Game Scoop! 859: James Bond Is a Hit, Man

19:17And I said, it's really effing fun. And I used the full F word. And we moved on from there. And then they cut my other joke. So I'll use that here. And I can see why they cut it, but I still thought it was a good joke. And I was like, but seriously though, just nobody was looking. And so I just gave it a 10. It made it to the site. Yeah, look, and now what are we going to do?

19:38Sam Claiborn:Take it down. Yeah, what are you going to do? Take it down exactly. I mean, I saw the 10. I was like, yeah, I agree. Within two hours of playing the game, I said, I looked at myself in the mirror and I said, I think I'm just, I think I'm playing a 10 out of 10 video game right now. I look forward to seeing the IGN review because I think they will agree with me. I didn't even know Sam was reviewing it. Yeah. I didn't either. That was the other surprise. One of my favorite observations from your review, I'm pretty early on in Mina, but like you make an observation that is your burrow called the hollow?

20:09Is that your hollow? It's called the underlab. No, not that like the move that you do. Oh yeah. Yeah. Burrowing. Yeah. Burrowing. So like that burrow serving like kind of three purposes of like, you know, it's, it lets you move faster. It's a dash, but it's also a dodge, but it's also, um, long jump. Yeah. Like a long jump. Like that's so clever. And it does, it does have a learning curve. Like it doesn't naturally feel, at least for me, it wasn't one of those things where it clicked like moment one, like it took some doing like link never had that move. Yeah, like I'm missing jumps and stuff like that, but that kind of multi-purpose move, it's got that perfect feeling of like, it just feels so good by the time you get used to it and kind of understand what it's capable of and how long it lasts.

20:53And then you can get the thing that helps you sort of burrow farther. Like it's perfect. It's a great move.

20:57Justin Davis:Shovel Knight was kind of similar, right? It had its own little sort of pogo, like DuckTales style move that you had to sort of master, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Iconic move. So I have a little bit of game help for the people that are just starting out. So the game goes through the demo, right? So it goes through the demo and there's a couple of early game bosses and then it takes you to this village. And those bosses are hard, first of all, but you can grind. You can just go to your under lab and then pop out and kill a bunch of enemies and level your attack up, your attack up, and everything will be, that boss will be really easy already.

21:33Like you can just do that. It's going to take you 15 extra minutes max. This is one of them right here. This is a this becomes a world enemy crazily enough. But that's just how these games work. Right. All these souls games will be like, you know, here's a giant right enemy. And then all of a sudden there's like ten of them walking around later in the game and you could roll them. Right. But so then you get to the open world and you get like these like newspaper. You can read this newspaper and it's like trouble in the crypt. So it's kind of telling you which way to go, but you can go anywhere just like Breath of the Wild or the first Zelda game.

22:05You can kind of go in order, but recommends you go east. So I do recommend people go east and then you're going to get to this graveyard and then it leads to a bridge and then a crypt. And it's just like Zelda, you're working your way. It's just like Ocarina of Time or something like you're in Kakariko village and then you're on the trail to Death Mountain and then you're in the Goron village and then you're in the volcano finally for the, you know, the Dodongo fight or whatever. So like that's how this game is structured. Now, right when you get to that graveyard, here's what the game help comes in um there there's these like knights which world enemies walking around and like mitchell the best game player i know period was like man those guys suck huh and i was like yeah they they're really really tough and so what did i do i i went in the the the closest um you know under lab the little save point before them and there's these stupid little red goblins that hop out of crypts around there and i went in i would kill two and run back and save and you can level up really like you know slowly doing that and then i'll say you can kill five of them and then like you just have to do that you have to do what you did in elden ring damon where you warp to a another area and do that and you have to get to that level where it for if if you're not like also just wanting to just be like the best borrower in the world and like be really good at the game and do all you can probably do that you need the right trinkets so you don't start out with them like to parry and stuff like that you don't even have that ability so you have to just dodge at the beginning so then you you can level up just a few levels your attack and then that part will become your grinding part because then those guys that were hard you can kind of kill in a few hits that feels really good and then the first boss isn't so bad at that point you have about four bosses and areas and game where it'll feel exactly like zelda difficulty it just that's where that stops for a while.

23:58And then you find some optional bosses, some like this guy is actually pretty hard if you encounter him early, which is a weird little Easter egg. There's things like that that will happen that feels more like, oh, wow, I ventured in the wrong place. Come back later. That's how these games should be. But it does get to the point where you're like, oh, this just feels like a awesome Pudal and Zelda game. Just so everybody knows. That's the weird bottleneck in it. And I wouldn't change that because it gives you the option. Do you want grind do you want to get good by learning boss patterns our enemy world enemy patterns like

24:30Justin Davis:it's fine yeah i wanted to ask this was also a long time coming the the first non shovel knight game from yacht club games and when it was first revealed i think everyone their takeaways is that it looks it has kind of a gameboy color art style and it looks like a lynx awakening like would would you still describe it that way not at all and you know we're putting out a map that we worked with the development team on and by we i mean miranda and the uh um map gd team um so uh they were doing this and when you put together the map it is not a rectangular map with everything connected it fakes that it fakes it in the meanest way where you go to like east to the dungeon and it just keeps on going further and further and further then you're like well how do i you know find a shortcut here and there are shortcuts and they're interesting they're like little portals and shortcuts and all this stuff, but like, it's not, it's doesn't fit together like Koholint Island in a, in a way where you can work your way around it and you don't work your way around it.

