The Rumored Ocarina of Time Remake: Everything We Want - NVC 807

You've switched to Nintendo Voice Chat for the week of April 9th, 2026. I'm your host, Logan Plant, joined by Rebecca Valentine. I feel like something's happening on this lineup where the balls and the glasses are now being invaded by a third something. Yeah. I'm not sure what's going on on the end there. Yeah, Seth Macy's here. Hey, Seth. Hello. I am here not wearing glasses and not having hair. That's a bald and we're joined by a mysterious fourth box. It's Vault Boy, but it's upside down. Introduce yourself. What the heck? If you're listening, we're seeing the group. This is great, right? Yep, it is. I'm back, baby. I'm back. Hey, Jada. Hello, buddy. I'm half this week. I am so happy to be back. Yeah, we're so thrilled that you're back, Jada. And back on NBC after too long away and thrilled to have you back. But Reb Valentine is the woman of the hour this week on NBC because it's Reb's final week at IGN. You may have seen that if you follow Reb online. We're all devastated that Reb is leaving. She told me to introduce that now so she doesn't cry at the top of the show. We're going to have a really fun show and talk a ton about Reb's big news at the very end and we'll have a great send off. But let's start with Nintendo talk. Ocarina of Time might be getting a remake. Okay, we mentioned this last week on the show very briefly. There were some big rumors, leaks, whatever your take is from Nate the Hate, who's a very credible Nintendo leaker of all of the ones out there right now. Nate the Hate probably has the best hit rate of being correct. I believe that he accurately predicted the date of the Nintendo Switch 2 premiere last year as well as many other things. Not perfect. There's some things that he said that have not ever come true like Wind Waker HD. We're still waiting on that Kirby Planet RoboBot thing. So it's not 100%, but if it comes from Nate the Hate, you usually think that there's something behind it. And then VGC, another video game news outlet corroborated that we're getting an Ocarina of Time remake later this year. So on Nate the Hate's podcast, he said in the second half of 2026, approaching the holidays, we are going to receive an Ocarina of Time remake for Switch 2. We're going to spend most of this segment talking about what we would actually like to see from an Ocarina of Time remake. But I want to start with, now how legitimate is this? What should people take away from this? And Reb, I know you had a take to share. I forgot that this guy was the Wind Waker HD guy. Though like everybody was Wind Waker HD people. Everybody was. That game, except for me, I have always claimed it doesn't exist. Mostly to be a hater, but I love Wind Waker. I love Wind Waker. Anyway, I think this is probably true. This seems true. Like you said, he has a good track record. I did note, we're going to talk about Rhythm Heaven, yes, here in a little bit. We are, yep. But he did also say in the same series of leak room or whatever, that Rhythm Heaven was going to be a summer game. Now that seems to be true now, that we haven't released it for it. That said, that's a pretty easy prediction that anybody could have made. So you know, who knows. I do think this is probably true. I think my one sort of asterisk caution on this is that we have seen in the past leakers, rumor people say they knew something and then that thing kind of turned out to be true. But it turned out that what they thought was one thing was a different thing. Like I think we might have. If I remember correctly, I think we saw this with Metroid Dread, where we sort of heard that there was going to be like a Metroid, like a Super Metroid remake or something. And then it turned out it was not that it was Metroid Dread. I think that's right. It could be misremembering. But yeah, that sounds right. Yeah, we've had it. We've had a couple of things like that happen before where a leaker did in fact know something that the vagueness shape of it was true, but they must took what they saw or the person they were hearing from had must took what they saw or what they were saying. So I think it's possible that this is not an Ocarina of Time remake necessarily. It could be like link between worlds was to leak to the past. It could be like a spiritual successor or, you know, another three years that otherwise is paying homage to Ocarina of Time. But having played Ocarina of Time earlier this year and enjoying everything about it except for its oldness, I would love an Ocarina of Time remake. So let's freaking go. Ready to launch your business? Get started with the commerce platform made for entrepreneurs. Shopify is specially designed to help you start, run and grow your business with easy customizable themes that let you build your brand, marketing tools that get your products out there, integrated shipping solutions that actually save you time from startups to scale ups online in person and on the go. Shopify is made for entrepreneurs like you. Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com. Yeah, yeah, I also think this is pretty likely to be true. I mean, it's also a good guess even if you don't have the inside information like we don't. I think Reb and I both predicted Nacre of Time remake earlier this year. It just feels like something. This being true would make us right and I love being right. And for me, just where I come down on this is I think everybody who listens to this knows I just get kind of annoyed by leaks and call me a Nintendo shill whatever for that take. That's fine because maybe I am in this specific scenario, but it's like, who does it really serve to leak plans early before they're really announced? It's just, it feeds into that thing we talked about a few weeks ago on the Hot Takes episode just about how there's this impatience and just this unsatiable Nintendo fan online who just needs to know what's coming next and how much I think that pulls away from actual conversation about the games that we do have and the games that we are getting because it's so much just rip through the game that comes out and then just go online and wait for the next product. And I just think that's so dreadfully boring. And so that's no offense to these leakers or anything. It's just the whole conversation and discourse surrounding this. I just find it really annoying. We're going to talk about Ocarina of Time because this is an impossible Nintendo story to ignore this week. And I think we'd be doing you, those listening to us at disservice if we didn't talk about it because everybody's talking about it. But that's just my personal take is I'm just like, there's so many games. I don't need to have a roadmap of Nintendo's next year that it does very, it's frustrating to me. I mean, I think it's a difference between having a roadmap that Nintendo lays out for us and a roadmap that is just like, Hey, here's inside information. We're going to tell you everything that Nintendo is going to tell you eventually when they're ready, but we're going to do it early. I think it's very different kind of scenarios because you look at console lifespans and game releases and people are like, OK, I bought this new console. Where's the games? And that's where roadmaps kind of come in handy because you invest in the systems like, OK, I know to expect I'm getting a new Zelda. I'm getting a new Donkey Kong. I'm getting a new Kirby. I'm getting a new whatever. But when it's not. I don't want to say realistic, but when it's not through the legitimate means of it, it kind of it's like, OK, am I investing on the hope of this thing actually being true? Or am I investing in the fact that I know Nintendo is eventually going to do his new Zelda? But I don't know what that is. And that could be three, four, five, six years later. Who knows what that looks like. I don't think we're going to have to wait six years for another Zelda game. But I don't know game development. Game development. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, I think it's I think it's fine to have roadmaps, but I think it's just received better when it comes from Nintendo themselves. And I know they're one of the most tight lipped companies when it comes to that stuff. They like to play things close to the vest. But you know, I think I agree with you. And I think it does a disservice to just the fandom when with these types of leaks and stuff for the most part. Yeah, I'm all for roadmaps and knowing what's coming next. And we get that pretty dang often from Nintendo itself. And it is nice. I mean, it's important to their business for fans to know what to look for to people looking to buy a Switch to. It's just when it comes this way and it's just like it just does very little for me. It does next to nothing for me to learn it from from this standpoint. And I'm just prepared and you all should be too for the next Nintendo Direct in June when all this stuff that's been leaked gets announced. And then everyone says, well, that sucked. We already knew while that was coming. Where are the surprises? Nintendo, that's going to happen. It's just this whole thing. It's just really been bugging me this year that this is the current state of Nintendo conversation. Seth, what do you make of all this of these leaks? Well, I don't like leaks either. I famously don't like leaks, but I don't like leaks because most I would say the overwhelming majority of them are just people who are just making things up for clout and sometimes get it right. Like you're going to get it right if you throw out a million different things. I mean, whatever Nate, the hate is the most credible leaker. What I would say the most credible leaker was the one who like the Nintendo. Pure. The back end. Yeah. Who had the back end and Nintendo like put them in a rock and fired them at the sun. Like that was the most credible leaker. But I mean, do I want a knocker enough time remake? Of course. Sure. Yeah. That'd be wonderful. Yeah. I'm having a hard time conceptualizing what that means, which kind of is exciting to me. I don't know how much they have to change it to make it appeal to like the way that we're used to playing games now without losing that original like magic of it. I don't know. I haven't played Ocarina of Time through in since the 3DS one whenever that one came out. So I read like you can probably speak to to playing it now as far as how it holds up to to modern. I