Mewgenics is a Meow-sterpiece

How do we celebrate a new release from one of the most acclaimed indie game designers of all time? With Ron Funches, of course! The fifth Besty joins us to chat about Mewgenics, a tactics-RPG about cats, breeding, hoarding, and well… eugenics. Plus, Ron shares what it was like to approach his time on Traitors as a gamer.

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

• 0:00Griffin McElroy?

  Is there a letter in video game history that has carried the weight of the world more than the M at the beginning of the video game title that we are discussing today? It's a tough game to talk about because you really need to hit that M so hard, or else it sounds like you are providing a sort of full-throated endorsement for sort of genetic exclusion as a kind of like philosophical policy.

• 0:33Chris Plante?

  You're trying to say that Eugenics, the video game, wouldn't sell.

• 0:37Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, no, well-

• 0:39Russ Frushtick?

  Depends on the region.

• 0:41Griffin McElroy?

  Depends where, what audience you're talking about.

• 0:44Chris Plante?

  What a country!

• 0:47Griffin McElroy?

  You just really, Mewgen- Mewgenics, because otherwise you could sound like you're like a snobby person who's like, "I've been playing Mewgenics," and that's still not good enough.

• 0:59Russ Frushtick?

  That is how you sound all the time, Griffin.

• 1:01Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, I know. That's why today I'm gonna be calling it the kitty cat game.

• 1:06Russ Frushtick?

  People are calling it Baldur's Gato, which I think is spectacular.

• 1:10Griffin McElroy?

  I do like that a lot.

• 1:12Russ Frushtick?

  Real good.

• 1:31Griffin McElroy?

  My name is Griffin McRoy, and I know the best game of the week.

• 1:34Chris Plante?

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

• 1:40Speaker 03

  My name is Ron Funches, and I know the best game of the week.

• 1:45Chris Plante?

  Yeah!

• 1:46Griffin McElroy?

  Welcome to the besties. We got Ron back in the house. Justin is not here. He is getting carpal tunnel surgery as we speak.

• 1:54Chris Plante?

  Ron fucked up Justin's wrists just because of this.

• 1:58Speaker 03

  Yes, I did, just to be here. It's been too long, and there was only way to get me back, and that was just to beat him down, Jay Leno style. Like, the bomb has done. Don't let anybody fool you. That's what's going on.

• 2:15Griffin McElroy?

  I need to, I need to understand what you have just said, which is, has, has Jay Leno recently had his ass beat by the mob?

• 2:22Russ Frushtick?

  Or vice versa? Does he beat asses?

• 2:26Griffin McElroy?

  He's a large man and he has a variety of impressive cars. I could see him fitting into that lifestyle very well. That could be true, who knows?

• 2:37Griffin McElroy?

  This week, we're talking about a game by Edmund McMillan, the creator of Binding of Isaac, that has been in development for over a decade called Muugenix the Kitty Cat Game. Chris Plant, what is Muugenix?

• 2:53Chris Plante?

  Muugenix is the latest game from Edmund McMillan. You might know him as the co-creator of Super Meat Boy, of The Binding of Isaac. Come on, you know who this person is. You've been listening to this show for a while. I should emphasize here also, co-creator of Muugenix, because created it with Tyler Glale and many other wonderful people, who I'm sure that we will talk about. Can you describe what the hell the game is? I don't know how to describe the game game.

• 3:19Russ Frushtick?

  Let me do it in the A segment, because it's a little complicated, but it's a tactical strategy game with cats.

• 3:25Griffin McElroy?

  Yep, and breeding.

• 3:26Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah.

• 3:27Griffin McElroy?

  That you're gonna see a lot of cats making love and being murdered in some of the most horrific ways.

• 3:35Russ Frushtick?

  Sometimes in the same room.

• 3:37Griffin McElroy?

  Sometimes, yeah, sometimes at the same time. So we're gonna talk all about that and more after this short break.

• 3:44Chris Plante?

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• 4:28Chris Plante?

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• 5:12Chris Plante?

  That's protonvpn.com/besties.

• 5:19Russ Frushtick?

  Ron.

• 5:20Speaker 03

  Yeah?

• 5:21Russ Frushtick?

  When I reached out and said, "Hey, this is the game we're talking about", what was your immediate reaction? Is this a game you were looking forward to? Had you heard about it before?

• 5:30Speaker 03

  I had not heard a single word about this game coming out. I was unaware of it. In many ways, I thought you were joking.

• 5:41Speaker 03

  I had to quickly give it a Google. But then when I heard about the background of who the creators were, of course, I'm a big Super Meat Boy fan and Binding of Isaac fan, so I was excited to play it. And I'm a big Final Fantasy Tactics is one of my favorite games of all time. So see, this kind of tactical strategy game that mixes in the bit of like rogue-like elements of you never know what your skill set is going to be from run to run, something that's been interesting to me because the majority of games I've been playing lately have had that some type of element of that, whether it's been Absalom, or Cloverpit, or something of that nature. So I just think that right now, that's kind of the hot thing to do.

• 6:25Speaker 03

  And in many ways, it's beautiful because it brings back such a sense of play of you not knowing what's going to happen from run to run.

• 6:33Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah.

• 6:33Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, it's really astonishing. From a genre perspective, it couldn't be more different from a Binding of Isaac.

• 6:41Russ Frushtick?

  I don't even-

• 6:42Griffin McElroy?

  It is very-

• 6:43Russ Frushtick?

  I mean.

• 6:43Chris Plante?

  I mean, okay, so it's insofar as it is a tack, a turn-based tactics.

• 6:47Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah. Why don't I, can I just try to describe the core loop?

• 6:52Chris Plante?

  Yeah, please.

• 6:52Russ Frushtick?

  Okay. So you've got cats, generally four of them, and you send them on missions. So they'll go out and before you send them on a mission, you'll select classes for them. So maybe you've got a cleric cat and you've got a hunter cat and a tank cat, what have you. And as they're going on missions, they'll level up, they'll get perks, they'll get passive perks, they'll get active spells they can cast, they've got mana, total mana, things like that. And the maps play out like tactical RPG maps. If you played Baldur's Gate 3, incredibly similar in terms of combat. You've got move distance and turn speed, you know, an order of turns and things like that. So imagine that, and as Ron mentioned, it's randomized. So the perks you're getting when you're leveling up are random.

• 7:36Russ Frushtick?

  Some of them are specific to your class, but some aren't. And you're basically going through these adventures where, you know, cats get injured, cats get mutations, various things can happen to them. And then when you finish an adventure, you bring those cats back to your house and you watch them fuck. And those cats that are fucking have babies that have elements of the original cats. So maybe those elements are their original stats, maybe those elements are spells that the the parents had, maybe their disorders that the parents had. There's like a variety of different disorders you can get. And so that's the loop. And the, and the big thing to keep in mind is, once you've taken cats on a run, you cannot take them out again. They're going to live in the house, they're going to breed, but you're not taking them out again.

• 8:20Russ Frushtick?

  There's a slight exception to that, but that's the basic loop.

• 8:23Chris Plante?

