Game Scoop! 818: Nintendo Switch 2's First 10/10

28:07Sam Claiborn:Unless you really sit down and dig through like, okay, I think I understand what it's trying to do there. So I would encourage you to play around with that because that's how you basically get OP enough to survive in the end game. But if you just want to mainline it, you can like roughly figure out what you have to do and be like, all right, that's good enough. It's very similar to the badge system again in Paper Mario. Well, I'll play more. I'll share some further thoughts on the next episode. I've also been playing Tony Hawk 3 and 4 remaster, remakes, whatever you want to call it. Anyone else playing that?

28:41Nick?

28:41Sam Claiborn:I've not jumped in yet. I played 1 and 2, but I don't have a foundational muscle memory with Tony Hawk, so it's not that. I mean, maybe 3 and 4 have more tutorials that would help me. 1 and 2 didn't, so I just was like, I played and wrote guides for Skate a lot, and I love those games, and I kind of have those in my system, but I didn't really play Tony Hawk, except for going to friend's house and playing split screen, and I must have understood it then, but it's definitely, I never had it at home. I do love the original Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, but I'm looking forward to the... That's the one, right?

29:15Sam Claiborn:People love that. That was like the PS2. I don't know if it was a launch title, but launch window, I think. I remember that was the first game I got with my PS2. I got it with my GameCube. Oh, wow. It was a launch game for a GameCube. That was a big deal. That was the last one I played. I never played four. So yeah, that's what I've been spending time with, Tony Hawk 3. And there is a big tutorial in there, yeah that actually is appealing to me so i actually might give that a girl but like honestly i'm playing like five games i can't talk about right now like donkey kong's about to come out like i'm i'm inundated oh i know yeah i mean yeah as soon as i mean starting tomorrow i don't think i'm gonna be playing much of anything else except for dunk on yeah yeah uh it's great it's a great problem i do have the muscle memory for tony hawk it comes back right away it just it just feels so good to be chaining your grinds uh into a manual back into a grind like i it's so fun just trying to get the high scores just like uh grinding rails like all over the levels and anything but and they could make the levels that much bigger in three right so there's like really fantastical yeah uh it's weird that you played three right yeah yeah you're saying that i got with your ps2 i my like core memory of that game is the airport level oh yeah right but it's like it's weird it's like the fifth level you unlock but in my mind like that's what i like played the most time yeah it's like what i gotta wait i gotta keep unlocking stuff to get to the airport i always remember the canada level and the suburban the suburban level uh the canada level always because again i was like however old i was a child but there's just in the canada level there's a dude who's peeing off the edge of a building and if you hit a lip trick by him you knock him over the cliff and he goes whoa whoa and falls down and i don't know if he's still in the game or not so someone in the comments please confirm is the man peeing still there yeah it's good the graphical upgrade for this one looks a lot better than sony hawk one and two remake well one and two was a long time ago now wasn't it was that like 10 years ago it was during covid it was during yeah it was during covid are you playing on switch 2 or no on xbox it's on game pass gotcha gotcha it does look like a bigger improvement i might have to poke around can you play as a turtle i don't know if this is three and four assuming i mean assuming we're looking at three and four yeah yeah i believe the ninja turtles or at least one of them is a secret character and i think the doom guy is a pre-order or like a deluxe edition it has it has the doom slayer and just a demon uh character like there he is right here yeah but you have to pay those don't come with game pass you don't get those through game pass yeah um it's it's very fun and i just i love the arcade setup of going each level has certain challenge i mean it's very nintendo and mario also right like going into a 3d uh level of a mario game like you can see what your objectives are like you know what what what can i accomplish in this in this run this this play session or something i'm glad these remakes are working and i'm glad there's like a skate coming out but like why aren't these working yeah i know why aren't why aren't these working as like every three years games or something like it's just kind of surprising to me that we don't have like really really because it's just a really fun arcadey mode of game that you think like kids would still play and adults love it from back then like i don't know it just seems like a i mean it's easy formula it's like it's like um burnout like why did why did burnout stop why did exactly go way i mean exactly that i i'm i will poke around on this on game pass but the one that i i don't mean to look a gift horse in the mouth but tony hawk's underground is probably my favorite one just because of you like that one how wacky that game is it's it is nuts in terms of its story mode but i don't know as a kid i just love the idea i can get off my skateboard in the skating game which again in hindsight it's not very fun to walk around in the game but as a kid i'm like whoa this is crazy that was a definitely a gamecube era more open world one right that yeah yeah that was maybe two games after four there's like the sixth one or something is there a fifth tony hawk no it's after four i think i believe after four it goes into underground just goes right to underground okay cool uh so sam's playing stuff that he can't talk about yet nick anything else you've been playing recently you want to just to wait for bonanza i've been playing uh breath of wild finished that on switch 2 game still amazing a masterpiece even and then finally finally finally i i was just because i was hungry for something to play on switch 2 i finally uh started delta rune and i finished chapter 1 and i'm working through chapter 2 but you know i was a little bit apprehensive to play delta rune because i i think undertale is a bonafide masterpiece as well and i was like well you can't do it twice you can't just you can't just make a masterpiece twice that's that's nuts that's unfair to hold someone to and then i finished chapter one i was like oh shoot i think i think toby fox might have did it again but who knows i i i've barely scratched the surface on what delta rune has to offer but everything i'm seeing is indicative of someone who's learned a lot from their previous games and also just reflecting on their past as someone who was a rom hacker and making uh really interesting stuff in an era where people uh people that's a lot making a lot of interesting interesting stuff that people may have overlooked back in the day aka the earthbound halloween rom hack uh you beat breath the wild again how are you feeling today breath the wild versus tears of the kingdom i think it cements it more and more i i think tears of the kingdom is more complex in every single way but i think breath of the wild is just a better authored experience i think i like i think a lot of the moment to moment of breath of the wild feels more just crafted and uh it just hits a little bit harder for me i don't know what it is but i do think that it's version of hyrule even though it's the same quote-unquote same map i think the the hyrule and breath of the wild is more interesting to me to explore and find and i think it has to do with tears of the kingdom just being like here's a billion things to do and i like that hyrule in breath of the wild is a lot more sparse but i think that it's in in its sparseness it allows you to kind of really take in the environment i'm a sucker for atmosphere and environment and i just love existing in the world of breath of the wild more than i do tears but they're both incredible games yeah i like i like the idea of revisiting them on switch 2 now also but i just know that realistically i'm not going to play both so i'm trying to think which one and i i have been playing with call it cheesy but i have been playing with the nintendo switch like zelda app that they have to do like shrines and i was like oh yeah you know i'll mainline the game i'll just do like a couple shrines but with the app i was like oh shoot you blink i did like 70 shrines in no time it was like oh shoot and they do a really good job of one making that a nice quality of life upgrade that would have been better in the game and also the zelda voice memories and in tears of the kingdom it's Zelda, Rauru, and Master Koga, they have additional lore for you to uncover and context to new lands.

