Game Scoop! 829: Our Favorite PS4 & Xbox One Games

15 Oct 2025 · 1 h 20 min · 36 chapters

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In short

GameScoop episode focused on “Game of the Century Watch” for the PS4/Xbox One era, debating and building a list of standout games, plus a teaser about scrutinizing Rolling Stone’s “Top 20 NES games” list and reviewing an October 1994 EGM issue (Donkey Kong Country on the cover).

Guests

Damon Hatfield (host), Nick Limone (in-studio), Sam Claiborne (remote), Justin Davis (in-studio). Backgrounds mentioned in discussion: IGN work (Damon/Nick/Sam reference time at IGN), and familiarity with game development/coverage; Justin and Sam discuss long personal play histories.

Key claims (notable picks and arguments)

  • Dark Souls added to the PS4/Xbox One-era list discussion after debate; Elden Ring is contrasted with Dark Souls’ fewer “avenues” and harder progression.
  • Undertale praised for “video game literacy,” multiple endings, and a mind-blowing pacifist run; Deltarune described as a sequel-of-sorts with chapters 1–4 out and more coming.
  • Pokemon Go described as a cultural/community phenomenon with AR and later raids/battles; Factorio praised for “game feel,” automation depth, and extensive modding (Factorio as a mod platform).
  • Witcher 3 praised for writing, meaningful choices, and open-world exploration; Divinity: Original Sin 2 praised for deep roleplay, co-op, and systems like barrels/physics.
  • Nier Automata praised as a genre-mixing “love letter,” with multiple endings; Stardew Valley praised for broad crossover appeal and “cozy revolution.”
  • Overwatch praised for team-based hero roles, lore events, and representation; God of War (2018) praised as a father/son masterpiece with standout combat (Leviathan Axe).

Notable examples

pacifist Undertale run at level 1; Pokemon Go Plus; Factorio power-pole “drag to place” QoL; Witcher 3 “personal dungeon master” exploration; Divinity’s disguise mechanics (skeleton character); Overwatch hero announcements; God of War’s World Serpent hub and axe call-backs.

Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.

Chapters

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Game of the Century Watch: PS4 & Xbox One

0:10 to 1:10

Discussion on previous nominations and the significance of PS4 and Xbox One games.

“All that more on GameScoop after these messages.”

Game of the Century Watch: PS4 & Xbox One

1:13 to 1:24

Discussion on previous nominations and the significance of PS4 and Xbox One games.

“365 day returns now available in Canada, too.”

Game of the Century Watch: PS4 & Xbox One

2:10 to 2:47

Discussion on previous nominations and the significance of PS4 and Xbox One games.

“And shopping for it shouldn't feel like squeezing into something that just doesn't fit.”

Game of the Century Watch: PS4 & Xbox One

3:20 to 5:02

Discussion on previous nominations and the significance of PS4 and Xbox One games.

“Yes, as I hinted at the beginning there, there's a new list.”

Debating Game Nominations

5:02 to 9:08

Hosts debate the inclusion of iconic games like Dark Souls into the list.

“I'm going to be controversial and say I think the original Nier should be on there, but I could also understand why that's not the case.”

Spotlight on Undertale

9:08 to 11:30

Discussion on the impact and legacy of Undertale and its gameplay mechanics.

“There's the question of the Switch, but the Switch released...”

Cultural Phenomenon: Pokémon Go

11:30 to 14:00

Exploration of Pokémon Go's impact on gaming culture and community engagement.

“And like, you know, and then that's how you kind of continue on, which is kind of a spoiler, so sorry.”

The Impact of Pokémon Go

14:00 to 16:40

Learn about the cultural phenomenon and community engagement of Pokémon Go.

“And if I'm not mistaken, at launch, I don't think there were, were there battles?”

Factorio: The Ultimate Factory Game

16:40 to 20:50

Discover why Factorio is considered one of the best automation games ever.

“They just had Community Day like a day ago.”

Witcher 3: Masterclass in Game Design

20:50 to 24:00

Explore the exceptional design and narrative of The Witcher 3.

“But like, you know, and then I really like the pre-rendered visuals.”
Show all 36 chapters

Divinity: Original Sin 2 - A Deep RPG Experience

24:00 to 26:40

Understand the innovative mechanics and storytelling in Divinity: Original Sin 2.

“You could say what you will about Cyberpunk's story or The Witcher's overarching story, but I think their understanding of character and character choice is bar none in the video game scene.”

Divinity: Original Sin 2 - A Deep RPG Experience

26:51 to 27:33

Understand the innovative mechanics and storytelling in Divinity: Original Sin 2.

“There are things in life that you don't want to be transparent, like your swimsuit or your search history.”

Divinity: Original Sin 2 - A Deep RPG Experience

27:36 to 28:53

Understand the innovative mechanics and storytelling in Divinity: Original Sin 2.

“Greater than 50 gigs may slow when network is busy.”

Divinity: Original Sin 2 - A Deep RPG Experience

29:03 to 30:19

Understand the innovative mechanics and storytelling in Divinity: Original Sin 2.

“Starting or growing your own business can be intimidating and lonely at times.”

Discussing Nier Automata

30:28 to 31:44

Exploration of Nier Automata's impact and gameplay elements.

“Very much like Undertale, this game is playing with the medium of video games and it is a love letter to people who love video games.”

Stardew Valley: A Cultural Phenomenon

31:44 to 35:10

The appeal and impact of Stardew Valley on players of all ages.

“But so much so that this went on to inspire me to go back and play through Drakengard 1, 2, and 3 and the original Nier.”

Overwatch's Influence on Multiplayer Gaming

35:10 to 40:09

How Overwatch reshaped multiplayer gaming experiences.

“It's the last time I personally can recall, you know, having like kind of like an appointment, like me and my friends are just going to get online and play together.”

The Mastery of God of War 2018

40:09 to 42:01

Analyzing the depth and excellence of God of War 2018.

“You know, that was the fifth game in the series, maybe at least, because there was Ascension also after the trilogy on PS2 and 3.”

Exploring God of War's Legacy and Gameplay

42:01 to 44:41

Delve into the narrative depth and gameplay mechanics of God of War, highlighting its emotional storytelling and innovative design.

“you immediately understand what Kratos is going through and you understand the dilemma he's faced with.”

Honorable Mentions in Gaming

44:42 to 46:35

Discussing notable games like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Death Stranding, and their impact on the gaming landscape.

Reflections on Walking Dead and Replayability

46:36 to 48:41

Analyzing the replay value of The Walking Dead series compared to other memorable games.

NES Games and Rolling Stone's List

48:42 to 49:19

Discussing the recent Rolling Stone article ranking NES games and the challenges of such lists.

“Game of the Sajur watch for now, to be continued.”

Top 20 NES Games Breakdown

49:20 to 51:46

Breaking down the list of the top NES games and debating their placements and significance.

“And I was like, Double Dragon 2 and NES is really, really good.”

Classic NES Games and Their Legacy

51:47 to 56:00

Discussing the legacy of classic NES games like Punch-Out, Metroid, and Contra, and their influence on modern gaming.

“I just remember I have an enduring memory of that just blaring out of my television.”

Ranking the Classics: NES Games

56:00 to 57:20

The hosts discuss their favorite NES games, sharing personal opinions and insights.

“number eight is contra yeah yeah everyone played everyone everyone had it everyone loved it number 7 is Metroid.”

The Legacy of Zelda and Mario

57:20 to 59:10

Exploring the influence and enduring appeal of Zelda and Super Mario games.

“okay number six is Castlevania 3 great great game yep fantastic all those could be in the top ten number five is Ninja Gaiden terrible game should be in the top 10.”

The Impact of Super Mario Bros.

59:10 to 1:01:10

A deep dive into Super Mario Bros. and its significance in gaming history.

“brothers yeah that person i agree top three games you see the new levels discovered no you might Oh, the new Minus Worlds?”

Castlevania and Gaming Evolution

1:01:10 to 1:02:30

Discussion on Castlevania's place in gaming alongside other classics.

“We haven't gotten Mega Man 2 yet so I would assume it's going to be there.”

Castlevania and Gaming Evolution

1:03:32 to 1:04:31

Discussion on Castlevania's place in gaming alongside other classics.

“This summer, Prime Video takes you back before Legally Blonde, before law school, and into the world of Elle Woods in high school.”

Castlevania and Gaming Evolution

1:04:35 to 1:04:50

Discussion on Castlevania's place in gaming alongside other classics.

Game Reviews and Personal Experiences

1:04:50 to 1:10:05

Hosts share their experiences with current games, focusing on Silent Hill F and indie titles.

“Because I want to read these letters and stuff.”

Discussing Automation Games

1:10:05 to 1:11:10

Explore the mechanics and charm of automation games like Little Rocket Lab.

Listener Questions and Corrections

1:11:12 to 1:11:31

Engage with listener feedback and corrections about previous episodes.

“I have a question, and it's about the EGM.”

Video Game 20 Questions Begins

1:11:33 to 1:12:20

Kick off a fun game segment where listeners guess game titles.

“Listeners, remember you can always reach us at the email address, gamescoop at IGN.com.”

Deep Dive into Game Guessing

1:12:21 to 1:20:05

Engage in guessing the mystery game through various questions and clues.

“Our suggestion this week comes from Jake from Ohio.”

