Game Scoop! 858: Our Favorite Video Game Spin-Offs

18:57Mark Medina:I don't agree that's my game of the year but it's incredible

19:00Justin Davis:Resident Evil is my game of the year so far but Tomodachi is already at number 9 for the 9th best-selling game of the year the Switch 2 is the best-selling hardware of the year We'll see what happens now with the price going up. Yeah, but they gave people such a long runway. It's not until September, right? Maybe by choice, right? They want a positive story. But yeah, everything else got so expensive. I wasn't surprised to see Switch 2 reclaim the throne there after PlayStation was catching up. And then PS5 is getting really close to 100 million units. It's incredible, right? It is. It doesn't seem right.

19:38Justin Davis:Its current lifetime sales are a little bit ahead of where the PS4 was at this point in its life. So it's doing a little bit better than PS4, which I think is surprising. It's probably because we had three in my household. I switched to a Pro, but we had two before because one was for the kids so that they don't bug me. So it's probably mostly me. I do think about that. I think about these console install bases. Well, mostly the original Switch because they had the original and then the OLED model and then the sort of handheld-only model. and it's like, yeah, the Switch Lite. And so it kind of, there's like an asterisk next to console install data.

20:16Yeah, but the reality is that the handheld machines, like the Switch obviously being a hybrid, are just more likely to be multiple units per household devices, right? I know. No, for real. I mean, the older my kids get, it's like I can't take my Switch with me on work trips anymore because my children lose their minds. You kids don't have Switches, huh? Not a Switch 2. Wow. But they have Switch 1s. Well. Look, I don't mean to. I don't even know where to say it. I don't mean to. I'm not saying you're a bad dad, Justin. He's just asking questions. He's just asking questions. I'm just doing research, okay?

20:53Justin Davis:He did his own research. Just asking questions. Yeah, yeah. Well, we also have breaking news. This just went up moments before we started recording. Red Dead Redemption 2 has overtaken Wii Sports in best-selling games of all time. it just leapfrogged over Wii Sports which is more notable than it just Wii Sports was a packet so that's a little different I think Red Dead has sold more copies in the last year than in any 12 month period since launch like it's first year so I don't know why it got a big bump over the past year yeah especially wouldn't the numbers go down unless people are just getting excited for GTA 6 and they're like, this is their last big game from Rockstar?

21:39Justin Davis:Wasn't it? Like, I remember when it first came out, there was all this like drama chatter about it being boring and all that. And like... I mean, I think people... I think it's pretty universally beloved. I personally am in the camp. I don't think the game feels that great to actually control. Wow. I don't think it has great game feel, but that's just me. Yeah. It's heavy. It is heavy. Right? Like the character... It's not nimble. It's a little too... Acrobatic. Too far into simulation for me. That's just me. I do think it's one of the best video game stories I've ever experienced. I can see that feel-wise, but I just think the sort of freedom of what you can do and the realism of watching it when you're playing it is just unparalleled.

22:18It's so good. I love this game.

22:19Mark Medina:It's really good at making the gameplay problems melt away. Yeah.

22:24Justin Davis:Well, it's at 85 million copies now. Amazing. Well-deserved, though. That's a lot. By the way, just imagine what a heart sell it was to say, hey, kids don't watch westerns on TV and in the movies anymore. Let's make a western game. Like, this is, it is very notable that these games blew up to this degree. It's crazy. But just the conviction to, like, you know, just make this game with just an almost endless budget, you know, is just, and then, I mean, look, it was never a failure, right? But, like, it didn't, you know, it wasn't that crazy of a success in its first year, but it just, you know, you just had a game.

23:02It's just never stopped it. never stopped selling. Yeah, it didn't have that universal appeal at GTA. Everybody loves crime. I keep wanting to go back to Red Dead 2, but I wanted to wait for the native next-gen versions. And they just never happened. It'll happen. They'll get remade, I'm sure. It would be nice to get... It would be lovely to get a late-story DLC and jump back in. Or some zombies, you know? Not such an easy one

23:33Mark Medina:to do story dlc for i guess no undead nightmare it could really work for this one i wish they would have done but with a twist yeah uh after dj6 uh you think they'll do red dead 3 it's the third best-selling game of all time i'll be dead table tennis i don't yeah i don't think so only because red dead online didn't pop i think rockstar you know rockstar's secret secretly made, you know, like we talk about live service games and we talk about Fortnite, but it's like secretly GTA online is the live service game. They could do it. They need more people. They need another studio to expand. I always wanted them to do another alien invasion game.

24:17Which one did they? Like an open world body harvest.

24:20Justin Davis:And that was like DMA design, right? It was. That's Rockstar. Well, who's still there that made body harvest? All of them. Everyone. Because that team was probably 20 people. Yeah. But it would be so cool.

24:40You bully them. Big tripods walking around. Okay.

24:48Justin Davis:So 85 million copies for Red Dead 2. But GTA 5, 230 million copies. It's just stupid. 230 million copies? Of GTA 5. How many, like, what, what, that's like such a material percentage of all the humans on the planet. I know. I know, but Justin, surely you have one for yourself and two for your kids. Yeah, the kids need to have their own copies of GTA 5. Yeah. I tried to play GTA 5. It was on Game Pass recently, and I was like all excited to go back through it again. And I, I didn't, I bounced off it after like three or four hours. That game has a slow on-ramp.

25:29Mark Medina:You drive around and talk a lot. See, I always feel like when it slowed down for me, I'd switch to a different character and it would get me going again. I loved that setup. It was really cool.