can and have. Yeah. Yeah. I'm saying like I just don't. I want to know how they're going to make this a game that we are able to enjoy in a 2026 mindset without losing the magic of like what this came out 98 right or 98 98. God, man, that's a long time ago. But I'm excited. I one of the one of the side effects that hopefully happens is if this game is real, then I never have to see another Facebook post about like somebody made Ocarina time in Unreal 5. And you know, you're still going to get those because then they're going to have something to compare Nintendo's latest remake. That's true. You're right. Yeah. That's fans. Did it better? Yeah. That's even worse. Oh, yeah. Nintendo hire this guy. I made this in 35 minutes in AI. It would have cost $10 million and it looks like the biggest pile of garbage. Now, I agree time. I mean, most people would say this is like the best game of all time or in the top five games of all time. Certainly people would put it in the best Zeldas of all time. I am very excited. I hope that this is true and I want to know more about it. I want to know what they're going to do to make this because I can't. I can't conception. I can't imagine how they can have it both ways. Modern and still like feeling like the old one because, you know, you run around a lot of empty space. They're going to keep all the graphics the same, Seth, but they're going to give you the weapon durability from tears of the king. Oh, the thing everybody loves about those games. And it's going to be locked at 60 FPS. Oh, wait. It won't. And I honestly, I hope it goes the route of Rebs suggestion of where it is kind of that link between worlds kind of spiritual successor where it is awkward at a time, but it's not awkward at the time. It plays with a lot of similar themes and just beats that we get in Ocarina of Time, but it's a it's a new experience. That's what I'm personally hoping for. That being said, Ocarina of Time is basically my favorite Zeldas of all time. It's, you know, complicated for me because of emotional ties to other ones. But I absolutely love this game. I've played this game too many times to count. So I'm happy whatever shape or form it comes back in. So Ocarina of Time is funny because it is like so widely regarded as one of the greatest games of all time. And I, I've no, everyone's on the shows probably don't worry. I'm leaving the show. You won't have to hear this from me ever again, but like probably sick of me talking about how brilliant I think FF7 remake is. And the reason why I think FF7 remake is brilliant is because they took arguably one of the greatest games of all time and they said, we're going to remake this. And everybody, I think initially was expecting as faith, like they wanted a faithful remake. They wanted to follow the beats, but just look modern and shiny and have like updated combat or whatever. And that's what people want. And that's not what they got. Instead, what they got was this absolutely bonkers meditation on what it means to remake one of the greatest games of all time. What it means to revisit one of the greatest video game twists of all time. Like video game deaths, like, like, is this character even going to die again and actually making the player question that in 2020, whatever year we're playing it in is, is nuts. And I, I am torn on Ocarina of Time because I did just play it earlier this year for the first time all the way through. And I loved so much about it. And I think that like the puzzle design and the dungeon design and the world design and the writing even is just like so stellar and like it's like it's moody and weird and cool. And I love that. And I don't want it to lose those things. And in those respects, I think a one to one remake like is almost necessary. Like, don't mess with the dungeons are great. Don't mess with them. But at the same time, I found it very clunky to play in in 2026 and very, very challenging mechanically just because we've we have figured out how to make targeting work in so many better ways. And so there's a part of me that wants a remake that is like as 100% faithful as possible, but with like updated smoother combat. And then maybe like the smidgiest bit more tutorialization. Please don't overdo it. Like we're not babies. Don't hold our hands. Hey. OK, we're babies. We're going to be fine. Babies can play Zelda too. But at the same time, there's this tiny little part of me who's with Jada. And I'm like, oh, but what if they like do something really weird? What if what if they're doing Ocarina of Time, but not Ocarina of Time, Ocarina between worlds? I don't know. Like what if what if they're doing something that plays with the very notion of remaking a game like this? And I know that's like maybe attributing way too much to a studio that's maybe making a game that we don't know if they're making based on a rumor. We don't even know what it's going to look like. But I mostly you know, you just don't want them to like do it halfway. Right. Like you don't just want like a slightly shinier version that's like kind of rewritten badly, you know, you just there's so many ways they can mess this up. It's freaking Ocarina of Time. Yeah. And to your point about a one to one remake that that brushes up the controls and adds a few more tutorials. That is what Ocarina of Time 3D already did. Yeah, that's not on Switch. It's not there. But for me, I look at that and I still think Ocarina of Time 3D specifically is super playable still that version of it feels really great to play. It is modern in all the ways that that needed to be. That is a near perfect remake of the original. I don't need that again. That that game exists. You can go and track that down and play it. And then I just look at the current state of kind of Nintendo audience and fandom. And I just think Manzalda is a different series now. Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom change this series forever just from a sales number perspective. What is Zelda to most people? It is Breath of the Wild. It is that format. Just the numbers tell us that. And so if you do a beautiful, faithful one to one remake of Ocarina of Time, I'm just like, huh, who is that really great for? There's people like us who have played this game a ton of times and know it. I play this game once a year. My sister and I sit down and we beat it in one day. We did it just a few months ago in January. I know the solution to every puzzle. I know it. I would play a beautiful remake. Yeah, that'd be the version that I played every year for the rest of my life. If it didn't tell like it's a remade again in 15 years. But I'm just that doesn't do a ton for me as a Zelda fan. And then I think about the Breath of the Wild era fan. I think they pick up Ocarina of Time. They're like, this isn't what I want. I just I feel the Zelda show. Where's the rest of the stuff? Exactly. And where is the freedom? What do you mean? I can't hop over this one foot tall fence. Like, what do you mean? I can't climb this bridge that closed at night to get into Castle Town. And I have to wait for it to open like this linear action adventure game. The market's not nearly as big. And I don't know how many Breath of the Wild fans you convert into longtime Zelda fans by making a faithful remake of this game. As amazing as it still is and would be. I just think they have to take a different approach. Yeah. I got it. For you, Logan, I got the self-spitch for you. We've heard the rumors of them splitting it into like two games. You're going to get two games. I think that was totally. I think that was an April Fool's joke. I think it was totally. Yeah, that was whatever. I'm going to I'm going to roll with it either way, because I've already thought about it in my head. You're going to have two games. It's going to be like Oracle Seasons and Ages, where they can they work together in tandem. But one's going to be Childhood Link, where they that they greatly expand. And one's going to be Adult Link, where they greatly expand. It's going to be two bigger games, and then you can combine them somehow. So it's Oracle Seasons again. 99 each coming to Game Card. Genuinely, if we if we get to the next big Nintendo director, whatever, and what they announce is just a port of Ocarina of Time, 3DS and Majora's Mask, 3DS, which I did a couple of years ago, play all the way through for the first time, Majora's Mask. But I played the 3DS version of that. And so I assuming that's very similar to 3DS Ocarina. I agree to Logan's point that is extremely playable. It's just I would love like a collection that's just those two games in a collection, one skew, and they just port that to switch. And that would be honestly fantastic. And then maybe like a little teaser on the end that's like the next Zelda next year or whatever, like, fine, great, let's do that. If this is a real thing, my hypothesis is it's them testing the waters with a known entity to see how many people do want to go back to that traditional Zelda style. I agree. I think that people are going to lose their minds if this turns out to be true. I don't think this will sell anywhere near Breath of the Wild or tears of the Kingdom numbers. I bet it sells a quarter of the numbers. But on the other hand, I also think this might be a place for the programmers to sort of play around with whatever the new Zelda game is going to be and have that experience of bringing to the modern hardware this sort of play style that's like a hybrid play style. Like, you know, we've talked about it. It's a Breath of the Wild with dungeons. Like that's what everybody was. Oh, Breath of the Wild was too open. I had to make my own decisions and not be told what to do. And people really hate that. So this if this is true, I think that's probably it's like a little test case. It's a little fun laboratory experiment. Little Petra dish going on in there. Yeah, it's I would love that if this was an experimental like a link between worlds. That served as the bridge between classic to these Zelda and Breath of the Wild with its nonlinearity. Do these eight dungeons in low rule in any order? And I absolutely think that could be it, Seth. They know the biggest weakness of their big open world. Zelda's is their more linear segments. So what if we make a game that is like the size of the Great Plateau, Hyrule field and its surrounding areas in Ocarina of Time. And it is nonlinear, but we have dungeons that live up to