Scott Pilgrim vs. Millennial Nostalgia

Scott Pilgrim EX is a spiritual sequel to a Netflix animated series from 2024, a Scott Pilgrim movie tie-in game from 15 years ago, and an underrated beat ‘em up series that debuted on the NES. Or to put it another way: Scott Pilgrim EX is deeply nostalgic, not for one moment, but for the breadth of the millennial gamer experience. Is that… fun? It will depend on your love of Scott Pilgrim, Rivert City Ransom, and the ongoing renaissance of a long-dormant genre.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Russ Frushtick?

  How likely is it, I know we're gonna talk about it later, but how likely is it that the Pom-Bon is just gonna be a big fucking man that's ready to fuck?

• 0:10Griffin McElroy?

  So you're discussing the new Fire Type Starter announced for Pokemon Winds and Waves, and he's the Fire Type Starter, and he looks like a big cute-faced dog.

• 0:17Russ Frushtick?

  He looks like a Pomeranian with fire.

• 0:19Griffin McElroy?

  He looks like a Pomeranian, yeah.

• 0:20Chris Plante?

  A fire Pomeranian.

• 0:21Griffin McElroy?

  Spoiler: He's gonna grow extra toes, he's gonna grow different joints in his legs, he's gonna stand up big and proud, he's gonna grow boxing fists over his hands, he will be part-fighting type guaranteed.

• 0:34Russ Frushtick?

  Okay, you haven't-

• 0:35Griffin McElroy?

  That is gonna be a bipedal humanoid fighting dog, if I've ever seen one.

• 0:39Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, you haven't talked about the Bulge yet, and that's really my biggest concern.

• 0:43Griffin McElroy?

  I haven't talked about the Bulge, cuz I don't know what the fuck you're talking about, man.

• 0:47Russ Frushtick?

  Is Pom-Bon, two evolutions from now, from baby Pom-Bon to whatever final evolution is, gonna be rocking a massive Bulge?

• 0:55Griffin McElroy?

  They gave Incineroar a sort of chastity belt, to kind of like cover up whether or not there's anything happening down there, um, which I appreciate, I think it's a little bit more tasteful than May Champ's underwear, that he's just wearing.

• 1:10Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah.

• 1:10Griffin McElroy?

  He's just wearing them. Um, as for this dog, I don't know, they'll probably put pants on him, he'll probably evolve into pants.

• 1:18Chris Plante?

  It's hard for me to get into your head sometimes, Fresh, but I, if I'm guessing, you're picturing kind of a Choniki, like muscle man, glistening-

• 1:28Griffin McElroy?

  That's the dream, yeah.

• 1:29Russ Frushtick?

  That would be ideal. Yeah, I think Incineroar is really like where my head is probably going, cuz that's their default. I would rather, quite honestly, I'd rather him just be a cute little dog that maybe gets a little bigger.

• 1:43Griffin McElroy?

  No, dude, no, dude. Level 36, that dude looks like fucking RFK in the sound. Absolutely, huge wall of beef, man, absolutely.

• 1:52Chris Plante?

  Level 34 is gonna be sick.

• 2:12Speaker 03

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

• 2:16Chris Plante?

  My name is Griffin McElroy and I know the best game of the week. My name is Chris Plant and I know a Scott Pilgrim game.

• 2:23Russ Frushtick?

  My name is Russ Ferschik. I know the best game of the week.

• 2:27Speaker 03

  Welcome to The Besties, where we talk about the latest and greatest in home interactive entertainment. It is a video game club for friends. And just by listening, you have joined our illustrious ranks. This week, we're going to be talking about Scott Pilgrim X. Okay, I was worried you guys were going to correct me and say EX. I was kind of guessing, but Scott Pilgrim X-

• 2:52Chris Plante?

  Yeah, I think you would pronounce it X.

• 2:54Speaker 03

  Yeah, so what's that, Chris Plant?

• 2:56Chris Plante?

  Scott Pilgrim EX is a, I would say, spiritual sequel to Scott Pilgrim vs. the World of the Game, released in 2010, very similar to that game. This is a beat'em up, very different than that game is the entire structure, which we're going to talk about. The other odd thing about this game is it's an unofficial sequel of sorts to the Netflix Scott Pilgrim TV show, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off. And we'll talk about all that and more right after the break. I used to recommend a VPN to like anybody who is traveling, because you'll be, I don't know, in Paris or Tokyo. Look at you, big shot. And you'll want to watch your shows and you won't be able to. You'll need a VPN. But now I recommend a VPN for everybody,

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• 4:59Russ Frushtick?

  Griffin, you played a lot of the original Scott Pilgrim game and probably some of the remake as well, right? They remastered it a few years ago.

• 5:07Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, the remake didn't like do a ton. It was, you know, on the wide spectrum of remakes. It didn't, you know, do much. I really love that game. I really, I read Scott Pilgrim in college, which is kind of like when it is most appealing. I would say of a story, love the movie. And yeah, I thought the game kicked ass just as a, you know, came out in 2010, where we weren't really in this kind of like beat them up renaissance that we are in, I would say, right now. And so it was very, very exciting to have this like classic style pixel art beat them up with a soundtrack by Anamana Gucci and art designs by Paul Robertson, like just a really, really solid game.

• 5:52Griffin McElroy?

  That was, I would say, somewhat inspired by River City Ransom, the NES classic beat them up. Whereas this one, Scott Pilgrim EX, is extremely inspired by River City Ransom.

• 6:06Russ Frushtick?

  I was gonna say.

• 6:07Griffin McElroy?

  In almost every way.

• 6:09Russ Frushtick?

  Cause the original game was a lit, they were linear levels, correct?

• 6:12Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, so it had a sort of level select and you would go through and play through the different levels. Each one was kind of dedicated to one of the different evil X's, right? So there was like the movie set level. Where you're going up against Lucas Lee and then there was the a level on a bus that kept getting like sliced in half during the Roxy Richter sort of like ninja fight. There was a you were constantly earning money like enemies would drop coins and then you could go back to the first level of the game to like spend those coins at this marketplace, which was always kind of a weird sort of way of handling progression. Like you would just have to go back to level one and play through the last half of it and that would like allow you to buy food and stuff that would upgrade your stats.

• 6:55Russ Frushtick?

  Sounds like something they added very late.

• 6:57Griffin McElroy?

  It's sort of, but like I also love, you know, progression hooks in my beat them ups. What's interesting is like, in some ways, the game is structurally so different this time around because it does have a more open world style where you are running around between little like side levels that you go off into to like unlock the next progression thing or whatever. And like these odds and end challenges. And then there's like different sort of shopping centers like all around the map that you're running to. So in some ways, like it's a more elegant solution than you have to go back to level one to spend your money and then maybe play through the rest of that again. But I think the the big thing that's different this time around is the, I would say, the pacing, because you are not playing through these like long, long levels. And if you die,

• 7:41Griffin McElroy?

  you're gonna have to start over. Instead, you are like figuring out where to go next in this, you know, wild version of Toronto and then going into do a few fights and then you're off to the next sort of location. Yeah, doing a bunch of beating up stuff on on the way between point A and B.

• 7:59Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, you're you're given these mini objectives that are like, go to this beach or go to this haunted castle, fight a person there. That person might drop like a wet, like a instrument that then unlocks this thing. Yeah, but you're basically like being led pretty directly through this open world. You can kind of go in a lot of different places. You don't have to go. There's not really an incentive to go to a lot of different places. But it is an interesting structure that, again, as you said, very similar to Retro City where, what is it?

• 8:29Griffin McElroy?

  River City.

