Triple Click
Hosted by Jason Schreier and Kirk Hamilton
He played with the mouse and everything.
14,277 words · 7 speakers
Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
Man, wouldn't it be crazy if Nintendo announced a Switch 2 exclusive new FromSoft game that looks just like Bloodborne, and then it turned out to be multiplayer? Welcome to TripleClick, where we bring the games and the console reveals to you. Jason just got back from a Nintendo press event where he got to play a bunch of stuff on the Switch 2. So, I mean, that's what we're gonna talk about on this episode. Let's get into it.
I'm Kirk Hamilton.
I'm Maddy Myers.
And I'm Jason Schreier, and I just played the Switch 2.
And I didn't. I wish I had.
In case people are wondering, in case you out there are a midnight listener, you wake up in the middle of the night, Eastern time, or maybe your time zone allows you to listen as soon as we air, and you're wondering, "Why is this episode nine hours late?" It's because we had to wait to hit the embargo, because I just played the Switch 2. We're gonna talk about that, we're gonna talk about the Direct, there's lots to talk about, but Kirk, first some preamble.
Yes, some preamble. We are listener-supported, you all know that, and a lot of you signed up to support us during Max Fun Drive, and we really just wanted to say thank you so much.
Thank you.
Yay, thanks.
Yeah, to everybody who signed up. And if you weren't able to sign up, but you still want to get that lowercase g gamer pin, there is a PIN sale going on. There will be an ad for that, I think, during the break, so you can learn more about that then. But really, yeah, just thanks, everybody who signed up. We really, you know, we can only make this show because you all support us, and it's really cool every year that all these people sign up to support us, to continue making this show. So yeah, that's really the main thing. The other thing to mention is that every month, we do a bonus episode for our supporters, and we mentioned this on last week's stream, but to put it on the show, this month, we are going to do a Beans Cast on Severance Season 2, which will be very exciting, because Severance Season 2 was pretty crazy. A lot of stuff happened.
A lot.
So there will be a full spoiler cast of that going up in April for supporters, and of course, there is a ton of old bonus content as well. In the feed that you can listen to. So yeah, thanks everyone for being a member. Thanks for supporting us. Let's talk about the Switch 2. Jason, take us away.
Yeah, man. Okay, so big week. Nintendo had a direct where they announced that the Switch 2 is coming June 5th for 450 US dollars.
Pricey.
Just a big, big ticket item. Can we just say that right out the gate?
We can, we can say that.
They sure did give it a big hefty price tag now, didn't they?
Hefty. And it's really $500 because that's the bundle of Mario Kart. And that's what everyone is probably going to want to get.
I mean, you could just buy the console with no games. I suppose you could just upgrade, upgrade Tears of the Kingdom if you never played it and just play.
If you've, if you've never played like, I don't know, Civ 7 and you really want to get a Switch 2 to play Civ 7, then.
With the Joy-Con mouse. That's how you're gonna play it, is with that mouse.
Nintendo announced a whole bunch of stuff, but to take you all behind the scenes, I was watching in New York City from a, a midtown venue with a whole bunch of other press and analysts and Nintendo people because there's a big launch event for the system where press got to, we all kind of watched the direct livestream together.
It's funny to imagine that you're actually watching the people on stage in the little white room and the camera might actually show you.
That would be amazing.
Instead, you're just sitting in a room watching the same thing that we all watched. However, was the version that you watched, was the audio screwed up in the version that you watched?
Great question.
Because it sure wasn't the version that I watched.
It sure was.
I don't think so. Um, I think the version we were watching was the Twitch one. I don't know if you guys were watching the YouTube.
Oh, we were.
No, I.
I was watching the Twitch version and both YouTube and Twitch got screwed up at a certain point.
It was, it was, a lot of people were like hooting and hollering. So like some of the audio was drowned out.
That's kind of weird, hooting and hollering.
I mean, this crowd, like it's a mix of like, you have your reporters, you have your influencers, you have your kind of.
People who hoot and holler and who even knows who brought them in.
You know what got the most hooting and hollering was the announcement of GameCube games. So maybe that kind of shows you the crowd.
Kind of not surprised about that.
That was a big hit in Polygon Slack. So I could see that being the case.
A GameCube controller with a C-butt.
Also, we got some hooting and hollering for the From Software game because nobody knew that it was going to later be revealed to be a multiplayer game. We'll get into that. And so then, after watching the direct, I got to go play a bunch of games. I played Mario Kart. I played Metroid Prime 4, played Donkey Kong Bonanza. I played some third-party stuff. I played Nintendo Switch 2: Welcome Tour, and we can get into all of that.
Wait, you play Welcome Tour? Yet another game announced on the stream.
Yeah, that's an interesting one. And I want to get into all that, and we can kind of go kind of beat by beat and talk about our impressions of the direct, and I'll chime in with my hands-on thoughts, because I got to play some of this stuff. But first, let's do some overall kind of takes. After this week, after all the information that we just got, how are you two feeling about the Switch 2? Is it the type of thing where you're like, "I really want one. I can't wait to have it on launch. Maybe I'll wait." What are you two... Let's kind of give some overall impressions. Maddie, why don't you start?
Sure. I mean, I want one at launch, and I had to get over my disappointment that Metroid Prime 4 still doesn't have a release date. I pre-wrote a news post saying it would have one. It remains unpublished. Someday it'll go up.
The saddest unpublished post.
At least you can use that one day when it is finally announced.
It's like the opposite of a pre-written obituary.
Exactly.
Exactly. Everybody knows what I'm talking about. Everybody who prewrites posts. A lot of journalists listen, right? Anyway, so there is that. But I also really am curious about Metroid Prime with a mouse. I was very hesitant about this one, so I want to hear about that, Jason. But just in general, my big-picture thought is, I was kind of surprised by how hardcore gamer-coded this direct was. A lot of tech talk, a lot of hardware specs, descriptions. Zelda has an app now called Zelda Notes, and it has achievements. Like, even the idea of a Nintendo game having achievements... Is kind of fascinating to me.
The price of the console being so high, I just, I think it's signals a shift for Nintendo. Maybe not a huge one, but, but it's a shift that in tone and just in how they're describing the console and how they're marketing the console. So that was interesting to see them kind of doing a more boilerplate console announcement. I mean, there's even a two in the name. That's very Sony of them.
It's interesting you say that. My read on it, I don't think you're wrong, but my read on it is that this whole marketing cycle leading to June is kind of the, the early adopter hardcore appeal to those people type thing. Especially the hardcore Nintendo fans who maybe don't have other systems and will be really excited to play games like Elden Ring on the Switch two, because they've never played those games before. Or, or they want to play them on the go and don't have a Steam mic or whatever else. I mean, it feels to me like this is reaching the early adopters because they know that like, no matter what, they're going to sell out all their consoles in June when it comes out. What they want is to reach the broader audiences by the holiday season.
Cause that's when more people will be buying consoles for the kind of their kids, getting Mario Kart, getting whatever's available for the holiday season. So that's when we'll start to see more of the kind of like, I don't know, like the type of marketing that we saw with the, the C button section of the direct, where it's just like actors like talking about how they're very natural ways of playing games together.
Just a really long chill trailer of people just having fun little conversations while playing Mario Kart. It was like the most slow chill part of the track.
The other component here is of course that Mario Kart is a launch game, which is like the ultimate system seller. There's no game in the world that can sell consoles better than Mario Kart. Kirk, what were your kind of takeaways from all this?
