The Star Wars Game Renaissance Is Here!

Sure, we expected Star Wars: Galactic Racer to be good off the pitch alone. A new studio, featuring members of the Burnout team, is creating a spiritual sequel to the Nintendo 64 podracing game? Yes, please! We didn’t, however, predict the game’s creator would splice a clever story and an inspired roguelike structure into the racing genre. Our GOTY conversation just got a bit more complicated. Plus, we discuss how Galactic Racer is one part of a larger trend of delightful Star Wars games that have a fresh vision for the franchise.

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

• 0:00Griffin McElroy?

  I think it's baloney. I think it's outer space baloney that they don't let you name your guy in this one. Your guy in this one's got to be called Shade, which is top 10 most boring Star Wars names. They had an opportunity to let me carve my legend throughout the, throughout the galaxy as Jizzbumpsto or Snizblasto.

• 0:24Russ Frushtick?

  His last name, they don't really cover it, but his last name is Shade Bazorks.

• 0:29Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, they only say it once. There's a single line where Sebulba's like, mm, Bazorks, blah, blah, blah. And he says like, alien shit.

• 0:37Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah.

• 0:38Griffin McElroy?

  Still a missed opportunity, I think.

• 0:39Chris Plante?

  I think they're really proud of the characters that they got in here and they want some contrast, you know, like they don't want you worrying about Shade when you can be thinking about Biddy Blast.

• 0:49Griffin McElroy?

  I love my big Biddy Blast. We're all Biddy Blast fans around here. It's just, I want to be right there next to him. A scump drusgo or something fun like that. A little Trandoshian, a little scoundrel.

• 1:02Russ Frushtick?

  I'll whip my hair tails at people.

• 1:04Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, man. I mean, that's Twi'lek, but sure.

• 1:25Griffin McElroy?

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

• 1:28Chris Plante?

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

• 1:31Russ Frushtick?

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

• 1:35Griffin McElroy?

  Welcome to the besties where we talk about the latest and greatest in home interactive entertainment. It's a game of the year club. Just by listening, you've become a member. This week's for the nerds because we're talking about Star Wars Galactic Racer. It's a Star Wars video game and it doesn't get much nerdier than that. Let me put in my pocket protector as I ask my friend Chris Plitt to turn on his lightsaber and tell me all about this new one from George Lucas's Mind's Eye.

• 2:04Chris Plante?

  Zolinks, this is kind of a spiritual sequel to both the Burnout games and the Pod Racing game from the Nintendo 64. It is made by a new studio called Fuse, who has some members from Criterion, the people who were working on everything from Burnout to the late, great Need for Speed games. Here's what you need to know, though, Star Wars fans. This one takes place, I believe, between episode six and seven. So this is the future of Pod Racing.

• 2:35Russ Frushtick?

  What does that mean?

• 2:37Chris Plante?

  It means that Pod Racing takes place in episode one. This one takes place between Return of the Jedi and.

• 2:44Russ Frushtick?

  Palpatine, this is before Palpatine came back, but after he died.

• 2:48Griffin McElroy?

  He got smoked and Sebulba's still here.

• 2:51Chris Plante?

  Before, he was in Fortnite, but after he died the first time.

• 2:55Griffin McElroy?

  Sebulba must be so old. Sebulba must be 500 fucking years old. We'll talk about that.

• 3:00Russ Frushtick?

  He's actually still a baby in Sebulba. That's how they age. Yeah, they age 10,000 years. So.

• 3:06Chris Plante?

  I can't wait to talk about.

• 3:08Griffin McElroy?

  These movies take place over like 60 years.

• 3:11Russ Frushtick?

  So he's a baby. That's what I'm saying. He's a baby.

• 3:15Chris Plante?

  Okay, you realize that these movies actually take place?

• 3:18Griffin McElroy?

  I warned you guys. I warned you. So dust off your calculators and we'll be right back.

• 3:26Russ Frushtick?

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• 4:07Russ Frushtick?

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• 4:18Russ Frushtick?

  Uh, wow. I cannot believe this game exists. I'm genuinely surprised that this game exists. I'm pleasantly surprised because I really did enjoy it. But the idea that there is a Star Wars game in modern day, whose premise is, wait for it, don't hold your breath because I'm going to give you the entire premise in one go. The empire has fallen. The world needs racing.

• 4:43Griffin McElroy?

  That's it. I feel like Star Wars has pulled this trick a few times where it's like, we killed Darth Vader, we took down the bad guys and now the galaxy can't get enough of blank. This time it's racing. In the past, it has been.

• 4:58Russ Frushtick?

  Sabak?

• 4:59Griffin McElroy?

  Sabak. It could be whatever. Um, I tell you, gang, I play, I didn't really learn a lot about this one until we played it and I played it for about 35 seconds. And I was like, this has got Criterion stink all over it. God damn, this feels like a really good, uh, you know, Need for Speed or Burnout title. And sure enough, you got, you got some Criterion folks in this new studio Fuse Games. You just, they're like cockroaches. You can't kill Criterion. You can't stop the signal. They're gonna find a way to keep making tight ass racing.

• 5:31Russ Frushtick?

  Unless you use the black gun, in which case you can.

• 5:33Griffin McElroy?

  In which case I guess that it is possible.

• 5:36Chris Plante?

  But here's, here's the rub, y'all. It's even better than a Criterion game because this is kind of a motor storm game disguised as a Criterion game. It's a little bit of a motor storm game. Because here's how it works. You have different environments that have all sorts of impacts on your vehicle. So you have like really muddy tracks or like ice or lava, or maybe you have tracks where you're going to be up in the air a lot. And then you have three different types of racers. You have kind of like a land speeder, basically a car. This is a really good car. You have the bike, which is very delicate, but can zip around corners and go real fast, real fast. It's a bike. And then you have the.

• 6:20Griffin McElroy?

  Skim racer, I think is what it's called.

• 6:22Chris Plante?

  Racer, which I only played when absolutely forced to, didn't understand how to use it whatsoever. I think you're supposed to get these like really wide, followed by sharp angles with it and create kind of a flow without getting stuck on your side.

• 6:37Griffin McElroy?

  There's also, it would be insane to pretend it's a secret that there is Pod Racing in the game also.

• 6:45Chris Plante?

  Correct.

• 6:45Griffin McElroy?

  And it's not immediate sort of, it's not as available as the other stuff, but like, you do do some Pod, it's crazy to think that there's not Pod Racing in it. And they tease it out like, uh-oh, here comes Sebulba. And you're like, yeah, no, I know you guys are going to put fucking, you guys, of course you're going to put the premier kind of racing franchise of Star Wars in the Star Wars racing game.

• 7:10Chris Plante?

  The splash of lore that you got to know is like Pod Racing happened, what, 60 years ago or whatever, and it was wildly dangerous as we saw in that film. It was super fast. There was, it was all gas, no brakes, and basically everybody but Sebulba died doing it.

• 7:29Griffin McElroy?

  And then. Annie, Annie made it.

• 7:31Russ Frushtick?

