Game Scoop! 838: Our Most Anticipated Games of 2026

20:54Justin Davis:There is. There's 12. Where is it? A long time coming. Yeah, seriously. I don't think we've gotten an update on it in a while. Yeah. It's so hard for me now because, like, there's new JRPGs coming out like Octopath Zero. and then there's these remakes of these Dragon Quest games and Live Alive and there's the Final Fantasy 1 through 6 stuff that came out. I want to play all that stuff. That'd be great. But this is an 80-an-hour investment. I've played a lot of them already, so it's a little bit of waste of my time, even though they're all Desert Island. That's the Desert Island collection for me.

21:29I want this as an Encyclopedia Britannica book set of every JRPG that came out in the 90s in the best form and the original form and then i'll play them before i'm dead you know but like when is that going to happen got a backwards plan for my death gotta work backwards yeah this is neither

21:47Justin Davis:here nor there but we're just talking with my family this uh in the year 2100 kingo will be 81 years old not bad it's just like what it's so crazy yeah it's gonna it's gonna go into the next censored yeah that's crazy cool okay moving right along on february 12th is mario tennis fever i don't know much about that one yeah i i love the mario golf games i've never really gotten into the other mario sports games but you know i'm at a time now when if king was interested and wants to play something that's something like i would play with him if he's into it yeah yeah it's been a while since they've been good i mean look like i'm gonna say the same thing that everyone's gonna say is like if this game has a really cool story mode and like rpg mechanics and like you know if it's sort of meaty in that way then cool i'm into it and if it doesn't have that and it feels a little bit more bare bones like the last couple mario tennis games are like they they felt like they kind of ran out of steam and have been a little bit lazy lately so So we'll see which it is.

22:54My problem with these tennis games is that when they, is that the enemy, it's not like golf where you're like playing against, you know, yourself basically and try to get better. And it's this kind of relaxing thing. It's like it relies on enemy AI, enemy, opponent AI, and they get really cheap. It's not super fun. So it's like, you know, that's a tough tuning thing. But I guess playing against your friends is pretty fun, stuff like that. And then the other problem is that the perfect tennis game was already made for Virtual Boy, and they never need to make another tennis game.

23:26Justin Davis:Correct. What's the name of that? Well, they are bringing the virtual boy back, right? It's just called Mario Tennis for. I forgot. I forgot that's coming sometime next year. Yes, must be pretty soon. I got to go. Oh, I have to go to the Nintendo store. They have some special Christmas stuff and I want to see it. Well, you know, I'll grill them about the virtual boy. I want to go buy one there and that's available. well the day after mario tennis fever re-animal comes and this one is interesting i was checking this out at gamescom this year this is from the team that did little nightmares one yep and two but not i think i believe so yeah so this is another cooperative horror adventure game a lot of buzz out there i mean little nightmares i knew was a hit but i didn't realize how huge it was right and so then re-animal sort of a spiritual successor not a successor in name um you know this is this is one of those franchises that sort of grew and grew and grew and snuck by me but is um is just gigantic and has become a real phenomenon and i am actually super excited about re-animal yeah i am too it's you know it's another kids in horrific dangerous situations kind of game i think people are a little bit disappointed with little nightmares 3 so there's a lot of excitement for this one this one being the original team that created these games it's the it's the vibe of a limbo type game and that type of gameplay cooperative 3d limbo yeah and that's yes okay cool so that's good and then finally on uh february 27th first really big hotly anticipated game for me would be resident evil requiem of course so we're all big fans of that series don't think there's a lot more to say about that game right now but well there's i think the last thing we talked about was the the revelation that you there's kind of a split between the horn play played horror character and then the action played you know character i think that's smart so cool there's supposed to be a a presentation dedicated to uh resident evil requiem soon so it has to be coming in january i would think since it's the game is out in february it is funny that the cycle for resident evil has been spring for so long now it's like what i think maybe it works for them because i think they do dlc around halloween but it's just like it it is weird not to have this as like your annual spooky season game yeah yeah i don't know why capcom has decided spring is the time for new resident evil but that's fine it's working for them it is and then getting into a march another very anticipated game for myself is replaced on march 12th i can't believe this game is finally coming out speaking of limbo this one is a you know a cinematic platformer along the lines of limbo and inside with just absolutely incredible pixel art of course the developers are in the ukraine so understandably it's been taking some extra time but this game looks good yeah yeah gorgeous i'm so happy it's finally coming out and you know ryan mccaffrey uh host of podcast unlocked he's also he's been following this game for a long time he's played it and he came away very impressed okay so he did a hands-on and he reviewed inside for us so okay someone who likes inside a lot is happy with the way uh replaced is coming together good sign yep so i talked about some curiosities that same day as replaced a couple of curious games there's r-type tactics one and two so r-type tactics was a psp game right i missed that but it looked so good i really wanted to play it at the time it was like a perfect combination of r-type and then going around a tactical rpg right yeah i mean it's yeah so it's It's imagine Final Fantasy Tactics, but it's in space.

26:58Justin Davis:It's R-Type. We gave it a seven. I-Gian gave it a seven. Some other outlets scored it a little bit higher. And then there was a sequel that only came out in Japan. But these are two PSP games. And I just wonder, who's the audience for R-Type today? Me? Me? Yeah. It's just for Damon. If every single person interested in R-Type Tactics bought it, what's the cap on like the commercial appeal of a game like this and i say this is someone that like i'm interested right i like our type and i like tactics games but like in that era on the psp there is this weird trend of like tacticifying like there was metal gear acid yep where they turned that into like a top-down card game board game and um well there was doom rpg was they turned that into a first-person dungeon crawling role-playing game not on the psp but like around that same time frame.

27:53Maybe it did come out on the PSP eventually. But, you know, and they made R-Type Tactics. I know there's more, but like, that was just a weird trend that went around for a while. Make it turn-based.

28:03Justin Davis:Yeah, like I'm not hating. I like R-Type. I'm glad it's happening just for, you know, preservation's sake. But I just, from a business standpoint, it just seems like a hard sell. Because this is not the only R-Type release coming this year. This is only the first of three R-Type releases coming next year. Please be excited. Also, it's the year. In this game, you do play an action based R type game, right? You don't just do like there's two games. I don't think so. No, you just do the tactical stuff. See, the appeal for me would be if you had like an act raiser type thing going for it, where it's like you had your, you know, kind of tactical game or a sim game or something and then built on it, you'd go into the level and do a shooter level.

28:44That would be that's a perfect game right there. You know, it would be cool. I don't think it's sad. Let's make it. mini shoot adventure was a really good game by the mini shoot adventure yeah was that another psp one no that was just the one that from i played it on steam last year it's just a pc oh that's right that's right it was a zelda i remember it's the zelda like genres

29:05Justin Davis:okay and then also that same day finally apparently john carpenter's toxic commando is finally coming out wow yeah man i didn't realize that i guess i guess i knew it didn't come out but i hadn't really thought about it in a while oh that was announced a couple years ago It's a four-player cooperative first-person shooter. We are just running around shooting monsters. We'll see. I don't know. It feels like every quarter there's one of those that gets really popular and then goes away. Like, it's well-timed. That's true. Yeah. All right. Sorry to jump away right as you get the B-roll up, Jobert.

