The Vookcast - Australia's Nintendo Podcast
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The Vookcast - Australia's Nintendo Podcast
#274: Nintendo Switching 2 other offerings
In this episode of the Vookcast, Ollie is joined by Michael, Angelo, and Luke as they discuss some bizarre new announcements from Nintendo, including an alarm clock, a music streaming app, and more.
They also take a look at a few newly-announced remasters, a Wii U port that isn't the one Michael was hoping for, and more. It's all finished up with a round of Nintendo 20 Questions that is far more relevant than it should have been.
- Alarmo
- Nintendo Music
- Xenoblade Chronicles X
- Yooka Laylee
- Animal Crossing
- Star Wars
- Tomb Raider
- Banjo
- Turok 2
Socials
- Ollie: @chocobalt on Bluesky
- Luke: @renderman7 on Bluesky
- Angelo: @manjell0 on Bluesky
- Michael: @subelement on Bluesky
Find Vooks on social media, support the show and buy merch. As always please leave us a review if you enjoy the show on your favourite place to get podcasts.
Hey Maestro, don't you think that's a little bit too dramatic? Can you give me something with a bit more of a beat?
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's better. G'day folks, and welcome to the VootCast Australia's Nintendo Podcast. My name's Oliver Brandt and in this episode I'm joined by Andrew LeValtuvio.
Speaker 4:Hey Pozzanos.
Speaker 3:Michael Goncalves and Luke Henderson. We've got a great episode lined up for you all about a surprising Wii U port, some bizarre new announcements from Nintendo, a bunch of new remasters and more. But first let's talk about an alarm clock. So this is one of the bizarre announcements from Nintendo.
Speaker 3:Nintendo announced an alarm clock. It's called the Nintendo Sound Clock Alarmo and, yeah, it plays Nintendo noises and sound and music and stuff when your alarm goes off and they get louder the longer they go on, especially if you stay in bed. It automatically stops playing when you get out of bed. But yeah, it detects your movement and will play sounds based on the selected Nintendo game, and it's designed for single sleepers. They say that if you have multiple people in a bed it probably won't work too well and you can set it to be a standard alarm instead of a motion-based one. But yeah, the way that they're releasing it is kind of weird.
Speaker 3:It was a lottery. Basically, if you had Nintendo Switch Online, you could apply for the lottery. Basically, if you had Nintendo Switch Online, you could apply for the lottery and then, if it, if you were selected, you could uh, buy it for $160, uh, which is wild, um, but they will be selling it just to everyone in March 2025. Um, what do we think about this? Because this is like, this is obviously like part of their like quality of life stuff that they started, you know, 15 plus years ago, 20 years ago, almost at this point. Um, but does anybody, does anybody, have a need for a nintendo alarm clock?
Speaker 2:I think this is well beyond need. Nobody needs this yeah.
Speaker 3:I mean, I think it's interesting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just an interesting little neat thing that's uniquely Nintendo.
Speaker 1:If this had come out during the Wii era, I'd have 100% gone. Yeah, that's Nintendo, you know. 100% fine, because Nintendo were very experimental back then, but this just seems like the weirdest time to announce and release something like this it sort of costs more than the way probably yeah, I mean, I think, I think, yeah, the sleep tracking tech that they're using is like very interesting.
Speaker 3:Uh, there's a few other devices that do it, um, notably, uh, the google nest hub, or whatever the fuck they call it, because they changed the name of that thing like three times. The Google Home that has a screen can essentially do the same thing with sleep tracking, with the same kind of sensor. So that's what Nintendo's done here, what Nintendo's done here. But, yeah, it's just such a strange thing to do, I think, to release a $160 alarm clock that plays drowning Pikmin at you when you don't get out of bed, I mean, or literal gunfire.
Speaker 3:Or literal gunfire from Splatoon.
Speaker 1:I love that the common meme that everyone made when this was announced was the Guardian from Breath of the Wild. I mean, that is a good meme.
Speaker 4:I do like that meme a lot.
Speaker 3:It is really funny. But yeah, it doesn't connect to any sort of console. It doesn't connect to an app or anything. You can connect it to the internet to get more, um, you know, themes and stuff in the future. But yeah, what a strange, strange device um and yes, I still want one you're part of the problem.
Speaker 2:Oh, that is. I've never said I'm not part of the problem. Oh, that is, I've never said I'm not part of the problem I think it's.
Speaker 1:I think it's an interesting thing because it's nintendo being weird again, which we haven't seen for the longest time. Um, so I'm happy that they're being weird, but it's like be weird and announce a new console before you announce an alarm clock.
Speaker 4:Look I don't mind nintendo being weird and releasing basically junk, right, but the problem is is that they're charging 160 bucks for it, like that's the stupidest thing. Like if this was like some 20, 30 thing which, let's face it, that's what it looks like, then, like I had, I'd have no problem with it because, like, okay, cool. Like an alarm clock yeah sure, it's a little more expensive than a normal. Like a light alarm clock you get, like I don't know, cheapest chips at the reject shop or something like that one that just like screams at you to wake up, would you like?
Speaker 4:nintendo alarmo or a ps5 uh, blu-ray drive, because they're the same price or like a couple of extra joy-con, or like two or three games, like the fact that this is an alarm clock that costs 160 bucks, like if you, if you showed me any like just normal alarm clock that costs 160 bucks, I would laugh you out of my house, right? But because this is a nintendo one like everyone's, just like oh okay, well, it's a bit weird, but you know they're doing some good stuff I mean some cool tech in there, just like sure, all right oh, I'm under no illusion that this is wild like I'm not defending any capacity.
Speaker 4:I'm talking about the general populace, like people are just like sort of defending this but also at the same time saying it's absolutely not for them. It's like and why is this? Is this, then?
Speaker 3:yeah, I mean it is like it is still the cheapest standalone sleep tracker on the market, which is a weird thing to say about a Nintendo product.
Speaker 4:No, the cheapest one is the one you carry in your pocket all the time, because it does a million other things as well and is well worth the investment.
Speaker 3:Right, but it can't do sleep tracking in the same way that this can, which is the point. Right it does.
Speaker 4:I mean, yeah, but if people who care about sleep tracking this is, I'm not gonna go and buy a Nintendo alarm clock okay, but people who care about sleep tracking and are also Nintendo fans might be willing to spend a very specific diagram.
Speaker 3:Yes, okay, cool look, I'm just glad that like the two circles you mean um, you know, I'm just glad that they're doing all this weird shit and it's like weird shit that is separate from the next console and not weird shit that is part of the next console, right, like, I'm hoping that the next console is relatively straightforward, just essentially a switch, but you know better. Um, yeah, and doesn't isn't packed with weird gimmicks.
Speaker 4:Um, I'm at least happy, that's that I was gonna make a bad joke and say I'm. I heard that the next switch console is gonna have, like you know, a sperm counter in there.
Speaker 2:But never mind, go on oh my god, I'm saying I'm happy. At least it doesn't seem to be trash, like it isn't like a piece of shit hardware like, like it seems to be well built, it works, like that would have been the worst part if it was $159 and it was just not functional.
Speaker 3:Kmart levels of quality.
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah, the only thing like price wise is we seem to have been given a bit of a bump, like in Japan. I think it's about $120 Australian dollars to buy one in Japan. So we've got a bit of a you know, like in Japan. I think it's about $120 Australian dollars to buy one in Japan. So we've got a bit of a price bump on our local cost, but other than that, We've got to pay more for sleep here, Luke.
Speaker 4:That's why.
Speaker 1:Probably.
Speaker 3:Well, just the conversions don't work when nighttime is like during daytime during the US.
Speaker 4:Genuinely, though, this was significantly cheaper like one-fifth the price than a completely different story in my books.
Speaker 1:Yeah, honestly, I think $80 would have been the highest point it should have been.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they should have. Maybe Damn cheaper, but $80 at the maximum for here the price is the same as the Game Watch consoles.
Speaker 4:Yeah, sure.
Speaker 2:Which is like $89, $99, whatever it was.
Speaker 4:They've got a clock and an alarm in them. They do green.
Speaker 1:Now I'm like should I cancel my order for this thing, Because now I don't need three different Nintendo alarm clocks.
Speaker 2:I mean you can just scalp it like a piece of shit. Yeah sure.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean between now and March.
Speaker 4:I, I mean nobody else is selling them, you know um don't do that, don't don't scalp them um do it so I feel like if you could get your, if you just get an app that lets you play music, and then you could connect this to our next uh news topic, then you're saving yourself way more money. Then then you have an alarm clock that also plays you Nintendo music yeah, which.
Speaker 3:Let's talk about that, because that was another strange announcement from Nintendo, but a very welcome one too. So, instead of just dropping all of its music on something like Spotify or you know any of the other music services, nintendo has made its own Spotify. All of its music on something like Spotify or you know any of the other music services. Nintendo has, uh, made its own Spotify. Um, so it's an app called, uh, nintendo Music. It's available to all Nintendo Switch Online subscribers. Uh, available on iOS and Android. Um, so, yeah, it's just Spotify, but for Nintendo music.
Speaker 3:There are a few really neat features where, because tracks in video games often have to loop, you can just set a track to loop for 15, 30, 60 minutes, which is uh, interesting, um, and something that is clearly nintendo understanding the market a little bit, because, you know, on youtube there's hundreds and hundreds of you know this track extended to 30 minutes or whatever. Yeah, um, so, yeah, at the moment, there's only 23 uh games available. Well, the music for 23 games available. It launched with 22 and then, a couple days later, super Mario Wonder was added and, yeah, I can link to your play history and show you music from those games. It has Nintendo created playlists which are pretty fun and, yeah, there are a couple drawbacks. Only, having, you know, 23 games on there is a little bit of a small number to launch with, but it does seem like more are being added regularly. We already know that another one's being added in a couple days. Um and uh, the lack of composer information, uh, in the app is a real letdown, I think.
Speaker 4:Um it's real nintendo stuff right there yeah, um here's our art, not mention the actual artists yeah, I also don't like that.
Speaker 2:Um every track has its own like screenshot instead of like an album.