Reveal of the Mystery Game

1:20:06 to 1:22:20

Reveal and discuss Marvel vs. Capcom 2, its impact, and legacy.

“I wish they just made an anime that looked like this.”
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Transcript

Automatic transcript. May contain errors.

0:00Justin Davis:Game of the Century Watch continues with the PS4 and Xbox One generation. Also, there's a new Top 20 NES games list that needs our scrutiny and will flip through the October 1994 issue of EGM. All that more on GameScoop after these messages.

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3:09Justin Davis:jing game scoop i'm your host damon hatfield joining here in the studio by nick limone i'm back, baby. Joined remotely by Sam Claiborne. Hey, everyone. And Justin Davis. Scoop. We had a great show for you this week. Yes, as I hinted at the beginning there, there's a new list. Rolling Stone has published a list of the top 20 NES games. So we'll see about that. We don't need to have the conversation if you answer one question. Is Zombie Nation on the list? Well, please be excited to find out, Sam. I also have the October 1994 issue of EGM, which has Donkey Kong Country on the cover.

3:45Sam Claiborn:Heck yeah.

3:47Justin Davis:I thought that would be fitting, considering Donkey Kong's having quite the year this year. But first, Game of the Century Watch continues. We're up to the PS4 and Xbox One generation to sort of catch everyone up to speed, including Nick, who wasn't here last week. Here's all the games we've nominated so far. It's about 22 games, I believe. So everything from the year 2000 up to around 2013, when the PS4 and Xbox One were released. Perfect Dark Metroid Prime Half-Life 2 I mean this is just a list of amazing games Knights of the Old Republic Shadow of the Colossus Resident Evil 4 Castlevania Aria of Sorrow World of Warcraft Animal Crossing Final Fantasy X Halo 2 Grand Theft Auto San Andreas Mass Effect 2 Skyrim Fallout 3 Red Dead Redemption Portal 2 The Last of Us Rock Band Batman Arkham Asylum Borderlands 2 and Uncharted 2 Wow

4:36Sam Claiborn:That is quite the list

4:38Justin Davis:Video games are rad What's that say?

4:41Sam Claiborn:What are we missing? Oh, well, Christopher Rex Brown Jr.

4:45Justin Davis:went so far as to make a post in the Facebook group to not mention Dark Souls this week is blasphemy.

4:51Sam Claiborn:I would agree and concur with that. I think Dark Souls is, one, one of the best games ever made and also one of the most important. And then... I'll throw it on the list. I'm going to be controversial and say I think the original Nier should be on there, but I could also understand why that's not the case. Interesting. The original Nier.

5:11Justin Davis:Wait, that wouldn't be, oh, that would be that generation, yeah. Yeah, if Nick had joined us, I bet Dark Souls, but also Christopher Rex Brown Jr., I think if you've been listening to the show for any amount of time, I think you should have been surprised if we did nominate it, me, Sam, Justin, or Pear. Not really our kind of game. But it is helpful if anybody wants to nominate these and we can get a second on the show, then we'll include it on the list. Yeah.

5:36Sam Claiborn:Yeah, Dark Souls is just, I just didn't think, when that game came out, I was like, I didn't think they could do this in a video game. Like this is like old school, hard as hell video game. And it seemed that resonated with the general public.

5:52Justin Davis:As someone who loves Elden Ring, how do you think I would find Dark Souls?

5:57Sam Claiborn:I think you would not like it very much. I, I, this is, this is my impression from working at IGN at the time, but I remember that game, not sweeping the office by storm and being a a PlayStation exclusive of Little Note that some people played. Well, that was Demon's Souls, right? And then Bloodborne came out. Demon's Souls. Oh, I see. Wait, wait, when was Demon's Souls? A couple years earlier. Yeah, that was like 2009. So people, okay, that's right. You're right. I was thinking of Demon's Souls. But no, I mean, Dark Souls, I think the marketing in the US is what really sealed it for it because it was like, prepare to die.

6:30Sam Claiborn:And it had like a heavy metals trailer that was like all centered around how hard and brutal this game is. And yeah, it is. but it's also just a lot more to the game than that it's just a more like profound message about the human spirit and the willingness to endure which i really like and it's a cool universe i mean the souls like that genre has been winning people over for like 15 years now right like we saw like sam you and i have worked here about that same amount of time of like you know people are like oh like i hate the boss runbacks and like it's so clunky and like rolling like why would it was like you know Skyrim was out at the same time and it's like you know one is so much more accessible and empowering and the other one felt and like look I understand it's doing something deliberate with the player movement and like how it all works but like it is it is bracing so like to jump into this world in this style of gameplay for the first time and like we've seen over successive games from like Demon Souls to Dark Souls to Bloodborne to Elden Ring that more and more and more people are like, this is not for me, this is not for me.

7:33And then they're like, well, it's like the kombucha girl meme, but in real life is like, well, maybe. Like, maybe I do like this after all, but it's an acquired taste, right?

7:44Justin Davis:In Elden Ring, if a boss is giving me a hard time, I can either try to cheese it, or I could go out and find a certain weapon or item that's going to make it easier for me, or I can just go rune farm until I'm strong enough that I can just brute force my way past him. So could I do that in Dark Souls?

7:59Sam Claiborn:You can do that. You can room farm. You can Souls farm. The biggest difference between Dark Souls and Elden Ring is that Elden Ring offers you so many other avenues for you to, hey, let's go check out what's over there. Whereas Dark Souls will be like, what if you only had like three options? And a lot of them are equally difficult. I did play, I played probably half of Dark Souls, you know, back when it was new. and like it's hard but it's not like you know it's like it's not really that much harder than like you know try boss five or eight times and you'll get past it like you'll be all right it the original dark souls is a game that to me is like why it feels like you couldn't remake a modern castlevania because it feels like the all of the lessons and and design sensibilities of the nes castlevania and kind of into a 3d like action game to some extent because it's again very deliberate choices when it comes to your animations.

8:53I would say those animation combat things make it so different from Castlevania. That's what's prohibitive of it being fun for me. Everything else you're saying is totally accurate. Alright.

9:06Justin Davis:I put Dark Souls on the list.

9:08Sam Claiborn:You did it!

9:10Justin Davis:That brings us to PS4, Xbox One. There's the question of the Switch, but the Switch released... 2016, right? 17. It was closer to the release of the PS5. Also, I don't think it's part of that generation either. So actually, I think let's just dedicate one episode to the Switch and the Switch 2. That seems fine. That makes sense. What? But my games, Damon. I'm going to have to come up with an alternate now. You had a bunch of Switch games? Yeah. I thought we established we weren't doing the Switch this episode. I thought we established that we were doing the Switch year one or year two. Well, also, Justin, there are no rules.

9:43Justin Davis:Like, whatever. Throw that to some Switch games. We're making this up as we go along i have at least one i can get into okay it's more fun to stretch to find a single nintendo game from the wii u 3ds era to put on this i know i racked my brain i was like yeah i think i'm good i looked up 3ds and i was trying and uh you know i came up with push mode which nobody here respects yeah what so we're not putting it on the list uh we've we've been over we covered push mode on a recent episode yeah some might say too much yep exactly why do they keep bringing up pushmo every week on their typewriters well nick why don't you throw it out to get us started on ps4 xbox one generation so i'm

10:24Sam Claiborn:going to start with the game that i don't i don't think is on anyone's list but i would love to be proven wrong uh undertale oh interesting that was i believe 2015 if i'm not mistaken it just celebrated its 10 year anniversary and i couldn't think of a game that is one for people who grew up loving you know your turn-based uh jrpg specifically and also just how you can kind of take that and distill it down to an essence that we would then see go on to echo into stuff like cleric obscure expedition 33 like to me undertale is a game for people who love video games and it is like the perfect example of me of what like video game literacy distilled down to one video game like this game will teach you everything you need to know about video games and how it plays with the format and i think it's only better if you already are familiar with video games but you don't need that prior experience incredible music um just mind-shatteringly nuts alternate endings and paths you can take to the game and it's like a five six hour experience it is just uh unmatched and delta rune i'm happy to report is just as good it's it's another one of those games that like uh we've been talking about it all throughout this game of the century watch of like ideas that feel a little bit more, you know, sort of well-worn and trodden now, where sort of, you know, Undertale was like the precursor to like, it's the first time I can really remember a game, you know, sort of breaking the fourth wall in the sense that like it crashes to desktop or you have to close to desktop and like reopen the game.

11:57And like, you know, and then that's how you kind of continue on, which is kind of a spoiler, so sorry. But like, but you know, like that, that concept has been sort of a little bit, you know is a little bit more common now but i you know it was very mind-blowing uh when this first came out and the pacifist run if like beat the entire game without killing anything like that really blew my mind back when undertale was new as well and you finished the game in the

12:22Sam Claiborn:pacifist run at level one with the same health you started with and it's just like the game is harder but it's way more it turns into a bullet hell instead of a turn-based rpg which is it rocks

12:32Justin Davis:I've never played this game. It's five hours long? Yeah.

12:37Sam Claiborn:And an incredible soundtrack that I'm still listening to to this day.

12:41Justin Davis:The soundtrack is amazing.

12:43Sam Claiborn:And then is Deltarune like a sequel? Deltarune is a sequel of sorts. And it is greatly enriched if you have played Undertale, but I wouldn't say it's necessarily required.

12:54Justin Davis:Okay. Cool. Undertale, it's on the list. And it's been released episodically, so there's not.