  Eventually he did succumb, but that wasn't related to the Pod Racing.

• 7:35Chris Plante?

  Not because of Pod Racing. Well, he retired early, you know, he got out of the game while the game was good. And that what we are seeing now is something more formal, that there's like a league, the Galactic League, that is making a lot of money, that has these giant, giant venues full of gajillions and gajillions of people. And then the story is about basically the infighting of that league. It would be like if Tom Brady right on the cusp of retirement was like, you can't make me retire. I'm going to own the NFL. The story.

• 8:11Griffin McElroy?

  And there's still, there is still time for that. Yeah. You play a Shade who is an amateur racer who hails from a planet where he was disenfranchised and treated like shit by the family of another racer. Kestar Boul, I want to say, is his name?

• 8:28Russ Frushtick?

  It's very important.

• 8:29Griffin McElroy?

  I can't believe I remembered that. Uh, who is a real dick, just a real dickhead throughout the whole story. So there's like, uh, yeah, there is a, an element of, uh, you know, underdog fight happening here. Let, let's talk about the actual mechanics of the, of the racing because there are different vehicle types, but ultimately they're kind of different flavors of, you know, you're racing, you have an afterburn kind of boost meter that is constantly sort of recharging. And then you have a turbo boost called the Ramjet that you can activate when it's charged up, but if it goes for too long, then you explode.

• 9:03Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah. So there is still that danger, which.

• 9:05Griffin McElroy?

  There is that danger.

• 9:06Chris Plante?

  The Ramjet even more complicated and also brilliant, which is.

• 9:12Chris Plante?

  If you let go of the ramjet, if you let go of like boosting on it, it fully empties and you have to wait to recharge it again. But if you hold down on it all the way up until it's just about to explode, you can ramjet for a long

• 9:26Griffin McElroy?

  For a long time.

• 9:27Chris Plante?

  By the end, I was ramjetting entire laps of the course. But it is living dangerous.

• 9:33Griffin McElroy?

  That's the core sort of thing. The different vehicles have different sort of, um, different flavors of that, right? So the land speeder is pretty good at drifting. The bike, what it can do is when it drifts, it decelerates. But as soon as you finish the like brake of the brake slide, then it re-accelerates to where you were before. So that to me feels a lot like blue sparks, uh, like Mario Kart, kind of like, uh, drift dashing. Once I felt that, I was like, okay, I don't need anything else. I don't, I didn't even fuck with the third type of car. I tried that and it felt so good. I was like, okay, that's, that's super sick. On top of all that, the game has a rogue-like structure.

• 10:13Chris Plante?

  Yeah.

• 10:13Griffin McElroy?

  When you enter into a, a season, when you enter into a league, you have one token that if you explode too many times on a race, or you fail a challenge, you lose that token and you might lose the whole run if it was the only token that you had.

• 10:28Chris Plante?

  Yeah.

• 10:29Griffin McElroy?

  It by default settings, if you crash three times in a race, you lose your token, you're out. And you're moving through this like, uh, slay the spire-esque chart of, uh, of events and some of them are

• 10:40Chris Plante?

  Like branching and where you have options and you can pick between different races.

• 10:44Griffin McElroy?

  I'll do this branch and then later I can decide if I want to do this like special event where I might run into a character who gives me a deal on some parts, or it'll be an elimination event where you have to avoid being in last place or else you get, uh, bumped off. Or it could be a time trial with a type of vehicle that you haven't used before. Um, and you're moving between those. And if you're successful, you get upgrade points for like your vehicle stats. You also get parts that can do special stuff like, uh, increase the amount of time you spend in ramjet or make it so that when you're redlining the ramjet, it goes like way faster. So it gives you more incentive to push it. You're also getting abilities which are similar to like, you know, Mario Kart power ups, uh, which are things that you can activate at will, which will be things like a pulse,

• 11:29Griffin McElroy?

  uh, that you can emit to like knock out other racers who are nearby, or, uh, the overtake boost, which is a boost that is like pretty good. But if you overtake someone while it's active, it resets. So you can like use that to chain your way through. So like all of that stuff is coming together. So that if you do make it all the way through a season, your vehicle is going to have all these parts, all these abilities, all these upgrades that may not be like anything that you have like gotten before while moving through these events.

• 11:55Chris Plante?

  So when I saw this, all I could think was like, has anyone done a racing game with this structure? Because it's fucking genius.

• 12:04Griffin McElroy?

  It, it, yeah, it took me some getting used to because there are permanent things you're getting. After you finish an event, you get permanent points that you can spend to permanently upgrade the stats of vehicles or unlock new models and new shapes.

• 12:16Chris Plante?

  Yeah, that's all stuff that like if at the end of a run, but even in mid-run, the idea that you're building a build for your car where the same way as slay the spire, where the perks will layer into one another. Where like every time you drift, you get more ramjet and every time you ramjet, you get a faster boost when you're redlining and all of these like kind of loop back on themselves makes for, part of the reason I don't generally like racing games, uh, is because I don't feel a lot of ownership of what, what's going on. I either get first place or I don't, but the decisions I made previously don't necessarily impact that. It's just how good did I do in that race? And here, everything kind of ladders up.

• 12:54Griffin McElroy?

  Right.

• 12:54Chris Plante?

  Your successes in previous runs beyond just having, oh, I have 17 tournament points, whatever the fuck that is. Here, it's like, no, because I succeeded earlier, I got more money. I was able to buy these two perks instead of just one perk and they in turn pushed me to be better in future runs.

• 13:12Griffin McElroy?

  Very cool.

• 13:12Chris Plante?

  I'm going to lay out the problems that this creates just to show that like how they, I think, address them and largely resolve them. But by doing this, the inherent problem is one, ultra-high risk because you can make it really, really far. You can put an hour and a half in and then lose on a race because every race matters and you are out and you are starting over. And the other thing is you could win, like actually get through an entire tournament and then you start from scratch. And that racer that you really liked, that model that you thought was like your number one, it is gone. And Griffin and Fresh both mentioned that you can get some permanent stuff, but not really. You have 15 upgrade points that you can peek out on, on a vehicle, which is basically means

• 13:57Chris Plante?

  you can invest in two things pretty well and then you're capped. And then you have these cards that you can buy, but they're a bit random at the beginning of a match. So you, you are starting fresh each time. There's also the thing with, um, with any rogue-like, which is you're just playing the same things over and over and over again. All of that said, I think it largely is chill because that variety that Griffin was talking about is bonkers. When I made the motor storm comparison of, oh, you can play as three different types of vehicles. That was really clever at the time. Here, it feels like you were playing entirely different racing games on top of each other. You can have

• 14:38Chris Plante?

  somebody who is playing Mario Kart against somebody who is playing burnout, against somebody who is playing Gran Turismo and, and it balances. That's like the part that breaks my brain. The, the build that I ended up going very, very far with was effectively purely a ramjet build. It was all about boosting, living directly on the edge all the time. I had no abilities until like the final round. I was zero Mario Kart it. And it was, it was unbelievable. I, I truly felt like I was living on the edge every race. Uh, it's so good.