Speaker 3:Having like a piece of album art like yeah me personally I dislike, I mean but I think I mean it's kind of interesting in a way. That's like it's showing you like the context of that song or that track, which is I mean I think it's an interesting thing to do. It definitely won't appeal to everybody and I think if you do the spoiler option turn spoilers off it just uses the album artwork anyway, or just one.
Speaker 4:That feature in itself is also just kind of weird to me. I'm not against that, I think that's kind of cool, but it's also just kind of funny that it's like oh, we have a spoiler prevention feature. Yeah Well, I think that's kind of cool, but it's also just kind of funny that it's like oh, we have a spoiler prevention feature for our music.
Speaker 3:Well, I assume that in the future there will be games that the soundtrack is released fairly early on into the release cycle. So having that spoiler option is cool, I guess.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I never thought about being music spoiled before I guess, if the title of a track maybe, yeah, like gives it away, but like the music itself, I would never be like oh yeah, this is x well, the, the spoiler is before it happens anyway shots that it shows.
Speaker 3:So like right, it happens anyway, before it happens anyway.
Speaker 4:Before it happens anyway, before it happens anyway, before it happens anyway, before it happens anyway, before it happens anyway, before it happens anyway, before it happens anyway, before it happens anyway, before it happens anyway, before it happens anyway Before it happens anyway, before it happens anyway, before it happens anyway, before it happens anyway.
Speaker 3:Before the moment I said that, I was like oh, no oh yeah in the case of pokemon, some of the screenshots are, like you know, champion battle or, like you know, the final battle against a particular trainer and stuff and like that stuff can be spoilers, so it'll just show like the regular album art for that instead.
Speaker 2:Um, I think it's just one of those like this is definitely not what anyone wanted, but it's just one of those like. This is definitely not what anyone wanted, but it's done in the most Nintendo way possible and it's not awful Like. The app is very functional and it works well and the audio quality is fine. It's not lossless, but it's high bitrate and MP3. It's just yeah. It's just so interesting that of course, nintendo would do it like this instead of yeah so I'm gonna change hats now.
Speaker 4:So I was a big negative nancy about the previous item, right, but this one, I actually think, is actually a good idea in a sense, because now it's, because it's what I've always been saying about nso right now it's actually adding value to the service, yeah, but the problem is is that it adds value years down the line. So, like for all the people who subscribed five years ago, like the subscription that they had back then is nowhere near worth as much as what it is now, when they paid their 40, 50 bucks or whatever it was right, so 40 50 bucks now gets you a whole streaming service with a bunch of video, nintendo game music on it.
Speaker 4:So this is the kind of problem that I have with nintendo rollout for this kind of thing.
Speaker 2:Hopefully they do it really well, they really really expand their library of music.
Speaker 4:Well, hopefully they do right, because it's not like the emulation apps where they have to secure rights for a game later on down the track and can only release it here. This is all Nintendo's music. They can just put it out whenever they want and it's not like they have to have an emulator to be able to play the music, like it's just frigging music, like just put the music.
Speaker 2:On that exact topic, literally the next thing I was going to talk about. I'm wondering for the earlier games, like not stuff that is pre-recorded, like how getting the audio?
Speaker 4:for those games like snes games and nest games. Are they just running it through an emulator? Are they running it on hardware and capturing off actual hardware? I'd be very intrigued. Yeah, um, I do wonder how long would it take for something like a square to do something similar and do all of their like you know, older rpgs, uh, chrono, trigger, etc. Putting all their music out on there, so it's not on something like Spotify.
Speaker 4:I feel like within about 10 years we're going to get even more of a splintered path when it comes to music services. We'll kind of go in that way in 10 years.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that ship has sailed Like I do not think you could do that.
Speaker 4:I don't know. I mean like I don't want to get too much into this because it's a completely different situation, but you get people like Taylor Swift, right, is re-recording her own album so that way she can get full royalties for her own music, because she's basically reproduced all the music.
Speaker 1:Yeah okay.
Speaker 4:Something similar like that could happen with other publishers, like Sony brings out their own and then I think for very specific artists.
Speaker 2:I think Taylor Swift is in the league of her own right. If anyone could do what you're saying, it's her right, but I do not think that you can apply that rule to pretty much anyone else.
Speaker 4:It's very, very few people I'm not saying artists specifically, I'm just saying, like you know, labels or something like that will have their own kind of like. You know how Paramount Plus has their own?
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure. That's what I'm saying. I think that ship is truly, truly south. No one is going to go back to paying individual subs for different libraries of music. It's such the de facto standard that if you want to listen to music, you pick a music subscription service and that has all the music you want. And as soon as that starts fracturing again, then it's going to be exactly like what's happening in the uh streaming space, like the video streaming space, where piracy is skyrocketing and it'll continue to happen again.
Speaker 4:People absolutely go back to pirating before they start subscribing to new services. But, like everyone hates spotify at this point, like people who make music fucking hate spotify so much because it absolutely rips them off so bad.
Speaker 3:So anyway, so yeah, I completely read the conversation um, I do think it's interesting, like because there are other companies like sega and square innings, who do put their their music on spotify and other music services and capcom too.
Speaker 3:They've been doing it a lot lately and capcom too, but, like a lot of those are just sort of more recent tracks. This is something like you're not going to get, like you know sonic one soundtrack on spotify, right like it. It's not there. It probably never will be there. It's interesting that we're getting like all of these retro tracks in addition to like the newer stuff in nintendo games as well, like and acknowledging the differences between nes versions of games and famicom disc system versions, because metroid um has two different I mean they're the same soundtracks but, like the famicom version is greatly expanded because of the extra audio tracks available, um, and they have both of those on there, um, which I thought was really really interesting to see. So, yeah, the addition of retro music is a nice touch and I think it's got some really neat features that are very specific to games that obviously the extending and looping stuff is not something that Spotify would offer. So I think that's a really really nice topic.
Speaker 1:You'll pick the Zelda soundtrack and you'll turn on shuffle and accidentally hit smart suggestions and you'll get some random bullshit song from some artist you've never heard of.
Speaker 3:AI bullshit. But yeah, I think I don't know that I would have rather like somebody come along and do one for all music, rather than just like nintendo doing it for its own music, like, if you know, sony music or whatever was like, hey, this is the video game music app, here it is. Or like spotify made a specific one for video game music that had these kinds of features, that would be better, because you know, as it is, I can't mix the Pokemon tracks that I like in with.
Speaker 3:You know the Kingdom Hearts tracks that I like because they're split across two different apps, but I think I don't know. I like this approach better than just slapping it up on Spotify.
Speaker 2:I'm actually super surprised at how little negative I have to say about this. If anything really Like is it? You know what I would have preferred. No, is it an awful solution? Also, no, like I said, the app seems well built. Like the music quality is great, like they're adding stuff immediately, which which is awesome. It's not a separate sub, like yes, you have to pay for nso, but if you're a switch online member, or like already, like whatever, who cares? Yeah, um, so, yeah, it's good.
Speaker 4:It kind of goes back to our um conversation a few episodes ago. We were talking about, like, nintendo's efforts in mobile, like they seem to do all right with mobile, like they seem to actually get it and they have an understanding of how to use it to their advantage. There are some missteps, like the nso voice chat app was kind of garbage, but like this, on the other hand, actually does make sense. Um, there isn't a web version of this, though. Is that you can't listen?
Speaker 3:no, there's not, so there's a misstep right.
Speaker 4:So hopefully maybe they'll rectify that.
Speaker 2:I think the big misstep is that there isn't a Switch version of it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, sure. Like why can't?
Speaker 2:you just have this on Switch.
Speaker 3:On the one hand yeah, but like I don't know.
Speaker 2:It feels, a little bit wasted on Switch because, like I mean, yeah, you have to have the app running for sure, but like I feel like this is definitely going to be a Switch 2 thing, you can't wirelessly beam the music from a Switch. Play this music in the background.
Speaker 4:You can't wirelessly beam the music from a Switch to a TV, though, like you can with a phone, right Like casting it or something like that, or using a certain no, you can have your Switch plugged in, though, and just have it on TV. You do, but then you have to have the screen on and everything right, Unless you have.
Speaker 2:Sure, I'm not saying it's. It's definitely not a perfect solution.
Speaker 4:It's just a little surprising because, like no, no, no, I'm just saying that the experience of using a phone makes sense and probably is a little more functional than having to have have your music on switch.
Speaker 1:It is there. It's just built into super smash brothers ultimate.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's in the game of course my bad um, I will yeah I do want to point out.
Speaker 1:So we've got 23 titles. Um, I do laugh at nintendogs because just some of those tracks are just weird. Um, but the fact that the, the wii channel, like the wii system, music's there like the eShop, the, news channel, the weather channel, the photo channel.
Speaker 2:If anything's going to be on there, it's that, Like that's the stuff people want, yeah, yeah yeah, absolutely One of my friends immediately said man, this app has Link to the Past and Super Mario World. I'm all in and I was like ooooh.
Speaker 1:We got the Wii Shop channel In terms of what's still to come in the video that Nintendo put out. They've got Wii Sports, mario 64, skyward Sword, splatoon 2, wind Waker, donkey Kong Country 2, diddy's Conquest and F-Zero X from the 64. They're the games that have said, hey, these are coming. So Wonder wasn't in that list and it showed up like the day after the app launched. So they're clearly going to be a bit sneaky with releasing things onto the service at random times that we don't know it's coming.
Speaker 3:Seriously, just no Xenoblade at launch, which I was really, really shocked about. No Xenoblade at launch, which I was really, really shocked about, because Xenoblade has some really strong music and also it plays into our next.
Speaker 2:I was about to say, is this another like sneaky transition?
Speaker 3:yeah, I mean, look, I think, given the next new story, it's very surprising that, you know, they announced one thing and then the next day they announced something that they could absolutely capitalize on with Nintendo music, but just completely did you mean how they might do it in the weeks leading up to the release of this particular?
Speaker 4:yeah, probably or they're just probably going to try to sell the soundtrack first and then wait a few months and then release it uh, I mean the soundtrack.
Speaker 3:As far as we know, hasn't been remastered at all, so you can still buy the soundtrack you know, then, maybe they're relying on, but anyways, let's hear this transition yeah, um, I mean the, the transition is dead at this point. I'm just going to get into it.