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27:41Justin Davis:Okay, lots of games out now. Forza Horizon 6. Perry you haven't voiced your opinion on that here on the show yet well I started it I have last game I had I was going on to like 300 hours on the last one like 280 hours on 4th or 5 on 5 I've played every game in the series I play all the Forzas but the Forza Horizons are my favorites it feels like Forza Horizon and it feels like Forza Horizon 5 it's very pretty I starting off lamented that it didn't feel very japanese that's exactly what i said i think some people that's the question we're gonna ask you how japanese is it and it's like i get it maybe they didn't want the sort of stereotypical like you know you're the foreigner everybody speaks with japanese accents and they didn't want that radio but it's like literally you know they it like i get to pick a gmc jimmy at the start as one of the options i'm like i took the sylvia of course but um no it's just like i don't know what i was expecting because the world is realistic but it didn't sort of and a lot of really um you know a lot of games that are set in japan obviously play up the sort of either feudal japan factor or the super like hyper shibuya harajuku kind of uh vibe and and or shinjuku neon or something and like this is it just it just looked like going back to australia i gotta i gotta say and everyone that talks to you has a british accent that's the other thing is that you don't meet this Japanese group that basically welcomes you to Japan and says, you know, don't mess with things.

29:21Don't climb into Punch the Monkeys cage this time. Here's the extra tourism tax you have to pay.

29:28Mark Medina:Don't even look at the monkeys. Don't look them in the eye. Don't bring any food near them. Two dudes just got arrested. Two foreigners, of course, got arrested for climbing down to Punch the Monkey to do like Instagrams or something, or TikToks. No, but it's Then you start playing it. Obviously, it feels really good. It looks good. The cars look beautiful. There's Japanese radio stations. So you get your J-pop and all of that. And I'll see how it unfolds. I don't know if I'm going to do 280 hours again. Yeah. Because the last loop was all about I wanted all the cars. And so it was like tune-in programming for me where I had to play it on the weekends.

30:04And I was upset when I was on vacation that I missed a couple of cars. I don't know if I'm going to do that again, he said. and then it was 300 hours. Yeah, I'm already getting a little bit stressed out. So I'm absolutely addicted to it. I think it's excellent. I agree with all the feedback you said, Per. It doesn't feel... I actually gave Mark a little bit of a hard time on the show last week where he's like, yeah, when I'm flying down the roads, it feels like Mexico. It feels like Australia. But that's totally true, right? There's not enough kind of like strong Japanese flavor in it. And so love the game.

30:36And I'm in complete alignment with Luke's kind of like 10 out of 10 review score. Tokyo is like a little bit disappointing. Yes, that's what I thought. It just doesn't have a lot of personality. But I just like the moment to moment, this is just like, I think the soundtrack is really good. And I think once you end an event, it pops up a thing that gives you like four recommended events to do next and you pick one and it routes you to it. And so it's like, I have a very, I'm like kind of stressed out at work right now. And so this game is like, I just completely turn off my brain and just drive.

31:10And I drive and I do the event and I have it set one notch above normal difficulty. So above average is the difficulty. And I've played a lot of Forza, so I never lose. I just come in first place every single time. And then I ride to the next event and then I come in first place and then I drive to the next event and come in first place. So it's just like flow state the game for me. And the music and sound. Does it say, do you want to bring up the difficulty level? And you go, no. Yeah. No thanks. So it was on normal. It was on normal and I notched it up once. And then I kept winning. And it was like, do you want to notch it up to like highly skilled or whatever's next?

31:45I'm like, no, I just want to keep winning.

31:47Mark Medina:That's great. Great progression. And so it's that in a funny way. It's like, you're winning a lot. Yeah. Are you sure you don't want to change this? It does. Like, this is such a tiny detail, but it does matter to kind of that flow state that I'm talking about of like the song, whatever song is playing. like when you go into the menu and you start the next race like it just keeps playing so like the game just keeps it just it just like i just zone out i just it's been so nice to like zone out and just not think for a while and just race it's it's just perfect i did this thing yesterday where my wife said hey we gotta go we gotta go get some groceries and i'm like yeah i'm just gonna finish this race and then the race ended and i just drove to the next one and immediately started because like it just feels so natural and like it's not like conquesting well maybe there's a little bit to that but like it just feels it's it's relaxing that said i remember when i did ratchet up the difficulty i actually got a backache from like being so like really straining to win uh to win the races i think one of the issues why it doesn't look that japanese by the way like at first sight is um when you go to the japanese countryside a lot of the houses have like blue shingle roofs that look like nothing on earth right like you know instantly in japan you're in japan when you sit in the car you cannot see any of that you see the sides of the buildings that usually look the same and so i i think that's one of the issues it's it's a car game set in japan not a game where you're flying through the air or you're like exploring and getting close to things yeah it is a great gameplay loop that just the foliage looks like it's from somewhere else yeah it looks pretty japanese though yeah yeah it is hard to get out of when you're playing it

33:24Justin Davis:Cause like you say, you finish a race and then it recommends another one. It's like, okay, one more. All right, let's just do another one. It's hard to sort of get out of that loop. Yeah. They need to, I think that this is the last time for me that they can get away with. I think that the, I think that the whole like music festival slash car festival, that kind of horizon, like it feels very kind of like 2016. It does not feel 2026 anymore. They've been doing it for two or three games now of like, you know, you're the celebrity and that festival vibe is starting to feel a little old. And some of the UI and UX is also starting to feel a little bit old and a little bit cheap.

