Don’t Miss the Switch 2’s Hidden Gem

Mario Kart World is getting all of the attention at the Nintendo Switch 2 launch. But if you look deeper into the Nintendo eShop, you’ll find another excellent racing game for a fraction of the price. Fast Fusion reimagines the futuristic fun of the Wipeout and F-Zero series. This week, The Besties discuss this $14.99 surprise, along with revisiting the Switch 2 following more time with the hardware.

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

• 0:00Griffin McElroy?

  There's gonna be a fun tension this episode, knowing that at any moment, the chainsaw wielding burglars who have been terrorizing Russ Frushtick's building, his entire building for the last 24 hours could appear at any time. And then Russ is just gonna disappear and his criticism will be missed.

• 0:18Russ Frushtick?

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

• 0:24Speaker 02

  Oh, fuck, chainsaw heist? How have we not made this movie? Chainsaw heist, that is, that's at least a hundred million dollars.

• 0:34Russ Frushtick?

  Now, it should be noted, chainsaws are not designed to cut through hard things. They cut through wood. I know, Justin's the expert here. My understanding is they cut through wood, but when it comes to like stealing things from a bank, you probably don't want a chainsaw. It's probably not gonna do the trick.

• 0:50Griffin McElroy?

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

• 0:55Speaker 02

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

• 1:06Russ Frushtick?

  And you're that guy?

• 1:07Speaker 02

  That's why I have a chainsaw. I'm that guy.

• 1:09Russ Frushtick?

  Whoa.

• 1:09Speaker 02

  That's the kind of hill I'm on, right? If you look around your hill and I'm the guy cutting the trees out of the road, you need to move.

• 1:17Russ Frushtick?

  Now, have you ever-

• 1:17Speaker 02

  Or become the guy for me.

• 1:19Russ Frushtick?

  Have you ever felt heisty with that chainsaw? Have you ever felt like you wanted to break into a bank?

• 1:23Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, sometimes I feel like I wanna carve into that beautiful wood and take home a slab for myself, but-

• 1:30Griffin McElroy?

  Can you do that?

• 1:31Speaker 02

  What?

• 1:31Griffin McElroy?

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

• 1:37Chris Plante?

  Wait, are you saying if a tree falls in the woods, can you steal it? Is I think the question-

• 1:42Griffin McElroy?

  That's not what I was saying even a little bit.

• 1:44Russ Frushtick?

  No.

• 1:44Griffin McElroy?

  That's not what I was saying.

• 1:45Speaker 02

  You should leave the trees where they fall. They are purely decorative and riddled with bugs. The only place to get wood, in the way that we think of it, is at your local home goods store.

• 1:54Griffin McElroy?

  That's cool. And I do hear, I believe, the sound of- The burglars are back in the middle of the intro!

• 2:01Speaker 02

  Quickly, Russ, thwart them, thwart them, Russ.

• 2:02Russ Frushtick?

  But they are knocking, which is very polite at the very least.

• 2:05Griffin McElroy?

  Cool, cool, cool. The power tools will come later.

• 2:07Russ Frushtick?

  Yes.

• 2:25Speaker 02

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

• 2:27Griffin McElroy?

  My name's Griffin McElroy and I know the best game of the week.

• 2:29Chris Plante?

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

• 2:32Russ Frushtick?

  My name is Ross Fraschek. I know the best game of the week.

• 2:36Speaker 02

  Welcome to The Besties, where we talk about the latest and greatest in home interactive entertainment. It is a video game club and just by listening, you at home have just become a member. And this week, we're going to be talking about a brand new release. Across a cross-platform or is it just Switch 2?

• 2:51Griffin McElroy?

  You were so confident like now.

• 2:53Chris Plante?

  I know, it felt so fucking hard. It's just Switch 2.

• 2:56Griffin McElroy?

  It's just Switch 2 right now.

• 3:01Griffin McElroy?

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

• 3:07Chris Plante?

  Fast Fusion is a racing game in the style of Wipeout and F-Zero. And it is actually a continuation of an ongoing series that's quite delightful, but underappreciated. And did I mention it only cost $14.99? We'll talk about more after the break, after we recover Hoops from whatever pit he has fallen into.

• 3:28Griffin McElroy?

  He's a real existential depth.

• 3:32Russ 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,

• 4:13Russ Frushtick?

  I am incredibly 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 Wirecutter 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 dot 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.

• 4:55Speaker 02

  Hard to remember and harder to put down. Fast Fusion.

• 5:00Russ Frushtick?

  Finally, the fast franchise is coming at us.

• 5:04Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 5:04Russ Frushtick?

  I think this is the second installment in the fast.

• 5:06Griffin McElroy?

  This is the fourth.

• 5:08Russ Frushtick?

  What?

• 5:09Griffin McElroy?

  Good try.

• 5:09Speaker 02

  Who's counting?

• 5:10Russ Frushtick?

  I tried.

• 5:12Griffin McElroy?

  There was Fast Racing League came out in the Wii Shop channel in 2011. We had.

• 5:16Speaker 02

  With a name like that, how did it not burn up the charts?

• 5:19Griffin McElroy?

  Fast Racing Neo was on the Wii U in 2015. Fast RMX.

• 5:23Russ Frushtick?

  Right, I knew about that.

• 5:24Griffin McElroy?

  Which is an enhanced version of Fast Racing Neo came out. Is a launch title for the Switch. And the Fast Fusion is a launch title for the Switch 2. And may I just say, one of the better launch titles on the Switch 2, I think.

• 5:35Speaker 02

  Yeah. It's definitely up there. It is though such a silly name that when people ask me what I was playing. I pretend that I didn't know the name of it because I didn't want to say Fast Fusion.

• 5:47Griffin McElroy?

  It sounds like you're describing a genre of restaurant. There's new Fast Fusion plays out on Delancey.

• 5:54Speaker 02

  So Chris Plant, what is this game?

• 5:56Chris Plante?

  So the best comparison, like I said, it wipe out F0. It is doing what Nintendo doesn't seem to have interest in doing. It doesn't seem like it wants to bring back F0. So this series has a history of filling that gap on Nintendo's behalf. It is a futuristic racing game in which you zip around these gravity defying racetracks, doing loop after loop. But the hook here this time around is, well, there's a few. One, it looks fucking great. And that is because it is using all of the new like whiz bang technology that allows you to like turn low resolution graphics into high.

• 6:36Griffin McElroy?

  4K HDR at 60 frames per second. Fucking pretty wild.

• 6:40Chris Plante?