Speaker 3:So nintendo has announced uh, xenoblade chronicles x. Uh definitive edition. Uh, it's coming to switch in march 2025. Uh, it is one of the few wii u games uh people wanted on the switch. Um, as far as I know, the only outstanding wii u game is that, right, michael yeah, definitely the only outstanding wii game.
Speaker 2:No other wii games that people have asked for, uh, could ever be coming to the switch console. Can't imagine a single other game, perhaps even two other games that could be coming, so yeah the game does have updated visuals.
Speaker 3:They've swapped out a few character models and it looks a little bit nicer. It also has new story additions which anybody who's played the game so there's like six people on the planet who have there was a lot of's played the game, so there's like six people on the planet who have you know, there was a lot of mystery in the game about a particular hooded guy and it looks like we get to see who that is. Now the 32-player asynchronous multiplayer mode also returns, as well as the four-player actual multiplayer mode.
Speaker 2:And, yeah, march 20, 2025, which, uh, depending on when the switch 2 launches, could be the last, one of the last, uh, first party nintendo games on the switch one I'm more intrigued that this is definitely launching after the switch 2 is announced, like for sure so he cares about xenoblade, so they just like get the shit out like maybe this will just generally be cross-platform, because it'll be a weird to launch it this late, and not cross-platform, who knows I mean like if we assume that there's some level of backwards compatibility, they can say like, hey, it'll also be playable on switch 2 or whatever.
Speaker 3:So that's a big assumption, though yeah, at this point, I think it's pretty much, I think yeah I would hope so.
Speaker 4:Oh no, I'll wait till later. I've got some switch 2 speculation, but I won't get into it now because it'll it'll just derail things further.
Speaker 3:So no, no, get into it. I mean it's xenoblade derailing the podcast.
Speaker 2:I can't imagine that ever happening I'll hold off.
Speaker 4:I will say that like every time, uh, a new announcement is made about a Xenoblade re-release or something like every time, I'm just like, oh man, maybe this is the point where I'll get into this game and I never do. But like I'm looking at this, I'm like, okay, all the Xenoblades are finally on Switch. Now is this is the time to get into it, right.
Speaker 3:I mean, this is not a terrible game to start with. Well, I don't know if I'll start with this.
Speaker 4:I'd probably start with the first one. To be honest, yeah, why wouldn't you?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, this game is largely unrelated to the other games. It is related in some way, but it can be played as a totally standalone game. There are very, very few connections, and that's a good thing and a bad thing, depending on how you look at it, but it's also a very long game.
Speaker 2:In order to 100% it.
Speaker 3:You need to play 700 hours, which is wild.
Speaker 1:So it's basically an offline MMO.
Speaker 3:It is. It started its life as an MMO and then they ended up making it a basically an offline MMO. It is it started its life as an MMO and then they ended up making it a single-player game instead.
Speaker 4:And they remembered. Oh wait, we're making this on our Nintendo platform.
Speaker 3:I mean it was the Wii U, so Any MMOs?
Speaker 2:on Switch, actually Talking about derailing the podcast DC.
Speaker 1:Whatever that's called the DC Hero one where you can be a version of the Flash or.
Speaker 4:Joker, whatever that's. There is that on Switch.
Speaker 2:I can't imagine anything worse than playing an MMO on Switch that sounds awful.
Speaker 1:The really weird thing is that game's cross platform on all the others except Switch, so if you're on Playstation or Xbox or PC, you can play with everyone else, but if you play, the Switch version you don't get it absolutely funky poor.
Speaker 4:That's amazing.
Speaker 3:There's a few more um. There's like dragon quest, uh 10 um, which is on switch, but only in japan because it hasn't been localized. Um, and I think there's uh pso2 cloud as well, and I think there's PSO2 Cloud as well, also in Japan. So, yeah, there's MMOs.
Speaker 1:There is an interesting one. I couldn't remember the name. It's called Skyforge. It's by a group called my Games, developed by All Lords, and the combat and story were done by Obsidian. So there's an MMO on Switch where the bulk of the combat was done by Obsidian. The folks behind Fallout, new Vegas and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 3:And speaking of MMOs, I don't know if we actually talked about this previous and it's not on the list. The Nintendo Switch Online playtest thing is also an MMO, and made by Nintendo at that.
Speaker 4:And everyone will make it immediately and everyone leaked it immediately and not leaked at all.
Speaker 2:It was completely shut in. Nobody knows anything about the game. Everyone respected the NBA.
Speaker 4:I love that. I love gamers. Sometimes, man, they're the worst and also sometimes the best.
Speaker 3:It's so funny that they sent out a PDF with all the NBA details. It's like, don't mention all of this, this is how the game works. And that pdf immediately leaked, which was just the funniest thing.
Speaker 2:That's so good, I just don't know what they like it. Surely they knew right. This is part of the marketing of it, like it has to be I think so.
Speaker 3:Like there's no way in 2024 you're like oh yeah, this is a thing that, like a hundred thousand people can fucking download. And also you're not allowed to talk about it uh, the, the, the materials like the, the nda document stuff, um got nda, but like all of the footage and stuff since hasn't been so I think it's just they didn't want the documents out there and and they did want the gameplay out there.
Speaker 2:I watched the guy play it live for three hours it was not hard, it was just there. Yeah.
Speaker 4:Just quickly going back to Xenoblade, though, as soon as you mentioned PSO before, a switch flipped in my head and I'm like oh, I think that's why I'm interested in these games, because it reminds me of OG, phantasy Star and I why I like I'm interested in these games because it reminds me of og, fantasy star and I love fantasy star on the dreamcast because I came in way later I got a second hand and the servers and everything for online dreamcast gameplay, like it was all offline, it was all dead, but like playing single player pso was really, really enjoyable to me at the time. And I look at this. I'm like this just looks like a newer pso. So like, is that like fair assessment?
Speaker 3:I would say so. Yeah, I don't know if you ever played Phantasy Star Universe, which was a PS2, but it's that Basically, a lot of the staff that worked on Phantasy Star Universe, which was supposed to be an offshoot of the series but never really took off, ended up moving over to Monolith afterwards and then starting to help build um xenoblade one someone but xenoblade x. A lot of the staff worked on that, so, um, and now they are just like monolith staff in general, so they worked on xenoblade 2 and and 3 as well. Um, so, yeah, it does feel a lot like um pso in the sense that it is fantasy-ish but very firmly set in sci-fi.
Speaker 4:Science fantasy, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so yeah, it does have those kinds of vibes.
Speaker 4:I have to finally do it. I have to get into a whole new series of games.
Speaker 3:There's also just a surprising amount of mechs that just show up throughout the story. You never expect it. And then a mech just fucking flies in and starts shooting stuff. It's like all right, I've been beating up dinosaurs for the last two hours, but I'll take it.
Speaker 2:I feel like we can star wipe to 3,000 hours later and just seeing Angelo as an old man like the crepid, still playing all those interblade games.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I know right. See, I like dinosaurs and I like mechs and they put them both together in this and it's just like yeah I will
Speaker 2:say like it doesn't require a giant keyboard controller to play that's true, hey, hey, leave that fucking thing alone.
Speaker 4:I actually was so close to buying one, like 20 years ago at cash competitorsverters. I'm like it's only 20 bucks.
Speaker 2:God. So worth it. It's worth way more now.
Speaker 3:I will say, if you are going to play Xenoblade 2, when you get to that point, just be aware that Xenoblade 2 is the horny era of the series in that there's some. Just be aware that, like it, like, xenoblade 2 is the horny era of the series in that, like, there's some huge honkers and the camera will very much just linger on them for like 10 seconds.
Speaker 4:I am no stranger to anime. It's fine yeah.
Speaker 3:It's just, it's such a tonal difference from like you go from Xenoblade 1, which is like just a normal, from like you go from Xenoblade 1, which is like just a normal fucking game. And then you get to Xenoblade 2, and it's like alright.
Speaker 4:Well, like half of these characters are naked and See, you're telling me that Xenoblade 1 is for children, xenoblade 2 is for teenagers and then Chronicles is for adults.
Speaker 2:I noticed that Doja is not a topic of discussion today. Oh, I wanted to bring. I wanted to bring it up, but I.
Speaker 4:This is a nintendo podcast, so jesus christ, that my one of my students at work brought it up to me and I'm like it was so funny the way she brought it up. She's like have you guys heard of this video game called conquer's bad fur day?
Speaker 2:are you ready? Like your heart sank immediately like where's this going?
Speaker 4:I literally grew like five more grey hairs when she said that. I'm like, what are you talking about? But she was genuinely born in 2003, so it made sense. But I was very disappointed. But yeah, that outfit is wild. Look it up. We probably shouldn't get into it, but look it up, it is insane.
Speaker 3:Don't put it on the screen, luke, we'll get banned from YouTube.
Speaker 1:I had no intention of doing it because, as I said when angela shared, I'm like some reason that that looks like it's ai generated like the still I will say there's one pick where we won't get banned and there's another pick where we definitely will get banned it does remind me, though, of um heidi klum's et uh halloween costume. This year was et but her face is in the neck, but the head of ET is a robotic head so it blinks and moves its eyes and everything.
Speaker 1:I just couldn't imagine walking around with that on my head for five hours.
Speaker 4:Remember when she was like a strip of bacon or something a couple of years ago.
Speaker 2:She was a worm.
Speaker 4:I'm thinking of a strip of bacon. Yeah, that was the way you said. I'm thinking of a strip of bacon.
Speaker 3:My bad, yeah, that was, that was absolutely.
Speaker 1:Give me bacon stat. I love what. The way you said a strip of bacon, I thought you said strip of bacon and I'm like yeah, for some reason I thought it was a strip of bacon.
Speaker 2:All right.
Speaker 4:I'll just quickly derail the conversation for a moment and talk about some Switch speculations. So like back in 2016, right?
Speaker 2:I mean that also moves on to our next topic.