• 15:17Griffin McElroy?

  The, the rogue-like structure is a really clever way to make it so it doesn't feel like you're just racing over and over and over again. Cause I worried like after my first, you know, failed, uh, season, which will happen a lot because it's hard, it's fucking hard not to crash, uh, in this game. And we could talk more about that because I think that that mechanic is kind of bonkers. Uh, it, I was worried like, man, I, this is so punishing. I don't know if I'm going to be able to stick with this. The part that unlock things are great, but also the story continues on. So like you show up to the next season, they're like, man, you fucked up so bad. Uh, but maybe you'll get to meet one of the other racers, uh, and learn a little bit about them. Maybe you'll form

• 15:58Griffin McElroy?

  a rivalry with them. And then throughout the season, you'll have special events against them where you do one-on-one races and you learn about their backstory and then they, you unlock special boons associated with that character that is also now part of your customizable loadout that you can now choose next time you start over a run. There are sponsors that you'll eventually unlock. They'll give you special missions. So now it's not just like win the race. One of the special side objectives might be like spend this much time in last place. Now all of a sudden you're thinking like, how can I spend enough time in last place to satisfy fucking Jabba's ass, but then also come back to win the race? You do that, you unlock a permanent specialization that also becomes something you can choose

• 16:39Griffin McElroy?

  the next time you start over. There's styles of racing that you can also choose like 30 of them that you are, uh, upgrading. Cause it'll be like in this, uh, in this style, you, uh, start the race with this ability unlocked. Uh, and if you do this for four planets, then it will upgrade to the next level and you'll have this upgrade with it alongside. So like, not, there's like a dozen different kind of factors that you are, some of which you're choosing before you start, some of which you're upgrading with this currency that is like permanent upgrades, but most of which you are just kind of getting as you, as you go and as you dynamically sort of form rivalries with racers, you may or may not crash into on the first planet of races. It's really, it's very, very, very

• 17:22Griffin McElroy?

  dynamic. And I think does such a great job of making the game not just feel boring, not feel like you're doing the same shit over and over again.

• 17:32Chris Plante?

  A thing I wish I had known before I started is these series basically that you compete in, there are multiple of them and each of them feels like it could be the entire game, at least narratively. They're framing it as like, this is the most important thing on earth. And not only is like it a unique story, once you get into a new series, uh, chunk, the game expands quite a bit with each series. So the first one, it really is just teaching you how to race, like how to use the afterburner, how to use the ramjet, how to get from point A to point B, how to knock people out. When you finally do get past that first boss, basically, that's when a ton of stuff unlocks. That's when you are

• 18:17Chris Plante?

  hanging out with Suboba. That's when there is pod racing becomes part of the game. That is when these, you know, taking on special goals for clients, all of these different layers on how you can modify your vehicle. And that's that chunk. And then after that, and I'll go a whole lot further, that's when you get into, oh, what happens when you have three or four or five different types of racing happen all at once? What happens when you start putting massive traps on, on the tracks? What happens when the game just complicates itself when you're actually in the middle of the race? And that layer of learn the basics, learn the meta, then have these really, really intense races is, it's a, it's a great progression, but you should know it's coming because I think at times I was like,

• 19:02Chris Plante?

  wow, is this really all the game is? And then the second I got past another level, it, it expanded even more than I thought it could.

• 19:09Griffin McElroy?

  The story also expands as you go from season to season. And it does a really great job of that. I won't like get into spoilers or anything, but like I finished a season that I thought was the end of the game. I was like, oh, so like the whole game is just trying to survive a whole season? That makes sense. It's fucking hard. Um, but I managed to do it. But then it's like, actually, welcome to act three of the game. In this one, Kestrel Bull's a real piece of shit and you have to like, you're really fucking going for it. Like a lot about the league has changed since the last season. In addition to these like gameplay mechanics that are, that are unlocking, I actually started to give a shit about like the characters and stuff, which

• 19:47Chris Plante?

  Who's the name of that robot guy? That sweet little robot guy who keeps showing up?

• 19:50Griffin McElroy?

  Noli, I want to say.

• 19:53Chris Plante?

  I love him.

• 19:54Griffin McElroy?

  I see their names while going 700 miles an hour and sometimes it's very difficult to parse. The

• 20:01Griffin McElroy?

  The, the crashing out mechanic is, did you guys adjust the difficulty settings?

• 20:07Russ Frushtick?

  I eventually did because I wanted to see more of the game. So, yes.

• 20:11Griffin McElroy?

  For me, I was not having it. I was, okay.

• 20:14Russ Frushtick?

  First plan is very good.

• 20:15Griffin McElroy?

  I didn't have a problem with the, I thought the AI was like actually really balanced and like it,

• 20:20Russ Frushtick?

  I mean, they definitely do rubber banding for sure.

• 20:24Griffin McElroy?

  They do, but I don't know. It didn't run afoul of me as much as I've seen in other racing games. Like sometimes someone would slingshot by me, but like it was, it was pretty rare. I didn't feel, but, but you only get three crashes in the normal difficulty setting and then you lose the whole season basically. Uh, and you have to start all the way over and some of the maps specifically Jacu, which is the first planet you race on, I had such a goddamn difficult time telling like, is that a turn up there? I've got about a quarter of a second to decide if that's an, a left turn or a right turn. There's little lights that like flash in sequence.

• 20:58Russ Frushtick?

  You know what that tells you Griffin? You are not force sensitive.

• 21:01Griffin McElroy?

  I guess maybe I don't have the force in me. Um, but I had to drop it back to an easier difficulty setting, which gives you five crashes, which I found to be a lot more reasonable, but now I, I found it a lot easier to completely smoke the competition. It wasn't a lock, but you know, they would still pass my ass if I crashed, which I was doing somewhat frequently.

• 21:21Russ Frushtick?

  And there were still challenge, like those eliminator challenges are also like one shot, like you, if you get eliminated, you're done. Like that's it.

• 21:28Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah. That, that is like, I earned that. If I came in last place, fine, that's fine. But like, if I couldn't tell because it's very bright on this fucking desert planet, uh, whether that was a left or right turn ahead and I exploded and had to start all the way over. Like for me, that was, that was a little too punishing.

• 21:44Chris Plante?

  Yes. I, I agree. And just a little tweak, which is you very quickly get optional bonuses or like things that you can equip that give you the opportunity to crash considerably more times. You also get more tokens so that if you do lose out in one of those, um, survivor matches, you aren't totally knocked out. That said, it is seemingly most unforgiving at the beginning. And I completely agree with you. Of all the courses to have the most confusing, where do I turn? To have it be the first one is not great.

• 22:20Griffin McElroy?

  One is like not awesome.

• 22:21Chris Plante?

  There is one turn on it that I bounced out of like two or three series, just because I thought I was supposed to like take a sharp turn in one direction and was going the wrong way.

• 22:34Russ Frushtick?