• 8:29Russ Frushtick?

  River City Rampage. Yeah.

• 8:31Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 8:31Russ Frushtick?

  In that way, like that open world thing.

• 8:34Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, it's it.

• 8:37Chris Plante?

  I want to talk more about the River City ransom part because what is really amazing about this game and it's released way back on the NES is it felt like what would become the open world game because it motivates you to use all of the different parts of the city. So similar in this game and Scott Pilgrim X, you will go into a boss fight and you will lose and you will realize I don't have enough health or magic to get into this fight and you could keep bashing it over and over again and keep losing, or you can go to a restaurant and buy a hamburger or nachos and increase your health and increase your stats and you can go grind some enemies in this open world and you can get a few different buffs like a special belt

• 9:17Chris Plante?

  that makes you stronger. If all of this sounds extremely old fashioned and retro, correct. It's, it is so loyal to that old fashioned thing. It's also loyal to it in that it's difficult. So Griffin's right, like you aren't going through these humongous levels, but you are doing like, let's say five or six screens of fights and then a boss. And if you lose,

• 9:44Griffin McElroy?

  You're doing all that shit over again.

• 9:45Chris Plante?

  Back to the beginning. You do it all over again.

• 9:47Griffin McElroy?

  You don't get to keep the stuff you have gotten since the last checkpoint and I think you start with the health you had when you hit that checkpoint and also you lose money as a penalty for dying. So it's like bizarrely punishing whenever you, whenever you die.

• 10:03Chris Plante?

  It is not rogue light in any way. In that sense of like, oh, well, if I keep grinding, I'm going to get better. It wants you to like, have to figure out a different way to go in and like actually grind before you go into the fight.

• 10:15Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah. I think for people, there's kind of two sorts of people that play beat them ups. There's the people that are like deeply care about score and I don't know, no hitting.

• 10:24Griffin McElroy?

  Tech and shit.

• 10:25Russ Frushtick?

  Tech and shit like that. And this game has

• 10:27Chris Plante?

  A lot of that.

• 10:28Russ Frushtick?

  tech out the ass. It is incredibly complicated, like way more complicated than I think I was expecting. Comparable, I would say, maybe not in the RPG settings, but close to Absalom's tech side. There's a lot going on.

• 10:40Griffin McElroy?

  I have some feelings about that, but

• 10:41Russ Frushtick?

  We'll get to, we'll get there. But I would say if you're the sort of person like me, who is looking to jump into a beat them up game and just like fuck shit up and have a good time with maybe a couple of people on the couch. You will, you will want to play on the lowest difficulty imaginable.

• 10:56Griffin McElroy?

  Especially if you're playing single player.

• 10:58Russ Frushtick?

  Yes.

• 10:59Griffin McElroy?

  It is, it is, I think, completely and obviously sort of like geared for, for multiplayer. Cause like in fights where there's a bunch of dudes on the screen, uh, it is not having someone to off-tank the boss for like a second. So you could catch your breath like this, stuff like that is like really, really, really tough.

• 11:17Russ Frushtick?

  And play, I will say, playing on the easier difficulty like made the game what I was looking.

• 11:22Griffin McElroy?

  Manageable, yeah.

• 11:22Russ Frushtick?

  Like I, I was able to enjoy myself just beating shit up and, and increasing my stats and getting money and going on missions and things like that. I don't really understand why the default setting, let alone the setting below that is still so challenging. I think it's a mistake from a design standpoint, but you know, whatever, that was their decision to make.

• 11:41Chris Plante?

  Let's talk about the combat because the combat in this game is so good. And I don't think that's a surprise. The studio, Tribute, they have been making, they made that Ninja Turtles, Shredder's Revenge. They made Marvel Cosmic Invasion. They made Panzer Paladin, a lot of games that we've really liked. And this is, it is hardcore. I mean, you have the traditional beat them up of just spamming punch and kick. You also have like a block system. You also have tons of physics objects in the world and they all react differently. So you might have various like volleyballs in a gymnasium setting, like a dozen of them.

• 12:20Chris Plante?

  And you can get this chaos happening where they're ricocheting into each other billiards ball style and just filling the screen with, with objects that'll like knock you to the floor.

• 12:31Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 12:33Chris Plante?

  It wants you to experiment with all the different weapons that it has. There are also these, um, uh, support characters that you can call in, surprising number of them to start with that have.

• 12:44Griffin McElroy?

  And you find more, yeah, it's like a nice, nice hook to.

• 12:46Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, these are side characters like, uh, Young Neil.

• 12:50Griffin McElroy?

  Young Neil and yeah.

• 12:51Chris Plante?

  Yeah. Jimmy, can you explain how the Young Neil thing works because it's.

• 12:54Russ Frushtick?

  I'm trying to remember what his, I know I did one where like two guys, to the twins, the Kuzunagi twins, whatever their name was.

• 13:01Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 13:02Russ Frushtick?

  Go up and create like a healing area. I forget what Young Niels was.

• 13:05Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 13:05Chris Plante?

  Young Niels is a stampede of fans.

• 13:07Griffin McElroy?

  Oh, yeah.

• 13:08Chris Plante?

  Fills the screen. It's, I mean, the Pixar, it's, yeah, it's sick.

• 13:13Griffin McElroy?

  I, I think it, uh, I think the combat feels fantastic. I think you can play this game not having much experience with beat'em ups and not wanting to engage much with like the deep tech stuff and like still have a really good time. I struggled to really sink my teeth into some of the like, uh, more techy sort of fundamentals. And it is stuff that is like native to the genre, like, uh, Clash, like going up against an enemy's attack with your attack to kind of like interrupt it. There's a lot of stuff with grab attacks in this game. Like you are, there are, you get iframes during grab attacks. So you sometimes like, that's the only option to, uh, you know, avoid some super attack that the, the boss is doing.

• 13:53Griffin McElroy?

  There's a little side hop thing that you can do. Um, I, but I, I don't know. I have a hard time sort of, uh, folding that into the regular ass beating stuff that I was doing with the character that I finally, uh, found that I, I, I really enjoyed. There's like seven characters. They all feel very, very different.

• 14:10Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah. I was pretty impressed. Who did you land on?

• 14:14Griffin McElroy?

  Uh, I did Lucas for a long time, but he, he's more of a grappler sort of slow style one that, uh, I don't know. I, I wanted something that attacked faster. So I ended up going with Roxy Richter, which is the ninja sort of build. Uh, and that's what I've been playing through the most.

• 14:29Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah. I was playing as, who is Jason Schwartzman's character?

• 14:33Griffin McElroy?

  Oh, Gideon Graves.

• 14:34Russ Frushtick?

  Gideon.

• 14:34Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 14:35Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, Gideon.

• 14:35Griffin McElroy?

  He's fun, too.

• 14:36Russ Frushtick?

  Super fun. He has the katana and, uh, very quick. I think he's a pressure character. So they, yeah, they really do feel very, very different.

• 14:44Griffin McElroy?

  My, uh, one issue that I have is the, is the progression stuff. I do again, like that stuff in my games, but in this one, it feels fairly inelegantly sort of, uh, added where like there is equipment. And if you unlock equipment on one character, you can use it on the other character, right? Which helps sort of bridge the gap a little bit, but also as you are playing, you are constantly buying food for your characters to upgrade their stats. You are constantly finding these pickups that permanently upgrade their stats. They're getting stronger and stronger and stronger. And sometimes you have to go do that shit in order to get through a boss fight. There simply is no other option. Like you're just not, you don't have the stats for it. You're going to get your ass kicked, right? Which means if you want to play as another character to like goof around with them,

• 15:25Griffin McElroy?

  they are going to be much, much weaker. And other games do versions of this that kind of like gets around it, right?