Speaker 4:I'm just saying yeah, okay, yeah, we got. We got the the reveal video for the switch back in like october 2016, right, the haha yeah one. And then we got the the gameplay event thing in in january for some people, um, to go visit it by invitation or whatever, and then the switch came out in march. I, if we're going by that timeline this time around, I don't think the switch 2 is coming out before july or june next year.
Speaker 3:All right, we're going to be on the one hand, right, like okay, where you're coming from, but like on the other, like nintendo isn't in the position that it was then. Right in the sense that the wii u was like failing spectacularly. The 3ds wasn't exactly setting the charts on fire. They needed to announce as early as possible so the investors didn't flee all the time.
Speaker 2:Um, so I think also just to get data about how many people were interested, right like they had no idea. Like I had nothing. I feel like they don't. I agree with ollie. I don't think they have any of those problems. I feel like we're going to see a much more compressed announce and release timeline for this console. That's it.
Speaker 3:I don't think it'll be like march, like previous. I think it'll be at the start, so like april, may of the next financial year. Um, just because that makes most sense for them in terms of like tracking, sales and stuff and also having the time to produce it.
Speaker 4:But we're definitely not looking at like a holiday 2025 release, because that would be bad, because I feel like, if they're really because they've already said that they want to make it more difficult for scalpers to be able to scalp the product right. So I'd imagine that they're probably just going to hold off until they just have billions of these things to actually sell and just make a yeah, which is what which is what I think that they've pretty much already done or like on the way to doing.
Speaker 2:Basically, I reckon that that's that's basically don't release holiday 2024, because that would be a goddamn nightmare, like because obviously people would want it for like a holiday gift and also your scalpels would go wild. So I think they're just choosing their release a to counteract that and b not to eat into their holiday 2024 sales for switch itself but also similar so yeah, it'll be interesting I just don't think they're in a in a position either where they're desperate to get this thing out as soon as possible.
Speaker 4:I feel like they are holding off and they're still releasing games, specifically, yeah, switch, and not mentioning it's coming to any other switch platforms at this point or next platforms.
Speaker 1:My theory has been for a few weeks now that, with the financials coming in on Tuesday, when we're getting the end of September results, if the numbers for Switch consoles sold in the last quarter was woefully under what they expected it to be, they'll probably announce Switch 2 before this fiscal report, just to help alleviate people's concerns.
Speaker 1:But if they don't, then we won't hear anything till next year because I'm like, let's be real if they did it now, it's just because they were so far behind what they thought they were going to be and just to keep investors happy. But if they're okay, then they're just going to right switch this holiday season and we're not going to see anything at all till next year. There's no point for them to undercut themselves then it's also just insane.
Speaker 4:The msrp or whatever the price of the console has not dipped like officially since the damn thing launched.
Speaker 3:That's properly insane, yeah, and it's been selling bonkers numbers every single year too. Like it's not like it's dropped significantly Like it's still selling well, which is.
Speaker 4:I can't believe that we're at that point in economic history that things are not getting in price.
Speaker 2:Every current-gen console has just not had a price decrease at all. Actually, bar the Switch, they've all had price increases. It's crazy.
Speaker 4:The fact that it was already on 5-year-old hardware at the time, 6-7-year-old hardware or something like that. So it's double that now, more than double.
Speaker 2:It's 2017.
Speaker 1:It was already using, using a tegra chip from like what 2013 or something 20s, 20s yeah 2014, 2015 it's probably costing nintendo more to make this older, older hardware now than it is to actually make the new consoles.
Speaker 3:Oh they've definitely like stockpiled the fuck out of tegra chips, like they built like a billion of those, and it's like gonna coast on that for fuck out of Tegra chips Like they built like a billion of those, and are just like going to coast on that for the rest of the Switch's life Switch 2's going to have two of them.
Speaker 4:That's what makes it twice as powerful.
Speaker 2:Can't imagine any consoles having multiple CPUs.
Speaker 4:that were in trouble, so let's not go down that path. Look, ps3 had like eight of them, right.
Speaker 1:Look at what that console did. What's that the the thing for how it all came together was the emotion engine, wasn't something stupid like that?
Speaker 4:the emotion engine was the ps2 graphics yeah, the ps2 one oh ps2 sorry yeah, the cell chip was the ps3 yeah, the cell processor, that like absolute chimera of a machine.
Speaker 3:It's so funny because it's like easily twice as powerful as the Xbox 360, but you sure wouldn't know it playing any of the games. Definitely not.
Speaker 1:It's such a convoluted system.
Speaker 3:Speaking of the Switch 2, there's a Yooka-Laylee remaster coming out at some point in the future and when they first announced it, it was only PC that they mentioned, and now they've announced platforms, and it's, you know, ps5 and Xbox Series X and also Nintendo. The trailer just has the Nintendo logo, not the Nintendo Switch logo or anything like that, but, yeah, just Nintendo. They also just said in the press release that it is coming to Nintendo platforms, without specifically naming anything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, switch and 3DS obviously.
Speaker 1:No Switch and Switch. Lite.
Speaker 4:Yooka-Laylee on 3DS oh my god.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, this is the second game to do this, after Nico de Rico, the Magical World, but they replaced the trailer where they just had the Nintendo icon and just released it for the Switch. But I think we can all comfortably say that, like Yooka-Laylee, remaster is not coming to the first Switch, because it would just look like the first Yooka-Laylee game it would just be the first Yooka-Laylee game, and the first one didn't even run that great no, it didn't at all that
Speaker 3:came out when the switch came out too, so yeah, um, so yeah, it's almost certainly just going to come to switch to um. What's interesting about this is that, like, in order to just put the nintendo logo and not any kind of nintendo console logo, they have to have gotten permission from nintendo um, which I think is really interesting because it shows that, like, developers can clearly announce stuff for future Nintendo consoles and officially say that it's for a future Nintendo console, with Nintendo's blessing, which is interesting that we're at that point where they can say that, but the console still hasn't actually been announced. They can say that, but the console still hasn't actually been announced.
Speaker 1:But yeah, also like, it's in the copyright crap at the bottom, you know the really micro text. Nobody ever reads Xbox One, xbox Series X, xbox Series S and Xbox Series XS, the trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies standard sort of stuff, even though it doesn't have Xbox One anywhere in that trailer, but it says it in there. For Nintendo, it just says the Nintendo logo is a trademark of Nintendo, that's. It Doesn't mention Switch. They're not lying, it's accurate. I also think it's hilarious. This is the second game announced this year for a remaster that was also released in 2017. Announced this year for a remaster that was also released in 2017.
Speaker 1:It's wild to me that we're getting remasters of not current gen games, but recent, 7 years, recent anymore it's still on the Switch, we're still in the Switch generation either way.
Speaker 3:It's stupid, but yeah yeah, no you're right, though the Horizon remaster is dumb, I'm I feel like I feel better about this like it'll be fine, whatever it's ukulele.
Speaker 4:Like they tried to make it a huge thing, to make it like the return of like a banjo kazooie type game and it didn't really set the world on fire. I feel better about this being available if it like came for free with like a ukulele three or something, or for like extra five bucks. It became like cool dlc for a ukulele.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like it's been years now since the second game just make another ukulele and just especially since there's probably not going to be any kind of upgrade path for this, like you're just gonna have to pay.
Speaker 2:I genuinely don't remember the second game coming out like at all, like it was you talking about just then.
Speaker 3:I was like is there a second game coming out? Like at all you?
Speaker 4:talking about it.
Speaker 2:Just then I was like is there a second game? Why are we talking about a third game?
Speaker 4:the impossible lair, the 2D one, the Donkey Kong Country yeah, it's just Donkey Kong Country it's been free on like Epic Games Store, like 3 or 4 times at this point.
Speaker 1:Michael just did the goat simulator thing.
Speaker 3:He went from 1 to 3 but yeah, I mean, the one thing I will say that I think is good about the ukulele remaster is that it's called yuka replayly, which is a real dumb name, but I kind of, yeah well, that's it.
Speaker 4:Like it makes fun of itself and it makes fun. It has fun with names as well.
Speaker 3:So like replayly totally makes sense in this sense, in this case, yeah um, but yeah, so coming to switch to at some point in the future like.
Speaker 2:Is that lawsuit coming from from lately?
Speaker 4:oh, it's coming to a nintendo platform sometimes it's coming to a nintendo platform.
Speaker 3:We cannot confirm or deny um maybe they'll just do like a game and watch for it like they did for just blows up in your hands when you all righty um. I think we talked about this previously.
Speaker 3:I don't know if this was in the last episode or not, but uh, yeah, animal crossing pocket camp um is shutting down its online features soon, um, and we now have uh, the animal crossing pocket camp, complete uh, which is a paid version of the game. You can import all of your stuff from the online version, but it just doesn doesn't have any kind of online features.
Speaker 1:Except for the part where it does have an online feature, but we'll get to that in a moment.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, so you can transfer your progress to this game. It costs $10 Australian and it will continue costing that much until January 31st, and then a little double, which is dumb and weird. But okay, yeah, and you have until 5 pm on June 2nd, australian time, to transfer, transfer your progress to the game. Um, there's four years of events uh in the game before they loop back around, um, outside of the major seasonal ones like christmas and and easter and stuff which happen, uh every year, um, and there are some new events apparently being added to this version of it as well.
Speaker 3:Um, and it has a new location in whistle pass where you can meet other players. You uh meet the new uh cards, which is essentially just sharing your town and stuff with other players. So, yeah, I mean, nintendo did what it said it was going to do it created an offline version of the game so that the game isn't totally inaccessible for the rest of time. The game so that the game isn't totally inaccessible for the rest of time. Um, I think having the like two-tiered pay ten dollars and then pay twenty dollars is just dumb um.
Speaker 2:I feel like if you make ten dollars if you dumped more than ten dollars into the game, you should get it. You should get it for free. I don't know that's.
Speaker 3:That's a real punch in the dick for anyone that's dumped money into the game, yeah, but I mean, you know, as I said, it is good that it's not just being lost to time like other Nintendo mobile games.
Speaker 4:But you know it is what it is it's just another example of what I mentioned before. To a degree like nintendo, understands how mobile gaming can work and how it can work for them. Um, so it is great that they're not just nuking this game and, you know, pretend like it didn't exist or anything like that. Providing a solution might not be the best solution, but it's a solution nonetheless. And like, if you want a better animal crossing game, there was one that came out four years ago on switch that everyone loved.