36:22Sam Claiborn:So it really feels like I'm doing a walking tour of Hyrule and you learn a little bit more, which is a nice touch. I'm a sucker for that kind of stuff. Cool. I still think now, especially with whatever, eight years of hindsight, even though this game, Breath of the Wild, is not known for its dungeons, the Hyrule Castle is the best dungeon of the whole series in that game. It's not as good in tears, but it's really, really good in Breath of the Wild. It's my favorite part of that game of just like, dude, this is the idea of, do I want to do like an extraction shooter, make my way in there, grab some loot, jump out, complete some quests, and then return when I'm starting.

36:59Sam Claiborn:Like, it's so good. And I want... By the time you get in that loop of like just raiding it for good weapons and you know where your go-tos are and you just feel like you're just invincible by that point. It's so good. Open world Zelda 3. Give me the dungeons like Hyrule Castle, but times X, you know? I mean, you're right. They're Kojima dungeons, right? It's like, give me the Metal Gear Solid V version of infiltration areas in Zelda. It's crazy to think modern Nintendo, they've given us the best Zeldas, the best 3D Mario. Now we have the best, apparently, that Donkey Kong has ever been. Can they do it again with Metroid?

37:40Absolutely not. absolutely not well

37:44Sam Claiborn:they got a lot to prove because based on my limited time with Metroid Prime 4 I was not taken away by the game because I was like this just feels a little worse than the original I'm joking mainly but like they did a great 2D Metroid I mean if you're going to separate those series which I think you should then I think Dread is just as good as you know any early Metroid game it was a fantastic 2d metro game and i will caveat that i only played like up until the first boss so i would assume it's tutorial to like you know the tutorial boss and i was like all right i mean it's what you kind of expect but i i think that metroid the prime series in particular shines in the late game where you are like okay i remember this one little piece of this part of the map that i got to go back now that i have this ability so cautiously optimistic the game does look incredible though It looks beautiful.

38:37I agree. I mean, I'm not saying that. I just like, I don't know how to top Metroid Prime. Like, that's the issue. Like, the problem with topping Metroid Prime is like trying to top a game by adding more stuff to it, which I know people disagree with me on this on. But like, that was Arkham's problem. Like, I don't think Arkham needed a city. Arkham Asylum was so smart. And it was such a great contained, you know, experience. And I think that worked for it. You learned about Arkham Asylum. You learned about this like historical thing. You start breaking through walls and finding deeper parts of the old asylum.

39:13Like brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Metroid Prime worked that way too. Because you're like, oh, the Chozo are kind of a cool bird. That had never been in Metroid before. Like that Samus was raised by birds. Like that stuff was like maybe in a manual. And it didn't make any sense. And maybe in some Nintendo Power Comics, right? It's like nobody cares. But they did a really good job in that game and they tied zero mission in with it Really cool way and have it like it was all perfect stuff this they always try to go bigger and bigger bigger so sure Metroid bigger like on multiple planets. I don't know I don't feel it as much, but it can work really well Also, I don't know that we've seen this game on switch to which I'm really excited about right We've only seen what they have been claiming is switch one Which is like after cyberpunk like oh this game could look really good, which is what I want out of a Metroid I always talk about that I want Metroid to be like cutting edge graphics I guess you've seen it on Switch 2 That's right, yeah Yeah, yeah

40:19That's great But I hope there's like a Space Marines intro and stuff And then like they just take all that out

40:26Sam Claiborn:Yeah, this is the stuff that worries me When I see other people, I was like What are other people doing in my Metroid game? like i want to be alone damn it yeah uh my two thoughts were uh other m had a lot of other characters in it that was a problem with that but here there's all these other characters but everyone has is wearing a helmet so i don't think they i think they didn't want to do a bunch of faces well a hundred percent that but also the trailer shows a bounty hunter from federation forces chasing samus i was like uh-oh what's going on here yeah those are just corny things Like, I don't want to get down on a game I haven't played too much, but like, those are all like not, they haven't been good signs for Metroids previously.