  Killer. The second thing that it's doing, it's a racing game that lets you jump. And it turns out

• 6:47Griffin McElroy?

  That's cool.

• 6:47Chris Plante?

  It's cool as hell to be able to jump in your racing games. And the third thing is the boost pads. There are these boost pads that go all around the track and they are two different colors. And I'm not sure what colors they were for you, Russ. What, what were they for you? Did it work?

• 7:02Russ Frushtick?

  Are you addressing me?

• 7:04Chris Plante?

  Yeah.

• 7:06Griffin McElroy?

  How bad is it over there?

• 7:07Russ Frushtick?

  Do we think it's, this is gonna work? Is this gonna be good?

• 7:09Speaker 02

  Yes, I, I need Russ Frusich. I don't care if there's grinding behind you. I need you.

• 7:13Chris Plante?

  Russ, what colors?

• 7:15Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah.

• 7:16Chris Plante?

  What colors were the boost pads?

• 7:18Russ Frushtick?

  They look to me like red and blue, but.

• 7:20Chris Plante?

  Okay, great. So you can go, you, you shift your, your, your, your vehicle's color to match the boost pads. If you are the right color, if you match, you're zipping through the course. But there's a risk reward here because if you're the wrong color, it drains your juice.

• 7:35Griffin McElroy?

  Drains you dry. Yeah, there's also a boost meter that you're working up by collecting coins on the map. And you can steal those from other people by boosting into them or landing on top of them. Heavyweight style. Um, but the really important thing to know about this game is that you're going a million, billion fucking miles per hour. And it's so, so fast in that like, I remember the first time I played, I think it was wipeout on either PSP or PS Vita and just being like completely mind blown by the fact that I was playing a handheld thing and playing a game that looked this, this good and this fast. And I feel like that, I, I don't know, I was shocked to have that same experience.

• 8:14Chris Plante?

  The cool thing though is you are going a billion trillion miles per hour, but you have an astonishing level of control right out the box of your vehicle. So it's really easy to get around the course. They want you to have the, the joy of moving really fast, but they don't want you worrying so much about the like racing the track as they do you making the decisions, these risk reward decisions like, hey, should I jump to try to get some extra boosts? Like boxes? Risking putting myself into the air and like running into a billboard. Should I boost past a enemy knocking them out of the way, but then not having enough boost?

• 8:57Chris Plante?

  Basically exposing myself to like attacks from other racers. It's all these like little choices that you're making and then the racing is kind of, I don't know. I found it kind of surprisingly simple and easy because it gives you so much control of your vehicle.

• 9:12Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, it feels really, really good.

• 9:14Speaker 02

  There's something it's smart it's doing about the, the view range and the angle where your, your ship is so close to the camera that even when it's going really fast, you feel like you've got a ton of control. Like it still feel, it doesn't feel like you're not able to keep pace with what it's doing. Most of the times that you die, a lot of the times at least, it is your fault. Like it is, for me, a lot of the times it was seeing some like boost tokens in the air and thinking, I want to grab those.

• 9:42Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, for sure.

• 9:43Speaker 02

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

• 9:48Russ Frushtick?

  There is also an element in this that you don't see in a lot of these arcade racing games. I guess F0 is probably the closest analog. There's no randomness, there's no, oh, you hit the thing and you get a slot machine of like, what are you gonna get? So that actually makes it fucking Christ. Why did you guys make me come here? This will probably be the last good insight I have this episode because Jesus Christ. But I did appreciate the fact that you weren't having to do the slot machine item pickup, blue shell thing every time.

• 10:20Chris Plante?

  I'll build on that a little bit in that this is the kind of ideal companion to arrive alongside Mario. Mario Kart World for me, because I really enjoyed Mario Kart World and I do want to give everyone an update on my colonoscopy. It went great and I played a lot of Mario Kart World while preparing for it.

• 10:41Russ Frushtick?

  I don't think we talked about it.

• 10:44Speaker 02

  That's kind of like a you thing. It's a side quest that you went on without us, your friends.

• 10:51Speaker 02

  So I'm glad to hear you fill in the, the.

• 10:54Chris Plante?

  I figured while I was away, that was like the number one topic. Why would you have Chris Grant on if not to talk about my health? Anyway, I played a lot of it. The frustrating thing about that game is you race and you race and you race. And then you get third place at the very last second after being in first place the whole time and it's maddening. That said, I absolutely adore that game. But this is the opposite. I'm sure there's rubber banding behind the scenes, but it largely feels fair. When I lose, it feels like I deserved to lose. When I win, it feels like I deserved to win. It feels, while like an arcade racer, like something more competitive than Mario Kart.

• 11:34Chris Plante?

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

• 11:43Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, it's, it's cool. So you get money by collecting these boost tokens on the map, but you get more money for, you know, placing really well in a race. There's another mode called superhero mode where you can also get a lot of money and that involves you coming in first in a race and also you can't explode at any point. And it's very, very hard, but you can get lots of money for doing that. And then, uh, sorry, I just ran up and down the stairs.

• 12:08Chris Plante?

  There's a time attack mode also that is you versus developers times and it is tough. Like I expected, oh, I'll be able to win the first race after a few rounds and no, they really want you to figure out every little angle of the race. What I can't get over, and I know we usually don't talk about like price on this show, but 1499 is such a bizarre price for this game in that it feels as feature-rich as any other launch title. I remember playing on any other video game console. Um, now I don't know if it's just like they assume that everybody will buy it if you price it.

• 12:52Griffin McElroy?

  I mean, I think it's just standing out so, so much more in comparison because the... You know, killer app, at least from Nintendo's side. The big new game is Mario Kart World, which costs $80. And there's been so much disgust about that to have another racing game come out that, I mean, frankly, guys, I have not played, I don't think I've played Mario Kart since last, last week. It was kind of dead on arrival, I feel like, at our house. We've been playing a lot of Switch 2, but not, not that. And this is obviously not as big and ambitious as Mario Kart, but I do think I have had some more fun with it because it looks so good and it just feels really, really good to play.

• 13:35Russ Frushtick?

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

• 13:41Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 13:41Russ Frushtick?

  I'm sorry, Rachel. Why, poor Rachel is gonna have to work with this audio.

• 13:46Chris Plante?

  Gee, fair, people can't see it. The chainsaw is right behind you.

• 13:49Griffin McElroy?

  It's like coming through the wall.

• 13:51Chris Plante?

  And he's wielding it as if he's going to chop.

• 13:52Russ Frushtick?