34:03So I want the game, the car racing like that, they've got it perfect and they have a winning formula on their hand and just keep it that way forever. But I'd like some of the wrapping around it to be kind of refreshed for the next one, I think. Yeah, it's funny because obviously Japan is in the news a lot because of over tourism and you know there there's there's some friction between uh you know japanese nationals and visitors because and i could attest to that like last time i went it was so freaking packed it was uh it was before their prime minister pissed off china but like it was it was super crowded and so i'm i'm half glad they didn't play up this sort of you know foreigners coming in and like taking pictures of everything and like conquering all the areas like i i think the festival thing is a safe approach but I agree with you like it just it feels like there should be a new element it's feeling a little bit like all those games that did climb on a tower to conquer to unlock the map area right like that's what it's feeling like but if all this sounds negative it's like it's just the moment you drive it just feels great it's so much fun it's perfect it's a perfect racing game yeah it's wonderful

35:09Justin Davis:and I think they just announced today it's sold 6 million copies already yeah and by the way just the game that's in Game Pass That's great. Justin, the one thing, when you ratchet up the difficulty, the rubber banding is getting a little annoying. And the games have always done that to a certain degree, but it feels worse now where it's like you can literally see another car just speed up next to you and you're like, how did you do that? They don't have to break around corners The New Horizon Festival like it's a version of the Battle Pass starts today, Pear so you have to decide whether you're going to be on that treadmill or not I'm already pre-stressed out about how I'm out of town for a week for IGN Live and other stuff What am I going to do about my cars?

35:55Come over, bring your Xbox, you can plug it into my TV

36:03Justin Davis:And Sam, we can't get into this game yet, but I think you can share what game you're reviewing right now.

36:09Mark Medina:That's right. I'm reviewing Mina the Hollower, and we just put up a preview of it that is glowing. If you want to look at that preview, I recommend checking it out. It talks about all of the games that Mina is kind of drawing from, and it talks about how that works in tandem. And I think it's a really good indication of what you can expect from it. And I can't wait to tell you more about it. We'll be able to talk about that on a future episode in the not too distant future.

36:37Justin Davis:Justin, you're playing an indie game. Yeah. Quickly, I wanted to shout out Sektory. It came out on Steam last year, but I'm playing it. It came out on the Nintendo Switch too. It's awesome. It's a Geometry Wars like and it's just absolutely relentless. And it fixes one of the big problems I had with Geometry Wars, which is Geometry Wars took a little bit too long to kind of ramp up. Like if you lost a round, it's like, okay, well, 10 more minutes of sort of like this, this gets you into it much more quickly. And it does have the downside of that makes it more hardcore. Like the runs are kind of brutal and short, but it's a top-down twin stick shooter.

37:19It's got a bunch of different modes in it. It's so clearly Geometry Wars, like it even has that mode from Geometry Wars 2, where you go through the gates, like you can't shoot, but you go through the gates to kill things. So time attack mode, campaign mode, you know, boss rush, other stuff like that. Super rad. It's made by I don't know if it's literally made by one guy, but like that the bullet point that I read is it's made by one of the guys that worked at Housemarque and worked on Super Stardust.

37:46Mark Medina:So just are you going to play like a Batman on your list? You have to complete the list. Well, I got about 11 other Lego games I got to get through first. So yeah, eventually I'll get to Lego Batman. oh man yeah but sectory's rad check it out that looks really good that i mean it looked it looked like it would be a geometry wars game yeah i mean i think it's a 2025 game but it would it's legitimately good enough to be like on my game of the year shortlist it's just it's that good

38:15Justin Davis:cool yeah lego batman and then next week is 007 first light so much coming now it's already you anyway what i've been playing you know in this post bellachio world by law by law every card game and parlor game has to have a roguelite video game of it uh i told you about the chess roguelite i was playing last week it's called gom bonanza which is a bad name but it's very good although with that one uh i have a little bit of an issue with its theme like we've talked about how in Bellatro, there's no story, no lore, no nothing, and yet it has kind of an uneasy feeling that it gives you. Yeah, it's got that weird Joker serial killer vibe too.

38:56Justin Davis:Yeah, kind of like that. But the Gom Bonanza, you play like four levels in a row. It's just chess. There's no characters, no nothing, no dialogue, no nothing. It's just chess, but then every five levels is a boss fight against this monster. A named monster. It's just like, what?

39:11Mark Medina:But is the monster like a big horse or a big

39:13Justin Davis:castle? It's just, no, no, no. Not even that. So the theme is a little bit weird there, but I think it's very good. Anyway, but the new one... Go ahead. No. The new one that I was really enjoying is Black Jacket. I could tell what that is. Oh, you know this one, Justin? You played this? Yeah. Yeah. Well, I've seen people talking about it online. This is roguelite Blackjack with the card-breaking rules of Bellatio where you can do all sorts of crazy stuff. But it's also mixed with the deliberate narrative progression of Hades. So you're playing Blackjack in hell against some colorful characters.