41:06That's, that's the point I think we're all getting at here, right? Like there's, there's good Metroid, like you can symbolically kind of make out like, what's this Metro going to be like? And boy, I think the last Switch one was great. Before people think too, that like, you know, I'm always getting down on Nintendo games and like them in the end. First of all, I don't, sometimes I don't like them in the end. But a lot of times Nintendo doesn't show you great stuff about a game that could very well be good. And that's just a thing that Nintendo has been, I think, particularly not great at recently.

41:39They want to control stuff with the trailer and then a direct and then a treehouse play session. And like, I just don't think they're doing a really good job of that. But who cares? That's like their marketing team. I don't review marketing teams. So maybe we should. Don't blame me. They're the messenger. I'm also a messenger.

42:02All right, let's check in with the listeners.

42:05Sam Claiborn:Hey, listeners. I got to do it because Justin's not here. Yep. Listeners, remember, you can always reach us at the email address gamescoop at IGN.com. Just like Big Tony style. He's back. It's been a while. It's been a minute since we've heard from Big Tony style. Big Tony style says, I recently came across the Behemoths post celebrating the 17th anniversary of Castle Crashers. and it's upcoming DLC coming this August. There's a Castle Crasher DLC? And it's 17 years old. It's completely baffling to me that they never just made a sequel. In my opinion, the original was one of the most fun co-op beat-em-ups I've ever played.

42:42What games should have had a sequel that you think would be a surefire hit? First of all, I don't know how the Behemoth is still a company and how they make money. They hardly ever put out a game. Yeah. I don't know. Well, we looked this up on the show a couple episodes ago, remember? And it was like, oh, they did put out some stuff, but I just have not been...

43:02Sam Claiborn:Battle Block Theater was the last thing I remember them making. And that was years ago. I just don't know. I don't understand. Anyway, games that never got a sequel, but probably could have used one. Oh, man. There's some snarky answers, like Half-Life 2. Yeah, that's a pretty good one. Or Mario Odyssey. i my go-to is always buy on a commando but they i just ignore that they did do it and it was re-armed too yeah but they added the jump button but i'd love a buy on a commando like really great no jumps swingy crazy hardcore variation of that like kind of physics-based platformer shooter i love it i think my two choices one's joking because the sequels are bad parasite eve i'd love a sequel to a proper sequel because two wasn't very good okay and uh the third birthday was laughable uh and then vagrant story should get a sequel uh but that'll never happen yeah i don't think i ever played i mean i don't think chrono cross is a chrono trigger six sequel so i think chrono trigger two would yeah i mean you can keep on square for this also i mean live alive could be a real cool sequel game you're right like einhander einhander is such an amazing shooter yeah yeah you're right yeah the bouncer huh everyone the warriors for uh rockstar yeah well honestly bully too there you go there you go that's a really good one brilliant yeah yeah um i also thought um it's been since the official release i think it's been seven years now for dead cells oh man i would love a dead cells too there's been other you know roguelikes that I've gotten great sequels.

44:43Monster Train 2 is the one that I've been obsessed with this year. Slay the Spyro 2 is coming out later this year. They can do a Dead Cells 2. I know there's like so much content for Dead Cells 1. They can still do a sequel. Yeah, there's something effortless

44:56Sam Claiborn:about the way that game moves and feels. It feels so good. I like to just boot that up every now and then just because it feels so good to just play. Random aside, did you know that there's an animated series about Dead Cells? It's on Prime Video and it's like a French... On Prime? a french produced um short form animated series and i was like oh is this gonna be bad it's very funny almost has nothing to do with dead cells other than the characters but it's pretty funny and it's like 10 minute episodes but filthy language so wouldn't watch it with the kids around okay but uh i was surprised i was like oh shoot this is actually pretty funny and good this is it yeah yeah it's pretty it's pretty uh interesting okay and it's like eight episodes long so it's like games sometimes do this but it's fun to think of a sequel to a a game that's right in the middle of a series that never had a direct sequel and this is the call of duty kind of does this right so it's like an example where you so an example would be like um if you uh really like symphony of the night they never did a symphony of the night 2 they just moved on to a bunch of game boy games right like that's weird you know like just a symphony of the night 2 would be awesome i mean yeah yes yeah use the systems grow grow those systems don't completely reshuffle the deck and continue the storylines which are really corny and funny and now some of those castlevanias have related storylines some don't some are just standalones right so there's a billion belmonts as they say yeah nintendo started doing numbered sequels with uh mario galaxy 2 was well i was thinking i was thinking super mario brothers one two and three then they switched to world and just 64 and sunshine right but you're right then they did galaxy 2.

46:39I like that I like when when you take that and you you kind of double down on the the really cool game this year it'd be really fun to games if just to go back to series that are old and do that though is a really like like they did it with final fantasy um for the after years like that's so cool like I didn't