Um, I agree that this, uh, that this event like this direct doesn't necessarily indicate a new strategy for Nintendo. It just felt like they kind of chose the way that they wanted this to come off. And they were trying to convince all the people who are going to get really excited about. Getting a, you know,
HDR.
$500 switch with Mario Kart that they can then, you know, buy a bunch of upgraded versions of Zelda games for. Like it, it is definitely appealing to, to people like us. As for buying one, I mean, yeah, I'll buy one, but I think we all will, or we'll try to get Nintendo to send them to us because we're going to talk about them on the show. So I don't even, I don't think that my decision there really stands for much. But I do agree about the holidays and the difference between this June launch and what this system is going to look like at the holidays. I always think of my sister's family and their kids as the kind of prototypical Switch family where their only game console is a Switch. Like I said earlier, they didn't actually know about the Switch 2. I think they'll probably hear about it now.
But again, even then, I think it really won't fully get through to them until the holidays, because that's when it's going to be, you know, there's a bunch more stuff announced. There's maybe by then they've announced a few more of the kind of family games. Like they love Animal Crossing, so maybe there will be something there. Or just a couple more of those types of games announced. And it'll become a much more enticing purchase for them than it would be buying it at release date, when yeah, it's also going to be a total pain to get. And there's probably not going to be enough of them and, and so on and so forth. But yeah, I mean, I thought it was a really fun direct. It had been a while since I'd watched that kind of event, just live with everybody. And I, I had a great time. I didn't even mind getting excited and then sort of feeling a little faked out about that FromSoft game.
God, well, we'll talk about that in a, in a couple of minutes. Yeah, my initial impressions, impressions were, um, I was, at first I was kind of like, man, there's a lot of stuff on here that I've already played before. Cause there was so much focus on third party publishers. I was actually, I was laughing, I was thinking about Blue Sky posting something, but didn't. But I was laughing because there were headlines a few days ago that were like, nobody has a Nintendo Switch 2 dev kit, like all these developers. Did you guys see those headlines? Yes, I did. It was floating around. And I saw those and I, I didn't, I was like playing Blueprints, so I didn't like say anything. It was, it was, I had not, I had not heard that. I had heard something else entirely that a lot of people had dev kits. And it was smaller studios that don't have them. But like, I had heard that like Ubisoft.
Had all this, all these plans to release all sorts of like Star Wars. I think it's just the first of games they'll release on, on the Switch two. And yeah, and take two. And so then seeing all these companies come out and be like bam bam bam. Yeah, take two. Like they're all here.
CD Projekt Red is releasing Cyberpunk.
Fortnite is the launch day game.
All these games are coming to Switch two. So that was not, uh, it was, it was a little surprising how much focus there was on that as opposed to first party stuff. And really the first party stuff was very limited. I was a little surprised. We didn't see future Nintendo developed games coming to Switch two. Really all we've seen is, uh, all they released is, so they have Mario Kart on launch day, Metroid coming later this year. Donkey Kong coming in July. And was there anything else? Maybe that Musso Nintendo Zelda Warriors or whatever, Hyrule Warriors, but who cares about that? I was surprised there wasn't like even a teaser for a new Mario game coming this holiday or something like that.
Yeah, I was expecting something like that too. And I, I would kind of count Donkey Kong as within the launch window. It's six weeks later, but I feel like three months from now, none of us will remember that, you know, it'll be a launch game in all of our minds. But it is pretty narrow. And I mean, I, I kind of thought Metroid would be in the mix there. Not to keep bringing it up, but it's weird.
So just to finish the kind of point, um, that was my initial pressure impression and then I was thinking about it more. And I was like, okay, this actually makes sense as a way to start selling and start going to market with this console. Because this is kind of the, the table setting. This is like, here's what we've got in the near future. And then I very much expect them, this is not inside info, but I very much would predict that in June, they come out with a new like E3 style Nintendo Direct where they're like, here is a bunch of first party stuff coming in the next year. And that's when they're like, here's our big holiday game. Cause they don't have one of those yet. And that's when they really start just like hammering on this thing.
And this felt more like this is the console. This is what it can do. We're showing this third party stuff to give you an idea of like the power level that we have here. Now we have a system that can actually play Cyberpunk. Sort of, I'll get to that in a bit. Now we have a system that can play games like Madden and yada, yada, yada, all the new stuff. Like we, we have that here on Switch too. Here's a little bit of stuff that's coming to launch. Here's a few indie surprises. Enter the Gungeon 2, new Delta Rune stuff is coming up.
Yeah, Delta Rune's a launch day.
That is a good one. That's like a surprise potential banger.
Can I ask a Delta Rune question since I guess it probably won't come up again? You have played some of it, Jason, is that?
I have, I played the first chapter. He's since released. Delta Rune is of course, um, the quote unquote sequel successor, let's call it two Undertale. It's kind of like a parallel story. And, uh, the, the, he has released the first two chapters, um, I believe for free.
Yeah, that's right. And the second two are paid.
The second two are paid. And so this is a whole package of the first four chapters. It's coming to Switch 2 on launch day and coming to all platforms on June 5th. And then there's gonna be more. I don't know exactly how many more. I think he said.
That's my question is, is this the whole game?
No, this is not the whole game.
Uh, that's too bad.
He has said upcoming chapters will be added as free updates.
Oh, that's cool.
But yeah, I mean, it's, it's, there's, there's, I think he said that we're seven. I'm not a hundred percent sure, but yes, there are definitely more coming. This is not the whole game.
An unconventional release schedule.
Definitely unconventional.
That was my question, just, I'm waiting to play that until the entire thing is out.
Yeah, I mean, I think it feels like four chapters. Maybe that's enough that you can play through it and get a feel for it.
I'll probably still wait.
But anyway, so I, I, after kind of being initially underwhelmed at the lack of first party stuff, I, I, by the end of it, and by the time I got my hands on things, I felt like, okay, this actually makes more sense than I had originally thought. And to me, it seems like the right move. I think that there's definitely some sticker shock with $450 to $500 for getting one of these things, but I don't know, maybe, maybe people are prepared for that. Or maybe they're not because everything is about to get extremely expensive and so nobody's gonna be able to afford this thing.
Yeah, this was also the day as we're recording this, that a bunch of tariffs were. Announced to be rolled out. So who knows what the three of us might end up paying for the Switch two. Yeah, I really wonder if the price will change. Yeah.
I, yeah, it's hard to imagine it changing when they already committed to this price.
I mean, I, I feel like maybe the sticker shock won't happen for people because during the pandemic, when I bought Dina's, which they were so much more expensive because people were just reselling them at a massive up, up charge, or whatever you want to call it. And that's what I did because I wanted to get her one with Animal Crossing. And I think a lot of people were just like, yes, which can easily be $500. That's normal. I bought one during the pandemic and that's how much it cost. So I wonder if maybe that's why people will just not feel any type of way about it. I haven't really seen that many reactions to the price online, to be honest. Maybe it'll kind of unfold over the coming days, but like, that wasn't a big reaction that I saw, even though I expected it.
Yeah, there's other aspects of the console that I think are kind of nickel and diming, including you have to, you have to pay, you don't have to pay for backwards compatibility, but you do have to pay for enhanced editions
That's right.
Of games like the Zelda games, although I believe there's also parts of it that are included if you have the online and expansion pass, right? There's some games that'll be included. But regardless, you're paying something for that thing. And also, let's talk about the first game I want to talk about because this, it was a shocker that they are charging for this. Nintendo Switch two Welcome Tour, which I actually, I think that the direct made that seem like something a little bit different than it actually is. The direct made it seem like kind of a guide to the system.
I don't know how much. Tech demo or something?