  I will say this, there are a couple of ability, uh, the ability that I kept turning to was auto drive because even though you can't use it all the time, anytime that I would get to anything a little bit spicy, I'd slam the auto drive button. And for, when you upgrade it, it's fucking 20 seconds. You could go make a tea in the time it's going to auto drive, uh, which was nice. Like, I liked that, uh, safety.

• 22:56Griffin McElroy?

  What was your build?

• 22:57Russ Frushtick?

  Uh, I was using that and then I was pairing that with the ramjet that yeah, increases speed as you redline and then increased the amount of time you could stay in redline. And that was doing pretty well for me. Like,

• 23:10Griffin McElroy?

  I, I had one on the speeder bike that was all about jumps. So, uh, it, it made it so that when I was in midair, I got a status effect called cooled, which makes it so the ram.

• 23:20Russ Frushtick?

  Already, uh, I agree with that.

• 23:22Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah. I mean, yeah, for sure. What it does is it's, it, uh, slows down like how fast you're using ramjet. I also had one that made it so if you have a perfect landing, you hit the ground fully level, it resets your afterburner to full. So like I could chain jumps together and just be in a pretty much a constant state of boosting on the speeder bike, which just goddamn, it feels so good. Man, it feels good.

• 23:44Russ Frushtick?

  Let me ask, let me ask you guys something. My, I really love the racing. I love all the like meta game stuff, all that stuff. As like visual courses, like I could have used a little more beetle adventure racing, super bomb bad, right? Just a little more life to them. Cause they are largely like, apart from like the, when you're in an arena, but most of them are like, here's an empty husk of like a star destroyer that you're going through. And for Star Wars, like that's pretty anodyne. Like usually Star Wars tends to be more animated.

• 24:16Griffin McElroy?

  I, I don't know. I, I, I think there could maybe my, my fix for this would just be like another planet or two, because for me, the track breakdown is basically like Jacu desert shit or, um, icy shit, or there's like a tropical wetland forest going through ruins. That one's really cool. And then there's like the arena.

• 24:41Chris Plante?

  From Last Jedi.

• 24:42Griffin McElroy?

  Shit is so cool. God damn. The first time you actually race on that, you know, red salt course, like from Last Jedi, it's, it, man, it's really rad.

• 24:51Russ Frushtick?

  Griffin can't talk enough about The Last Jedi.

• 24:53Griffin McElroy?

  I can't get enough of this. All, all the pre, pre sequels. Um, I, I feel like it could use maybe just a little bit more variety. There's like one planet that's just like, uh, also kind of frosty. And it's like, okay, that one doesn't have a ton of personality to it. Um, but honestly, man, you're going through these fucking things so fast. I, you could tell me like, did you guys see the elephants on Naboo? And I'd be like, no, I didn't. Cause I was going so fast and trying not to explode the entire time.

• 25:23Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah. It's also a performance thing or like the more you put outside it, it, uh, I, I understand. It was just would have, a little bit more spice would have been nice.

• 25:32Griffin McElroy?

  Sure.

• 25:32Chris Plante?

  There's, there's a ship that flies over you every time you land on a new planet. And I'm like 90% sure it's the ship from Shadows of the Empire. And every time I saw it, I was the Leo DiCaprio gif being like, let me fly that baby. Bring that back.

• 25:48Griffin McElroy?

  Oh, I thought you were going to say, where's fucking Dash Rindar?

• 25:51Chris Plante?

  Oh man, for real. Like I wanted to race him. That, that's.

• 25:54Russ Frushtick?

  Somewhere fucking is what he's doing.

• 25:55Griffin McElroy?

  He's definitely fucked. You know Dash Rindar fucks. Um, I haven't beaten the game. I've not beaten the game yet. Maybe Dash shows up. He's got to.

• 26:04Russ Frushtick?

  It seems, he rides a fucking motorcycle. Like, uh, I mean, a swoop bike.

• 26:08Chris Plante?

  I, I want to talk about the pod race in the context of this story, but like pod racing is in it. How did you like the feel of actually doing a pod race?

• 26:17Griffin McElroy?

  It's so, it's so stupid. It's like, imagine, imagine, it reminds me of like in, uh, like Grand Theft Auto, where there will be a mission where it's like, now you're flying a fucking rocket ship. It's like, oh, this is so, this is too fucking fast, you guys. The way they layer in, and I guess this is slight spoiler shit, I guess, but when you first do pod racing, it is through a memory of Sibulbas. So he's like on Tatooine, like on.

• 26:44Chris Plante?

  It's episode one, basically.

• 26:46Griffin McElroy?

  It's episode one. And I saw that and I was like, yeah, baby. Like I'm all in. I'm, I'm fucking here, dude. I'm all for it.

• 26:52Chris Plante?

  4K is.

• 26:54Griffin McElroy?

  You see in 4K Sibulba crash into a big rock and yo poodoo. That's my shit, dude. Absolutely. No, it's great. It's not, but it's not as fun as the other shit. I feel like, cause I don't know.

• 27:06Russ Frushtick?

  It just didn't feel like the focus.

• 27:07Griffin McElroy?

  That good boost jet of the, of the speeder bike.

• 27:09Chris Plante?

  I, I like that of like the, I'm sorry. I'm putting my pocket protector on and put my calculator.

• 27:16Griffin McElroy?

  Dude, they're in. You have no reason to apologize.

• 27:19Chris Plante?

  I, I like that it is super fast, but a less complex ship than what would come out later. Like the ship's evolved into something more complex where you're shifting between the, the, the normal boost and the ramjet. And on that note, one of the coolest things in the movie is when those engines kick on and then like jolt forward. And this game does that so many times. When you are starting the race, you have to do like Konami Kodak's prompts.

• 27:49Griffin McElroy?

  Dude, so good.

• 27:51Chris Plante?

  To turn on the engine. And it feels like, like if you've gone and done the Millennium Falcon ride at Disney, like flipping all the switches and getting everything going. But then also, when you switch to the ramjet, you jam like the R3 button and it just briefly like pulls your car out of like, it's like you're like in manual basically. And then you hit that gas and jolt forward. And the, between that and the sound design, it is, it's unbelievable. Like it is, it is like a child me, like emotional levels of, oh, this is, this is like, this moment is magic and it happens a dozen times each race.

• 28:36Griffin McElroy?

  It's so goddamn cool. I really, I'm so surprised.

• 28:40Russ Frushtick?

  There's features, we haven't even like, like the fact that you can visually customize, like all of the parts of your racer. The fact that you can play as the other characters in the game, like, did you guys do any of those like mini campaigns as the other characters?

• 28:53Griffin McElroy?

  No, I didn't fuck with that. I didn't do any of the multiplayer. I've honestly just been enjoying doing the different sort of rogue-like seasons so much that there's actually quite a bit that the game offers that I have not had time to check out yet.

• 29:05Chris Plante?

  I think we should actually take a break and then come back and talk about what's going on with Star Wars games in general, because I think some of the things that are interesting about this game are part of like the bigger, what the hell are they doing? How are they nailing this? Yeah.