46:55Sam Claiborn:play it i'd have time but i would have loved to 10 and 10 2 yep um i i'm a child of the 90s but uh sunshine a mario sunshine sequel i would really enjoy there you go yeah so like that would work you know or final fantasy 6 the sequel like i mean come on like those characters in that world like i don't know there's just there's just really an interesting foundation like we have sequel light us and we have remake you know problems like now but like you can find a lot of creativity going it's like andor right so you can go wedge yourself in a beloved thing and do the right make do right by it yeah i feel like final fantasy 7 really needs a third person over the shoulder shooter starring vincent valentine but i don't know that might be crazy didn't isn't tactics famous for not having a sequel or is there like yes correct final fantasy tactics um it's advance after that and then a2 and that's about it yeah and then i do really like advance advance is great that's a really really a2 is fine yeah yeah um there's a nintendo um well i guess advance wars kind of got a remake thing i don't know if that ever had a sequel days of ruin advance wars one oh that's right that's right days of ruin on on ds so it had a which is or 3ds it was like all edgy i played that one yeah man if i think if nintendo announced sunshine 2 today i think people would lose their minds because it was bad and good right because um 20-ish years seems to be about like the strongest nostalgia hole right anything that's about 20 years old and it's like 23 years old now so it's like it's right in the the pocket of when people would be like i'm so happy my my childhood is back well you know mario does have his vacation outfit in mario kart world so that model exists could be there it'd be really cool to take a really good classic pinball machine like medieval madness like the widely regarded as the best game ever made and make a sequel to that yep that'd be super cool um well speaking of uh well you say pinball but speaking of classic machines you could find in arcades sam are you familiar with the 1991 midway game strike force it's a defender like really but 91 and you have a ship you're on an alien planet and you can fly back and forth pick up people pick up space mem and then a chop lifter like there are green aliens that you blast and they they blast apart into pieces nice uh sounds great what what could be better well i hope it has a joystick instead of a bunch of buttons though it's hard to defend there is a joystick and then like a a triangle of buttons uh what could be better is the game it was originally prototyped as which is called saurian front soar like a dinosaur i think that's what the aliens must have been called and you should look it up the the art for saurian front is amazing around the cabinet.

49:58It's got this Godzilla-like monster who's punching against a spaceman in a spacesuit. It looks... Yeah, this is it.

50:05Sam Claiborn:Look at that! It looks so good! But apparently, Saurian front didn't test well, so they changed it to Strikeforce, which sounds generic, and the art is just completely like a spaceship. And Williams made Strikeforce, huh? I think... Did it say Williams? I think I said... Yeah, yeah. It said that on the side. Well, I think it said Midway did Strikeforce. Maybe you have to fact check that for me. This is late, though. It's like a late Defender type thing, right? Yeah, well, I mean, it's 91. 91. It's a beautiful cat. I mean, they had become... Midway was the same company. That's what happened. Anyway, I love the...

50:45Viewers and listeners should look up the art for a Saurian front and then compare it to what it turned into, which just looks like a generic interior of a spaceship.

50:53Sam Claiborn:this looks like an arcade game that would have been in like the watchman comic book yeah a fake video game oh it's beautiful yeah this looks cool yeah bally midway and williams all became the same thing yeah um did i talk about the arcade i went to on this show the redemption arcade not that i've not that i've heard okay so there's uh um nick you never lived in the bay area right no okay well there's uh david do you remember the mall out on uh juniper sarah like it's like um it's called stone's town yep yep yep the kids call it stones okay so i went there to see a movie the other day and um i was i was with my friends who used to work at ig and scott and we were we were walking through this mall and it was on a friday night absolutely jam-packed with kids like completely like kids walking around doing bad things in the parking lot like everywhere the food court was crammed the entire mall is all um japanese korean and other like kind of like cool like boutique things like a bunch of vinyl toy stores nice yeah they have the japanese pancake place yeah and it's just gotten more and more it also has like a trader joe's and a whole foods and stuff but it is like a mecca of like kind of contemporary cool pop culture places that kids like so that was already amazing there's a bar in the movie theater which i thought was funny like they're kind of doing that kind of thing you down below the mall there used to be like probably a sears or a montgomery ward or whatever you go down there and it is a it's like a football field sized redemption arcade like you see in Tokyo with a Castlevania machine they're all redemption games right?

52:43Yeah 10x10 marble dropping redemption thing. There's a Contra one. There's a huge wall panel. Two player bust a move where you aim the bust a move. That's not redemption but it's also a game. They had all the big Halo environmental something but mainly redemption for like the anime statues and stuff like the stuff i've never seen this in america before and it went on and on and then it just turned into a bowling alley a full-size bowling alley in the back like this is like a you know like like a airport you know yeah it was so is this the stones i don't know look at that carpet though but it looks like it i think this is it and if you aim this way then that's where the bowling alley is it is so massive there's a bar down there but everybody down there is a kid there's no parents anywhere it was totally insane just to see a functional arcade shopping mall that was like the most popular thing there's a there's a pink panther game the kids today love pink panther i know that's like that's like when you go to a casino and it's like everything's like betty boop and pink panther you're like oh yeah that's right this is for old people i wish i i wish we

53:50Sam Claiborn:lived in a world where this was like the alternate like yeah yeah people just like to chill at the arcades in the mall. This is it. This is Stones. That's awesome. Stones, as they call it. I mean, this just came out of nowhere. Nobody told me about this. We just were walking through the mall and we're like, what the hell? I'm not a fan of Redemption games. I like actual video games, but I have to admit this looks pretty cool and I'm glad for the teens that live near here that they have the place that they can go because I was... I mean, look at all the people here. I mean, I know. Yeah, it's crazy.

54:20I don't know. It just felt a little bit like in Japan. It felt a lot like Sanford francisco the redemption zone is where you return your tickets it's very funny yeah um i don't know it just felt like yeah i'm happy for the kids i mean it's also just nice because the the mall downtown in san francisco is dead right like they've lost it's gone there's just nothing there at all they cannot figure out how to yeah it's like been empty and closed and like i think that you can't go to movies there anymore like it's been just a total mess and that's normal that's like normal shopping mall stuff in the united states for people that don't live in the united States, this might be kind of like a weird conversation, but like 80s, 90s United States was like basically, I mean, revolved around a shopping mall.