29:37Justin Davis:On March 19th, Crimson Desert is coming out. And I don't know if this will be my kind of game, but I know that all these trailers absolutely do huge numbers for us. It's going to be a big, big popular game. Because this is the follow-up to Black Desert, right? Black Desert Online? But single-player action-y. But not an MMO, I don't believe. No, no, this is just like a cool big action game that's hard. I mean, I like those games. If it's like a Dragon's Dogma, is it playing in that wheelhouse? Because I like those games. Yeah, that might be a good comparison, I'm not sure. That same day as Mouse, PI for Hire.

30:14Justin Davis:That one's been coming a long time. So that's the first person shooter with the cuphead style, but everything's a rat. Yeah, the rubber hose sort of 30s early Disney animation style. So that one's hard to predict. I don't know if it'll be good or bad or whatever. I think we previewed it. You can check that out. But every time there's footage of that, it kind of does really well. Everybody wants to watch it because it's just eye-catching and looks neat on YouTube. I don't know if that game... I don't know much about the game. That's exactly it. Those games are well-deserved, right? Right, but it's deservedly getting a lot of attention and a lot of praise for how it looks, and it's very eye-catching and gorgeous and beautiful and unique, but that doesn't necessarily translate into, is this going to be a 10 out of 10 video game experience?

30:57But it definitely translates to, when this appears at a PS showcase or whatever, it definitely catches everybody's eye, right?

31:05Justin Davis:Yeah, when I first saw it, I was a little dismissive that it's just first-person Cuphead, but I actually think it looks pretty fun and clever and lots of fun weapons. I like how it's a little bit gory and there's, you know, some blood or ink splatter happening. I mean, I think it's definitely something I will check out. I mean, I know that I like Cuphead and has a lot of fans, but like I wouldn't wish that game on my enemies like that game is really, really annoying to play sometimes, right? Even though you want to keep playing it in my case, because I like old school games like that, like it's not accessible.

31:33This one looks like at least first person shooters are generally just kind of just kind of they can be mindless. You can just go through them and see all the cool stuff, which is maybe a better way to experience this type of style. But Mm-hmm. Somebody was confused, though, because PIs, private investigators,

31:48Justin Davis:don't really come in guns blazing. No. Everybody down. Yeah. It's not much of a PI. Maybe it stands for something else. Maybe. And then apparently in March, according to Justin and Steam, Slay the Spire 2 has a release date. What was that date? March 22nd? It just says March. Okay. March. March 22nd is all that's on that. Or March 2026 is all that's on the Steam page. Okay. Finally. Yeah, I mean, looks amazing. Like I've seen some, I mean, I don't even know that I would call it criticism, but just a common piece of feedback is, boy, it sure looks a lot like Slay the Spire 1, which I get, but it's like, gosh, like that was a perfect game, right?

32:28So it's like if they made that game, and I'm not saying it is that, but if it were that, but 20 % better and bigger and different, it's like, well, okay. Like, you know, you can't, there's only so much you can do to improve on perfection.

32:41Justin Davis:yeah i mean at a glance you can tell it has much better animations uh yeah you know i love slay the spire my if i have a critique i don't super love the art style of it and then there's very little animation that carried is this changed art style or is this the same it's kind of the same art style but it's a little bit more of a cartoon look to it and the characters are have a lot more animation going on it feels yes it feels a lot higher budget probably because it is right of of like the characters are moving more and doing more and a lot more active. Um, and, and I, I believe I, I mean, talk about this on Scoop once, like, I don't, I think I saw in a trailer or an interview or something that Slay the Spire 2 is going to be a little bit more story forward.

33:24And that, um, that excites me actually. I'm interested in digging into a little bit more about that world. Yep.

33:31Justin Davis:Super excited for that to finally come out. This episode is brought to you by Redfin. You're listening to a podcast, which means you're probably multitasking. Maybe even scrolling home listings on Redfin. Saving homes without expecting to get them. But Redfin isn't just built for endless browsing. It's built to help you find and own a home. With agents who close twice as many deals, when you find the one, you've got a real shot at getting it. Get started at Redfin.com. Own the dream.

34:04In a classroom of sodas, most stay quiet. Then there's Mr. Pibb. Sweet cherry, bold outbursts, the kind of flavor that gets attention. Bold kick of cherry. Hey, you're Mr. Pibb.

34:32Justin Davis:Getting into April, April 24, there's Pragmata, another long time coming game from Capcom. Yeah, I didn't realize, you had mentioned this before, I didn't realize that they had announced Pragmata so long ago, because I just think of it as something that was announced like last year and we saw it for the first time. But no. Years ago. It was at the announcement of the PS5. That's so crazy. I have no memory of this. Somewhere around 2023, it was delayed indefinitely. And now, I mean, so they didn't give up on it. But this being a secret Mega Man game is the only thing that interests me about it.

35:05Justin Davis:We should clarify, that's just Nick Limon's wild fan theory. It's so good. Yep. Why would she have a blue coat if she wasn't Mega Man? She is an Android, right? Yeah. You know that much. Well, and that's always the 20 questions conundrum, right? Is Mega Man a man or a boy or a robot? Which is it? robot dogs are they robots or dogs um there's also like a some kind of a demo on this for this available now that's kind of like the kitchen demo for resident evil yeah mark loved it yeah so i think i think this is looking at you know we talk a lot capcom rarely misses these days so 100 and speaking of missing there's like a little like puzzle each time you fight an enemy where you have to like shoot the right quadrant of it it's cool cool on april 30th seros will arrive for PS5, the first PS5 exclusive of the year.

36:01Justin Davis:And I'm excited for that game. I liked Returnal. I didn't finish Returnal. I'm not that tough of a gamer able to finish Returnal, but I liked a lot what I played. I'll play Returnal with a different color palette. I mean, Housemarque's never made a bad game. That's true. Returnal was not my thing, but it seems like they listen to feedback and this is Returnal and fixing the elements that cause people like me to, I shouldn't say fixing, but going in a different direction with the elements of the game that people like me bounced off of it, right? And so a little bit more permanent upgrades, a little bit more ability to power yourself up, but you're still looping through the game.

36:41Sounds awesome. Sounds amazing. I'm into that one.

36:45Justin Davis:Yep. And then 007 First Light was supposed to be out in March, but it was recently delayed into May 27th, which is funny because that was the window left open by gj6 big old games that month now yeah um so man io interactive i love all their modern hitman stuff hitman 3 was so good oh my gosh yeah i'm really excited for this one i have a lot to say about this one so i'll keep it short so we just get like the idea of taking a license now and making the best possible game with it is i think being realized because indiana jones just happened and we had machine games like take this like amazing you know like difficult license to get right and just absolutely exquisitely nail it and they turned out to be the perfect company for that but i wasn't expecting them to be for this this is the perfect company to make this game i already know that right like this is this couldn't be better so that's one thought i have about it like how great is it to pair somebody that's made an incredible series of games with with a license to do something that they could rip on so that's one thing the other is that they that's hitman is that the character hitman even though they try to make movies about Hitman, it's supposed to be a stand in like a dummy, like something that's like not developed.

