big doc Cock arms, and it's such a badass you can't even fight him.

So the final like boss is you just running away from this character and it is so scary.

You have clear as Cassidy's Carnage just screaming at you, yelling at you.

Of course, it's like PlayStation one graphics tied with like the music they chose tied with the uh just like the the the gravelly voice that they gave that character.

It is just so scary as a kid.

And there's a couple of different like chase sequences, like at one point you're running away from venom or I think you're chasing venom.

But there's just scary stuff in that game.

But that that's like the peak moment of it.

So yeah, shows out to the PS one Spider Man game, but I think it was also on like other various consoles.

I just had it on PS one.

Yeah.

Next, I have Rainbow six, the original Rainbow six game.

This one, this is it's not really meant to be a horror game by any means, but man, because of like the terrible graphics that I had back in the day, very pixelated, and it's kind of like it's basically ready ready or not.

Like some of the missions where you're going into a house, you're cutting the power so you have your night vision, which is like back in that it's just tearings the whole screen green and like the characters are very blocky, and the audio effects were probably absolutely horrendous.

So like you're entering the basement.

It's like Pitch Black.

You turn a corner and there's just a guy standing there with a gun that just like when he shoots blows your your your ear drums because the audio is just crazy loud back then, and like I just remember getting so much like anxiety as a kid, just like entering the room and then turning and there's just a guy there just shoots probably like one shot kill and like I've no idea what happened, but I'm just terrified.

And I don't think I really beat a mission in that game.

I think like every time I like got excited, but then I never wanted to enter the house.

So it became like exploring type game where I would just explore the outer perimeter because I wouldn't want to go into the house because I was just so scared.

And yeah, it's kind of funny how you just do that as a kid in video games, like you you're limited in the games that you have, so you just find ways to enjoy them.

And that's literally what I would do.

I would just explore, like oh and then probably making my own little narratives of like just little stories that you make in the video game.

But yeah, that one terrified me so much as a kid shouts out a rainbow six.

And the final one, the big head Honcho that this is probably like top to top one scariest moment video game history for me.

The drowning music from Sonic from any Sonic game in second Genesis, Man, when you are when you're underwater, you're running around, you know, like you only have so much air.

But like the music in the Sonic levels is really upbeat and it's like groovy, especially when you're going through like a casino level, Like it's just very like like casino type music.

When you get into the underwater level or a sequence, you're floating around, you know you'll lave so much air.

Once you start getting closer, the music goes like dund dund dund dun dun dund dun, and then it just like builds up to where it goes like just faster and faster tabores like dent d and you're looking for the little air bubbles or a way to like get up to the to the air.

And of course it's platformer, so you're trying to like do your platformer to get back up to the oxygen.

And if you fuck up your jump and then you're going down and you just know you're gonna drown.

And man, when that music hitting, it is the scariest, like just most anxiety written thing you can have, especially as a little kid playing the second Gen.

It's this way back in the day, first console I ever had, and it just it scared me.

So yeah, shouts out to pretty much every Sonic game that had that element of just like the drowning music.

It was so scary.

And then of course you just have Sonic just like Die Underwater just so traumatic, fastest Hedgehog in the world but still susceptible, just drowning and yeah, fuck water levels.

We said it so many times on the show, but in particular song the Hedgehog, because yeah, it's uh, it's terrifying.

You definitely awakened like this specific memory of Mario sixty four and that drowning.

It's not the music and that one, it's more just the animation of like Mario and he's like and then he's like doing the dead Man's flow.

It's like, I can't believe they did that back in the I don't I don't know what it's like if you drown in Odyssey now, but I feel like it probably just like yes, get back to land, like compared to what it was back then.

But that always I feel like the man, there's probably so many games with the drowning animation is like a freaky, freaking thing.

I don't know, it's just a it's a scary thought for sure.

Absolutely.

I feel like that just that like started the fear of water too that I had just I still have so probably just sput sprouted from that, just water levels and games and so I don't want to be no.