12:59Sam Claiborn:Is it complete now or is it close to complete? it's probably like three years out from completion you have chapters one through four right now with five and six coming next year and then i think seven later cool all right sam what's your first game uh i'm gonna choose uh 2016 or 2015's uh mega hit worldwide pokemon go oh my gosh yeah yeah okay i think it's i mean i don't know what to say about pokemon go it was so fun it was so great and it got hillary clinton to say pokemon go to the polls yeah i mean it probably lost her the election it felt like it felt like an email it felt like the 90s again where just like poke fever taking over the world again everyone was excited about being excited about pokemon i like how it was they're excited about the pokemon that matter most the 151 and that made it really fun and it made it really cute and then it went through a couple of seasons just like this is just like rock band for me it's like this is a game that stood out from gaming and became a cultural thing and a uh community thing and boy was it fun living in the city of san francisco while this was happening there's areas of town that were uh you know you know niantic is based out of san francisco niantic is actually the name of a shipwreck in the in the san francisco bay and um and they had like you know charizards and stuff popping up that you probably couldn't get anywhere and it was a big deal we all talked about it everybody was hacking pokemon online and trying to do things with it it was crazy yeah i mean look like it was on the evening news of like crowds of people just like roving through public parks at night like it was absolutely nuts and i think like like the the the ar component was like it's still one of the coolest and best ar implementations of like you can have a little pokemon and he's like on your bed just chilling with you and like we'll I'll use that for one day.

14:55Sam Claiborn:Yeah, but it was still neat. And if I'm not mistaken, at launch, I don't think there were, were there battles? I don't recall there actually being battles at launch. No, they added in, what's it called? Those different types of, what are they called? Raids. Raids, yeah. And then later battles. So yeah, it was just collecting. And then trading. And the servers were really unstable for a while. We all had these crazy funny issues getting in and out. And then they released a piece of plastic. the Pokemon Go Plus, I think it was called. It was like a little clicker, and it would buzz. You could walk to work and just like collect, and you'd get there and like open up your, this is just like StreetPass.

15:34It was like really fun. You'd open it up, and it would be like, this is all the stuff that happened.

15:37Sam Claiborn:And it was just, they did a good job of capturing like the gen differences between like blue and red versus, you know, games or Pokemon that were only accessible in certain countries. So it's like, I remember when I first joined IGN, everyone was like back into Pokemon Go out of the LA. office and i had a trip to japan and they were like oh can you catch the oh my god the the whatever the the leaf ape is like capture as many of them as you can oh no no mr mine was europe yeah and and it's just like i felt like a celebrity coming back was like oh do you want one do you want one what are you gonna do for me man kangas con was only in australia um so we gave it a seven which apropos of nothing i'll just mention is probably the best seven we've ever given out and no relation to anything else.

Read the full transcript

16:22And then we also had an argument, I would describe it, about including this as a game of the year contender. And I lost that argument and it was not included.

16:34Justin Davis:So Pokemon Go is turning 10. Thanks, Damon. It wasn't... I had nothing to do with it.

16:39Sam Claiborn:I was turning 10 next year. They just had Community Day like a day ago. People are still playing this game. Or two days ago. And again, it's a game that will... Are they still doing Pikachu hats? It will always come in season. I actually know the answer to that because we cover Pokemon Go. Yeah. I feel like people will just always like, oh, yeah, I'll pick it up and play some Pokemon Go for a little bit. Why not?

16:57Justin Davis:All right, Justin, what's your first game? Factorio, Damon. Wait, when did that come out? 2019?

17:052016. Did I miss it last week or is that in the window? Yes, that's right. That's appropriate.

17:11Justin Davis:Perfect. Factorio. And it was in early access for a while. So, you know, anyway, so yes. So Factorio is probably my most played video game of all time. That's not an MMO. I have 530 hours in the games. So, you know, I think it gets in based off influence alone, like automation games and conveyor belt games and production line games are kind of everything kind of taken over. And like all of that DNA can be traced back to Factorio. But what I like about it and what's kind of ruined all other factory games for me is the developers so clearly understand their game and how people play their game and how they engage with it that any kind of like fuzziness or like fiddliness about placing your conveyor belts or like building your factory, they've just smoothed all of it out.

18:03Like everything has a hot key and everything like I'll give you one example because I could give you dozens of examples. But if you're dragging power poles, like if you need to if you need a line of power poles going from one somewhere to another, you just click your power pole and then drag your mouse over it. And it goes tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, and just places your power poles in a line like where you want them. You don't need to click and place every single one. And it has dozens and dozens of little teeny tiny optimizations just to make the game feel so smooth. And then I tried to play Satisfactory.

18:35I tried to play other games and they are great games. So I don't need to make this a one game versus another thing. But like none of them have that like just years and years and years of optimization. And so the zoomed in experience of playing Factorio of like, you know, I'm fiddling with belts and fiddling with pipes like that feels really, really good. But then the super zoomed out experience also feels really good of like you can build a Factorio. you can build a factory in Factorio that makes copies of itself and just gets bigger over time. So it's like if you build a design of like I'm making green circuits or I'm making rocket parts or whatever, you can build it in a way that it's tileable and then you can just select it all and copy and paste it and be like and then just plop down more and more and more versions like you can copy your entire factory and then paste it.

19:24And then if you have the materials, it'll just make a copy of itself and so it's super fun and satisfying you know routing belts and making everything work just right and then it's also super super fun and satisfying to build like a megabase and just keep getting bigger and bigger and i've never played a game that like as it zoomed out and increased in scope felt just as satisfying and fun as when it was zoomed in um and i have one more thing one more thing one more thing yeah yeah um the reason that i have like 500 hours in it is the game is super super moddable and super mod friendly which is not a new thing in pc games right lots of pc games are moddable but what's special about factorio is like the entire game of factorio is actually just a mod so it's like they built the engine of like you know you're plopping down conveyor belts and plopping down you know buildings in this world and they all do different things and that's just a mod right so like there's total conversion mods that make the game easier or make it steampunk.

20:22And it's not just a new coat of paint, but I like to describe the modding scene as Factorio 2, 3, 4, and 5 are in Factorio, and they're just mods that people have made. So it's like I put 100 hours, actually more, like 150 hours into this ultra-super-hardcore mod called Pyanodons, and it just makes everything completely ridiculous. And it's sort of the endgame of it's going to take you a thousand hours to beat this thing and so like the game this is a candidate for being my desert island game because of that for sure you know it's also the exact opposite game of pokemon go

21:00Sam Claiborn:yeah that's probably true i i mean i i don't have any i have zero minutes of experience of uh factorio but one thing that i always appreciate about this game every time i see video of it is the fact that you could just tell every mouse click every animation just is satisfying to behold and to uh be a part of uh and i think that's always a good sign of a game is like when you know it feels good to play uh even though you are just just quote unquote you know dragging power lines across just sound design combined with game feel come together to make something that is better than the sum of its parts it runs on potato pcs which is a benefit um it runs on the switch Yeah, not very well.

21:45But like, you know, and then I really like the pre-rendered visuals. It reminds me of like Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 and old, you know, old isometric RPGs. And so, you know, satisfying to chop down trees and stuff like that. Great game.

21:58Justin Davis:It's got a very cool look to it. So far we mentioned Undertale, Pokemon Go, and Factorio. So anyone who's not a GameScoop fan that just clicked on this video because it's called our favorite PS4 and Xbox One games, it's probably a little bit...

22:10Sam Claiborn:Where the heck is Breath of the Wild? Well. Look, Nintendo's not going to have a shout unless I did Pokemon Go.

22:17Justin Davis:It's true. So I'll drop a traditional, hardcore, triple-A blockbuster game, The Witcher 3.

22:22Sam Claiborn:Oh, thank God. I knew someone was going to do it.

22:25Justin Davis:Witcher 3 is so good. It's kind of like Skyrim level in its ubiquity. It's been released for every other platform and sold, whatever, tens and tens and tens of thousands of copies, or millions of copies, I mean. It's one of those games, like if you were just getting a PS4, and Xbox One. What's a handful of games I should get? Witcher 3 would absolutely be on there.

22:46Sam Claiborn:I mean, it's a game that you consistently see when people are like, I just got into open world games. I'm new to video games. What should I play? It's a good follow for Breath of the Wild for that reason. It's just such an elegantly designed world with some of the best writing I've ever seen put to a video game with choices that actually matter. And it just feels like you have your own personal dungeon master, guiding you on this super epic journey. It's outstanding. Exploration matters. You can take a bunch of risks and you can get rewarded for them. We've talked about this so much that I barely want to go into that.

23:19But I did want to mention that it's also the rare occasion in which the video game is by far the best thing about this entire IP. And I've read all the books, seen the show, all that stuff. The game is the best. I'm not going to slag on that stuff right now, but just say that this game is by far the best thing that The Witcher has ever done. I think that's really cool. The only other game, the only IP you can say that with is Pac-Man.

23:49Sam Claiborn:I mean, I think I would argue you could extrapolate that to even something like Cyberpunk 2077. I think that's what makes CD Projekt Red so good from a narrative standpoint. You could say what you will about Cyberpunk's story or The Witcher's overarching story, but I think their understanding of character and character choice is bar none in the video game scene. I guess the closest that hold a candle to it is Larian Games with Divinity, Original Sin 1 and 2, and Baldur's Gate 3. But just some next-level character study stuff that you're seeing in The Witcher 3.