55:00You can see it in Fast Times at Ridgemont. It's true. My high school life. I think we're at the mall every Friday and Saturday night. Just every just get dropped off there by our parents. And then we just roam the mall. It's crazy. Roam the mall. And then and then olds roam the mall on Sunday mornings. That's true. Mall walkers. Very true. We've all had that feeling. Summer starts to creep in. The temperatures start to rise and you start to realize you really don't like your shorts. It happened to me just this month on a very hot day when I looked down and thought, man, there's got to be better shorts out there than the cheap, poorly made ones I bought last summer that I'm somehow still wearing now.

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59:15Extracurricular activities. I have not seen Superman yet, but I know both of you have. And I think, Sam, so you liked it? I loved it, yeah. Give us your thoughts on Superman. Sam, you can go first. Yeah, I don't have a dog in the Superman fight. I think it's just, you know, like, I don't care if these movies are good or bad. And the Snyder ones were kind of boring for me. And, you know, Superman's always been just such a lame character that I never read the comics as a kid or anything, except for the death of Superman. I read the heck out of those and I really liked it during that time. But yeah, it worked really well.

59:43James Gunn did a full James Gunn treatment to it to make it all about like space aliens and a big, you know, kind of like operatic thing. And the twists are really funny and the characters are all a pleasure to watch. So, like, I don't know a lot about Superman, but I know just what I explained. You can tell, like, I read enough comics. stuff i know i'm talking about there so it all worked for me and saw it at alamo and got dinner and drinks there and that was really great and um they uh a lot of this movie just like guardians 3 which i liked uh is about saving animals and it was really really sweet and superman does some really great animal saves and of course the dog is really a main character in it and it's a great dog main character however cg it is i loved it you famously watch pretty much everything marvel everything so now how do you like so this is relaunching the dc universe on in in film so how yeah i mean if it's all james i already like peacemaker right peacemaker i mean yeah peacemaker is great yeah yeah so if those are the two things that are in the universe um oh i also watched creature commandos and i like that too so like yeah that's all great i mean I like also the Batman's fine but it's not part of this apparently like I don't know what's happening it's confusing to me but like yeah I mean the other DC characters in this are really stupid and like if they have some kind of foundation in reality and people care about them like I'm not talking about Lex Luthor I'm talking about like I don't know there's like a human computer character there's like a Mr.

1:01:12Terrific woman Mr. Terrific yeah there's a woman that can make saws from her hands they're just awful and then there's a famously awful Green Lantern which I like but they kind of make fun of that they kind of poke fun at these like this dork squad right like that's fine that's that's cool you know like like do do that stuff that'll work for me but when when comics take themselves seriously it's it's tough and you have to build to that and that's what Avengers did really well right and Endgame did a really good job Black Panther did a really good job like setting up Endgame and so did like you know all these movies that were kind of corny and then it kind of took itself a little bit seriously and it was great I don't know how they're gonna do that with this we'll see cool what do you think nick does batman need to be in a superman movie do they need to have a crossover like i don't think so i think that's inevitably i think it'll

1:01:57Sam Claiborn:have to happen yeah nope you know what that's like i mean we did it for the longest time and now we're over it i i enjoyed superman quite a bit honestly a lot more than i expected to i've been checked out of the uh superhero films for a minute just because they're all kind of the same to me at a certain point, but I will always check out something that James Gunn does. I think he's a talented dude with an interesting, who understands just, it's not a superhero movie. It's just, you got to make a good movie first. And, you know, whether or not it's a superhero is kind of besides the point. But I think he does a good job of making it feel like I'm just picking up a random issue of Superman and be like, maybe I like Superman after this.

1:02:42Sam Claiborn:And turns out I did. um i think he did a good job of capturing superman as boy scout as just like a force for good just no qualms about it just i i need to do good i am compelled to do good and that really resonated with me and i really enjoyed that and uh yeah he he clearly loves the source material and just has a fun time blocking out all the scenes uh the blocking this is awesome and if i have to say i I think this new Superman, very handsome. I'm a big, big fan. Big fan. I like him a lot more than Henry Cavill. Yeah, yeah. There's a lot of good laugh lines, you know? And they land. Like James Gunn, like, I've seen him do ones that don't land too, especially Guardians, right?

1:03:25It's like sometimes they don't all land, but it's all fine, right? Yeah. But like, it kind of was like 100 % the theater I was in. Like, I just was really surprised with people being that into the kind of obvious setup for a joke moments. They're great. They're always surprising. James Gunn has a little bit of a gross out stuff thing, which he doesn't do obviously as much. What's that? Oh no, totally. Yeah, yeah. And I think that's like, you know, wherever that works, wherever they can work it into, I think this is a PG or PG-13 movie, right? Yeah. Yeah, wherever he could work in shock, I think he did.

1:04:02And it's just, it's not in decapitations as much as, you know, monster killing and stuff like that.

1:04:08Sam Claiborn:that said this is now the second time in a year that i've gone to a movie and someone i sat next to a stranger was on their phone the entire time so i had to tell them the entire time so i had to tell them like the homie left his seat to go do something presumably on his phone came back then took his phone out again that's why i was like hey man can you turn off your phone and then he was like what and then i was like could you please turn off your phone it's very distracting he goes i'm so sorry i apologize and then he turned it off and didn't do it for the rest of the movie i was like what are you dude you're older than me what are you doing like what's going on so if you're watching this and you're listening to this don't be that guy don't take out your phone you know i just gotta check a quick text no you don't i promise it's fine don't do it yeah that's everybody's experience after covid right watching tv on the couch and on your phone just like Everybody just got used to that.

1:05:02It's very bad behavior. And to your point, if you can just like, you're thinking like, well, who cares? It's just my phone. If I'm going to not enjoy this movie, then I can enjoy it. But no, you're seeing a light out of the corner of your eye and it's distracting you. And once you're distracted, you're just going to think about that over and over again. And then it's going to ruin your movie going experience. And that's why you only go to Alamo where they will check you out if you are on your phone.