  Yeah. Or you can grind those cats up, maybe not grind them up, maybe they're going to a healthy home for advantages with various shop owners.

• 8:31Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, you can donate the cats to.

• 8:34Chris Plante?

  While you do want to hoard these cats, you're not going to keep them forever. At some point. Donate, but you don't ever see them again when you do donate. You don't.

• 8:42Russ Frushtick?

  You don't.

• 8:43Chris Plante?

  And the places they go are pretty empty.

• 8:45Griffin McElroy?

  No, they don't seem like great, huh? I don't know, Tink seems like, at least Tink is like invested in the health of the, of the cats.

• 8:52Speaker 03

  That's true.

• 8:53Griffin McElroy?

  Wants to provide for the good life.

• 8:54Speaker 03

  She might be building an army.

• 8:55Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, possible. I have, the, the tactics side of things is really, really, uh, really beefy. Like you can really sink your teeth into like, uh, on a run, you might have a team of cats who are real lightweights in the like constitution department, can't take many hits. So you, there's a way of playing the game where like, you're playing very conservatively, waiting turns so that enemies come a little bit closer and you, uh, you know, are making sure that you're not taking unnecessary damage because it's not hard to lose a cat on a run doing that. So like, it takes a lot of, especially when you get further in the game and there's like, you can go into different places and there's, there's tougher enemies and there's multiple like acts of the game.

• 9:39Griffin McElroy?

  So like, all of that requires a lot of brain power and it's very rewarding to invest in. I think I have spent more time looking at my house full of cats and saying like, okay, which ones of you's is cousins? Cause I don't want to make you two get together because that's, that rarely goes well. There is a, an inbreeding mechanic that you do have to keep in mind. And it is not difficult to end up in a situation where you have multiple cats in the house who are their own grandpa.

• 10:10Speaker 03

  Well, that's what I love about this game is because I didn't, I've been playing for days and I haven't been paying any attention to that. I've just been letting my cats just make love freely. I'm sure a cousin or uncle have gotten in there, how could they not? And, and I've been really focusing on the tactics and the run side of things. So it's, the game is so much.

• 10:31Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, apparently you're fine, a little inbreeding is fine. My general rule is it's the Rudy Giuliani rule, which is if it's your second cousin, it's fine.

• 10:40Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 10:41Russ Frushtick?

  And that'll be counted as lightly inbred, which I would say almost my entire house is lightly inbred. Once you start getting to medium, that's where you'll start to see cats with really serious problems that maybe are gonna have a real tough time in the world. And those are the cats that generally get shipped off to the NPCs.

• 11:01Griffin McElroy?

  One of the NPCs you can upgrade, I think Tink is who it is, will, you send them kittens. They only want newborn kittens. And so if you send them enough newborn kittens, they will start to give you more information on the breeding side of things. So you can look at a genealogy of a cat. You can look at their family tree. And when I did that, when I unlocked that, it immediately showed me like, all of my cats are immensely inbred. I would look at their family tree and there would be like one cat that would just branch through like three generations. And it's like, Jesus Christ, that is ghoulish. So like, yeah, I mean, that stuff isn't very much in the, this is the point I was trying to make earlier. It's not like Binding of Isaac from a genre sense.

• 11:43Griffin McElroy?

  From a, there's a million ways this thing can go and it's not gonna tell you fucking any of that stuff at the top. That feels very Binding of Isaac to me. However, because you can unlock those different information points, I think it's a bit more of a sophisticated thing than Isaac where you would need to download mods and stuff to have any idea what any of the items actually did. You do kind of get that eventually with some investment, but you're going to be just kind of throwing spaghetti at the wall for a little while before you get results like that.

• 12:14Chris Plante?

  Yeah, and that feels like a big correction from Isaac that I think even like McMillan has said that he wished that the item descriptions was something that had been in the game much, much earlier, that didn't require mods to be able to add that. And this, from the beginning, you can learn about the characters that you're fighting just by hovering over them. It will give you a lot of information when you're actually in the battle. And then all these other hint systems, yes, you're constantly getting updated with, hey, here's a little bit more direction on how to play this thing. So long as you are using that time between runs to go chat with all the various

• 12:56Chris Plante?

  parent cat grinders, I don't, again, don't know exactly what they do.

• 13:00Russ Frushtick?

  Ron, I think the thing, when Griffin was talking about Binding of Isaac as well, I think the thing that is most similar to Binding of Isaac is you get these amazing combos where like this perk interacts with this perk, so on and so forth. It feels like I've done, every single run, I've had at least one of those. I'm curious, was there any, like, for you, a specific moment or a specific cat that, like, just got insanely overpowered?

• 13:24Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah, a couple of times. I've just had some fun cats that, I mean, I love it when the cat can both heal itself and then range heal others and then, I just love a fun mage cat or my thief cat. Just the variety of traits that comes through is probably my favorite part of the game. And it's interesting for me because I was a little bit hesitant about starting it because I wasn't, I mean, I'm a fan of the Binding of Isaac art style and other things, but like, just the idea of playing as cats. There's been a lot of cat games recently that have come out and they tend to be like, oh, I don't, I don't know if I want to play this game about cats and stuff, but then I

• 14:06Speaker 03

  found myself every night, like, coming home and just being, it would be the, like, the thing I wanted to play before I go to bed and just for that, just to be like, oh, what kind of run can I put together? What kind of, when I, when you start mixing and matching the power-ups as well that you get that are also like, you know, a little bit obtuse in the way that you don't know what they're gonna do until you kind of try them out for the first time. You know, the, just the multitude of options in this game, I think, is my favorite part of it.

• 14:38Russ Frushtick?

  I had a tank that had a passive perk to, every time you started a map, you started a map with a friendly rock, a rock that was alive, and it would move on its own and attack enemies on its own, like a familiar, basically. And that was pretty good. And then I got a perk that was every, well, the perk also means that every other rock you summon will also be alive, which is fine, but like, I didn't really have any abilities to summon rocks until I got an earthquake perk that makes this giant spread of rocks show up all at once. And then suddenly I've got fucking 15 familiars running around, just rocks slamming into everything. And like that sort

• 15:22Russ Frushtick?

  of combo, if you're thinking about, there's a lot of this stuff is like, just intuition, like the way the game is designed with tagging and like what counts as a rock versus not. Generally, there's a logic to it. So you can kind of like, rather than using a guide online, which again is Isaac, that was like a common thing for Isaac, this is all about just like, well, I'm gonna try this and see how it plays out.

• 15:44Chris Plante?

  Yeah. It sort of defies guides. There's so many variations, both to your cats and the items and the perks and the disorders, that like, to play it with a guide, it is much more about improvising. That, that is the hook.

• 15:57Russ Frushtick?

  It's just so random.

• 15:58Chris Plante?

  Yeah. I want to go into like, the, the big thing, because people might be listening, and they're like, okay, so it's called eugenics, and you breed cats, and then you, you annihilate the ones that aren't good. Like, what, what's going on here? We should talk about the disorders, and like, how they work, and how they are incredible. Because one of my best runs really brought this game home for me. So the disorders you can get in this game, they are based off of things that cats can have, they're based off of things that people can have. And they can range from autism to the thing that one of my cats had, tachycinemia? Have you heard about, do you know about this?