25:27You absolutely go off path all the time. There's no right order until the, you know, the, the later dungeons in which like, there's some requirements to get to them that, that are gated behind gameplay. But yeah, so that's one big difference. And then the other is that there's no items. you don't get items in this game you don't get a chain hook to get over gaps that you can see early in the game to get over those gaps you can do that from the start if you know what to do and that's like uh the witness right where it's like you actually don't get skills you get knowledge you do get these things that that help you get over the gaps in other ways but a lot of the things are solved by like sidearms like you know getting the axe in castlevania becomes a way like Like in this game, like some of the equipment, like the little bike that has a lance on it called the Iron Steed is like actually a way to like get to difficult parts of the game.

26:21It's so smart. There's a bunch of stuff I love about this game that caught me off guard or that surprised me. I didn't really read a lot of the previews, right? I went in mostly blind. I didn't realize how kind of like, you know, story heavy, not story heavy, but there's just a lot more story in it and characters in it than I expected. Like I knew there was a town, but I did not expect the town to be full of NPCs that had side quests and many things. And you can talk to them and their dialogue changes over the game. Like it's huge. It's like it's a big full on like RPG feeling town with a bunch of different, you know, little shops to explore.

26:55So that was really cool and a really delightful surprise. and also just the amount of kind of like you know bespoke or like just like the reason that this game took years and years and years i guess i don't know why it took you but it seems like the reason it took so many years it's like the most amazing gorgeous like pixel art you've ever seen and it's on screen for like two seconds and then it's not repeated again and like as someone that plays a lot of video games that's close to the video game industry you get used to sort of seeing you know tile patterns repeat like you're going to see the same rooftop tile over and over you're going to see the same building and like that's how they build the town or that's how they build the dungeon is they build it from a tile set but like in nina almost nothing seems repeated like the amount of bespoke places and bespoke enemies and bespoke assets like just feels like almost unfathomable how how little is repeated in the game sort of artistry it's just totally just fantastic um that what you just said how that's another way it's like link's awakening is that it had it's that link's awakening put together an island of twin peaks inspired weirdos yeah that's the developers are on the record saying that's why they did that this is exactly the same right the whole thing is like inhabited by just total goofballs and weirdos and and kind of like creepy characters too like sometimes they'll like show a character's face after you're chatting to like a cute pig and like it's like a total like eyeless zombie pig it's so weird it's like every single

28:24Sam Claiborn:character is kind of a from soft npc where it's like they all have very distinct personalities they're all very fun and clever in a way like it is very horror themed like very castlevania meets bloodborne in that regard but it still has that yacht club game sensibility uh about how like goofy a lot of the characters are and i really appreciate that but there is a lot of dark moments where there's some side quests i was like am i really doing this right now it's it's kind of gnarly some of the stuff you do in the game and to the bloodborne of it all i i'd forgotten about this uh from the demo because i played the demo back when that came out but i just how the game rewards aggression because if you take some hits you have the ability to you know normally in zelda you kind of retreat a little bit you retreat to a corner and then attack safely from a distance But in this, you're incentivized to get up close and personal to hit for the opportunity to get your health back.

29:17Sam Claiborn:And I just, I love that aspect of the game so much. I think it's one of those that really forces you to confront how fragile your life is, both in-game and in real life. But I just think it's so good. I made a build based on that, which I loved, which was I used the two daggers, which are like, this is a main weapon, which is a high DPS weapon. and then you can augment those with a trinket that makes it so each subsequent hit that you don't miss adds like an on-screen multiplier to your damage which is crazy that's great right and then i use two of these um trinkets that make your it it makes your damage drain slowly but like and then you can also use another one that auto heals you but they don't work like you like you get infinite life.

30:06It just gives you more time to get in on a boss and stab so quickly that you can get them down to zero life and not even learn a boss pattern for some of them. And it's just a fun thing to try. So like it has the ability to like set up cheese in that way, but you have to like work for it and think about it and build make that build for that. And then it might not work with some boss because you know, that boss might have multiple eyes. So you can't just stand next to them because you're gonna be missing all the time or something, you know, I'm watching this

30:35Sam Claiborn:footage and i'm like dude i i i went into this saying like i do legitimately think this is the best 2d zelda game but apart from that i think it's also some of the best 2d inspired games because like there's a sequence it's basically metroid uh fusion and i'm like oh yeah this game just wipes the floor with metroid uh fusions like chase sequences and it's just so cool so clever and the game is constantly doing new things and man i i i'm i'm trying to go slow in this game because I'm dreading rolling credits on it because I don't want it to end.

31:08Justin Davis:Okay, hold that thought. I have some questions for you, but someone's using some power tools outside. I'm going to close this window real quick.

31:22That's a weapon I was just talking about.

31:29Okay.

31:31Justin Davis:I believe they're quite different games, but Nick, you'll say, do you think this is better than A Link to the Past?

31:38Sam Claiborn:Yes, 100%. I think this is way more flexible with how you're doing. Don't get me wrong. I love Link to the Past, but I also think Minish Cap is better than Link to the Past, but that's just me. Wow! I like both games, but wow. I think that this is just way more flexible in terms of how it really complements how you want to play the game. I think it gives you a lot more verbs compared to your standard Zelda game. I love that you have all of the tools at your disposal to solve any problem that comes your way. Whereas I always find Zeldas a little bit like, you know, the old classic Zeldas. I appreciate you find the item, you use the item in the dungeon, and then you kind of call it quits.