• 29:19Griffin McElroy?

  I think that's a, I think that's a good, good idea. I, I, I want to just say like, I didn't think much of this game and played it for even like an hour and was like, oh, like it feels good. And it's cool to race in Star Wars, but like it just, is that just kind of a novelty? The structure of this game is so fucking brilliant. And I think I'm probably going to keep playing it. Cause I don't really have anything else going on right now. And I sort of want to fucking kill Kesthar Bull. And I imagine at some point I'll get the chance to do so. Uh, I just didn't think, when I saw this on the list coming up, I was not like, that's a goatee contender for sure. But man, I've had some real, real fun, real just cackling, playing

• 30:02Griffin McElroy?

  my Rog ally X and my kids being like, what are you laughing at? And being like, nothing. Sibulba said poodoo. You guys don't understand.

• 30:11Griffin McElroy?

  Um, let's take a quick break and then we'll talk more about Star Wars shit.

• 30:15Russ Frushtick?

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• 30:55Russ Frushtick?

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• 31:08Griffin McElroy?

  Chris, this is a good opportunity for you to talk about Zero Company.

• 31:11Chris Plante?

  This is a good opportunity.

• 31:12Griffin McElroy?

  Space.

• 31:13Chris Plante?

  Yeah.

• 31:13Griffin McElroy?

  For that.

• 31:14Chris Plante?

  Well, I'll, I'll fall into it sideways through this game and what it's doing well, which is, these games as a whole have figured out two crucial things. One, some of the best characters in Star Wars outside of the original trilogy have come from the like modern video games, especially like the side characters. BD1 is such a brilliant bot design from Star Wars: Fallen Order, that there are BD1s all over Star Wars land now. They're absolutely amazing. The bad dudes in, in this game, they're so good. Kestrel Bull or whatever. This is a guy that you want to, he has a glass plate over his face. I think just because you know how

• 31:59Chris Plante?

  fun it would be to punch it and like-

• 32:02Griffin McElroy?

  It looks like a futuristic space golf visor that like a douchey frat bro would wear.

• 32:07Chris Plante?

  It's, it's very clever design. And, and Biddy Blast is a masterpiece. He's a crocodile that's just very petty and always finding out that he wasn't invited to the coolest parties. They have-

• 32:20Griffin McElroy?

  He will crash your ass so many times on the course and then the very first time you meet him, you realize that he's a two and a half foot tall little crocodile boy. That's really, really good.

• 32:29Chris Plante?

  So good. And I think the reason that they are nailing these characters in a way that a lot of like the films and TV shows are not always quite pulling it together is, these are the stories that I've always wanted since I was a kid, which is what is going on in Star Wars when it's not Luke Skywalker and the Skywalker family? And it is not life or death with the Empire versus the Rebels. That it's just, I mean, this, this story in this one really is, there is a league and one of its top contenders wants to take it over. That's the story. And, and it, and it sticks to it. Like-

• 33:06Russ Frushtick?

  It's basically a Cars movie. Let's be honest. It is like pretty close to a Cars movie plot.

• 33:11Griffin McElroy?

  I've never enjoyed a Cars movie and I've liked this quite a bit. So-

• 33:14Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, no, I'm tell, I'm telling you, in terms of all the representatives of the, or like real life F1, it is not-

• 33:21Chris Plante?

  I would say Cars or any sports movie, you know, it's like a pretty classic sports movie that happens to be set in Star Wars. And that Zero Company does this really well too. And the stakes are higher there because that is ultimately about a cult.

• 33:36Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah.

• 33:37Chris Plante?

  Um, but what that game also gets is this cult is separate from what's going on with the Sith or the Rebels or any of those things. It's a story that is happening on the ground. And we, we talked about it during that episode, the opening of Zero Company, how you start in space and then you go down to-

• 33:55Russ Frushtick?

  This was in Rusty's, by the way, in case people are thinking that they missed it.

• 33:57Chris Plante?

  Yeah. The, the beginning of this game, it is this cinematic where it's like the giant ships in space, down to their dogfight in space, down through the clouds, down through like a battle happening on the ground with all the big ships, down to like a group of foot soldiers. And it completely sets up what that game is, which this is a game about four to six people on foot.

• 34:19Russ Frushtick?

  It's about inches.

• 34:20Chris Plante?

  It, it is truly, it, the stakes are comparably low. And because of that, you can get people who are just human, which makes them so much more relatable. There are entire chunks of story completely, you could skip it in Zero Company where characters talk about pod racing, the way that they would talk about like football over a water cooler. And all of that, especially when I've taken these two games together, is such a cool experience because now Star Wars actually feels like a universe, which I think was like always the goal when you're kids, when you're playing with the toys versus what I think it's felt like for me a lot since Disney took over, which is, oh, this, this story

• 35:03Chris Plante?

  of like a massive war and like the very powerful people who are involved. And there's exceptions, I know Andor, I think is like the big one, but-

• 35:11Russ Frushtick?

  Andor certainly, and then Skeleton Crew, which I haven't seen, but it's about-

• 35:15Griffin McElroy?

  But even that is still about the war, right? Like this game, it deals with a little bit of like post-imperial shit, but truly I feel like it gets that shit out of the way. And the conflict is not just like about racing. The conflict is very much about, uh, you know, class and specifically like this one douche who you are trying to take down, who has like way more money than you. And that is a, that's a tale as old as time.

• 35:44Chris Plante?

  Yeah.

• 35:44Griffin McElroy?

  I think it's really, really smart. You never hear the word Jedi in this whole fucking thing. And it really, you're not fighting in any kind of conflict. You're just racing.

• 35:54Russ Frushtick?

  Yoda is the final boss. We haven't gotten to it yet, but he is-

• 35:56Griffin McElroy?

  You do have to fight Yoda with a light, with two lightsabers. Yeah.

• 35:59Russ Frushtick?

  I, I, here's what I'm gonna say. I think you're right. I think there have, again, over the years been examples, not generally in the movies. It's usually in the TV shows or like extended universe stuff where people are telling side stories. And I think the, when Star Wars works at its best, it's being used as a platform for a genre. So Andor is a spy genre. Uh, this obviously is a sports genre. And the fact that, you know, their names are silly and they're aliens or whatever else is secondary to, we're gonna make good characters that are telling good stories.

• 36:30Griffin McElroy?

  Well, and, and machines that look so goddamn cool.

• 36:34Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah.

• 36:34Griffin McElroy?

  The, the, the vehicles in this game look so radical. And I could really, you can, there's some customization stuff, like you unlock new models and you can kind of cus, like swap bits and bytes. I would love a full blown, let me explode these things Forza style and like get into the gully where, like, give me another, I hope the next Star Wars Galactic Racer game lets me get like into the, the copper tubing inside of each engine and really let me get it. Cause the models look absolutely fantastic.

• 37:03Russ Frushtick?