• 16:39Russ Frushtick?

  No.

• 16:39Chris Plante?

  Tachycinemia? It's a disorder where, for a period of time, you feel like time is moving faster than it is. So you and your body feel as if time is moving in like, fast forward, even though, obviously, in reality, that is not happening.

• 16:57Russ Frushtick?

  Whoa.

• 16:58Chris Plante?

  And in the game, the way that this was expressed, is I had a cat who had

• 17:05Chris Plante?

  Incredible speed, like within like three rounds, I could move 13 squares. I could basically move anywhere in the field, but I had zero strength. And at a certain point, I had negative strength and I didn't know you could have negative stats. Turns out you can in this game. But I put the healer collar on this cat and suddenly I had a cat that could go anywhere on the screen. Anytime I wanted to heal people and then also zip in and out. And it was an incredible run. It was instantly, I could build around that. So I was like, well, if I have this person, then I also will just really, really, really put all my resources into a tank.

• 17:47Chris Plante?

  So I had a tank who attracted every hit and then also had broken mirrors around its neck. So that it would just deal out pain to anybody who attacked it. So I now could send this tank in wherever I want with another character that could throw your cat. I could zip in and out with my health healer and anything else I did controlled the match because it basically paralyzed the enemy. There was nothing for the enemy to do in almost every single fight I went into.

• 18:14Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah.

• 18:15Chris Plante?

  And I mentioned that it wants, I think there is a way of approaching this game where you see the disorders. And it's purely as a negative thing. That is not how it wants you to think of them in this game. They are, they're just another creative way of finding an exciting way to experience the match.

• 18:37Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, it's intentionally balanced so that you can figure out a way, not only around the disability or the disorder, but to use at your advantage. I had Ebola for one round. Ebola makes everyone catch Ebola. Basically, anyone that's standing next to the cat will catch Ebola. Any cat that has Ebola will deal bleed like three or four bleed damage to every cat that it interacts with. So if you're very, very quick at finishing matches, all your enemies are going to be bleeding. And you can sort of survive and get through it, but it's incredibly perilous. Like you're just like on a knife's edge for every single match. So it is really, does not shy away from those like challenging scenarios.

• 19:17Griffin McElroy?

  It's, I, it seems ambitious, right? Like, I know Edmund McMillan has talked a lot about, he is dyslexic and dyslexia is, is one of the like, conditions that a cat can have in the game. I don't know, like, what the mechanical sort of interpretation.

• 19:31Russ Frushtick?

  It's really tough. I think it swaps threes and fives in like, mana counts. And also in all texts, whenever you're reading text, the S's turn into fives and like, it, it's really challenging to play. I mean, it's doable, but.

• 19:46Griffin McElroy?

  It, to me, that kind of, I don't know, it walks a very, very tricky line of like, I don't know, not minimizing like a, a real world thing, but instead kind of,

• 19:58Griffin McElroy?

  also not just like, flat out, kind of like, celebrating it, where it's like, you have a superpower and it's just sort of like a different, your cats, your cats are behaving in a different way. They control in a sort of different way.

• 20:09Speaker 03

  I love it.

• 20:09Griffin McElroy?

  I think that's really interesting to come out of a game like Mugentix, which I, I don't know, on, on the 10 would not seem so thoughtful about that.

• 20:17Speaker 03

  I mean, as, you know, as a father of a son with autism, and then recently, I'm going through an autism assessment myself, it's just kind of cool. I always have believed in looking at these type of things as character traits and, and to see that in gameplay mechanic, I think is fun. And the thing that you could never do in a, like, major AAA game, you know? I, I love, that's what I love about Indies and the games like this right now, because we see so many games that feel so paint by numbers and whitewashed, and to have a game that's, has such a unique art style, that has such a adult themes to it, and at the same time, it celebrates and, but doesn't sugarcoat disorders or disabilities, or, you know, whatever you want to call it, I think

• 21:02Speaker 03

  is just, if anything, it's interesting and it makes you talk, and that's what good art does.

• 21:07Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, yeah, for sure.

• 21:08Chris Plante?

  I, I want to give also, building on that, just a thank you to Frushtick, because Frushtick, obviously, huge Finding Isaac fan, and Griffin, I know you are too. I was simply just not able to ever get into this game because of cleft lips.

• 21:24Russ Frushtick?

  Finding Isaac, you're talking about.

• 21:25Chris Plante?

  Edmund's work.

• 21:26Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 21:26Chris Plante?

  It, it really, really, really put me off. And I didn't think it was necessarily mean or anything, but it just made me, for whatever reason, I couldn't get past it. And Fresh, maybe like, I don't know, three weeks ago was like, you need to just talk to him. Like, actually, like, you're a reporter. Go and talk to this artist. Like, that's what you do. And I, this is on a post games thing that's coming up, but talking to him and it's amazing how wonderful it is to just have those conversations with an artist where they're vulnerable and you realize where they are coming from and how it can open you up to art and how easy it is to close yourself off without ever asking that question. I mean, Ronnie mentioned, like, just having

• 22:10Chris Plante?

  conversations. It was, it's so, I don't know, it was, it was, it's so energizing to have something opened up to me, this piece of art that I had really kept off it. And realize like, no, this person's coming from a lot of the same places I am. Again, as a father of neurodivergent kid and Edmund is going through similar experiences, like, where you end up finding yourself on the same page. And it's like, why was I, of all the things for me to be upset about in this world, and there are plenty, this was not, this was not the one.

• 22:40Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah. I'm, I'm curious to hear, Russ, I think you've probably played more than the rest of, I've made it to act two. I've, I've, I've played this game a whole lot, but I know it probably pales into.

• 22:49Russ Frushtick?

  I started much earlier than you guys.

• 22:51Griffin McElroy?

  Yes. The cool thing to me about binding visor, the reason I finally kind of got into it, one, I downloaded that mod, it told me what all the shit.

• 22:58Russ Frushtick?

  That's now baked into the game, for what it's worth, for people.

• 23:01Griffin McElroy?

  Is it really?

• 23:01Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, it's now like an actual feature in the game, so.

• 23:03Griffin McElroy?

  Oh, that's great. That's, that's, that's long overdue. That makes a lot of sense. The thing that like, really did it for me is like, realizing like, okay, every time you play, if you finish a run, it's going to unlock some new path. It's going to unlock some new, some new boss, some new thing. And that has happened to me every time I have finished a run in like, a new area. It has, this game has unfolded in a way that I was really hoping that it would, but was worried maybe it wouldn't. Like, when you start out, there's only four classes. And you get a couple other ones, like, pretty quickly. But I was like, okay, I kind of get sort of, but then. It threw another one at me and I anticipate that there are probably more coming down the

• 23:46Griffin McElroy?

  pipe. Does that, do you feel satisfied in how much it is like continuing to expand and as long as you have been playing it in terms of like, oh shit, there's like a whole other level that I haven't even gotten to yet?

• 23:58Russ Frushtick?