37:54Like this is James Bond. So they're doing the exact opposite. They're taking like a magnetic central character and making a game around that. And I think they might be, you know, that's new for them. And I'm like, that's where I'm like, oh, is that going to work out? But then again, like James Bond just exists already and is already developed. What do you need to do? You need to pick a cool car and a bunch of cast of characters and then set up your set pieces. And every time I see a set piece in this game, it looks really good. that airplane level, like I watched that twice. I thought it looked really cool.

38:21Like I was like, oh, there's a lot going on here. Yeah, man. Yeah, I hope it's good. I mean, IO Interactive, like Hitman games are not action games, you know? They're kind of puzzle games and the few kind of punctuated action-y moments are sometimes a little bit clunky. Like that's just the way the games worked. And so I hope that like, I, you know, I believe in IO Interactive. They're a really, really talented studio and I hope they manage to pull off those set piece moments. but I'm not quite, it hasn't gone over with me yet. Like I hope that those action moments play as well as sort of like the infiltration stealth, explore these big open environment moments like that.

38:58I'm not worried about at all, but like everything, the rest, all the rest that stitches it together, you know, I I'm, I'm in a little bit more of wait and see mode. If this game's amazing and we just got Indiana Jones and a few good star Wars games recently, what, what are we doing with Batman?

39:15Justin Davis:Well, that's funny you mention that, Sam, because two days later is Lego Batman. Yeah. Legacy of the Dark Knight. Yep. That's crazy that these are on top of each other now in May. I think that's really bad for everybody involved. Well, they're pretty very different games. I mean, I want to play both of them. Yeah, I do too. It's going to be complicated. But I don't think a lot of the kids are going to want to play 007 first. Well, Batman will probably be fine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I'm really excited for this game. Lego Star Wars, the Skywalker saga is one of three games that King Kong plays. just all the time.

39:46Justin Davis:We're going to play the heck out of this game.

39:51The improvement and evolution to the LEGO formula from game to game, they've been making them, TT Games has been making for 20 years now, right? It's just been so amazing to behold. And they've gone from, oh, these are good and fun and inoffensive enough for kind of like a LEGO game to like, no, like LEGO Skywalker Saga, you know was like them we could just actually make a big triple a co-op game and it doesn't need to have some asterisk next to it of like oh it's just good for kids or families or whatever like they made this kind of all ages you know all sexes thing that anyone can enjoy and love and you know the parody is always on point um so i just i don't know like i'm really excited about it Same.

40:37And then I had mentioned R-Type Tactics 1 and 2

40:40Justin Davis:as the first of three R-Type releases this year. In May, we're supposed to get R-Type Dimensions 3, which is a remake of R-Type 3, which Sam, help me out. R-Type 3 was a Super Nintendo game, I believe. Yeah, it was, yeah. I thought 4 was, 3 was maybe? 3 was. One of them went, instead of arcades, it went straight to Super Nintendo. So again, I'm glad this exists, but I just wonder, How much of an audience there is. We've talked about this before, I think, probably multiple times, but R-Type was published by Nintendo in the arcades, so there was an arcade machine that Nintendo made for R-Type, which I think is interesting.

41:16Oh, I didn't remember that. I was always, I mean, whatever. I like R-Type just fine. I like all shmups, but if I was forced to choose, I was always a gratius man. Yeah, I would.

41:26Justin Davis:I'd play Life Force specifically for me. Hell yeah. Did you know that this had a subtitle called The Third Lightning? The Third Lightning. that's cool that is a good subtitle well look at toy that's the collector's edition how many of those how many of those they make i mean i think maybe our type has a some kind of persistent fan base in japan that we are unaware of because all these things i think are just like yeah just port them to america too you know yeah yeah okay here's here's what's interesting that's may that gets us up to May. The next game with a release date is on September 9th. So there's this huge window, June, July, and August.

42:06Justin Davis:No games are coming out this summer, Sam. Sorry, I know you like summer games. I like summer games, but the May games are pretty good, though, right? So, like, that can carry us a little bit. Yeah. September 9th is Phantom Blade Zero. Sort of a martial arts character action game. Got a lot of buzz coming out. Before we get too far, you did skip over Pokemon Pocopia, which is... Oh, yeah, I did, yeah. A cozy Pokemon game. And Witchaven? Witchbrook? Wait, does that have a release date? No, but it got delayed from this year. So I'm presuming there's going to be some cozy games besides Animal Crossing in the spring.

42:40I just want to shut this up.

42:41Justin Davis:I have a whole section of games that are supposed to come but don't have a release date. Right, got it. Anyway, Phantom Blade Zero. Looks cool. I'll at least check it out. And then, what do we got next? Oh yeah, and then November 19th, a little game called GTA 6. Mm-hmm. Interesting. That's the farthest out, you know, big game with a release date. Yeah. Yep. And so I think I'm going to say it now. I think it's going to come out that day. You think so? You think so? Yeah. Yeah. I never believed the spring date. Oh, I see. I see. I think the spring date was always code for November 26th. I see. So you called the bluff and now you're doubling down on the reality.

43:22And now I think that they're going to hit November. right as the consoles are getting old again just like when gta 5 that's exactly what happened with

43:30Justin Davis:gta 5 yep and then everyone will double dip and buy it again and yeah well you can at the end of a console generation you can make a game run amazingly on those consoles you know everything that could possibly go wrong right yeah boy we'll see except for cyberpunk yeah i will say this i'm very excited for this game. I'm not the world's biggest fan of GTA five, but I love Vice City and I'm happy to return to Vice City and everything I've seen about this is looking great. I mean, I absolutely loved GTA five. I mean, like everybody else, you know, 10 out of 10, one of the best games ever made. And then I went back and replayed, you know, probably the first third of it sometime when it was on game pass and was not nearly as impressed the second time around.

44:13So it's like, Ooh, well, you know, it just felt very, and it wasn't the game's fault at all. but just like everything that felt so new and amazing and revolutionary. It's like, well, you know, games have been doing this for the last 12 years now. You know, I think about GTA 6 all the time. And one thing that I've been thinking about a lot recently is like, I'll probably find something in this game that I like doing because Rockstar just makes 100 games, right? And like every something in there, like it's probably like the best possible, you know, version of like hockey or something in the game that's going to be out that year.

44:44Justin Davis:Yeah. And then you can just play that in this game, you know, Like it's a platform basically. And that's like, for me, I really like the stunt jumps from the previous games. I like, you know, just the idea of, you know, um, uh, heists, like if they do like heist, like side quests or something like, there's things that I like about GTA. And then I usually just like watching the storyline. Right. But then there's other parts that I just don't care about at all. Like the, you know, like the stock market and stuff from the last game. So we'll see. It's probably going to have, it's probably going to have a whole series of like jet ski races that are like better than wave race.