I hear that music when I'm swimming in the lake, I just dune, dun d d d damn.

That's terrifying.

That was super fun.

That was such a I love yours were so specific, and I'm sure I'll think of some over the next few weeks now that we've talked about this, So if anymore come up, I'll bring them up to you, because that's a yeah, it's a very fun idea.

Just thinking about like the scary moments and non scary games, I feel like a very good niche topic.

So thanks for bringing that one to the show.

Let's take our last ad break and then we'll get into our final segment.

We'll be right back.

Okay, we are back.

This is another this is a Kirkland topic episode.

Do you want to set up this one as well?

What brought this to your mind?

What is it?

Yeah?

So, you know, famously I've talked about my my love for football latelies and it all started when I when I acquired College Football twenty five great game.

Really enjoyed the gameplay, but they have no licensed music in that game, so it's just all drum lines.

And I really appreciate a good soundtrack in in sports games, video games in general, but specifically sports games because there's a lot of times where you're like managing and the menus and there's just you know, like I like a good Franz Ferdinand that comes on and I'm just vibing with the songs.

I feel like, especially as a kid, like I always was playing sports games growing up, like that's just always been like a main genre of just games that I've had, like Sega Genesis, I had NHL ninety five, Like you know, like I've just always had sports games around me and they always have just bopin' music.

And I feel like a lot of songs I've just found through like games like that like like Foster the people, like I think like before they played pumped up kicks, Like there's just songs that I had listened to from playing FIFA and just like really really vibing with it, so stuff like that.

And then recently I acquired I upgraded from college football to Madden twenty six, got the new Madden game a little while ago, and it's got copyrighted music and it fucking slaps like some of the tracks in there.

You know, it's not all modern stuff, Like they have some good throwback songs.

And because I played so much college football, I was just used to the fucking drum line.

So now that I don't have the drum line, I'm like, okay, this this is the is a vibe.

I totally like this, And then it was making me think back to just some of the banger songs and like I have certain like playlists on Spotify that I've made like kind of like nostalgia infuse like tracks maybe just like old songs from those old FIFA games or whatnot that I just totally love hearing and like I'll hear the song and it like makes me think of like a specific like era of like managing I don't know, Vancouver white Caps on like FIFA thirteen or something like that, Like you know what I mean, Like like just just certain songs that it just brings it back such a powerful nostalgic memory.

And yeah, it just had my mind kind of going as I was played Maden of just like the best video game just the best sports video games that when it comes to soundtracks and just I don't know, like obviously it's a completely biased list because everyone will have different opinions on it, and for me, it's really triggered to just that nostalgia aspect, Like I didn't really go through and like compare game to game of like, hey, what's what's got the best completed quality when it comes to like all of the songs on this list.

No, that's not the case.

It's literally just the ones that came to my mind of like man, like those songs on that game fucking slapped.

So yeah, I that's kind of how I thought of this.

And then on that theme, I kind of just stuck to like I said, I don't have like five NHL games or something on here, like I just kind of wanted to keep it to one.

And I think if I really stewed on this, like I could maybe come up with a like a definite list, but this is just kind of off the top, similar to how I did with the video game Once, because those are just the powerful memories that maybe pick those ones.

I will say.

The one maybe good thing about that college football one is like so many games that have licensed music obviously get like delisted at some point, and like the music license runs out and then that game just never gets released ever again.

But like in theory, you know, if the next consoles are backwards compatible, and after that, who knows, Like in theory, that game will just be around forever and like it will never get delisted from Steam because it's like, oh, this license ran, now we can't sell this anymore, assuming that the drum line is like you know, they paid and not like you know, a license song of just some guy ripping it up on the drums.

But yeah, I wonder if they like have seen I mean, one is probably just super expensive.

Maybe they were thinking about that license thing too, but yeah, I wonder if that's you know, something too, if they've just seen the stats of being like, oh yeah, people, don't people listen to this for a little bit and then they just put on their own music.