  It feels like there's warring within Disney about how to deal with Star Wars as a franchise, because there's gonna be people that are like, I'm gonna tell this ultra personal story. It happens to be set in Star Wars, but it's gonna be an ultra personal story about people being friends or whatever else. And then someone's gonna come in and be like, yeah, but how does this relate to fucking Ray and her quest to do whatever? And so that's where I think you have these competing interests.

• 37:29Griffin McElroy?

  The way you said Ray's name just there, let me know everything I know about.

• 37:34Russ Frushtick?

  I have no, I genuinely think Ray is fine. I thought the last movie was a war crime that should never be committed again. So whatever we can do, if, if someone writes a really great story about Ray going to, I don't know, Naboo, great, count me in, but it can't-

• 37:51Chris Plante?

  Is that the Love Algorithm? What's that movie called?

• 37:53Griffin McElroy?

  You love Naboo.

• 37:55Russ Frushtick?

  It can't rely on the fact that Ray, spoiler alert, is the granddaughter of Emperor Palpatine. And because of that, she has great eyebrows. Like it can't be about that.

• 38:04Griffin McElroy?

  I, Palpatine famously amazing eyebrows. In human form, before he gets all desiccated.

• 38:09Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah.

• 38:10Griffin McElroy?

  That dude's eyebrows on fleek, 100%.

• 38:12Chris Plante?

  Yeah. Frustrating, you said about the genre stuff. I think that is, is spot on and, and, and closer to the truth. The, the one thing that I think is, uh, Marvel Cinematic Universe, I think got a lot of credit for doing something quote similar to that, where they're like, this one's a seventies spy thriller. But I think it didn't actually do it in hindsight. I think that most of those are Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. And I agree with you, when Star Wars is at its, is at its best, is when it earnestly commits to the bit. And it doesn't try to still then fall back into what you're talking about. And I feel like that's happening in the games, either quietly because nobody's watching, or what's probably more likely is the rules that are put around the games, where they're

• 38:56Chris Plante?

  like, hey, it's gonna be a universe. So we don't want you messing with this, this and this, have actually encouraged it to be about these more just per, like normal people's stories to what Griffin was saying earlier of like, the war has happened, but we are just seeing kind of the side effect of it. I think that's the other stuff that makes these games so relatable. Like with your character, there is a lot of talk of, oh, you were in jail. How did you get out of jail? And they're like, well, the administration changed. Like it's really boring reasons for everything. Same thing with like Zero Company. There are these moments where what's happening in the wider universe, without

• 39:34Chris Plante?

  spoiling it, take place. And suddenly your entire story and world has changed, not because of anything you're doing or your enemies are doing or anything else. It's that the world, what's going on in the world is bigger than you. And now you have to kind of adapt to it. And I think this game does that really well too. I also think that as they did with the, um, the pod racing and as they do with a couple of cameos in Zero Company, I'd much rather just have the big Star Wars, Star Wars moments, be the spice, you know? Like we can peek in, give me that moment now and then, and then like dip out and let's go back to our own thing.

• 40:16Russ Frushtick?

  Spice is illegal, by the way. You can't, you can't have spice.

• 40:19Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, man. We caught you. Me and, me and Russ are space cops. And we've been deep undercover for a long time. Um, hey, you guys been playing anything else you want to talk about?

• 40:30Russ Frushtick?

  Uh, I'm closing in on the end of Control. I'm like very, very, very close to the end of Control.

• 40:35Griffin McElroy?

  Resonant, I'm assuming.

• 40:36Russ Frushtick?

  Resonant, yes. Which like, it's like Revenant, but-

• 40:40Griffin McElroy?

  If you said it really fast and a bee had just stung your mouth. Yeah.

• 40:45Russ Frushtick?

  Uh, they, it definitely takes some fucking curveballs. And from an art design standpoint, there is no fucking game I've ever played that looks like this.

• 40:52Griffin McElroy?

  That last, that last area is fucking bananas. When you are just zooming through that final zone, that shit is some of the coolest stuff I ever did see in a game.

• 41:02Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah. Um, it is, uh, taken some pretty wild swings and I'm excited to see it wrap up and, and maybe I'll just like continue fucking around the world. I'm not sure. I'm like a little bit on the fence about the combat and whether I feel like it's still sticking with me, but narratively and visually, holy cow, I'm like so into it. It's been great.

• 41:20Chris Plante?

  I can't say a whole lot about mine, just cause Ace Combat, Wings of Thev. We'll talk more about it next week. But I mean, people know my feelings on Ace Combat. They can kind of guess where I'm at with these things.

• 41:31Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah. Good? Good then? I've seen people preaching the, the praises of this game that I would not expect to be preaching the praises of it. So maybe, maybe this is the Ace Combat.

• 41:43Chris Plante?

  It is an even better entry point than Seven was.

• 41:47Russ Frushtick?

  As long as they explain what a Thev is, I'm down. Like-

• 41:50Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah. What's the time to, what's the time to Thev? The explanation?

• 41:54Chris Plante?

  I, I, I don't know if this is exactly what a Thev is, but basically the plot of this game is you are, uh, the other pilot who's Iceman or whatever in Top Gun. And imagine in this alternate reality, Tom Cruise dies and then gets trapped in your brain. And now you have Tom Cruise from Top Gun trapped in your brain as you become the new

• 42:17Griffin McElroy?

  That's crazy. I actually have Tom Cruise from Digger trapped in my brain.

• 42:20Russ Frushtick?

  Oh no.

• 42:21Chris Plante?

  Oh no.

• 42:23Griffin McElroy?

  And he's constantly like, hurt a hand around me.

• 42:26Chris Plante?

  Why did my movie make more money?

• 42:28Griffin McElroy?

  I haven't seen Digger, nor do I plan to.

• 42:33Griffin McElroy?

  Do you want to talk about Well Dweller?

• 42:34Russ Frushtick?

  Oh, yeah, I'll briefly mention, we talked about it on Rusties, but I continue to play Well Dweller. It is my chill down, end of the day, I need 20 minutes to vibe out with Metroidvania. This was previously Mio, Memories in Orbit, which I really enjoyed. It came out, I think, earlier this year and Well Dweller.

• 42:50Griffin McElroy?

  God damn, did it really? Was that this year?

• 42:52Russ Frushtick?

  I think it was January of this year. It's been a while. But Well Dweller has been so fucking good and delightful and well-designed and highly recommend it.

• 43:02Griffin McElroy?

  You're a little bird and you have a matchstick as your weapon.

• 43:04Russ Frushtick?

  Oh, he's a little cute guy and he's sliding around the ground.

• 43:07Griffin McElroy?

  He's sliding around, you can slingshot your matchstick into the wall and now it's a little diving board.

• 43:11Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, you jump on that thing.

• 43:13Griffin McElroy?

  I like that game. It's very cute. And then I'll be like, come with me to my house. Okay. And you go to their house and it's a fucking dead body. You're like, whoa.

• 43:20Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah.

• 43:21Griffin McElroy?

  Spooky, spooky stuff, Well Dweller.

• 43:24Griffin McElroy?

  I've been playing Minecraft Dungeons 2, which I was looking forward to.