1:05:26Sam Claiborn:If you don't take out your phone during a movie, you're just a better person than the people who do. I turn off my phone. I still do that. I just do it. Just turn it off? I watch the credits and turn off my phone. Cool. And I can do that because I know my wife will never do that. So I can rely on the crutch of having her with the watch and the phone and everything right there at the ready in case there's an emergency. yeah well i've not seen superman yet but i did see a movie this week from this year uh that instantly shot near the top of my list one of the best movies i've seen this year so far nick i know you've seen it too i think it's predator killer of killers oh i can't wait it's so good sam it's so good it's i mean i know yeah no hyperbole i've been watching a lot of movies with said wife and i'm like oh i don't know if i can get her to watch this predator movie maybe i can't no hyperbole it's the second best Predator movie.

1:06:17I like Prey a lot. This is better. It's so great.

1:06:21Sam Claiborn:This is sick as hell. It's a little less than 90 minutes and it's just non-stop action. There's no scene where everything stops and characters just talk about stuff. Nope, it's just non-stop action the whole way through. It goes down smooth. So it's animated. It's an anthology movie where there's three heroes that have faced off against a Predator at different periods of time. and then uh well yeah i know then there's a there's a fourth scenario at the end let's just say that and it's great it's so good it like expands on the predator mythos with just like just cool predator action and gadgets and like yeah it's i oh and the action is great like that's it it's gory as hell it's gory as heck uh and the action scenes are like really you know even though it's animated they're composed and choreographed just excellently there's like a faked long shot action scene in the the first story that's so cool yeah and the next live action predator we saw the trailer for that was like a young that's coming out later this year i was like a young hunter right at right yeah both directed by dan trachtenberg who also did pray and honestly yeah that dude he gets it please give him more just let him do whatever he wants just let him do cool stuff in uh the predator universe yeah because he knows what he's doing and i'm very excited to see not only badlands but whatever comes up next if we don't get a proper aliens versus predators they're doing so much with that because one of the predators in this movie uh killer of killers is like wearing a cape of xenomorph tails and then in the trailer for badlands the there's like a yes that's the one where the there's a synthetic human that has the weyland yutani yeah it's l fanning teamed up with a predator to survive in this like sort of you know some sort of trial for this young predator it seems like but all that setup sounds great i love i love a young person trying to do a trial by surviving in the wilderness i love an unlikely companion and uh honestly again dan trachtenberg knows what he's doing and i think he will be allowed to rest when he makes an alien versus predator movie yeah knocks it out of the park and then he can do whatever else he wants after that it's so good one in killer of killers one One of them, the stories is set in Japan.

1:08:34It's so cool. It's amazing. It's so great. It's like, it's just like some of the coolest, like ninja and samurai action that we've seen in a film forever.

1:08:43Sam Claiborn:Ninja versus samurai, but also a predator. Yes. Ah, it's so great. It's on Hulu, Predator Killers. It has my highest recommendation. This summer, no excuses. Double down when everyone else disconnects. At Equinox, that's high performance living. Science-backed training, real results. Start today at Equinox.com.

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1:10:16And that brings us to Video Game 20 Questions. Our suggestion this week comes from Scott, who lives in Southern California. Scott says, I started listening to you all during COVID on my commute to work. I don't think I've missed an episode since. Scoop truly is the best out there. My question is for Damon. You and I share so many video game interests and are about the same age. Tactical strategy games, card games like Slay the Spire and Monster Train are my go-to titles. My question is, as a mutual fan of the Shining Force series, how is it you haven't played Shining Force 3? The game is an absolute masterpiece, in my opinion.

1:10:47You are missing out on what I consider to be the best video game created. The best? Shining Force 3 is the best video game? Saturn. Saturn. It's very accessible now with fan translations of scenarios 2 and 3 to English. I highly recommend it. Please bring the series back Sega. I did play Shining Force 3, Scott, back in the late 90s. I rented a Saturn and rented Shining Force 3. It was released in three parts in Japan. They called them scenarios, 1, 2, and 3. But then in North America, they only released the first part as Shining Force 3. So I have never played scenarios 2 and 3, but I can do that.

1:11:25On your recommendation. Do you think they did those as CDs in Japan? I don't know how else they would have done it on the Saturn. Yeah. It wasn't like there's no digital distribution. Genesis and Super Nintendo over there had digital platforms. In Japan, I don't know if the Saturn did. I'm not sure. I think that's too big of a game to do digitally back then. It was always like a little version of a Zelda level. It is crazy. Shining Force 3 was 1998, and that was the last time Sega did anything with Shining Force. I think they could totally bring that back today. Speaking of sequels. Fire Emblem is popular.

1:12:03When I go to Japan, I would really like to know if you can see anywhere that still has a Famicom disk system kiosk. Because you would take your disks to a place. Maybe one of the old retro game stores would just have one just for fun. I would love to see that. That would be so cool.

1:12:22Sam Claiborn:honestly if you probably head to like the northern Japan like Hokkaido a lot of that stuff is kind of like free from the tourist's grubby hands so they probably have a lot of interesting stuff they're like aftermarket shops where you like thrift shops are nuts in northern Japan where you get some really good stuff that hasn't been pillaged Scott in SoCal says bonus if you are in need of a video game 20 questions game I would like to submit redacted It was my very first redacted. And with that, let the question in begin. I hope it's for Saturn. All right. Is it from this entry? No. Okay. Retro game.