Maybe they have that those stats and they're like, okay, so what's the point of us paying all this money for these songs.

Maybe we's put the drum track in here and then people listen on Spotify while they play through the game.

I'm not sure that's that's really interesting though, that game didn't have license music.

That seems like such an odd one on I can't think of other games that done that, not that I'm a big traditional sports game guy, play a lot of them, so I'm not too familiar.

The I think the biggest egregious one to me was going from PS three to PS four whatever NHL game that was, whether it was NHL twelve, it might have been NHL twelve.

Like that was like the big jump from like the old console to the new one.

I was so gutted and devas that was the first time where I realized that like you could actually go backwards in games, Like it didn't have like any of like the career modes that the previous game had, and it didn't have any license music at all.

Like it was literally just weird a like I could have just played the demo for that game you know, like because that's all you could do, was like the play now feature where you just which like are you kidding me?

Are you kidding me?

Ea?

Like you sold me a whole fucking price game for that, And like that was back when I wasn't paying attention to this stuff, like just as a kid, Like I just couldn't believe that I got fucking screwed over like that by yea, and here they are, all these years later, still screw people.

Over and your standards were so low and they still let you down.

Yeah, yeah, I couldn't believe it.

Like I'm like, I can't even do my career mode, Like why did I even buy this fucking game?

So yeah, that was a little rant that I was awakened to.

Just now for sure, you know, I I it's it's like I, like I said, I didn't play a ton of these original sports games growing up.

Like the ones that come to mind of course to me are like Tony Hawk and like Skate and stuff.

But I've talked about those so much recently, so I mean to talk about them more.

But like those soundtracks are very iconic, and people were, you know, a lot really pissed when they had changed a lot of those songs for like the remakes that they've done recently and all that kind of stuff.

But yeah, like that's definitely a part of the aesthetic of the games, and it's hard to like rip that out of there and picture them feeling the same, you know, it's such a big deal of it.

So my I have, like I have three shot outs here, but they're probably gonna be very different than the kind of shows you have.

So but yeah, I definitely still thought of some.

Nice, awesome I I'll start there.

Actually, I put the first Tony Hawk pro skater On on this list.

All of the games have such slapper soundtracks.

I feel like Thug might be like tied with pro Skater One for like the songs that would identify the most with but pro Skater One, like I started being at my cousin's house playing that for the first time, like my first ever experience to Tony Hawk, and I think just the songs like coupled with the school level, coupled with just like the characters were like I don't know, as a kid, like Tony Hawk, like that's the coolest guy in the world, Like, you know, just like that era of like where I was at when it comes like my relationship with skateboarding and just just getting in the video, like throwing those songs in there.

It just I feel like it was just icing on the cake of like just this is the coolest game I could ever experience here, especially just it seemed like all my like, like I had neighbors that were like a little bit older that would like skateboard and stuff like that was the music that they're listening to.

So it's just like, oh that that's like the cool standard, you know what I mean.

So like just playing pro Skater back in the day, I love the song and then hearing them now it's very nostalgic for all those reasons.

I just listened.

Mm hmm.

How many do you have on your list?

Or are you wanting to say that I have four remaining?

So that was number five?

Cool?

Maybe I'll maybe I'll just we'll just go back and forth and then you might have an next one.

So I mean, like, name a Nintendo game with bad music, like you it isn't it like their music is always solid at worst, it's like fine, but like you know, they're always bangers.

But I think you know, out of all the Mario sports games for me, and this is I think it a little bit different than the kind of games you're tackling on with your list.

But Mario Strikers to me has always had like the best music, the most iconic music, the most vibes, like the most unique, standout interesting.

Even Battle League I really liked some of the music in there.

But going back to both Strikers and Strikers Charged, I feel like, compared to Mario golf, maer or tennis whatever, I always feel like Strikers had, Like I think I always have the most distinct vibe just in general between like it's aesthetic and the music.

But yeah, the music always always stood out to me, so shows to Mario Strikers.