• 43:30Griffin McElroy?

  Mostly because it is, it is a, you know, hack and slash ARPG Diablo-like. And Henry, my nine-year-old son and I played so much Minecraft Dungeons 1. Because it really met him where he was at, sort of, you know, mechanically, it had Minecraft stuff. But then the game had like a shockingly solid tail end, like a long tail of, you know, grinding and finding different stuff. The game did a very clever thing with itemization where like, in addition to your weapons and armor that have like different perks and stuff, you also have different items you're equipping that are all very, you know, Minecraft-based.

• 44:09Griffin McElroy?

  There's the fishing rod and, you know, a horn that summons a pet wolf that follows you around. And those are like your abilities, those are like your main kind of avenues of customization that are like what your character can do. It was very, very rich. We played it for a very long time and now Minecraft Dungeons 2 is out. I will say the launch of this game was disastrous.

• 44:32Russ Frushtick?

  Oh, I didn't know that.

• 44:33Griffin McElroy?

  Truly, truly bad. I had it ready day one, we got home from school like, let's play. And then it didn't work on Linux at all because it had to run the native Xbox layer behind everything else. And I've searched and there were so many people like, yeah, I can't play it on my Steam Deck. This fucking sucks. And their response was like, we never said it would work on Steam Deck. Okay, cool. They managed to patch that, get that fixed. Now you can play it on Steam Deck. There were server issues because you have to make a character who is either an online character or an offline character. So if I wanted to make a single-player character on my Rog ally X, I couldn't then take that character and play online with them.

• 45:12Griffin McElroy?

  It's separated. And if you're playing online, it's got to always be connected because they don't want you cheating. Cause it's fucking Minecraft Dungeons 2 and the economy depends on you not duping items. It's that level of protection of your shit in Minecraft Dungeons 2 drives me absolutely up a goddamn wall. It drives me crazy.

• 45:36Griffin McElroy?

  So that stuff has gotten better. The servers are more sort of consistent. It's not too, he's playing on Switch 2, I'm playing on Rog ally X. It's actually not too bad to like get into his game and play along with him. If our quests are synced, then we'll progress alongside them at the same time. If he's on a quest ahead of me, then like, I just don't get any progress for that. That's fine, but I might get some items and shit.

• 45:58Griffin McElroy?

  The game's open world now. The first one was, had like a central hub zone where you would go to like buy new shit and customize your stuff. And then you would set off on like standalone missions that you could look at through a list. And then you would unlock, you know, very Diablo-like, like difficulty tiers where you could get, you know, more exotic loot, the harder it goes. Now it's just like open world. As you get stronger, the world gets stronger alongside you. So you don't have that constant kind of like difficulty tier push that you're feeling in the original Minecraft. And you have to run to, you know, wherever your missions are taking you. It's fine, but I immediately was like, I would much rather just have the spoken hub.

• 46:38Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah.

• 46:39Griffin McElroy?

  Let me go out on a mission and know exactly what I'm getting into. Because it kind of sucks to like not know if this thing we're about to go set off and do is going to be 15 minutes? Or is it going to be like an hour-long quest ending in a super difficult boss fight? That shit is kind of annoying. And then there's like a million little decisions they've made that are so weird and bad. The chief among them being this, and it's truly unfathomable for a game in this genre, that you can't see the stats on any of the items that you have. Stats have like, items have like a flat numerical like level. So be like, oh, I found this level 18 sword.

• 47:19Russ Frushtick?

  Sure.

• 47:19Griffin McElroy?

  And it's, I guess that's better than my level 16 dagger. But it doesn't tell you what the damage is. It doesn't tell you like attack speed, anything along those lines. It doesn't tell you, you know, what the damage resistance of your armor is. It's just like, here's the level of the thing. And then sometimes like you'll find enchantments that you can like bake onto your items. And it'll be like, this thing does a little bit more damage. How mu- this will do 20% more damage. 20% more than fucking what? Like, I don't, it, it is really a detriment, I think, to the game that it doesn't show you any of the fucking math whatsoever. On a game that is like all about farming items to have better math.

• 48:03Griffin McElroy?

  Like, it really is kind of taking the wind out of our sails.

• 48:07Griffin McElroy?

  So like, I don't know, it does a lot of, it gives you a lot more customization options. You have like these passive perks you're equipping and there's like, you know, a bunch of stuff like that. But it feels a lot shallower than Minecraft Dungeons 1. Which, you know, had the benefit of like DLC and a bunch of expansions and stuff to add on to it. And maybe they can, maybe they can, you know, build this out a little bit more. But it has not set our world on fire to the extent that I was sort of hoping that it would. Cause I really liked playing kind of a crunchy action RPG with, with him in this, you know, in this format. It's not like really any other, he's too young to play Diablo or, you know, any other kind of game in that genre.

• 48:51Griffin McElroy?

  And I don't know, this one just hasn't, this one has not kept us, kept us coming as much as, as the first one did.

• 48:57Russ Frushtick?

  Interesting. Yeah, I wouldn't, I wouldn't have guessed, but I guess maybe I should have guessed.

• 49:02Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, I, yeah, I could see them tweaking some stuff, showing what the goddamn stuff does in the game. Would be a great start. There's one really great tooltip I saw online where there's like different levels of this enchantment you can apply. But because it doesn't show you any of the math, the description is the exact same for all the levels. So be like, you dash forward and do some damage to enemies. It's like, okay, great. That's awesome. Great. I gotta make sure I save up for that.

• 49:29Russ Frushtick?

  That's so funny.

• 49:30Griffin McElroy?

  The open world thing is like, I don't know, kind of a, kind of a whiff. We've hit a couple of parts where it's like the, there's a little guide ferry that can like show you where to go. But sometimes it does not tell you to go the right place and it'll take you to a locked door without like any information on how you're supposed to get past. So we've gotten stuck on that shit.

• 49:48Russ Frushtick?

  Griffin, have you played any of the Hammerwatch games with him?

• 49:51Griffin McElroy?

  I've not. You know, I had that thought, actually, with the kind of cool reception to this is that Heroes of Hammerwatch just had an expansion. And I had to, I lost my save file somehow, so I didn't really want to start over. But like, if we played it together, like, could be, could be fun.

• 50:05Russ Frushtick?

  I also really liked the first Hammerwatch that ever came out, which was more of like a gauntlet-style thing. It doesn't have the permanent progression, but like really fun and interesting as well. So those games are great.

• 50:16Griffin McElroy?

  That might be a good, I was genuinely, truly hoping that this one would get its hooks in us. Cause we, we really played that last game for such a long time. And I doubt very much that that will be true here, which is, which is pretty disappointing.

• 50:29Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah.

• 50:31Griffin McElroy?

  Anything else, guys?

• 50:32Chris Plante?

  Just, I just saw some news.

• 50:37Chris Plante?

  Donald, Donald McDonald, not Ronald McDonald, Donald McDonald in Japan is having his name changed to Ronald McDonald in Japan.

• 50:46Russ Frushtick?