• 15:30Russ Frushtick?

  Castlecrafters had a similar system, right?

• 15:32Griffin McElroy?

  Castlecrafters did have a similar system, right? Where you're upgrading their stats. That was pretty intrinsic. But like a thing like, uh, the, I think it was the TMNT game, like you were also unlocking new moves, right? So you're not necessarily like, you have more health and you're not going to get beaten up so bad. And then like, a lot of this game made me appreciate a lot of the designs, decisions in Absalom a lot more. And I know it's probably frustrating to like, big fans of the genre to hear me say that. But like, the way Absalom would toss these options at you each run that forced you to like engage with the different mechanics. Like, I am, I have to use clash. I have to try to clash my way out of attacks. Because I have a build that like, is strengthened by that.

• 16:15Griffin McElroy?

  That stuff made that, made those mechanics like really fun and surprising to sort of engage with. And also got rid of the, if I want to play as this other character, that's fine. Because they're not going to be like way, way, way, way weaker, uh, than the one that I've been sort of like playing as the, the, the rest of the time.

• 16:33Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah. The other boon of Absalom that I found was that because you're working towards a specific build, you don't need to keep everything in your head at all times. So as someone that can't remember all these special moves, encounters and whatever the fuck, I was able to do one or two things that I did really well in a run. Whereas here, it feels like, I frequently feel like I'm doing the wrong thing.

• 16:55Griffin McElroy?

  Or the suboptimal thing, right? Which isn't, I, I, uh, I do think it's fun to play. I do, I do have a great time playing it. My biggest issue with the game is the structure. Because I would much prefer to just play through a long, fun beat them up level than, you know, the way this game handles it where you're running across the map and then you're going to do like a not so long sequence of fights and a boss fight. And then you, you know, get the guitar and that lets you go back and open this garage. Like, I was spending so much time kind of spinning my wheels and running around the map, just like running. Past fights at a certain point because I didn't want to do them for the millionth time. And that is unfortunately, Henry bounced off of the game because like, because of that, like the,

• 17:39Griffin McElroy?

  just the sort of interstitial parts that were not so engaging.

• 17:43Chris Plante?

  15 to 20 seconds of downtime where you're just looking for the word go.

• 17:46Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, and like managing equipment, like stuff like, again, this is like not, I think, a objective critique of the game. It's just like stuff that a nine-year-old is not as interested in. But like, I don't know, that, that, that was enough to kind of.

• 18:00Russ Frushtick?

  It's not a min-maxer.

• 18:01Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, it's enough to kind of bump him off the game. I, I've been, I've been enjoying it. But I, I do think that the dedication that they have like done in following the River City Rampage format maybe could have been modernized like a little, a little bit more. There's also weird stuff. There's like, some of the little mini-games are kind of strange. There's one where you're supposed to get in a fight, but you can only throw volleyballs. But whenever I throw a volleyball, it instantly fails the challenge and I don't, I never like could figure out quite why that was, was happening.

• 18:38Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, I ran into similar issues as well. I, I sort of agree. I, I think it, it feels to me that the open world stuff was a way to pad out the experience because you are kind of in the more classic indie game format these days. The idea that you would create one level and you'd only run through it once and that would be the last time you saw of it is like not a very productive use of resources. So here they have very, very densely animated detailed levels that you are seeing more than once, but it did, you're right, feel a little bit like, eh, I don't need to go through this level again. It doesn't bring me a lot of joy again.

• 19:16Chris Plante?

  I, I think that's definitely the effect that it has. I, I don't think that was the intention because it is ripping on River City Ransom and like, that's just how the game works.

• 19:26Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah.

• 19:26Chris Plante?

  I think what is tricky and it's, it's where this balancing act, when you're trying to do old-fashioned genre gets messy is in River City Ransom, you were exploring these different places and you would come across fights and you would figure out gradually what to do. When you have the direction to go from place to place, on one hand, that makes the game much easier and more streamlined and less frustrating. On the other, it makes it weirdly linear, which is the thing that it doesn't want to be. So I don't know, I, this is the first game that Tribute has self-published since 2020. They did that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game and Marvel Cosmic Invasion with Dot Emu.

• 20:10Chris Plante?

  And I, I personally prefer those experiences. Those, both those games, I think are a bit more appealing to a broader audience. One of the earliest games that Tribute made was Mercenary Kings. Do y'all remember that?

• 20:25Griffin McElroy?

  Hell, yeah.

• 20:26Chris Plante?

  Yeah, and it is a very, I would say, more hardcore experience.

• 20:30Russ Frushtick?

  Incredibly, yeah.

• 20:31Griffin McElroy?

  Incredibly hard metal slug style, sort of.

• 20:34Russ Frushtick?

  But with weird meta mechanics that we're seeing in here as well.

• 20:37Griffin McElroy?

  And awesome art by Paul Robertson. Like, there is a definite through line between these. I love this studio a lot for, for these, these exact reasons.

• 20:45Chris Plante?

  What I admire about them, and what I admire about this game is like, they are, I mean, Tribute is the perfect name for the studio. They are so dedicated to honoring and recreating and sticking to the early pleasures of these games. The problem is that's just, for me personally, not where I'm at. But I think there are a number of people who are listening to this, I hope this is the case, where you're hearing our gripes. And you're like, that sounds awesome. Like, that sounds like what I am looking for. And like, yeah, that, that is what's interesting about this game is the things that like, we don't like, they're not bad. They're just, they're largely a personal preference.

• 21:24Griffin McElroy?

  Juice, I know that you were not able to, to play this one because of the twitchiness sort of aspect of it and your, your, your recovery. But you're kind of familiar with Scott Pilgrim stuff, I think. Did you?

• 21:37Speaker 03

  No, I like sports. I'm a sports guy. No, it's weird. The only thing that strikes me as weird is like, I was thinking about the gap between this one and the last one, right? Like, that 16-year gap. And it's like. Is the nostalgia, are we just sort of in this stage where like nostalgia is like a general sort of vibe? You know what I mean? Because like now this game is harkening back to a game that was harkening back to another generation before it. Is that like, is that the Scott Pilgrim aspect of it where you can just sort of like play in those time ranges? Is that like what sets this apart as a Scott Pilgrim game? Because I know what that meant earlier when it was like very tied to the comic and the graphic novel and that sort

• 22:21Speaker 03

  of like retro idea was very tied into like what that graphic novel is like.

• 22:26Griffin McElroy?

  Sure.

• 22:26Russ Frushtick?

  I don't know that this game in particular is, even though obviously there's similarities in terms of genre and stuff like that, I don't know that this game is super in conversation with the first game. I think it's more in conversation with just like video game history in general, like.

• 22:39Griffin McElroy?

  Well, and as Chris mentioned, the Netflix series, like I don't think it follows it in plot, but that series really dove into like the personalities of the different X's a lot more and you get to play as a lot of them this time around.

• 22:55Speaker 03

  I guess what I'm saying is like this has been folded back into nostalgia rather than it being something about nostalgia, right? Like, because a lot of the people who would be playing this in the target demographic don't have nostalgia for this. You know what I mean? Like, that's different. Like, people playing in 2010 are nostalgic for the generation this is talking about, you know, 16, 20 years prior, but that, like, we're now a generation removed from that. So is this like, is this nostalgia for them or is it more of like a aesthetic?

• 23:24Chris Plante?