  And I, I want this to be a 4DX experience for the people at home. So please jam a vibrator under your seat, if you won't mind. And you know what? If that's gonna work for you, so much the better.

• 14:03Chris Plante?

  You're talking about the res motion controller.

• 14:06Russ Frushtick?

  Yes, correct.

• 14:06Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, only use the res motion controller. We didn't finish, I didn't actually finish my thought about the, the, like, economy of the game. Like, you get the boost tokens and then you can use those to buy new tracks, access to new tracks, and you can buy new ships, and then you can fuse the ships together to create new ships? And those are like, unique in their own way? And I, it does, I mean, the ships do feel kind of different from each other. There's like heavier ones that go much faster when they boost, and then there's ones that accelerate faster. That's not the most novel concept, but it is just kind of enough to, I don't know, put that extra little carrot on the, on the stick.

• 14:42Speaker 02

  I feel like it's just a really good blend of, like, the amount of focus that you have to give it and the layering of the mechanics. It feels like when you're in the pocket, almost a little bit more like a rhythm game, where like, you are, you know the sequence, you know the next thing you need to do, you're like, after you do a big, long, like, blue trail, I would sometimes start to like, just go ahead and flip to orange automatically.

• 15:07Griffin McElroy?

  Thinking like, okay, the next thing I'm going to do is over here. And especially as you repeat the tracks over and over again, you start to get a sense of like, oh, that's right. This jump is coming up where I can hit that line and then I'm going to land. And if you're getting those mechanics, like, like Plant said, the racing becomes almost secondary and I like that so much more. I'd much prefer that where I'm learning game mechanics.

• 15:26Chris Plante?

  Yeah.

• 15:26Griffin McElroy?

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

• 15:35Chris Plante?

  That, that's such a great point. And the fact that the track itself kind of looks like a track in a Guitar Hero game brings that home even more. The dueling other racers, what I do love about that, I mean, briefly touched on it, is you build up this boost meter and it does give you some speed and it's especially useful if you've come to a complete stop and you need to catch up to the pack. But really it becomes this offensive move for taking people out. In that constant feeling of, okay, I have somebody in front of me and I can take them out, but I know I have two people behind me. And if I boost through them, I'm going to be empty on my boost gauge and that means the two people behind me can take me out. And it becomes this.

• 16:18Griffin McElroy?

  It becomes like croquet, right? Because it's like, I have to hit this guy in front of me so I can steal his boost. So then I can boost past these next, these next. Cause if you're not boosting in this game, the boost feels fucking great. If you're not using it constantly, you slow down to a point where you are going to get passed. So managing that bar is really important.

• 16:34Chris Plante?

  If you run it out to zero, you expose yourself defensively. And it's like that, yeah, the head games are, I mean, playing against robots, but yeah, it's, it's something special. I think it's great that this and Mario Kart are just going to be cooked on a mini Switch 2's day one is a killer. Griffin, I was thinking, you know, like last fall, we went to a lake house with some of our friends together. And I imagine like having both of these games, I want both. Like, yeah, there are some people I want to play Mario Kart with and there are some people like, I cannot wait to play this game with you. Playing Mario Kart with you, that'll be fun. But like, playing this, I feel like we will.

• 17:14Griffin McElroy?

  For the real gamers, for the, just say for the real gamers.

• 17:16Chris Plante?

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

• 17:21Griffin McElroy?

  I think this game rules. I think it's, I genuinely, it's one of the, it's some of the most fun I've had on the Switch 2 in the week and change that I've, that I've had my hands on it. And I, I, I think at 15 bucks, it's a, it's a steal.

• 17:33Chris Plante?

  Hell yeah. Cool video games. Um, should we take a break and then talk about other games?

• 17:41Griffin McElroy?

  I would love to do that. Russ, how are you? Russ is holding his face in his hands in a really defeated pose.

• 17:48Russ Frushtick?

  Is that possible?

• 17:49Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, I think that would probably be good.

• 17:50Speaker 02

  Yeah, thanks, Russ.

• 17:51Griffin McElroy?

  Thank you so much, Russ.

• 17:51Russ Frushtick?

  Have a nice show.

• 17:52Griffin McElroy?

  Sorry about all the shit, man.

• 17:54Speaker 02

  Sorry about everything, Russ.

• 18:01Chris Plante?

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• 19:19Chris Plante?

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• 19:36Speaker 02

  We talked a little bit about, I think last week, about how little fanfare there was with the Switch 2 launch, and we kind of wanted to revisit it this week to see where everybody's head is at now that the, you know, we're past all of the hubbub, the lights, the glamour, the glitz. How's your Switch Journey been, y'all?

• 19:57Griffin McElroy?

  I mean, we've been playing it quite a bit. Mostly still Tears of the Kingdom, the updated Switch 2 version. Henry has finally kind of like taken a shine to that game. It's a very complex. He plays a lot of games at this point, but like, there's so much shit you can do in that game, and just so many kind of buttons to juggle to like do all of that stuff. But it seems like he's finally like clicked with it. And so we've been having a lot of fun playing that. I honestly, I love having Fast Fusion kind of on the docket because it is a fun, like, five-minute game. It's a fun game to just like pick up and do a little chunk of. But I've, yeah, I've been playing the Switch 2 quite a bit at

• 20:40Griffin McElroy?

  this point. I did not, I have a couple of things on my Rog Ally X on my, you know, to-do list to go to, but it is maybe because it is significantly heavier, I have been trending towards the stuff on Switch 2. So yeah, it's been getting a lot of, a lot of play over here.

• 20:59Chris Plante?

  I love this damn thing. It's so good.

• 21:02Griffin McElroy?

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

• 21:03Chris Plante?

  Yeah, I wasn't here last week. My, my, my take, and I'm glad I had the extra time to play it, and I'm glad I had a cool nice, because I could really get to know this thing, and it could get to know me. It, I will just say like the obvious bummer of it out of the way, it's not actually to do with it, it's to do with just everything in games now, which is, we have locked into the iterative era of hardware. Gone are the days of the Wii mote and the Kinect and all of those things, whether you like them or not. And here are the new days of the iterative console release. But what I can say as a huge compliment to the Switch 2 versus-

• 21:44Chris Plante?

  Xbox Series X and the PlayStation 5 is I want to turn it on. With both those consoles, I just had no desire, pretty much immediately.

• 21:56Chris Plante?

  You know, I worked through Demon's Souls, but beyond that, they, the systems, they are a means to an end of playing the thing on my TV. The Switch 2 is the opposite so far. I've really enjoyed Mario Kart, even if it frustrates me in all the way Mario Kart says, I've really enjoyed Fast Fusion. I've loved digging into the GameCube catalog.