  His name Donald in Japan?

• 50:48Chris Plante?

  His name is Donald McDonald in Japan and he's just becoming yet another Ronald McDonald in Japan.

• 50:54Griffin McElroy?

  Sorry. So he was called Donald McDonald, but they're changing his name to Ronald McDonald. McDonald's mascot in Japan was named Donald McDonald, but now he's Ronald McDonald?

• 51:03Chris Plante?

  Yeah. So now Donald McDonald is Ronald McDonald, like all the other Ronald McDonald's.

• 51:08Griffin McElroy?

  Why is this happening? Why is this happening here of all places?

• 51:11Russ Frushtick?

  Is it your, cause your tattoo, Chris?

• 51:14Chris Plante?

  My Donald McDonald tattoo is completely meaningless now.

• 51:17Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 51:18Chris Plante?

  That full-back tattoo is meaningless.

• 51:20Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah. And the D is huge. The D on Donald is like enormous.

• 51:25Chris Plante?

  I'm realizing as you say it though, not hard to turn the D to R.

• 51:29Griffin McElroy?

  No, you can really just kind of give it some pants.

• 51:31Chris Plante?

  I'm less worried now. Never mind. I was, I was like, am I gonna have to end the show? Like, what are we gonna do?

• 51:37Griffin McElroy?

  Hey, if you live in New York City and you're listening to this, the episode, this, this episode, the day it comes out, you should come and see us live. Cause we're going to be performing at the Town Hall Theater in New York City.

• 51:46Russ Frushtick?

  That's right.

• 51:46Griffin McElroy?

  Tonight, October 9th, bit.ly/bestiesonbroadway. It's tonight. Get your tickets now. Oh, I skipped over the part of the show where Chris tells us about all the games we've talked about. Sorry, Chris.

• 51:57Chris Plante?

  Oh, yeah. We talked about so many games. We talked about Star Wars Galactic Racer. We talked about Star Wars Zero Company, Ace Combat Wings of Thev, Minecraft Dungeons 2, Control Resonant, Well Dweller, Donald McDonald, Ronald McDonald.

• 52:12Griffin McElroy?

  Sure. All of it. Yeah. We got a Patreon over at patreon.com/thebesties. If you go and support us there, one, thank you. That is a very direct way of supporting the show. And also you'll get access to episodes of the Rusties, where Chris and Russ talk about other games that we don't talk about usually here on the show, like Well Dweller. And you can also get access to our monthly Bracket Battle episodes where we decide very, very inane things related to games with very funny friends. Do you want to thank some of our backers?

• 52:45Russ Frushtick?

  Well, I want to mention, actually, speaking of a funny friend, Jordan Morse just joined us. And we actually have a clip from that episode.

• 52:52Griffin McElroy?

  What's the best healing?

• 52:54Russ Frushtick?

  From a utility standpoint?

• 52:55Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 52:56Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah. And maybe it's not just heals you the best, but also like, how valuable is it in a healing situation?

• 53:02Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, that's insane. The fucking sentence you just said is gonna make me go crazy the longer I think about it.

• 53:08Russ Frushtick?

  I can explain it to you.

• 53:09Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, sure, sure, sure.

• 53:10Chris Plante?

  Before you explain it, just repeat it back for everyone to hear.

• 53:13Griffin McElroy?

  Word for word, don't change anything. Don't change a word.

• 53:15Russ Frushtick?

  Which healing item is more valuable to you in a healing situation?

• 53:19Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, no, it's still fucked up.

• 53:22Russ Frushtick?

  Do you want me to explain it to you?

• 53:23Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, please.

• 53:23Russ Frushtick?

  Okay. Okay, so the example that comes to my mind, look at the Maxim Tomato is a good example.

• 53:29Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 53:30Russ Frushtick?

  We talked about it previously. Throughout Kirby, there's fucking food everywhere.

• 53:33Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 53:34Russ Frushtick?

  Maxim Tomato is the best food.

• 53:35Griffin McElroy?

  Right.

• 53:35Russ Frushtick?

  But it is not necessarily from a feast or famine.

• 53:39Griffin McElroy?

  I see what you're saying.

• 53:40Russ Frushtick?

  I need this or I'm toast situation. This is a lifesaver.

• 53:43Speaker 03

  So you're taking into account like how difficult the game is, how often you're offered healing items?

• 53:49Griffin McElroy?

  I like that. Hunger is the best condiment, I think, is the more seasoning.

• 53:53Russ Frushtick?

  And so I need to write that exact language down so we don't forget it. Which healing item is the best?

• 53:59Griffin McElroy?

  Is the most valuable in a healing situation?

• 54:04Griffin McElroy?

  Uh huh.

• 54:05Speaker 03

  We've all been in healing situations before.

• 54:07Griffin McElroy?

  Burning Man for me this year was a huge healing situation.

• 54:10Speaker 03

  Right, yes.

• 54:11Griffin McElroy?

  Really discovered my wounds and saw to them. Okay, and then tiebreakers, if you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life, which would it be? Okay.

• 54:18Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah, or I guess drink. There are drinks in this.

• 54:20Griffin McElroy?

  Yeah.

• 54:20Russ Frushtick?

  And we actually, their first matchup has two drinks, so we're gonna come at it.

• 54:23Griffin McElroy?

  It's so interesting that you think one of these is a drink, but let's get started. Chris, what have we got?

• 54:28Speaker 03

  This is gonna be a hot dog as a sandwich shit, cuz I can't deal with it.

• 54:31Griffin McElroy?

  I swear to Christ. Hey, Jordan.

• 54:32Russ Frushtick?

  We're not delinating. It's fine if they're a drink. It's okay.

• 54:35Griffin McElroy?

  Of everyone we've ever had on this show, Jordan, I would, I would never put you through that.

• 54:40Russ Frushtick?

  Never.

• 54:40Griffin McElroy?

  I would never make you listen to that.

• 54:42Speaker 03

  And if you even suggest that we need to argue about if Die Hard is a Christmas movie.

• 54:49Russ Frushtick?

  That was a lot of fun. We had a lot of fun with Jordan and we thank him for, for coming out. We do have some backers I want to thank. Alex R., David B., Michael V., and Robert L. Thank you for being backers. And thank you to everyone else for being backers and making the show possible. And thank you for everyone, to everyone for coming to the live show tonight. If you're there, if you're not there, that's okay. We're with you in spirit and...

• 55:11Griffin McElroy?

  Crazy.

• 55:11Russ Frushtick?

  Yeah.

• 55:12Griffin McElroy?

  Crazy thing to say.

• 55:13Russ Frushtick?

  I mean, we are.

• 55:13Griffin McElroy?

  Next, next week, we're gonna be doing Ace Combat Wings of Thet.

• 55:16Russ Frushtick?

  Chris' plan has brought this upon us, so it's gonna happen.

• 55:20Griffin McElroy?

  It better be good, Chris. That's all I'm saying, or your ass is broken, my friend. So join us for that next week and every week here on The Besties, because shouldn't the world's best friends play the world's best games?