24:25Justin Davis:You know, it's funny you mentioned Divinity, Original Sin 2, Nick, because that's another game that I'll throw out on this list.

24:30Sam Claiborn:Ooh, wow. Dang, that's like, man, what a game. What a banger of a game. I didn't know that was a Daimi game.

24:35Justin Davis:Oh, yeah. I mean, I loved Baldur's Gate 3 as well. I loved the original Divinity, original Sin. Super nerdy, top-down CRPG that has so much freedom in the way you approach the world. You approach combat and all the stories. Yeah, what's up? Barrels. Yeah. Lots of barrels. There's so many cool physics and elemental stuff that interact with each other here. And this, I think, beat Breath of the Wild out by like a year, I think, maybe? 2016, I want to say. Yeah, I love Divinity Original Sin 2. Of course, this is what Larion made before Baldur's Gate 3.

25:07Sam Claiborn:Again, another great example of just incredible characters. I think the origin characters are some of my favorite that I've ever experienced in a RPG or fantasy setting. Like, I forget the name, but I played as the skull guy, the skeleton guy. And just like the strange mechanics that you have to deal with by, oh, I can't let the rest of the world know I am a skeleton that walks and talks. I need to hide and disguise myself. Like that's such a clever thing that is now a thing I have to deal with as part of my normal game. Also deep, deep role playing in Divinity. This is which, you know, it's a role playing game.

25:42But like Larry and better than other people actually let you inhabit and truly deal with the positives and negatives of like playing a role other than yourself.

25:50Justin Davis:Yeah. As a kid in the 90s, we didn't have a computer, but I was very aware of these computer RPGs. and they seemed so cool and so much more in-depth than the console games I was playing. And so it's like the game that I imagined I was missing out on in the 90s.

26:05Sam Claiborn:It's like the Fallout 1 and 2 and like the Planescape Torment Legacy all distilled down to just this delightful love letter to fantasy RPGs. It's so good.

26:15Justin Davis:Also, the co-op just works so well, either playing online or locally with split screen. It's just great.

26:20Sam Claiborn:Also, I love a game that can remove itself from a lot of the Dungeons & Dragons trademark. of like fantasy and flavor of role-playing and just thrive and have a fully cohesive world that I'm like, oh, I get it. I understand how this world works. And sure it has echoes to what you would see in Dungeons and Dragons, but it's wholly unique and just very, very elegant.

26:40Justin Davis:Yeah, maybe Larian will swing back to this for their next game. Always a good one.

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30:28Justin Davis:All right, so that's Witcher 3. Divinity, Original Sin 2. Nick, what's your next game?

30:32Sam Claiborn:My next one, because I couldn't put the original Nier on this list, I am going to put Nier Automata, which I think is what basically was the breakthrough moment for this series and has done so much for Square Enix and just weirdo games in general. I love that this game that is a sequel to a, you know, let's face it, a game that is, some people would say is like a budget title that was kind of overlooked at the time of its release and has gone on to just shape the foundation of which the medium is kind of built on. Very much like Undertale, this game is playing with the medium of video games and it is a love letter to people who love video games.

31:17Sam Claiborn:And just, you know, it's 3D action game, the platinum game style action game. And then you've got your side scrolling bullet hell stuff. You have visual novel elements in the game. There's so many games in one. and you know for those of you who was like oh i beat the game it's like i encourage you it sucks to be the guy who's always like do all the endings because i know that that's quite the ask but you will not be disappointed if you do at least two of the endings of near automata because it is just some stuff that will it sticks with me to this very day and i think that yokotaro along with Keiichi Okabe, who is the composer of the game, Yoko Taro, the director of the game, they're doing stuff that is just a love letter to just obscure games that they grew up with, and it's just a cool, just a cool, stylish game, and I believe just like the fashion style, like fashion sensibilities of it too is just something I really admire about the game.

32:19Sam Claiborn:It's just cool

32:20Justin Davis:through and through. Why do their swords float behind them?

32:24Sam Claiborn:Dude, they're robots. It's like magnets. I don't know, man. But so much so that this went on to inspire me to go back and play through Drakengard 1, 2, and 3 and the original Nier. I've gone to the Nier Automata concert play that tells a sequel story to this in Thailand. This game means a lot to me with just both itself as a game and also how it kind of is an intermedium-style thing where there's short stories, there's novellas, there's stage plays and all this stuff, and it's all pretty good.

33:02Justin Davis:Yeah, this is another one I've never played, but I know that I should.

33:07Sam Claiborn:It's pretty... Don't play with the kids around.

33:10Justin Davis:Okay, one of those kind of games. uh okay sam next game oh um i have so many big ones but i wanted to make sure we get started on this list it was from this era and um i think it's you know culturally impactful as well and just just the most fun uh version of the kind of produce based sim out there and uh it also is just like it has a you know a couple of different games in it as a dating sim in it It's got a roguelike dungeon. It's got just kind of the fishing stuff in it. Like it just has a lot of things that are really fun. And then I just I just want to give a shout out to a game. It's like it's really meant to be a feel good game.

33:57Like you do have a little bit of like daily panic about getting things done. Like there's a little bit of that in it. There's a little bit of pressure once you're in the mines. But like it really like everything looks so cute and everything is cute. and there's like little magical things that happen in it that are surprising. And it's just, yeah, I mean, I wish there was a, there's a genre that's just copying Stardew. Yeah. And I can't wait to see what the actual follow-up is like that the haunted chocolate factory, whatever it's called, chocolate tier. Incredible game. You know, it's one of those rare games, like my kids really love Stardew Valley, but then I really love Stardew Valley.

34:33And I don't love it in like, oh, like, oh, my kids like this, so I like it too. but like full-throatedly right like so like what kind of game like men women young old like you know the true crossover appeal is just unbelievable um and it was made because you know concerned ape just like really liked harvest moon and was sad that there wasn't like any great farming games and then came back and just blew out like made the best possible like you know farming you know life sim imaginable um and started you know the whole cozy game revolution that we're still in the midst of yeah yeah although really i like sam you touched on this i don't think stardew valley is that cozy at all like all the villagers all the well it is there is time pressure in stealth and and all the villagers seem like you know they're really happy and their life's so great until you get your hearts up with them and then it turns out they're all super sad it's like cute on the surface and then there's so much to dig into right yep yep yep yep

35:34Sam Claiborn:stardew is a game i always wanted harvest moon to be yeah yeah that's a good one yeah yeah all right justin next game i'm getting a little bit stressed out because i am not going to talk about metal gear solid 5 or red dead 2 but it's like are they going to get mentioned so like but my my next one is and this is weird like this is not a game when i reflect on 10 years ago like oh it made a mark on me but i was looking through like best of lists And then I was like, oh, damn. Anyway, it's Overwatch. Oh, wow. Interesting. It's the last time I personally can recall, you know, having like kind of like an appointment, like me and my friends are just going to get online and play together.

36:17Like that was kind of like closing a chapter. Then I did shortly after. So it's like, you know, that's that's that's why that happened. It's not because there's not good multiplayer games. But, you know, it along with Team Fortress 2, which granted Team Fortress 2, you know, precedes it by many, many years. you know the hero shooter the idea that people can have different roles on your team and not just different roles but like profoundly different like they move in different ways they play in different ways and it's not superficial differences but like really truly like you know synergistic differences and like how the team compositions work together um and then i also think that the game did and granted blizzard kind of fumbled this a little bit but when overwatch was new when it came out the lore and storytelling and the way that they were kind of like doling out like oh these characters are a couple and these characters hate each other was like really interesting and i wish like i wish that went in a different direction than it ended up going over the next decade but for the first year that that game came out like it was such an event when there would be a new hero and it was just unbelievable so much fun and like everyone that played this game it just it just completely achieved its mission of like you know if you're not a hardcore fps player like you know play a different class like everybody can find two or three classes that they vibe with and everyone gets a chance to have this hero moment and feel powerful and feel cool and like that was great like it was such a great feeling so you know working in a a big diverse office at the time like representation really mattered in this game and there was and i don't just mean that in times is like types of people and backgrounds.

37:57I mean that in like types of nerd culture and the way they based their characters on all these disparate kind of like interesting influential backgrounds from sci-fi to anime to fantasy. Brilliant. And I'm shocking to this day that this is not, you know, this juggernaut of a franchise and that it's been displaced. I'm just shocked.

38:18Justin Davis:I mean, they fumbled Overwatch 2, right? Yeah. But not by doing anything wrong with it though, right? Just by making it.

38:25Sam Claiborn:not sticking with one well they made they made some pretty pretty serious mistakes in terms of like saying there'd be like a single player thing and then like actually it's gone and then uh also now you have to pay for this game and also that entire thing that we spent building millions of dollars uh the overwatch league and now we're completely breaking it because we're changing the team composition stuff there's a lot of things that uh unfortunately happened with overwatch too But to your point, Justin, I was obsessed with Overwatch 1, and I was a lore fiend, and I loved learning about these characters.

38:59Sam Claiborn:And yeah, every time there was a new character announcement, they'd get their own Blizzard-quality trailer that would just fill in more of the holes in the world of Overwatch. and I so desperately wanted some sort of animation, like anime series or something to tide me over and really bring home the fact that these are fully realized characters with a living, breathing world. And it did scratch the same itch as Team Fortress 2 to me in terms of its lore and world building. And they set up the alley-oop, but they never landed that slam dunk. It's like I'm not the most skilled FPS player, but it's like I really liked maining Symmetra.