Speaker 3:So there is that but you know good on, no, this is terrible. I hate capitalism. But you know good on nintendo for, like, getting 10 bucks out of all their most dedicated players on mobile. All right, because like, the people that are going to pay for this are the people that already spent a whole bunch of money on the game. So you know, one last dying gasp of the game to get 10 bucks out of those players again, like, I mean, go off, I guess um, but, but at least like all their progress carries over, right.
Speaker 4:So like, yeah, it's ten dollars, but it's basically ten dollars for preserving it. It's not $10 for a subscription like the Pokemon Bank or whatever it was did. If you wanted to keep all your Pokemon and transfer across generations, you have to subscribe If you want to store them online. It's not that rubbish. It's like okay, yeah, give us one last $10 and we'll kind of leave you alone, but also maybe another $20 on top of that.
Speaker 3:Well, depending on when you buy it, yeah, maybe $10, or it could be $20. Yeah, I mean, you're right. It is just like paying $10 to have. You don't have to lose all of your shit. For the people who care it's probably a good deal right.
Speaker 4:We'll see right, because, like in five years is it still going to be available? Because, like, whenever a new phone comes out, they have to provide an updated version of that, and, like in five years time, who knows if it'll be around then. So, if you want it in five years, just don't update your phone firmware in that case, or whatever.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like there are plenty of games that aren't compatible with current versions of ios.
Speaker 4:That out 10 years ago.
Speaker 3:But notably no Nintendo ones. I mean, they've shut most of them down, but the fact that, like Super Mario Run is still supported and even still getting events weirdly years after the fact is I love when that game gets an update and you're like, oh, an update for it.
Speaker 1:It's like, oh, we've, you know, fixed something.
Speaker 3:you know the better experience, or whatever it's like you haven't added a new piece of content to this game in like six years now, apart from no, except they have. That's the thing.
Speaker 1:Right is that they've added like some random stickers and random little objects for your fake town. You can only have like eight things in anyway, but they're not putting new levels in. The whole thing people want them to do with that game is put more levels in, and that's the thing they're not doing well, yeah, because that actually costs development money.
Speaker 3:They can just have like one dude like make like a sticker or a statue or whatever, like that's fine, take some like 20 minutes each week, um, but you know, actually making new levels requires level designers and that's just not going gonna happen.
Speaker 4:Um so quick update on that. I finally got my password situation fixed about a month ago and I was like, oh boy, I'm gonna play some mario run, load up the first level. And I was like, and then I just closed it and didn't open it back up.
Speaker 1:Yeah I think mario runs a great little game when you've just got like five minutes to kill and you just load into it.
Speaker 3:It's like if you're just like on the tram or whatever, right Like just yeah, knock out a level or two.
Speaker 1:But I hate the fact that it requires internet connection to run. Yeah, I'm not intended.
Speaker 4:If you get the Delta app, there are better Mario games to play on your phone Just gonna say that, but you can't play it one-handed while eating an apple.
Speaker 3:That's true, and he can't.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's what I do one-handed yes Is eat an apple.
Speaker 3:Jesus, alrighty, there's a couple of remasters, I guess. I mean, is it a remaster really? Star Wars Episode I, jedi Power Battles is coming to switch in, uh, january 2025, as well as other, uh, other consoles as well. Um, I think it's other consoles right, it's not just switch yeah, yeah, it's all the same they're weird about that sometimes um.
Speaker 3:So yeah, it says in our notes here that luke wrote for us uh best known as a PS1 title. There was a Dreamcast release and a unique GBA version. Luke, tell me about the GBA version it's essentially same name, completely different game.
Speaker 1:It's the way it was back then, but it's not great, it's not a good game period. So, yeah, it's just one of those weird scenarios where they took it as a top-down type of experience. It's like resident evil on game boy. It's not really resident evil, but you know that sort of vibe. Um, honestly, the one that people know is the ps1 game because it was so everywhere. Um, but the dreamcast version is the actual best version of this game yeah, well, until january, in which case the switch version.
Speaker 3:Well, probably not the switch version. The ps best version of this game. Yeah well, until january, in which case the switch version. Well, probably not the switch version.
Speaker 1:The ps5 version will be the best version given that this group also fucked up the battlefront collection to the point where it's hardly playable on some platforms. I will probably still say the dreamcast version is probably the best version of this game.
Speaker 3:So yeah, um. So yeah, this is gonna to offer modern controls and updated visuals. There's also additional characters being added, like the Tusken Raider, and, yeah, it's coming out January 23rd 2025. Did anybody play this when they were younger? I feel like the.
Speaker 4:PS1 is kind of rare and even the title just makes it sound like a boring game. Jedi Power Battles like what is that?
Speaker 3:of all of the like game titles that they've had for like Star Wars games, this is probably the least interesting one like I'd argue it's worse than Attack of the Clones.
Speaker 4:Yes, jedi.
Speaker 1:Power Battles. See, what's even stupider is, it's called Jedi Power Battles, but then you can play as Padme Amidala. It's like she's not a fucking Jedi.
Speaker 4:I mean she gave birth to a couple.
Speaker 1:I guess you may, or may not have had force power as well, spoilers God, but you can also play as Captain Fanaka, the captain of a guard who's played by the Aussie, the Kiwi actor, in 2 and 3. And then a Tusken Raider.
Speaker 4:I don't think there are Jedi Tusken Raiders Are you getting mixed up with Captain Typho, who Jay Ligaya played? I think you are.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so he was 2 and 3. Panaka was the first one.
Speaker 4:Actually you'll find it was Panaka who was with her in Episode 1 on the assault on Naboo.
Speaker 1:He's definitely not a Jedi. It's just weird that and you can play as Darth Maul. It's like I'm pretty sure Darth Maul's not a Jedi.
Speaker 3:Well, he's not, not a Jedi.
Speaker 1:I mean, he's exactly not a Jedi.
Speaker 4:He's exactly not that. Yeah, I love the key art for this because, like on the on the trailer, for example I'm guessing it's the cover for the game like everything is illustrated and it looks like it's hand-drawn. But then you look at their faces mace, windu and everyone kenobi and they're like they're very clearly photographed or just redrawn over a photograph or something. Yeah, it just so stands out so badly. I love it does.
Speaker 3:yeah, but yeah, so that's the thing. Anybody who cares about that game, I'm sure there'll be like a bunch of people who are like, oh, I love this on the ps1, and then they actually play it again and it's like, wow, this is kind of shit, because that seems to be how most of these things go. But yeah, I mean, it looks like a PS1 game, not quite as fun looking as Croc it looks like a PS1 game. It does, Even with these like enhanced visuals. I mean, like that's a PS1 game. Let's be real.
Speaker 3:Perfect for a Nintendo platform, yeah let's be real, Perfect for a Nintendo platform. Yeah, Anyway, there's another game from Aspire and that's the Tomb Raider 4-6 remastered collection. It's also coming in 2025, after they previously did the remastered collection of Wonder 3, which released earlier this year. I want to say yeah, and this was announced the day after. The Star Wars game includes the Last Revelation Chronicles and the Angel of Darkness, which was very popular but not very good.
Speaker 1:So it'll be interesting to see angel of darkness angel of darkness basically took the the look of lara croft from the second angelina jolie movie yeah, and said we'll make a game based around this. It's like, okay, it's not really what people want.
Speaker 4:But sure, it's also a darker game, despite the fact that that it's called Darkness, but internally it's a bit darker as well, isn't it?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So yeah, like the first Tomb Raider collection, you can swap between the old look and the new look although, given how some of these games look, I don't know why you would go back to the old one but you can do that. And there's a new control scheme. So, yeah, Angel of Darkness was the end. You can do that and there's a new control scheme. So, yeah, angel of Darkness was the end of the second trilogy of games, and then there was the standalone Underworld game on the Wii, and then they did the reboot trilogy, which is kind of still going because they made a sequel, animated series.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, the netflix series just released. What I find weird about this is these games weren't actually called tomb raider 456. It wasn't tomb raider for the last revelation, it was just tomb raider, the last revelation. This is the first time they've ever been given this numerical identifier, which is like a weird thing to do. Um, yeah, but you know that's the thing. But then also there's three game boy titles. There's two game boy color and one game boy advanced game, and the game boy advanced game was made by ubisoft, of all people. Um, yeah, but those aren't being included because they were all released in between these games. They're not being included in this collection, which is kind of I get why, but it's like really should, because you're not going to release them on their own.
Speaker 3:Well, they might.
Speaker 1:Too late at the Game Boy collection. I mean, you know, konami's been doing it, capcom's been doing it. They're still good games.
Speaker 3:Yeah, nobody's going to pay money for the Game Boy Color.
Speaker 1:What I find, looking at all this news, is the Aspire stuff, especially Alamo. All this news is like the aspire stuff, especially alarmos. Like all this feels like it was stuff from a nintendo direct that just didn't have a nintendo direct.
Speaker 3:Like this is the stuff that would have been announced in a direct yeah, there's, there's been a lot of that lately, like, yeah, I don't know. I mean, we also have a couple things like with the new Nintendo Switch Online games, which I'm smoothly transitioning into this episode's all been about those smooth transitions. It has been. We're doing really well. Yeah, banjo-tooie is coming to Switch next week, this coming week, this coming week, no it's already out.
Speaker 1:That's just the headline from the article.
Speaker 3:I couldn't remember when it was. Anyway, banjo-tooie is out now on Nintendo Switch Online, and it came almost exactly two years after the first game. Um it, you know it's banjo tooie. Um, isn't this watching the?
Speaker 2:trailer and the music is a fucking bop.
Speaker 3:God damn, it's so good um, so yeah, there's only one other banjo game, one other banjo game that could potentially come to the surface service, rather, um, and that is uhunty's Revenge on the Game Boy Advance, which is a better game than most people would go for, but I don't know.
Speaker 1:Wasn't Banjo Pilot GBA.
Speaker 3:I don't even know what Banjo Pilot is Is that the one that was cancelled.