Right. I mean, it isn't like a tech demo. But when I, I actually got hands on with this thing and it's more like a collection of mini games. And if anything, it actually kind of reminded me of Mario Paint, of all things, because you're using the mouse. And so like one of these mini games, you have to use the mouse and you're controlling this little thing and you have to dodge falling mines that get increasingly faster. And you just are playing this fun little mini game where you just have to move it around the speed with, move it around the screen using your mouse and it. Just felt like a Mario Paint mini game. There's another where you're quizzed on the frame rate of certain things that are moving. And it's like, is this, is this 60 frames a second or 120 frames a second?
That's pretty funny.
I joked to the guy, the attendee, I was like, this is an internet forum, like, argument come to life.
So does that game not work if you're not playing on a 120 hertz TV?
That is a fantastic question. I don't know. That's a, that's a very good question.
Funny. It's like those touchscreen games for the, for the Switch that, that don't work when it's docked.
Exactly. Or, or, well, it's like, um, well, it reminds me of one, two Switch, or reminds me, well, I guess one, two Switch they charge for. But it reminds me of Nintendo Land or like Wii Sports, where it's kind of like, here's a pack in thing. That's just like some fun little mini games that you'll enjoy, that'll show off the new console. And so it is shocking that they said they are charging for this thing because it seems like such a, an easy win to include this for free. And just give people something fun to play around with.
And who would buy it? Like, I, I don't think I'm gonna buy it.
I mean, some people probably would. Do we know what the price is?
You never know. No, they haven't said the price as far as I know. I can't imagine it'll be more than like 10 bucks. But, um, it's, it would be a very fun pack in, um, kind of like Aster's Playroom.
Yeah.
Seems like it's got this kind of, you're, you're a character and you're walking across this like model of the Switch 2. And you can go from the, the left Joy-Con area to the screen area where you ice skate around the screen to the right Joy-Con area. And within this are mini games and you earn badges by like doing well in the mini games. And you could use those badges to unlock other mini games and other stuff. And it seems like a great tech demo and it, hopefully they change their minds because it is truly bonkers that they were charged for this.
Yeah, that's something we didn't really talk about when we talked about console launch lineups. But can we take this as, this stand as a show that all consoles should come with some fun piece of software installed on the console? So that if you get one.
That is a good take.
You open it and then there's just something fun you can do.
Yes. That is a, that is a strong take.
Yeah, there should be a cute pack in game.
Something.
Games should, consoles should have that.
Can I, can I say something? Okay, so when I was at this event, I wound up seeing a lot of people I hadn't seen in a while. People I've been seeing at Nintendo events for a decade and a half now, which is, I mean, a little surreal.
Terrifying, yeah.
And had a lot of conversations with people. And this one guy, I won't name him, but he's listening right now because he told me he's a big TripleClick fan. And this guy is pretty high up at Nintendo. And to him, I just want to say, please, make this game a pack-in because-
We know you're listening.
Yeah, I mean, it will really, it will really, it will make this console a better offering. And the PR, like, win of being able to say, "We listened to your feedback and we're just gonna tie this into the console," is like such a victory. Anyway, here's the system seller. Mario Kart World. We gotta talk about this. That was kind of the thing I played the most. I played a couple of different modes of it. It looks phenomenal. This is a game that is going to sell a bazillion copies. So for some context here, Mario Kart 8, I don't know how many people know this, but if you count Mario Kart 8 on Deluxe, so the Wii U version and the Switch version, it is the fifth best-selling game of all time.
Set more than 75 million copies.
What are the top four? Just because I'm curious. I think I could guess, but tell us.
So the top four on Wikipedia are Minecraft is number one, GTA V is number two, Wii Sports is number three, and Ark Survival Evolved is number four. I saw that and I was like, there's no way that's true. I think it's counting, like, copies installed, so like, downloads and subscriptions and stuff. So I'm not sure if that's a real number. But regardless, Mario Kart 8, let's just say it sold more than 75 million copies, because we know that.
Mario Kart 8 is almost as good as Ark Survival Evolved. That's the takeaway.
Almost as good.
The most popular game that we all talk about all the time.
Mario Kart World is going to sell, maybe not quite as much as that, but is going to be bonkers. It is a lot of fun. It is really cool. There are three modes. So there's at least three modes that I saw. The main mode, which is just you're racing. I raced against a colleague from Game Informer and beat him. Just want to brag a little bit.
Yup.
I played, I played as the cow because there's a cow in this game.
Yeah, you can play as the cow.
A Mario character.
And, and when you win, when you win, you get a crown. And so you have this crow, a cow. I had a cow on a bicycle with a crown. I got a great photo that I showed you guys. And the second mode is called knockout tour and it is so frantic and fun because it essentially is battle royale with Mario Kart. And so you start with 24 people and then there are five checkpoints. First checkpoint, bottom four get eliminated. Next checkpoint, bottom four get eliminated. Next checkpoint, bottom four get eliminated.
Oh, wow. This is taking place on one course?
One big course. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I don't know, I don't know how Mario Kart 8 works exactly, but with this game, it seems from what I played, like the laps aren't full circles around the entire course. It's just like one humongous course and the checkpoints are.
Depends. They're like, Mount Wario is like the through compose kind of deal, but then some of them.
Yeah, a lot of them are.
Are just a circuit course.
Some of them lap. Okay, that makes sense.
And you have multiple go rounds of essentially a circle or like a figure eight or something.
Got it. The, the Mario Karts I've spent the most time with are like entirely laps. But yeah, this one has some of those. But anyway, so this mode we were playing, so it's so frantic because it'll be like like stay in the top 16 to get past this and you see the milestone ahead of you and you just like are frantically trying to get in number 16. I came in second out of 24. I was very sad to not make it into first.
That's a great idea for a game mode for Mario Kart. I'm kind of shocked they've never done that before.
It is, it is, it is perfect. It is gonna be so much fun. It is so much fun.
Exactly how fun it is.
And obviously if you're just playing with like your family, like four people or something, everybody else is CPU. So it's just the four of you trying to like stay ahead. Incredibly fun. And then the third mode, and this is the weirdest one. I only got to play this in this kind of like the lobby while waiting for my knockout tour match to fill up. But this is the free roam mode where it's like Forza Horizon style, like you were just driving around a massive open world in Mario Kart land. Didn't get a sense like, I don't know. I don't know if they're going to be like goals or objectives or modes or quests in that mode. I guess we'll see, um, cause I didn't get to play with it much, but very curious about that. Um, but even just the piece gameplay, I mean, obviously it's Mario Kart, so it, it hasn't changed very much, but it feels amazing.
You drift, you got items.
Looks phenomenal, all running, um, at, at least 60 frames a second. I can't really tell if it's like 60 or 120, but looks phenomenal, um, running incredibly smoothly. The animations are amazing. All these flourishes that the characters have. I was just so impressed by that. It feels like it is a system seller. It is going to help move a bajillion of these switch twos because people will see this game and be like, holy crap, I have to have the new Mario Kart. Um, and I'm not even like a huge Mario Kart guy, but this game, playing this game made me think, oh man, I want to play this with my kids. I'm very excited for this game. And so I imagine a lot of people will just buy the bundle and be like, okay, this is all I'm going to be playing for the next month with my,
with my family and friends and stuff. Um, and especially combined with the new kind of chat features that they talked about. It feels like it'll be a really good like online play thing. The three of us could stream it using the new game chat C button thing.
Yeah, we can press the C button, which you have to pay to use. It seems like you gotta have
Not for the first year, not until after March of 2026.