• 22:20Griffin McElroy?

  I have not even done that yet.

• 22:22Chris Plante?

  Dude, Soul Calibur 2 is just a killer game. And just being on my console, ready to work whenever I want it is absolutely perfect. And I love that things run well. Like, they run really, really well. I wasn't sure about the like upgrades to Zelda and stuff, and I was worried about it. Because that sort of stuff in the past has not been Nintendo's jam, and they've absolutely nailed it. And I think what I just had to do as I was playing it more and more was let go of my feelings about consoles, basically, of the past. And if I thought about this in the same way that I felt when I played the Switch OLED,

• 23:07Chris Plante?

  it's like way past even that. Like, I'm loving this way more than I did that upgrade, and we talked about that.

• 23:14Griffin McElroy?

  That was such a more marginal upgrade than.

• 23:17Chris Plante?

  Yeah, but we all loved it, right? Like, it was a great screen. But the moment when I realized, like, oh, it's really clicking for me, was we have to, you know, acquire a code for games that we talk about on the show, week after week. And I started to want to go back to asking for Switch code instead of Steam. And I haven't done that for years. Because the Steam Deck was my default, and then other options. And you're right, Griffin, like, it's. So much lighter and just more comfortable and being able to get that same amount of power

• 23:55Chris Plante?

  and ease, but also having it not weigh so much is it matters. It like really does matter. So yeah, overall I like it. I do feel like we are living in a period of an embarrassment of riches. And I think that's overall really good. I do wonder if we're also barreling towards like our own version of the modern console wars where people are like very picky about what they want from a handheld.

• 24:28Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 24:29Chris Plante?

  But I don't, I don't know. So that was kind of my rant.

• 24:31Griffin McElroy?

  It's so, it's so weird to think of Nintendo competing in that. Like they've been so clearly doing their own thing, but the, the fact remains that like for the past two, three, whenever the Steam Deck came out, I basically kind of put my console stuff to the side almost entirely and was using that except for Nintendo games. And now, I don't know, man. I will cop to last week being so, uh, being a little blustery about like, well, the rock, my rog ally X is stronger in every conceivable way. Uh, and I don't know, after playing, playing more Tears of the Kingdom, which just fucking looks and runs so good.

• 25:12Griffin McElroy?

  Like, I don't really even feel that way particularly strongly anymore. Uh, I'm sure that there are some, some big showpiece games that will still maybe stand out. But, um, yeah, it's, it's, it's, it has really asserted itself around here. Yeah. What about you, Juice? Cause you were, you were much cooler on it than, than we were last.

• 25:32Speaker 02

  Thanks, Griff. I always try to be very, very cool. Appreciate you noticing that.

• 25:38Speaker 02

  I had a couple of good like contextual experiences with it where I needed to be, we were like at the theater and our show got rained out and I had it with me. And, uh, we were like backstage in the shell and I was able to like pop off the controllers and put on the little. Do hickeys, which is a bad solution for that. That's stupid. I hate having to have that with me. Um, they help, but it's like another thing.

• 26:03Griffin McElroy?

  You're talking about the Joy-Con rails?

• 26:06Speaker 02

  Attack, yeah, that's, yeah, but you're just using for mouse, but also like it gives you a bit more grip when you're doing like the individual Joy-Con things.

• 26:15Speaker 02

  But we did, uh, some Mario Kart and I just had like, me and Cooper did two-player like battles and stuff. And then we had a couple of other people play and it's, you know, you put it in somebody's hand and it's, the screen's big enough that you don't feel ridiculous popping out the kickstand and actually like playing a little bit. So for that, like, uh, it was good. Um, not the like ideal game for it, I guess, for me, just because it's not my favorite, but like it, that worked well. I went out and got actually, um, couple of the wheels, wheel things. They've got like a, uh, two-pack of the wheel handles for these. So I want to see how the kids,

• 26:56Speaker 02

  uh, if the kids enjoyed those. They did not. Um, they thought it sucked to do. They hated it. They cried. Literally. I've, I've got them at the house. People can use them, but not my kids. Uh, and I bought a camera, Griff. I don't know if you're gonna get a camera.

• 27:10Griffin McElroy?

  No, I've seen so many pictures of just like, uh, Best Buy display units of just like all them switches gone, all them memory cards gone. There's like 50 cameras.

• 27:21Speaker 02

  Yeah. But it is that, that feels, I really feel like if the camera was gonna be a thing, I really wish it had been packed in. It really does feel like, you know, it even feels weird. Like if I see people on and I have the camera, like it feels presumptuous. Like I see them playing something else and I'm the one with a camera and I want to be like, pardon. Pardon, mind, hello? It's all, it's all weird, but Griffin, get one so we can like, I would, I will say there was a cool application for it in, uh, when we were playing Mario Kart, because it let you like, um, move the circle to where your head is in the room.

• 28:05Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 28:05Speaker 02

  And that was like your icon for the game. So like, as you, like, whatever you did in the room, like, that was still your like little icon.

• 28:13Griffin McElroy?

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

• 28:22Speaker 02

  You already have spent that 10 bucks on Welcome Tour, so you won't have it.

• 28:27Griffin McElroy?

  That's a good point. That's a good point. Does Welcome Tour, does Welcome Tour have incredible video functionality? I bet it does.

• 28:34Speaker 02

  Hard enough on Welcome Tour, but I guess we don't need to circle back around on that. There's so much of it that's invisible and you just have to wander around. That thing's a stinker.

• 28:44Speaker 02

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

• 28:53Griffin McElroy?

  Right.

• 28:53Speaker 02

  Uh, that Donkey Kong game get looks killer. I wish that was out of launch. I think I'd probably be a lot more excited about it. And if I would be more excited about it, if that Donkey Kong game was out already, then like, who gives a shit?

• 29:05Griffin McElroy?

  Right.

• 29:05Speaker 02

  You know what I'm saying? It's like, yeah, then, then wait, you know what I mean? Baby.

• 29:09Griffin McElroy?

  No, but.

• 29:09Speaker 02

  Don't buy it so early, dork.

• 29:11Griffin McElroy?

  We talk about, we talk about console launches in their own kind of way. Like it is, it isn't a, a contextual sort of self-contained event, because it is, it is like, I don't know. It's a, it's a, it has such an impact on the industry and the like year and the future of like, what, what gaming promise? Like it is an impactful thing. And so I, it is, I think, kind of, kind of shitty to have such a, what would, oh, I almost certainly looks like could be like a, a first party, uh, killer app at launch, not, not be at launch.