  It is expanding in ways that I think Binding of Isaac never did. And the reason for that is because of the way the cat classes interact. So in Binding of Isaac, you might unlock an item that'll show up or something from finishing a run, things like that. Because you're unlocking these classes and because of the breeding system where the classes interact with one another, it does get to a almost infinite levels of potential. Because, I'll give you an example. One of the earlier classes that you unlock is a Druid. And the Druid's main attack ability is actually not an attack. It's just an area heal and it

• 24:37Russ Frushtick?

  gives all your friendlies in an area a buff, which is useful. There's a passive perk that hunters can get where the first thing that they attack in a map will be Charmed. So an enemy for five turns will be a friendly, basically, and will attack its own enemies. I bred a baby kitten cat that had that passive hunter perk of the charming enemies for five turns and turned that baby kitten into a Druid, which meant that when I started every round, instead of that area healing people, it charmed a giant group of enemies at the beginning of every single round. So suddenly, instead of one person having, being

• 25:22Russ Frushtick?

  Charmed, I had an entire army of enemies that would just wipe out the map and make things incredibly easy. So it's those sorts of like layered combos that where they interact with one another that, I mean, outside of like, hey, new area unlocked, new class unlocked, like, just keeps coming.

• 25:40Chris Plante?

  What's incredible is, freshen the experiences you are having are so much more complex than the thing that I described with like zipping around the map. But you feel that sense of like, oh, I am powerful and I am breaking the game and I am the smartest person alive from like your third round.

• 25:58Griffin McElroy?

  Almost every run, almost every run. And it doesn't even have to, like with the breeding stuff, for me, The game is chaos because you don't know, like when you pick your classes for each cat, it doesn't tell you exactly what ability they're going to start out with. It doesn't tell you exactly what passive they're going to start out with. And then when you level up, you get a choice of things, but it's not guaranteed what it's going to be. The breeding is where you try to control that a little bit and say like, okay, well, at least I know this one is going to start out with like really good stats. And it's going to have this ability from its mom and it's going to have this passive from its dad. And so like when I toss him in and I make him a fighter, I know he's set, like he's gonna be, he's going to absolutely be good. But it doesn't, you don't

• 26:38Griffin McElroy?

  even need that. Like I started out with a fighter who had a passive that any weapon that you used would do triple damage, but it would break immediately. And then he also had an ability that would let him summon a weapon. And that was like from the jump, from the rip. This guy was like a monster. That absolutely clear. And then I desperately, desperately tried to breed him. Like, please, please pass on this incredible ability, this fusion of abilities. He was unfortunately very aggressive and quite low libido and in love with his, and in love with his mom.

• 27:11Speaker 03

  He was a fighter.

• 27:11Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah. So like, there was a lot of, there are a lot of reasons why I couldn't continue to squeeze the juice out of that one. But like, I, this game's mind blowing just how much, just how much variety. I genuinely think it puts Isaac to shame even because even in Isaac, like you're, you can find these insane combos and every run is going to be different. But ultimately, it's like, you, you're gonna, you're working towards having like a, a gun that shoots a screen full of like homing death knives that can kill shit in one hit. And it's like, that's very satisfying when that happens and you could just storm through a run. To me, like, I don't know, the results you are getting out of this because the combat is so sandboxy,

• 27:53Griffin McElroy?

  it just feel, it really feels like anything can happen. And that's, I get why this game took, you know, 12, 13 years, however long it took to make because I, it's, that's just a lot of shit to keep in mind.

• 28:06Chris Plante?

  One other big thing that we should talk about, and Ron, I want to hear your take on it. There is so much music in this game.

• 28:13Griffin McElroy?

  Oh my god.

• 28:14Chris Plante?

  What, Ron, what did you think of it?

• 28:17Speaker 03

  I mean, I like it a lot. I think the music is one of the standout parts. I mean,

• 28:24Speaker 03

  I feel like this game is a real testament that where the sum is bigger than its parts, because every bit of it feels so like a love letter of like not, obviously not like a deadline that you needed to hit. Like the animation, I think, is so wonderful in it, in the different enemy types and the way that they move or the way that the poop enemies have this griminess to them. And I think that the music itself is just fun and every part of it is just top notch and like, kind of transports me back to like, where like 20, 30 years ago where I'm like, oh, people are just making games because they love making

• 29:09Speaker 03

  games, not because they're trying to make a million billion dollars, you know?

• 29:12Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, although this game I anticipate is gonna make a million billion dollars.

• 29:16Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, I think the Steam concurrence, Steam concurrence yesterday, I think, was like 64,000, which is like almost the peak of Binding of Isaac, and I think it's only gonna grow from there. This feels like a game that is just gonna be-

• 29:27Chris Plante?

  I just opened Steam, it is now also given the top banner spot, which for an indie game is bonkers.

• 29:35Griffin McElroy?

  The music, I love how it, each basically like level has a theme. So the alley where you start out has eaten rats, which is probably my, still my favorite jam from the whole game that I keep getting stuck in my head. And when you start out, you just hear like a little bit of like the accompaniment, like a little bit of the background music, but by the time you reach like the boss fight of the chapter, like the vocals kick in. And I don't know, it's, I was really skeptical at first because I was like, what is this fucking zoot suit riot? Like, is this just gonna be all kind of like the hits of the early aughts swing Renaissance? But no, it's really a great soundtrack that, I don't know, I want to hear people who are smarter about music.

• 30:17Russ Frushtick?

  Well, I will just say this about the lyrics specifically. So the second area, second area of the game you go to is basically the sewers. And there's a song that is entirely about poop. And I did write down some of the lyrics here. It's, it goes, the clattering clank goes from tank to tank. And nothing ever seems to go back from whence it stank, just like a subway station, but the only mode of transportation comes in the form of flotation and it's no vacation. The music is from Ridiculon, by the way, which is just fantastic. They're a terrific duo and highly recommend it.

• 30:53Chris Plante?

  And at the same time, they're doing that with lyrics and all this is about poop. There is a throwaway reference that ends one song to Inchworm sung by Danny Kaye and Hans Christian Andersen. This is like music made by people who know the history of music. It's incredible.

• 31:13Russ Frushtick?

  Ron, what is, as we get to the end of this segment, is there a specific thing that you think just keeps bringing you back to the game? Like when you get done with it at the end of the day, what is it about this that is like drawing you back?

• 31:26Speaker 03

  Well, I mean, at the base level of it, I think these games always remind me of chess, where you have to worry about movement and direction and form of attack. And so again, whether it's Final Fantasy Tactics or Advanced Wars, like they always, especially now that I'm older and I have kids, it is something where I can put it down for a bit, pick it right back up. It's my perfect style of game for me right now. But I would say what keeps me coming back is just the like, the differences in the options in the runs and knowing that like I can get through a run in probably like 20, 30 minutes and have a full fun time

• 32:07Speaker 03

  and you know, and learn all these different new traits that I have. And I like to think, I mean, what Chris was talking about is my main like thing where I just loved, I had a little ninja thief that could run around, teleport into any area that had high grass or water. When I was in the sewers, that was most of it. And so then I could teleport in, mark them, lava shot, hit high damage, and then get back out. And I was like, this game is just so fun in every form and every way. It's just, it's that addictive thing where it's just like, I just want to do one more run. And that's what I love about it.