They're gonna lure you in with a free C button that will eventually be a paid button.
Yeah, this is the standard, right? I mean, you have to pay to, to play online.
Yeah, I mean, that's
It's just funny that there's a button.
I don't know. But to be fair, yeah, I mean, to Kirk's point, like, would you really want to use this if you're not like, you only would use this if you're playing online anyway. So it kind of makes sense that it's part of that package.
Yeah. And when they were showing how it worked, they used Mario Kart as the example that everyone's playing just to like show off how fun it is to play with friends and it was very pandemic coded, this whole section of the direct where they're like, you don't even have to leave your house to have a great time with all of your friends. And I was like, yeah, I know when y'all developed this, this part and it makes total sense. Uh, really. Draw me back to that time period.
Man, yeah.
You know, another feature that they announced around this time was the, the fact that you can now do what I think you used to be able to do on the DS, which is play a game and beam it over to somebody who's sitting there with you with a Switch 2.
Yes.
I thought that was pretty cool that they're adding that, I mean, kind of re-adding that functionality or adding it to the Switch. That, uh, that'll be pretty fun for multiplayer.
It is very cool. Yeah. Um, should we talk about Metroid?
Let's get to it.
Matty, have you just been waiting eagerly to talk about Metroid?
I've just been waiting for you to tell me if it's any good. And like, how's the mouse feel?
I really thought this would be a launch title, but no, still just 2025. So they're still staking their claim for this year, but they're not sure when, uh, I guess we'll find out. So yeah, I played this game. There's a demo of this game. I was actually a little surprised. Like, I didn't know there was gonna be a demo of this game until I saw the demo itself and was like, holy crap, there's a Metroid demo here. Um, cause the way it was set up at this, this venue was that they kind of funneled you, there were a lot of people there. So they split us up into groups and funneled you through this kind of sequence of events. Anyone who goes to the Nintendo experience is gonna have a same sort of experience, cause this was what, um, what will be available to the public in a couple of days. And so the first funnel was like a Mario Kart room, then another Mario Kart room to check out more games.
And then they opened you up to a big show floor that seems like it's only gonna be third-party games when you get in. First thing I saw was like Hades 2 over here. And I'm like, looks cool, but this is just Hades 2. I've played it before. Looks exactly the same. Then, uh, I saw Metroid in the corner and was like, holy crap, Metroid is here. Um, so yeah, I played Metroid. Uh, the mouse takes some adjusting. Um, so the way that it works is you have, um, your left controller, you hold it in your hand, your right controller, you kind of, you flip it around and you put it on the table and move it around like a mouse. And you can use that to aim, like it's a point and click shooter, but you're still using Z-lock because the game is designed around Z-lock
and you have to use Z-lock to dodge and strafe. And that's how Metroid games work.
Yeah, that's, that's how crimes always work.
Free aim, you're kind of Z-locking and then also kind of aiming with the mouse, which is a little strange. You also, when you're holding the Joy-Con in your right hand, you have the joystick is like kind of where your right thumb is. And just naturally, if you played a Metroid game or any first-person shooter, you kind of want to move that to control the camera. But when you move that, it doesn't control the camera. You have to move the mouse to control the camera. And that takes some getting used to. The kind of the position, if you're used to a mouse, the way most mice have the kind of the left and right button are on a pretty similar plane. So your two fingers that are using the mouse are kind of on a parallel, on a vertical plane.
With this, because of the way the Joy-Con is shaped, your right finger is a lot lower than your left finger, which is another weird thing to kind of try to get used to. So definitely took some getting used to. I was standing for the demo, which was probably also kind of made it a little tough to get a feel for it. But here's the thing that people may not realize, and this is, this is like awesome. You don't have to change any settings or do any toggles to switch between mouse mode and controller mode. You literally just pick it up and it switches for you. Like, so I'm playing on the mouse, I just pick up the right Joy-Con and then I'm just playing in normal mode. So it is the most seamless thing. There is zero transition or anything. You just do it. You just can flip back and forth just immediately.
That's nice. I mean, on a lot of PC games, they can do that now, and I really like that. Cyberpunk comes to mind where you just start playing with the mouse and the keyboard and it goes to mouse and keyboard and the whole HUD shifts. And then you grab the controller and the HUD shifts again. So driving, I would always play with the controller.
This is exactly, that is exactly how it feels.
It sounds to me like Metroid is maybe not the best example for the mouse, since it seems sort of like the first time that they're using it. But I can imagine this being really useful in Splatoon and there's more precision aiming in Splatoon. And then if they want to put Call of Duty on this console.
Well, they're gonna put Fortnite on it. So that also made me think, like, are people gonna be really competitive?
Any game with aiming, I could see that being really great.
Also, games that are kind of built from the ground up for this. Metroid clearly is a game that has been in development, I think it was announced six years. It was announced 2017. Wow, that's
Well, yeah, but then it was rebooted.
Yeah, yeah, no, I know it was rebooted. But yeah, that's still, I'm just thinking of the announcement.
I only know that because of this news post I wrote that no one gets to read yet.
Okay, yes, you have all the context in front of you. So yeah.
Only but surely, you're just gonna tell us everything that's in that post over the course of this episode.
Yeah, right? So it won't go to waste, Matty. You're like recycling. It's important to recycle your posts.
It's important to just remind everybody when exactly Prime 4 was announced, how long I personally have been waiting for it. Everybody needs to know these facts.
You can describe the screenshot at the top of the post.
At least you got Metroid Dread in the middle there.
What a great game, you know?
Phenomenal game. Anyway, um, the game, all we saw of the game, the demo itself is just the kind of like intro level. So there's not really much to say about it. You're not trying any new Samus powers or anything. It's just feels like Metroid.
You don't get to try the psychic suit or whatever.
Nothing, nothing like, it's just like the first boss, you're just shooting. Cool boss, you have to use your power. Like you have to, um, uh, he shoots out. There are a lot of different, uh, mechanics that he has. He like will shoot out, um, two different types of like damage waves. And one, you have to use your, um, morph ball to get under it. And the other, you have to double jump to get over it. So like, pretty cool.
Classic Metroid stuff.
Classic Metroid stuff. Yeah, it felt like Metroid Prime 4, which it felt like exactly what I expect. There was nothing new about it. Um, and, uh, looks amazing. Uh, also, I think they said that will be capable of 120 frames per second on the Switch 2. So that's pretty cool. Um, 60 frames a second in handheld mode. So that is perfect. That is where I will be playing that entire game.
Oh, yeah. I mean, I think it'll be really fun in handheld mode. I'm excited for that.
Yeah, it was good stuff. I also played Donkey Kong, uh, Bananza.
Yeah, how was that?
Yeah, it's
This looked fun too. You get to destroy a bunch of stuff as Donkey Kong?
It's very silly. I don't think it'll be, I think it'll be one of those BTR Nintendo games where it's just like a little fun, but like
Called shot.
Not the game of the year contender that like a Metroid might be, or even a Mario Kart might be. It's very silly.
Or even like a Mario Odyssey that I think people would have expected to be what was announced today. It's like a 3D Mario.
I'm still kind of holding out hope that there's one of those coming later this year. But I will say this game, it actually kind of reminded me in structure of Mario Odyssey, because the way it works is you play Donkey Kong. It's very slapstick. There's a lot of funny moments of him just like making silly faces and going after bananas. And I'm not sure what the plot is. It's a Nintendo game, but like the concept is that you can dig and break things. And there's a lot of just like dirt to like shovel up and find gold under and find hidden bananas. And there's these kind of semi-open world spaces, sort of like Odyssey, where you have to find big bananas, sort of like you had to find moons in Odyssey.