  Well, in terms of story specifically, it is nostalgic for Scott Pilgrim in the way that like Scott Pilgrim was nostalgic for old video games and other stuff like that. I think that is what actually, I would have probably stick around longer if it had a story like Scott Pilgrim, where this is like, I hope you really care about these characters and get references because you're gonna, you're gonna need it if that's what you're here for.

• 23:50Griffin McElroy?

  Oh yeah, man, this thing starts out with a fucking bang. If you have not, if this is the first piece of Scott Pilgrim media you've consumed, do not expect an onboarding process.

• 24:02Chris Plante?

  Also, in terms of the game, it is worth saying, the team that would go on to found Tribute, the studio that made this worked on the original Scott Pilgrim games.

• 24:11Griffin McElroy?

  Oh, okay, that makes sense.

• 24:12Chris Plante?

  That's where that influence comes from.

• 24:13Griffin McElroy?

  Interesting.

• 24:15Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, I, yeah, I think it is, I think it's a fun one. And I'm obviously like, I love this genre and I'm excited that it is continuing to get these like, pretty high-profile, just banger releases. And it's, it is fun always to see like, a studio get kind of free rein, or at least more than they have with other properties in the past. It very much feels like Tribute was told like, hey, just, just go fucking Hogwild.

• 24:41Chris Plante?

  Yeah.

• 24:42Griffin McElroy?

  Whatever you want with this thing.

• 24:43Chris Plante?

  All right, well, let's take a quick break. And when we come back, I understand there's some developments in the world of Pokémon. So I can finally get a fucking handle on this.

• 24:53Chris Plante?

  We'll be right back.

• 24:56Russ Frushtick?

  This episode of The Besties is sponsored by Lisa. You know, we are starting to get into the cooler months of the year. And you know what I love in the cool months of the year? An incredibly cozy mattress that you can just cozy up into. You got the blankets and everything. And I will speak from experience, but maybe not my experience, because Lisa sent me one of their mattresses. But it was timed as such, where actually my son, who was becoming a toddler and needed like, an actual bed, needed a mattress. So we had him use the Lisa mattress. And every time that I get into that bed to read him a story at night, I am incredibly

• 25:38Russ Frushtick?

  jealous of his mattress, because holy cow, that thing is incredibly comfortable. Lisa was awarded the Best Hybrid and Best Memory Foam Mattress by New York Times Wire Cutter, and is featured by West Elm as their go-to mattress partner. You can go to lisa.com for 25% off select mattresses, plus get an extra $50 off with promo code BESTIES, exclusive to our listeners. That's L-E-E-S-A.com, promo code BESTIES for 25% off select mattresses, plus an extra $50 off. Let them know we sent you in the survey after checkout. Lisa.com, promo code BESTIES.

• 26:18Russ Frushtick?

  Justin, this is the one.

• 26:20Griffin McElroy?

  This will be the one, dude.

• 26:21Russ Frushtick?

  This is the one.

• 26:23Griffin McElroy?

  With the power of the Switch 2.

• 26:25Russ Frushtick?

  You will finally be a Pokémon maniac. I know you've been fighting the urge for all these years, but this one, let me-

• 26:33Speaker 03

  Sign me up. Put me in, coach.

• 26:35Griffin McElroy?

  I'll say this, Juice. If you get your kids into Pokémon, birthdays, Christmas.

• 26:40Russ Frushtick?

  Everywhere.

• 26:41Griffin McElroy?

  Every present, face, holiday. No worries, dude. No worries. Just go with the merch.

• 26:47Russ Frushtick?

  That's right. You're covered.

• 26:49Griffin McElroy?

  Obviously. Big announcement. Pokémon Winds and Waves. The next generation has been revealed, coming sometime next year with a simultaneous global release. Switch 2 exclusive.

• 27:00Speaker 03

  Yeah, this is the first Switch 2 exclusive. You can buy Pokémon Winds or Pokémon Waves?

• 27:06Griffin McElroy?

  I know, isn't that wild?

• 27:08Russ Frushtick?

  What do you mean?

• 27:09Griffin McElroy?

  You'd have to buy both of them to get them all.

• 27:11Russ Frushtick?

  That's how they've been doing it forever.

• 27:12Griffin McElroy?

  That's why I'm boycotting this.

• 27:17Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, it looks really neat. It has sun and moon energy. It's like based in a new era or new area.

• 27:24Russ Frushtick?

  It's a tropical theming.

• 27:26Griffin McElroy?

  It's Southeast Asian sort of inspired, so like Philippines-

• 27:31Russ Frushtick?

  Is that a quote, or is that you making that interpretation?

• 27:33Griffin McElroy?

  No, that's, I don't know if it's a quote, but it is what they have said about the area. So a lot of like islands and obviously a lot of winds and a whole bunch of waves.

• 27:44Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah.

• 27:45Chris Plante?

  What is different about this, this one that you all can tell so far?

• 27:49Russ Frushtick?

  It's such a good question, Chris Plant. Here's the thing that's very different. When you start playing the game, there are three different Pokémon that you have not picked previously when you start-

• 27:58Griffin McElroy?

  These are new guys, new guys.

• 28:00Russ Frushtick?

  New guys. We already talked about Palm Bomb, the-

• 28:04Chris Plante?

  Brought and Gekwa are the other two.

• 28:07Griffin McElroy?

  Brought is such a strong name for Brought. Brought is such a good name. I don't even care. Brought's the water one, I think, right?

• 28:13Russ Frushtick?

  No, no, no, no, no.

• 28:13Chris Plante?

  Nope. Brought is a grass-type bean chick Pokémon.

• 28:19Russ Frushtick?

  Justin, if you could pull up a picture of Brought and just talk about what you're seeing, that would be helpful.

• 28:24Speaker 03

  Tell me the spelling on Brought, please.

• 28:26Griffin McElroy?

  I R O W T.

• 28:26Chris Plante?

  Justin's more of a Brought or a Gekwa.

• 28:29Griffin McElroy?

  W T.

• 28:30Russ Frushtick?

  Traditional spelling.

• 28:31Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, I love this guy. This is gonna be the guy for me, I think. It's Brought.

• 28:35Speaker 03

  Brought. He looks like if-

• 28:40Speaker 03

  Oh, like if a lime came to life and was your best friend?

• 28:46Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 28:46Russ Frushtick?

  But also wasn't thrilled about the prospects.

• 28:49Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 28:49Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 28:50Griffin McElroy?

  What if an egg hatched? What if an egg hatched and the thing that came out of it was still kind of an egg? That's a brow.

• 28:57Chris Plante?

  Weirdly has the silhouette of a Pac-Man ghost, but with chicken legs.

• 29:02Speaker 03

  Highly edible.

• 29:02Griffin McElroy?

  Uh, not a ton of info. Highly, super munchable dude, absolutely.

• 29:08Chris Plante?

  Super duper.

• 29:09Griffin McElroy?

  Uh, not a ton of like info about the game has come out. Uh, it, it, uh, you have like a scooter that I guess you attach to your Pokemon to ride on them. That's, that's kind of a nothing burger, I feel like, from a news aspect.

• 29:23Russ Frushtick?

  Better than the last time when you had to ride on a Pokemon who was also a motorcycle for some reason.

• 29:28Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah. And eventually like just a full airplane, just a full blown airplane.

• 29:33Russ Frushtick?

  We really just have the setting and the, and the starters, I think at this point.

• 29:37Griffin McElroy?

  I think that is, that, well, and I think the platform, right? A lot of people are pissed off that it is not going to be on the Switch one. I think that's sort of out of touch with the history of how new platforms evolve. Eventually they're going to stop making games for the older one, but also Pokemon Scarlet and Violet suffered so much.