32:14Sam Claiborn:I like that the items that you find in this game have really meaningful changes to how you can play this game. Instead of just, hey, I can hold a little bit more money. Or, hey, I can have another heart of health. Like, that stuff is fine. it just seems so rigid and i just appreciate how much how much more flexible this game is and i really like it feels like very clearly they love zelda as much as i do and they said how do we do that but make it different well it's like the breath of the wild moment for 3d zelda is breath of the wild this is the breath of the wild moment for 2d zelda correct it's doing the same thing it's like upgrading it to an open world game but to be fair zelda did it first with the first zelda like that's yeah and it has to be said very similar to like a link between worlds and the it's dungeon approach which i also kind of appreciate there there definitely is going to be discourse about how hard this game is and so you know sam sam's right like you can you can grind like if you take nothing else away from this discussion like you can find a safe spot and you can grind out some levels and you can ameliorate the game's difficulty that way right but it's it's honestly contrast that with silk song where like it really doesn't give you the option to go away and get a bunch of tanks and come back and have an easier time yeah like you just can't do that in that game you have to learn the boss patterns like you don't in this game you can go away kill kill a bunch of little enemies and come back and just absolutely work a boss like that is

33:37Justin Davis:totally fine in this game yeah i had to i had to start grinding uh there's like an early what sub boss or mini boss or something that was giving me a really tough time and i was like what the heck so i yeah i had to go and i didn't realize it was that type of game where you could grind and i appreciate that because i like grinding me too so sam is this your front runner for your game of the year well i absolutely adore res evil and focopia like i love and they're so different that's like you know this is my game i want to play on steam deck every day of the year i i um the the issue with um like where i am with this right now too is that like i i like i must 100 it and i'm unable to like i there's things that i have not figured out in it and they talked in a stream about how there's a secret ending and like when you play this game like there's an insane situation that gets set up and the ending is so castlevania and cool i don't know anything about that still so i'm obsessed with that and then there's the new game plus which i'm in your item counts literally carry over and by that i mean the treasure chests are open that you opened and the ones you aren't that you didn't solve the puzzle for are not.

34:50So you can just start your new game plus and like continue your 100 % run. That's sick. Yeah. And then, you know, your levels are a little bit higher. Now, the issue in new game plus is that that's where it becomes silksong. The run backs are gone. They're huge. Like they take out a ton of the save markers and then there's a different permutation for each new game plus for the second new game plus and third or third or one of the other. there's another permutation where it takes more of those out, which I'm like, how do they even do that? Cause they're like, well, the one I'm playing right now, there's basically a, a save before, you know, halfway to a boss and then at the boss, like they're going to take away the boss one or something.

35:30Like that sounds crazy to me, but that's where it's at.

35:34Justin Davis:Nick, I know you're only halfway through me to the hollow, but about two months ago, you were thinking marathon was maybe your front runner for game of the year. That's, that's still true.

35:42Sam Claiborn:Brother, this conversation is living in my head day and night. I've been thinking about this for a long time. It's too soon to speak, you know, but Marathon is on the cusp of its season two, which looks fantastic, by the way. Nice. I'm still playing it. Like, I'm at the point now where I find some time to play some video games, and then my Marathon crew is like, Marathon? And I'm like, I don't know when I'm going to be able to play with them again. So yes, but I'm like, but I want to play Mina, but I want to play 007. But right now, as it stands, a long and hard conversation with myself about Marathon or Mina.

36:14Sam Claiborn:so that's so far the front runners

36:18Justin Davis:well in an alternate universe we're all playing GTA 6 right now wow that was supposed to be out this week I mean in this universe we're going to play in a few months but instead you know we've got both 007 First Light and Mina the Hollow are both just excellent games.

36:34Sam Claiborn:We're spoiled man this year we're spoiled.

36:36Justin Davis:I know and I gotta play Batman I mean I'm really excited I mean that's true yeah I was going to say not to mention Batman

36:41Sam Claiborn:and Forza Horizon

36:43Justin Davis:and forza yeah yeah it's it's it's another good year for games yes we're very lucky

36:56Justin Davis:okay let's talk about a an older game a game that's i guess six 11 years old now the witcher 3 wild hunt is getting an expansion not now not this year next year when it's 12 years old and I love this. Like, that's so cool. Like, let's just, let's give, let's do more expansions for older games. That game was 2015. So yeah, let's do an expansion for Metal Gear Solid 5. Yes. Let's do an expansion for Fallout 4.

37:24Sam Claiborn:Diablo 2 got it, right? Diablo 2 got a new class. Well, there's so many performance improvements and so many different, like, just quality of life improvements in these games too. Like, that's what makes it so exciting is that you can go in and play new stuff, experience new stuff, but like all the old stuff is going to feel better than when you played it. What about Skyrim? That's the one I want. Yeah. Oh my God. New Skyrim expansion. Yeah. I mean, you know, the, the only kind of, I don't know if it's bittersweet or what the quiet word word is, but like, you know, Geralt's story ended so perfectly, right.

37:56That it's like cracking that back open has vibes or like, if they don't do it well, which CDPR is great writers, so I'm sure they'll do it well. But like, if they didn't do it well, it could feel more like, um, like the new star Wars trilogy of like, no you wrapped up the storyline for like these three so good and then when you crack it back open then it's like no it turns out everything's very sad and terrible for them so like you know i don't like he had this we can spoil it right like it's just a very happy retirement like that's how his story ends and so that gives me a little bit of pause but it's still incredible and i'm

38:28Sam Claiborn:still happy to jump back in look at his old man run i forgot about that i think it's going to be set up for very clearly for witcher 4 it's like a passing of the torch um a lot of a lot of the Witcher subreddit was pointing out that the cover art for the DLC, what is it? Song of the past. Is that the name of it?

38:45Justin Davis:Song of the past. Yes.

38:47Sam Claiborn:It has him holding, he has three swords, um, two of the swords are his normal ones, but the third sword is the one that people have eyed Siri using in the Witcher four trailer. So it's like, I, I assume this will be like him on sending her off on her, you know, on the path as it were. It does seem like it's going to be kind of a bridge from three to four is a pretty good guess and i think it was paul sasco one of the um i believe pr people at cdpr uh i forget his actual title so please forgive me but um he talked about like hey we were very specific about our use of the word expansion versus dlc this is an expansion in the way phantom liberty was an expansion for cyberpunk 2077 which means okay there's gonna be a lot it's big or like geographically too because they built that region inside of the city to go to.