And when you find a big banana, you get a little pop up that is like the name of this type of banana that you found, the same way the power moons worked, where it'll be like under the fossil or whatever. And so it feels a lot like that, but sillier than Odyssey. It's a lot more slapstick and just kind of silliness. It seems like it'll be fun. I think the three of us are going to enjoy playing it. I just don't know, like I wouldn't expect it to be like revelatory or anything like that. But yeah, it's fun. I mean, you're just breaking, you're smashing stuff. You're Donkey Kong. You're just going around smashing things, not, there's no precise platforming. I mean, like, one of the big mechanics in the demo area is that you see a big brick that is purple
and you use Donkey Kong, you use one of the triggers to grab a chunk of this rock and then you can use it to throw at other things to like make them explode or dismantle them or whatever. So.
Sure.
Smashing things.
How, how did the Switch 2 feel in your hands? Like, was it noticeably different? Did it kind of feel the same?
So the demos, there were a few different ways to play the demos. One was the whole thing in handheld mode. Another was the Switch Pro controller. And another was the two joycons, like on that docking thing controller. The two joycons on the docking thing and the Switch Pro controller just both felt identical to Switch 1. Switch Pro 2 Pro Controller has underbuttons, which I'm sure Kirk is excited about.
I thought that was cool.
As far as I could tell, there isn't, I mean, Doki Kong didn't seem to have button remapping. I played the Zelda, like, Switch 2 enhanced versions, those did not have button remapping, so I'm not sure what you can even do with the underbuttons.
That's funny, I remember them announcing button remapping for the classic games, like the GameCube games that they were releasing. Which was funny, because I've always wanted to play Wind Waker and be able to invert the thumbstick, but now I've trained myself to play without an inverted thumbstick, so I actually don't need that anymore, and they finally added it. Anyways, they did mention remapping for those games, but there was no mention of it anywhere else.
Funny, by the way, that they announced Wind Waker, but not Wind Waker HD. It's just like, here's the GameCube version, enjoy it.
And no Twilight Princess, so...
I know, they made a HD version of it.
Yep, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And they said it'll be higher resolution or something.
Yeah, they're forgetting that they made an HD version already.
They did.
I do think with the underbuttons, they did say that you can decide what buttons you want them to be, like, they mentioned that in the direct, so clearly that'll be possible.
Okay, that makes sense. So rather than, so it's like, system level button remapping with that, okay, that makes sense.
Like, kind of how it works with the DualSense Edge, where maybe you have some presets or something that you can switch between.
That makes sense.
Something on that level.
By the way, trippy to play Zelda, both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, at like, 60 plus frames per second.
Oh, yeah.
Kind of as excited about that as anything. I have so much Tears of the Kingdom left to play, and I'm gonna play the hell out of it.
I'm just gonna play Tears again.
It's kind of a good excuse to replay those games, or like, get back into those games.
Play Master Mode from Breath of the Wild.
Oh, man, oh, god, that'll be, yeah, that'll be fun.
I also, I played them some third-party stuff, so Cyberpunk, man. I was talking to the CD Projekt Red people, they seemed pretty stoked that they even got the game running on Switch 2, but, so there's a performance mode and a graphics mode. Graphics mode is 30 frames a second, performance mode, I believe, is 40 frames a second, they told me.
I was gonna ask about that, can I, can we hang on 40 frames per second for a minute?
I was curious if this console is... Capable of that, since that's something that the Steam Deck has established as a kind of new norm, that now the PS5 can do as well on like variable refresh rate TVs. And I was wondering if the screen on the Switch 2 would be variable refresh rate and if some games would be able to do 40 frames per second, which would be super cool. Anyways, I don't know if you know for sure or anything, but it's neat that they at least mentioned that as an option.
I don't know the answer to that because I was playing it on a TV screen, not in the handheld. So I don't know if the screen itself is going to be capable of that. But that said, I mean, playing Cyberpunk, when I'm used to playing it on my PC at like 60 plus frames per second. It's hard to go to this version. And I was like, man, I said this to the CD Projekt Red guys, I feel bad, but whatever, they can take it. I was like, man, if, if like, if this thing can't even get Cyberpunk, a game from 2020, running at 60 frames a second, that does not bode well for third-party games that come out even in like two years. So while Nintendo's direct made all this big hullabaloo about like, oh, all these games, all these third-party games are coming here.
How much longer is that going to be possible?
I don't know. I wonder. I mean, first off, there's a lot of games in that window in between, you know, the Switch 1 and the Switch 2 that are now going to be playable on those things, pretty much all the games that play well on the Steam Deck. And also handheld is a pretty big difference. I mean, you know, running at a 1080p, if it can run at 40 hertz, it might look fine on a smaller screen. I've played Cyberpunk on the Steam Deck. I would certainly not play it, overplaying it on my PC with all the ray tracing and an OLED screen and everything. But playing it on Steam Deck, you know, I guess I was playing it before OLED. I now have an OLED Steam Deck. But anyways, playing it on Steam Deck, it's fine. Like it's, it's portable and that's pretty cool.
And I don't know, I could see it being, being okay on the Switch 2. And I don't think that necessarily means that the Switch 2 is going to be super limited when it comes to third-party games.
It's always necessarily limited because it has to have handheld mode and docked mode. I mean, we've talked about this. Like they've kind of locked themselves into an inherent limitation by nature of the design that everyone loves, including me. I love the fact that you can just pick it up and play it in handheld mode, but that means that it can only run games that can do that. And I, I think there probably is a longer term time limit on that. But also maybe there isn't because everybody likes playing games in handheld mode so much that maybe developers just have to accept that that's something people like.
And that, this was a thing with the Switch as well, where there would be third-party games that were kind of pushing it.
And that you really only wanted to play in handheld mode. Like, I don't know, maybe some people liked playing The Witcher 3 on a huge TV, blown up, looking terrible, running at whatever the Switch could manage. But that game, really, it looked fine in the handheld mode, and that was kind of why you would want to play it on a Switch at all. That'll probably still be the case here, so it's, I don't know if it'll hurt them that much.
I said to Radek, who is CD Projekt's PR guy, who I've known for many, many years, I said to him, "Hey, man, no offense, but I'm gonna be playing Witcher 4 on my PC, not on the Switch."
I'm sure he was really offended by that.
Yeah, he was really, really, really upset about that. What else? I played some Civ 7, which is a hard game to demo, a little bit crusty. I played with a mouse, yeah.
Weird. I can't wait to try this mouse.
It takes some getting used to. I think, like, it's gonna take some time before I get adjusted to that thing. The main thing is the, the left and right buttons not being on the same plane. Like, that really takes some getting used to.
Just your hand being in a different orientation, and that kind of inherently feeling not quite right.
It doesn't feel like you're holding a mouse. It feels like you're holding something abnormal and something unfamiliar, and so that takes some getting, adjusting to, which, maybe in a couple of months, when we've had this thing and used it for a while, maybe we'll feel like, oh, this is second nature to us to use this as a mouse. But I got the sense, I don't know, a very early take, I got the sense that I will be using it a lot more in traditional mode for something like Metroid than I will be for, especially with the Z-lock thing for Metroid. But, yeah, I mean, we'll see with other games how it works, and there's a lot of time for developers to get used to it, there's a lot of time to get, for us to get accustomed to it. Could be that by the time Borderlands 4 comes out, we're all like, holy crap, this is amazing
to play with the Switch mouse.