• 32:45Russ Frushtick?

  If this isn't my game of the year, I will be really, really surprised. Like really surprised.

• 32:51Chris Plante?

  The words of a man who has not played Romeo with a dead man yet. Once you play Romeo with a dead man, then we can all come back and we can chat. But I'm feeling.

• 33:01Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, it's I, I don't know about Gode, but like, I also don't see myself not, not playing it anymore. I started to, it's funny, I started to, I wanted to do a new peacecraft series, my World of Warcraft series with all the new housing stuff that they added. So I downloaded WoW and I started to play it again. And then I was like, uh oh, I, I'm gonna get pulled into this again. Oh no, I'm gonna, it's gonna be like, uh, uh, post-college all over again. I'm gonna lose control of my whole life. I can't, but then Muogenics came in and was like, hey, actually instead, can I interest you in a brand new game that everything's different?

• 33:37Speaker 03

  I got that catnip for you.

• 33:40Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, and it really, it pulled me, it saved me, it saved me from the hole. And I do, I do appreciate Muogenics for that. It's, it's fantastic. Let's take a quick break and we'll talk about more games and more stuff with our pal Ron. So stick around and we'll be right back.

• 33:57Russ Frushtick?

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

• 34:42Russ Frushtick?

  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. 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.

• 35:20Griffin McElroy?

  Ron, it's always a delight to see you, whether it is here on one of our other shows or on the big screen or my TV screen. And it was such a delight to see you join the cast of Traders for this season. You have talked quite a bit about your experience on the show, and it is the sort of central thesis of your upcoming infinite tour of comedy. I am very curious to hear about because I watch a lot of reality shows, a lot of reality competition shows and have, for as long as they have been around and have played

• 36:03Griffin McElroy?

  a lot of video games. I'm curious to hear about sort of your experience playing a game like Traders with the kind of built in game sense that you likely have from also being a lifelong gamer. Whether there's any kind of crossover to those skills, obviously Traders is sort of a different beast than just a sort of survivor or more traditional reality show, but.

• 36:35Speaker 03

  Yeah, no, I think there's definitely skills that translate that were useful for me for as far as like some of the gameplay wise. I think what was a detriment for me is that I looked at it so game like that I didn't think about as much of how social these people wanted to be and how big of a deal that was. So for me, similar to like if I was playing Blueprints or Myst or whatever back in the day, I had a little notebook that I'd keep in my room so that whenever at the end of the day I could go through and cross reference things and just look for inconsistencies and stuff. And I very much looked at it like a game and playing a lot of Among Us, which is a lot of what

• 37:20Speaker 03

  the Traders is like, you know? Um, and then the only thing, I guess, one thing I've never told to anyone is that my main

• 37:29Speaker 03

  stress reliever while I was there, because you could not have anything with any type of internet access, um, is so that I was able to bring like a old, I guess not old, but I have one of the, uh, I guess the Anne Burnett Game Boys.

• 37:45Russ Frushtick?

  Oh, yeah.

• 37:46Speaker 03

  Yeah. So I just brought that and played some old Tetris and ROMs on that. And, um, that's what kept me mostly sane while I was there because you're very isolated and away from people. So you gotta come up with different mental tricks to just keep yourself grounded. Um, so yeah, it was very gamish in ways, but then also then you're like, oh my God, these are a bunch of housewives and they're like just angry. And so, uh, I was just like, okay, look for inconsistencies, look for the faithful people. Cause I was like gamifying, like faithful people are going to be good and telling the truth. And then, uh, look for people who are lying inconsistencies in their story. And then I found out like, oh wait, some of these people are just bad people who like lying. So.

• 38:31Griffin McElroy?

  I mean, traders is the, the, at least the traders is weird because it's different sort of things in different countries, right? Like in the, in the UK version of the traders, it is not, uh, uh, largely sort of celebrity casting, right? It is sort of, uh, more traditional, kind of like how on Survivor, they've just bring in, uh, just, just people who apply. And to me, traders in the U S has always seemed like, I don't know, that social aspect of the game, it seems like there's a pretty huge finger on the scale of, well, that's Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir. So like, they're probably gonna, they're probably going to work together. These,

• 39:12Griffin McElroy?

  the housewives know each other, obviously from like being part of that circuit. And so that's, that seems like it's pretty built in. It seems like a lot of that stuff is kind of decided before the game even starts. Whereas like on Survivor, if you talk to each other in the hotel before it starts, they kick you right off of the, of the show. So you don't, you know, spoil that first boots on the beach kind of experience of like, oh God, I need to make some friends now or else I'm boned when it comes to the first vote.

• 39:38Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah. No. Was that how you felt going in? Was like that there were these like alliances pre-built?

• 39:44Speaker 03

  Well, I didn't know who would be there. So to me, you know, it just was a surprise and I kind of came into it because I'm not a very. Um, I don't really run that much in celebrity circles. And most of my friends are like either comedians or people who I've known for like past 20 years. So I just have a lot of just normal people friends. So I wasn't going in there being like, oh, I'm gonna know this person. I'm gonna make an alliance with this person. I was like, oh, they're probably, he's gonna be people, uh, and I'll just treat them as, to me, I thought it was gonna be a plus because I would be like, if I know them from before, then I'm gonna have preconceived notions about them where as they're being picked on who's a traitor or not. So that doesn't matter if I like, oh, this person is great.

• 40:28Speaker 03

  Like, so I was just trying to be like, oh, if I don't know them, that's great. But for me, um, I just could feel the difference between like, just even just in the way that people treat me or spoke to me because, you know, they thought, uh, Donna Kelsey was a traitor, but they talked to her with a lot of respect and a lot of, uh, uh, fear because they knew that the, the Swifties would come at her. Uh, but when they thought I was a traitor, they, you know, chose to not speak to me very kindly or treat me with a lot of respect because they didn't know my background and I don't really go around promoting it. So, uh, you know, I just like to see who people are at, at a base level if they don't know who you are. So, you know, to me, that revealed a lot about different people there. So I had a lot of fun in

• 41:14Speaker 03

  doing the missions and meeting some cool people who I now really enjoy, uh, outside the castle. But then I also met people where I'm like, ooh, I don't like these people, no matter what.

• 41:26Russ Frushtick?

  I mean, it's interesting because I know it, it gave you the, uh, impetus to get the autism assessment. It's interesting because I know how uncomfortable you were in that situation. For that to be like a representative thing that you would then, uh, I guess, associate with like your normal day to day, which is obviously that is so far from your normal day to day. So why would that be the thing that be like, oh, clearly I'm reacting to this in like kind of a negative way?

• 41:56Griffin McElroy?

  I mean, how is that represented? Like, how did that connect to like what your normal?