1:13:04Still could be Saturn. Was this issued as a cartridge first? Yes.

1:13:11Sam Claiborn:Is this a damey game?

1:13:17No, I wouldn't say this is a damey game.

1:13:19Sam Claiborn:Okay. Is it based on a license? It's not based on a license, no. And I only see that a gaming game hits the bullseye. Gotcha. This game is... Like Demon's Crush. Devil's Crush? It's called. Devil's Crush. Yeah. Devil's Crush. And Alien Crush. Alien Crush. There you go. Not licensed. Is this from an 8-bit console? Yes. That's 5.

1:13:50Maybe it's ALF for the Master System. nope that's license uh i mean is it available on the nes or famicom yes okay was this developed or published by nintendo oh that's a good question hold please we're at six early famicom uh early early famicom uh nes i

1:14:19Sam Claiborn:struggle with a little bit so let's see what kind of the answer to your question was this your question was was this developed or published by Nintendo yes okay so that means there's some weird Nintendo publishing at this time

1:14:37Sam Claiborn:is this a if it's his first is this a platformer of a sort okay okay

1:14:50Is this from before 1987? No.

1:15:00Sam Claiborn:The platformer of sorts. Do you play as a human? Yes, and that is 10. Bionic Commando. Gyromite, maybe. No, it can't be Bionic Commando, because that wasn't developed or published by Nintendo. I'd love for it to be that. You play as a man. It's a platformer of sorts, published or developed by Nintendo. Probably published because of the complicated... Did this game have any two-player mode? No. Single-player game. Is this game still relevant today? No. Okay. it's a long gone um

1:15:56let's see

1:16:02I don't really know where to go with this platform or a store it could be like I mean I don't know why you'd have to look up some of the ones that I was I mean I think that's what's confusing to me is because if it's like Wrecking Crew or you know Diaromite why would you have to look up whether it was developed or published by Nintendo. That's what's hanging me up here a little bit.

1:16:26Did this come out before 1990? Yes.

1:16:30Sam Claiborn:Between 87 and 90. 87 and 90. That's the real NES years, right? Big NES years. Oh, I have a funny one. You might not be able to answer this, but it's fine if you can. Did this have a cover in Nintendo Power? I can't answer that one. I don't know. Okay. It was definitely, it got coverage in Nintendo Power, but I don't know if it was a cover story. Right, right, yeah. Was this maybe a sports or racing game? No. Okay. So there's a lot of weird Nintendo published stuff like that. Does it have, what question are we at? You've asked 14 questions. Does it have any sort of shooting mechanic? No. That's 15.

1:17:20All right.

1:17:30Sam Claiborn:No shooting. 87 and 90. You play as a human. Yeah, you play as a human.

1:17:43Sam your hint is that this game is known to this show this is a game that will from time to time be mentioned on this show

1:17:51Sam Claiborn:Fester's Quest Nintendo might have published that game for some reason or Goonies 2 we've already done that those are all licenses yeah you're right that's what makes this tough um we haven't really eliminated gyromite though I thought it was from before 87 um and weirdly controlled games uh let me think let me think I mean eliminated gyromite would be the worst because well I mean does this use did this game require any sort of peripheral, or not require, but involve peripheral equipment if you wanted it to, aka the zapper problem? No. Just sitting there, playing with your controller. A game that's not a sports game.

1:18:52You should know Jeremiah's a launch game. Yeah, well, it's a launch game in the US, but not in Japan. Was it not? I don't think so. They put out the ROM there. I always go by U.S. release dates when we were playing this game. Yeah, I know. I'm going to have to cut out the science. Did it have any sequels on the NES? No, this game never got a sequel.

1:19:16Sam Claiborn:Okay, never got a sequel at all. So truly a one-hit wonder. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. We got, like, there's, like, games like Buka Land. Never got a sequel. This game never got a sequel. so it means that it did have a spiritual successor of sorts not necessarily okay okay it could mean there was no nothing in that came after this game but maybe something came before

1:19:53okay well let me let me just clarify something here i asked if this first came out on a cartridge

1:20:01okay way back okay is that okay because i everything that's here is leaning towards an arcade game and i'm very confused by this no the answer that this is a cartridge okay you're stick with your answer yep yep yep okay um was there a version of this game in the arcade then no this is that was 18 yep one question and a guess so the one this might be a sequel to something

1:20:35Sam Claiborn:what could it be a sequel to I mean it sounds like Mike Tyson's punch out but we already asked about the sports games a platform Pac-Man 2 Pac-Land no it's not them what did Nintendo work with people in publishing and we got off the rails with the publishing stuff that's the thing that's tripped me up the most i mean is there a what do we think it's a waste that like is this a critically i'm just speculating out loud not no no i want to come up with all of our good questions like uh a critically is this a sought after nes game is this a game that people return to um i mean

1:21:23I don't know if that would help The Goonies is really interesting It's not that because of the license but the Goonies is interesting Because Nintendo published I think Maybe Krabi did the first one too I guess they had the license

1:21:38So no shooties right? A little bit of jumpies Correct a little bit of jumpies The platform of swords but there's no shooting And you play as a human And I'm thinking about like Nintendo's like kind of like

1:21:53Sam Claiborn:it's a known quantity to this it's a known game to this show to this podcast hmm mm-hmm mm-hmm mm-hmm yeah it comes up in conversation from time to time uh-huh uh-huh okay um

1:22:14time to time yeah I don't think we're gonna get this for some reason I thought this would be a layup for us what's just one other question we could ask to kind of do a Hail Mary