39:50Justin Davis:You're having conversations while you play, and you're slowly learning about what your relationships are to these people and why you're in hell and why this is all happening. And it's really well done. The acting is good. One of the voices, you know, I looked it up. I tried looking it up. This is an indie game. I don't think they could afford them. But one of the voices sounds exactly, so much so I was convinced it was him, it sounds exactly like Josh Brolin doing Thanos. It sounds exactly like him. but it's like there's no way right this is not josh brolin doing this but that's fun anyway anyway it's really good this is the one i'm enjoying like you know blackjack try to get it's close to 21 without going over but you'll get like negative value cards so you can go if you're if you're currently at 25 you're still in the game because you can play a negative value and keep yourself in there you can play cards against your opponent sometimes it messes them up it's great yeah you'll let cards burn other cards away it's called blackjacket this is the game i'm playing the most right now the one i'm most into looks neat i a narrative i wish there was more narrative gambling games you know like i i i don't know there's a weird connection to make but like remember how good uh poker night at the inventory was from telltale just like what i think they're just re-release it i i remember you got me so i remember when i was uh i don't i don't think i've ever told this but when i was covering n64 back in the 1800s um there was a company making a golden nugget licensed video game i think it was virgin or something and they came in they presented the design documents and some early footage to us and it was set in the casino but while you were gambling there was a murder and so then the game was the game would turn into like a narrative story about finding the murderer but you also need to gamble of course because why why stop right when there's dead people for the

41:38Mark Medina:Nintendo 64. Yeah. And I remember it's, it was called golden nugget. 64 was the working title. I, I, that concept never made it out. I think the whole thing got canceled, but like at the time where we asked him, we're like, wait, and the, the casino lets you do this. Like it's got a violent murder in the middle of the casino. They're like, they're like, yeah, they haven't complained about it yet. And we're like, yes, but, but I love that concept. The kind of game I'm talking about. Yeah. Yeah. No. And like, it never, like it, in the case of like poker night, right? Like it didn't last, like just this feeling of like, I'm playing poker with GLaDOS and Brock Sampson from, you know, venture brothers, like eventually the lines start to repeat and you sort of see the, you know, you see behind the curtain, but like, it's a really magical, like few hours in the beginning.

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42:53Mark Medina:Connected to the premises by coaxial cable. Actual speeds vary.

42:56Justin Davis:Okay, let's check in with the listeners. Hey, listeners. Hey, listeners. Listeners, remember you can always reach us at the email address gamescoop at IGN.com just like our friend Charlie Gadsden in San Diego did. It says, Hello, Scoop. It was great to hear Justin's voice again last week after his four-week hiatus. He may be pleasantly surprised to know the crew stepped up and only failed once at Video Game 20 questions during his absence. What? No, because then that makes my stats work worse.

43:21Mark Medina:That doesn't even sound right. I think we failed a lot more than that.

43:24Justin Davis:Yeah. On to my question. Last week I learned, I learned, this is Charlie Gadsden talking, last week I learned Forza Horizon is a spinoff of the Forza Motorsports series. what are some of your favorite spin-off franchises or games and when do you consider them better than the main entries some that quickly come to mind are Red Dead Redemption is that a spin-off? he says Persona from Shin Megami Tensei and Minecraft story mode yeah and then he says while I'm here here's my video game 20 questions submission this is not one I would pick he suggests Tales of Destiny 2 oh yeah that would have taken us four years I know what that is maybe I mean Justin knows the Tales games Maybe you could have gotten there.

44:03Justin Davis:I don't know. No, that's not one of the Tales games. Fun fact, I used to. I know the Trails games. Oh, Trails games. Fun fact, I used to play Destiny with listener Charlie Gatson. Is that true? Yeah. Were you? And then. Maybe not anymore. And then fell off. And now RIP Destiny 2. You can still play Destiny 2. Anyway. Spinoffs. I got one. Yeah. There's this little known game that spun off from a huge arcade hit, and it's called Super Mario Brothers, and it's based on Donkey Kong. Oh, yeah. If you guys have ever heard it. And I feel like Super Mario Brothers is better than Donkey Kong.

44:40Mark Medina:Mario Brothers is based on Donkey Kong. Super Mario Brothers is based on Mario Brothers. Oh, I see. I see. That's a spinoff. Okay, you got me there, Sam Claiborne. I would have said Persona. Like SMT to Persona, they're very, very different. and Persona is absolutely my favorite.

44:58Justin Davis:Yeah, but Nintendo is kind of the master of doing spinoffs. Sports, Mario, everything. Dr. Mario. Paper Mario. IP Slop. Like even Super Paper Mario is a spinoff of Paper Mario and Super Mario Brothers. Yeah. I feel like Pokemon is a franchise that over-indexes on surprisingly good spinoffs that match or sometimes exceed the mainline games. Yeah, well, I mean, Pocopio recently, but even Pokemon Mystery Dungeon back in the day. Pokemon Pinball was back in the day. There's a strategy one. Remember that? Yeah. Mystery Dungeon. Do you mean something else?

45:35Mark Medina:Is that a strategy game? I can't remember. Stadium, Colosseum.

45:37Justin Davis:Mystery Dungeon is a roguelike.

45:40Mark Medina:It's DS two-screened turn-based strategy game. Then there's Link's crossbow training, which vastly overperforms. Why does Logan bring it up all the time? Does he actually like it? It's not a troll? No, it's not true. It is good. It's just like, is that what you want to do when you've got Link on a horse? It's to ride in a line and go that's literally like a part of any open world game now. You can do that. I like it when indie companies get to do a spin-off like the Necrodancer people that got to do the spin-off.