• 42:00Speaker 03

  Um, that just reminded me of situations. It wasn't the first time. It was the most public and the most intense that that type of situation had happened, but it was not the first time where a group of people had been around had all like misjudged my intentions or misjudged the way that I was coming at things. And that'd been me in high school or me in other forms in school. And so, um, and then watching it back and, and seeing myself under stress and under like, I think, um, just being a performer in general, like naturally I've been able to mask pretty well. So, um, when I was under stress and they had these cameras on me for 18 hours, like I

• 42:41Speaker 03

  could see more mannerisms or more tics in myself that reminded me of different stems that my son had. Um, so it's kind of seeing that back and then getting a lot of just DMs of people being like, at first they were rude. They were like, oh, screw this autistic motherfucker. But then they turned to like, oh, man, I really see myself in a lot of these. As an autistic or neurodivergent adult, I see myself in these interactions. And I was like, oh, okay.

• 43:15Speaker 03

  These messages are better. I like these. They're better, but they're still confusing to me.

• 43:21Griffin McElroy?

  It's, it's really truly on paper bonkers. The crucible that NBC, that Peacock or Al, I don't know who actually produces the show overseas, who, who is the originating company. But as a sort of like, I don't know, learn, learn a lot about yourself in social situations. It seems like a castle where three people are murdering other people and also Alan Cumming is there, uh, peacocking to the, to the max. Uh, it seems like maybe the, they have conceived of the ultimate sort of test of, of someone's sort of social.

• 43:56Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's what I feel. Cause I feel like the game is many things to many people and it's really fun to watch, um, now, but having done it. Because I remember watching it and just making fun of like Deontay Wilder, making fun of people when they were like crying or being like, oh my God, it's a game and they don't even get it. But like when you go in there and you're like running, you're isolated, you're running on a lack of sleep, you're not eating as much as you normally would and you have these people accusing you or you're accusing others, like it becomes very, very intense and very real. Um, and so to me at a certain point, I was like, oh, I think this game is kind of like,

• 44:33Speaker 03

  how, who are you when you're under pressure, when you're under stress, when you're being tempted by money, when you're being tempted also by just like fame to be here longer, to be on TV longer, like what are you willing to do? And, um, you know, I, at a certain point I was like,

• 44:56Speaker 03

  I'm not willing to do too much.

• 45:00Speaker 03

  I'll be me. If you like me, let's do it. If not,

• 45:05Chris Plante?

  A, a weird follow up question to that. Once you have done a show this big, people on other game shows want you. That seems to be like the, the formula in TV. Are there other, are there other reality game hybrids that you would want to do at this point?

• 45:24Speaker 03

  Hmm. I mean, I'd always want to host something. So I think I'd like to make my own thing really. So I'm working on pitching a couple of ideas. Um, I'd never say never. So I'm, I'm open to things, but like, I don't see me doing something where I'd have to like leave my family for a while and, and, and just be away. I don't, I didn't really like that part of it. I like my, you know, um, what my oldest, especially when he was younger, he wasn't as verbal. So I didn't know, but my young, but my youngest made me well aware, uh, how much he missed me and how much he did not like me being gone for that long. So.

• 45:57Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah. And you can't even like call or anything.

• 45:59Speaker 03

  Yeah, exactly.

• 46:00Russ Frushtick?

  Oh gosh, that's brutal.

• 46:04Griffin McElroy?

  I really, I, I, as someone who has watched these types of shows, uh, and has always kind of like, I don't know, wondered what it would be like to be on it. It was, it was genuinely very like, I don't know, cool and impressive to, uh, to see you doing Traders.

• 46:18Speaker 03

  Thank you. That's the one thing people do say. They're like, oh, it was really, it's like if you want to see a normal person on.

• 46:25Griffin McElroy?

  Truly, genuinely, it's, it's, everybody else on that show, even the people who are not, uh, you know, do not appear to be total fucking dirtbags from the jump, still are kind of like, you know, space aliens in the way that they like, well, that's just not how anyone really actually talks about, uh, anything. It's obviously.

• 46:44Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah. How did you come out as the one that was neurodivergent? Like?

• 46:48Speaker 03

  Hey, I'm not saying, I just said I am. I'm not saying I'm the weirdo in the group.

• 46:52Russ Frushtick?

  No, sure. No, you're right.

• 47:00Speaker 03

  Yeah, they got a different test for narcissism.

• 47:02Russ Frushtick?

  That's right.

• 47:07Russ Frushtick?

  Real quick.

• 47:08Griffin McElroy?

  Do you feel like also as a comedian, as a touring comedian, that this is, this is a, a pretty rich vein of like, when I saw you announce sort of your, your tour and that you were going to be talking a lot about Traders stuff, it seemed like, well, yeah, it does seem like there would be a lot to talk about from, from doing that.

• 47:25Speaker 03

  Yeah. Well, I mean, I'm still learning it because I'm still going through my assessment right now. I think I have like two more weeks and stuff. And I think once that's finished, that'll unlock some more, um, things for me to talk about that I feel more comfortable talking about once I have full confirmation on things. Um, but I just always talk about my life and this like really affected me and affected me in a, a, a big fashion in a way that was both negative and positive. And to have people see it and, you know, and then also, um, I'd never been in a situation before where, I mean, unless I was in a role, but to have someone. Be me and then have someone else be able to control kind of the edit and the narrative of me is something I've never been used to.

• 48:10Speaker 03

  And so to have the ability to go out and do stand up comedy and kind of reframe things in my way is something I've always been positive and into and people are interested in. And again, such a new group of fans coming out. So I usually, it's about 10, 15 minutes of trader stuff and then it goes back into like what I do and my just life stuff and my family and whatever I'm going through. But I gotta kind of serve both right now because there's people who like are coming who have no idea about me other than the traders. And then they're mixing in with people who have been fans of me for a long time. And then the traders reminded them that they should come and support me because they're like, how dare these people be mean to my brand?

• 48:54Speaker 03

  And so, you know, it's kind of beautiful, but it's like forcing me to kind of like serve both right now.

• 49:01Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, that's awesome. We'll definitely include a link to the, to your site with all the tour dates.

• 49:06Speaker 03

  Please, I'm going so many places.

• 49:08Russ Frushtick?

  That's so cool.

• 49:09Chris Plante?

  Um, do we have any letters?

• 49:12Russ Frushtick?

  We have a couple of letters. I just wanted to go through them real quick. Uh, we were talking about Dragon Quest VII, the remake, uh, last week, uh, and a couple of people wrote in about that. One of them from Steven, I think, uh, we were talking about how it was like comfort food. Uh, I think the comfort food, uh, thing is a false dichotomy. For me, Dragon Quest games are a nice to play specifically because they don't drag you through the story so much. The pace of Dragon Quest games has always, uh, been tuned to provide a kind of comfort. The friction isn't antithetical to the flow, it is the flow. Uh, as an analogy, Stardew Valley would feel paper thin if it didn't require a certain amount of being busy, which I thought was an interesting.

• 49:50Chris Plante?

  That was comparing comfort food and this like need to talk to everybody specifically.

• 49:54Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah. I think that's, I think that's very apt. I think that's the main reason people are such, uh, people who are Dragon Quest weirdos are probably mostly because of this exact reason. It's just kind of nice to play.