Yeah, I'm, I'm excited about it conceptually, just because... When you think about controllers and what they're really good at, the mouse is really good at being a right thumbstick, and the left thumbstick is really good at being a left thumbstick. And the limitation always runs into when you try to either make the WASD keys be the left thumbstick, or make the thumbstick be the mouse. I did it. I got them all right. Because the thumbstick, if you're controlling the camera with the thumbstick, you're pushing up against the edge of the rim and then just letting the camera move, right? It has to just keep going when you hit the edge. Where when you move the mouse, you're moving one to one, and it's so much more precise. Where when you're using WASD, if you play PC games, you always run into that weird thing where you have to like, map caps lock to walk, and then you're turning caps lock on and off,
because you just run all the time, because there's only a, you know, there's an up and a down. There's no analog controls, the way there are with a stick. And they make these PC left-hand things where you can have WASD instead be a stick, but then you're also using the mouse. And it's kind of elaborate, and I haven't ever used one. They're probably very expensive. It is very cool to see one of the main console manufacturers starting to play with the idea that actually a mouse could be really great if you could also use the thumbstick with the left hand. So anyways, I just am kind of excited about that, just as a controller nerd.
It is, yeah. I mean, yes, it is a cool concept, you're right. And this thing, like, hopefully, I mean, in theory, the Switch 2 will be the primary Nintendo console for the next six, seven years. So there will be a lot of time to get used to that concept, and maybe it'll feel really good soon. We gotta talk about a game I didn't play, which is called The Dusk Bloods.
Yes. Bloodborne 2, you mean?
God. So, so like, I'm sitting next to our pal Russ Freshdick during this direct.
Oh, man.
We see, we see this, this thing show up. It looks like Bloodborne. We're both looking at each other like, what the hell is this? The FromSoftware logo appears. It's like, holy crap, they're talking about blood. We're like, what? Blood War 2 coming to Switch 2?
The moon is in every other streaming show.
What is going on? Then it's like, The Dusk Bloods. Like, they have blood in there. Switch 2 exclusive. We're all like, holy crap.
Which is wild in and of itself, that it's a Switch 2 exclusive.
What a crazy thing.
No matter what it is, that's wild.
Everyone's like, oh my god, From Software's next game, Switch to exclusive. This is like a killer app for like hardcore gamers, like holy crap, how is this happening? It's April 2nd, not April 1st, like what is going on here? And then the other shoe drops in a press release that it's in a multiplayer PvPV game for eight players. And that to me is bonkers. Not only the fact, I mean, the fact that they like teased it in that way, made it seem like it was something else. Like there's, it's very hard to tell from that trailer that it feels like a multiplayer game.
I mean, watching it, I was like, I'm kind of getting multiplayer vibes from this.
Okay, fair enough.
Because they show a lot of characters that look like player characters in From games with like very different energies. There's Rocket Pack guy, there's cool lady with the dress, there's vampire dude. Like, it did feel a little like, oh, is this gonna be kind of multiplayer thing?
I assume they were bosses, but okay, okay. But-
No, which is a fair assumption also, like it wasn't clear or anything.
Also, the context here is that From Software has a multiplayer game, Elden Ring, Night Ring, coming out in a couple of months.
Is this all they're doing now? They're just gonna do multiplayer games now?
So it's like, yeah, that's what's really crazy.
It seems to me like they're trying to get like one ongoing multiplayer game going so they can just kind of have that generating money. Because certainly they're working on another Elden Ring or whatever, like another crowd pleaser. And they're maybe taking a couple of shots at multiplayer. But I certainly agree that when I'm watching it, I was losing my mind in our Discord thinking, oh my god, it's basically Bloodborne 2. And I took the wind out of my sails a little bit to hear it was multiplayer, even though it may well be a fabulous multiplayer.
Yeah, I mean, it just felt like such a beaten switch.
It's especially weird because Night Rain isn't out yet. Like if Night Rain had come out and was really good, then I would know how to feel about this. But as it is, I'm not, I'm just not really sure.
Yeah, I'm in the same boat. I also wasn't as much of a Bloodborne person per se, so I wasn't like immediately heartbroken, but I was like-
Nobody's perfect.
Alright, we're just doing multiplayer again, huh? I guess y'all are real fascinated by multiplayer right now. It's just interesting to see the team get way into that.
Can you imagine like in From Software dialogue that is like, where are we dropping boys? But like in Elden Ring dialect?
I can't imagine that because that is apparently the game.
We drop in the blood.
And yeah, any other kind of big beats we should talk about? I think those are all the games I played. I don't think I played anything else at the Switch 2 event. I saw that one game, that one weird game where you're like, what was it called? Dragon Race or something? Drag X Race?
Yeah, Drag X Drive.
Drag X Drive. There were demos for that, but I didn't get a chance to play it.
There was the sort of murder ball, like wheelchair basketball game.
Yeah, that's what we're talking about.
That's what I just, that's what I just mentioned.
Oh, I didn't know the name. I thought that looked mechanically neat, but actually aesthetically just really bland. So it just didn't, it didn't really make me that excited.
I heard from people that played it that it's mechanically like a chore, laborious.
Yeah, like I get what they're kind of going for, but it didn't do a lot for me. Though they did, you know, they did have Silk Song there. They did say Silk Song is coming in 2025.
You should at least mention that.
They did, they showed Silk Song for one second with the, with the numbers 2025 on the screen next to Hollow Knight Silk Song. That happened.
Meaning it will be 2025 days until Hollow Knight Silk Song comes out.
That's right. That's what it actually meant. I mean, it seems like it's coming out in 2025, but it actually means that.
Well, they would never show it at a console press conference and say it's coming out and then have it not come out.
No, they'd never do that.
That would never happen.
Oh wait, that totally happened.
It makes sense to me that it would be relegated to a sizzle real here because Xbox has the marketing deal, so it's probably going to be at the Xbox showcase and that's when they'll announce the release date, like in June. That's my guess.
That's another one where I'm just like, maybe they never will, you know? Maybe.
Yeah, someone, I mean, someone asked me this today. Someone was like, hey, why do you think Silk Song hasn't come out yet? I was like, we've talked about this on the show before, but like when you have a hit that is that successful, you have two issues. One is that you're so, you're financially set and you never have to worry about, you have no pressure to release a game again. And two is you have the creative pressure of having to surpass that hit. So this is what happened to George R R Martin. This has happened to so many people. You never finish your thing because you have those two competing, like lack of financial pressure. So there's no incentive to do it.
And perfectionism.
And perfectionism that is like, hey, you have to surpass the last thing. So, but that said, I think signs are pointing to that game like actually getting released.
Yeah, I'm just messing around. I think they are gonna release it.
I thought you were gonna say, I think signs are pointing to that game being probably pretty good.
I mean, it's no Blueprints. Which, by the way, the number of conversations I had at this event with people.
Just about that.
Just about Blueprints, people wishing they were home playing Blueprints, people just asking me about Blueprints. It was, it was, it's something.
That's funny.
More, more on that next week.
Yeah. We'll talk about it more.
Oh, there was a Bravely Default HD.
Yeah, I can't believe we didn't.
One of the great soundtracks, nice to see.
Ask about that right off.
Yeah, man, remember Adia's, oh, man, Matty, I don't know if you know this, here's a very fun fact. Bravely Default has a character named Adia, who has this like, like Limit Break type move that plays this amazing saxophone track. And when Kirk and I were starting Kentucky Split Screen 10 years ago, my cue to him for like, the music theme was like, this should, why don't we do something like in the style of Adia's theme? And he came out, came up with that banger intro riff that we had for
That's awesome.
the entirety of Kentucky Split Screen.