46:16Justin Davis:I was going to say Cadence of Hyrule. That was sick. That was a really good one. That was cool. There was a one that I was going to say there's one that people never talk about but Sam and I actually played this together back in the day and it was an Xbox Live Arcade game called Castlevania Harmony of Despair. That was like the big multiplayer Castlevania game where you cooperatively explored a level and the levels were huge. And it zoomed. It would zoom out to keep everyone on screen even if they weren't together and then we could zoom back in and you all had to take down a boss together. It was actually really cool.

46:47Justin Davis:That's pretty neat. I remember that. The Sims is spun off of SimCity. Yeah, that's true. That's crazy. That's pretty good. In the spirit of SimCity's not around anymore, right? And SimCopter. Yeah, SimCopter. They tried to do so much with Sim.

47:07Mark Medina:There's so many fighting games that have spun off that have been terrible, like the Star Wars Masters of Terras Kasi and stuff like that. But now some of those fighting games that are spinoffs are just, I guess, themed things are pretty good ones. But it's always been the anime, right? Are those the spinoffs or are those the actual games? yeah i guess those are just licensed titles that's true yeah kind of what what's the order of what came first there's a i mean i'm gonna i'm gonna butcher this history because i a i don't know it very well and b like it's not my thing but like the like dota and league of legends and that entire genre that entire billion dollar industry those were all um like mods and add-ons for like warcraft 3 and starcraft back in the day it's like you know users kind of modded um you played as one character that had special powers and defeated waves of enemies and then that eventually turned into, you know, Dota spun out of that and became its own thing.

47:59Dawn of the Ancients. Yeah, there's a lot of stuff like that. And then, I mean, Smash Brothers is basically you take the original Mario Brothers, the two-player one, you can draw a direct line to Smash Brothers 2 like this sort of platform fighter.

48:14Mark Medina:Remember the Mortal Kombat Sub-Zero spinoff? That was funny. Yeah, yeah, that's right. They included that in the recent collection and i played it a little bit and it's very bad they're so bad like it's a lot of like i don't know if i can make this jump and i'm like the designers don't know either it's like you just gotta jump and maybe if you make it then they meant you to do that yeah it's really bad

48:36Justin Davis:one of the easiest ways to make a spin-off of your series is just throw the word tactics on the end yep they did do that totally i mean ogre tactics from ogre battle ogre battle was real-time strategy I miss those games. Metal Slug? Metal Slug. Metal Slug Tactics. Obviously Final Fantasy, but even there was Gears Tactics. Gears Tactics was pretty good. There was Halo Wars. They did two of those. I liked those. Not turn-based, but really good.

49:01Mark Medina:All kart racing is a spin-off, from Mario to Sonic to everything. The kart genre is a spin-off. Mario Kart, that's probably the greatest spin-off of all time. It's pretty good. It's pretty good. um apex legends spun off of titanfall yeah good point yep that's true mario sports yeah all of

49:24Justin Davis:them and another one another konami from the xpla days was hardcore uprising which is a

49:32Mark Medina:from contra oh should have been sequels yeah yeah i don't know when they nice didn't sequelize that one a couple more to shout out gwint yep oh yeah that's like an export yeah yeah okay yeah it is like just literally spun it out yeah is gwint still popular the people still play gwint right

49:55Justin Davis:i think at one time you know you got a standalone rents release and i think still popular i haven't played hearthstone in a long time i'm a marvel snap that's a snap guy this these days yeah wow Wow.

50:08Mark Medina:Weird.

50:09Justin Davis:Weird? And then Tiny Tina's Wonderlands. Okay. Which is pretty good. I mean, it's just more, very similar to Borderlands. Borderlands. Yeah. More of the lands, exactly. That's pretty good.

50:29Justin Davis:Okay, extracurricular activities. Right after this, Taviyah, I'm going to see The Mandalorian. Sam has already seen it. Oh, boy. Saturday. today no no no spoilers but you know viewers listeners you've probably seen it's kind of getting clobbered in reviews uh but sam i think you i think you liked it right i let's just spoil it no no no don't spoil it for me let's just do it no let's not spoil it no no let's just do it

50:52Mark Medina:let's just do it no i uh so um logan i'm not looking uh tom jorgensen uh gave it a five and he actually made a really cool comparison to the X-Files where there was the kind of plot-driven episodes that moved the overall story of the alien invasion along. And then there's the monster of the week, right? This is a monster of the week. So why is it a movie? And a lot of people are like, well, this makes for a bad piece of cinema. It makes for an expensive Disney Plus show. Those are all things to get mad about about this, right? But if you look at it as the monster of the week, there are some good monsters.

51:34Mark Medina:And I mean like literal monsters in this. It is a monster movie about monsters. And that's what I liked about it. The back half of the movie is a Jim Henson movie with like puppets and stop motion and like all this stuff that should not be in a movie these days. And then it is just, it works. And it's all really fun to watch. So I think I'm going to like it.

51:57Justin Davis:I hope hopefully I've got my expectations in check. And like I said, I can enjoy it as a long episode of the Mandalorian. That's I think when when you get sort of this negative critical reaction, then you go in, you're probably going to like it better just because you're ready for a disaster. To me, like when I when I saw the trailers, I'm like, I'm hooked on the Star Wars machinery. Right. Like, honestly, anything with an ad in it. Yeah, I'm I'm already interested. I love the two huts. I'm already I'm already into that. Is this just the movie? Why are we doing it? I mean, I'm impressed that they could speak English the entire time.

52:32Those little bastards.