1:22:28maybe something like

1:22:34I mean it's curious that it has a game that was out before it maybe it's part of a series that ended on the

1:22:42Sam Claiborn:but published and developed by Nintendo as a human I just published what's a video game uh right rygar that was published by tecmo that had arcade before and you are you are human

1:23:04yeah yeah it seems really obscure i don't i don't know where to go i i think we have to give up so yeah um i mean is this a game that

1:23:18Sam Claiborn:Is this like a beloved game? People like this game. People who have played it like this game. Okay. That is your final question. You can make a guess. I think you should have tried to hone in on setting. Yeah. Okay. Should I reveal it? Yeah, let's do it. If you would discover that it had a medieval setting with that, it helped you. Is it ghosts and goblins? No. Okay. No, if it was... What's the first Square Enix game? Square game? It's called Kings, whatever. Okay, medieval setting, like Milan's Secret Castle, or Tower of Druaga. Or was it Warriors? No, this game is Faxanadu! Oh, Faxanadu, damn.

1:24:08You had a hand in that one, huh? Nintendo published it in North America. Yeah, I never would have got this.

1:24:13Sam Claiborn:I've never played Faxanadu, but that's always, like, maybe one day when I'm like, I need to play some old NES games. It's a cool platforming RPG. Is this the one that had the instruction manual that you had to dip in the water? Which one was that? No. I don't think so. That might be Star Tropics. Star Tropics, yes. It was confusing AF, and it did have a really cool spread of Nintendo Power. Not a cover. Nintendo Spread, yeah. And this was developed by Hudson Soft. Damn. Wow. That's so weird that Nintendo published it. It has a banger soundtrack. Mm-hmm. I like it. Xanadu is a... Good color palette.

1:24:47what's it called a portmanteau is that what they call it it's a famicom and xanadu and xanadu was so it's kind of a follow-up to a game called xanadu that was only on famicom interesting okay okay okay well damn is that guy smoking i think he is smoking that's pretty good yeah i always call it fact xanadu i think it sounds funny i think it's supposed to be for xanadu but no one would ever know that because Xanadu wasn't released in the US. That makes sense. This is an awesome suggestion. Yeah, well done. Well, yeah, so Scott had said that this was the first cartridge he ever owned. That was his Dacti.

1:25:28Oh, that's great. Yeah, yeah. Which, that's kind of a random selection of the pantheon of games that most people get when they get an NES. I don't think most of them are for Xanadu, but that's cool.

1:25:40Sam Claiborn:That feels like one of those games a kid back in the day would be like i got this game fax and here you go all right thank you i remember the reason i got this game was because i liked final fantasy and nintendo power i think compared it favorably to it which it really isn't like it's more like zelda 2 yeah yeah it's more like yeah without the overworld areas of zelda 2 well thank you for the suggestion simon's quest scott in southern california viewers listeners if you have your own suggestions for video game 20 questions, email them to me at the email address gamescoop at IGN.com and that is all the scoops that we have for you this week.

1:26:15Next week is going to be Comic-Con We won't be recording an episode next week, but we are going to do an episode later this week to publish next week but also you should tune into our Comic-Con coverage all next weekend. We have our live show. Nick is going Friday and Saturday.

1:26:29Sam Claiborn:Friday and Saturday, yeah. We get a live broadcast on Friday and Saturday, so it's going to be a good time. We get a lot of really fun stuff I don't know what I'm allowed to say on camera currently, but you'll want to tune in. I have a list of what we can talk about. Predator Badman is going to be there. Alien, Earth, Peacemaker, Season 2, Toxic Avenger, Twisted Metal, and more. So it should be good. Hell yeah. We always do fun stuff where there's a crazy toy on the floor that just has to be brought on the live show. Or you see what gets kind of around. That's always my favorite part. I also know that I don't know if this has been public, but there's going to be something cool to see that has to do with what's on my T-shirt, also at Comic-Con 2.

1:27:12So please be excited for that. And also, now is a great time to score some incredible games through Humble Live. Now through August 5th, you can grab Warhammer 40K, Rogue Trader, Daemon X Machina. I always liked that game for some reason. Death Store, Car Quest 3, and more. Plus, every purchase supports a good cause. This month, your Humble Choice membership supports Covenant House. So get a curated mix of PC games every month, all for just$14.99, or use code JULY25 and get it all for just$10. So whether you're building your backlog or discovering something new, it's the perfect time to pick up those fan favorites.

1:27:46Thank you, Nick and Sam, for joining me this week. We'll have Mark Medina on for our second episode that we're recording this week. Thank you to Jobert and everyone working behind the scenes to make this episode possible. My name is Damon. This is IGN GameScoop, and we're out.

1:28:02So they're finally here, performing for you If you know the words, you can join in two

1:28:10Sam Claiborn:Put your hands together, if you wanna clap As we take you through this monkey rap

1:28:21Sam Claiborn:He's the leader of the bunch, you know him well He's finally back to kick some tail His coconut gum can fire in spurts. If he shoots you, it's gonna hurt. He's bigger, faster, and stronger, too. He's the first member of the DK crew. This episode of GameSoup was produced by yours truly, Damon Hadfield and Jobert Atienza. Technical direction is handled by Jobert Atienza. Technical production is by Mariah Franzen and Amir Rakib. Audio engineering is by Amir Rakib and post-production editing is by me. Graphic design is by Nicole Kaganpun. Gamescoop is an IGN production and part of the Geek Media Network.

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1:29:58Sam Claiborn:you can save on select appliances designed to make laundry day easier. Shop Labor Day savings at The Home Depot today. Offer valid augurs 27th through September 16th. US and LAC store online for details.