• 29:56Speaker 03

  Ran like dog shit.

• 29:57Chris Plante?

  I was gonna say, they stopped making games for Pokemon on Switch one like five years ago. They barely run.

• 30:02Griffin McElroy?

  Uh, it's, it, yeah, but this looks.

• 30:05Speaker 03

  Question about this one.

• 30:06Griffin McElroy?

  Way better. Yeah.

• 30:07Chris Plante?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 30:08Speaker 03

  I mean, I, I think there's a question on all the Pokemaniacs minds really. And it's like, there's, there's 10 types that we haven't gotten yet. Type combinations that we haven't gotten, right? And four of those are normal combos. So you roll those out, you got five left. I call them, I call them the funky five, okay? These are the five funky combinations you have not gotten yet. And I would love to know which of the funky five you guys would like to see represented in wins.

• 30:36Russ Frushtick?

  Griffin, do you know of any of the funky five just off the top of your head as a Pokemaniac?

• 30:39Griffin McElroy?

  Oh my Christ. Um, uh, is there, I imagine dragon is in there.

• 30:45Speaker 03

  Yes, Bug Dragon.

• 30:46Griffin McElroy?

  I, I don't think there's been a.

• 30:49Russ Frushtick?

  Bug Dragon, Flygon is not a Bug Dragon?

• 30:52Speaker 03

  Bug Dragon is one of the funky five.

• 30:55Griffin McElroy?

  Okay.

• 30:55Russ Frushtick?

  Huh.

• 30:58Griffin McElroy?

  I'm not gonna be able to pull this in.

• 31:00Russ Frushtick?

  Okay. What are the Funky Five?

• 31:01Speaker 03

  The Funky Five, or Fire Fairy.

• 31:04Griffin McElroy?

  Definitely Ground Fairy, right?

• 31:05Speaker 03

  Ground Fairy, Fire Fairy, Ice Poison, Bug Dragon, Rock Ghost.

• 31:11Griffin McElroy?

  Rock Ghost.

• 31:13Speaker 03

  Crazy that coughing is on a Rock Ghost.

• 31:15Russ Frushtick?

  Fly Dragon seems like it's gonna happen this, you know, you're in this tropical environment, there's a lot of crazy bugs. Bug Dragon? Sorry. Sorry. Bug Dragon seems like that's gonna happen.

• 31:27Griffin McElroy?

  I'd love that.

• 31:27Speaker 03

  That would be cool. Which of the?

• 31:29Russ Frushtick?

  But Fly got realistic, we should be a Bug Dragon.

• 31:31Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah. Like, oh, I'm going spelunky in this tropical cave. Oh, Rock Ghost.

• 31:36Russ Frushtick?

  A Bug Dragon, yeah. Oh, Rock Ghost, yeah.

• 31:38Speaker 03

  What if you found a Ground Fairy, just a dirty ass Ground Fairy rutting around down there in the dirt? You always think of him going play it to play it, but what if you saw a Fairy just like?

• 31:50Speaker 03

  Like a Fairy digging out of the rocks? That'd be cool. Rock Fairy, Ground Fairy.

• 31:55Griffin McElroy?

  Put me in the Poke Store. I want to get all. The type matchups against that thing would be fucking gnarly, dude.

• 32:03Russ Frushtick?

  That might be why it hasn't appeared yet.

• 32:04Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, it might be, might be OP. Um, yeah, no, I'm, I'm, I'm excited for, I did not get into Z and A, Z through A at all.

• 32:13Russ Frushtick?

  I'm now eighty-five hours into that game because it's the only Pokemon game my son will play and he fucking loves it.

• 32:18Griffin McElroy?

  Henry got back into it. Henry played, so I've like helped him out with some fights that have gotten too tough. But it is not a situation like Scarlet and Violet where we both played the hell out of it and did trading and battling and like the whole nine yards. So like, I am genuinely very excited for, for that to return, even though this is not too surprising. Uh, it's, you know, look at the water in Scarlet and Violet and then look at the water in this trailer.

• 32:42Speaker 03

  I, uh, I wanna say two things. Uh, the first is this two addendums to my previous question about the Funky Five. Uh, first addendum is, according to this Reddit post that I'm referring to, uh, it's worth noting that Dragon slash Fairy is only used in Mega Evolution with Alteria. And, um, my second thing is, I'm sorry if that was a, uh, activation phrase for any assassins out there. I don't really know how all that works or what that means, so apologies in advance.

• 33:14Chris Plante?

  Yeah, I did not know the lore around these Pokemons. Somebody wants a disc, the disc Pokémon to be, to be one of these. The disc Pokémon is responsible for all of Area Zero and the Great Crater. It has the power to bring thoughts to reality, hence the creation of the paradox Pokémon, the paradox of their very existence.

• 33:34Russ Frushtick?

  Is this tying into this game in particular?

• 33:36Griffin McElroy?

  This is about the Indigo Disc. This is like a...

• 33:39Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, this sounds unrelated to Wind and Waves.

• 33:42Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, it sounds like they're making shit up.

• 33:44Chris Plante?

  There was a request of like, oh, you know who would be a great, a great rock ghost? The disc Pokémon.

• 33:50Russ Frushtick?

  Well, you can't. He's already in there.

• 33:52Chris Plante?

  No, he hasn't.

• 33:53Russ Frushtick?

  Oh, he hasn't been shown yet. He's, he's like a mystery force working behind the scenes.

• 33:58Chris Plante?

  Yeah, you can only read about the disc.

• 33:59Griffin McElroy?

  I hope Team Rocket comes back for this one.

• 34:01Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah.

• 34:02Chris Plante?

  I'll tell you what I am looking forward to as Pokémon Champion.

• 34:05Speaker 03

  What if, what if the, okay, well, listen, listen. What if the final shot of the trailer where they reveal this game? Both of these games is, and there's two trailers, right? Cause there's two members of Team Rocket, two games. Each one ends with James or...

• 34:23Russ Frushtick?

  Jesse.

• 34:25Speaker 03

  Hey, I was farting.

• 34:30Griffin McElroy?

  That wasn't a gap for an answer, Russ. It was clearly a courtesy break.

• 34:35Russ Frushtick?

  Sorry, I thought I was helping him out.

• 34:38Russ Frushtick?

  That was my bad.

• 34:40Speaker 03

  They're like, Russ, that's your fault. What if the last shot of the trailer is you zoom in on their eyes? And you realize like, it's Team Rocket. And then you hear them say, we're, we're gonna kill every human being on Earth?

• 34:54Griffin McElroy?

  Okay, man, you're joking.

• 34:56Speaker 03

  Plus, that Team Rocket is gonna kill every human being. Like, it's like, Jesse, James, we're gonna kill every human being on the face of the Earth.

• 35:04Griffin McElroy?

  I mean, that is basically in a lot of the Pokémon games, the sort of Team Rocket substitute. Like Team Aqua and Team Magma were basically like, we're gonna flood the Earth. We're gonna create a new biblical flood and we will be the only survivors. Like, holy shit, you guys, are you sure? The other guys just wanted to yoink my slowpoke tails. But you wanna fucking kill everyone in the... Want to collapse the dimensions? Are you out of your fucking mind?

• 35:28Russ Frushtick?

  Pokemon Z actually tackles this because they deal with the Lysander and whatever his team was on. And that sounded pretty apocalyptic.

• 35:34Griffin McElroy?

  Pretty intense, pretty intense shit. Yeah.

• 35:36Russ Frushtick?

  So pulling from the headlines these days, Pokemon, uh, well done.

• 35:39Griffin McElroy?