52:35Mark Medina:No, it's really kind of bad how they switch to the English. It's great when Huttese for a little while. Then you're like, why did we do this? It's almost like a little switch up for convenience, but it's really noticeable. That's how I handle it. Is it like Hunt for Red October, where it's like, you know, what are you doing here? Come on in, Sean. You know, if you ask me about what what was I most worried about going into this movie, it's like the Hutts, like the Phantom Menace, you know, the New Hope special edition. Oh, yeah. So bad. So bad. Right. It's just it's so bad. And like, am I going to see this whole movie?

53:14Mark Medina:First of all. And then also there's a character voiced by Jeremy Allen White, right, that we know about. That was that was what I expected to be the worst part of the movie. It might be the best part of the movie. and I'm not saying that the rest of the movie is terrible it's legit good the Hutt stuff is gross and interesting and fun, it's cool well I'm going to see it I'm interested watching the trailer I was worried this was going to be like Han Solo where it's like I don't think Han Solo is a bad movie at all but it's sort of like existing or not existing doesn't matter to the canon sometimes that's cool I actually think the Monster of the Week episodes and X-Files are way better than the alien invasion stuff the sort of conspiracy stuff thing yeah yeah great mutate here where the kessel run came from it's an off off it's a line they just tossed off and now do you want to see the whole backstory of the kessel run oh yeah i mean you're by yourself we'll call you han solo uh that was so bad i'm really excited for java fit so right yeah yeah so this is the stop motion stuff like it's actual you know miniatures stop motion it's crazy um so uh the coming out of this movie the people that saw it at ign were asked to kind of take a look, you know, for the future, we're talking about like, how do we rank this with the Star Wars movies?

54:29Mark Medina:You know, we'll probably put this in a piece about where we put it. And, you know, the take because the movie got a really low score from the person who reviewed it was that, you know, this would be placed pretty low on a list. Right. But like, I looked at our list after that. And I'm like, I just I saw the prequel trilogies like I'm there that they're funny and ironic now and that like phantom menace is like really nostalgic to me those movies are awful they're awful awful movies i can concur you go to the theater to sit through one

55:01Justin Davis:it's bad and this is easy to sit through okay no you're right about that because i i have to watch those prequel movies all the time now because kingo loves them we were just watching attack of the clones this week like yeah and i i don't hate the movies but they're really bad but so anyway that's enough talk about star wars i also watched send help okay oh yeah that's this i saw it's streaming sam raimi movie it's on it's streaming now and i can't decide if i liked it or not okay oh it's it's it's i like the sam raiminess of it it's so you know the premise this is a two people stranded on a desert island they knew each other going into this they she worked for him and he's a asshole and he passed her over for a promotion that she deserved for a much less qualified dude it's like that's their relationship on the island and yes she was screwed over and deserve that promotion but she's also super unlikable and just obnoxious that's what it seemed like she has terrible hygiene it's like so none of these neither of these people are likable so i don't know you kind of just watch these people make their way on this island and some gross stuff happens and then at the end i was just like well okay yeah all right but isn't that how beef is it's like people you don't like uh getting into it yeah i guess it has some similarities to that there's some good like gross sam raimi stuff but there's also i think the

56:15Mark Medina:characters are likable in beef

56:20Justin Davis:I didn't see the second season I haven't seen the second season either yeah yeah I think I think you get to like them more as they explore their beef I will say I didn't I was always you know I was engaged you're a big Raimi fan though no yeah I really like drag me to hell that is I think is a very good movie this is not on the level of driving hell but I you know I was engaged I was I wasn't bored and I wasn't ever really sure what was going to happen next so I just so it's a it's a, okay. I'll watch it when my wife is on a business trip. It's gross. There's gross stuff. She was so mad at the boys.

56:50Yeah. She doesn't, she doesn't want to see that. Nope.

57:07Justin Davis:All right. That brings us to video game 20 questions. Now, first I have an email here. I'd like to share. It's a very nice email. And I'll explain something here. This comes from Nathan Evans, who says, Dearest Omega Cops, I just wanted to take a moment to thank you all for the joy you've brought me over the last several years. I've been a devoted listener for the last seven years, and I know Mark thinks this is weird, but I have gone back and listened to most of your back catalog from before I discovered you. It's actually Justin that thinks that's weird. Yeah, I was going to say, Mark's catching strays for something I said.

57:35Justin Davis:Nathan says, what began as a way to pass the time on a very long commute during a busy and difficult time in my life has become one of my favorite weekly rituals. Game Scoop is my favorite thing about Friday. Think about that. You guys compete with the end of the work week and win, at least for me. I am an old, and I've been playing video games obsessively since my childhood in the early 80s. Gaming has become something I have shared with my five children, and I have special memories gaming with each of them. My youngest son, Max, watches Game Scoop with me every Friday. What's up, Max? Has been nudging me to send this email for several months.

58:05Justin Davis:He adores older games, loves to collect classic consoles. Over the years, I have thought about several suggestions for Video Game 20 Questions, but in my heart, I knew that there was only one game that would be the perfect submission for me, Beautiful Joe, and then I did a quick search today, and you already did that one in 2019, right before I started listening. So did you guys know that it is getting pretty hard to find a game that feels fair that you haven't already used in Video Game 20 Questions? So this one may be too hard, but I'll throw it in the ring anyway because I have such fond memories of it.