39:38you know i really liked uh meaning junkrat like so like everyone had like three characters like for me it's like symmetra junkrat and torbjorn like those were my three right and like just hundreds of hours of fun like how do you balance that when like not only do they have different play styles but they're just doing completely different stuff like so impressive cool overwatch

40:00Justin Davis:that's a good choice um i would be tempted to throw in ghosts of tsushima but i i don't know I may end up liking Yotei more. I don't know. So I'm going to table that for a moment, and I'll throw in God of War 2018. Yeah. You know, that was the fifth game in the series, maybe at least, because there was Ascension also after the trilogy on PS2 and 3. It's like people have almost forgotten that God of War existed before this. Well, yeah. I don't think they're related, you know? That trilogy is good, and they sold well, and we gave them, I think we gave God of War II Game of the Year back in the day.

40:38Justin Davis:But it was a little bit, like, there wasn't a lot of nuance to that version of Kratos, right? It was all just about spectacle and just being really angry and bloodthirsty. And this game, like, they totally, they painted in all this nuance to this character. It's like, it's, they gave him all these different sides. It's a really cool story about a father and a son and, like, going on this healing adventure together. But then also the combat feels so good and the axe feels so good. they introduce you know they give him this new weapon but then of course spoilers halfway through they give him back his old weapons you know you're like this is awesome one of my favorite moments

41:12Sam Claiborn:in video games is that moment where you're like what the heck my axe doesn't work on these dudes what do i do just earth shatteringly cool stuff and uh yeah i think this game is a bona fide masterpiece and i think this is the single best first party uh playstation 4 playstation 5 title that I think Sony has under their belt right now. I think this blows Last of Us out of the water. Last of Us Part II, Ghost of Tsushima. To me, this is what I think of when I think of a prestige video game. And I think this helped usher in that kind of sensibility for PlayStation, both to their benefit and to their detriment.

41:48Sam Claiborn:To me, nothing will reach the high bar that God of War 2018 did. And I love that this game works for people who have played the previous God of Wars, or if this is your first one, because if you've played the previous God of Wars, you immediately understand what Kratos is going through and you understand the dilemma he's faced with. And if you've never played a previous God of War, you understand what Atreus is going through and you are seeing life through the eyes of Atreus and being like, what the heck did my dad do before me? It is such a fascinating and interesting way of playing with a legacy of a series.

42:22Sam Claiborn:And yeah, I think this game is just, it scratches all like the metroidvania parts of my brain in some really satisfying ways combat's fun and again there's nothing more satisfying than throwing the leviathan axe and calling it back and knocking out three dudes along the way it's just that whoever found that design like thing give them all of the raises they deserve all the friends i think it was stan lee yeah it's so good it's so well paced i mean that's something we talked about back when we discussing half-life 2 of like you fire up that game and then it just pulls you in and before you know what you're doing the craziest stuff and like god of war is really like that too of like you just go like you just start the game and you go and like there's not any moment of downtime or there is downtime but it's designed and controlled and paced really really well just a perfect mix of story uh combat puzzles exploration just a master class the camera never cutting is pretty one long one long take and it's it takes everything that made the original god of war so impressive with like the spectacle yeah of of the the the cinematics and like the combat and found a way to make it feel more i know we're saying one cup but felt very children of men ish where you're just it's very intimate a lot of the action and i do love that at the time of this release i think that it was i was really blown away by the seeing the trailer for the first time and you see kratos teaching atreus how to hunt and he goes to pull the boat and you see him proud of his son but he can't quite put his hand on his son's shoulder to be like i'm proud of you and i'm like oh that's what this game is about going from i can't i'm hover handing my son to by the end of the game that's going to be complete and he can actually show his love and affection i thought that was pretty bold of a take to have with someone like kratos

44:18Justin Davis:also the world serpent one of the coolest characters i mean incredible hub area incredible that was like the uh moments that nick's talking about like in the early games they'd always had like aries walking around the background like you know 60 stories tall yeah and they're able to pull that off with the world stink yeah so good

44:42Sam Claiborn:what is this

44:51Sam Claiborn:It's the world serpent.

45:09Stay calm, boy. I am. This is great.

45:29Justin Davis:all right we're running along on time is there anything we just want to shout out real quick before we move on honorable mention red dead 2 100 i mean it's not even honorable mention it's like that's a good well but if we are our game of our lifetimes if we were gonna like try if we were to actually try and like finalize a top 25 list would both red dead redemption and two be on the list yeah well really went out so just two i think i would just put two yeah and then i think the dueling kojima games death stranding and metal gear solid 5 i i actually have trouble picking between those because metal gear solid 5 is my favorite metal gear but death stranding is my

46:05Sam Claiborn:favorite kojima game i would my candidate for my third game would have been uh phantom bane and yeah yeah the only honorable version of yeah i mean to me i think that game the the development story of that game along with its quote-unquote incomplete story is the story for me and it's something that i'm always thinking about basically every day i think about phantom pain and what happened with that game and how it's inextricably tied to the story of that game and how meta narrative mind-breaking that is um but uh only other honorable mention i want to throughout is the re2 remake i thought was in my brain that was something re2 remake or phantom pain and i had to go with my heart i think about phantom pain probably like a little bit more than i do the re2 re2 remake is is incredible yeah it is incredible and it's so fun and it was kind of the return of resident evil because seven had done a good job but it was an re2 remake

47:02Justin Davis:yeah i always want to replay re2 remake yeah it's a good good month of the year to do that it's also I wanted to throw out Inside which is 11 out of 10 off the charts for me cinematic platformer follow up to what's that first one Limbo I don't know if we're ever going to get another game from that studio I think there was some fallout between the creators one of them left and there might be like a lawsuit happening or something but this game man this game has such a cool vibe and atmosphere I like to play it this time every year and the puzzles are really interesting this game just has it has sights to show you yeah it's just it's kind of like amazing sights that are just a marvel to behold and then it has one of the greatest like power fantasies in the last in the last act that's like wow okay this but this game went somewhere and i love it it's so good one one game that i didn't want to add to the list but i i thought it was interesting why i didn't want to add it is walking dead from last generation yeah i think we didn't bring up last week it's because i thought about that game do you put on and like did they not age well enough for me to care anymore did those get moved into boulders gate basically yeah yeah there's like better games with that acting and that level story i thought about that too there was a big deal at the time i had a great i enjoyed playing them at the time but do i want to play them today

48:21Sam Claiborn:probably not you know i'd argue like every game that we've covered on this list so far i would desperately want to replay at some point in my life and i don't know that i feel that way about The Walking Dead, unfortunately. I love them at the time. They're great, but it's a... Once you experience it, I feel like I got what I needed.

48:38Justin Davis:Okay. That's our check-in. Game of the Sajur watch for now, to be continued. Rolling Stone just published, I think just yesterday published a list. The top 20 NES games. Rolling Stone. Oh, man. Long time. Music, culture, and politics. Definitive source for NES. Former magazine, now a website. Can you imagine how much they hated the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1986? Yeah, probably. So top 20, we'll see. There's like 760 games released for the NES. So these should all be bangers. A top 20 list should all be good. We begin number 20 with Tecmo Super Bowl. Yeah. Yeah. Certified banger. Yeah. I have no qualms with that.

49:24Justin Davis:That actually feels good at 20. but things go up so it doesn't have bojackson in it yeah yeah exactly but things get a little uh off the rails at 19 where they put by on a commando which that's easily top 10 probably top five i'm glad oh yeah this is a bionic commando podcast that's why game scoop was started so it's a little bit hard for us to talk about this outside of that context but yeah at least it's on the list i think i think 19 is just fine for me i'm in agreement with justin would you agree that at 18 blaster master is one better than bionic commando i don't yeah i mean

50:06maybe this makes me a bad panelist for this show but like i kind of don't like i like there's there's the best of the best nes games and there's like yeah these games are all great and like bionic commando and blaster master is solidly in that like second tier for me i don't

50:21Sam Claiborn:once you get past the top 10 i'm like yeah nothing else actually matters in terms of its placement

50:26Justin Davis:well that's not blaster master um did you know the blaster master is the default i'm asking nick the default video game 20 questions answer i did not know that because one time i just answered all questions yes no matter what they asked and then they ended up guessing blaster master wow

50:42Sam Claiborn:impressive that that's how we determine the default yeah okay number 17 teenage mutant

50:47Justin Davis:individuals 3 the manhattan project which sure yeah i don't know why you'd use that over over arcade game but it is yeah it's a unique to nes game and it's just a brawler it's fine it's a little tough like all those brawlers is like they are they were just so much better in the arcade in that era but like it's tough to recommend nes brawlers well and also spoiler there's not a Double Dragon on this list. And I was like, Double Dragon 2 and NES is really, really good. Well, I think Battletoads is probably better than any of those. I wouldn't argue with that either. Number 16 is Excitebike. And this is the first one I would not put Excitebike in the top 20 NES games.

51:27Justin Davis:It's cute. Excitebike's fine. I played it a lot back in the day, but like... This just seems like... It's my first video game memory on the NES. I mean, sure, yeah. It's pretty limited.