45:14Like it's going to be incredible. And there's going to be, you know, 24 of them in the game. Yeah. And then you're just like, wow, that was actually the best racing game this year. Yep. Spring starts at the Home Depot and we are bringing the heat to your backyard this season. Fire up the flavor with our wide variety of grills for under$300. Like the next grill four burner gas grill that's perfect for hosting your spring cookout. Then set the scene and turn your outdoor space into the go-to spot the patio sets for every budget. Bring it this season with grills that deliver flavor and patios that set the vibe from the Home Depot.

45:46Start your spring with low prices guaranteed at The Home Depot. Exclusion Supplies, see homedepot.com slash price match for details. My dad taught me a lot, including how easy it is to forget to cancel things. So I downloaded Experian, my BFF, big financial friend. Experian could help me cancel my unused subscriptions and lower my bills, saving me hundreds a year. Get started with the Experian app today. Your big financial friends here to help you save smarter. Results will vary. Not all bills or subscriptions eligible. Savings not guaranteed. $631 a year. average savings with one plus negotiations and one plus cancellations paid membership with connected payment account required see experian.com for details

46:30Justin Davis:all right now i've got a bunch of games that are due out this year that don't have release dates and this is the segment where there'll be some games in here that i think you might have forgotten and about for example bloodstained the scarlet engagement yep forgot about that that's yep equal to bloodstained i'm fine with it keep on making bloodstains yeah i mean sure i like i like bloodstained a lot very good castlevania like made by the castlevania guy i don't know what his involvement is in this one but it's looking good and remember this time around there are two characters but it's a single player game and yeah i think you can swap back and forth and then the NPC just controls the other one.

47:06It has like a total visual upgrade. Like this looks crazy good.

47:10Justin Davis:Yes, it looks really good. A lot more outdoor environments, daylight areas. Oh my gosh, that boss looks great. Maybe this is the Metroidvania of the year. Maybe it is. OK, Deus Ex Remastered is on the way, and that's cool. I've never played the original Deus Ex. Hope they do a good job. It's not a huge remaster, though. Like it doesn't, it looks a little. It's not a remake, it's a remaster. Yeah. Look, I say this with love. No, look, I like Deus Ex. I love Deus Ex. I think it's a game that's hard to go back to. Some games are easy to go back to and go down smooth, and some do not. And like, you know, I think that Deus Ex is going to be a challenge for gamers with modern tastes and modern sensibilities.

47:57Justin Davis:I mean, they had to say they have overhauled controls and stuff, so. yeah i mean it's the first game i can ever remember playing where like you just had choice right like this thing that's that's very it's very commonplace now but like doing a sneak in or go guns blazing or talk your way in or like i've never seen anything like that in a game before like you know so um i have a lot of nostalgia for it for that reason i just think whenever they do that pass to show how remastered is it looks exactly the same it's just not it's not And I think that's good because for people that love this game, it's going to look how you remember it, which is always a fun thing to do.

48:36But I think this would need a remake for me to play.

48:43Justin Davis:Next year, Xbox should finally deliver Fable. Yeah. Which I would be excited for. One of the big Xbox games next year. Yeah, I would be excited for it. The only trepidation I have is that it's just taken so long. That's all. Who knows how it is. Yeah. I mean, I also, voice acting and stuff. They got in there. And I know that Peter Molyneux has become kind of like, you know, the butt of some jokes over the years, but like, I don't think he's making this right. So it's like, he's also an unbelievably, you know, joke all you like. He's still an incredible talented, you know, game director and, and talent overall.

49:15So, you know, and not to take anything away from the team that is making this, but it makes me on a personal level, a little bit less interested than I would be, but like, you know, a big fantasy, high budget fantasy role playing game that doesn't take itself too seriously. It's like, I don't know. It sounds like a good time. Yeah. I just hope I might. The lessons that Fable needs to learn from are the open world Witcher and Skyrim games. Like that's, that's what will like. If this is really like the big open world fantasy game this year, instead of the kind of channeled down paths that Fable can feel more like, then it's going to be incredible because they've had extra time to work on it.

49:53And that's a good sign if it's a huge game. If it's a kind of narrow game, it means they had to probably reset a whole bunch and then that's not as interesting.

50:01Justin Davis:It's Playground, right? Yes. Is it Forza Motorsport or Forza Horizon? Horizon, right? Which I think implies that it's going to be more of a single open world type game. I hope so, right? That's what they're good at. Maybe it'll have Baja races. Maybe this and GTA will both have cool wave race clones in them and we'll see which one's better. Yeah, cool. Okay, Nintendo will have Fire Emblem Fortunes Weave. That's cool. Always happy. Happy to have a new Fire Emblem. Like my tactics games. And then, of course, oh, also Xbox will have Halo Campaign Evolved. Another Halo remake. Just played through the last one.

50:39Justin Davis:Yeah, you just played it. It was great. I mean, will you play it again? Just to like see. It looks good. Graphics, I mean, look incredible. Yeah, it looks really good. I have no problem with playing Halo and Legendary by myself. Like, I'll just do that. Yeah. It's always fun. Okay. I mean, this is them. This was their, you know, a rumor is that they're not using their own. Well, this game is Unreal Engine. Everybody knows that. But the rumor is that this is them getting to know Unreal Engine because they're not using their own engine anymore for mainline Halo games. Crazy, right? So let's remake the original game using Unreal and, like, you know, get our arms around that, and then they're going to use that tech going forward for future Halo projects.

51:14This is, like, I'm sure the answer to this is really obvious, but I don't know if any of us will know it. but is there an Unreal current shooter right now? Or did everybody use their own engines for like Battlefield and Call of Duty and stuff? I mean, what runs on Unreal? Like a shooter, like... I'm just trying to think of like a multiplayer shooter. Like, is this... Like, do we know if Unreal can power a multiplayer shooter? Like, I don't even know. I mean, I'm sure it can, given, you know, given Fortnite. I mean, big... Yeah, that's true. but but like not like not not battle not battlefield for example so you know i guess i would have to think about it yeah but hey like if fortnight's the platform that they build a halo

51:58Justin Davis:around i'm sure it'd be fine and then moving on to some uh playstation stuff i don't know this was this one was on a playstation state of play but i don't know if it's gonna has it's a timed exclusive it's marvel tokon fighting souls oh man which is the marvel fighting game from the guilty of your folks and it looks just great. Yeah, I know. I mean, I'm not even a bit. It did exactly what it's supposed to do. Or I'm not a gigantic fighting game guy. And I'm like, Okay, I'm on board. I just I love it. They're leaning into its Japanese game. All these Marvel characters are speaking Japanese. I love it.

52:29Justin Davis:It's great. Yeah, I knew that my team here at IGN has some of the big fighting game folks audit and like, you know, this is like, just this is just the biggest deal. You know, I think it's so cool that people are getting this like perfect game in their in their genre you know yeah really really excited for that and then of course wolverine finally dude my that's my single most anticipated game it might be mine too might be mine too once i saw them ripping apart those cyborgs i was like oh yeah i mean insomniac and i and i know people are a little bit down on spider-man too but like not Not in any kind of like, oh, it's not a good game kind of way, but just like they wished it went a little bit farther, did a little bit more.