58:33Justin Davis:And yes, I wanted to share the email. It's a very nice email, but his game was Gun Valkyrie on Xbox. Oh, okay. I said, I don't even know. I don't know. I played it, but I would have never guessed it. But he says, either way, I just wanted to say thank you for all the fun. Happiness you bring me each week means the world to me and Max. We are proud members of Scoop Nation. We are lucky to have you both, Nathan and Max. Awesome. So that moves us on to our actual pick this week, which comes from Ethan, but you don't get any backstory about Ethan. That's it. So, let the question begin. At least we got a story.

59:01Where's Ethan from?

59:03Justin Davis:Unclear. That doesn't count as a question. No. No. Okay, did this game come out in the 70s, 80s, or 90s? No. A newfangled game. Relatively. Is this game on current played hardware? No. No.

59:25Mark Medina:Is it an exclusive to a platform at launch? Yes. Oh, okay, okay, okay. Was it exclusive to a Sony platform? No. So we're talking about GameCube, Xbox, or crazy handheld phones and all that stuff. 70s, 80s, or 90s, so 2000s. Not current hardware. Is this game on a Nintendo platform? There's a pretty big gap between 2000 and current hardware. Yeah. That's five questions. It is on a Nintendo platform. Okay. Okay. So it's... is it on Nintendo hardware that came in purple yes that could be Game Boy Advance and GameCube there's no purple Wii I'm going to assume that it is a GameCube game I forgot about the purple GBA I had the glacier blue one okay was this game developed or published by Nintendo yes okay um is this yeah I was thinking Battalion Wars 2 that's hilarious um is this a is this game series still in active development today that we know of announced no so that could still be Battalion Wars because it is not officially Advance Wars it was announced as an Advance Wars game out yeah it was um battalion wars would also have been a valid shout out during our spinoffs segment yeah it's actually a good game but so is excite bots yeah excite truck what did you say sam do you play as a human yes

1:01:24developed or published by Nintendo on the GameCube probably play as a human not no sequels in development yeah there's not a lot I mean that is literally well it also rules out Excite Truck and Excite Bots and all of that because they weren't on the GameCube and no human in there

1:01:50I like that we're stuck on Battalion Wars now. Yeah, I am kind of stuck on Battalion Wars. Yeah. Do you play as a human in Battalion Wars? Who are you in Battalion Wars? There's also Star Wars Rogue Leader. GameCube was a big game, obviously. That's not development in Nintendo, though, that's Factor 5. But did they publish it? They did publish, yeah. What about Eternal Darkness? I was just going to say, did Nintendo publish?

1:02:16Mark Medina:Yeah, exactly. But didn't you say published and developed? no I said or or okay yeah because that's a Silicon Knights game that's Eternal Darkness that's a good one is this a military game no that is 10 no Battalion Wars would you say this game was geared at adults um no okay that rules out Eternal Darkness definitely not Eternal Darkness that was horror okay published and developed what about like a sports game like there was 1080 on the GameCube 1080 snowboarding is not an active development, Wave Race Wave Race Blue Storm is the other one, you play as a human in that, both of them yeah, what was the 1080 1080 whatever it's called, on the GameCube I can't remember the name of it now 1080p snowboarding freestyle a480p uh what was the sequel was it a snow no it was some storm shit what was it um avalanche no blue storm avalanche that's it yeah 1080 1080 um avalanche is this a sports game no oh for christ i still thought we were on to something there yeah um okay let me go through the slate of game gamecube we don't know if it's gamecube by the way we just know it's purple is this a gamecube game yes we know it's a gamecube game correction you remember i think it was made by sega but i always liked beach spikers on the gamecube okay underrated volleyball game do you um it's not chibi robo because you're a robot you're a robo that's a bandai game right um is it what about cheapy robo yeah it's not nintendo published it didn't they yeah but they didn't yeah why is there amiibo for it they didn't make it oh there's an amiibo for damon freaking yacht club side question out of out of game question do would you consider a racing game a sports game well it depends because i think uh because

1:04:34Justin Davis:Wave Race is... Like F1? I would say yes. But Wave Race is a sports game. Yeah, okay. But I guess what I was thinking about was F-Zero GX. Yeah, that's Sega. That's Amusement Vision made that. It could also be Super Smash Bros. Melee because there is no sequel announced. Oh. Well. No, that's true. That's true. There's also Custom Robo. Do you guys remember that? No. Oh, man. Mm-hmm.

1:05:07is this a fighting or racing game no what if it's animal crossing animal crossing does not bro yeah bro i got it it's metroid prime

1:05:23there's not a sequel there's not an announced sequel in development don't you think that's geared at adults oh i don't know yeah okay all right i'm gonna ask is it a first person shooter or first person adventure game one of the two no and that's 15

1:05:40Justin Davis:but what you know who made this game right yeah well published I see your line of thinking now retro is still

1:05:53Mark Medina:but he just gave away that it's developed by Nintendo

1:05:59that's pretty good well there's Wind Waker can it not be Animal Crossing? there's Wind Waker we don't know that there's a

1:06:08Mark Medina:Link is not a human yeah Link is an elf he's a hylian yeah you're right it's even more accurate you're definitely right Sam it could be Animal Crossing is that a human? yeah you're a human and then everyone else is everyone's an animal he's a villager yeah yeah but maybe it is maybe it is is all the is this set in the mario or zelda universes yes that's not an early one we should not but it's got to be no but it's got to be mario because yeah because you're a hylian you're not human but maybe damon made a mistake here too we don't he would correct himself because he's a man of honor i like to think that if damon makes a mistake he just pivots to a whole new game so think of a game that aligns with all the answers so far yeah that's so good uh is it i mean if it's super mario sunshine that could be possible hold on hold on how many questions do we have damon we got to be smart three questions and a guess we know with relative confidence that it's a mario universe game what about what about like Luigi's Mansion.