  Pokemon Champions comes out soonish.

• 35:41Russ Frushtick?

  That's just where they fight each other, right?

• 35:43Griffin McElroy?

  It's Pokemon, uh, uh, Pokemon Stadium, right? But the new Pokemon Stadium, you can pull your Pokemon from Pokemon Home. I don't know.

• 35:49Russ Frushtick?

  That does not appeal to me.

• 35:50Griffin McElroy?

  Okay.

• 35:51Russ Frushtick?

  I am incredibly excited about the game we're going to be talking about next week. I, this is a little bit of a spoiler, but we're going to be doing Pokopia next week.

• 35:58Griffin McElroy?

  Yes.

• 35:59Russ Frushtick?

  And this game has literally been on my fucking radar since it got announced. Probably, what was it? Six months ago, something like that? It looked fucking awesome and the reviews have been very good. So I'm very excited to try it. I have not played it.

• 36:10Griffin McElroy?

  Is this the great merger of the frustic Griffin taste? Like, I feel like. I don't know, man. I mean, yes, I'm very fucking excited. Cause you're a Dragon Quest builders person, Griffin.

• 36:21Russ Frushtick?

  Well, I love Dragon Quest builders as well.

• 36:23Griffin McElroy?

  Are you both? Yeah, I think it's just two great tastes that are going to taste pretty fucking good.

• 36:26Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 36:26Griffin McElroy?

  Excited to get in.

• 36:27Russ Frushtick?

  We're there. We're there. We're also playing Eugenics at the same time. So that's also happening.

• 36:32Russ Frushtick?

  I'm excited, but, uh, more excited about Pokopia than I am Winds and Waves. I've, it's been a little while since I've really enjoyed one of the mainline Pokemon games. I think they've gotten a little up their own asses. I hope they take some swings that I'm not expecting. I don't think that they will because they tend to play it a little bit safe.

• 36:49Speaker 03

  Uh, Fire Fairy, maybe?

• 36:51Russ Frushtick?

  Fire Fairy would change the game entirely.

• 36:53Griffin McElroy?

  A nasty ground fairy in there. Yeah.

• 36:55Russ Frushtick?

  Thank you, Justin. Good point. Uh, we have some reader mail, uh, unless we had any other thoughts on Pokemon.

• 36:59Griffin McElroy?

  Please.

• 37:01Russ Frushtick?

  Uh, this one comes from Azlam, uh, regarding, I will take a hit on this one. I was knocking Grace as an FBI agent when we were talking about Resident Evil, uh, last week. Uh, Azlam says, one thing I will say, and I really only picked up on this because I watched the opening of the game three times. Grace is not an FBI agent. I do think she is an FBI agent, but we'll, we'll get there. Her wildly incompetent boss calls her a technical analyst. That is a good, uh, precision note. And then sends her into the field alone and her only companion is her constant PTSD for her mother's murder. Murder, which she is currently investigating the same location. She doesn't even get an FBI issued gun. Nothing about her being sent there makes any sense.

• 37:42Russ Frushtick?

  You wouldn't even send an FBI agent into a weird murder situation by themselves, let alone some desk jockey analyst.

• 37:48Griffin McElroy?

  Wow. Damn.

• 37:50Russ Frushtick?

  I mean, they're right. She seems wholly unprepared for this scenario.

• 37:54Griffin McElroy?

  She has a badge that says FBI on it. And then when she does find a gun, she immediately starts capping.

• 38:00Speaker 03

  Resident Evil has been in an uphill battle with plausibility for a long time now. And this is just the straw that makes the proverbial camel's back.

• 38:07Chris Plante?

  I think the game's a pretty good job of explaining why this is happening. You just have to make it a little bit further.

• 38:16Griffin McElroy?

  I don't actually think there's any excuse for the boss being like, hey, you know that room you watched your mother be murdered in? You gotta go there to look for clues for a different.

• 38:25Russ Frushtick?

  I have a theory.

• 38:27Griffin McElroy?

  I have a, we will save it for.

• 38:29Russ Frushtick?

  Okay, we'll save it for the spoiler episode, which we're not doing today. I do want to say though, she is not a field agent and you wouldn't send an analyst into a random crime scene. I'm sorry. There's no justification for it.

• 38:38Griffin McElroy?

  Where their mother was.

• 38:40Russ Frushtick?

  Certainly, let alone the fact that her mother was murdered there. Okay.

• 38:43Griffin McElroy?

  Can we do this one about the, the least scary one?

• 38:46Russ Frushtick?

  Yes, let's do this one about the least scary one. That's fine. This is a question from Dustin. If I'm a scaredy baby like Frush, fair cop, but I am tired of feeling left out. What Resident Evil game should I start with? Good question.

• 39:01Griffin McElroy?

  I don't think four is too scary. Like it's more stressful than anything else, but I think it goes fairly light on the jump scares.

• 39:10Russ Frushtick?

  Four was the one that I, as a scaredy baby, was finally able to get into.

• 39:15Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 39:16Russ Frushtick?

  It is most scary at the very beginning. That is the scariest part of the entire game, in my opinion. And then it gets progressively less scary as Leon gets fucking yoked.

• 39:24Griffin McElroy?

  If you get like a rocket launcher.

• 39:25Russ Frushtick?

  Eventually, yes.

• 39:27Speaker 03

  I find, I find Ari, I find Village unsettling for a lot of parts, but it's more creepy and you do have a lot of agency and power. I think the controls are the big thing. We're like, I don't find Code Veronica particularly scary, but when you have that limited control, I feel like that adds to the tension.

• 39:42Russ Frushtick?

  The other thing I would say in favor of Village is post-launch, they added third-person mode, and third-person mode does make these games less scary.

• 39:51Griffin McElroy?

  Sure.

• 39:51Russ Frushtick?

  So I would, I would say Village would be a good pick.

• 39:54Griffin McElroy?

  Village has like one level, the doll sequence that is, is tough, but yes, it is surprising because Seven, on the other hand, it would be like the number one.

• 40:03Russ Frushtick?

  Way too scary. I was way, I could not play Seven. It was too scary.

• 40:07Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, it rocks.

• 40:10Russ Frushtick?

  We have one more letter. This one comes from Zach. Did anyone try out Morsels? It's a really weird rogue-like with a neat art style. We did talk about it on Rusties.

• 40:18Griffin McElroy?

  Okay, I played Morsels as well. It is, that is a neat, a very, very neat game. I forget, something else came out around the same time that kind of like pushed it off my radar, but it was one that I was very much enjoying, even though I agree with the sentiment here, a little light on what's happening mechanics-wise.

• 40:34Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, they are probably too opaque.

• 40:37Griffin McElroy?

  Way too opaque and like, I think that's part of the design of the, of the game. And I don't think it would have been as big of an issue if there hadn't been, you know, some competition for my, my gaming time, but.

• 40:48Russ Frushtick?

  Cool game, if you, especially if you like the Binding of Isaac.

• 40:51Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, the art style as well.

• 40:52Russ Frushtick?

  Zach mentioned there are a few other Next Fest demos that they tried. You Know the Drill, which is a fun time waster that would be good on portables. Wanderbug, which is a really fun bullet hell building. Oh, sorry, Wanderberg. It's a fun bullet hell building on, in building on wheels. Flock Around, a cozy bird watching, good with friends to hang out in. And Cuppy Claw, which felt obtuse, but fun to make the claw go up and down.

• 41:17Griffin McElroy?

  Okay.

• 41:17Russ Frushtick?

  I get, I get it. So those are some Next Fest titles. I have another Next Fest title that I could talk about in honorable mentions if anyone.