Yeah, Strikers awesome.

I'm gonna go.

I mean, it's an EA game, not a traditional sports game, but one I'm a shout out.

Nonetheless, it's my lest I can make my rules.

I'm going a need for Speed game here, a car racing Need for Speed Underground two.

It might have been the first Need for Speed game I ever played, and like from the first time I watched my cousin play this game, I think this was a PS two era game.

Riders of the Storm.

I think there might be like different variations of that song, but I just think of this video game when I hear that song, and vice versa when I when I see that video game, I think of that.

Song, that song every day.

That's so funny and like they might have a cover version where it's like not the original, but like, man, just just the aesthetic of like racing car, like street racing, with like the underglow and like having that song on.

It's just man, powerful core memories of like being at my my uncle's house, me and him and my cousin just just all playing Need for Speed Underground.

And yeah, plethora of amazing songs also in there, but yeah, Riders on the Storm.

That's like the big iconic one where when I think of racing games like that is the standard now, And of course it's just it's riddled with nostalgia.

I'm sure there's better all these soundtracks out there, but that one, I don't think they'll ever be beat.

Yeah, shouts out, never Speed Underground too.

Hell yeah, well I'll showed it another EA game here, because the one closest one I have to the games on your list is FIFA Street two, which is a game that I played like endlessly on the game cube, and honestly, it's hard for me to pinpoint the whole soundtrack.

I should put the whole soundtrack on and see which other ones stick out to me.

But for me, it is the song that they have on like the menu or like the intro cut scene.

Maybe not the menu, but like, yeah, that intro cutscene they have where like all these guys are doing cool soccer tricks and all this stuff.

It's a song called True School by Cold Cut, which is a band i've you know, and any other context.

I have no idea what any other other music sounds like, but that's the game I would turn on just to listen or like watch that intro cinematic and listen to that song, and I would do that all the time.

Then eventually I you know, downloaded the song online where I put on my iPod and would listen to it all the time.

But yeah, True School schools spelled sko l instead of you know, the ch and there, but just yeah, such a freaking banger.

I love that song so much.

Seah, Like I said, I should put on the rest of the soundtrack and see if I'm nostalgic for the rest of it.

But that song will waken something in me for sure.

I love that and I'd listen to that or just put that on YouTube all the time watch that music video a bunch of times now too.

But yeah, obviously, like the vibes of FIFA Street is very iconic, and that was like a very very good song for setting the tone.

Nice.

Yeah, awesome.

I'm glad you showed a FEVA Street game because I was trying to think of like just eight Street title because they always had like killer soundtracks, whether it was like the NBA Street or the NFL Street.

Yeah, they just always had good, good bangers.

But I didn't really play enough of them to really add it to my list.

But I'll shout it a FIFA game here.

My FIFA shadow is gonna be the FIFA thirteen one that I was kind of alluding to earlier.

This is probably the FIFA game I played the most.

I have a very distinct memory in like grade ten or nine or something being like spring break again.

Adalg always been brought up a couple of times tonight one of the spring breaks.

I swear he came over to my house on like the first day spring break and he just stayed over for like a week.

It was like back then when like okay, yeah, sure, like let's just have a sleepover for a week.

And like we just played FIFA for like probably just straight like that many days where we like we made like a like a like a manager that we were managing a league and we just played through like multiple seasons.

Like that's probably the most length I've ever put into like an actual career mode in like a sports game like that, like just just and we were playing Vancouver white Caps, of course, and we just we made them like the best team in the world.

It was great.

We're again like messy and Rinaldo signed to the team was insane.

But uh and like man, of course, because we're playing that and we're managing like we're in we're probably in like the menu screen more than the actual in game screen, and just the fucking tracks that would be playing like on on repeat.

We're just absolute bangers, just just so iconic.