1:07:19That's a good one. There's Super Mario Sunshine. We know it's not any of the sports spinoffs and it's not kart because those are racing games obviously. Could technically be Sunshine. Was there Paper Mario on GameTube? I'm trying to remember. We could ask if it's a spinoff. Do you think Luigi's Mansion counts as a spinoff or is it just its own thing?

1:07:42Mark Medina:Yeah, that's a spinoff. But I don't know what Damon thinks. well you're kind of leading him now too do you bust ghosts in this game? yes you do Luigi's Mansion the first one that's good good yeah yeah oh man but there probably is a Luigi's Mansion in the works we just don't know yet that was one of Logan's predictions for the next interview again state for the record Luigi's Mansion 3 has finally sold millions and is doing well but there's still millions who have not played Luigi's Mansion 3 and if you tried 2 and you didn't love it 3 is so freaking good it is incredible game yeah I'm glad it's better some of the best animations on

1:08:27Justin Davis:any Nintendo platform I was going to bring it up so I bought the Mario Galaxy movie on Tuesday when it was available on digital I've already watched it twice at home and when I think about what Nintendo should do next with its animation I think a Luigi's Mansion movie could be awesome it's the perfect sort of self contained story especially if they go down the route like just if you know for people who haven't played 3 the mansion has all these different biomes in it because it's complete nonsense of course so there's literally a room where you open the door and it's haunted and it's filled with sand and you have a vacuum cleaner it's so good it's so good it's got all the Gooigi stuff

1:09:09Mark Medina:plus you can have Mario on the rescue mission right

1:09:12Justin Davis:yeah you can have that too but this game, the first Luigi's Mansion I never played I think at the time a lot of us were disappointed that we weren't getting a new Mario platformer yet it's super compact this is like what was here for launch at GameCube you also wanted something that lasted you like 20 to 30 hours and it's a under 10 hour campaign on this one it is a really good game as a tech demo for the GameCube, it excels the lighting system, they faked a lot of stuff, but it just looks fantastic. And then the physics model around vacuuming and all of that, it is a fun game. I think we gave it a 7, which is completely fair.

1:09:54The more discerning gamers got Monkey Ball as their launch game. I would say Monkey Ball is actually the better of the two. And both really super cool action games centered around a MacGuffin, something that feels good, like tilting of the landscape, and here it's the the vacuuming stuff you you should you should probably go back and play this is it is it on was monkey ball really a launch game yeah uh well no two two got remade and and came out so um you'll uh i'm sure you'll get it i think i'm good i'll just louis jimansin 3 is very good i can stick with that one it louis jimansin 3 does everything the first one did yeah and so fair you don't have to go back but the music is also awesome the whole turn turn turn turn turn turn

1:10:42Justin Davis:turn is so good and mario mario all that stuff is good mario well nicely job uh thank you for the suggestion ethan viewers listeners if you have your own suggestions for video game 20 questions email them to me at the email address gamescoop at igin.com pair uh igin live is right around the corner now yes i will be there i'm excited it will be there sam will be there justin will be there i'll be there most of us will be there it's gonna be so fun uh it's june 6th and 7th here in downtown la uh live game scoop live nvc uh get your hands on unreleased games check out some uh presentations of unreleased games it's a really really good sam and i are curating a little museum corner yeah there's that too like rare items yeah yeah it'll be fun and we'll hang out we'll hang out there and if you ask us a question we'll talk to you for 30 minutes about the apple pippin we have an apple we'll actually until they're like until they want to go walk away yeah yeah you guys will you will walk away because we will not stop talking about it anyway go to live.igin.com and use the code scoop for a free ticket there you go doesn't get any cheaper than that also over at Humble Bundle our friends they have a Humble Indie Icons showcase which is live now celebrating 15 years of Humble Bundle it's got a bundle of our favorite indie games It's got Bloodstained, Superhot, Celeste, The Witness.

1:12:03Justin Davis:That's one of Justin's favorite games of all time. And more. It's a$200 value, but you pay what you want. Go to HumbleBundle.com and check it out. And that's all the scoops that we have here this week. Thank you, Pear. Thank you. Thank you, Sam. Thank you, Justin. I am off to a galaxy far, far away. My name is Damon. This is IGN Game Scoop, and we're out.

1:12:25Damon, he wants to eat his own poop. Well. Don't do that. It saves you money.

1:12:31Justin Davis:Then they want to lick your face. It saves you money. Exactly. It's like the whole dog is smelly. No, we're usually too fast for him. Like he's like pooping. He spins around. We're like, no. He's a single link dog centipede.

1:12:43Mark Medina:Just let him be. Oh, God. I look really short, Jobert. Look at how giant Daemon is. Yeah, it's the force perspective. This is what we use to. We're going to shoot the hobbits and Gandalf at this desk. Yeah. I'm trying to help you fool off a duck

1:13:03Justin Davis:throw yourself in next time and rid us of your stupidity

1:13:12Justin Davis:I probably shouldn't make this the after credits scene no let's not do this after credits scene sorry yeah none of this can be in the show we should talk about something else so I walked by Jobert's I walked by Jilbert Station and it was showing this from a side view the footage and I thought it was a video game

1:13:35Mark Medina:should we not use this because we're breaking embargo or should we not use this because we're a