39:42I'm excited. The only, again, this is just strictly a me problem, but I just reinstalled Witcher 3 and was like, maybe I'm going to go back to Witcher 3 this summer after I got done with Mina and some other games. Now it's like, well, I don't want to play it now. I feel like I have to wait until the - You start a new game, work your

40:01Sam Claiborn:way up to all the DLC content, get to retirement and then take them out of retirement when the time comes yeah yeah i guess

40:09Justin Davis:i've played a lot of witcher 3 over the years and i've started it multiple times but i've never finished it i don't i probably won't like i'm not gonna put it like whatever 50 hours into it but

40:18Sam Claiborn:what if this is a 10 out of 10 damon would you dust off the the witcher 3 and work your way up

40:23Justin Davis:well let's just do it is it still fun how about let's just do that there we go we'll just do it

40:27Sam Claiborn:for content that have to do it that'd be a that'd be a good episode actually i mean this is a good

40:31Justin Davis:reason it's a good perfect excuse to do it great one great one they say uh more details on songs of the past will be released in late summer 2026 that sounds like gamescom gamescom baby let's go yes also i just want to say like we we you know get from cd project like stuff like this while we're waiting for witcher 4 right and good on them because like what are we getting from elder Elder Scrolls. Yeah, I know.

41:00Sam Claiborn:Please, just a morsel, Todd Howard. Anything.

41:04Justin Davis:Well, instead, they just put out some new stuff for Starfield, right? Okay. That was well-received, though. The new content. The new updated systems, yeah. Okay.

41:17Justin Davis:What is interesting about this Witcher 3 expansion coming next year is that there is a complete edition of The Witcher 3. Yeah. Not anymore. asterisk after we didn't see it the first time but there was an asterisk the whole time they did i mean i don't know the last time you went back and started it over damon but they did a really clever thing i can't even get my timeline straight if like the next gen update whatever the big update was a couple years ago where um they refactored the map and reduced a lot of the map clutter by default because like the game was notorious you know a lot of open worlds games are like this but witcher 3 in particular was notorious for just the map being just question marks everywhere right and so they changed some of that around with the update that came out a couple years ago that makes it it's a little detail that makes a big difference I often end up playing it during Halloween season because you're hunting monsters and there's lots of spooky vibes and just winds howling

42:13Sam Claiborn:just seeing all the footage I'm like damn I'm going to replay The Witcher 3 aren't I I know but that's what I want to but now I gotta wait

42:22Justin Davis:something to look forward to for next year yeah

42:29Justin Davis:all right let's check in with the listeners hey listeners hi listeners remember you can always reach us at the email address gamescoop at igin.com just like mick lovin did what yep mick lovin wrote big fan of the show mick lovin says so i have a three-year-old son uh and i'm starting to share some of my hobbies with him we went to see the new mario movie had a blast i haven't shown him any video games but i'm tempted not sure if i should wait until he's five or go ahead and let him watch me play nintendo games i'd like to know your experiences with this subject when you were when were your kids introduced to video games do you have any recommendations or things not to do etc yeah we talk about this from time to time uh three i think kingo was three when i started introducing him to video games and yeah just definitely nintendo definitely mario games and then astrobot is another good one and the lego games all of those are good because they feature big open environments with very little friction that they can just run around and get the feel of moving a character around a 3D space and getting a feel like what holding a controller and using an analog stick feels like.

43:32I think I've shared this anecdote. My kids are not little kids anymore now. They're big kids, but when they were little kids, I love my kids and I love video games, but I did not love playing video games with my kids when they were little. it was not you you know before i became a dad you sort of build up in your head like oh i love this hobby so much and i can't wait to share it with them but then the reality is like it's kind of stressful for dad it's a little bit like you know hurting them around you know like an amusement park or something like it becomes kind of like homework for the parent of like they can't do something and it's hard and then they're getting frustrated and you know or they can't you know like if they're playing something on their own i've also shared this before that like a lot of Nintendo games for how family friendly they are and how clever they are about uh uh about being family friendly and kid friendly it's like because the characters aren't voice acted like there's a lot of reading even in like Mario Sunshine there's a lot of reading and so that was a challenge like that really delayed like that was like two years that we had to wait for my kids to really get turned loose in these games because they couldn't read them and understand what was going on and so you know we have now that they're a little bit older you know we love playing video games together but it was not not the thing when they were little that i was personally kind of hoping it would be yeah um yeah but we did i mean i have a lot of fond memories of like them sitting in my lap and playing early switch games for sure yeah did you you know the new yoshi game is kind of angled at kids uh tom gave it a seven i believe um uh and uh it looks like the perfect game you know to introduce kids to yoshian but he tried that with his kid and in the video review of it he has a little audio clip of him asking uh his daughter if she wants to play more and she says no yeah he says i want to play i want to play kirby which kirby i wonder i think that yoshi game looks really like interesting and cool like i totally want to try yeah i'll get it at some point to play with we did a i would also say i mean three is obviously pretty young but like probably one of my favorite not just family video game moments but just the video game moments of the last several years is me and my daughters had a family Minecraft world together.

45:43And like, we all, you know, work together and like cooperated and built stuff and, you know, it's split apart and go on adventures and then come back together. So like, can't recommend that highly enough as a way to kind of like spend time together. Um, yeah, it's great.