53:14Like when was the last time Insomniac made a game that wasn't incredible? You know, 20 years ago, maybe never. Like they kind of quietly have one of the best track records in all of video games, you know, across multiple decades. This is another example of a company that's taking a license that I wouldn't expect them to be good at, but I trust them to be really good at it. I think Wolverine is going to feel different enough from spider-man and b maybe more of that kind of like you know yeah maybe not about traveling through a city as much as you know combat you know i i think they should they should be really good at that i did forget we're watching this b-roll i forgot how goofy the wolverine character model is well we always get used to that games when they're not character no but then by the end of the game you're always used to it yeah i guess i don't i i don't want to end on a negative of note.

54:05I just, I've kind of forgotten. I don't, I don't like the Wolverine character design in this game, but there's, it's an easy enough thing for them to have tweaked between now and at least.

54:14Justin Davis:I don't, I don't think I have a problem with it, but try it. Let's try to work backwards Insomniac's work. They did Spider-Man 2 and then Ratchet and Clank and then Miles Morales and then Spider-Man 1 and then what was before that?

54:29Justin Davis:They did well. It's like a, I know they did three resistance They did - They did - They did Sunset Overdrive. That's right. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Another great game. And then one of those things that in hindsight obviously led them directly to Spider-Man, right? But you don't make that connection until after the fact. I mean, so if we go way back, they did Spyro 1, 2, and 3, right? Yeah. And then they did a bunch of Ratchet and Clank games, and then they did Resistance. since um yeah i think that's that's the majority of their out so they're a little well okay yeah okay anyway they have a great track record yellow suit wolverine look at that yeah i love it classic have you have you been keeping up on the marvel not leaks anymore but just like the trailers that ijin's been covering for like doomsday yeah for doomsday like there's there's an x-men one now yeah yeah it's completely crazy it's like you know the x-men universe being destroyed in a trailer like what what is happening with that movie yeah cyclops is going completely yeah yeah so wait in the x-men one something actually happens because nothing happens yeah that's the difference okay something actually happens okay yeah nothing happens in the steve rogers it's like a fight in the x-mansion and it has ian mckellen and patrick stewart in it like it's crazy and then yeah then cyclops goes nova with a sentinel okay yeah all right well that sounds good they need to start getting people excited because yeah one would think when uh infinity war came there had been 10 years of excitement building up and like there's nothing there's no excitement that's been building up to this movie so yes i feel like i've been ranting about this to just relatives for the past week i really miss work when that happens i'm like yeah why are they why are they building this up this way but they had to abandon all plans right they had to abandon all of kang and then completely pivot.

56:24And then the pivot is looking more like the JJ Abrams, Ryan Johnson pivot, which is like, Oh, you're exactly right. It's bring the old Avengers back. I know they're like Steve Rogers will return. He's back everybody. I'm like, he was never gone. Like he was, this is the next Avengers movie and he's in it. So he was, he never left. Yeah.

56:46Justin Davis:I don't know. Anyway, get back on track to games. Capcom has Onimusha way of the sword, which looks cool. I've never played an Ole Moshe game, but this game looks cool. That was another one that was cool at Gamescom. I'm surprised. I guess I'm not surprised you didn't play in Daemon, but they're like ancient Japanese horror Resident Evil action games. You'd love them, I think. But a modernization of one is going to be the way to jump in for sure, right? This is a good opportunity. Yeah, this looks really, really good, really fun. What do you think? What are the odds? Ubisoft's Prince of Persia Sands of Time remake makes it out in 2026.

57:22Why are you bringing this up?

57:24Justin Davis:There's just no chance? No. It hasn't been canceled. That makes me sad. Yeah. Do you remember how amazing that, like, when that game came out, it's like, oh, like, you don't die if you fall in a pit. You'll just rewind. And everyone was like, whoa. Yeah, man. The original game is great. Yeah. And then they made The Warrior Within and a third one. I mean, the remake looks out of date now. which means that they're never going to catch up and make this an amazing game. I mean, this is also announced back in 2020. But the last Prince of Persia game was so good that I hope there's some kind of continuation of that team and that series.

58:04Justin Davis:I think that team has been disbanded. They broke up the studio, so it's like they'd have to do something. Yeah, you're talking about the Lost Crown, right? The Metro Avenue one. Yeah, yeah. I had a real soft spot for the last 3D reboot. I feel like I'm sometimes the only person that liked it. The cell shaded one. Oh yeah. Just Prince of Persia. Is that what it was called? I like that game a lot. Yeah. That had a really cool look to it. Also Xbox 360 PS3 era Prince of Persia. I think it looks really funny when he's backwards running on a wall and it's always funny. Yeah. It's like he's doing a little dance.

58:42Justin Davis:Remember they did a Jake Gyllenhaal movie. Yeah. Okay. Okay, I promise, as promised, the third R-Type release of the year, R-Type DX Music Encore. Okay. You with me here? R-Type DX was a Game Boy Color release. This has its own Steam page. It's its own release, not part of a package. And it just says, have you ever wanted to play R-Type DX with unique music for each stage? Yes. So I guess the DX original just played the same song in each stage, and now they're re-releasing it with unique music for each stage okay i'm getting a little bit concerned that these are being targeted only for daemon how many human resources are we putting in to creating games just for one man how can we get we got to get on game how can we get on game scoop you've put these out i guarantee you they're gaming daemon will not be able to resist talking about these games for an entire episode well it's like it's like you like you're 10 years ago you episode we're like i love our this r type for game boy but it's so annoying it's just one song playing and then 10 years ago they like work start working back from games cube 2026.

59:51yeah

59:53Justin Davis:okay uh our anticipated 2026 games is starting to get a little bit long in the tooth to wrap up their scott pilgrim ex which you know it's a sort of spiritual successor to the original scott pilgrim saves the world beat him up which is great from tribute of that game plus it is a more interesting version of a beat-em-up right it has like elements to it that are not just walk around but it's not a full castle crashers type thing no it's more like there's the different levels are interconnected and you can unlock things in in one level that'll open up things in a different level things like that uh river city ransom that's right yeah it'll be good okay here's one of the games i thought i think everyone forgot about that's supposed to be coming next year star wars zero company this is the star wars x-conx game from yeah you're right definitely forgot about this one this they have a whole trailer announcing this game oops forgot yep but that's cool i mean yeah that's that's a great idea for a star wars game i'm excited to get excited about it all over again yep yeah respond bit reactor star wars x-com coming next year still says 2026 on its steam page there's super meat boy 3d which we previewed at gamescom and uh came away very positive on i don't know super meat boy is such a weird like that that it was a like 2008 a big game that i covered in my early years at ign i reviewed it lots of preview coverage because it was you know xbox live arcade was so new and exciting and this game was also coming to we wear at the time yep but it's not a game the original meat boy is not a game i want to really revisit today yeah i like the blood path so it was always funny in it and i remember it was like bringing back an old school mentality so it should have felt good to you if you played these certain platformers on pc back then if this feels good to you because you played a lot of you know mario 64 then i have certain people again on my staff who will very much like this game i mean i think that the positive preview is like this is a game i mean i guess you could describe every game this way but like it's gonna it's gonna live or die based off of how it reviews and like i was very skeptical i was not very interested but then the previews have been universally positive like nope they completely nailed it it feels great to play like it's a joy to move around and i'm like okay well then i'm on board like they they seem to really have understood what made the 2d game tick and actually managed to translate it to 3d which was not a guarantee like they could have just as easily botched that So, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm into it.