Speaker 1:No it released. Oh no, yeah, you're right, there's five Banjo games 2005,.
Speaker 4:What was it on Game Boy Advance? Yeah, you're right.
Speaker 3:2005 what was it on Game Boy Advance?
Speaker 4:yeah, there you go that's why I wrote this yep. I don't remember it being like a thing that anyone talked about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, because it wasn't that great. It was basically Diddy Kong Racing, but with just Banjo characters.
Speaker 4:It was developed by Rare and published by DHQ.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this was after they were bought out by Microsoft.
Speaker 3:Anyway. So yeah, those two are still not on the servers. I have mixed feelings about Banjo-Tooie, because I feel like the moveset is quite good, but the actual game is just terrible. I do not like Banjo-Tooie at all. I think it's probably the worst of the platformer Banjo games. I think it's worse than Nuts and Bolts by a pretty wide margin.
Speaker 2:so yeah, that's a wild thing to say.
Speaker 3:Nuts and Bolts is a really good game. Sure, it's not a Ban wide margin. That's a wild thing to say. Nuts and Bolts is a really good game. Sure, it's not a banjo game. It's not a great banjo game, but it's a better game than Banjo-Tooie.
Speaker 1:So what you're saying is mechanically, nuts and Bolts is good.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly, that was a good joke, thank you, anyway. Another thing that happened was they added Turok 2 and Shadow man, um to uh the mature, uh, nintendo Switch Online N64 app, um which sure, and then you don't have to pay for the remastered-ish versions of those.
Speaker 1:So yeah, also, banjo-tooie has a widescreen mode, which is fun it's just like Goldmanic has the actual widescreen support on it and perfect art is that because the re-releases of the XBLA versions which had widescreen and stuff in them?
Speaker 2:No, the game has widescreen support. They all do in the 64, yeah, I think the original Banjo didn 64.
Speaker 4:Yeah, oh, I didn't know that.
Speaker 3:Okay, I think the original Banjo didn't have no, I didn't think so.
Speaker 2:Banjo-Tooie, yeah, banjo-tooie. Uh, goldeneye and Perfect Dark all had widescreen support yeah so wait.
Speaker 4:So Goldeneye had it on the N64, but then Banjo-Kazooie didn't, even though they came out like a year later.
Speaker 3:That's weird it probably started development well before I earned, but yeah it is very weird, but yeah.
Speaker 4:I've always wanted to play through Banjo-Kazooie. I remember I hired it because I got Banjo-Kazooie for my 10th birthday and then when Banjo-Kazooie came out I was super pumped for it. But I could only hire it because it was already pretty expensive um at that point as well, which is another cash. So I hired it and then I just didn't really plan all that much. When I hired it I felt kind of bad um and then when it came out on xbla I bought it just out of obligation because I was super into it at the time, and then again I just didn't finish it. So maybe, maybe I'll finally finish it and then I will swear all the intel is wrong.
Speaker 3:We'll see I'm not, though, like it. Oh look, I think I have no issues with like the story or like the moveset or like. Even the visuals and the soundtrack are really, really good. It's's just like the main quest design is just so frustrating you do so much backtracking.
Speaker 4:That's what rings in my mind is I didn't enjoy it's the Donkey Kong 64 school of platforming. Yeah, I didn't enjoy the levels and the gameplay at the time.
Speaker 1:It also had the issue of being one of the later console games from Rare, so it was probably a little bit too ambitious for the hardware. So it does have some performance issues at times.
Speaker 3:But yeah, there's so much stuff that's like you know, there's like cross-world events right where you have to do something in one world and then go to another world and then do something there and then you can go back to the first world to get a single collectible and it's like just why, like it's, it's really frustrating with the backtracking and that's totally fair and stuff like that.
Speaker 3:Basically, it's metroidvania gameplay, you know, in a 3d platformer which yeah, but with like annoying load times and and transitions and animations and stuff, um it's go on I was gonna say it's just funny that half of the rare games from 64 era are now on the app yeah, yeah, I was gonna say an absolutely wild re-release.
Speaker 4:that should definitely happen, like not even joking like should absolutely happen, should be revived from the vault. Um is starfox adventure. I feel like that would actually be. It'd probably just completely fall flat, but it'd be so cool to actually see that in a modern context, because from what I remember, the game looked really good. It controlled pretty tightly, I think I unironically.
Speaker 2:enjoy the shit out of that game, yeah yeah, that is the best Star Fox game.
Speaker 4:I played it like 20 years ago so I don't again like it was 20 years ago, right, like in modern context who knows if it'll stack up, but I feel like that game should, absolutely should be, should be a political movement to bring that game back how about catch this?
Speaker 2:this is a wild. This is a wild idea. Any GameCube games, just any of them.
Speaker 4:Hey look, we got Metroid. We got Metroid 1, metroid Prime 1.
Speaker 1:I legit thought for a second you were gonna say bring back Dinosaur Planet.
Speaker 2:We got Metroid 1 and they did it in an absolutely incredible way, so like I can't complain about that Metroid Prime. Remastered is 11 out of 10.
Speaker 4:I wonder if someone got their hands on a dead build of Dinosaur Planet.
Speaker 2:I'm pretty sure there's definitely one out there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, I can't think of any other standout GameCube games that have yet to come to the Switch none can't think of any, not a single one, none that have been remastered on other consoles, nothing at all back to Shadow man.
Speaker 1:I I love shadow man. I have fond memories of it, but I hate the fact that the sequel was was relegated to ps2 and only ever ps2 I mean I never played it in the future why didn't?
Speaker 1:I didn't have a ps2 when they were out. I got mine after the ps3. I started getting my PS2 games when the PS3 launched because I have the one with the PS2 hardware in it. So I started playing some of the games then and this was just never around. So I've never played it and I loved the first game, but I just never played it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so there was a dump of Dinosaur Planet. I found it here. There's a post on reddit, but the link that links to the actual download file is nuked, of course. Of course. Um, yeah, it wasn't hard to find, literally, just was like the top thing. I literally just searched dinosaur planet n64 build. So it's there.
Speaker 1:So if anyone doesn't want to dig into that and find something, I'll post it in our slack, in our discord um, yeah, the other thing too with the two rockk games is Turok 1, 2 and 3 have all been remastered by Nightdive, who own the rights for the video games, but only Turok 1 and 2 are on the app, so we still have 3 to come, and then Rage Wars, which was the weird multiplayer-focused Turok, and then the last Turo Rock game was Evolution which sucked.
Speaker 3:What I think is interesting about this in particular is that, like, it shows that Nintendo must pay pretty decently for the licenses to these games to put them on NSO because, like otherwise, why would you undercut potential sales? They have to be getting a decent amount of money from it. Um, because otherwise people could just spend 15 bucks and get you know the remaster.
Speaker 2:It is also multi-platform, right. So if you don't have an intended platform, you're not getting on.
Speaker 1:Nso so I was legit the other day thinking it's like, ah, two rock ones on a 64 app, but I like two rock two more than two rock one, and I was thinking of buying it. And then they had the bundle of all three games for like 90 bucks and I'm like, yeah, no, I don't need them that badly. And then, like three days later, they announced 2 was coming to the app and I'm like, haha, it works out for me.
Speaker 3:So that's what I'm saying. Right is that? Like you know, if you don't care that much and just want to play Turok, like you would just not buy it, you would just play it on switch.
Speaker 1:So yeah, interesting I'm an economic we're getting a hit for acclaim games now on the 64, which I think is great and it's interesting, like again the Turok and the shadow man. The video game licenses a night dive and then Iggy's reckon balls, whatever it's called, and then extreme g. They're done by lighthouse something or other. They own them. So the the rights are all over the place for the acclaimed stuff. But I'm still. I'm still waiting on armor marines, which is basically hell divers before hell divers was a thing, because both of those you know weird takes on um starship triples wow, so I'm still digging into dinosaur planet.
Speaker 4:Uh, a dinosaur planet prototype soundtrack was uploaded to archiveorg. Wow, that's cool. Yeah, so the website 64historynet is was the host is the host of the first link that I found on reddit, but the site's gone now. Um, I'm trying to find other ones. I think there is a, a rom, available on archiveorg. I might give that a whirl later on there is definitely a rom available on archiveorg.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, it's right here it's right here.
Speaker 4:I just can't load it up at the moment. So I'm I'm genuinely very interested to see what this game actually looks like, what it plays, like this and Eternal Darkness, when they were originally N64 games. They look so cool.
Speaker 2:Oh, eternal Darkness. They gave me status. Yeah, I know right.
Speaker 3:Alrighty, let's move on to the games that we're playing. I will go first, just because I've only got a couple. I have been playing the shit out of Dragon Age, the Veilguard. I played that. Well, I didn't play it for review because I didn't review it, I just played it ahead of launch and yeah, it's really, really good, enjoyed uh, most of it, pretty much all of it, um, and I've done every single quest uh in the game. So, yeah, big, big fan um, and I've also been playing uh, pokemon tcg pocket um, which only came out a few days ago.
Speaker 1:so, um, that's quite fun ollie, you're telling me you're playing a pokemon game. That's also a card game, that's also digital. I wouldn't have imagined those three elements would line up for you in any way, shape or form yeah, it's like I have a long history of exactly that.
Speaker 3:um, but no, I mean tcg pocket is that's Pocket is fine. I think the changes that they've made to the format to make it faster and more appropriate for mobile is good, so I'm enjoying it.
Speaker 1:I saw some random person saying you know, there's a mobile sensor tower. I think they're called. They're like oh we know how much that people are making and it's like, no, you don't, you're guessing.
Speaker 3:I mean, they kind of do know, because they install malware on people's phones so that they can figure out how much they're spending on android, but um, but they reckon over the first like 48 hours. This game's made something like four million dollars, so I just want to preface that previous statement with allegedly uh, just in case they don't listen in, because I can't afford a lawsuit right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah only sue them. When you can afford it Right now, in a week, go for it.
Speaker 3:Just wait until I win the Powerball and then sue me if you want, but for now, allegedly I don't know for sure that that's what they do, but that's what I. That is my firmly held belief and under Australian defamation law, firmly held belief and under Australian defamation law, firmly held belief is one of the defenses for defamation. Anyway, michael, what have you been playing?