45:58Justin Davis:Every kid's different. It's up to the parents to figure out, you know, when, when is the right time and what can they handle? You know, like, like can go watch me play through all of Elden Ring with the blood turned off and all of the horrors that that game includes doesn't bother him at all but to this day he'll be seven in a couple months when we watch the first mario brothers movie he makes me fast forward through the part in the beginning when they get their first job and there's that dog that tries to like bite them to this day he won't watch that i mean as he we don't have to talk about this if you don't want is he afraid of dogs outside of the mario movie nope oh just in the game to be fair he's a scary dog it's a mean dog yeah it's a mean dog did that dog come back in the second movie there's a reference to it or something uh yoshi eats a dog that looks like that dog in the

46:41Sam Claiborn:beginning don't know if it's maybe that's the moment maybe that's how he conquers the fear of

46:45Justin Davis:that that dog yeah he's seen all the star wars movies except the latest one except he didn't want to go see mandolin and grogu because in the trailer there's some scary aliens in it so yeah one of the one of the great joys of being a parent is getting to like share here's this thing that i love and now I get to share it with you but I would also just caution like they're their own people right and this kind of like you know you must be into what I must I was into can become like a little bit much amongst like I feel like it manifests most in like nerd parent circles right like I love Star Wars therefore you must love Star Wars and it's kind of the equivalent of like when we were kids if our parents made us love like Buck Rogers or something right like Star Wars was for us.

47:29It was for kids when we were growing up. And so they have their own stuff that they're going to be into that you're going to spot that.

47:35Sam Claiborn:All right, Cloud. It's time for our annual replay of Final Fantasy 7. I think it's funny to see my parents now have to be grandparents to a generation of kids and then be annoyed that the kids are too into video games once again. I'm like, excellent. It's all happening again. Can I show you my Minecraft stuff, Grandma?

47:58Justin Davis:Nick's cloud joke just reminded me. I just came from Kingo's kindergarten spring concert earlier, and some of the kids have like a solo where they come up and just say a line. And one of the kids that came up was named Kylo. And so if he's six years old now, I have to assume probably that's the Star Wars name, right? Yeah. Man, how happy were they that he has his redemption in the last couple minutes of what he got last year he is.

48:22Sam Claiborn:They're like, wait a second, he's a child murderer? What the heck?

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51:12Justin Davis:well speaking of Star Wars extracurricular activities yeah like I said last week I went to see the Mandalorian Grogu and I really liked it what's going on with this movie this is a totally fun movie wait Justin you said you were going to see it did you end up seeing it no I didn't see it I saw it a second freaking time you've seen it twice now Sam

51:33Sam Claiborn:Nick have you seen it I have not but honestly seeing you guys pop off on the chat on like the day it came out. I was like, well, this is interesting. I'm curious now.

51:43Justin Davis:I don't know, man. I think if you approach this movie sincerely, meaning you like Star Wars, you want Star Wars to be a thing, you want a good Star Wars movie in theaters every couple of years. I don't see how you walk away disappointed from this movie. Yeah. I just think, I think both perspectives are valid and true where someone's like, you know, this movie could have been an email. This movie could have been a special episode of the TV show. Yes. Like that can be true, but it can also be true that like it's just a fun adventure and don't think about it that deeply like both both things can kind of like the criticism and the praise makes sense to me as someone that's on the semi outside and like i just don't care that much so like watching it a second time i didn't have that like that knot in my stomach of like oh boy where's this gonna go downhill and i had you know a nice alamo draft house meal and some beers and it was really fun and i knew the people i was with would love the movie right like they were like gonna like it no matter what and so that felt good and then i focused on the effects which would have never been in a disney plus tv show like there's some amazing like expensive things and then um i focused on how cool the monsters were and uh just like how they did the puppetry and the practical effects and it's like there's way more of that like star wars classic like you know or like Peter Jackson, classic special effects stuff in this, then there just then is anything recently.

53:07Like it's like a it's like it's like watching a documentary and Lucas's tricks. It's so cool. Yeah. So let me ask you, let me ask you this. I we watched season one of Mandalorian as a family, but my kids haven't seen the rest. Like, are they is this self contained enough that like they can. Oh, yeah.

53:24Justin Davis:It's the status quo of Mandalorian and Grogu just go on bounty hunter missions. That's the status quo of the movie.

53:30Sam Claiborn:Does the family know his name is Grogu? Because that's pretty important. Otherwise, that'll be confusing. They're like, wait, that's Baby Yoda.

53:38Justin Davis:Yeah. I don't think they reveal that until season two. Bring me the child. Until they bring in Ahsoka's the one that can like. Yeah. His name is Grogu. She's like, oh, yeah. Everyone watching the show was like, what the fuck? Let's go back to Baby Yoda. Come on. Just collectively as a society, we're like, no, it's not.

53:55Sam Claiborn:And he got a little bit uglier after that moment. You know, there's all this like kind of like this didn't have an effect on the story or the universe or anything like that. Like, I can see that being true. However, there's there like the Yoda connection is is played up in the movie and not like a spoilery plot way, but just like what Grogu is is like explored. And I thought that was really cool.

54:20Justin Davis:Yeah, I mean, so here's here's everything. It has a really cool opening action sequence. it expands the lore of the huts in interesting ways oh yeah that part's cool too gross it's gross yeah that's they seem really smelly it's got cool aliens cool droids grogu's cute uh it's got really charming practical effects and then just unbelievable stop-motion effects in the in the ending series like i hope they do um a light magic episode on disney plus around how they did that i was like what this is even the big cg monster that they showed that big snake like that is awesome It is a movie and the ending sequence of that's like what happens later in the movie with that snake is so good.

54:59Yes, I agree. I agree with all that.

55:01Justin Davis:I was like, I don't know. I just you guys are going to make me watch this. I don't think you're if you didn't have fun watching this movie, I don't think you're very interested in having fun in the first place. Anyway, I think, you know, Star Wars movies have always been like events, right? They've been like big deals, like it's a cultural milestone. stone and it was kind of this slightly more like guarded and kind of like precious thing even though even though several of them are like bad but like they were trying to like yeah they were trying to be like you know these epics and like this movie is just not even trying to be that it's just you know it's attempting to go you know in a different direction and so you know i again i haven't seen it but i understand the perspective of someone that's just like you know that felt like this was a little too slight for them yeah you know what you're gonna think when you see this movie you're going to think, now this is pod racing.