Yes, that was the inspiration for the split screen theme.
Or, no, it wasn't the entirety. At first you had this kind of like NPR-ish theme, and then you did the new one.
There was like a four-note chime. That wasn't even a theme song.
Not a theme, yeah.
NPR-ish.
We needed a real theme song. And yes, that was the, that was the prompt. It was like, what if we just made it like Adia's theme? And I was like, alright, I can do that. Electric guitars and saxophone, let's go.
Yep, yep, yep. I realize I didn't finish a thought before, but I had said that the Switch Pro controller and the Joy-Cons felt exactly the same as the other ones. I did finish the thought, which is that the, when you're playing in handheld mode, it feels maybe marginally different because it's bigger. So it feels a little bit bigger. The one thing that feels-
A little heavier, probably.
A little heavier, a little heftier. I'm so used to the Steam Deck. I didn't bring, I should have brought my Steam Deck to compare the weights. I brought my Switch OG to compare the sizes and-
I'm sure that's out there on the internet.
Yeah, I'm sure it's somewhere. But I brought my Switch OLED to compare the sizes. I didn't really get enough time with it to compare like the OLED screen versus the LCD screen. So we'll see. That feels like it's gonna be a downgrade, which is unfortunate.
Yeah, the LCD screen.
But like it generally like, other than the size, if a normal person picked up the Switch 2, they would just not be able to tell any difference between that and the Switch. It is like functionally identical. The biggest difference is probably the way the Joy-Cons attach. And so instead of little buttons on the back, you have these triggers that are a lot heftier, a lot sturdier, you have to really press them in to detach. And then you have the magnet attachments rather than the rails, which I think is an improvement. Seems like a win.
Yeah. Did it feel cool to take the Joy-Cons on and off? Magnets are fun.
Yes, it is fun to take them on and off.
It would be very satisfying.
But it was, it was fun to take the original Switch Joy-Cons on and off.
Yeah, that's true. It was fun in a different way.
It was fun to put them on, taking them off was a little bit more fiddly.
Taking them off actually is a little fiddly, yeah. That little button.
Well, I mean, I mean, when I first like demoed it and got to play around with it, it was like fun to take them on and off.
Yeah, the first time, anything's fun.
Yeah, exactly.
Then you do it a billion times and you almost break it seven times. Then it's less fun.
What else? The, uh, yeah, the, it feels functionally the same. Was there anything else that stood out to you guys? Didn't get to test out any of the C button stuff that wasn't there. There were Game Cubes there. They looked fine. They looked like GameCube games running well.
GameCube controller, you mean?
And they had a GameCube controller there or just the game?
Oh, I didn't see, I didn't see if they had the GameCube, but I mean, that just looks like a GameCube controller.
Yeah, which I, I do think it's funny that they're never gonna let that controller die. Like as a company, Nintendo has just had to preserve that for Smash players, for no one else.
They have to like make an account to preorder. I feel like there are just so many GameCube controller sickos out there who are gonna buy that thing, who have 17 different versions of the GameCube controller, at least for every single possible platform.
Speaking of which, there are a lot of peripherals this time around. Like there's a webcam, which we didn't talk about, but it's part of the C button of it all.
That extra USB C.
Stand alone webcam.
Yeah, like they're gonna have a webcam that's $50, but you can also just buy your own, I guess. I'm, I, I guess as my closing thought, I'm really curious about the peripheral game on the Switch 2 and if people are gonna start using kind of off-brand mice for one. I'm really curious if people get that working. And just in general, the fact that there's those multiple USB ports feels like an invitation for people to get super weird with the Switch 2. I'm excited to see what happens when people actually have it on their hands and they can get all PC gaming about it.
Yeah, we didn't. So we saw a few indie, cool indie announcements. Enter the Gungeon 2 was a fun announcement. I wrote about those guys, Doddroll and Enter the Gungeon in my second book, Press Reset. And one of the things they told me that I capture in the book is that the Switch really boosted their sales. So it's not surprising to see them come out and support the Switch 2. Same with Super Giant with Hades 2, also not shocking. It seemed like the like top tier indies in Nintendo's view made a made an appearance there. Obviously, Delta Rune was there. I was surprised that we didn't see Yacht Club Games. I really thought they would be there with their new game, Mina the Hollower. Maybe we'll see them over the summer and maybe they'll do some sort of announcement.
And yeah, I really think this really feels like the kind of the setup for like another big kind of E3 style sequence of announcements. Which is what they did with the Switch 1. If you look at the marketing strategy they had with that game, they did a hardware teaser, sort of like Switch 2 did, that was about two months before a blowout, just like what just happened this week for the Switch 2. And then they launched the console. So that was January, the blowout. Then they launched a console in March and then they had a big E3 showing in June. And what they had done, they teased Mario Odyssey in January, but then they really, they showed it off in June.
Like you didn't know anything about it until June, not even the hat stuff and like controlling things until that June E3 event. So again, I wouldn't be super surprised if they had some big holiday title, maybe a 3D Mario, that they were saving to reveal in June.
Yeah, we'll see.
We will see. And of course, the three of us will get our hands on this thing more when it comes out in just two months, day before Summer Games Fest. So I might be scrambling in Los Angeles to go and like, try to find one. We'll see. We'll see how how things go there.
Yeah, that timing is very funny.
I don't know. Very strange timing. And yeah, obviously, we'll be talking more about this thing. But that's what we know so far, $450. Very curious to see if people get this thing. All right, why don't we take a break and we'll be back with one more thing.
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And we are back. I'm gonna go fast. So I'll go first. I played a game called Saga Frontier 2 that was kind of shadow dropped or day one lodged. Yeah, shadow dropped last week during the Nintendo Direct. That was last week. Did you guys remember there was a Nintendo Direct last week too?
Sure do.
I do remember that.
And that is a weird ass game. I don't know if you guys have played any Saga games, have you?
No.
They're so fucking weird, man. They're so strange. There's this guy at Square Enix, Kawazu, who's been there since the 80s and he just gets free reign to make these weird ass games. This is a remastered version of a PlayStation 1 game that I had remembered playing on the PS1, which is one of the reasons I wanted to check it out. And man, it's so friggin weird. It's like a series of vignettes that jump around in history and like tell stories in this really disjointed way. And then their weird mechanics where like you can only gain skills by like using commands over and over again, but then, man, I won't even get into it. I'll just say this game's friggin weird. And there are a bunch of Saga heads out there and props to them, but this is one JRPG series that I will just never,
never really get into. I played a lot of the first Saga Frontier. It was a little more traditional than this one. This one is just super weird, man. Super weird. You like, there's a system where like you control characters and then you control their descendants and have to pass along their stats to each other's descendants. Man, it's a weird game. Saga Frontier 2, man. If you want to play a weird game, if you're like into crunchy, weird mechanics, JRPG style games, go check out Saga Frontier 2. That's all I'll say about it. Maddie, what's your one more thing?
Mine is a television show that Dina and I watched all of. I think it's like eight episodes. It's called The Residence, spelled D E N C E at the end, as opposed to like a plural of resident.
Blueprint style homonyms over here.