Speaker 4:What we're playing.
Speaker 2:Same as you. Some more held it loose. Satisfactory still firmly has me in its grips. I think I'm like 80, 90 hours in at this point with my mate. It's very, very fun. But I did play through a little neat indie game that's like 450 on steam called node buster, um, which is pretty fun, sort of like how do you describe it? It's sort of like a cookie clicker almost, but not has that same type of like dopamine drive. Um, as you upgrade every, yeah, that's, just look it up, it's $4.50, it's super cheap. It's not really a cookie clicker, it's not really a clicker game, but it sort of is. But yeah, it gets you hooked. Um, it's, it's enjoyable, it's it. It has overwhelmingly positive on steam. I reckon that's probably a little bit too high. I don't know why it has that high of a rating.
Speaker 3:Does it give a bunch of trading cards? Because that'll be it.
Speaker 2:No, I don't think it gives any, actually at all. That's surprising. The end game is sort of like really not well thought out, like at all um, but the comic it's like the guy's first game that he made um. So if this is his first game, I'm excited to see what he does next, because it's very, it's very good and very much, like I said, gets the, the brain, the brain, excellence going.
Speaker 3:All right, that's me it looks like the reason for most of the uh positive reviews is because some sort of youtuber or content creator covered it right, okay, there you go let's take a look. Uh, somebody called real civil engineer who has 2.32 million subscribers.
Speaker 2:So oh, interesting, I actually do know who that youtuber is. Yeah, are you one of?
Speaker 1:these people that are playing it because they covered it no, I didn't know, they covered it um, yeah, uh, angela, what have you been up to lately?
Speaker 4:sorry, I had myself muted because I realized that my keyboard just click clacks really, really loudly. I've got to sort that out. I've been playing Super Mario RPG again. I keep falling in and out of that game. I'm in for the long haul now. I want to finally get this game done because I am enjoying it. So it's been my sleepy bedtime game.
Speaker 3:Like I say in it for the long haul and it's like a nine hour game at most.
Speaker 4:I know I say long haul and it's like a nine hour game. I know I say long haul but like I literally started it what? Almost a year ago so, and I'm only like 30 through it still this is the remake, I seem yeah, yeah, yeah, um, it just takes me so long to play three games these days.
Speaker 4:I take forever actually finishing again, which is really disappointing. Um, and I started playing, uh, black ops 6. Uh, when that came out, I was actually this is the thing when it comes to call of duty games, like I just do not care about them until about two or three days before they release, and then I'm like, oh boy, a new call of duty games on the horizon. I can't wait to jump in for like three or four weeks. So, yeah, that's that's me for the next little while just enjoying black ops. It's fun, it's call of duty.
Speaker 4:You know exactly what you're going to get for the most part. I mean, people knew exactly what they were going to get for modern warfare 3 and then they hated it still. So you know there is that um. But yeah, I I stay very far away from warzone. I really do not like warzone, but I am enjoying the multiplayer. Just deathmatch and things. Um in blobs and um story seems okay so far. I'm not really enjoying the spy type stuff. Like there are some levels where you're just having to sneak around and take photos and listen to conversations and talk to people and I'm like, this is not true, the exact opposite of what a Call of Duty game should be about.
Speaker 4:Exactly. It is not the shooting bits that I just want to do. You know, I just want to kill people. That's what.
Speaker 1:I'm for. It's like playing a splinter cell game and Sam Fisher has to crochet a map gun goes pew pew, dopamine go up happy that's the formula.
Speaker 4:I don't know why they stray from that sometimes. Anyway, that is me and Luke.
Speaker 3:You've got quite a list here, so tell us what you're playing that's all I've been doing.
Speaker 1:so I also played through Dragon Age Review. I really enjoyed it. My biggest gripe is just that the game's like oh, this is super important, it's going to happen right now, and then you can piss around for half a day doing whatever you want. So the game has no actual impact in terms of time-based things.
Speaker 3:My biggest gripe sorry, just while we're on gripes in that game is that, like the voice actor for nev sounds like she just does not want to be there like she just is.
Speaker 1:There are times when her voice is is great and then times when it's like phoned in, when she actually puts emotion into it it's like, damn, this is really good, and then, like 90 of the time, it's like it's just a flat performance with nothing there, um, which is a shame, but yeah, gone I also played through horizon remastered um, which I kind of I didn't play through the whole thing start to finish, because I had a bunch of ps4 saves on the console and because you can import your ps4 saves into that game, I was able to jump in and play giant chunks of it without having to go through all the destroyer bullshit again. Um, that was fine. It doesn't need to exist. It's a completely pointless release.
Speaker 1:Um, it also has issues graphically. It's like it's. The whole thing is. It's supposed to look great on ps5 and there are times when textures don't load and you can see through objects because it hasn't loaded in the textures. So it's weird. Um, I also got to play through the lego horizons adventures game. Uh, up the PlayStation. They invited me up for that one and that was fun and I'm very happy with that one because it's a Lego game where the world is Lego, not just like Lego stuck onto regular things.
Speaker 3:I also played through the Romancing Saga 2 remake on PS5, which was fun, and then Never or Neither from Devolver I'm really surprised that you not only played but enjoyed Romancing Saga 2, because that does not seem like your kind of game to me it's generally not yeah, who are you?
Speaker 1:I'm not a massive JRPG gamer person, but this one just had enough. I wish it wasn't just fast travelling by a map to every location. We should walk around the world a little bit um, and I wish that you didn't have, you weren't automatically fucking fast forwarded in time randomly, like I did it one time. I died in combat and it's like a new king has been selected. I'm like, oh well, that that makes sense. I died, um. But then, you know, I finished this hard boss fight. I was was like, yes, and he goes 56 years later and I'm like, what do you mean 56 years later? What the fuck? I just beat this guy. So that pissed me off. But the actual combat, the sort of mechanics of building and overseeing the city, I really liked it, but it wasn't perfect. But for what you know, remaking of a 1992 Super Nintendo game, it's done pretty well. So what you know, remaking of a 1992 super nintendo game, uh, it's done pretty well. So wow.
Speaker 1:So what you're saying is that we're entering the luke jrpg era and god no, we can expect to see more of this in the future I own all the xenoblade games that are currently on switch on switch and I've not played them because I'm like I'm like I'll buy them and I'll play them and I just never get around to it because I'm like they're JRPGs and I tried on the Wii with the first one and it's just so convoluted.
Speaker 3:The first one is a bit convoluted. Yeah, the remaster was good for that because it actually gave, like you know, direction and you know, map markers and stuff which the original did not have.
Speaker 4:There's something. I already said before that I want to make an addition to my just general online internet bio. I'm just going to put Angelo Valdivia and then he's going to put has issues graphically. That's such a great line, oh my god great star wipe.
Speaker 3:Alright, let's get stuck into a Nintendo. 20 questions. What were you going to say?
Speaker 4:I was just about to ask the first question and thought that was the transition. Sorry, no, it's fine. That's what we'll do.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've got the game this week, so yeah, ask your questions.
Speaker 2:Do it, angelo. Do your thing, Then I'll do my thing, and then we'll be disappointed with each other.
Speaker 4:Continue did the game release in the 2010s it did not release in the 2010s did the game release on or after January 1st 2000 no, it did not it's just the way he says, it is so offensive was this game released in the 1990s?
Speaker 3:This game was released in the 1990s.
Speaker 4:Okay.
Speaker 2:Game Boy. Game Boy Color NAS NAS 64. Virtual Boy.
Speaker 4:Was it a handheld game?
Speaker 3:It was a handheld game. It still is. Didn't stop being a handheld game. I just mean just by the transit of property of something was yeah.
Speaker 2:It didn't grow up and go through some type of transformation Handheld game Go, some type of transformation as a handheld game.
Speaker 4:was it released on a colour-based system?
Speaker 3:It was released on a colour-based system.
Speaker 2:Okay, that severely cuts down the amount of games.
Speaker 1:Can we just clarify. When you say colour-based system, angela, are you referring to as colour in the name and not like a shade of green being a color?
Speaker 2:yeah, I'm saying based around the entire premise of having colors on it okay yeah, okay, yeah, not just a single color, red perhaps oh god, nintendo, why did you do this to us 30 years ago?
Speaker 4:It's still causing problems. Oh my god, I'm gonna assume it came out by Game Boy Color.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's fair. Was this game developed in Japan?
Speaker 3:This game was not developed in Japan.
Speaker 1:Was this game published by Nintendo?
Speaker 3:This game was not published by Nintendo.
Speaker 4:I think it's going to be a tricky one.
Speaker 1:I don't think he can conquer his pocket tails.
Speaker 4:I think THQ published that one that was like 2000, though right I was also thinking.
Speaker 2:I'm pretty sure there was a Turok Game Boy Color game and. Turok was also on the menu today was that one also Seeds of Evil?
Speaker 4:It came out around the same time, I don't remember.
Speaker 2:I could even be wrong. I just remember that I have a distinct memory of being a Turok Game of Color cartridge, but that could just be a false memory.
Speaker 4:Could ask if it was its own standalone series on the Game Boy, rather than being like a wider series that was also on the menu, rather than being like a a wider series that was also on the platform?
Speaker 2:we could also just ask him if it's part of a series and just get that out of the way, because that's a good question.
Speaker 4:Was this game part of a series?
Speaker 3:this game is part of a series cool is the series still going today?
Speaker 1:I mean define still going, I guess has it had a new entry in the last 5 years, or 5 years or 4?
Speaker 3:no it has not had.
Speaker 1:It has not had a has that upset, some things like Tony Hawk and oh, and a few rally games.
Speaker 2:I guess has Tony Hawk had a new game, though Is a remastered Canada's a new game.
Speaker 1:Tony Hawk Pro Skater 5.
Speaker 2:Has that come out in the past five? What Really Am I having?
Speaker 1:a stroke. Maybe, it was. We were both having a stroke. Maybe maybe we're both having a stroke, maybe it was a few years earlier, but it's definitely recent.