• 29:48Speaker 02

  It really feels, uh, the, now that I have a little space and I'm actually like a little less like frustrated about it because I see where it sort of fits in the landscape a little better. It really does feel like Nintendo making good on sort of what.

• 30:02Speaker 02

  I feel like this is what Sony and Microsoft had have wanted to do in terms of the like seamless trying to get to iPhone levels of like just seamlessly replacing your hardware on a cycle that they can dictate and try to like, you know, the the individual numbers were just like psych, it's a platform, you know what I mean? It's less about the numbering. I feel like Nintendo has actually like done that in a way that feels really, really genuinely iterative that has like kept continuity in this product where like, I don't think Microsoft and Sony have ever had the discipline to make a five feel like a successor to four, but I feel like the Nintendo Switch two really does do that. It feels like a direct expansion and continuation of that whole thing.

• 30:47Chris Plante?

  I, I agree with that. And I think a lot of that is in the UI actually working.

• 30:53Speaker 02

  Sure.

• 30:54Chris Plante?

  So much of what has been really nice about this console is not things that kids get excited about. It is, hey, I hopped on the store and it loaded. And then I picked a game and I bought it and it didn't take like a million headaches, little tiny headaches to do that. And everything just actually works. And when I connect to online stuff, it is totally fine. And it's all these little small things that are not appealing back of the box cases. But I always wondered why Nintendo didn't just fix on the Switch one. And I'm wondering how much of the problems that they faced were like foundational and how they had made things. And they simply could not fix them until they did a ground up rebuild. And that's a

• 31:39Chris Plante?

  lot of what we have here. The only like, and this is, they don't need my worries. But there is plenty of clues that this was made to come out years ago, as in like when the motherboards were printed, things like that. And

• 32:00Chris Plante?

  I, it feels like the right amount of powerful right now for running all these different things. But I'm not sure how much like kind of runway it has.

• 32:10Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 32:11Chris Plante?

  I, I enjoyed having that kind of three years of the Switch really feeling like it was enough.

• 32:17Griffin McElroy?

  A contender. Yeah.

• 32:18Chris Plante?

  Yes. And I, I'm a little worried about that, but again, like, that's not, they don't need my pity. But then that's not a normal person's concern, I think.

• 32:28Griffin McElroy?

  My, the excitement I feel for the Switch 2 would be considerably tempered if tomorrow, Steam or the Republic of Gamers were like, yeah, and here's the Rogue Ally Lite. It's 30% stronger and it's, it's 40% lighter. I'd be like, well, fuck, that sounds actually really good. I would, I would actually love to go ahead and hop on that.

• 32:49Speaker 02

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

• 33:01Griffin McElroy?

  Right.

• 33:02Speaker 02

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

• 33:06Griffin McElroy?

  It'll work. Yeah.

• 33:07Speaker 02

  It's gonna work. You put the thing in, it'll play.

• 33:09Chris Plante?

  Kids and it will work.

• 33:11Griffin McElroy?

  True. Yeah.

• 33:12Speaker 02

  Unless you want them to play together in the open world of Mario.

• 33:15Griffin McElroy?

  I let Henry use my old Steam, Steam Deck OLED after I got the Rogue Ally X. Uh, cause there's some games that are not on, uh, Switch that he, you know, wanted to play. And he bounced the fuck off that thing because of, I don't know, having to just navigate any of that, any of that UI and manage that stuff was not compelling to him.

• 33:37Speaker 02

  I actually used the, um, virtual game card system.

• 33:41Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah. What did you, was that with, uh, Survival Kids?

• 33:44Speaker 02

  No, I used it with, so, okay. Yes, I did use that for Survival Kids. That was just like redeeming a Steam code. That's what the cards are like. It's just like redeeming a code. That's not that cool. But the virtual game cards are kind of interesting. So I'll tell you the way that I used it. Um, when I transferred my Switch to my Switch 2, it took a lot of my most recently played games and it put them into my library and started downloading them. And it said that I had the virtual game cards for these things loaded into this Switch. And then I had Nintendo Disney Dreamlight Valley on my Switch on the Switch two had moved over. Charlie wanted to play it on my Switch one. And I couldn't make that happen because

• 34:29Speaker 02

  it was the virtual game card was in my Switch two.

• 34:32Griffin McElroy?

  Right.

• 34:33Speaker 02

  So basically, I downloaded it on the old Switch and then I ejected the game card for my Switch two.

• 34:41Griffin McElroy?

  Yes.

• 34:42Speaker 02

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

• 34:46Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, the the way it used to work, because I've done this once too, actually, before the Switch two came out, I had to move over the the virtual game card for Minecraft from my Switch OLED to my Switch Lite, so I could play with play multiplayer with Henry. The way that it worked before was just my Switch Lite was not my primary console. So anytime I played a game, either starting it up or resuming it or playing it, it was making online checks to ensure that the other Switch was not being used. So like, there was some bullshit where like, I would have to put Henry's Switch in airplane mode if we wanted to play Animal Crossing together across our two switches. It's a huge pain in the ass. And this seems like the solve for that is it's just like, yeah, you have you have a little transferable

• 35:31Griffin McElroy?

  license token. That means you can play the game without constant, you know, online checking. And

• 35:39Speaker 02

  That's what it is. It works pretty good.

• 35:40Griffin McElroy?

  It works good. Yeah. I thought you were talking about the game share option.

• 35:45Speaker 02

  No, I did not try that.

• 35:47Griffin McElroy?

  I know that Survival Kits has that equipped.

• 35:49Speaker 02

  I'll I'll complain about this. Those are little things that didn't bug me until recently. This this this nonsense right here with the buttons where the chat button is right beneath the home button. No, thank you. I never want to press that C in my life. Put it on the fifth side that is away from me, not right next to the extremely useful home button, please. The home button is raised a little bit, but that feels like an admission of guilt, doesn't it? That you needed to raise it to remind me that that's the button I'm looking for? Put that C anywhere. Put it next to this circle I've never pushed.

• 36:20Griffin McElroy?

  Have

• 36:21Speaker 02

  Please, but a whole no man's land. If you can make an apps folder like I have on my phone for the things I can't delete, that'd be great.

• 36:27Griffin McElroy?

  Have you all tried that Jeff Grubb patented kickstand grip trick? Kickstand grip trick where you pull the kickstand out.

• 36:35Chris Plante?

  Put your fingers in it as a grip.