the legacy of those found in the original. Man, I think you're looking at a really, really cool remake. My only hang up there is that Nintendo usually plays remakes pretty by the book. Like when they remake a game, it's that game, but modern. There's exceptions like Samus Returns was a very different remake of Metroid 2. And there's a couple others. But for the most part, like Zelda games are sacred to Nintendo. And when they remake a game, they don't tweak very much of it. Another exception like Majora's Mask 3D actually made some changes that people didn't like. But Aonuma famously doesn't like Majora's Mask. So he changed a bunch of stuff about it that I think kind of diluted that original's vision a bit. But for the most part, Zelda remakes are still the same game, just easier to play with a few fixes. I just hope that they do what we're talking about and take a bigger swing here. But I would again argue that Link Between Worlds is essentially a spiritual successor kind of remake. It started as a remake. It started as a remake of Link to the Past and they ended up taking what turned out to be a big swing. And again, like I mentioned Metroid Dread, I'm pretty sure that has some sort of DNA. I don't know what the story of that game's development is, but I'm sure that had some sort of DNA somewhere. And then thinking about Super Metroid and what it would look like to return to that. And they do this sort of... Even Breath of the Wild! I mean, we saw that GDC presentation where they were looking at the original Legend of Zelda. And asking, okay, what if you could set the bushes on fire? Stuff like that. So I agree with you that when they do something that they bill as a remake, they don't take very big swings. But I don't think that means they're necessarily afraid to take big swings when they're originally conceiving what a remake would be. They just, they title it differently when they get to the end product. Yeah. And Nintendo, when they make big swings, you gotta hold the Z button down or else you just fly around like it is. You missed your target. And for, I just put the R-wing and the Ocarina of Time remake that's in like the debug mode of Ocarina of Time. There you go. Well, even Twilight Princess was originally... They're putting Fox in everything now. Yeah. Get them everywhere. Even Twilight Princess was originally kind of conceived as Aonuma saying, I want to make the ultimate version of Ocarina of Time. And then they made Twilight Princess, which in a lot of ways is kind of a remake of Ocarina of Time. Like it's a very similar setup, even more so than the other traditional 3D's Zelda's. So it could mean anything. And I just, I hope that, I just really sincerely hope that it is this bridge. Maybe you can burn the bushes in Kokiri Forest. Maybe you can climb the walls of Death Mountain, but it's still like this, this playground of the original Ocarina of Time. I think that'd make a lot of original fans really angry if this was a Breath of the Wild-ified version of Ocarina of Time. But I think that's a really interesting choice to see what Nintendo could do with it. I like that a lot. I mean, we already have, you know, some of the locations from Ocarina of Time in Breath of the Wild. So yeah, just bring it on over. Nintendo just constantly remaking the same 3 Zelda games over and over in different ways. Exactly. Yeah. I also want to share that if this is real, I have a pretty good feeling about who's making it. I feel like Monolith Soft is going to take over on Ocarina of Time remakes. They should. I've dropped that a couple times this year on the show and I've seen some comments like, oh, why do you think that? I've been meaning to elaborate on it on this show. Oh, let's go! Now's a better time than ever. I think that Monolith just makes so much sense to take the reins on traditional 3D Zelda and kind of be the, like, Grezzo remade Link's Awakening and then they made Echoes of Wisdom. They are the stewards of 2D Zelda now. I think this could be kind of the launching pad of Monolith being the stewards of traditional 3D Zelda. Nintendo likes to have a Zelda product every year, but their open world ones take seven years to make. How do you fill those gaps? Remakes, Warriors games, 2D games. I think they have to have traditional 3D games. And I think Monolith Soft just makes so much sense because they actually, they have three teams. Like when we talk about Monolith, I think everyone thinks of Xenoblade and Wario Kart World, Splatoon, Zelda, but they have three teams. Monolith is not a Monolith. No, there's three pillars of Monolith. Nicely done. One of them makes Xenoblade games. That's not who I'm talking about. Their third team is their smallest team and it assists on Nintendo games like Splatoon, Animal Crossing, Mario Kart World. I'm talking about the second team, which I think is the most interesting one. They're the Zelda support studio. They were created to assist with Breath of the Wild, formed from about 24 or 30 people that worked on Skyward Sword and Link Between Worlds before that. They started small, helped out with Breath of the Wild. Now they're well over 100 people because they also helped on Tears of the Kingdom. And they've been releasing a lot of interviews over the last six months with people from Nintendo and Monolith basically saying, we want Monolith to take the lead on making more Zelda things from scratch. Could that mean just a bigger role in the tentpole open world 3D games? It could. But I feel like I was looking at Nintendo's entire portfolio of studios, like who makes the most sense to make 3D Zelda? And it's these guys. It's absolutely these guys. And then with all these Ocarina remake stuff floating around in the air, Monolith just updated their website with a new tab that shows all the Zelda games they've worked on and has a catalog of all these interviews they've done about Zelda. And like, I think it's going to be that. I think it makes a ton of sense. Yeah. Nintendo's also had really good luck lately, I feel, with handing off its properties to third parties that clearly have a lot of love for them. I mean, the one that I've been talking about a lot lately is Pokopia, like a Koei Tecmo studio, like taking this thing. And just very clearly, that game is made by a group of people who have loved Pokemon for like a really long time and who grew up with it and have like these memories and this knowledge of it. And are just trying to do their best to do justice to this world. Some studios over there are also doing really great things with like the Hyrule Warrior, pardon me, the Hyrule Warrior series, Logan, you mentioned. And then also even with Zelda, like you've got Grezzo doing some really cool things. I know I know some people were like a little iffy and I know we said like Echoes wasn't our favorite Zelda game, but Echoes is still really good. And I really, really loved the Link's Awakening remake. I thought it was fantastic. So like they've had some pretty good partnerships lately. And I like the idea of Nintendo, you know, moving forward and doing what it's going to do internally, but also sort of handing the keys to these these different teams who don't who aren't necessarily within Nintendo and haven't necessarily been on these franchises for decades, but who have this this love for them and people who grew up with them and who maybe have some ideas about where they could go next. That's really cool. Yeah. And I think there's something to be said about a studio who works with Nintendo EPD and gets a feel for how do we approach making a Zelda game and they do that for 10 years on these 3D games and then they're handed the keys to make their own. I think there's a lot of merit to that. And I think it'd be really great to see what they can do and what new things they'd bring to Zelda kind of unshackled from the philosophies of the core team. What a smart way to approach video games. It's like it looks like the apprentice journeyman program from like medieval times. Like, you know, you just have this like young squire at work for you for 10 years. And then you're like, all right, now, now you can can hammer this sword on the on the blacksmiths. Anvil. Thank you. I could not remember the name of it, but man, yeah, it just it's just so cool. It's like it just shows how much Nintendo cares about the things that they make that they don't just hand it off because they're like, oh, well, they made a game. You know what they're doing? Like they give it to you know, they give it to people who love it. They give it to people who are willing to put in the time to learn it to just like honor it and make it their own and make it better. And that's just the coolest thing. And we'll see. We don't know that this game exists. I mean, we don't know. I mean, this is my. Nor do we know who's working on it. Ball of crap. But I doubt they're going to do anything wrong with one of the most beloved games of all time. Maybe some other studio right now is working on the worst Zelda game of all time. We don't know. Could be worse than the CD games. Hard to believe. It could be hard. It's possible. We don't know. Hard to beat. Yeah. Well, that's Ocarina of Time. Very excited to see if this is real and what it ends up looking like, because I think that just be a really, really fun project to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Zelda. OK, let's move on here to something that's not quite as exciting and a lot of people are unhappy about. And that's Pokemon Champions, which is here. And there's been a lot of backlash online since its launch over missing features like no local wireless, no compatibility with Switch Friends list, no standard six to six battles, a very small Pokedex. I haven't had the chance to check this out yet, but Jade, I know you have been playing a bunch of it. What's your take on champions so far? Champions is aggressively fine. And I use the word aggressively very strong there. It's it's basically if you grew up playing Pokemon Stadium, you're going to be right at home when it comes to at least the competitive side of battling against other people. Granted, it's online versus right there next to you. But it is like you, you know, that list you rattled off. It's just a short list of the things that I, you know, am a little worried about. But also they have very much set this game up to be their games as a service kind of game because there's battle passes and there's daily