51:37Sam Claiborn:Yeah, you get it after like two minutes. Yeah. I like the little sound that it makes when your bike's about to overheat and it goes.

51:48I just remember I have an enduring memory of that just blaring out of my television. When your temperature goes too high. Yeah.

51:56Justin Davis:It's cute. I don't know. It's fine. Number 15 is Super Dodgeball. Yeah. Great game. Yeah. That's a fun one. It's a lot of flicker in that game. Yeah. A lot of flicker. You got to use that flicker. but each character had a different move and that made it really fun yeah it's part of the kunio

52:11Sam Claiborn:it's part of the river city ransom city ransom is it a spin-off that's what those guys were doing

52:16Justin Davis:they made dozens of those games in japan and it's just one of them uh number 14 is star tropics yeah that's an okay game yeah okay yeah they love putting that map in the water and seeing all the stuff you really need a strategy guide to play that one now yep fair warning number 13 is RC Pro-Am. That's a really good one. Made by Rare. Incredible game. Very popular. They made a Micro Machines game that was based on that. That came out. It was an unlicensed Galoob NES game. Very good, too. There's also a sequel to RC Pro-Am. Very hard to find. RC Pro-Am had a great sense of speed. It's just cute and fun to make an RC-based car race game at this time, too.

53:01Do you remember going to parking lots of you know outdoor strip malls and people like setting up racing car because they did that in

53:09Justin Davis:Arizona I mean yeah I still see that kids today still love remote control cars Sam I still see that oh I was with some kids last weekend and they were all playing with a an embiggened remote control car it was like a large plastic shell around it was clearly it just a remote control car engine and it was so chaotic because you could absolutely run over a child with it number 12 is duck hunt and i'm fine with that because duck hunt is just compared to an early game like excite bike i bet like you could take duck hunt you could set up an nes in a bar or anywhere anywhere there's a group of people and everyone would just want to play pick it up yeah i operate a duck hunt in san francisco check this out cool here it goes work

53:54Justin Davis:That was his Halloween costume this year. That's a good idea. Number 11 is Life Force, which I love. I'm not going to argue with that. That's an interesting choice. I'm a little surprised that they would put it that high, but that's fine. One of those arcade ports that doesn't matter because nobody played the arcade version. I think Davidman did as an exception playing Salamander. I don't know. I've never seen Salamander at an American arcade, so I don't know. Yeah. That wasn't even released. So Life Force is great.

54:21Sam Claiborn:I think they also just put out like a collection of those, like four of those games.

54:27Justin Davis:Yeah, they did the Konami or the Gradius collection.

54:29Sam Claiborn:Yeah, it's a nice little relic of like what could have been versus what actually released. Definitive, it's nice.

54:35Justin Davis:Yep. Okay, so now we get to the top 10. And so like you guys say, these are the games you actually care about. So number 10 is Punch-Out. Yeah. Yeah, that's absolutely.

54:44Sam Claiborn:I've never been big on Punch-Out, but I get it.

54:46Justin Davis:They left out Mike Tyson. But you like Shadow of the Colossus, which is just a Punch-Out like.

54:50Sam Claiborn:Yeah, I'm not climbing these people. There's nothing tragic about me beating... Wait, we get to Ball Ball. I mean, if you made a Shadow of the... There might be something... Well, there's something a little bit tragic about beating King Hippo, because I don't think he's all the way there. Yeah, I don't think... If I'm being honest. I want to see a gritty reboot of Punch-Out, please. No, I mean, I have trouble remembering people's birthdays and key anniversaries in my life, I will never forget the pattern for like defeating, you know, the King Tiger and Soto Popinski and punch out for sure.

55:23Justin Davis:Yeah.

55:23Sam Claiborn:I love all their tells.

55:25Justin Davis:Yep. Yeah. So good. One of the first boss rush games. Okay. Number nine. This one is surprising to me because not only is this a Bionic Commando podcast, it's also a Final Fantasy one podcast, but at number nine, they have Dragon Quest three.

55:39Sam Claiborn:Whoa. Okay. So they got a nerd on their team. number nine on the on the top 20 i mean yeah that's a that is a correct choice i love final fantasy one and two don't get me wrong but dragon quest 3 destroys them this is a super nintendo version this yeah this is a super it's a beautiful sprites in that super nintendo version uh okay

56:02Justin Davis:number eight is contra yeah yeah everyone played everyone everyone had it everyone loved it number 7 is Metroid. Not a very good game.

56:12Sam Claiborn:I love Metroid as an IP, as a series, but man, that first game... The original Metroid is not fun. I've tried so many times. I agree, right? I don't need to carry water for Metroid. It's fine, but I will say it's very atmospheric. For an NES game, yeah. Even from the title screen and the music. yep that's exactly it and it does a good job it's way ahead of its time with regard to environmental storytelling um you know one of the only games even kind of attempting anything like that like it's just oppressive to play and be honest think how many nintendo power uh counselor corner sections it's just amazing how many calls yeah let me see the stats of how much money the nintendo line made because of this game i mean it's cool that this and zelda were like attempts to be like to get at the PC RPG and just like replayability and long form there's some cheap stuff in this like you have to grind to fill your life every time you put in the damn code to come back yep super brutal great soundtrack though yep

57:19Justin Davis:gotta grind those gamers okay number six is Castlevania 3 great great game yep fantastic all those could be in the top ten number five is Ninja Gaiden terrible game should be in the top 10. I'm not a fan of the original. It's fine. You can jump on the wall. It's kind of cool. Should be 19. The cinematics. Don't forget the cinematics. Number four is The Legend of Zelda. Wow, man. They really put Shadowgate really high on this list. I was going to say, you don't normally see Adventure of Link higher than Zelda, but here we are.

57:57Sam Claiborn:It's still a great game. It still works today. I enjoy it. Yeah, if the next three aren't just Super Mario Brothers 1, 2, and 3, what are we even doing? It's hard to like it's hard to talk like Zelda 1, you know, it's an old clunky NES game, right? So it's it's put yourself in the headspace of being an 80s gamer. This game felt impossibly big, right? Like just the possibility space of like I can go up, down, left, or right. Like the first open world game and like you didn't know that like you could play that game as a six-year-old not even know there was dungeons and then you find one and you're like what is what yeah there is a swastika dungeon it's like but what is going on and like you know it was just uh it felt endless you know why this aged well is because this is exactly what breath of the wild is based on and i think that's great because i think this is now more accessible because zelda's kind of walked you in baby mode for many years through this version of this it's not really an open world like a gated open world but this is an open world like breath of the wild they just throw you in the world and say

58:58Justin Davis:figure it out yeah i yeah i think this is still very playable today uh also this game has been completely completely saved by save states and not to cheat just to like get through the game and not be annoyed yeah i think that's really wonderful yeah okay number three is super mario brothers yeah that person i agree top three games you see the new levels discovered no you might

59:22Sam Claiborn:Oh, the new Minus Worlds? Yeah, there's new Minus Worlds discovered in Mario 2 for NES. And I watched the full 40-minute video about how they do that. And it's a lot of walking through walls backwards and going pipes before the scrolls, but it's really good. I beat, over Christmas break this year, I beat Mario 1 for the first time. Yeah, that ain't easy. Just getting through 8-3 is hard, right? And then that final level, I mean, you have to know the way through it. It's not too bad once you know the way. But it's kind of a pain in the ass, and you're usually jumping over Bowser as a little guy.

59:58And if you're doing that, you have a chance of dying. That's exactly what it was. I mean, look, the game's not that hard. Like, I sat down, and I'm like, I'm going to beat Mario 1. It took like 25 minutes. Like, it was completely fine. But like, when I was a kid, that maze in 8.4 just felt insurmountable. It felt impossible. 8.3 is really hard, though. That level sucks. This is one of those games where I was like,

1:00:18Sam Claiborn:yeah, of course I've beaten the original Super Mario Bros. But then the more I thought about it, I was like, I don't think I've ever done it by playing every level. I always use the skip to get ahead. So I had to go back and play through it all. You're right to invoke 8.3.2 because the hammer bros on that level are just completely unfair. I love when they start adding the full wall outside the castle and it's like, man, what a game. Awesome game.

1:00:43Justin Davis:Also, it's not that much of a stretch to say without Super Mario Bros. 1, there's no video game industry today. as we know it. Because everyone, this is the game that made the NES a success. Yep. We wouldn't have Bubsy. We wouldn't have Bubsy.

1:00:59Sam Claiborn:Okay. Well, so number two is going to be Castlevania 1 and then number one is going to be... Number two? What is number two? I know number one. I don't know what number two is going to be.

1:01:09Justin Davis:Mega Man 2.

1:01:10Sam Claiborn:Okay. I was like, okay. We haven't gotten Mega Man 2 yet so I would assume it's going to be there.

1:01:15Justin Davis:And you know what number one is. Mario Brothers 3? Which means there's no Mario 2 on the list, but I would absolutely consider Mario 2 to be one of the top 20 NES games. You got a whole vegetable somewhere? Yeah.

1:01:25Sam Claiborn:The original Castlevania is absolutely in the top 20. I would agree, too. I would agree.

1:01:30Justin Davis:Music, perfect game. I would accept two Castlevanias on there. They got two Marios?

1:01:34Sam Claiborn:Why can't they have two Castlevanias? What the heck?