Yeah, Like and anytime I hear one of those songs, whether it's on the radio or wherever, I like literally think of FIFA thirteen and just how much fun I like that was peak FIFA gaming for me when I'm an old man looking back in my life, like I'm gonna be looking back on that spring break when Tata came over and we just fucking played people like just just yeah, it's just so great.

So uh yeah, shouts out to and FIFA has had great soundtracks in the past.

That game is finally I think dying because just what they're doing, just development wise, it's just just terrible.

I'm glad I'm not really a FIFA enjoyer anymore.

It's not even called FIFA anymore.

It's just FC now.

But yeah, FIFA thirteen will always have a special place in my heart.

And the music is a big reason for that.

Hell yeah, uh last one for me, this is not license music, but this is one of the best gaming soundtracks of all time.

That's right.

It's fucking we Sports, baby, sports music that'll put you in a good mood h endlessly and like each one of the sports has like it's a distinct thing, but even just that main theme freaking oh so hard.

So yeah, big shows to we Sports.

I mean, that's that's and men.

The amount of like jazz like reinterpretations, remixes, like recompositions.

I've I've I've heard over the years now of people taking like some of those basslines and then just like reworking them into like a more filled out song.

It's awesome, unreal.

So yeah, shouts to I mean the WE in general, right, like anything about that the sound design was peak for the Wii, but yeah, specifically WE Sports was amazing.

It had no right being that good too.

Like it's it's like I'm shouting out great soundtracks, but like they you're like, fuck it, We'll just make our own.

And it's just the best video game sports soundtrack that you could have ever manufactured.

Uh Okay, My next sport bringing up here is the sport of basketball.

I'm gonna be shouting out NBA two K e eleven, which is the first basketball sports game I think I like really got into, really really enjoyed beyond like the Sega era where was like NBA Big Jams or whatever it was.

Yeah, NBA two K eleven, this is like a big It's fun.

Pretty Much every thing on my list just has like a very specific memory that I'm shouting out, and this one.

Have you ever heard of the YouTuber known as Chris Move.

He used to make like modern Warfare two videos.

Yeah, and he would just like do commentary or whatever.

He would also do NBA commentaries and me Hidalgo again the name of the Night.

We just loved his video.

So whether it was the Call of Duty ones or the NBA, he was just so hilarious, such a great personality.

I think he's still making videos now, so shouts out to him.

But yeah, this was like the era where like we loved his videos so much that we both like purchased this in this basketball game, Like we didn't watch basketball or anything, we just loved it.

And there was another one where played with our other friend Derek, who actually played basketball.

But like the three of us, we'd like make our characters and just do like a season together.

And again probably like multiple day.

I think this is when we were Pick and Cherries, So that was like our summertime gig.

So we like all be at his house pick and cherries.

Then we just play like NBA and man, just the tracks that would come up were just bangers and yeah.

In particular, the great Ron Artest who changed his name to metal World Peace, who is a basketball player, made a song after he won the championships with the Lakers called Champions and it's literally a song game and like the lyrics are so corny and cheesy.

It's just like we're the best in the world, and like I don't think it's great, but at the time we loved it.

Yeah, Queen wrote a song just like that too, and they're one of the greatest of all times.

Yeah, there you go, there you go.

So yeah, shouts out to NBA two k eleven.

My list is done, so I think you had one more right and the last one, which is a banger of a game, NHL two thousand and four.

This is a big iconic game for me.

This was the first NHL game that we bought on like the family computer, so I think it was like a Christmas like we got it from Santa, and then my parents also or Santa acquired like game pads for the PC which were ridiculous and like terribly ergonomic, like not ergonomic at all.

They were massive, they like didn't fit in your hand properly, but they were wireless for the PC.

It was probably like a Logitech brand or something like that.

It was probably some Chinese knockoff brand, but like we actually had like those to play NHL and like Matt like I remember playing that game, like we were limited by the controllers because we only had two, but like still like it was a big deal to be playing with wireless controllers on the family computer like NHL and man, I played that game so much, so many just phenomenal soundtracks or sorry songs in that soundtrack, but yeah, just so many great core memories playing that game with my family.