unlocks and daily challenges. You can go to the farm to recruit one Pokemon for free each day, or you can spend tickets or currency to speed up the clock to do that again, to do it faster. I think this game will eventually grow to be something special. I think it will grow to be something that will be kind of a great way to tie all your Pokemon games together. Kind of that extra component to go along with Pokemon Home. I hadn't used Pokemon Home like at all until I think I uploaded like one flight like my flying Pikachu from a game like ages ago. And I went and re-registered into it now or logged back in and I'm like, it's really great seeing all of my different Scarlet Violet, Sword, Shield, Arceus, ZA, and be able to just like grab those Pokemon from those games. I'm no longer playing and then drag them into champions and make use of something that I spent, you know, 100 hours on raising these other Pokemon and EV training and such like that. The thing that kind of really boggles my mind with champions above all is the performance is bad. Like the frame rate is bad and it's not even bad on attacks. It's bad on idling when they're just sitting there breathing. I just see the frames drop. I am playing on Switch too. Yes. Seriously? Yes, it is not great. Please, please. The people in the stands are very like wobbly and weird looking like they're not good definition characters. Like they look worse quality than we've gotten any recent Pokemon game. And I partially understand some of that is because this game is going to be coming to mobile in the future. So they can't put all these super graphically intensive things and then be like, okay, now we have to dumb it down really bad and reprogram and redo the art for these characters so it doesn't look horrendous on mobile. We're just going to make it look kind of flat and sad on all of them, but it's the same experience no matter where you're playing it. That being said, matchmaking has been very fast. So I've been it's been really quick to get into matches. There is good UI for it when it goes around goes to like selecting your Pokemon giving them items picking moves seeing what the opponent's team has. Like if you go to switch Pokemon and you hover over say like an Alakazam psychic ability, it'll show you everybody in the opponent's party that would be not effective, super effective, etc. That way if you're expecting your opponent to swap out, you can use the best move that would be give you the most advantage if you were to hit a Pokemon that swapping in mid battle. So I do like that that kind of UI element and I don't believe previous Pokemon games have that but it's been a minute since I've done online battling for because it was on handheld. So there is some good like quality of life stuff in here, but yeah, it is a very rough package right now. And I think it's going to take a couple seasons before it gets there seasons are 30 days. They're one month seasons so far at least this first starting season is 30 days. I don't know if that's going to be the case after season zero or whatever. One thing that kind of boggled my mind is I when you go to you're going to the tutorials and everything they're like pick a pick you get one free pick of a Pokemon from the to recruit and I recruited a guard of war because guard of war had a good stat build it had good moves I wasn't going to have to invest anything in changing it up and then I go to look at the events and the first event that's like a that's happening is if you play three battles whether you win or lose you get a guard of war. Wow that's great why I guess I'll have two of them in my limited box space because you can only hold so many Pokemon in your box in champions without buying storage space or buying the starter pack which comes with currency and stuff. So I am a little worried about how the micro transactions could end up in the long term or short term at least both I guess. But I am liking it for what it is I'm having a good time battling despite all of the shortcomings and limitations. Big Pokemon battles are still good. It's the Pokemon battles it's Pokemon battles you know and it's you can go in and you can update your your stats and train the Pokemon switch their abilities change their nature change their moveset. There's a whole ton of stuff and you can bring Pokemon in when you bring Pokemon in from the other games all their stats and stuff will carry in from there wherever values they are at when you have when you train them in that game. But yeah it is it definitely I think is going to leave a little bit to be it leaves a lot to be desired for it from a complete product standpoint but I think it is a an okay first step. Something is a good idea but they should have just left it in the oven for longer like let let Scarlet Violet continue to because that might I did not play competitive Pokemon but my my understanding of the biggest issue with this is that this is now the format that all the official stuff is going to be going forward and so by releasing this in this state the competitive community has at least temporarily lost a whole lot like they there's a limited number of Pokemon they can use worse before they had a whole lot more that they were able to access a bunch of items I heard are not like held items you can't there was you can't use including several that were part of like people's metas strategies for a really long time they'll probably be added eventually but they're not there right now and then also I saw a thing going around today apparently there's some bug where some Pokemon if you're like if you're transferring Pokemon from Pokemon home into this there's a bug where sometimes they could just disappear and the fact that it's releasing in this state this very limited state at that like when there is coming look I didn't care for Scarlet Violet but you know we were doing fine in the medicine with that for a while and we could have kept that for another year and then maybe like unleashed this or even just released it now is like an early access thing and then made this the competitive game going forward starting like next year with Wynnan waves or something I don't know but it just this feels very very not it's just a feel well thought out to me at least the timing of it at least yeah it just was a little rushed yeah it seems like they had a great opportunity to make truly this home for competitive Pokemon which it still could end up being to your point Jada but it just seems like it got way too caught up and being a storefront and a mobile game and I think that's just a really big disappointment for the concept when this was announced and we were all pretty thrilled and thought this this could be a really big deal yeah it is to what it is now which is like no one hundred and hundred and eighty Pokemon at launch or something like that that are available to use in the game and it just and I've seen some gameplay about twenty minutes of gameplay and everything just looks like a mobile app store micro transaction shop with Pokemon pasted over it and just like even when you're training your Pokemon is just in these like pretty characterless menus and I don't know I'm not impressed with what I've seen so far it's definitely relying very heavily on the Pokemon of it all and not you know when you modern RPGs when you're seeing things doing things in screen when you're doing things to like creatures or monsters that you're training or whatever you generally have some sort of animation or graphic or something happening it's just like menus that's it menus and it's a very no thrills approach which I guess that might be fine for you know I'm not a professional competitive Pokemon player I've put together some teams I've tried to compete with some meddas in the past and keep up with them but it they get out of hand really fast and if you're not running the specific meta or the specific counter to that meta and it just it was more work than I wanted to put into competitive Pokemon online yeah so I like I said I do think this will eventually get there until then I'll be happy with my shiny Azumarill just racking up wins soloing teams so I'll be happy about that I do want to just like hone in on the thing that both you and Logan have now said which is that this does this is successful and succeeding on the Pokemon of it all that like fundamentally game freak Pokemon all of them have put together a very very good fundamental system of interesting creatures that can fight each other and the numbers are good and the way everything matches up I mean you know there's obviously various issues at different points in the meta like where something's too powerful or something's not working but by and large the system is freaking great and I wrote something like this in my Scarlet and Violet review like that that game was a mess at launch it's a little better now that we have switched to versions but like fundamentally the Pokemon of it all is great like Pokemon is still good I feel I mean I feel the same way about the a I feel like the fact that the Pokemon translated so well to that action format does a lot of work for that game and I do sort of every time I write about Pokemon I ponder a little bit like how long is the Pokemon of it all going to be able to carry this franchise potentially forever I mean seemingly forever but I mean I don't know I wonder if there's eventually going to be a breaking point where people are just going to sort of say you know what like this is great but but actually I wish that all the things holding it up were better but I don't know probably we won't we haven't we haven't had a I think I think a part of it is going to be when a actual contender shows up in the space like not to say that games like temtem and you know power world or whatever aren't actually contenders but they're yeah but they're they're competing in the same space but they're not competing for the top spot you know what I mean they're not at that level yet and that's fine yeah do you think anything ever will I don't I think something will eventually I think it's inevitable I think it's inevitable for something to come out something is going to blow up eventually I don't know who's going to make it or what it's going to look like I think something will eventually challenge Pokemon and I hope it does because competition breeds innovation and I think that's the best way for Pokemon to grow is to have somebody that