• 41:23Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, please.

• 41:25Russ Frushtick?

  I played a game called Rune Dice, which is currently in Next Fest. It comes out Q2 of this year. Rune Dice is.

• 41:34Russ Frushtick?

  Okay, so imagine a tabletop and on that tabletop you've spread like 20 six-sided dice around and each of them have numbers on them and you have one die that has a one on it. And if you shoot that die like Bust a Move style, if you shoot that die into another one, it'll transform into a two and launch up into the air and use physics to try to roll over to another two. And that in turn, if it becomes a three, it tries to roll to another three and da-da-da-da, you try to set up these cool combos. I really liked it. It was very quick. It had an interesting rogue-like mechanic to it where you're picking special dice that'll appear on your board. You had like runes and things that would drop down. Um, I don't know about the full game, but I really liked the, uh, the demo on Next Fest, so.

• 42:19Griffin McElroy?

  This looks great.

• 42:20Russ Frushtick?

  Uh, there was also a very good Northern Lion, a video of him playing it and that's what convinced me to check it out.

• 42:25Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, that'll get, that'll get you every time.

• 42:27Russ Frushtick?

  The other thing that I want to talk about was not a Next Fest thing, but I did get to the DLC of Little Gator Game, which is excellent. If you liked Little Gator Game, this was the Breath of the Wild style kids game where you're a gator on a like a tropical, like fun island, you're doing a fun adventure. Uh, the DLC happens after you finish the main game. Main game's like four or five hours, so not a long game. Uh, and it's basically the same length as the main game, so you're kind of doubling up on the game and it's all taking place in these caves underneath. The big difference is here is the items that you're getting like pretty dramatically change the way you can like attack or interact with the world. There's like a spider swing and a pickaxe and all sorts of shit like that.

• 43:08Russ Frushtick?

  So, uh, if you liked Little Gator Game, highly, highly recommend the DLC. It's been excellent.

• 43:13Griffin McElroy?

  Um, I've been playing quite a bit of, uh, of a game that came out four years ago that I, I just missed. And but now it's out on mobile and it's called Shotgun King.

• 43:23Russ Frushtick?

  Hmm.

• 43:24Griffin McElroy?

  So Shotgun King is a chess-based game, uh, where you are the king of the, uh, of the black team and all of your pieces have, uh, defected and left. You're the only piece remaining on the board for the, for the black side. And you also do have a shotgun. Uh, that is how it starts. And when each match starts, the white pieces start on the other end of the board in the usual sort of chess fashion, except there's only like four pawns and the king and then one knight and one bishop. And you have to use your shotgun to kill the king, to get up on him. And there's a lot of different sort of mechanics of like your shotgun shoots in a certain arc and has a certain range. And you'll blast out this many pellets and each one does one damage.

• 44:06Griffin McElroy?

  So if you get closer to a piece, then you know, obviously you're going to do more damage per shot. But then also like you have to reload by moving around. You can't just stay put in one place and you have a limited ammo and you can't move into check. And you can't, uh, most of the time you can't shoot while you are in check. So there's also some chess shit happening too, where if you get surrounded, uh, and you don't have a safe square to move to, unless you have some, you know, other option of getting out of there, like you're fucked. You're, you're just gonna die. So yeah, it, it kind of like requires some chess sense. But mostly it's a game about having a shotgun on a chessboard.

• 44:47Griffin McElroy?

  Every time you've killed the king, it moves on to the next round and matches run for like 11 rounds. And between rounds, you draft a pair of cards, one of which will be a benefit to you and your shotgun, usually making it like more potent, or now you get grenades you can throw, or now this one will save you from death once per round. But it is paired with an upgrade for the white pieces. So like as you are improving your own shit, you are also adding more white pieces to the board or making it so that like, okay, well now the opposing knights can move diagonally like bishops. So you have to be very thoughtful about like your, your choices. But that's pretty much it.

• 45:27Griffin McElroy?

  There's like achievements to go for or new shotguns to unlock by like getting your current gun up to a certain, uh, you know, upgrade point. But it is very short, very digestible run based game. That is, I don't know, just such a fun, weird twist on chess, uh, that I, I have been really enjoying it in my.

• 45:50Speaker 03

  What brought, what brought you to this, to this game?

• 45:52Griffin McElroy?

  It just came out, just came out on mobile. So it's like a new, new release. Yeah. So it's been out for a while on, on PC. I think Russ mentioned that he had played it.

• 46:00Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, a while ago. Yeah.

• 46:02Griffin McElroy?

  This is new to me and it works great.

• 46:05Speaker 03

  Nice.

• 46:06Chris Plante?

  Um, speaking of games that are gonna be new to people, Mini Shoot Adventures is now available on Switch.

• 46:13Speaker 03

  Oh, that's a good format for that.

• 46:15Griffin McElroy?

  That's a good game.

• 46:16Chris Plante?

  Yeah, game that it is the right spot. If you have not played this game, picture like a schmup mixed with Zelda. When I say schmup, don't let that scare you like it's not super hardcore. It it teaches you how to play the form.

• 46:31Griffin McElroy?

  I'm bad at schmups and I 100% in this game. You can to you can do it too. Don't be thrown by the weird apostrophe that's just in the title for some reason.

• 46:40Chris Plante?

  Very confusing and unfortunate. Um, the other thing I just want to flag is Starship Troopers Ultimate Bug War. The game is coming out March 16th, I believe, but you can play a demo of it right now. And it is, uh, the follow up to Bolt Gun, a game that we really enjoyed. And I think maybe we talked about on Rusties, but it's kind of doing boomer shooter and more of an open world setting mixed in with all of that that Starship Troopers, uh, goodness. And, uh, I'm very curious about the full game, but I would definitely check out the the demo while it's still up on Steam.

• 47:18Griffin McElroy?

  Juice?

• 47:19Speaker 03

  I watched a very good TV show called Wonder Man. Did you guys talk about Wonder Man?

• 47:27Russ Frushtick?

  Uh, I don't.

• 47:28Griffin McElroy?

  I don't think we have.

• 47:28Russ Frushtick?

  I might have mentioned it in passing, but.

• 47:30Speaker 03

  Who watched Wonder Man?

• 47:31Russ Frushtick?

  I did.

• 47:33Speaker 03

  What about, uh, you, Chris Plant?

• 47:36Chris Plante?

  Uh, I have not watched.

• 47:37Speaker 03

  What about Griffin?

• 47:37Chris Plante?

  My thing.

• 47:38Griffin McElroy?

  I've also not watched Wonder Man.

• 47:39Speaker 03

  Great. Can I tell you guys about Wonder Man?

• 47:42Griffin McElroy?

  Please.

• 47:42Speaker 03

  Okay, so.

• 47:43Griffin McElroy?

  I know about the guy. I just don't know about.

• 47:45Speaker 03

  So Wonder Man's a superhero. We love him. His name's Simon Williams, but that's not really what this show is about. The show uh, is a mini series. It's part of what they call the Marvel Spotlight banner. It's kind of like a. The way they're doing like mini arcs or one offs or, you know, uh,

• 48:03Russ Frushtick?

  I think they're meant to be more grounded stories that aren't like MCU tie style, style stories.

• 48:09Speaker 03

  Both like grounded narratively sort of, but also like grounded, like also like separate sort of from the rest of the MCU. The connection here that's cool, the, the ties that are there. Um, and this is very well explained in the show, but, uh, Ben Kingsley is, if you don't know, was previously in the Iron Man franchise, playing a, uh, guy named Trevor Slattery, who was, uh, the, uh, Mandarin, pretending to be the Mandarin. He was basically an actor pretending to be a terrorist and it was kind of not great. None of it was great. It was all pretty bad.