It's like a it's kind of a funny game because that was the era, the era that the NHL was on strike, so there wasn't even NHL that year, but they put this video game and like typically it's like tying in with the season, but like it wasn't at all because there wasn't an actual season.

But man, play that game so much.

I remember like making my own teams and like making my own like every single player I would customize and like make like that was the era that that I was in of like just having so much fun with that game, not even playing the actual hockey games.

And one of my one of my notorious teams I made was just Hogwarts and I made like Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Harry Potter of course was just and they're just like ninety nine overalls.

It was just ridiculous, but all all just surrounded by phenomenal music.

So yeah, big big shouts out to NHL two thousan four.

I love it.

That's gorgeous.

I gotta ask, is this list like also just your list of favorite sports games.

I don't think well, I don't think so.

Okay, yeah, no, I don't think so, because m A two K eleven was really bad actually, like the the gameplay was just atrocious compared to where it got to.

But like, I still really have fun memories looking back on that game, not just because the music, but because of the nostalgia that I had surrounding or surrounding it.

So I mean, but like, if I was going to make my top two or three list of like an NHL game, that would probably come up right because it's just so powerful.

I guess if we did overall sports like that, would you would have more maybe Nintendo things in there or something.

Yeah, So we'll do that at some point, because that would be an interesting list to me because I think I could actually absolutely attribute to that more if we include racing games.

I think I have a lot of a lot of contenders for that, So that could be that could be a fun one.

We'll put that on the put that on the calendar do at some point, but tell yah, yeah that was I love that all those I love that you have so many memories tied to these things too, rather just the game itself.

I think that's where all all of our favorite games come from.

Like if you anyone listens to our top ten games list that we did recently on the Patreon, yeah, like so many of those things are like, oh, here's the story of like why this game is so iconic for me and why it's able it's in my top ten and that obviously goes for this ranking as well.

So thank you Kirkland for sharing all that, for bringing some good topics to the show, to this is perfect and this is like a bit of your swanse on because you're gonna be going to Japan soon and so you're not gonna be on side Quest for like a month at least probably, So Yeah, I'm glad they were here this week and last week.

And I don't know how much you're are you bringing any gaming system on your trip, Like when you're in your hotel, are you gaming at all?

What's your plan for that?

Have you thought about that, I'm bringing the switch.

I'm probably gonna try and beat three houses on the plane because I am I am in Act two, so like I think, I'm, you know, multiple hours into Act two, so I don't know how big the game is, but like it, I feel like I could, like ten plus hour flight, I could definitely conquer that.

I don't think that would be the only thing I'm doing, but still that's a lot of time.

I was debating bringing my DS also because when I was going down my fire emblem just just excitement.

Like I never even beat Awakening, which I was really far into that game.

I never beat Fates, which I don't even think I got really far into Fates, so that might be, you know, if I'm just really itching for fire emblems.

How fire emblems happening though on this trip no matter what.

Yeah, absolutely like I'm not Fire and Blum Shadows, No or Heroes or the other ones that we shouted out.

But no, I'm I'm feeling the vibe for Fire album.

I mean, I was going down like the classic YouTube video where's like the fire emblem Iceberg, Like, I'm just going down those spheres.

So whenever I'm doing that for video games.

That's usually what I'm getting addicted to them.

So and if you want to on the game Boy Advance app, there's two fire Bloom games on there, although I don't know if those I don't know if you can open those apps without an Internet connection, which if you're on the flight airplane mode.

You can get Wi Fi like package.

The Internet to boot them up.

I would think, Okay.

So I don't know, but you have other ones that are top of the list, but just putting on the back of your mind, you know, if you're getting in clean the checkout secrets.

But yeah, I mean, I want to eventually, but I'm gonna beat my first one first.

I try not to distract you excited to hear what all that is.

But thank you for joining me.

Thank you everyone for listening.

As usual, we will be back next week.

Have a good one.

Bye bye bye