it sees as a threat to their top spot yeah also grab on your point of scarlet and violet being better so I wanted to grab a bunch of my Pokemon from scarlet and violet so I went back to load it up and I found out the only two Pokemon I ever hit a hundred with where my shiny zoomerill and then gosh what's the evolution of Fido I can't remember what the evolution is like dash bun that is I almost said donut those were my lead to add a hundred because that was when I was doing really big and terrorating those two covered a lot of bases for me but which we'll call it I went to do a bunch of picnics last night while I was trying to farm chantsies and blissies and half the time I went to go set up a picnic the picnic table was invisible aha yeah and so I could I would make a sandwich and everything would just fall on the ground I'm like I thought we fixed this yeah yeah I really liked all the sandwiches that I made where the ingredients just like sort of disappeared into the void yeah yep oh my gosh yeah oh man I don't know if they'll ever have a competitor because that competitor will never have Pikachu and I feel like that does so much but I totally agree with what you were saying Reb and that that is how I feel about this too is when the only thing good about a product is something that that product didn't even work out and that product didn't even introduce being Pokemon battling battling is always good in every game it's him and that wasn't introduced here there's not many new ideas for that here then what is this product even giving you and it's mostly giving you my so far so yeah hopefully turns into something better that's Pokemon champion so far out now on switch with a switch to patch and coming soon to mobile but I want to tell you that it's time for a brand new month of gaming you can jump into the finally got a release date this is a switch one game that's out on July 2nd and it's coming in at a really nice price this is going to be $39.99 both digital and physical we got a new trailer showing this this fruit shopping game that was also in the original trailer and Reb I know you're so excited this news came just in time for your last episode here I love rhythm heaven also shout out to our former producer red regos who's also a huge rhythm heaven fan I know he's probably thrilled whenever he opens his phone and sees this news to like two weeks from now man I'm so stoked we have not seen very much of this game like hardly at all the original trailer I think that you said the fruit shopping game was in it there was the little line of guys jumping through hoops that was like the little tutorial and then I think they were like one or two other games that we saw but they really haven't shown us a lot and on one hand that I think if this were a different game that would make me sort of nervous but it's rhythm heaven man like we know what we're getting we're going to get a bunch of goofy little micro games that are rhythm based that have very catchy tunes there isn't a lot to innovate here and nobody's asking for that we just want to play more rhythm heaven and I'm just very excited I really I got into this with mega mix so I got into it a little bit late but I've since gone back and played some of the older rhythm heavens even though with mega mix you're really again this series has not changed very much over the years you're really getting a lot of what what it fundamentally is and the Japanese musician Tsunko I think is how you say there was I think a concern that this person would not be able to do another rhythm heaven ever again because I think they had like medical issues or something like with their voice or something and so they were out of commission for a long time but like this is like really good news for people who are into rhythm heaven like the fact that this this composer was able to come back and do this again like that's huge I love rhythm heaven as much as the next person that would be Rob I guess technically is the next person but then it would be Rob I cannot wait for this to come out I feel like rhythm heaven has always been that great kind of secondary component to the warrior wear games and I absolutely love those games as well so more rhythm heaven please yeah it's like it's got really big just like it's got big like weird Nintendo energy you know like like every once in a while a bunch of devs over there get together and make something goofy like that jump rope game or like lab or whatever and this has the same energy is all of that yeah but in a really good rhythm game like a legitimately great yes rhythm game like yeah with lots to do and to chase at Seth what do you think of this one yeah I'm excited I was gonna grab my like case of 3ds 2ds games and show it off but yeah wonderful game but if I'm being honest I'm more of an elite beat agents kind of a great pick yeah I initially played that I had a Japanese import where it was a wind on and it had a bunch of Japanese tracks on it and I loved that's when I fell in love with rhythm based games was that one and they're like cheerleaders in that one right not eight secret agents and they localized it and turned them from this this troop of male cheerleaders to secret agents men in black mm-hmm yeah that's a great game it was very self shocking I did not know that was a thing wow that's amazing do you guys remember when we were in the throes of smash brothers character speculation and everybody very seriously thought that the chorus kids from rhythm heaven were gonna end up as smash brothers characters I'm genuinely still sad that that did not happen because I think they would have been hilarious as smash brothers fighters yeah it's a very very soccer I pick let's just pick these random dudes from this random game that very few people play that would be unique because it'd be like a three a three team thing yeah that'd be really fun and for those and for those who don't know what like a wind on they're not typical cheerleaders they have they generally go around with like Tyco drums horns and flags like it's it's not like modern like football cheer or basketball cheerleaders it's like it's a cheer squad and like yeah they're like formally dressly like a stand about business they're really cool really cool yeah that's a great series I haven't thought about that one in a long time I would love for a wind on or leaping agents to come back but rhythm heaven is coming back mega mega mix was like 10 years ago so it's great to see that one crazy them heaven groove on July 2 for 40 bucks digital or physical same price because it's a switch one game I saw some people talking about that there's difference in digital between and physical is only for switch to exclusives which I want to talk about now we have a quick update on switch to physical and digital pricing remember Yoshi in the mysterious book in May is going to be 59 99 physically or sorry digitally and 69 99 physically when it launches and this was an interesting one because it was the first one Nintendo's using as this example of our prices are going to be different now on switch to exclusives in the US between digital and physical and I was kind of comparing to different regions and trying to figure out what that meant and Yoshi's kind of just a cheaper game across the board either format in all regions so we are kind of wondering what that meant two weeks ago right after we recorded the show Nintendo gave us a statement that said the cost of physical games is not going up this means that when Nintendo sells digital versions of Nintendo published games exclusive to Nintendo switch to to consumers in the US those prices will have an MSRP that is lower than their physical counterparts retail partners at their own prices for physical and digital games and pricing for each title may vary I don't know what I still think we'll have more meaningful information when the next switch to exclusive is priced because all this wording has been like very just vague from Nintendo I don't think this is horribly complicated I think people are making this more complicated than it is and I actually think that does make me more complicated than it is with its silly wording but I think this basically means two things and I don't think any of I don't think any of them are necessarily Nintendo being generous or altruistic I think they are trying to push people to buy digital games more because of more people buy digital games from Nintendo they will have fewer production costs because they can make your physical copies and so whether they are increasing prices or decreasing prices or decreasing prices or however you want to look at it it doesn't matter they just want more people to buy the slightly cheaper option because that in and of itself benefits them not necessarily because of the price of the game but because they have to spend less to make things the other side of that is they do now have a slightly easier excuse I think to price their physical their top physical games at 80 bucks and so I do think this means we're going to see more $80 games because if you buy digital there'll be 70 or whatever it is so like it's not it's not altruism but I also don't think it's like a giant middle finger they've been doing this in other regions for a really long time I just think it really is just a push to get more people to buy digital basically every other AAA publisher has been racking up digital sales in super high ratios compared to physical sales for a really long time and Nintendo's been the outlier it's expensive to make a game and even more so than to put it in a box no retailer cut right don't have to ship it don't have to put it in a box don't have to deal with whatever all this crap is game card key card whatever crowd none of that less less street date breaks of you know 711 selling games early that's true too it's very true nobody can put a googly eye in a box if you're selling a digital game you can't do that yeah nice callback yeah it's it's weird and I think maybe Nintendo isn't even quite sure on how everything is going to be priced in the future it's fluid and they're still figuring it out and I think that's why this wording has been so just kind of non committal because even still the official release on their website says beginning in May 2026 and starting with pre-orders for Yoshi noon Nintendo published digital titles on switch to will have an MSRP that is different from physical versions it doesn't