1:02:26Yep. It looks great.

1:02:28Justin Davis:I'm going to play it. Tomb Raider Legacy of Atlantis just announced the Game Awards remake of the original Tomb Raider. Cool. Awesome. Can't wait for that. All in. Yep. And then the final two one or final three. Truxton Extreme is apparently still coming. Truxton being a very cool Sega Genesis shmup. Extreme is supposed to be out 2024, supposed to be out 2025. Now apparently coming 2026. We'll solve. Oh, also, maybe I've been pronouncing it wrong. Truxton, because on its webpage, one of the taglines is, it's on like Truxton, I guess it's Truxton. I've been saying Truxton all these years. I don't know.

1:03:05But now that they heard you say that, they'll work really hard to change the name to be how you pronounce it.

1:03:12Justin Davis:It's fun like Truxton, the new tagline. There you go. Another game I forgot about, Vampire Crawlers, the Turbo Wild Card from Vampire Survivors. that's the official name of the game by the way vampire crawlers the turbo wild card from vampire survivors that's fine yeah they're really leaning into the turbo like it's a trademarked term on its steam page it says master the turbo turn tm this obviously we love vampire survivors this is a first person pixel art uh roguelike dungeon crawler with cards yep i mean i i it's more than just like a meme or joke game like the there is and i'm not i haven't played the game i don't know if it's good or not but the concept the premise of like you're playing cards in sequential order like one that's where it costs one one that costs two one that costs three and if you play cards in the right order your turn could just keep going forever so you have to kind of like plan your turnout the right way and build your deck the right way and it's going to evoke they're trying to evoke with cards that feeling in vampire survivors of just like i did everything perfectly and now I'm having a God turn.

1:04:18It seems really clever. I'm really into it.

1:04:21Justin Davis:It's going to be great. And finally, from Nintendo will be Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, which looks like a kiddie Yoshi game, but it'll be fun to play with the kids. We need a year of Nintendo announcements to come so we know what's coming out next year, because this is just clearly the tip of the Nintendo ice cream. Sam, you think in this game you can just... I'm going to swear for emphasis, parents. do you think in this game you can just press a fucking button to use your tongue I mean I think just because you're saying that they're going to add a tongue button to R-Type coming up this year just to please you the wrathful god of the R-Type universe Damon Hatfield is Marvel Rise of Hydra coming out still next year I mean maybe it's you know I think it's floating out there in the ether I only didn't include it just because I don't know what the odds are of it actually coming out.

1:05:18Okay. It looks looks rad, though. Yeah. But you know, may end up being 2027. Yeah. Making video games is hard, y 'all.

1:05:25Justin Davis:So Sam said Wolverine, this is most anticipated. Mine's either that or Slay the Spire 2. Justin, how about you? Yeah, maybe Slay the Spire 2 for me as well. Maybe. I mean, out of the stuff that as a, you know, it might be vampire crawlers. I mean, sure. That's totally valid. But there's different most anticipated like look for a big triple A like, you know, the equivalent of like summer blockbuster like James Bond looks incredible. A lot of these games are incredible. But for like the me personally, like the Justin Davis, if there's some if there's a Justice Award like the Damies Award, then yeah, it would be vampire.

1:06:01If there is a Sammy's Award, it would be our type two on Game Boy, but with different music now.

1:06:08Justin Davis:Now, finally, have you ever wanted to play R-Type DX with different music on every stage? I think about it all the time. I think about it more than Rome. What's the Mad Men line? I don't think about you ever. Yeah, I don't think about you at all.

1:06:30Justin Davis:Okay, extracurricular activities. This Christmas with my family, I watched a movie I'd never watched before. We watched the 1996 Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle, Jingle All the Way. Oh, man. I was just thinking about that movie and was like, I've never seen it, but somebody was talking about it like it was a really, really bad 90s action movie. I've never seen it. What did you think? It is bad, but I'm very glad I watched it. I had fun watching it. It's a bad, fun movie. There he is. That's what I wanted to point out. Wow, look at that. No, Jake Lloyd is in this movie. He's Arnold's son. I had no idea.

1:07:03Justin Davis:Yeah, I thought Phantom Menace was the first thing he'd ever done. Is he a better actor in this than he is in Phantom Menace? That's the saddest part, Sam. He's totally good and totally cute. He's exactly what a child actor should be. Oh, no. It just makes it, it's entirely George Lucas's fault. Oh, what a bummer. Yeah, it actually was a bummer. He's totally good and cute in this movie. He could have gone on to have a great child actor career. What did you, Baba?

1:07:32Justin Davis:oh it's doing it anyway i liked jangle all the way it was fun the other movie i saw was marty supreme yeah anyone see it no i can't wait it's very good i went into it just knowing it's the timothy chalamet uh ping pong movie you knew you knew it was the safety situation i knew them but i have not i haven't seen uncut gems oh well i hate that movie but i think this looks better so i don't i can't i can't say whether you like this or not it is a very stressful watch i i think it'll be different i know it's a stress watch yeah the stressful watch it's a good uh sort of like one two it'd be a good double feature with um one battle after another because we're both very tense love that stressful movies so i liked marty supremo a lot my wife liked it but her sister did not like it she doesn't she doesn't like stressful movies so it has divisiveness to it but super well done uh i watched the uh the third knives out movie wake up dead man oh yeah you both watched it so justin liked it what did you think sam i loved it okay i thought it was great yeah All right.

1:08:26Justin Davis:Then I will watch it even though I did not like Glass Onion. Oh, really? It's better than Glass Onion. It's very different. Going and not knowing about it is worth it. It's usually something I wouldn't like. It's set in a heavily church-based setup. But it's good. It's really good. It has both elements of the good and badness of being part of a church community. It's awesome. like it's just oh man what a great movie all right i will check it out and then sam well both of you but sam in particular have you watched the new video from the video game history foundation the i think it's called the untold story of the nes on there it's on the youtube channel no i'll check it out it's great it's frank frank sovaldi hosts it it's like a half hour long and it's uh it focuses on like nintendo of america deciding how to bring the famicom over to the us the vcr era it's great it's really really good and it's all like new information it's not the same old story as you've heard oh i can't wait to check that out i don't know to you and to all of scoop nation it's just that information doesn't get to me yeah until damon tells me that on a podcast um so uh uh did you finish pluribus oh yes yes yes yeah i finished that yeah purpose is great i think it's the best show of the year like easily um although there's maybe some close close maybe it's how easily it's don't forget about andor and or also exists yeah i liked it a lot better than Andorra, frankly.