• 50:07Russ Frushtick?

  Um, and then the other letter, this is one I want to hear Ron's answer on, uh, comes from Bing Bong Bing Bong Egg Steam.

• 50:14Griffin McElroy?

  That feels offensive.

• 50:18Russ Frushtick?

  To me, like I mean, it'd be to me.

• 50:19Chris Plante?

  To New Yorkers?

• 50:20Russ Frushtick?

  I guess. Uh, okay. Uh, I have four boys, like every parent, I'm gradually showing them the things I love from my childhood. What video games are you specifically going back to share with your children?

• 50:30Speaker 03

  Oh, so glad you asked me this because I was gonna bring it up and I forgot. Um, yeah, my son is almost four right now and he has just, he was such a outside boy, which I love and was pushing for and happy for him. And then suddenly he was the Super Mario movie. He loved the movie. And then I was like, well, do you know about the game? And he was like, Mario's a game?

• 51:01Speaker 03

  And I had analog 3D, the little 64 clone. And, um, and so we've been playing Super Mario 64 together. Uh, we've been playing Smash Brothers. And then one of the best things that I love, which I never thought about, but like, I have an Evercade for it. And so we've been playing a lot of ROM hacks on it. And I didn't realize that a lot of ROM hacks are just like what a toddler would come up with if they were playing games. Cause we were playing original Smash and my son was like, I want to be Bowser. And I was like, oh, Bowser's not in this one. I'm sorry. We maybe we can go play the other ones and we find Bowser. But then I was like, oh, he is in the Smash Remix ROM hack. So we just got played that.

• 51:46Speaker 03

  And now he's just fully in love. We've been playing the, um, Mario 64 that has Sonic in it instead of Mario. Cause he was like, oh, I want to play this, but I want to be Sonic. And I was like, we can do that. So it's like really, and I feel, um, especially for if you're going to start off with 3D games, which can be difficult sometimes with little kids, but, um, the open worldness of the like Mario 64 in particular, my son was just, he played for a full half hour and never entered the castle. Like, he just walked around the grounds, climbed a tree. Jumped into a hole and was having a blast.

• 52:22Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah.

• 52:23Speaker 03

  And it's been really, really fun to do that type of stuff with him. I've been really, because it forced me, I like, I never played OG. I initially never had a Nintendo sixty-four when I was a kid. I, um, so I just went back and got one and going back and playing those old games with him. Uh, we were, we were just playing Donkey Kong sixty-four before we started this up. Like, it's just been really beautiful.

• 52:44Russ Frushtick?

  Just the, just the rap on loop, right?

• 52:46Speaker 03

  Mm hmm.

• 52:46Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah.

• 52:47Speaker 03

  Yeah, I forced him for five minutes of the rap before we started.

• 52:52Griffin McElroy?

  You gotta eat your vegetables.

• 52:53Russ Frushtick?

  Mario sixty-four is a good call out. I've been, uh, my son definitely struggles with controls still. But for whatever reason, he's very into the Penguin Slide. Specifically like falling off the Penguin Slide and despite his struggles with controls and Mario sixty-four is not an easy game to control. He is very good at jumping into the chimney to go suicide off the side of the Penguin Slide. But like, that has been a huge hit.

• 53:20Speaker 03

  Well, I don't know if you've been, because we've been playing with the eight bit, uh, Bluetooth sixty-four controllers, and I feel like that's been such a game changer.

• 53:28Russ Frushtick?

  Oh, just size wise? You think those are good?

• 53:30Speaker 03

  Size wise and just, uh, just control wise is so much easier.

• 53:34Russ Frushtick?

  Oh, eight bit dough? Uh, yeah, I gotta check that out. That sounds great.

• 53:37Speaker 03

  I got one right here in my hand. I don't mean the product placement, but it's cute. Look how cute.

• 53:42Griffin McElroy?

  Nice.

• 53:42Chris Plante?

  Good stuff.

• 53:43Griffin McElroy?

  I like that. Uh, I've been playing Majora's Mask for a video series with like a wired, uh, N sixty-four controller, and it is not a good controller. I mean, it's a good version of the N sixty-four controller, but holy shit. Every time I touch this thing, I'm like, what were they thinking? Why did they make it look like a pitchfork? Why did they give me this trident shaped mistake?

• 54:03Russ Frushtick?

  What if you didn't use one third of the entire controller?

• 54:07Griffin McElroy?

  Amazing. Why not?

• 54:09Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 54:10Griffin McElroy?

  I've had such little success getting Henry to actually play old games. He plays non-stop like games. Uh, and he loves like Mario Odyssey and he loves Zelda Tears of the Kingdom and he loves, uh, you know, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, but every time I've tried to make him play an older game, it is very much fucking Back to the Future two. What is this? A game for babies? Like, and I feel so, I have always felt that way. Whenever I've tried to make them watch like a TV show or a movie or something. And been so. Terrified that they'll be like, "This actually sucks. Uh, you picked the wrong time. You missed your window and now I'll never like it again."

• 54:50Griffin McElroy?

  Uh, so it's so wild though, cause Henry will read the entire Ocarina of Time manga. But if I'm like, "Do you wanna play the thing?" He's like, "That game looks so... There's not a jump button. He just does it when you get too close to the edge of a thing." I'm like, "Yeah, I don't know, man. The controller was terrible. You couldn't reach most of the buttons. So, yeah, they had to make him jump automatically. I'm sorry."

• 55:14Chris Plante?

  Yeah. Mozy has really gotten into the classics just because Nintendo Switch Online has those different portals where it's like SNES, Genesis. And I think the feeling of the smorgasbord of like, "Oh, you open it and there's just infinite stuff." But the other thing I would add, if you wanna go try the retro consoles, but you don't necessarily wanna spend money right away, if you have a retro game store in your town, a lot of those places have like demo stations where you can play the game on a classic TV. And that's where um, my son played Mario 64 for the first time and then we ended up playing it at home. But being able to be in like that space where all the different old flashing screens that don't

• 55:56Chris Plante?

  look at anything that is what is in your house right now, uh, is pretty cool to just watch. I mean, the stores kinda are like little museums that you also can buy stuff in, which I guess is like how real museums are now too.

• 56:10Speaker 03

  That's most museums. If a museum was all the gift shops.

• 56:13Chris Plante?

  Yeah.

• 56:14Russ Frushtick?

  Uh, cool. Before we wrap things up, Ron, is there any honorable mentions? Anything else you're playing or doing or things you're excited about?

• 56:21Speaker 03

  I mentioned I'm playing Clover, playing Absalom. Like them both. Gotta go back and finish Dispatch. Really like that game. But that's about it, really. People can just, yeah. Oh, I've been doing a fun YouTube series where I explain games that I play in about 30 seconds. So if you can send them to people who don't play games or your significant other or anyone, or just watch them and see how fun and accurate they are. I've been doing this on my YouTube. So if people wanna follow my YouTube at at Ron Funches as my favorite series that I've been doing it.

• 56:53Russ Frushtick?

  You gonna do Mewgenics?