• 36:38Griffin McElroy?

  That's insane.

• 36:39Chris Plante?

  And play the Switch. It works quite well.

• 36:41Speaker 02

  This?

• 36:41Chris Plante?

  It's, yes, it's pretty nice. Feels pretty good.

• 36:44Speaker 02

  I mean, I would not be opposed to it. It, I will say, it has been rough on the old carpal tunnel. I've had to, uh, not, not hold it very, very much. It is a, is a beefy, beefy console. And I know the Rock Alix is bigger, but it feels better ergonomically. And honestly, that thing I usually put on a table.

• 37:03Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 37:03Speaker 02

  With it, with a kickstand up while I'm, I'm using it. So.

• 37:07Griffin McElroy?

  The, the lack of ergonomic options right now for the Switch 2 is, is troubling. I have, I think for all the Switch iterations I have had, I've had put some sort of case on there that gave it a handle, a couple handles on the back. Uh, cause otherwise you're kind of having a cradle empty space with your, with your palm, which isn't great. Also, this is a minor complaint, but the, I have also modified all of my old switches so that the left set of four buttons is a D-pad. I don't know if they ever actually sold Joy-Cons that were like that. I feel like they did at a certain point, but it is like a very common custom mod as you swap out the shell and then you can replace those four disconnected buttons with a, with a D-pad.

• 37:49Griffin McElroy?

  And, uh, not having that has been, I don't know, kind of, kind of annoying. Uh.

• 37:55Chris Plante?

  Yeah, that is, I guess, the challenge for something that is iterative like this is over the course of the last, what, eight years? We got all these little tiny fixes that allowed us to make the Switch 1 to our liking. And then you just restart that.

• 38:09Griffin McElroy?

  I'm sure that shit's gonna come out.

• 38:11Chris Plante?

  Oh, I'm sure Hori is like, you wanna buy more stuff? Please, we're happy to sell it to you.

• 38:18Speaker 02

  Hey, can you talk about some emails?

• 38:21Chris Plante?

  Sure.

• 38:22Speaker 02

  Strong, you seem upset.

• 38:24Chris Plante?

  No, I, I think that sounds great. I love you.

• 38:27Griffin McElroy?

  Great.

• 38:27Chris Plante?

  Um, yeah, you wanna go ahead?

• 38:29Speaker 02

  Go for it.

• 38:31Chris Plante?

  First up, we have from Rob. Griffin made a reference to the Hitman team needing to just go ahead and make a Bond game. And I just need to know if he's aware they actually are making one. Looks sick as hell.

• 38:43Griffin McElroy?

  Uh, fucking cool, man. I didn't know. Uh, not being in the industry anymore has been pretty, uh, not being on the industry anymore and Twitter completely fucking turning into an unusable, unnavigable horrible wasteland has really kind of.

• 39:00Griffin McElroy?

  Not affected my ability to stay totally on top of what all of the, uh, all the games coming out are, which is maybe not something that you want to hear your video game critic of choice to say out loud, but, um, yeah, I didn't know 007 first light from Ireland. I'll cut you off, man. And the listeners.

• 39:20Speaker 02

  There's a trailer actually came out last week.

• 39:22Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah. Fucking cool, man. You're, you're, you're young James Bond. You're in your twenties. You're just.

• 39:27Speaker 02

  James Bond Jr. Chasing scum.

• 39:29Griffin McElroy?

  Fuck yeah. Yeah, blasting scum. Um, no, this looks cool. Awesome. Hey, thank you, dear reader. I guess I don't have to, you know, I don't have to be fully aware of every game coming out because then people will get, it takes a whole village to raise a child.

• 39:43Chris Plante?

  Uh, next up we have from Nathan. It's very funny that they replaced Chris Plant with Chris Grant and Russ with Good Russ. I guess they should replace Justin with the other Justin McElroy. He's back from the rainforest and Griffin with a Griffin presumably.

• 39:58Griffin McElroy?

  I mean, Griffin Newman is the official sort of alter, alter Griffin. Yeah.

• 40:04Chris Plante?

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

• 40:06Griffin McElroy?

  Justin with Canadian journalist Justin.

• 40:07Speaker 02

  It's gonna be CBC Justin McElroy though.

• 40:09Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, we should do one episode.

• 40:11Speaker 02

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

• 40:14Griffin McElroy?

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

• 40:19Speaker 02

  I'd listen to that.

• 40:20Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 40:20Speaker 02

  That would be good.

• 40:21Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 40:22Chris Plante?

  That'd be really easy to record for us. Um, Sebastian says, I don't completely understand this hang up about the Switch 2 not having a gimmick. I was pretty sure the consensus for a while has been they definitely should just make a better switch instead of doing something weird that will flop. Would a new Xbox or PlayStation have this problem or they just need to be better? I bought the first switch to play the games on it, not because I was excited about the JoyCons.

• 40:47Griffin McElroy?

  It's, it's a fair point, but the new Xbox and PlayStation do have that problem. I don't, I, I was not excited really that much about the PlayStation 5 launch. This, I did not adopt a Series X or whatever until way, way, way the fuck after that came out. Um, I do think that those platforms are not particularly exciting. I, I do think the Switch 2 is a big enough bump in quality, uh, and power enough that that has, I don't know, settled in as the gimmick, but I don't think it's unreasonable to want. Something exciting that your technology can do that it couldn't used to.

• 41:27Griffin McElroy?

  And I definitely, I don't know, the mouse thing is such a, when Henry found out that you could use one of the Joy-Cons for a mouse, one of his friends told him when they were over playing Mario Kart last weekend, he thought he was like lying because he thought it was so ridiculous. It is, I don't think, I think it'll be a while before they come up with any reason for us to use that.

• 41:49Chris Plante?

  That's right, right? Like that's the

• 41:51Griffin McElroy?

  Man, even that, I don't, I don't.

• 41:54Chris Plante?

  I think the trouble here, and it's a good question, but Microsoft and Sony are explicitly in the video game console business. Nintendo, in its own words, has been in the toy making business for most of its existence. I mean, card business before that, but it expressly, expressly pursues novelty. It has talked at length about the importance of novelty in everything it does. So for it to do that, it's, it's fine. It just is going, it is a contradiction of its own philosophy and what it states to be.

• 42:34Chris Plante?