55:52It's working! Try spinning, that's a cool trick. I just want to chime in and say I think the movie was just a little too long.

56:02Justin Davis:I mean, okay, sure, that's fine. That doesn't work with the you-don't-get-your-money's-worth part, though, Joe, because everybody's like, well, this could have been a$12 subscription. That's fair. I just think his fetch quest in the first 20 minutes could have been 10 minutes. Yeah, that's fine, whatever, sure. You know, rewatching the first part where he's just kind of like, uh, doing that kind of one of those Darth Vader things where it's like, look at this fighting sequence and how bad ass he is. Like, um, I didn't really care the first time I watched it. The second time I was like, if this was in the middle of the movie, I would have paid a lot more attention and it was really good.

56:37Justin Davis:Yeah, it is good. It's a little bit, it's got like, it's like John wick moves and going on there. It's good. Yeah. Yeah. It's just, it's a little bit different, but they have done that, that thing where it's like, oh, Vader's here. He's gonna cause trouble. I mean, yeah. and I'm not saying that that happened in the movie that's not my, Vader's dead in this movie right, so it's like

56:54Sam Claiborn:what, what the heck no man

57:13Justin Davis:alright, that brings us to Video Game 20 Questions our suggestion this week comes from Jude in Poughkeepsie. Although I don't know where Poughkeepsie is. What state is Poughkeepsie in? I don't know. It's unclear. Anyway, you have two hints about this game. Jude says this is a very underrated game, in my opinion. Okay? Your hint from me, and this is important, listen carefully, this should inform every question you ask. Okay? You are playing on hard mode. And with that, let the questioning begin.

57:56Like this is going to be a hard one for us to get? Like 20 questions is on hard mode? Got it. Okay.

58:03Sam Claiborn:Well, I was going to say, people get mad when I ask, or they get mad when it's 70s, 80s, or 90s, but it's a hard mode, so we got to do it. is this game people get mad about that because they're like that eliminates too many things like yeah that's the whole point of the game man you can just say is it from this century last century it has the same effect why would you care is it is it from this century damon yes that eliminates too many centuries it eliminated all of them

58:36well we know it's not an etruscan puzzle box yeah okay uh can you play this game on the switch no can you play this game on playstation hardware yes um did it come out only on playstation hardware at the beginning no multi-plat was this game made in japan no that's five what was the first clue this century no no no what was the first clue from the guy underrated game underrated very underrated game very underrated hard mode so we don't need to ask if it's good yeah well yeah presumably it's good if if who what were their what was their name dude what if you did what if jude's got

59:26Sam Claiborn:bad taste though yeah from poughkeepsie north england alfred chicken uh uh let's see generation there was an alfred chick in this century was this was this game developed in the united states yes us multi-plat we don't know console generation yet though correct but it is on playstation hardware um let's see hard mode usually means it's a puzzle game could it i mean i mean a sports game or something like that like something you know do you think that um it could be underrated could be a licensed game probably like an x-men origins wolverine type situation exactly yeah yeah is this game from the the playstation 2 generation of consoles no it's not where i would have gone with it is this game based on a license no damn uh ps4 generation of consoles no oh no ps3 generation of consoles yes that's 10 okay all right halfway there we got there ps3 generations ps3 multi-plat game yeah so ps3 generation i'll give you another hint okay because this is hard uh i cannot tell you i can to my knowledge we may have

1:00:52Justin Davis:never ever once mentioned this game on this show

1:00:58Sam Claiborn:okay let's figure out yeah it was chosen figure out the type of game maybe well I wish it was a licensed game was this game I don't know how to phrase this I want to get at was it like a downloadable game but then it gets weird maybe technically it came out on like a disc like because I think it's probably like Tokyo Jungle or some PS3 downloadable game. Fat Princess. Yeah, I got you. Like a 3D.Hero situation. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Was this game mostly exclusive? Well, but, well, okay. Maybe you're right. All the ones I just named are exclusive, yes. Never mind. I withdraw my question.

1:01:47Damon, is this game weird? Is this a weird game? Oh, yeah. Yep. We are in American games are uncommon. What about Vibribbon? We're in Nick Lamone land right now and probably Justin land too.

1:02:04Sam Claiborn:Yeah, this is Is this a shooter, puzzler or platformer? Yes. But we know it's weird. I can't believe the answer was yes. Wow. shooter, puzzler, platformer so we at least know three categories

1:02:25remember crush on the PSP how good was that um okay well okay was it a puzzler no

1:02:39Sam Claiborn:it's either a platformer or a shooter well I mean you gotta do it Nick is it a platformer no okay weird shooter weird multi-platform shooter from america in the from the ps3 era what so it's ps3 and xbox one then if it's multi-platform are there games like unfinished swan which were like that's a shoot as yeah that's true on but like as a as a device not as a violent game yeah we can't ask about killing stuff premature or whatever yeah are you is it is there a shooter where you're like you know it's like paint like splatoon yes exactly are we asking for real if it's a non-violent shooter no i'm just trying to think about what a what a weird what weird shooter underrated weird oh what about like what about what about like point blank what about like a light gun like a namco you're shooting cans up but there's no like light gun games in that era though right no i guess there was with like the playstation i or the the yes and the in that those had games that were cross-platform with the wii yeah and it could be a psi game and it were like a connect connected like playstation i something weird hmm interesting but i don't think any of those games were particularly underrated i would argue yeah playstation i is like a top 10 gaming disappointments i mean i don't i don't know what i would do with that sure i don't know what about like um manhunt wasn't a shooter right no no it was a plastic bag over the header was uh was rock stars table tennis a shooter because there's a tiny projectile no but that game is underrated that game's sick i just watched marty supreme yeah me too i watched it on i watched it good movie stressed very stressful very stressful just like their other movies just constant screaming and running that bad dog dogs barking and crying hate that dog man which i know you're supposed to that's the point but it's like so stressful um what about that bathtub scene i

1:05:02Justin Davis:know that's yeah that bathtub seems crazy kind of a stealth japan movie i was pleasantly surprised

1:05:08Sam Claiborn:yeah let's see american playstation 3 era is this shooter it is it would you call this game uh directed at mature audiences or adults?