• 56:55Griffin McElroy?

  I was gonna say, I can't wait to hear a 30-second Mewgenics breakdown.

• 56:59Russ Frushtick?

  That sounds awesome. Uh, I watched Wonder Man on Disney Plus. I'm a couple of episodes in. It's really excellent. It happens to be an MCU show, but it's really just about acting. And oh my God, the acting in the show is just like through the roof.

• 57:15Speaker 03

  Yeah, great people and a lot of fun people in there. My friend X Mayo is in it. Friend Brendan Wardell's in it. I have not seen it, but I recommend it.

• 57:23Russ Frushtick?

  It feels like a very true to LA acting show in the way that like Barry was to some extent as well, even though obviously Barry went in other directions.

• 57:32Speaker 03

  No, that was still true too.

• 57:33Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, the mercs, right?

• 57:39Griffin McElroy?

  I mentioned it. I, I downloaded the, downloaded WoW for to do some new peacecraft stuff with it. Because the big thing, there's like a whole new expansion out. I actually think it doesn't come out until next month. That I again, could not be less interested in playing. For me, whenever I dip into that game, it is always like, they've added mini golf or some shit. Like, I just want to see what weird kind of thing they have allowed you to do other than kind of engage with the high fantasy trappings of the thing. And the housing system in that game is pretty wild, y'all. You can really, uh, it's very open ended. You get a house for free and you can like have your own neighborhood with like other people if you want to.

• 58:21Griffin McElroy?

  And the decoration is very much like you can drag and drop anything, anywhere and resize it. And it can all clip into each other and you can make it look like total garbage or you can make it look like really, uh, really neat. And so like, I don't know, I've only fucked around with it for like a couple of hours, but I've seen some people do some really neat stuff with it. And they've also done some interesting stuff for like, there's quests for your, your houses. And, uh, like it ties back into, I guess, the rest of the, the rest of the game in some ways that I don't quite understand yet because, um, I don't know if I can get back into actually playing WoW at 38.

• 58:56Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, probably not a good idea.

• 58:57Griffin McElroy?

  Not a good idea. Genuinely, Mugenix has bumped out. The like, maybe 45 minutes of free time that I have during the day. I cannot possibly spend, um, you know, hitting up Razorfin, crawl and getting back together with the squad. But, uh, I don't know. The housing stuff is, is very neat. I have always enjoyed that part of MMOs more than the. Like raids and hardcore shit and it feels like there's a lot to uh, a lot to sink your teeth into there.

• 59:25Russ Frushtick?

  Cool.

• 59:26Chris Plante?

  Uh, I've been playing Romeo as a dead man, as I mentioned, it's the

• 59:29Russ Frushtick?

  Is that out?

• 59:30Chris Plante?

  It is out. It is the new Grasshopper manufacturer game. You also know them as Pseudo 51 is the head creator there. Um, it is so good. We're gonna be talking about it on Arrestees. It is everything so far. Everything I want from a pseudo game without the stuff that I don't want, but I did write down just what happens in the first five minutes. Just to give you a taste. Um, you play as a half-dead man saved by your grandson from the future, who died when saving you, but now lives as an animated patch on the back of your jacket. You are a deputy at a local police department, but you are now in the future

• 1:00:12Chris Plante?

  because you have joined a space-time special agent FBI. After doing that, the world has exploded and the planet is now islands spread across multiple dimensions. And your job is to find the alternate versions of your girlfriend Juliet. By the way, your name is Romeo. Juliet is actually a space-time fugitive and there are many versions of her.

• 1:00:34Russ Frushtick?

  Okay, so just focused, very focused.

• 1:00:37Chris Plante?

  Really good game.

• 1:00:38Griffin McElroy?

  I need a 30-second video explainer from Ron of everything you just said, because it went, I feel like it went.

• 1:00:43Russ Frushtick?

  Add it to the list, Ron.

• 1:00:45Speaker 03

  I'll put it on there.

• 1:00:47Griffin McElroy?

  Ron, where can people go to secure tickets for your, your upcoming tour or uh, any other sort of performances?

• 1:00:53Speaker 03

  Oh, it's easy. RonPunches.com. That's just my name and then dot com.

• 1:01:02Griffin McElroy?

  Is there any other stuff that you uh, would encourage our folks to check out other than your, your, your tour and your YouTube channel?

• 1:01:07Speaker 03

  Watch a loot on Apple TV if you like. You could buy some merch at my store at my thing or you can get a cameo from me. I didn't know I'd like it. I thought I'd hate it, but guess what? I like it and I'm good at it. So come on by.

• 1:01:20Russ Frushtick?

  You could just like not do them, so it's entirely like up to you, right? You have total freedom.

• 1:01:24Speaker 03

  It really is and it's mostly been, I used to do a lot of affirmations and stuff with my Getting Better podcast and it's just been mostly a lot of that. And then sometimes people ask me to sing Father Figure from New Girl and then I'm like, I don't mind doing that.

• 1:01:41Russ Frushtick?

  Well, thank you again for joining us. I wanted to thank our patrons over at Patreon.com/thebesties. We have Judd E., we have Andrew C., we have Josh K., we have Cody W.

• 1:01:51Griffin McElroy?

  Did you go through and just pick normal ass names?

• 1:01:54Russ Frushtick?

  I know, I try to slot in-

• 1:01:55Griffin McElroy?

  Because usually it's shit like Bing Bong, Bing Bong, Egg Steamed.

• 1:01:57Russ Frushtick?

  I try to slot in a wacky one, but I guess these are some of the more recent subs and they're just normie names today, which is disappointing. Sorry, guys. Thank you for being patrons. Thank you to everyone else, including the weirdos for being patrons. We really appreciate you. Next week, we're doing Re-Animal. Do you know what that is, Ron? Have you heard of that game? This is from the team that did Little Nightmares. Scary little-

• 1:02:22Speaker 03

  They were doing a lot of things with animals.

• 1:02:24Russ Frushtick?

  I know.

• 1:02:26Russ Frushtick?

  You're like a little guy pie running around a very scary environment, kind of like Limbo, but in 3D.

• 1:02:32Griffin McElroy?

  Or Little Nightmares, I would think.

• 1:02:33Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it should be interesting.

• 1:02:37Speaker 03

  I'll check it out.

• 1:02:37Griffin McElroy?

  Cool.

• 1:02:38Speaker 03

  But I'm gonna check out Romeo Must Die, because that's been on my list to check out.

• 1:02:41Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, that, that, that sounds right up my alley. Re-Animal next week, also probably still Mugen. Like, we're probably still gonna be talking about Mugen for a bit.

• 1:02:50Russ Frushtick?

  I'm sure despite his carpal tunnel, we'll still be playing Mewgenics.

• 1:02:53Griffin McElroy?

  Yes. So yeah, join us again next week and thank you for joining us this week and thanks again to Ron for, for joining us. And we hope you'll come back next time for the besties, because shouldn't the world's best friends pick the world's best games?

• 1:03:08Russ Frushtick?

  Yes.

• 1:03:10Griffin McElroy?

  No one's ever actually answered that before.