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

• 42:49Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 42:52Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, I don't feel that strongly about that. I feel like any, anymore, just because, I don't know, I am surprised by how much I've been, when I saw the launch lineup, I was thinking like, okay, you know, we'll play it quite a bit that first week and then bounce off. But I, I don't know, I don't feel that strongly anymore that it needs, it needed that, that thing. And I am kind of glad that they didn't tack some extra shit on that made it, they did tack some extra shit on, but it is not, uh, it does not get in the way of my enjoyment of the thing.

• 43:17Speaker 02

  There's also a difference between what I think would probably be a good business, this business decision and what I as a human would greedily want to. Spend money on and mess around with. I think we're always desperate for novelty like that. That makes sense. Um, I think that it it's a bit of a bummer to see video game consoles going the way of like buying the latest TV or whatever, where it's like you spend five minutes kind of messing around like, oh, that's fun. And they kind of connected to this. And this is a little bit higher res, but it is like, it does feel, it feels iterative in a way because everything is so connected. Like it feels for something to go too far out out of bounds at this point with like,

• 44:01Speaker 02

  how portable it feels like games need to be now to to really make sense. Um, I don't know if we're gonna see those like huge departures, those big swings like Nintendo was was used to, although they can do a lot more in the portable space, probably before it starts to feel.

• 44:17Chris Plante?

  Yeah, I mean, they used to, right? Like, we used to have the DS and the 3DS.

• 44:22Speaker 02

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

• 44:27Chris Plante?

  What else? What else are you all enjoying right now? Who's you enjoying anything? You watching any TV shows where like a mystery happens?

• 44:33Speaker 02

  Oh, man. Do you guys want to hear about the best new reality show? This is my favorite new reality show. Yeah, of course.

• 44:39Griffin McElroy?

  Destination X with Jeffrey Dean Morgan?

• 44:42Speaker 02

  Jeffrey Dean Morgan's game.

• 44:43Griffin McElroy?

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

• 44:47Speaker 02

  This thing is primo. It is Jeffrey Dean Morgan is just like looking sexy in a bunch of different rooms. And he's like baring the camera like, this is my game. I think the players are gonna love where I've gotten them this time. It's Destination X. And then the whole episode is about these people have been driven to a remote location, wearing Jeffrey Dean Morgan's patented electric blindfolds. And then they take them off and they're given a series of challenges where they have to figure out where they are. That is the thing. That's the whole game is like where they are.

• 45:21Griffin McElroy?

  So it's like GeoGuessr, but you're like in it.

• 45:23Speaker 02

  Some of it is GeoGuessr. Some of it is wild shit like Jeffrey Dean Morgan was interviewing people in these rooms. And they'd come in, he was like, well, where do you think you're at? What are you? What are you thinking so far? Are you enjoying your time? And in one of the rooms, there's a picture of Jennifer Aniston. And in the other room, there was a picture of Eva Longoria for no reason. They were just in there and they don't reference it as a viewer. You're just like, hmm. And then it turns out they're in Geneva. It's like you were supposed to get that you could buy Jennifer Aniston and Eva Longoria to get Geneva. That's just one of the many, many hits.

• 46:00Griffin McElroy?

  That's awesome, man.

• 46:01Speaker 02

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

• 46:07Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 46:08Speaker 02

  Let me say, I, I feel so, so stupid about geography that I actually genuinely, no bullshit, feel like I am learning from this bottom of the barrel NBC reality show. This, I say bottom of the barrel, but it is a highly produced format. This is actually a format that was a huge bidding war for internationally. It's one of those that you're going to see like a lot of versions of this concept. Because there is a fun idea of if you participate in these challenges along the way, where you're sort of racing, you will get information, but only the first person to obtain the information gets accurate information.

• 46:48Speaker 02

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

• 46:55Griffin McElroy?

  Okay.

• 46:56Speaker 02

  So a lot of it is about information sharing, what you have learned, what you can glean from other people. Because you're kind of not sure what you can and can't rely on. Cause it's not just like I'm in France. It's like I'm in a specific city, specific area in France, because the eliminations bit is the five players or four players, or however many are selected, they're brought in what's called the map room with Jeffrey Dean Morgan. And they have to put a mark where they are at on the map. And whoever is farthest away from where they're actually at, they're eliminated. And the way that works is Jeffrey Dean Morgan takes you out of the bus and he's like, here's where the fuck you are. Look, it's the Eiffel Tower, you stupid son of a bitch.

• 47:38Speaker 02

  And then you have to be like, fuck, the Eiffel Tower is right there and I thought I was in Rome. Fuck. Is every, Jeffrey Dean Morgan always offers to go get the person a treat. Every episode he's like, let's go get some ice cream.

• 47:51Griffin McElroy?

  That's good. I like that. Is every episode a different destination?

• 47:55Speaker 02

  Yes. It's a different destination and you learn a lot about the destination. Like you've, you, you, you see all the famous people there from there. And like, again, I'm an idiot about this stuff. I feel like I actually learned a little something and it is challenging for me to play along because I'm so stupid.

• 48:10Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 48:10Speaker 02

  But even I, without my digital blindfold, am still unable to geo guess

• 48:15Griffin McElroy?

  Right.

• 48:16Speaker 02

  The Destination X. There's like four episodes up, I think. It's uh, it's pretty good. It's pretty good.

• 48:21Chris Plante?

  Okay.

• 48:22Griffin McElroy?

  Um, I've been, I don't know if you were trying to tee this up, Chris, but I've been watching Poker Face, Rachel and I started the new season, season two of Poker Face. Uh, the Natasha Lyonne, uh, mystery of the week show, and it's fucking great. It's really fun. Uh, did you guys watch the first season of that?

• 48:41Chris Plante?

  I

• 48:41Speaker 02

  I watched the first few.

• 48:42Chris Plante?

  And I don't know why, other than it being on a streaming service that I don't essentially turn on all the time.

• 48:49Speaker 02

  I found it a little sluggishly paced for, for my tastes. I felt like it moved kind of slowly, uh, in the couple of episodes I watched. I did not watch very much. I, I should. It is one I would like to return to. It's one I like in theory. And when I see a show like that get picked up for another season, it makes me think there's other stuff going on that I would probably do. Oh, by the way, Andor is the best Star Wars thing that's been.

• 49:10Griffin McElroy?

  Oh, good. Yeah.

• 49:12Speaker 02

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

• 49:16Griffin McElroy?

  Chris, I think you're the last one to.

• 49:17Chris Plante?

  Yes, I, I, I am the last one. I, I actually was curious to, I guess I'll just use my time to throw back to you, Griffin.

• 49:26Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 49:26Chris Plante?

  I saw you play in the hundred line.