1:09:54Justin Davis:A lot of good television this year. I also finished Pluribus. I think people goof on the show because it's very, it's like 20 minutes of plot stretched over like nine episodes. It's very slow paced. But it's also just gorgeous and interesting and I like that it's taking its time to really explore all of these conundrums that the world has gotten itself into. I thought the slowness take was interesting because I feel like I'm so used to that from watching better call Saul. It's exactly the same way. Yeah. Very show. Don't tell. He just, you just watch the character doing things instead of talking about doing things.

1:10:30And I like thinking about what's happening in the show while it's happening and having that time to process like why this is interesting that they're showing a supermarket being restocked. I think that's, I don't know. It works for me. So like that, uh, stranger things is now working for me so well. I think it's been fine and I want to watch the ending of it, but it's really hard to suspend my disbelief about the ages of the kids. Yeah. There's just a lot of things happening in that show that they kind of like, we're like, well, there's still 15 eighties movies. We haven't made yet within the, the, the, you know, the bookends of stranger things.

1:11:01Let's get them all into season. It's like endless references and Stephen King things and sci-fi things and TV things. People really hate that second batch of episodes. The first batch people like, okay. Oh really? I didn't realize that. So there's a distinction between the batches.

1:11:16Justin Davis:I bounced off stranger things back in season two. like Avatar, Stringer's Things is just not something I'm interested in. Oh man, I watched the second Avatar movie, but I haven't seen the third one I didn't think it was too bad it was bad, but it wasn't too bad In any case, Floribus is great hopefully we don't have to wait I'm sure it'll be two years we have to wait for season two. I mean with Apple though you always double it, so if you think it's going to be two years it's going to be four, and then Severance will be the year after that. But I mean, back in the day they got a new Game of Thrones season out every year they got a new breaking bad season out every year there used to be a castlevania game like once a month yeah once a month um i watched f1 oh is that good last movie it's good it's good but it's a movie where i'll give you one anecdote from the movie that tells you everything you need to know about the movie is brad pitt is like the veteran that's coming back to the sport and he's kind of butting heads he's rivals even other teammates with the young hot shot and the young hot shot is training with all this tech where he's got like an oxygen monitor on and he's sprinting on a treadmill and he's in this high tech gym doing all this high tech shit.

1:12:21And then Brad Pitt is running in like sweatpants on the track itself. And then they have an argument about like, Oh, like you, you're over the hill old man. He's like, Oh, I was racing before you were even born. And like, that's the whole movie. Okay. Did he kill his wife and get away with it? But it's great. Right. Like that's just know that that's what you're getting into. Right. Is that like, you know, he's training by like, He's training his hand agility by bouncing a tennis ball against the wall and catching it real fast. Stuff like that.

1:12:53Justin Davis:Is there exciting racing action? Yeah. I mean, it's the Top Gun Maverick team, right? Yeah. That was a fun movie. They basically remade that movie somehow, but it's F1. Find and replace Brad Pitt for Tom Cruise. Totally, totally stupid. I'm back girls in it. Totally good watch. Mike's daughter-in-law from Better Call Saul. Oh, yeah. She pops up in random stuff all the time.

1:13:35Justin Davis:Okay. That brings us to the final video game 20 questions of the year. We look forward in January to hearing from our stenographer. What's the word for it? Not stenographer. Someone who keeps track of all of our stats. Oh, yeah. Your win-loss stats for the year. Oh, right. The scoofistician. Yeah. Our suggestion this week comes from Matthew in Brooklyn, New York. He does have an anecdote, but it's a little spoilery, so I'll save the anecdote until afterwards. And with that, let the questioning begin. Did this game come out in the 70s, 80s, or 90s? Yes. awesome that's good news yeah um does the world of this game contain brooklyn new york to the best of your knowledge uh yeah i'll i'll say yes to that this is a new question i'm going to throw in there just to waste a question each day no it'll come back and be like well he doesn't want to have but remember it takes place yeah brooklyn could place on earth most likely some version of earth that we would And it's not before the existence of the New York City, Brooklyn.

1:14:42So it can't be too historical. Yeah. Can't be like the Ming Dynasty. Yeah, it's not Romance of the Three Kingdoms. I think we know this game. I think we're choosing Yo Noid because that takes place in a very Brooklyn-like. I was going to say, it's also definitely not TMNT, the Hyperstone Heist, which is a very New York-coded game. Yeah, it's New York-coded. Why would it not be TMNT? Because you were a little bit... You would have known. You'd be like, yes!

1:15:10Justin Davis:Okay, okay. Exactly. Because of the pizza style. So, is this game based on a license? Well... Oh, my. It is in one territory, but not in others. Oh, I love games like that. It's probably Chubby Cherub. Yeah, California Raisins. Something. Oh boy. What does that mean? Was this game available on the Nintendo entertainment system? Yes. Yeah. I think you're pitching a softball right to Sam.

1:15:50Okay. So there are some games like this, like Mick Kids and Mickey Mouse games that were made over here, like Kid Clown. And those are two deep cuts, so it's going to be something more obvious, but it should be interesting. McKids is a pretty good guess. Is that on Earth? That game's not. McKids is in a fantasy land, isn't it? I don't know. It depends on where the kids come from in the McDonald's fantasy universe. Do they live in that universe or did they visit it to hang out with Grimmis? Somebody will know this in right in for sure. He's the one you want to avoid. Yeah. Hamburglar too. So where do we need to go with this?

1:16:34Was this developed in Japan? Yes, that's five. You can just run away with this one, Sam. Is this a cat? No. Okay.

1:16:49Is this an Ultra or Konami or... Yes, those two companies came? No. Okay. Then that's going to be a little bit harder than I thought. Do you play as a human? Yes. did you play as a human in the other version of this game

1:17:07Justin Davis:uh in all versions of this game you play as a human interesting okay that should be all we need to know right based on license somewhere but not here wasn't little nemo because that's capcom game. Hmm. This is really interesting. Probably some anime game that kind of got paved over, you know? Yeah, I don't know, man. Was this game from before? Did this game have an arcade iteration? Yes, that's OK. Was the arcade game from before 1983? No. Did the arcade game use a joystick? Yes.

1:17:50Man, my brain is mushed. It's still going to be hard, but these are great clues.

1:17:57And you are a human, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's another question, though. Yeah, I know. I know. I didn't count it. Yeah. So joystick, human game, New York exists. It's on the NES, not from those big companies. Let's see. What could this be? we gotta figure out what's some good combat questions that would help with this what if it's like a what if it's like a car game and then it was licensed in one territory and not in another or something like it's Days of Thunder here but it was just some crappy game somewhere else yeah exactly something like that is this a side scrolling game? yes that's interesting okay

1:18:46why can't it be McKids? I mean it could be or Tiny Toons or something like that

1:18:59that does match up I don't know what McKids was though I don't know if that was actually a game

1:19:07is the license this game based on something that's more food or consumer culture than book or TV or movie culture? No. I don't want to fumble this one at the five yard line. Yeah. And that also means that I'm back. This seems really obscure. I mean, what about the Bible game? But that wasn't made in Japan. No.