1:01:37Justin Davis:Yeah, I think Castlevania is also just like a... A statement was once made on GameScoop that there wasn't actually any good NES games and none of them were fun, and I just want to point out that there's far more in these 20 games that are actually fun to play. Not Atari. I'm not going to defend Atari. I think it's completely reasonable. Like NES is a hard generation to come back to if you're a younger gamer and didn't grow up with them. Unlike the 16-bit generation that I think those games are just as accessible and playable today. I don't agree. I think things like Mega Man 2 and Mario 3 are perfectly accessible.

1:02:06Well, that's what I was going to say. There are some exceptions. Mario 3 is still, like, it's the jumping. It's how the jumping feels, right? Do you have momentum that you can control? Like, it was so perfect back then. still is

1:02:18Sam Claiborn:look at that screen look at that map screen it's beautiful

1:02:27Justin Davis:that's Rolling Stone's list of the top 20 NES games not bad, it's a solid list not bad at all Mario! Mario!

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1:04:04Justin Davis:Honey, did you invite the Minions over? Well, you know how we talked about getting Wi-Fi from Xfinity? Yeah. I ordered it this morning. was online in minutes, then they showed up. So they just came over to use the Wi-Fi? For what?

1:04:20Better not to know.

1:04:21Justin Davis:Get online in minutes with same-day Wi-Fi from Xfinity. Plus, lock in your price for five years and see Minions and Monsters only in theaters. Xfinity, imagine that. Restrictions apply, not available in all areas. Learn more at Xfinity.com slash same-day Wi-Fi. Okay, we're actually running kind of low on time. I don't know if we can do the EGM. Okay. Is that okay? if we skip the EGM? What was on the cover? Donkey Kong Country. Skip it.

1:04:50Justin Davis:If we can do it in 10 minutes. I loved that game. It was a really great game. No, I don't think we can do it. Because I want to read these letters and stuff.

1:04:59Sam Claiborn:You're picking up the magazine at the store and your mom's at the checkout line. You got to just flip through a couple pages. What are you going to do? Well, let me ask you this.

1:05:06Justin Davis:You're playing Silent Hill F. Yes. You can talk about that. Sam, Justin, do you have anything to talk about to share that you're playing? Yeah. Okay, let's do that instead. We'll table the EGM. We can use it in a later episode. So it's spooky season. Nick, you're playing Silent Hill F.

1:05:19Sam Claiborn:Yeah, I'm in the middle of Silent Hill F. I think I'm nearing the end of my first playthrough. Within the first two hours of the game, I was like, I don't think I like this very much. But, you know, I was like, okay, I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt. This is the first genuinely new Silent Hill game we've had in a long time. So let me give it a shot. And literally after that moment, I was like, I don't think this is for me. cool stuff happens story-wise and i am riveted i'm locked in and i want to see how hinako's story turns out uh the combat kind of sucks but whatever it's fine it's better it's it's more playable than most silent hills combat but i'm just i'm here for the story i'm here for the scares and uh this game is startlingly startlingly brutal in ways i did not anticipate and it is shocking in some very fascinating ways and i'm in i cannot wait to see how the story plays out and i know that every playthrough why are we looking at heavy rain is uh when you do new ng plus it tells you what you need to do to unlock a different ending so it's not like obtuse for the sake of being obtuse and how to get the different endings and every playthrough apparently adds new areas and enemies to experience, as well as new cutscenes and story beats.

1:06:34Sam Claiborn:So I'm very curious if I'm going to play through multiple times, but I think I like this more than the Silent Hill 2 remake. Not as much as the original Silent Hill 2, but I think this is a little bit better because it's a 10-hour experience. Silent Hill 2 remake was like 15 hours too long. They didn't artificially inflate it. They added a lot of meaningful stuff that was cool, but this tells a nice, concise story, and there's just great moments this like scarecrow bit was terrifying it was horrifying and the puzzles are genuinely fun and interesting figuring out like figuring out a middle school girl code that they would send each other like written messages that are just numbers and it's like how does this codex work how does the cipher work how do i have to put my mind uh put myself in the in the shoes of like a middle school japanese girl how how do i figure out this code like stuff like that is super super interesting to me it's good this game looks gross it's very gross and Very, very little.

1:07:32I hope it has a secret dog ending that people don't find for months.

1:07:36Sam Claiborn:I think it has that level of silliness because I have the deluxe version of the game or whatever and you have just a very silly pink schoolgirl outfit with bunny ears on it. So I'm like, all right, there's still silly stuff in this game if you want to have the silly stuff.

1:07:50Justin Davis:So the Silent Hill 2 remake was Bloober. Who did this one?

1:07:54Sam Claiborn:This is a Konami one. I don't know off the top of my head the name of the studio. They get the splash screen up at the front, but this is one that is the first Japanese Silent Hill game we've had in quite a long time.

1:08:05Justin Davis:I mean, there's so many examples of Konami being back. Yeah. I mean, I was not ready to believe it,

1:08:13Sam Claiborn:but every time a new Konami game comes, I'm like, all right, I guess they are back. They're John Wick in it. Yeah. This says the developer is Neobard's Entertainment, who I've never heard of. No.

1:08:29Justin Davis:Don't know.

1:08:29Sam Claiborn:oh well neobards hats off to you you did a good job and also while you were playing silent hill f your power went out right yeah i was like near the end of the game my power went out and it was just normally when the power goes out of my place like it doesn't happen often but when it does it's like you know 30 seconds and then everything turns back on no it was gone from 5 p.m on sunday through 5 in the morning the next day so i was just like my apartment became silent hill for the room and it was just a liminal space pitch black and i'm just like i'm genuinely afraid to be in my home right now i had like candles and stuff i was like oh my you know talking to my girlfriend do we have candles in the apartment like i gotta so i just played final fantasy tactics on my switch like oh cool like any self-respecting person would do i can't i can't wait to get back to that when

1:09:17Justin Davis:i find some time uh because i'm still playing yote and i also have outer worlds 2 which i can't talk about yet and maybe next week we'll be able to talk about that but that's what I'm playing Sam how about you oh I just wanted to talk about the game pro what the EGM EGM yeah yeah yeah okay I have one game then okay Justin uh I'm playing a cool indie game called Little Rocket Lab um and it's it's interesting because it's like it it's like Factorio and Stardew Valley mixed it's like 50 50 of each game um and so it's from an isometric viewpoint has pixel art and you know it's a stardew valley like so you move back to a small town and the town's really dilapidated and run down and everybody's really sad but the gameplay loop is you're placing down conveyor belts and building little factories instead and they sounds like a justin game yeah it's unbelievable how much of a justin game it is um so they tie it into the fiction of the game world really well of like we need to rebuild the lighthouse and so it's like you have to make a bunch of steel and like you know you can and it would feel grindy except that it's an automation game so it's like if you need 800 steel it's like well okay just make more right like just do more conveyor belts and like you know be efficient with how you set things up and it's really good it's really charming it's a little bit hard like it's not as good as stardew or factorio but those are two of the literally greatest games of all time ever made so it's like it that comparison kind of does the game a little bit of a disservice um and it's also a key thing to understand is that it's also like starting valley is like a hundred hour game right and this is 20 probably like it's a little bit more linear like you're going to go through this set of challenges like you know do this do that then the ultimate goal is to rebuild this rocket and i love it like it's really cute Did you say Little Rocket Lab?

1:11:12Justin Davis:Little Rocket Lab. I have a question, and it's about the EGM. Okay. So is there a good letter in it? Yes, there are. It is. Man. Let's just do it next week. Yeah, we'll do it next week. We have two more weeks in October we can do it. Okay. Let's check in with the listeners. Hey, listeners. Listeners, remember you can always reach us at the email address, gamescoop at IGN.com. just like Pedro from Portugal did. And Pedro says, I have a fun correction for you all. You guys keep bringing up this awesome, funny moment from the show, but you've been quoting it a little wrong. Most of you say something like, no one knows or nobody knows, but the actual Damon line was, there's no way to know, which in my opinion is much funnier.

1:11:57Justin Davis:Well, Pedro, thank you for pointing that out. I think it was actually Justin who coined that term. I think it was originally Justin who must've said, there's no way to know. But you know, I say it that way. And I attribute it to Justin. Nope. Nope. Nobody knows who started it. Yeah. Ultimately, there's no way to know.

1:12:20Justin Davis:And that brings us to Video Game 20 Questions. Our suggestion this week comes from Jake from Ohio. And with that, let the questioning begin. What? He doesn't have a little thing? No, he doesn't have a little thing. We just know, you know, it's from Ohio.

1:12:34Sam Claiborn:Don't pick these anymore if they don't have a little thing. I want to hear an anecdote. I want to learn about that.

1:12:39Justin Davis:All right. So remember, viewers, listeners, if you send in an anecdote, that'll help. I can't believe redacted. Okay.

1:12:50Sam Claiborn:Did this game come out in the 70s, 80s, or 90s?

1:12:52Justin Davis:No.

1:12:53Sam Claiborn:Was this game featured on today's episode or mentioned in today's episode?

1:12:57Justin Davis:No.

1:12:59Sam Claiborn:So it's not one of the greatest games ever made.