• 49:29Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah. Uh, can I finish Poker Face real quick? Because I did want to give, spend some time. I do think this second season, I do think the first few mysteries of the first season are, uh, are the most sluggish. I do think that they get a bit more outlandish and that turned out to be kind of the fun part of the show is you start to, it starts to just have like shit in it that any other mystery show, you would just be like, oh, it's so convenient that the killer just happened to X, Y, or Z happen to say this in front of them. So. Uh, and then the second season goes 10 times as hard on that shit because I think they, I don't know, realize that that's the stuff that people liked about the first season. So if you like a mystery that does not take itself particularly seriously, I think.

• 50:07Griffin McElroy?

  Uh, the second season has been, we've only watched a few episodes, but they've been really fun and really great. Um, I have, I did start playing Hundred Line to. To put my cards out on the table, earlier this year, I replayed, before I knew about the existence of this game, I replayed, uh, Danganronpa, uh, because I had a, I was just jonesing to play that game. Uh, and so I feel a little bit. Like, I just sort of played the, like, it's so mu- it's so much a Danganronpa game.

• 50:36Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 50:36Griffin McElroy?

  So much that I do, it hasn't really grabbed me, I think, just because I just spent a long time with it. So this is, this may just be like a timing, a timing issue. But it is certainly, that is certainly a, a, a genre reminiscent of a franchise that I really, really do like. I haven't had a great time with like this SRPG kind of like combat stuff so far, but it also seems like the kind of thing, like a Fire Emblem or whatever, that once you have more units that can do different types of shit, it probably gets a little bit more, more interesting. So too, too soon to tell on that one. I did want

• 51:16Griffin McElroy?

  to shout out one more mystery thing. I've been reading a, a book by one of my favorite fantasy authors, a guy named Robert Jackson Bennett.

• 51:25Speaker 02

  Orson Scott Hart.

• 51:27Griffin McElroy?

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

• 51:34Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah, that's good stuff.

• 51:35Griffin McElroy?

  Those are fucking some of my favorite fantasy books ever. And the Founders trilogy, Foundry Side, Vigilance, and Shorefall, which are also super, super rad. Last year, he published a, a book that is, I think, the start of a new series. The book is called The Tainted Cup, and it is, it is a murder mystery. It is a fantasy murder mystery set in this sort of kingdom surrounded by violent oceans where they have mastered sort of like genetic modification and plant modification to create humans who can do incredible things. Like, there's one type that can remember everything that they see. And, and there's

• 52:18Griffin McElroy?

  ones that are really good at math. And it is like a very, very much a Sherlock and Watson murder mystery set in this like fantasy world. And I'm like, maybe a third of the way through it, and it's fucking great. It's really, really good. It's called The Tainted Cup. And if you haven't read any of, of Robert Jackson Bennett's stuff. I, I, you know, this one is, has been very fun. I think the Divine Cities trilogy is, is really, really essential.

• 52:48Speaker 02

  Like essential in the sense of like to read before?

• 52:51Griffin McElroy?

  No, not essential in the sense to read before. I think it is like if you, if you enjoy fantasy novels, then you should definitely read those fantasy novels.

• 53:00Chris Plante?

  I'll, I'll throw one recommendation on just because we're doing a Pride series at our theater this month and it is a reminder always to watch, but I'm a cheerleader. You mentioned Poker Face Natasha Lyonne is in this movie. Came out in 2000. It is about a teenage lesbian who is sent by her fundamentalist parents to a conversion therapy camp, which sounds like it should be not a fun movie and super depressing and probably not hold up after 25 years. But let me tell you, it is a delight. RuPaul is in it and is just absolutely lovely. Claye Devall, so many great performances in this

• 53:39Chris Plante?

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

• 53:53Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's like a friend, it's like a friendlier John Waters movie.

• 53:56Chris Plante?

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

• 54:01Speaker 02

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

• 54:06Chris Plante?

  I, yes, yeah, where you don't have to be ashamed or, or.

• 54:09Speaker 02

  Right. It's a comfort TNT version of a John Waters movie.

• 54:13Chris Plante?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, cool. We got anything else?

• 54:17Griffin McElroy?

  I don't think so, man.

• 54:18Chris Plante?

  Cool. We did it.

• 54:20Speaker 02

  It's great. Uh, thank you so much for listening to our podcast. What we do next week?

• 54:25Griffin McElroy?

  Oh, dude.

• 54:25Speaker 02

  Next week.

• 54:26Griffin McElroy?

  We're gonna be talking about.

• 54:26Speaker 02

  To the fucking beach, dude.

• 54:28Griffin McElroy?

  Oh, dude.

• 54:29Speaker 02

  Dude, yeah, man.

• 54:32Chris Plante?

  To the

• 54:32Griffin McElroy?

  I am so excited.

• 54:35Speaker 02

  Gotta get pumped for that, man.

• 54:37Chris Plante?

  It's my time to shine.

• 54:39Griffin McElroy?

  I can't.

• 54:39Speaker 02

  So much more. We're gonna be loving it, living it. Taking the journey together. And I will have played it. That's gonna do it for us this week on the best.

• 54:48Griffin McElroy?

  Well, we got the Patreon. We should plug the Patreon.

• 54:50Speaker 02

  Oh, but Russ, that's Russ's job. That's what I forgot. I'm sorry. But if you want to support Russ's walls.

• 54:57Griffin McElroy?

  He's gonna need to rebuild them. The Chainsaw Maniacs have really done a number on the wall. He's been muted, but his video's on. He's okay, but his place is like fucked up.

• 55:05Chris Plante?

  It's wrong. You can find it at patreon.com forward slash the besties. You get the besties bradle brackets every month. You also get two episodes of the resties every month. It's a great deal for only $5 a month, and we would appreciate if you checked it out.

• 55:20Speaker 02

  Thank you.

• 55:23Chris Plante?

  That was it. Now, now we're done. Now we can do it. You can wrap it up.

• 55:27Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's gonna do it. Wait, I have one more recommendation.

• 55:30Chris Plante?

  Oh, shit.

• 55:31Speaker 02

  The, the episode of Post Games about the Switch two launch, I found very edifying, and I feel like I learned a lot from those discussions. And I feel like if you want a little bit more context and where this launch fits in the world, and you want a good place to get on board with Post Games, I would highly recommend it because I really enjoy that episode.

• 55:51Chris Plante?

  Thank you. That's pretty nice of you.

• 55:53Speaker 02

  Yeah, check it totally out. That's gonna do it for this week. Make sure to join us again next week for the besties, because shouldn't the world's best friends pick the world's best games?