even say lower in their official wording like it's it will be but it's just like they've been very very kind of cagey about this I'm curious to see the next one they just announced that there's a between like between now and May 13th I think there's a switch to Mario Galaxy bundle where you get a digital copy and they're like and you'll save $20 and it came out today and it was five it was you saved no dollars it was the exact same price as if you bought a Nintendo switch and you know a copy of Mario Galaxy so I don't know yet Nintendo needs to figure out their their messaging a little bit a little bit better because it's possible with it with it like fire emblem if it comes out and it's 80 physically and 70 digitally and they say oh the price didn't go up this was always going to be 80 like Mario was always that they could pull that card anytime they want so there's just no way to know until we get the next one there's no downside to them doing this like you just like yeah they can just say like who he you know it was always yeah it's always gonna be 79 and like Robustane it frees up so much it's like the margins on a digital game are gonna be so much bigger than the margins like I'm physical for life I always want physical games I will say like the big difference between a physical video game and a physical or excuse me a digital video game like a like a movie is that you don't really download the movie you're just streaming it from somewhere and they can take that off anytime that's not to say they can't take it off anytime from like the switch to as well but like you're downloading a file to your your game and you can kind of you can play it offline that's nice and everything as long as they don't have those online only kind of locks right which some some games have done which sucks but yeah I mean I will always buy physical when the opportunity presents itself but I also recognize like it's probably not the best thing because there is so much energy that goes into you know making every single thing and then shipping it in containers and then shipping it to warehouses and then shipping it to stores and then you know anything that doesn't get sold has to be shipped back and destroyed or thrown into a you know a landfill in Alamogordo New Mexico discounted and then you're taking losses on what that value was where as a digital one yeah they put it on sale of it when they want to when they want to push sales you know that I mean there is the opportunity there for better sale pricing because they're not gonna have to worry about taking the loss on all of the you know the cost built into a fizz nintendo is not going to do it and it doesn't know what a sale is they're not going to do sales it gets them out of having to deal with used games as much as well because you know if I can buy a cheaper used physical copy somewhere I will do it but if physical copies are suddenly scarce because fewer and fewer people bought them and they are therefore more expensive fire umblum path of radiance then I will you know just buy the digital one yeah exactly so yeah we'll see how it continues with our next prices but we know Yoshi is is going to be $60 digitally which which is nice let's talk about Pokemon Pokemon Pocopia it's on a game key card if you're keeping track of all this nonsense at home but that doesn't matter a couple weeks ago we asked you to send your builds to NVC at IGN.com and if you have you did so we're going to show those here on the video version if you're listening on Spotify Spotify has a video version also so you can just look at your phone and see it not if you're driving a bunch of you sent your Pokemon Pocopia builds to NVC at IGN.com starting with David who said I'm sharing some screenshots of my Mario Kart inspired racetrack it's still a work in progress but I think I've made good progress so far my goal is to eventually edit together a silly promo video showing the track and giving the cloud island code as well as screenshots of the various Pokemon dolls hidden around the island I included a couple screenshots of some of those dolls this is really cool it's really expensive I want to see this racetrack I think that's what that is the first yeah that's the first yeah it's supposed to be like that's it because Graveler yeah it's supposed to be kind of like the the Bowser tracks with all the lava on the on the borders I think it's what they're going for oh that's cool yeah very cool love it love it can't wait to see the the end and to do some Graveler racing on it yeah I am man I'm still so far from being able to do any of this I'm selling like 10 hours into into what this is all way way bad I'm working on some other stuff I haven't been been oh my gosh that's super cool somebody called those two a woodow to me I thought that was dragon I thought that was the dragon night doll with like a baseball cap on his head it's a gulpin yeah I was wearing sideways great great moment to capture I looked the other day and I now have 130 hours wow I think I'm at like 30 or so right now wow this is really cool yeah this is awesome holy cow for audio listeners please please take take a look at the video for this one and if pretty cool and if you're thinking of clicking away because you're listening don't don't click away skip ahead to the last segment of the show where we're gonna we're gonna say goodbye to Rebs so don't miss that because we're talking about stuff on screen right now but I do want to move on to Matthews giant tree build that was really cool yeah oh okay yeah I love the verticality mm-hmm gosh wow oh that looks very cool I want to go in it looks very cool in the distance makes me think of like a 3d version of those Mario like the like one three and stuff yeah yeah it looks to me just like a Minecraft biome but you actually had to craft it because it doesn't exist already yeah super awesome thanks Matthew and then Kelly sent in a church in pallet town and says the religious icon being worshipped is a set of gold teeth no I will not explain so you don't need to explain I was so excited to see this because I actually and I'll show a picture here in a moment I also have built a church in pallet town because those stained glass windows are just too perfect and I have not yet decided on an object of worship for my Pokemon I really wanted to give them like a life orb to worship but it turns out you can those aren't actually items it's just something you can put in a frame I think mm-hmm so I haven't been able to put that for worship and I do have the gold teeth outside of the church but I don't I can't copy you I don't I don't want to infringe on your religious beliefs well it sounds more to me like you're proselytizing yeah yeah I love the the colorful rock wow that's really really nice yeah and then the cemetery outside is that's a nice touch to oh my god that's such a good touch buried under the auspicious blessing of the gold teeth it kind of reminds me if like if damp the grave digger from Zelda like moved into Ib peanut peanut Yes. There's something like lore relevant about this too. Like the fact that the Pokemon are just trying to emulate humans because they feel like if they rebuild society the way humans had it, the humans will come back, but they don't really really understand. They're just going through the motions. They don't really understand a lot of what they're doing. So the idea that Pokemon would basically recreate religion, like without really knowing. They worship old teeth. Yeah, well because they don't know. Like it's clearly something special to somebody. Maybe we worship this, I don't know. Am I the only one, the sort of crux of the plot of the copia? It's so melancholy. It's just kind of makes me feel a little sad that they love people so much, that they're doing all of these things and people might never, I haven't beat the game, maybe they do come back, but people might never come back and they don't know how long they've been gone. Oh no, we did, we gone. I won't go into the ending of the game because people yell at me for spoilers on my last episode. But it is a very bittersweet game for all those reasons and more. Like humans are gone, we are trying very hard to get them to come back because we don't know where they went and we do not have the context to understand what has happened to them. I think that is, they can't read. Right, the plot of the brave little toaster. The player can read, so that makes that interesting dynamic right of where you learn what's going on even if no one around you does. God, what a freaking amazing game this is. It's really good. It's really good. This might be my game of the year. I mean, I know GTA 6 is supposed to come out, well, that remains to be seen, but. Just, just, yeah. I've done a bunch of polls on the IGN boards and asking what's your favorite Nintendo game of the year, what's your overall game of the year, and Polkopia has popped up at the top for a lot of people. Yeah, I think incredibly well made. I think IGN just did a big poll on Next-Gen Console Watch of the best Switch 2 game so far, and Bonanza was first and Polkopia was second. So those two right there at the top. This last submission from the fans comes from Matt who says this is a little poke gym alongside a seaside town. Oh wow. That totally looks like a Pokemon town. Wow. You nailed it. Wow, that's so much. Yeah, it's great. I will say one of the cool things I learned about this game through like researching it for work is a whole lot of this game was based very heavily on Kanto from Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee. So if you go back and play Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee, the block colors and the structure, like the kinds of things you can use to build the buildings you can get are based off of that game. So like the wasteland area is supposed to be Fuchsia City. So if you go to Fuchsia City and Let's Go, the buildings are made up of the same colors and the same types of blocks that you can then replicate in Polkopia and similar to the other towns as well. So yeah, I mean, the fact that this looks like an actual Pokemon town is not surprising because you can do it. I have a recommendation for the naming of this town. It should be SoundCloud Town because the gym there looks like a little cassette there and you should have all sound based Pokemon for the living in that gym. That's a good idea. Well, thank you to Matthew, Kelly, Matt, and David for sending in your Polkopia builds. Now we wanna get to Rebs builds, which you, I think you shared with our producer Nick to show off here on the show. I did, yeah. So I'm building a neighborhood for the Eeveelutions and I'm not done yet. This is what I have so far. I have Leafy on there on the right, Glacion next to it with all the ice, Flareon next to Glacion. And then Jolteon is there on the left. These are works in progress. Leafyon's house is basically done. Glacion and Flareon's are pretty close to done as well. Jolteon's is still a little bit of a work in progress. It's funny if the electric type Pokemon's house, I haven't actually hooked up power to it yet. That's gonna be pretty critical. Don't have to as long as he's in there. He'll power it on. That is true. I was, I mean, that's kind of why I stopped because I was gonna hook up power and have all these lights and stuff. And then Jolteon just came in and started electrifying everything himself. I'm like, well, what do I need that for? But I am gonna probably hook it up just so Jolteon doesn't have to do too much work. But I'm gonna do Vaporeon next to Jolteon and then I'm gonna start another row across the street to get everybody else in, including Eevee. I have ideas for most of them. There's a lot of really good blocks that can make a Sylveon house. Umbreon, I'm a little more torn on. Vaporeon, I really, I'm not great at building in this game. Like I've seen some really complex stuff and I just don't have the patience to do it. But Vaporeon, I wanna get really crazy. And I wanna try to make like a glass house that's basically an aquarium. And it's like full of water and have like all the furniture and stuff like that. I wanna see if I can pull it off. I don't know if I can, but I've seen things like it done. So wish me luck. Very cool, cool. This is my church. Again, we do not have an object of worship just yet, but we're working on it. The Lumas are there to worship. Yeah, I was gonna say it looks like Lumas, yeah. You get the exterior of the church as well. Nice stained glass windows. I love them, they're very cool. They're the exterior of the church. You can actually see the gold teeth in this. They're unrelated. I just put them there to have them. I even made like a little bell tower that has some bells up there. And I'm actually, I'm near the end game. So I'm trying to get Ho-Oh and Lugia. And so if we look at the next couple of images, I put the bell there to my left is the thing that you use to summon Ho-Oh to get Ho-Oh for the Pokedex. And so here you have me gazing off into the middle distance wondering where Ho-Oh is. Is that black and white? That black and white. Oh, there he is. Somebody told me this looked like a Wind Waker, which it didn't occur to me when I was building it, but now, yeah, it kinda does. I should have just made this a scene from Wind Waker. The black and white photo you have is giving like your former explorer, like looking back through like your scrapbook of photos you took on your quest. I titled it Waiting for Ho-Oh by Samuel Centret, which I thought was a clever joke, but I don't know if people get it. I get it. I got it, and that's all that matters. Is that the last one? That is the last one. I still have two more Pokemon left for the Pokedex. I'm trying to get mine in and Lugia, and then my Pokedex will be done. And I say I'll be free, but I think realistically, I'm just gonna keep opening this game and building more houses. At least until Tomodachi Life comes out, and then I'll get stuck on that. I was trying to explain Pokopia to a guy. When my Muay Thai class lets out, the Jiu-Jitsu guys are coming in. So I was trying to explain to a Jiu-Jitsu guy, it's like, yeah, it's all I play now, because he plays games too. And he's like, oh, I haven't even heard of it. What's it like? I'm like, I don't know. You have to give like three tin cans to Snorlax. That's kind of like, you just do that for 80 hours? It hurts me much. Yeah, that actually sounds pretty good. Yeah, awesome. Well, those are great, Rev. Thank you so much for sharing. And we're gonna keep talking about Rev, because it is sadly Rev's final show here on Nintendo Voice Chat at IGN, because you have a big announcement to make. Yeah, I'm gonna cry. I'm leaving IGN. Oh my gosh. Yeah, this is it. I'm gonna say goodbye to these clowns later on off camera, because I'm just gonna ball and be a giant mess. But I did wanna just take the opportunity to thank the listeners and the audience for putting up with me the last few years. I really love podcasting. I really love Nintendo. I really love this crew. And we're only able to do it, because people tune in and they listen and they send us silly question blocks and they send us pictures of their Pokopia builds. And you guys have lived us and support us. So thanks to everybody for doing that this whole time. I'm really proud to have been part of this incredible, I mean, NBC, it is the longest running podcast at IGN, right, Logan? It is, yes. I'm proud to have been a very small part of that legacy. And I'm really excited to listen to you guys every week and hear it continue on with you guys and with all the future people who get to be on this show. So thank you everybody who has listened and supported us. And I'm not going far. You'll still see me around. I don't know how much of it will be in a podcasting capacity, but I'm not gonna stop being annoying online. And I will still do anything about video games. So I'll be very easy to find, don't worry. Please, you know, just, I don't know, keep in touch if you want to. Yeah, it's, yeah, I don't know. I love this show. Well, Breb, we love you and we wouldn't have it any other way. You aren't sharing where you're going just yet. That looks gonna wait a little bit. But if people want to keep up and see that announcement when it happens and just follow your stuff in general, where can they do that? I'm on Blue Sky, duckvalentine.bsky.social. Not really anywhere else anymore, but you know, I'll be, I'm in the Nintendo voice chat Facebook group. I'm gonna stay in there. I probably won't like post where I'm going in there, but if someone wants to tag me and ask if you're that curious, he can. Awesome. Well, we're not, we're not letting you off the hook yet. We have more stuff to say before you go. So Jade, I'll throw it to you. We worked on a little thing this week. Yeah, so, you know, we had a, we had a little secret meeting for you, Reb, because we were like, how do we send one of our favorite people off with like the warmest like, thank you and we love you and congratulations. And we were racking our brains and Logan came up with a wonderful idea for us to create our very own Cloud Island for Reb. Oh no, we're crying. Well, we've over the last couple of days, we've been spending some time building up this little Cloud Island that's called Reb is Awesome. It's got a nice little home for you. Munchlax is there chilling on the bed. It's in my house. You know, so it's very small right now, but you've got a garden, you've got some boxes to move into your new house, you're on your new Cloud Island, couple, you know, plushes that we brought in, tons of Pokemon there already, waiting to welcome you. You've got a little, you've got a nice little, little walkway, got a little beach chair next to a horsey fountain. There's a garden on the roof for you to take care of. You've even got a little. Is that a microphone on the roof? So I just stand on the roof and shout at every time. Yes, so you can make an announcement whenever you're there. We love you so much. We want you to stay a part of the NVC family always and forever, so this Cloud Island will be open for you to come in and join and hopefully play with us. And we can build this into a just wonderful town together as an NVC crew that is dedicated to you. Oh, thank you guys. This is terrible. Now I'm gonna spend another 150 hours in this. I know five minutes ago when you're like, I'm about done. I'm like, no, no, you're not. You're gonna open this up tomorrow and I will have built five skyscrapers or something. They're not pretty, but I will have built them. Please do. Thank you so much, guys. I love it. I mean, you obviously have to give me the code. Yes, I will be sending you the code. And then once we've got it all set up for the NVC audience, we will open it up to other people to come and visit and such, but we want to get it. We wanted Rev to be able to put her spin on it as well before we open it up to everybody with the code and stuff, but we'll definitely share it. Gold Teeth Shrine, got it. I have to thank Jada, because yeah, I had this idea to do some great Pokopia thing, but I have zero materials because I barely touched the game still. And I was like, oh gosh, we're gonna be able to do it. And then like an hour before the show, I jump in to see what Jada did. I'm like, oh my gosh, Jada built like a whole town already. So that was awesome. So thanks so much for doing that. Thank you, Jada. Thank you guys. I love it. And then Rev, you had an idea for us on your last episode here about some old Nintendo games. Yeah, so, you know, being very like ribbing to myself about it, I think the biggest complaint about me on this show has been that I have played comparatively fewer classic beloved original Nintendo games than my comrades on this podcast. And so I told them that they should come to the show with one recommendation, one of an older Nintendo game, first party Nintendo that I should play. Come in good faith. Don't come bring it. Like, please don't tell me Zelda 2 or something. And don't give me anything that is like inaccessible or too expensive. Like it's like something I can actually play. And I will make an incredibly good faith effort to play all of your recommendations by the end of the year and expand my Nintendo knowledge. So I'm very curious what you guys came with. And yet you said you had no veto power, which I took too hard. I said I have no veto power. I mean, I'll tell you if I've played it before, but I think you have a pretty good idea of whatever I played. Jada, what'd you pick for a rep? I know we said classic, but you also mentioned in passing that you hadn't played any of the Pikmin games. And so I feel like I would be doing a disservice if I didn't tell you, you need to go play Pikmin 4. Pikmin 4 is my pick. I absolutely love this game. It is kind of the perfect culmination of all things Pikmin. And if you fall in love with it, like I think you will, I expect you to play the other ones. I expect you'll want to play the other ones, the older ones. This is a great recommendation. This is easy. This is short. I already own it and I've been meaning to play a Pikmin for like a million years. I've just never gotten around to it. So like this is very easy to do. I will absolutely play Pikmin 4, let you know what I think. Seth, what'd you pick? Oh, well, it's a cheat because it's old, but you can play it. In fact, I think your partner might even already have played it, but it's a little game called Metroid Prime. Oh boy. Play the remaster, obviously. Don't go out and find the GameCube version, but yeah, one of my favorite games, that's... That was, I think it was not Metroid Prime in life. No, it's Sam's review and he talks about other shooters and it always happens when I talk about Metroid on the show. Yeah. Absolute, just wonderful, wonderful game. And I think you will really enjoy it. You know, don't put any pressure on yourself like you have to get through it. My experience with Metroid Prime was probably made all the better by just savoring it and feeling like the world that it puts you in, the sort of loneliness that you're in. There's no staring at the glass. That is not... What is that, parasite eating? What is that? This is other am. This is other am. That is other am. Yeah, we're back, we're back to Prime. So anyway, as I was saying, go play Other Am. I'm sure you're gonna love it. No, Metroid Prime and then get the remaster. It's 39.99 and it's the perfect Metroid game. If my husband has the game share, or has the remaster, then we just game share. I think he does, does it do? Virtual game card. I swear. I'm pretty sure he played it. I thought I remember so much. Whatever it is. But also, I will say to Seth's point of savoring it, don't get hung up on scanning everything. Like, cause I'm gonna get hung up on scanning everything. Don't do it. Yeah. Okay, okay, I figured this was probably gonna come up. Yeah, I've been just like so reluctant because I just, I can't explain it. I just look at Metroid Prime and I think, ah, I don't know, I don't really wanna play this. But I did say when Metroid Prime 4 was coming that I was gonna like probably play it. And then I read the reviews and was like, nah, I think what this is doing is convincing me to play Metroid Prime. And again, I have not gotten around to it yet. So, okay, this year, Pikmin 4 and Metroid Prime done. Keep me posted, please. I will keep you posted. I will let everybody know. Well, we have two more picks because Rev also told me that she wanted to pick from Brian Altano and Brian picked the one game you just said I hope nobody picks. He picked Zelda too. Why? I told him no jokes. Did you not tell him no jokes? It's not a joke. He said that there's a version on Switch Online that like starts you with fully powered stuff so you can kind of just play through it. It's, they have these like special metal versions on Switch Online. Why does he want me to play this? He wants you to experience. He wants you to play. Does he really? Brian does love Zelda too. I do. I will say as a defender and a detractor of this game, Zelda 2 does some really interesting, weird stuff that you don't see in any of the other games. It is punishingly hard, but save states and the little sort of like cheat way to play it on Nintendo Switch Online. I think with a guide, I think you will actually play this game and think to yourself like, you know what, actually this is kind of rad. Even though it is hard and sucky. And you get to make error. You get to make error. At least this will be a good bit. There you go. Dang it, Brian. Yeah, I knew you wouldn't like that one. And then I was between two for mine. I was, I almost picked Virtual Boy Wario Land because I think you would actually like that game, but I didn't. I decided not to make you stick your head in the Virtual Boy. And so I picked a game that's very, not necessarily like an all time Nintendo classic, but one that's very personal to me. One of my favorite Nintendo games of all time. And that's Kid Icarus Uprising. Oh, interesting. I love this game so, so much. It's a Maseru Sakura directed game and it is an on-rails shooter and on-foot shooter has some of the best writing and comedy in any Nintendo game. Some of the best graphics on the 3DS. Really awesome use of the 3D. Amazing boss battles. Kind of a crazy story that goes way further than you think it will. A really cool set of weapons. I think this is like a criminally underrated Nintendo game, I've thought that forever. It's a little hard to find, so if it's too expensive, I will lend you my copy when I see you in a few weeks and you can play it that way. But yeah, I adore this game and I think that you'll find a lot to like in it. You've never played it, right? You've never played this one? No, no, no, I've never played this. These are genuinely great recommendations. Thank you so much, guys. I have committed, I will play all four of these things. I will make it a good faith effort to do so by the end of the year. We'll see, depending on what comes out, how far I get. But I mean, I'm apparently just building things in the bookopia now into infinity, so I could probably set aside some time to play Pikmin or something. Yeah, and Zalda too, which I'm sure you will just love. No, I'll play it, I said I would. I mean, I did also say no joke games, but he wasn't in the room when I said that, so. They also get always a joke with Brian. That's true. That guy. Yeah. He could have literally made me play like any really good like Nintendo classic that I've skipped over the years and gave me Zalda too. Well, Rob, your first episode of Nintendo Voice chat was NBC 547 on February 11th, 2021. It was with Casey, Brendan and Tom Marks and you. Wow. And yeah, so 260 episodes. It has been on everyone, of course, but from 547 to 807 has been your run here, which is just awesome. And in the What We've Been, I listened to your first episode this week in preparation for this show. And we got to the What We've Been Playing segment, and do you have any recollection? What's the first game you talked about having been playing on NBC? What year would this have been? 2021. February 2021. What was I playing and what was even out then? I know I have no clue. If I had to guess, I'd say Animal Crossing. That's what I was gonna guess. You did talk about Animal Crossing, but that was not the first thing you mentioned. Casey tossed it to you and you said, I beat Ring Fit Adventure a few weeks ago. Oh, yeah. Which is it all in brand. Ring Fit, yay. You said that game is really good. No one beat it because it's exercising, but the end had me crying. Yeah, I was like collapsed in a puddle on the floor, balling, I beat it that time, and then I played through the New Game Plus mode and beat it a second time, and then I played through the New Game Plus Plus mode and got all the way to the final boss, and then I got distracted and quit working out, and I have not gotten back to it and finished it the third time because it takes a while to, it's a very specific kind of workout, and it takes a little while to build up that endurance again, but I keep meaning to pick it back up again and build up that endurance so that I can finish it the third and final time. Please give me a sequel to Nintendo, thank you. There's that patent, they might be working on it. Yeah, you also talked about an indie game, of course, on your first show, you talked about Cartow, you remember that game? I do remember Cartow, I actually, I think I vaguely made reference to it a couple weeks ago when I was talking about what I played at GDC, and I was talking about Jigriffed, that game with the frog that looked like Wind Waker where you move the map pieces around. Very similar to Cartow with the map thing. Cartow was really cool. Yeah, and so that was your very first episode, and you've done a lot on NBC over the years. I think we have the b-roll of these, you talked to a bunch of wrestlers on Nintendo voice chat, yeah, about what their favorite Nintendo games of all time. Yes, oh my gosh, that was so fun, Nila Rose, Athena, and Evil Uno. And there's Mitchell remotely from afar. Yes, Evil Uno also, this was discussed on social media this morning, but Evil Uno also very graciously, the different of it posed with me in the Rhythm Heaven ringside pose with the mic and blah, blah, blah, blah, is that true thing? Which is like my favorite little bit. Awesome. And last year at IGN Live, another highlight that I pulled the clip of. Oh! I've never seen this! You guys! I mean, I was there, I saw it from a personal perspective. Yeah, yeah, so just awesome. I think it's just been, it's been such a pleasure working with you on NBC and outside of it, and you've been such a positive impact on the show and at IGN, and we're just gonna miss you so much. Thank you guys. I've loved this with all my heart. This is, I think, probably, of all the things with this job, I mean, very sincerely, this is probably the hardest thing to let go. Aw! I thought about this specifically a lot, and what I'd be missing, so, yeah. I love you guys. I love you too. We miss you a lot. We love you too. We miss you too. And yeah, we're gonna miss you a ton on NBC, but don't be a stranger, and I'm sure we'll hear from you again sometime in the future, but unless anyone has anything else. I'm not dying! No, no, yeah, we'll all still be friends, we'll be working on Pokopia and hearing about your adventures in Metroid Prime and Kid Icarus and all the rest. But thank you so much, Reb, for everything, and that is another episode of Nintendo Voice Chat. In the books, we're a weekly Nintendo show. Here on Fridays on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, has the video version. Next week, the show goes on. Tomodachi Life, Living the Dream, will be out, and we'll talk all about it. Can't wait. Why did I quit before Tomodachi Life? No, I didn't. God, thank you so much. We're finally getting into the Reb Coded games. Yeah, right? Yeah, and of course, thank you so much, Reb. Thank you to Nick for working behind the scenes, and thank you so much for listening, but for now, that's all the time I've got. I gotta get back to playing Animal Crossing New Leaf on my Nintendo 3DS. Have a great week. We'll be back next time with more NBC, the only place you can. Reb? Get the thing.