• 48:46Speaker 03

  And that sort of like whole part of Iron Man three is sort of a, a, a, a dark mark on the Marvel, like that era. It's like kind of a bad choice that nobody really liked. Anyway, this series is about a guy named Simon Williams, who is the same, uh, the, is named after the character, uh, from the Wonder Man series. Uh, that's not really talked about or addressed, but it is important. He is an actor, uh, and he grew up in the, watching the Wonder Man, uh, movie that exists in this reality, this Wonder Man movie with his dad. Um, at this Wonder Man, this Simon Williams is played by Yaya Abdul Mateen, who is breaking great.

• 49:30Speaker 03

  He's maybe like awesome.

• 49:32Russ Frushtick?

  Amazing, fantastic in Watchmen as well.

• 49:34Speaker 03

  He's great. Um, basically, uh, he, this guy has superpowers, but because of an incident that is explained in a standalone episode, superheroes can't work on movies. If you are superhero.

• 49:50Russ Frushtick?

  Basically an insurance problem.

• 49:51Speaker 03

  It's an insurance issue, right? So superheroes can't work movies. So this guy is as an extremely serious actor who is trying to hide the fact that he is a superhero or has not, I shouldn't even say superhero, has, has these abilities, has these powers. Meanwhile, he is under investigation by the government who wants to track. And monitor people with these kinds of abilities. So the, the way they, they do that is they rope in the Trevor Slattery character, who got out of prison before his time, basically, and they say, hey, unless you want to go back to jail, you need to help us keep tabs on this guy. And the way they do it is Trevor taking Simon under his wing in like an acting tutelage sense, him coaching him how to become

• 50:36Speaker 03

  a more successful actor. And of course, he like, he is, his big dream is that he finds out that there is this Wonder Man movie being made. And he wants to audition for the role. While hiding the fact that he is Wonder Man and the, or not that he's Wonder Man, hiding the, the fact that he has these abilities. But the show itself is about acting. It's about him wanting to be an actor. It is like the two of them, like Trevor, sort of like rediscovering a love of acting through Simon's eyes. And it's very much not about like abilities and powers and stuff, except in the, the ways like that makes sense thematically, but it's not a show about that.

• 51:20Speaker 03

  If you don't care about like acting and showbiz stuff and that, that sort of see it as like a craft and that like, it is probably going to seem sort of desperately up its own ass, but I, I found it really like charming and the, the two of them together. Yahya Abdul Mateen and, and Ben Kingsley together are unbelievable. I mean, like the, the two of them are fantastic. But I, I just, I think it's a, it's a fantastic show. That is one of the best things that Marvel has done in a long time, and they are not doing pretty much anything to promote it. So there's my, there's my best.

• 51:54Russ Frushtick?

  Noting, it's also worth noting that Wonder Man is the admission by Marvel that Baby's Day Out exists within the MCU, which is like an important thing.

• 52:05Speaker 03

  That it does canonize. It, this, sometimes there's shows on that feel so specifically, when I actually texted Travis.

• 52:14Speaker 03

  About the presence of Joe Pantoliano in the, in the show.

• 52:18Russ Frushtick?

  Who plays himself.

• 52:19Speaker 03

  Who plays himself as a miserable asshole. And it's fantastic. And I texted Travis, like, I cannot believe this show includes the line, this guy yelling at him like, Baby's Day, Baby's Day Out, suck Joe Pantoliano. Like, I can't believe that line is in a real TV show that I get to watch. But it's, it's, it's great. It's.

• 52:38Russ Frushtick?

  It's, I had a lot of fun watching it. I agree. I, I hope they do more.

• 52:41Speaker 03

  Do you need to know noth- like, you don't need to know literally any Marvel stuff. I mean, like, none. It, it has more to do with Disney than it does to do with Marvel. Like, there's like more stuff about Josh Gad and Olaf than there is about like Marvel superheroes.

• 52:57Russ Frushtick?

  Cool. That's a lot of fun stuff. Uh, we already talked about what we're doing next week. Oh, I want to thank the patrons over at Patreon.com slash the besties. We have Chase B, we have Azure D, we have Corin, and we have Rise with two I's. Thank you for being members of the Patreon. Um, I want to call attention specifically because we have a new Bracket Battles episode that is live right this second. You can listen to it. It's about bespoke controllers. And in fact, we're going to drop a clip in right here.

• 53:28Speaker 03

  It had no buttons.

• 53:29Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah.

• 53:30Speaker 03

  And was one of the worst games I've ever experienced, to an extent where my review on joystick or Polygon was just me asking other reviewers, did this work for you? And then reporting what they said, because I didn't, I couldn't engage with it at all. Like, it was truly, truly a nightmare.

• 53:45Chris Plante?

  Yeah. I, I, I, one other thing I should add about the Tony Hawk ride and that press event, which has nothing to do with the bracket, but they were so desperate because so few people showed up. They had a giant stack of, uh, real skateboard decks signed by Tony Hawk, and there weren't enough people there to take them. So they just gave me like a stack of skateboard decks. Now I, you being ethical, just like, I can't keep these. I will just go donate them. Let me tell you, going to the Salvation Army and trying to explain to them, no, you don't understand. These are real Tony Hawk signed decks. And they're like, no, no, no, no, we don't want these.

• 54:25Speaker 03

  It was a sad moment.

• 54:27Griffin McElroy?

  I had to play that game.

• 54:28Speaker 03

  Now, I'm looking, you folks can't see the video feed, but Plant is sitting on a chair made of Tony Hawk.

• 54:33Griffin McElroy?

  Made of Tony Hawk.

• 54:34Chris Plante?

  Yeah, we try not to talk about that.

• 54:36Griffin McElroy?

  I played it during E3 in like one of those hotel room, kind of like press previews. I think they probably were doing them in hotel rooms so that you could play Tony Hawk ride and nobody would look at you while you did it. Because it looked pretty silly.

• 54:48Russ Frushtick?

  Wise.

• 54:49Griffin McElroy?

  Which has less versatility for other games. I don't, I don't know.

• 54:53Speaker 03

  You could play any game.

• 54:57Griffin McElroy?

  Basically. I bet you, I bet you if you really jammed around there while you were playing, you know, Braid or whatever, you would, one of them would make the guide go. One would make him jump, for sure.

• 55:08Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 55:12Griffin McElroy?

  If I could do a plug, I've got a book coming out this next week, on Tuesday, on March 10th. It's called The Stow Away, and it's a choose your own adventure book from the Choose Your Own Adventure Company. It's great for middle grade readers, but for, for anyone who likes a rollicking, outer space survival adventures. 10 bucks, and you can preorder it at bit.ly/griffinstowaway.

• 55:32Russ Frushtick?

  Are you also going to release a walkthrough?

• 55:35Griffin McElroy?

  Um, that will be in the audiobook version.

• 55:39Speaker 03

  Are you gonna do a let's read?

• 55:42Griffin McElroy?

  I'm gonna do, yeah, I've hired some of my favorite streamers to do let's reads.

• 55:46Speaker 03

  I've hired some of my favorite readers.

• 55:49Speaker 03

  Uh, that is gonna do it for us for this week, right?

• 55:52Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, that's it. That's it. We did it. Pocopia next week.

• 55:55Speaker 03

  Yeah, be there. Be there, be scary. That's gonna do it for us on the besties. Be sure to join us again next week for the besties, because shouldn't the world's best friends pick the world's best games?