1:19:37Okay, so So it's based off of a... I mean, there's like a whole catalog of these games. It's like, oh, that was a licensed era, but not here. I mean, even Nintendo ones. There was a Nintendo... Maybe we should go down that route. I mean, it's Mario 2. It's probably Mario 2, because Doki Doki Panic was licensed. Yeah, that's a good one. Yeah. But that wasn't in arcades first. Yeah. Yeah, the arcades first. That's a pretty good clue. uh did nintendo have anything to do with with publishing or developing this yes that's 15. okay so i'm trying to think of what the game is um i mean they didn't do that much in arcades yeah popeye it's a license yeah popeye but here it was licensed too i don't really get why it would be unlicensed what do we got so they did but they also did some game i i don't know it's on the tip of my brain i cannot remember what it is they did a game in japan where like there it's like a very obvious like stupid licensed game but here it wasn't and i i just don't know there's some like arcade thing that happened like that all right where should we go with this i mean i'm just thinking about nintendo arcade games there's not that many of them you know there's like punch out i think nintendo might have taken a game like oh i think it's balloon fight is what i'm thinking of balloon fight had a licensed version over there

1:21:17is that true yeah i didn't remember that yeah well there's a hello kitty balloon fight game over there. Whoa, I didn't know that.

1:21:26Justin Davis:That's cool. I will say there are certain eras of the NES where if you narrow it down to that era, everything becomes... Is this a black box game? Yes. Wait, is it Excitebike? It's Excitebike licensed in Japan? Wrecking Crew, Excitebike, Ice Climbers, Ski... Yeah, maybe one of them. Those are arcade games, though. um clue clue land devil world um i mean yeah mario have i mentioned this game yet no all right that's super helpful uh oh mike tyson's punch out that's what it is oh it is it is it is that was a stupid stupid stupid route to get to is this mike tyson's punch out Or just Punch-Out. Please accept both.

1:22:21Is this game about punching? Nope.

1:22:27Justin Davis:Is this game about punching? Yes. So it could be Urban Champion. It's a side-scroller, so it's not Punch-Out. Oh yeah, you're right. Can flower pots fall on your head?

1:22:45I'm not sure about that. okay is it a brawler yes and that is you have one question okay is it urban champion no not kung fu so what was the license that it's based on it so this was made by irim for arcades it was

1:23:01Justin Davis:based on a it's called spartan x in arcades based on i think a movie called spartan x jackie chan movie i want to say oh wow yeah i didn't even know that yes i didn't know that until today. That's really cool. That was a good 20 questions. And then Nintendo poured it, they actually developed the NES version themselves. Okay. So they poured it from the arcade and they're just called it Kung Fu. Kung Fu. Yeah. In hindsight, if we would have followed any other line of questioning, we would have gotten to Kung Fu on the NES and like 14 questions, but that's fine. Yeah. Is it based in a world where Brooklyn is?

1:23:38Justin Davis:Yeah, I think it was contemporary, even though there's like some mystical... No, that's the right answer to this question. Things happening there. Yeah, interesting situation where it was, R.E.R.E.M. made this arcade game and then Nintendo ported it over. According to Wikipedia, working on this side-scrolling game is what gave Miyamoto the inspiration to make a side-scrolling Super Mario Bros. You know, we really have to include the question, do you walk like a little dork in a game? Yeah. It's funny... Do you have a two-frame walk animation? It's funny, look at this footage. Matthew from Brooklyn says, it's the first game I really remember ever playing.

1:24:10Justin Davis:I don't know why, but I used to be terrified when those little kids came running after you. I never thought of them as little kids myself. I don't know. I thought they were like, little people. He's kicking the shit out of those kids, for sure. Look at this guy. I had this game. It was a very early NES game for me, and it was really fun. Yeah. It's a game that loops. You make it all the way to the top. You fight Mr. Big or Mr. Bad or something, and then you just start all over again. So if we had done all those questions and then got into Urban Champion, was that... Could it still have been Urban Champion, or did we forget something in the process?

1:24:42Justin Davis:I guess it wasn't... Urban Champion doesn't scroll. Scroll? Really? Oh. We just asked for the side scrolling, yeah. It's a single-screen game. Kick the bee in the face? Yeah, I don't know if a flower pot falls on your head. It might. I don't remember. That just happened in the 80s all the time. Yeah. That and Quicksand were really big fears. quicksand was a real threat good thing we solved that quicksand problem uh a fun fact so this is out in 85 in arcades and uh the nes in 85 it was ported to the atari 2687. yeah i mean you can see that that probably wasn't too difficult yeah but yeah you kick that guy's head off but he's fine yeah he's fine 5 000 points kung fu uh nicely attempt thank you for the suggestion matthew in Brooklyn, New York.

1:25:33Justin Davis:Viewers and 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 we have for you for 2025. Thank you for hanging out with us all year long. We love everyone out there in scoop nation. Please be excited for much more scoops in 2026. Thank you, Sam. Thank you, Justin. Thank you to Jobert working behind the scenes to make this episode possible. My name is Damon. This is IGN Game Scoop and we'll see you next year.

1:26:05Thank you.

1:26:54Justin Davis:the other night I watched the rise of Skywalker with Kingo and obviously that movie is a huge mess and yet when the music is going and i'm just answering questions about star wars for kingo i'm still having fun which is that second or third that's the third the last one i was thinking about watching force awakens but then i was like probably a little bit boring to rewatch that now because i got all these pictures that were like seeing it at the premiere you know like 10 years ago exactly which is crazy i don't i don't hate the third one i hate i think the premise is stupid The premise is stupid.

1:27:26You mean the clone? Somehow Palpatine's returned is stupid. Palpatine coming back is stupid and the end is stupid. But what I like about it is the three of them are together going on an adventure.

1:27:36Justin Davis:At least they're together. There's that. They do two dumb fake outs with, oh, we're erasing C-3PO's memory. Oh, no, it's back. Oh, Chewie's dead. Oh, no, he's back. Really? I don't remember the C-3PO part. And he's like, oh, I just want to get one last look at my friends. So was that the one? What happened? It was like Rian Johnson did the middle one. Then J.J. Abrams came back into the third one. Yeah, like, ah! But the foundation of the Rian Johnson one kind of screwed up what J.J. Abrams would have done, which would be just to remake Star Wars over and over again. I mean, I think Last Jedi is incredible, but there's no denying that it completely undid and unmade.

1:28:12It's like Kylo Ren has this cool mask, and he's like, no, your mask is stupid. Destroy it, you know? And then, like, and then kills. They never do the Knights of Ren backstory ever. Nope, nope, nope. Yeah. So, so Ryan Johnson did screw a little bit. Like I already forget his stupid name. Whoever the villain is like kills him. Snoke, you know? Yeah. Snoke. So they, they were kind of written into a corner a little bit. I don't know. I, I don't, I don't think it's like a good movie, but I don't, I don't, I don't have this like hate for it.

1:28:42Justin Davis:Like I said, I had a perfectly fine time just watching it with Kingo. I think, I think with a different 20 minutes at the end, that movie would have hit different. And even though it's dumb that they brought Palpatine back, like Ian McDormand's performance is really good. Yeah, it's creepy.