Speaker 4:It was xbox one yeah, but see, that's my point is like is five years ago, like a recent release, like that's a whole retro generation okay, pro skater 5 is 2015 okay, is 2015 nine years ago yeah it was a whole year.
Speaker 1:Three child away remember being it was this they want to tell me about that game, but didn't want to tell me what that game was until I was in the room you know was disappointed. I wasn't super excited the fact that it was Tony Hawk's pro scouter 5 was this game developed in North America this game was not developed okay just trying to think it's part of a series. I'm thinking about. If we try and nail down genre, is this game a platformer?
Speaker 4:I wouldn't say it's a platformer does it play from a side-scrolling perspective?
Speaker 1:it does not play from a side-scrolling perspective interesting, interesting perspective it does not play from a side-scrolling perspective Interesting, so it could be one of those like mode 7 racing type games.
Speaker 2:It could be a puzzle game could just be like a top-down perspective game.
Speaker 4:Yeah could also be the rare isometric one, though that was on the game board, mm-hmm, because it's a licensed game. The work Was this game license or part of a licensed?
Speaker 3:No, it's not a license game.
Speaker 2:How many questions we have left six questions and a guess does this game have shooting?
Speaker 3:shooting yeah, like you shoot a gun or like a projectile weapon, a laser beam uh, yeah, it has shooting, then it's a very broad definition of shooting that you've given me.
Speaker 4:But yes, it has shooting the way you said that does this game have shooting?
Speaker 2:the way I always answer that it makes me think that you shoot something that's not a traditional, like you're using a slingshot to shoot nuts or something next time you see that sheriff, shoot him a smile oh um, and the thing, the hard thing about game by color games is that so many of them came out like very late 90s, then a ton of them in the early 2000s and like I'm really struggling to remember like what when things came out the other problem too is that if you think it could be this, it could be an entry in this series.
Speaker 1:The series will be one thing on console, but the game boy will be completely different same name, different gameplay type or presentation.
Speaker 4:So that's why I was wondering if it was worth asking if it was like a series or a game that was specific to the platform, rather than one that was like cross-platform yeah, I came out.
Speaker 2:It's like an early game, but color game uh, was it.
Speaker 1:Is this game unique to the platform?
Speaker 3:oh, that's a question, um. Do you mean like, has it been on any other platforms?
Speaker 1:so what I mean is there's a game that did it, but, like the Jedi Power Battles, there's the console version and the Game Boy version.
Speaker 2:The Game Boy is unique, it's not like a multi-platform not like a port to Game Boy it isn't the same game, just on Game Boy. It's like its own like thing.
Speaker 3:It's its own. It's its own thing. It's not like a weird bastardized version of another game or anything like that.
Speaker 1:That also sort of brings it down to mean that it's not. The developer didn't just like make a stupid watered-down version of the console game. They'd made a bespoke version I want I.
Speaker 4:I think luke might be right. It might be conqueror's lucky tales pocket tails pocket tails. Sorry because I'm sorry. Lucky tales was the.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the Xbox. Thing.
Speaker 4:Yeah, because it would make sense, because that would have been developed in Europe, in England, and it's its own standalone release. I'm just not sure when it came out. I thought it was in 2000,. But I might be remembering playing it in 2000 because a friend had it and I borrowed it from him. When did Conkers come out? Did that come it in?
Speaker 2:2000, because a friend had it and I borrowed it from him. When did Cocker's come out? Did that come out in 2000 or 99? That was 2000 so it must have come out after that, surely?
Speaker 4:Cocker's came out first yeah, it came out first oh did it? Yeah, because Lucky Tales was supposed to be like Banjo Kazooie and everyone was like oh, it's just another Banjo Kazooie.
Speaker 2:So then they changed it to be yeah, right, okay, alright, cool cool.
Speaker 1:I did not remember that at all yeah um was this game developed by Ray.
Speaker 2:I was just about to ask the exact same question. I was like let's just get it cut to the chase, this game developed by rare I, literally.
Speaker 3:I was just about to ask the exact same question. I was like let's just get cut to the chase.
Speaker 4:Uh, this game was developed by rare. Yeah, okay, cool, there you go unless perfect dark was also released for gameboy cover yeah, that one had to have been 2000 because the original, the n64 release, came out in 2000. Right, they would have released that side by side. There's no way that came up before.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I honestly don't remember, but I also think we've had it on Game Boy before.
Speaker 2:Alright, well, how many questions do we have left?
Speaker 1:Three, I guess.
Speaker 2:Do you use a slingshot in this game?
Speaker 3:You do use a slingshot in this game. Okay, there you go To shoot stuff.
Speaker 2:I mean, that's 100% a fair answer to my question. You definitely shoot things.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so good, this was yours, luke, you can go for it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all right Is this game? Conker's Pocket Tales.
Speaker 3:Alrighty, all righty uh. So developed by rare uh, released in june and july of 1999 in north america and europe respectively, but in most places in australia not released until january or february in 2000. This is conkers pocket tails. Um yeah, I picked this without knowing that we would talk so much about Conker's today. I was not expecting that to be a big thing.
Speaker 3:I picked this one because it was a really interesting game in that it was one of the very few dual format games, which means that even though it is a Game Boy Color game, ostensibly you can put it into an original Game Boy and get mostly the same experience. So some stuff that's a little bit different, but for the most part.
Speaker 3:It's playable one of those black, normal, normal Game Boy carts and not the actual Game Boy Color cart like tetris dx yeah, or pokemon gold and silver, which were also dual format, um, but uh yeah, I played this when I was a kid and I thought it was really interesting. And then when we had an n64, I was like, oh yeah ollie was very surprised when he played this.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I convinced my mom because, like, it was like conquer's bad for that, and I was like oh look, you've seen me, you've seen me playing this cute little yeah this cute little score game on the game boy. It'll just be like that, and then the writing didn't give it away. The rating did not give it away. Um, this was back before they told you why it was rated like that.
Speaker 2:It was just like oh yeah, this is really rated m or pg amazing it was like you know, it could have been anything um but yeah, I gotta say back to what I was saying before, like gameboy colors a great pick for this series, because it really is at the end and the beginning of two different like decades and it's really brutal to try and remember like what, what came out when?
Speaker 3:yeah, yeah, because there are quite a few games that do come out in like 99, but then a lot of games that came out in 2001 as well, um. So yeah, as I said, I wasn't expecting to uh, that we would have talked so much about conkers today, um, but I mean, I mean, you know that Halloween costume on everybody's mind, so For context, angelo used Conker's Bad Fur Day on the second time we ever did 20 Nintendo, 20 Questions, and Perfect Dark was done back in May of 2022.
Speaker 3:Eventually we'll get to call the rare games.
Speaker 4:Conker's Bad Fur Day has a really great soundtrack outside of the Great Mighty Pooh. Like I still every now and again, I still get the bullfighting music stuck in my head. It's so good. But yeah, I don't remember a whole lot about Conker's Lucky Tales.
Speaker 3:I just remember enjoying it as a Game Boy game you don't even remember it's name because you keep saying Lucky Tales.
Speaker 4:And it's not that I do, I do it because, sorry, I've got lucky's tail in my head as well and then conquers lucky tails, and then conquers pocket tails.
Speaker 1:It's like they're all just like mesh into one great block they made lucky tail, which is a weird make your game thing, um, and then it didn't do so well, and then they brought conker into it to give it a bit of a boost, so there was a conker branded version of it. Yeah, that's, that's why it was getting mixed up.
Speaker 4:Yeah, um, yeah because they debuted it like e3 or something like that or a trade show, and people were just like, oh so it's just another banjo kazooie game. And they're like, oh jeez, all right, we've got to change this up. And then, yeah, they just completely rewrote the entire game and restructured the whole thing.
Speaker 2:It just made it way more crass I've not played conkers in a long time but like the thing that's always burnt into my brain are those like eight kilohertz voice samples that are in the game they just sound like they're so compressed.
Speaker 1:It is ridiculous it is a thousand times better, though, than the Xbox remake, where they redid everything no no, because the guy who did the voices. He came back and did new recordings but he didn't record all the new dialogue.
Speaker 4:So you get like the really bad original audio and then you get like this new thing and it's just like you know that's a weird choice, that is true, but also like graphically it's way more superior on the Xbox, even just like you know that's a. That's a weird choice, that is true, but also, um, like, graphically, it's way more superior on the xbox, even just like your xbox original.
Speaker 2:Like looks incredible yeah, I remember the third, the fur tech on that game, the fur tech and the lighting, especially with bloom lighting and stuff, that game looks incredible the uh.
Speaker 4:The multiplayer mode with the, the teddies and the world war ii spin-off uh yeah, the the saving private ryan intro sequence where everyone's getting absolutely murdered on on the beachfront.
Speaker 3:The fluff lies in that one um, yeah, the reason I was, um hesitant to answer the question about whether or not the series is still going is because it did actually have a release in 2016. Of all things, a new game on the Microsoft HoloLens called.
Speaker 2:Young Conqueror yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, I wouldn't classify that as a game because it's on a platform that's not a game platform.
Speaker 3:Well, I mean you can have, I mean like on a game platform.
Speaker 1:If somebody puts a game on your Samsung Smart fridge, it's not well, it's not really a game because you can have. I mean like a game. Like if somebody, somebody puts a game on your samsung smart fridge, it's not well, it's not really a game because you can't play I mean, if it's, if it's a digital thing that you can play, then it's a video game, I guess look at this guy gatekeeping gaming.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know right.
Speaker 1:A fridge isn't a gaming platform if I had my my way, I'd start axing a whole bunch of crap from the eShop man, I tell you, Well, yeah, I mean I'm sure we would.
Speaker 3:That about wraps up this episode of the Vookast. Be sure to visit the site wwwvooksnet for all your Nintendo news, reviews and everything in between To keep up to date. Follow the out on Twitter at vuxnet all spelled out or jump on over to our Discord at bitly forward slash vuxdiscord. You can also follow us on BlueSky, which is just vuxnet. It's not spelled out there because Twitter is a hellhole now. So, yeah, you can find all of our social information and links for all the stories covered in this episode in the episode notes, on whatever platform you're listening to. Thanks for tuning in and we will see you in the next show, thank you.