1:13:02Justin Davis:Got it. Oh, someone also wrote in. I'm sorry. I forgot a name. Someone had a, they suggested a different way to ask that question, Justin, about the 70s, 80s, or 90s. They suggested, how did they put it? It was like, was this game from a decade that was Funkin', Punkin', or Crunkin'? I thought that was pretty good. That's pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Last century. Last century. We're in the 20s. That's amazing. We're in the roaring 20s again. Mm-hmm. I don't like living in the pools. Although I'd argue Funk is from the 60s and Funk is from the 70s. Okay, yeah. So from this century and not mentioned on this episode yet.

1:13:37Got it. Okay. Is this a console exclusive?

1:13:45Justin Davis:Not anymore.

1:13:47Sam Claiborn:Was and now is not. When this game came out, was it exclusive to a Sony console? No. Was it exclusive to a Microsoft console? No, that's five. Oh, shoot. I thought that was going to be it. that probably means nintendo did this come out on an optical disc yes

1:14:13not a switch game no what is that so if it's a nintendo exclusive that leaves us well i guess never mind it was the optical disc real small no it was a regular okay was this game when it came out exclusive to the wii no oh we're down was this exclusive to a portable system when it came out nope we're barking up the wrong tree so hold on hold on hold on we've we've we've come too far there's a sunk cost here that now so it it was well we actually don't know it was exclusive to another console if damon just answered that in a tricksy way because he said not anymore but he could have

1:14:55Sam Claiborn:said it wasn't back then either i wouldn't do that this entry was a console exclusive that no longer is came out on an optical disc but it was not any nintendo console except we use the only one we've not eliminated and not sony and not xbox yeah so unless it was what what i don't but what does that mean? Not Sony, not Xbox, right? So I guess, wait, it's after 2000. Did we ask the question wrong? Could have been, it could have been a late Dreamcast game, but it came out on an optical disc. So that means it's not something weird, like an arcade game or a PC game or a mobile game. Could have been a PC game.

1:15:41Yeah, but that, yeah, you're right. Was this game exclusive to the Wii U?

1:15:49Justin Davis:No. That's 10. Also, I don't see how you've... Well, okay. Never mind. Some people get mad when I help, but you guys are struggling. I don't see how you've ruled out arcade.

1:16:02Because, well, okay. Because we said it was a console exclusive. I think it's a Dreamcast game, and I think it came out in arcades and on the Dreamcast. Maybe it's like a House of the Dead type. Yeah, typing of the dead. Okay. Did this come out in arcades first?

1:16:16Justin Davis:just so we don't uh i don't know which came first that doesn't count i'm not counting i'm not counting i don't know which i don't know which came first so it is an arcade game maybe it's just crazy taxi yeah except i think that that was because the dreamcast came out in 99 and i think that that was a launch dream crazy crazy taxi 2 typing of the dead house of the dead 2 power stone it yeah yeah yeah exactly is this a dreamcast game was it available in dreamcast you didn't ask that already no yes it was a dreamcast game yeah so it's an arcade so it could be house of the dead 2 uh does this game does this game use a a non-traditional control scheme like a fishing rod or a light gun or something like that no okay so it's a more traditional game um what are we at 12 crazy crazy texans looking good boys in arcade didn't it have a steering wheel did this game have licensed music in it no

1:17:25Sam Claiborn:licensed music is this a fighting game yes it is a fighting soul caliber or virtual or power stone i don't think our caliber wasn't exclusive oh wait power stone wasn't in arcade was it Soul Calibur was an exclusive when it first came out. I'm pretty sure it was just... I just associated with my friend who just had a Dreamcast and that's the only game that they showed off. It might be. I don't think so. Isn't that the same generation that... Oh, maybe it was next-gen that they all had each console. Exclusive characters. I mean, I think it did come out to other stuff, but it just right at the Dreamcast.

1:18:00Well, who made Soul Calibur? Who published it? Namco.

1:18:06Maybe Dreamcast first. Was this a Namco game? No, that's 15. What are they? Power Stone.

1:18:12Sam Claiborn:Oh, maybe it's like Marvel versus Capcom 2. NBC. Those probably came to the other systems. I think it was a Dreamcast exclusive on console. And it was arcade for sure first. How many questions do we have? Four questions and a guess. Wasn't Power Stone also Capcom? That was Capcom. That was Capcom. Is this a Capcom game? Yes.

1:18:39it's probably mvc2 are we sure powerstone didn't come to arcades is this game based on a license

1:18:45Sam Claiborn:yes it's it's gotta be more of a um does i think marvel versus capcom 2 actually has jill valentine in it which the previous game does what um really and chris redfield if i'm not mistaken there's zombies that you can have in marvel versus cap it rocks uh wait wait there's no way mbc1 that's what i was thinking too like the timeline is a little jumbled for me i like that marvel versus capcom everyone always talks about marvel and no one ever really talks about the cap my favorite is the capcom of it all i was like i don't i like superheroes but dude being able to have a team of like chris redfield and megaman that rocks yeah it's pretty sick oh yeah megaman what's the big robot for megaman that's in it i actually don't know that name but it's sick when you get to summon it because i accidentally pushed all the buttons in the correct order uh okay let's see i is it well we have two questions we can ask if megaman's in it and then we can ask if it's the first of its well megaman's just ask if it's a sequel that's what i'm saying yeah those are the two questions we can ask okay is this a sequel is go ahead sequel one is this a sequel yes it's a sequel is this marvel versus capcom 2 i believe I believe it's called Clash of Heroes.

1:19:55Justin Davis:Yes, it is. Marvel vs. Capcom 2. It may have hit the arcades first, but I think it'd be a matter of weeks before it was released on Dreamcast. Really? You think it was right then? And that was right in 2000.

1:20:08Sam Claiborn:That's so cool. This is the pinnacle of sprite work. I wish they just made an anime that looked like this. Dreamcast said this is an exclusive and the system couldn't hang in there? I mean, come on. I'm gonna take you for a ride.

1:20:21Justin Davis:I heard that in the office. So 2000, and then it would go to PS2 in 2002, Xbox in 2003, and then it would hit Xbox Live Arcade in 2009. I bet that Xbox port's really nice.

1:20:34Sam Claiborn:I think it is on the Switch now as well. I don't think it is. It's on the Switch as part of a collection. A collection, yeah. Part of a collection. On that B-roll we were just watching, the person's score was 242 million. Cool. That's some pinball-style scores. Yeah, no kidding. In what other game can you have Tron Bon on your team? Like, that's insane. yeah great great game man look at look at ryu's sprite oh it's so good everything looks so good and then the coolest fighting game in the world yeah if you meet someone who likes marvel versus capcom 2 they're immediately a cool person that's 100 true like and if they don't like it it doesn't mean they're not cool but it's like an opt-in further testing is required and then they totally it's a screening question for sure they bundled bungled everything with uh infinite yeah it's just like how did you go from the characters looking like this to yeah that yeah anyway yeah i mean i get it i understand that like sprite work is like a dying art and it's so expensive and time consuming like you just can't do it it costs too much money like i i understand but it just it makes me sad but it's like you're telling me that you own you have the license to a marvel property and it isn't worth spending a lot of money to make them beautiful

1:21:50Justin Davis:your Capcom they're doing it now the token Marvel token or whatever that game is right like that

1:21:55Sam Claiborn:looks great like that looks like the spiritual successor to this yeah also if they want it just use these sprites like no one no one would be mad just use these sprites that'd be great that's what Castlevania's been doing for decades Marvel versus Capcom 2 too yeah yeah I mean they did it

1:22:14Justin Davis:with Final Fantasy 13 what a game you know nicely job thank you for the suggestion Jake from Ohio viewers, listeners, if you have your own suggestions for video game 20 questions, email them to me at the email address gamescoop.it.com With a little story. With a little story. We always like to hear a little story. I will redact any classified information. Okay. Scoop Nation, if you're looking for something to play right now that helps support a great cause, head over to Humble. Live now through November 4th, grab eight incredible games for just$14.99 including Atomic Heart, V Rising, System Shock, Story of Seasons, Pioneers of Olive Town, Crypt Master, Pharaoh, a new era, hotel renovator, and caravan sandwich.

1:22:51Justin Davis:Every purchase supports the Whale and Dolphin Conservation, the leading global charity dedicated to protecting whales and dolphins through research, rescue, and advocacy. By joining in, you're not just building your library, you're helping create a world where every whale and dolphin is safe and free. And that's all the scoops that we have for you this week. Thank you, Nick. Thank you, Sam. Thank you, Justin. Thank you to Jobert working behind the scenes to make this episode possible. My name is Damon. We'll be back next week with hopefully a look through that October 1994 for Electronic Gaming Monthly.

1:23:18Justin Davis:We'll see you then.

1:23:37Justin Davis:This episode of Game Soup was produced by myself, Damon Hatfield, and Jobert Odienza. Technical direction is handled by Jobert Odienza. Technical production is by Mariah Franzen and Amir Aqib. Audio engineering is by Amir Aqib and post-production editing is by yours truly, Damon Hatfield. Graphic design is by Nicole Cagampin. GameScoop is an IGN production and part of the Geek Media Network.

1:24:19We'll see you next time.

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From the publisher

Welcome back to IGN Game Scoop!, the ONLY video game podcast! This week your Omega Cops -- Daemon Hatfield, Sam Claiborn, Justin Davis, and Nick Limon -- are discussing the best games of the PS4/Xbox One generation. Red Dead Redemption 2, The Witcher 3, Metal Gear Solid 5... It's Game of the Century Watch! And, of course, they play Video Game 20 Questions.
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