1:05:24Um, I mean, it's tricky. Is this game rated M? No. Okay, that's 15. So it's something weird and esoteric. So it's for adults, it's not for kids.

1:05:39Justin Davis:But it's not an M rated. Here's your final hint. We have multiple copies of this game in the IGN library. and I have one on my desk right here. Why don't you just pick it up?

1:05:50Sam Claiborn:Oh, sure. I'm going to lose my mind if this guy says it's wet. Yeah? I think that game is rated M, though. What was the one Bethesda made? The mantling was like its big thing. Traversal. Mantling Bethesda game? Yeah, Blink or whatever it's called. Is that what it's called? Do you remember that game where you went vertically up platforms and and and conduct behind them and then you go it was almost like a rocketeer type game and then there was also an 8-bit game dark void dark void yeah this is the era of dark that that's a third person action game but there's like dark sector which is a pretty mid game that i could see someone making the argument for being underrated even though that's crazy do we need to know if this is a first person shooter probably there's I mean, what if it's a top-down shooter that we're all missing?

1:06:48We also don't know that it's like a shooter by genre, because now I'm stuck. I guess that's Sega, but there's Alpha Protocol. Like, some stuff for you to shoot, but it's not a shooter. Yeah, I mean, shooter doesn't mean anything if it's not an FPS versus a... Yeah, you guys might be on to something with any of those games, and we've probably never mentioned Wet on Game Scoop in 600, 800-plus episodes.

1:07:11Sam Claiborn:Or like the Sabatoooler? Do you play as a human? No, Brink. Brink was the game I was thinking of, by the way. Raymond, do you play as a human in this game?

1:07:18Justin Davis:Yes, you play as a human. Okay.

1:07:26Sam Claiborn:Was this... I want to get back to Justin's thing about downloadable, because I do think there's something valid there. Is this... How do we frame this? Is this a game that was released as a downloadable-only thing for a minute? Did it start life as a downloadable game? That just said. Wait, I said he has the desk on his desk. Yeah, but we got that. Okay. No, hold on. We withdraw our question. We withdraw. What is it helpful to know if this is controlled in a weird way? If it's like not controlled with a controller that help us? Yes. Is this game controlled with a controller? Yes.

1:08:13how many we only have a couple questions left two questions and a guess

1:08:21and it and it and it but it's not rated m and we kind of glossed over that a little bit maybe it is like a point break type situation not point break point blank what is that point point blank is the namco i only know them as light gun games but it's the namco light gun series where it's like it's like warrior wear but light guns shooting and keeping a can up or like yeah yeah I mean I most know it from the DS version but there's been it's not literally point break point blank I'm just saying something like that like shooting but it's fun like a target shooting

1:08:59Sam Claiborn:something probably not like hey what about what about yeah what about pain does that count as a shooter we've talked about pain slingshot Payne was on an episode of 20 questions before. Okay. Haze is a game we never would have talked about. That's the one that had corn on. Should we ask if this is multiplayer focused? We don't know that. Yeah, but Haze is also not underrated. I don't know, man. People have to be having weird takes in 2026. Yeah.

1:09:29Is it multiplayer? I mean, there was Shadowgate, but we had that on 20 questions before. whatever it was the one where you could play as a tree i kind of think justin was on to something

1:09:40Sam Claiborn:with first person versus like i think like is this a first person am i crazy for wanting that am i crazy i feel like that's a that helps because then we start thinking in a proper direction you know is this a first person shooter no okay one question one bro bro i know it i know what it is what is it sure it's come up it's vanquish yeah but vanquish was made by capcom though right oh yeah you're right i can't that's a japanese developed game but that damn um vanquish what about like third like those alien colonial games i know it's not licensed but like a game where you're looking down at the enemies and spraying guns around.

1:10:25Like a twin stick? Yeah. We call those, oh, we're like Robotron likes.

1:10:34Man, by the way, this is a tangent, sorry. But speaking of playing games with your kids, my daughter and I have been playing Geometry Wars together lately. Damon, that's a good time.

1:10:44Justin Davis:Okay. We downloaded Geometry Wars 2, and we play a couple rounds every day now. Cool. There were games that were, but this is on a disc though i was thinking there's like n plus type games at that time which would like be more so helpful what about bullet storm that's a first person though oh wait no it's actually famously first person my bad i was just thinking about the kicking for some reason um good game okay okay okay there was um there was a few okay now i don't remember what's first person or not. What was the time the one where you could manipulate time? Splitters? Well, yeah. There is a one like Singularity is the one I was thinking of, but I think that's first person.

1:11:31I think Singularity might be third. You know it's developed in the US, so it's not like one of the rare that wouldn't come to PlayStation at that time. Yeah, Bulletstorm also wasn't made in the US, so it's doubly not that. It wasn't? Oh yeah, I could have sworn that was like an Epic Games game or something. People Can Fly made that. What was Epic working on back then?

1:11:50Sam Claiborn:Wait, Singularity was the game that has the 8-bit. It's Singularity, and then the 8-bit version is called Singularity Dark Void, isn't it? You were right about Dark Void, whatever the case is. You nailed that one. I don't know where to go with this. I would go with multiplayer, and then we don't have it. What about a... Twin Stick Shooter, maybe, question? Yeah, that's what we were just talking about. I would love it if it was that, because we would definitely not get it. It would be so weird if it was on a disc. It can't be vanquished because that was platinum. Dead Nation? What about if it just has 3D graphics?

1:12:25We don't even know that.

1:12:26Sam Claiborn:That's true. Who made Binary Domain? That's Capcom, I believe. Okay. These are all Japanese games. What if it's like an arcade collection? A shmupulation? um arcade classics volume one that a cinestar in it so it's a shooter is i mean do we want to just i like sam's take it's not it's 3d you can do that yeah we can do that is this a 3d game yes oh man it is a 3d game all right is there a guess should i reveal hold on have what do we do we have this is it yep this is it well we definitely should have asked and tossed a lot of names out there so we we botched this at the end damon we we get 21 questions on this one okay and i just want to know and i know the answer is going to be no but like have we mentioned the name of the game no okay then i don't feel bad about not yeah if we were well that's your final guest though you're allowed to do that that was it

1:13:30Justin Davis:oh yeah okay okay so this is a game uh i don't think we've ever talked about the developer is someone you've probably never heard of and they're no longer in business but it was published by d3 okay the japanese publisher which i think they're still in business but they don't really publish anything anymore they did puzzle quest and that was kind of their big claim to fame d3 did a bunch of good like ds era stuff this is a third person shooter with really generic boring gameplay but the game's premise is wild okay and the way that they marketed it is wild And it's the kind of thing you just can't possibly imagine being made today.

1:14:06Justin Davis:It is...

1:14:07Sam Claiborn:Eat Lead, The Death of Matt Hazard? No, The Return of Matt Hazard.

1:14:12Justin Davis:Eat Lead, The Return of Matt Hazard.

1:14:14Sam Claiborn:Oh my gosh. Yeah, no, we never would have gotten this. Nick, did you play this? No, I just remember the name. This is like during when I worked at Best Buy and I always saw the cover of this game. Look at the cover. It's like the perfect gray scale at, you know, 360 era slop.

1:14:32Justin Davis:it's very duke new code this the idea behind this is that matt hazard is supposedly a classic video game character who was popular in like the 80s and now they're making they've made a new modern day version of his game it's third person yeah it's a third person shooter that's insane yes damon were we right about dark void i think you reviewed the little eight bit one i don't think i did but dark void is the capcom game and they had an eight bit demake of it yes that should have been that one okay that should have been the answer okay i think i think that i think that underrated was doing a lot of heavy racing on like tell me more underrated i've heard this game is solid is it all in russian starring the voices of will arnett and neil patrick harris what so they had some budget to work with yeah and it got a sequel not back then those are cheap gets back then it's got a sequel an xbla and playstation network sequel wow there's your network sequel, Justin, you were onto something.

1:15:31Would Damon have said, well, the sequel was network only. So the concept is like, this was a gritty modern day version of like an 8-bit video game. Like a Contra, yeah. But that game wasn't real. That didn't exist. Because that was the style at the time, right? We had already had Bionic Commando and Bomberman do this. Yeah. But that's way too high concept. That's crazy, right? Now, I'm going to spoil the end of Bionic Commando. The game back then. But the arm was his wife. yeah yeah yep yep yep don't you find that out like send your emails about that spoiler to gamescoop at ign.com an inbox that i do not see

1:16:10Justin Davis:yep eat lead the return of mad hazard binary domain by the way was a sega game sega there

1:16:15Sam Claiborn:you go it was developed did we ever figure out where pokepcs is with the yakuza studio yeah Yeah. Whoa. I don't know. I didn't know that. I didn't either. That's one game I'm going to play. One of binary, binary domain. I've heard nothing but good things about. Yeah. It's an, it's an underrated game. Just like Matt hazard. Eat lead. The return of Matt hazard thing. That's the Christian name.

1:16:40Justin Davis:I remember covering this game at the time. Really? And then, yeah. Cause the glitch effect is kind of cool happening right now. Did you see that? They probably brought it into like our, the agent office and had to explain this concept to us. We're like, okay. This reminds me of an actual underrated game which was Army of Two was pretty good. They probably brought this into the office and they brought in a keg of beer and everybody had seven or eight beers and then they explained the concept and Damon burped loudly and said, okay, let's do this. Yeah. This was 2009, so. Well, nicely attempt. thank you for the suggestion Jude and Poughkeepsie viewers listeners if you have your own suggestions for video game 20 questions email them to me at the address email address gamescoop at IGN.com and that is all the scoops we have for you this week thank you Sam thank you Justin thank you Nick look forward to seeing everybody IGN live next weekend just a reminder that's June 6th and 7th and gamescoop will be happening on the afternoon of Sunday June 7th it's gonna be a really good time my name is Damon this is IGN game suit and rent and if someone talks to you about sonic the hedgehog just say no you never know just where to go seems like something we used to know where to turn and how to find people and places we used to know You're far away, just flying blind Feels like falling out of time Birds above and in your ear Keep on moving through the fear Just wait for it They're coming for you Around the dark side Screaming for you Just wait for it They're coming for you Around the dark side Screaming for you

1:19:19I will be here watching you

1:19:26Justin Davis:Violating all the rules An eye on you and one on me Back to zero history Just wait

1:19:55We're coming

1:19:57Justin Davis:A Down 10 Sitting being Bad Down the ext send me Just wait for it.

1:20:47Justin Davis:That was really hard. That was too hard. I usually don't pick the too hard games, but I thought this one would be amusing. What was harder, Mina the Hollower's first boss or that? This. The first boss I beat.