It's a reference to the White House, which is often referred to as the residence, especially by people who work there. And it's a murder mystery that takes place in sort of like a closed room White House, but it's a huge party that happens there. And this show, especially watching this after Paradise, which is also kind of a closed room murder mystery where you like see the body in the first episode and then you like solve it over eight apps. And it's also kind of like about the White House and Secret Service. It's kind of like a weird opposite of Paradise because the residence is like a goofy slapstick comedy heightened reality. Like sometimes I had to really reset my brain when we were
sitting down to watch an episode of the residence and be like, right, I'm in a weird goofy version of the world that is nothing like our political reality now or any political reality we've ever had. It takes place in like an alternate history where the president is like a gay man, but like that isn't even a political commentary on anything. It's just like part of a silly series of plot points, if that makes sense. Like it's almost like an intentionally apolitical show, which that may or may not be something you're in the mood for right now. I occasionally was like, this show might be making me feel on board from reality in a bad way, but it also made me laugh a lot. So I don't know. Uzo Aduba stars, people might know her as Crazy Eyes from Orange is the New Black. I
think it's really cool that she gets to play so many different roles now. She plays the detective in this and she's like, just a delight to watch because she's so annoying in the way that like Sherlock Holmes is and is is also just constantly like removing herself from scenarios and commenting on them in weird ways. And everyone else there is like, I can't, I can't believe she's not just directly solving the mystery right away. And it's like irritated by her machinations and that's always fun to watch.
Randall Park is in it and he's kind of like her straight man. I always enjoy him and everything. Giancarlo Esposito plays the character who dies in episode one and it's his murder that you're solving the entire time, but you get a ton of flashbacks where you get to see him being like a really fun persnickety house manager of the entire White House, kind of a character. So yeah, I mean, if you like a mystery and you're like, okay, with just setting politics aside entirely, even though it's set in literally the White House, then you might like it. It's really silly, though. It's like, almost like the movie Clue levels of silly, like for lack of a better comparison. I mean, I think Clue is significantly better. I don't want people to think I'm saying this is as good as Clue.
Few things are, but it's kind of in at home in that genre where it's very silly and like, yeah, somebody died, but it's not like that. You know what I mean?
Maddie, you didn't mention Giancarlo Esposito, Ken Marino, Randall Park. Wow, what a cast.
Yeah, okay, Ken Marino's character is so funny in this. I love Ken Marino in everything he's ever in and he is so good in this show. So you could maybe just watch it for him. I don't know. He's got some great comedians in it.
This is a great cast. Jason Lee in there.
The guy who played, the guy who played Clay Davis on The Wire. This is a
Right, this is a Shondaland show.
It is a Shondaland show.
This is the show. I'm at Emily's house. We're visiting their new puppy this week and her parents have suggested that maybe we could watch this since we had watched Reacher together.
I think it's, I think it would be all right for that, for that exact setting. Like something to watch with your significant other's parents. I think that's perfect. But nobody, everybody will go home happy, you know? It's not going to start any fights.
Yeah, well, that's, that's always best. It just seems like light entertainment.
Yeah, for sure.
Nice, cool. Sounds good.
Kirk, finish us off.
I will finish us off with a bit of a like, a journey through several books. So I mentioned I'm just still reading.
Of course you will. Classic Kirk.
I love this. I'm, I'm
Whatever. You did like three things for your one more thing last week and then tried to somehow still make that my fault.
Classic Kirk Hamilton.
I mean.
Four more things.
So I've, I've mentioned I've been reading the Murderbot books and La House books, which like I've already talked about on the show. And so I kind of rewound myself a little bit to then talk about a book I read somewhat recently, which is Tress of the Emerald Sea, a Brandon Sanderson book that just randomly came in at the library. That's a pretty fun book. It's fine. It's very different mode for him. And the whole time I was reading it, I was thinking, man, this really reminds me of The Princess Bride. And then I got to the end and in his afterword, he described how he kind of wrote the book in secret. And the whole time it was a little inside joke between him and his wife about how he wanted to write a book like The Princess Bride. And so it was clearly influenced by The Princess Bride. And that made me remember The Princess Bride, which I wanted to mention on the show because
have either of you read The Princess Bride by William Goldman?
I haven't. I've always intended to.
So Maddie, you say you haven't, but you've always intended to. Almost everyone that I talk to you about The Princess Bride says exactly that. So it's very helpful response.
I know.
For a long time, that was me as well. I had never read it. I'd seen the movie a billion times.
Of course.
A go to sick day movie when I was a kid. I could quote it still by heart, but I'd never read the book and I read it probably five or six years ago. The full title, of course, The Princess Bride, S. Morgan Stern's classic tale of true love and high adventure, the good parts version by William Goldman. And this book is fantastic. And I just want to mention it on the show, mention it for anyone out there who's looking for some fun, enjoyable book, who's maybe seen the movie, maybe loves the movie, maybe has never seen the movie and just wants to read something really cool. It is similar to the movie, a frame narrative. It is playing with a lot of meta textual stuff, but in a much more elaborate and funny way. I found it to be actually even funnier than the movie, which I've always thought the movie to be very funny. It's a little more arch.
It's a little more, yeah, it's a little, got a little more tart, I guess, but it's just very funny. The way the whole thing is described, it's buried in layer upon layer of meta text where William Goldman is describing his own journey to find the S. Morgan Stern copy of the book. But the William Goldman that is narrating the book is different from the actual William Goldman, the author of the book in subtle ways. And you start to learn this as you're reading it, you realize like, wait a minute.
It's like a Philip Roth.
Like he wrote. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, William Goldman did. And then he talks about that in the forewords and in the asides in the book. But he says stuff that couldn't possibly be true, like about how Morgan Stern's book influenced the script for Butch Cassidy, even though like the Morgan Stern book doesn't actually exist, it's a made up book.
Mm hmm.
And so the whole thing is actually like him reinterpreting stories that he used to tell to his kids. I think he had two daughters and one wanted a story about a princess and the other wanted a story about a bride. So he was like, I'll tell you a story about the princess bride. And it sort of became that. Anyways, it's such a good book. It's so funny. It has a lot more about some of the characters you may love. Inigo Montoya in particular gets a much more expanded backstory. You kind of learn the whole story of his father and his town, the crafting of the sword, of course, and like this epic sword of legend that becomes such an important part of his story and is in the movie, but you don't quite get as much of a sense for it. So I hope the two of you will read it because it's really, really great. I want to reread it. And reading Tress of the Emerald Sea, as fun as it was, made me remember like the true
brilliance of the princess bride. So that's my one more thing. I hope I will inspire some people out there to finally stop thinking, I should really read that and go and just get it from the library and read it because it is a fantastic book.
Yeah, it really sounds like my thing.
Good rec.
I like a meta book. I enjoy that kind of thing a lot.
It's just great.
Like aside and fake stuff about a book that doesn't exist. That's all my thing.
Sounds very fun. Okay, cool. That is that for this week's episode. Guys, I'm very excited for next week's episode. People might have heard me talking about a game.
We've been hyping it.
A few weeks now.
Hyped it, hyped it.
I mean, all I've been doing, all I did on the plane, all I've been doing here.
It is now all I do. I too am only doing this now.
It's just eating our brains.
It's all we're doing.
Starting next week, it will eat the brains of the world.
All right. See you both next week.
Yep, see you next week.
Bye.
Triple Click is produced by Jason Schreier, Maddy Myers, and me, Kirk Hamilton. I edit and mix the show and also wrote our theme music. Our show art is by Tom DJ. Some of the games and products we talked about on this episode may have been sent to us for free for review consideration. You can find a link to our ethics policy in the show notes. Triple Click is a proud member of the Maximum Fun Podcast Network, and if you like our show, we hope you'll consider supporting us by becoming a member at maximumfun.org/join. Find us on Twitter at TripleClickPod, send email to [email protected], and find a link to our Discord in the show notes. Thanks for listening. See you next time.
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Page updated November 3, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated