Kinda Funny Games Daily: Video Games News Podcast

Pokemon Pokopia Made Greg Cry - Kinda Funny Games Daily 03.05.26

65 min
Mar 5, 20263 months ago
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Summary

Kinda Funny Games Daily covers Pokemon Pocopia's emotional impact and strong reviews, WWE 2K26's new battle pass monetization model, and industry news including Jackbox Games' new publishing division. The hosts discuss Pocopia's potential as a Game of the Year contender and the challenges of balancing multiple game releases.

Insights
  • Pokemon Pocopia is generating unexpected emotional engagement for players, with Greg Miller crying at credits despite it being a Pokemon spinoff game, suggesting strong narrative and design quality
  • Live service monetization models (battle passes, seasonal content) are becoming standard even for premium $70 games, creating tension between player expectations and publisher revenue goals
  • Indie game investment is critical to industry health; publishers like Jackbox investing in third-party development signals confidence in the market despite studio closures elsewhere
  • Cozy/life simulation games continue to have broad appeal across demographics, with Pocopia combining Animal Crossing and Minecraft mechanics successfully
  • Game review aggregation shows WWE 2K26 as solid (77 Metacritic) but divisive on monetization, indicating players distinguish between gameplay quality and business model satisfaction
Trends
Seasonal battle pass systems migrating from free-to-play to premium $70 games (WWE 2K26, Fortnite model adoption)Post-launch content gating behind engagement mechanics rather than upfront DLC purchases to extend player lifetime valueCozy game genre expansion into established franchises (Pokemon Pocopia) beyond traditional Animal Crossing/Stardew Valley spacePublisher consolidation of indie publishing (Jackbox, Blumhouse Games, Inner Sloth models) as alternative to traditional publishingCross-game teasing tradition continuing (Pokemon Wind and Waves poster in Pocopia) to build franchise momentumNintendo Switch 2 driving hardware upgrade cycle with exclusive titles (Pocopia Switch 2 exclusive)Limited-time exclusive Pokemon events in live service games creating FOMO-driven engagement loopsGame director commentary on build-crafting and synergy discovery (Ruiner 2) reflecting Diablo-influenced ARPG design trendsStudio closures and layoffs continuing (End Dreams, Mind's Eye developer) despite some investment activityEsports/competitive gaming integration in sports titles (WWE 2K26 Island, NBA 2K seasonal model) as engagement driver
Topics
Pokemon Pocopia gameplay mechanics and emotional narrative impactWWE 2K26 Ringside Pass battle pass system and monetization modelLive service game design and seasonal content strategyJackbox Games third-party publishing division launchPokemon Wind and Waves teaser discovery and franchise momentumLimited-time event mechanics in cozy gamesGame review aggregation and critical reception analysisNintendo Switch 2 exclusive game lineupIndie game studio investment and publishing partnershipsRuiner 2 cyberpunk action RPG sequel announcementSlay the Spire 2 early access launchWorld of Warcraft Midnight expansion releaseOcarina of Time N64 emulation and modern gamer experienceGame industry studio closures and layoffsCross-platform game porting and localization services
Companies
The Pokemon Company
Pokemon Pocopia spinoff game released on Switch 2; Pokemon Wind and Waves teaser found in-game; limited-time event me...
Nintendo
Pokemon Pocopia Switch 2 exclusive; Mario Kart World event announcement; Nintendo Store promotional events for Pocopia
2K Games
WWE 2K26 released with new Ringside Pass battle pass system; reviews aggregating at 77 Metacritic; monetization model...
Jackbox Games
Announced new publishing division; publishing first title 'My Arms Are Longer Now' from Toot Games; investing in indi...
VGC (Video Games Chronicle)
Published Pokemon Pocopia review calling it 'Pokemon's best spinoff'; WWE 2K26 review; Pokemon Wind and Waves teaser ...
GamesRadar+
WWE 2K26 review (3.5/5) criticizing monetization; Assassin's Creed Unity 60fps update coverage
GameSpot
Pokemon Pocopia limited-time event coverage; Evan Campbell reporting on exclusive Pokemon mechanics
Blizzard Entertainment
World of Warcraft Midnight expansion released; discussed as competing for player time with Pocopia
Rikon Games
Announced Ruiner 2 sequel shifting from twin-stick shooter to cyberpunk action RPG with co-op support
Toot Games
First game published by Jackbox Games' new publishing division; 'My Arms Are Longer Now' indie title
Ubisoft
Assassin's Creed Unity 60fps update released on Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5
Velen Studios
Expanded operations opening new office in Toronto, Canada
End Dreams
Studio announced layoffs; mentioned in context of ongoing industry closures and job losses
Mind's Eye developer
Announced additional layoffs; example of continued studio contraction in gaming industry
Factor Meals
Primary sponsor offering meal delivery service with 50% off promotion code 'kind of funny 50 off'
People
Greg Miller
Co-host; cried at Pokemon Pocopia credits; playing Ocarina of Time; reviewing Marathon; advocating for Pocopia as GOT...
Mike Minotti
Co-host; played 90 minutes of Pocopia; ranked Overwatch player; juggling WoW Midnight expansion with other games
Jordan Midler
VGC writer; reported Pokemon Wind and Waves teaser in Pocopia; defended teaser reporting against skepticism on-air
Chris Scullion
VGC reviewer; gave WWE 2K26 4/5; analyzed Ringside Pass battle pass system and tier unlock speed
Ben Wilson
GamesRadar+ reviewer; gave WWE 2K26 3.5/5; criticized monetization and My Faction rewards system
Jason Finelli
Restart.Run reviewer; gave WWE 2K26 4/5; praised Island mode and Universe/My GM modes
Matthew Jackson
Toot Games co-founder; former Need for Speed No Limits designer; first game published by Jackbox Games
Millie Holton
Toot Games co-founder; web series creator; developing 'My Arms Are Longer Now' with Jackbox publishing
Andy Knaz
Jackbox Games VP of Business Development; announced new publishing division and first publishing deal
Merrick Rolfer
Ruiner 2 game director; discussed ARPG design philosophy and build-crafting mechanics for sequel
Joey
Kinda Funny team member; playing Pocopia; will co-host Gamescast Plays episode; doesn't vote on GOTY by own admission
Andy
Kinda Funny team member; played Pocopia; seventh playthrough of Witcher; may review Slay the Spire 2
Bless
Kinda Funny team member; playing Pocopia; voting on GOTY contenders; may review Slay the Spire 2
Roger
Kinda Funny team member; attended WWE 2K26 preview event; interviewed wrestlers; reporting on Island mode
Paul Tassi
Mentioned as predicting Marathon will be mid-tier success, not major hit; willing to 'eat shit' if wrong
Quotes
"I'm like I'm crying at a Pokemon spinoff game like what the fuck is going on such a beautiful special game"
Greg MillerEarly segment discussing Pocopia credits
"This is the life of a gamer in 2026. You got to juggle things. You got to juggle your interests."
Mike MinottiDiscussing game release schedule pressure
"I am a man who has absolutely no spine. So I would be easily folded on this accusation and backlash if I weren't 100% sure that I'm correct about this."
Jordan MidlerDefending Pokemon Wind and Waves teaser reporting
"We are massive ARPG fans, and Ruin or 2 is the game we've always wanted to play. We built the shell system because we love theory crafting and finding broken combinations."
Merrick RolferRuiner 2 game director statement
"Pocopia is a special game. Let's get into some of the news. Some of the fun teasers. Peppering it, of course. Me crying."
Greg MillerTransitioning to news segment
Full Transcript
Be like me and head to factor meals.com slash kind of funny 50 off and use code kind of funny 50 off to get 50% off and free breakfast for a year. Eat like a pro this month with factor. If you want to get our shows ad free and our exclusive shows, go to patreon.com slash kind of funny. Today in the nerdy news, you need to know about Pokemon Pocopia highs a tease for Pokemon wind and waves. WWE 2K26 reviews are in and Jackbox is getting into publishing games. We'll have all this and more because this is kind of funny games daily. What's up everybody. Welcome to kind of funny games daily for Thursday, March 5th, 2026. I'm one of your hosts, Greg Miller, alongside the master of hype, snow, bike, Mike. We're back at it again. Good morning, Greg. We are back at it again. I've been on so many games dailies this week. I don't know what day it is. I just told you it's Thursday, March 5th. Greg, Pocopia, Marathon, Crimson Desert out there coming soon. I got so many games that I'm so excited for, Greg. I don't even know. I can't think about the day. I'm only thinking about the games, Greg. I appreciate that about you. That's why I love you. That's why we're, you know, simpatico out here on the show. You're just like me, Greg. Just like you. You have a loving family, a beautiful wife, an incredible child. And all I want to do is go to sleep. Just go to sleep. My favorite stuff about you. My wife, she wants to go do pottery. She wants to take a hike. All I want to do, game. And I go, I identify with you, Greg. You know what I mean? You know what I mean? Not me, Jen. You want to go to bed at 830 tonight? That sounds awesome. Go do that. And then she'll do the thing like, she'll try to, you know, trap me. Have me play something in the bedroom, like switch. And then it's just her. She's getting blinded by the screen on her face or whatever because I'm doing it. Last night, she's like, I just want to watch a movie for a little bit. We watched an hour of a movie. Great. And then she's like, I'm going to go to bed. I'm like, cool. I'm going to glass of wine in. I'm going to work. I'll see you later. This desert ain't going to crimson itself. I got to get down there. This room is coming up. You got to get after it, Greg. And so, yeah, I'm gaming hard. I'm having fun. Played some Pocopia last night. We're going to talk about that. A little ranked Overwatch as well as I juggle what's next. What do I want to do? but I promised you, Zelda, Ocarina of Time. It's embarrassing to say, and I'm going to be open with you. I'm going to be honest. Yeah, it's a safe spot. Okay? You know me. Yeah. I thought Zelda was the dude until like 2017. That's fair. I wasn't aware. I mean, it's like you weren't. I thought you were going to tell me like until yesterday. I don't mind that. I don't mind that you didn't know Link. I feel like I didn't know Link. But here's the thing. No time to start Ocarina now. You got Pocopia. Pocopia. You got to move to Marathon for the review. You're reviewing Marathon for us. It's GDC next week. But this is the life of a gamer, Greg. This is the life of a gamer in 2026. You got to juggle things. You got to juggle your interests. So when are you starting Ocarina? Don't, what? Maybe Saturday and Monday? I'm going to bring you the N64 controller. Okay, bring it up. Let me know. Because you say it's better with it. Yeah, for sure. Okay, okay. I'll play with it. I'll play with it. But I'm into it. How far did your son get? An Ocarina? Yeah, you and your son. Oh, man. We're out in Hyrule doing stuff out there. We had that weekend with it. It's big. big game i mean it was a big n64 game how coming at it as a modern gamer and starting it i was like whoa this went a lot quicker oh really okay yeah how long to beat has it like 25 hours i think yeah that's probably insane where i was like oh i didn't know it was that big yeah okay okay i'm excited i'm excited for you a lot of games greg i'm having fun yeah you should probably play marathon because you're supposed to review that i'm sure next week you're reviewing we're gonna talk about marathon and i'm like paul tassie i'm ready to eat shit on marathon if like all of a sudden it blows up and becomes the next oh it's paul tassie talking yeah paul tassie's like hey here's the deal i'm ready to eat shit if this thing blows up and it's incredible but he's predicting it won't be big i think i think he's predicting another call court failure no i think he's more like me of like it's just going to probably be right in the middle okay but like i'm excited to see i mean kicks off what probably right now i think it goes live everybody's waiting in the waiting room for it so it's gonna be a good time i just wanted to call out what what do we have you on for tuesday is that right the review tuesday tuesdays is that right i'm just saying i believe Tuesday next week, yeah, we have you and Fran reviewing Marathon. Fran, talking about Marathon. We'll see about that, but I'm excited about that content. But, of course, that's not today's content. Today's content is Kind of Funny Games Daily, where we run you through the nerdy news you need to know about live on twitch.tv slash kindoffunnygames, youtube.com slash kindoffunnygames, and podcast services around the globe. Of course, if you're watching live, you have a special job. Be part of the show. Super chat, youtube.com slash kindoffunnygames, your thoughts, opinions, and more on the daily news stuff. We have a Pocopia loaded up first half of the show. So if you're playing, I want your thoughts in there. All right. Resolute super chat and says as a huge animal crossing Viva pinata and Pokemon fan, my entire life, this is a game that could have only been made in my dreams. I'm three hours in and I am in love. Stop it. So much to talk about with book. I can't wait to talk about it. Cause I had some thoughts. It's two seconds away from that because of course I'm going to thank our Patreon producers over on patreon.com slash kind of funny. Thank you. Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster and Delaney, the Psalm twining for now. Let's begin with what is and forever will be the rope report. Time for some six items on the rope report. Biggers does painful one on the other side, you know, it's trying to get out though. How do you know? We have several Pokemon Pocopia stories to start with. We'll eventually start over at VGC with Jordan Miller. But I'd rather tell me, what do you got to say about Pokemon Pocopia? How much did you play last night? Hour and a half. Okay. 90 minutes in last night. Excited to go back. Really vibing with the world. Loving that the Pokemon are just coming into my little beautiful world one by one. A little bit of a slow start, but it's understandable. Yeah. Probably geared a little more towards a kid's game. They got the training wheels on. and it just feels a little bit slower than like a Minecraft where you open it up. It's like, hey, good luck. Figure it out. That's the whole thing. They want an onboarding purpose. Yeah, for me, there's a large onboarding where it's like I kind of am at the point with my survival games where it is just like, let me go. Like, hey, I'm good. I know what I'm doing. I know what I want to do. Did you create a world right away, a cloud server? No, no, not yet. Not yet. I'm trying to figure out all the buttons so I know it and stuff. Just got a combi. Got that timber. You know what I mean? And so I love it. I love the traces of Pokemon where it's like, hey, somebody could be here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't make me. You got to do that. So I do like the vibe so far, but I am ready for the training wheels to come off and let it be, hey, you're Animal Crossing 50 hours in. You are Minecraft moment one where it's like I can do anything I want. Yeah, you got a while for that. But I appreciate it. It looks great. Yeah, you're going to have a great time out there. It's been so heartwarming seeing everybody get it. The Pocopia Reddit, the people popping off, the comments I'm seeing, the creators I follow on Instagram, and them putting up all their content and being all out of it. But the big news for me is I rolled credits on it yesterday finally. Rolled credits? There's a credits in this. Of course there are. There's credits in every game. You know that. They've got to put credits in there. I don't think Minecraft has credits. Well, that was because it was just one name. Notch for a long time. You know what I mean? I didn't know what to do. It was just one name. No, yeah. I rolled credits on it. I wanted that for review. But as we talked about in the review, just the amount of time we had. And then, of course, the game is about getting distracted and doing stuff. But I wanted for making sure today, of course, our Gamescast plays, I wanted to make sure I was in working order and had it done. and I was shocked Mike no spoilers of course shocked to roll credits on it yesterday out there at the table eating my chicken and rice and my eyes well with tears like I texted him I'm like I'm crying at a Pokemon spinoff game like what the fuck is going on such a beautiful special game you want to talk about something that is now cemented itself with me of like man what a powerful little game and I think what a great little setup for the rest of it because you know I go on and on about how great I think the new game plus is in Starfield, right? Obviously no spoilers, just like animal crossing in Pocopia, you roll credits now play to your heart's content. You know what I mean? But as someone who often puts off the final quests or whatever, you do that, you roll credits on a game. And so we still have all this open world shit to do. It's like, well, why would I do that? Like I've lost it. I think this one has a great premise for why you would keep going. Okay. Like they're like very much like, here's why you should keep going. I guess my followup now, it's like, yeah, you've now hit this moment right keep going and it is your island we'll call it right yeah your world whatever you'll call it i guess how my question then goes to is like would you then switch to an online island where you can share it with ben or your wife or friends and you just start building on that as your permanent residence or is it is it shared together like i guess my mind always goes to playing with friends and then sharing it with friends it's like if i got to that points are you now switching and just going i'm an online island only or is it always going to be this single-player island that no one will ever see well i mean you can invite people to single player island of course you can show off your single player oh okay good enough uh i think it's going to be a big question when we do the stream tomorrow the cloud server you know for us online servers weren't active so we couldn't go and do that so i created a kind of funny server one for us right but we couldn't get me and joey couldn't get into it so now we can my thought is i don't No, I think for me personally, I feel like that appeals to different gamers in different things where it's like for me right now, it is like, cool. Credits are rolled. Take a breath. And now I can finally make these different biomes look like how I want them. I can restore them. I can get houses, the exact houses. I can get really annoying with relocating them and putting them where I want them to be kind of thing. Whereas as somebody who's never, with the exception of Pal World Night 1, 2, 3, and 4, where I did a world with you guys, I've never done the share world thing. It's never been my thing. I love the idea of how this works. Of course, if you're unfamiliar, Pokemon Pocopia lets you have cloud shared worlds, meaning, of course, that Mike can start the world. I can join it. And then Mike doesn't have to be online. So I do love I'm worried. I'm wondering how many people can do that. Is it still four player? Six, I heard. Okay. Six. So you can get your RSVP in there. Yes. But like for me personally, that, yeah, I don't know. I'm going to go in there and build cool shit. And I guess mine cool shit. But it's like, yeah, is that benefiting my single player world? Am I thinking about it all wrong? Are we all sharing the Pokemon that are up there? Are those Pokemon filling in my Pokédex? I have a bunch of questions like that. Okay. Because it is still for me right now thinking of what I want to do with this world. It's like I, first off, had to have this really hard conversation with myself last night. As we've talked about several times, this is never us bragging or being braggadocious. I want to make sure we're frank with you. We have Crimson Desert. Crimson Desert seems by all intents and purposes a humongous game. Okay. So it's one of those of like, I am still enamored with Pokemon Pocopia. pocopia but my job means i need to move on greg and this is not this is not as is crimson desert good bad or otherwise take any other game put it there yeah how many games did i buy off the nintendo indie switch thing that i just look at every day i'm like didn't i didn't even pull the trigger on this i couldn't wait i could have waited i like it's like i gotta put pocopia down and i gotta move on with my job and understand as someone who is reinvigorated before this on animal crossing it was like you know in there for another month and a half doing stuff like Pokemon Pocopia is going to be a marathon that I'm going to play for a very long time. We're going to get to it in a little bit of why it's bringing you back. It's already bringing you back. I did not expect this. Pocopia is a special game. Let's get into some of the news. Some of the fun teasers. Peppering it, of course. Me crying. All sorts of stuff. We bring in people like Fun Time, who super chats and says, Loving Pocopia. Played four hours last night and just flew by in the blink of an eye. This game has the sauce. Contender, maybe? that's special to say that about a Pokemon spinoff game in 2026. I love that. So I forget who it was. Had a, we had a conversation about this on one of the shows where there was maybe even a piece of bed about Pocopia, where it's going to end up in the top 10. Pocopia has, is it going to be a kind of funny game of our contender? Yeah, I think so. The problem I get hazy on is obviously I'm obsessed with it. Joey's obsessed. Joey doesn't vote by her own admission. She doesn't play enough games, right? So it's really got to get hooks in you. It's got to get hooks in bless. It's got like, it's got to go further than just Greg really liking it. But I did make skate happen. So maybe I can make it happen. I don't know if it'll be that high. I mean, I think I could be, it could be an easy five through 10 contender here. Yeah. Depending on Andy already played it last night. I saw he put up a little video. He's in, I'm in blesses in. So like, yeah, let's see how far we get. And yeah, this could be a five through 10 insane that Andy put down his seventh playthrough of the witcher to pick up Pocopia. I can't believe he's playing the witcher that many times. number one on the roper report technically is pokemon pocopia contains a pokemon wind and waves teaser this is the big man jordan middler uncle jordan at vgc we will need the images here kevin pokemon pocopia appears to contain a poster referencing pokemon wind and waves reviews for pokemon pocopia were published earlier this week including vgcs and of course go support vgc.news go to their patreon support them there which called the game quote pokemon's best spinoff as part of our review vgc noticed an early in-game poster appears to reference the upcoming game as you can see in the images the poster for lumi lumi i'm gonna say lumi neon nice closely resembles the debut trailer for the upcoming games teasing a future pokemon game in the previous generation of titles has been a tradition of the franchise starting back in generation 2's pokemon gold and silver an entry in the pokedex for corsola uh described a town that wouldn't appear until generation threes, Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire. Pokemon fans also discovered a teaser for Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet in Pokemon Sword and Shield. All right. So here's the screenshot of the clown fish, whatever the neon. Yeah. This is the screenshot of the game. And then there's the poster. Wow. Now, you know what? I'm going to toss it out. I'm going to toss it out. Are we grasping at straws? Are we just grasping at straws? Are we reaching right here? If it was fucking in the trailer, Pikachu and Tolograss, and then in the image we had Tolograss, does that count? Yeah. Because I, and now we all know I'm a new Pokemon fan. Yeah. So let's just, but Lumi Neon has to live underwater, right? Because it's a fucking fish. Yeah. Well, you know, fish and Pokemon, they kind of, they different. Yeah, Magikarp could be out, I know. But you know it's going to be in the water, right, Jordan Midler? I don't, sure. It's a little bit of a reach. Call him up. Call him up. We're calling him Midler. I do appreciate that we could have fun things in an Animal Crossing-like game that are posters for other generations of video games, in-world type vibes. So, like, yeah, that fits. That's cool. Maybe this is a little bit of a stretch. We're going to call the guy. What could you possibly want? Big man, Jordan Midler. Uncle Jordan. You on Kind of Funny Games Daily How are you I very well How are you I good Do you feel like you you reaching you grasping for straws on this fish story No, I am not grasping for straws on this. I mean, it's a fish. It's going to be underwater no matter what. Like, you know, is that really, is it's, is this a new Pokemon? He's been around, right? No, the minion isn't a new Pokemon. There is a long history and the Pokemon franchise of teasing. No, no, no, no. Don't, don't, don't start. Don't, don't, don't, don't PR it. I've, I read your article. We've read your article, VGC dot news. We just read it, but I'm just saying, it's not like it's one for one. If it was the exact same angle of the fish. Sure. But now it's just like, you're showing me a turtle underwater and then a different turtle underwater. There's both turtles underwater, but I, you know, it is turtle. Sure. Um, I am a man who, um, has absolutely no spine. So I would be easily folded on this accusation and backlash if I weren't 100% sure that I'm correct about this. I mean, don't get me wrong. I don't mind you doing it. Get the clicks, generate the content. Here we are, vgc.new is a great website. You should all go check it out. This isn't me insulting your work. As somebody, you can go read my IGN shit. Oh, doctor, when I was reading these Batman Arkham City comics, trust me, I was grasping for headlines. It's just, I appreciate it. I just don't know. I don't know if I buy it, Mike. Some are saying in the chat that he is a pretty obscure Pokemon. So maybe that's more of it. Speaker 3 3 I appreciate the chat supporting me. Yeah, I get it. I get the reaction to this. I think that's why it was, I can't remember how the story actually went up because I wrote it like a week ago at this point. I think we suggested it was teased to do a little bit of the old friend setting, you know, the old journalist friend setting, but I'm happy with it. I wouldn't have went up with the Pokemon Masters name on it if I wasn't 100% confident. That's fair. I appreciate that. Great, Jordan. We love you so much. I hope you have a good night. How's Procopia going? Are you still playing? Yeah, of course. I just told the story I told you on WhatsApp yesterday of crying when I finished it over in the lunchroom. What a game, dude. What a powerful little game. What a game. You know what I mean? Alright. Take care. See you, Jordan Midler. embarrassing what games journalism has become though you know it's a little bit of a special but you know what i appreciate it let's get the hype going hey we have the conversation going is pokemon pocopia day exactly did i debate actually let's go further than this there's a nintendo store event for pokemon pocopia oh shucks go get your photo op go buy the game yeah great these are things you got to be going to well what i do is of course we have a kind of funny best friend who's a manager there of course and so you put out a text i i do i come in after hours i was like what so i'm like what's going on today what do you got you don't have to she's like jessica's shout out to jessica i can set things aside i can do this i'm like no i was like i need to see them i need to see what the you know i need to see the dittos i don't know what's going on so it's like whatever but it's like it's just out of the way enough i'm complaining to you about how much i'm taking myself off content so i'm making more time to review games but i can't like leave work early to go to the Nintendo store. No, no. I'm all for it, Greg. You know me. Big Mike is all about it, man. I know Big Mike is all about it. Take the extra 10-minute drive, skirt off to the side, get downtown, get to the parking structure, charge Nick the parking lot. Oh, you know I would do that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Get in there, man. I mailed some Portillo kids books that I fucking charged. We got to celebrate this stuff. We got to be taking advantage of it. We got a Nintendo store in our backyard. We really got to get the studio closer to the Nintendo store. That's a great idea. That's a great idea. Let's move on. To story number two, which did make my eyes bulge yesterday. Okay. Maybe something else. And I sent it to Joey and I said, our lives are over. Pokemon Pocopia's first limited time event features three exclusive Pokemon. This is Evan Campbell at GameSpot. Whoa. Launching today, Pokemon Pocopia is already looking to the near future. That's because the Switch 2 exclusives first limited time event starts in mere days. On March 9th. And it'll be the only way to come across three Pokemon in the game. Oh. Hoppit, Skiploom, and Jumpluff. The official Pokemon website has announced that more spore... No, has announced that, in all caps, more spores for Hoppit will be the first limited-time in-game event for Pocopia, with more arriving in the future. But first, beginning March 9th, more spores for Hoppit will run through March 24th and see players coming across Hoppit. Additionally, quote-unquote, special cotton spores can be obtained and utilized for picnic-themed items as well as encountering Skiploom and Jumpluff. It's noted that rebuilding the Pokemon Center within Pocopia is a requirement for more spores for Hoppett, and the limited time event won't be accessible on Cloud Islands. You'll end up restoring your first Pokemon Center within hours of starting, although there is a real-time clock aspect to doing so. You can check out our Pocopia Pocopia will also offer a ditto rug for all players through the Mystery Gifts menu now through January 31st, 2027. Uh-oh. This is what I keep telling myself, okay yeah i need to calm the fuck down because as a fan of animal crossing yeah pokemon pokemon pocopia is so much larger than animal crossing there is so many more there's more biomes there's more customization there's more stuff to do like i need to slow down and just set my expectations realistically that i'm going to be playing this game not only for my own edification yeah of wanting to make my island my island my world better but also the fact they're going to continue to put shit like this in there i mean this is exactly what you want to see greg this is what we talked about with animal crossing keeping you on the hook which isn't a bad job with exactly and we got to keep you on the hook and especially with pokemon fans who now have done 10 years of pokemon go with those events normal pokemon games that have events that bring you to certain locations for pokemon this is the stuff you want to see this is stuff that makes you turn back on the game go do a couple hours so you can get all these pokemon and like what better way than exclusive pokemon yeah yeah you'll be there for that yeah yeah yeah you know i've never done the catch them all business you know i enjoy catching them but i don't catch them all this is when i look at i'm like with this being building out a world and doing so many of the little cozy things i like to do i wonder if this is the one where i get super weird about like i need to have everybody my Bokeh decks. I want to have everybody on here. Have you had that pull yet? I mean, right now? But see, as you are about to find out, and I will tell you, chat, as we get ready for me and Joey to jump into our islands on Gamescast Plays today, Pocopia is like at least three, but maybe five games in one. Where it's like, I have gone so long on the journey of not even putting down new habitats. Just using the Pokemon I have to achieve the goals I need to achieve right now. And so now with credits behind me, here's where it is like, cool, let's fix up the town. But then it is also like, I have this laundry list of habitats I haven't built and still have the grade Pokemon out on it where it's like, cool, at what point am I getting serious about that? Am I going to go to this section of this biome, clear everything out and just lay down new habitats? You know what I mean? Because town square is fucked right now. You know what I mean? I came into this initial place and just put my Pokemon up front where I thought they'd be, put down the Pokemon center, you know what I mean? And then over here is where I got chests on chests on chests on chests of building material on the work table. And I'm like, this is ugly. This needs to be fixed. I've got my hovel over here that I shoved everybody into. I just started building nice cottages, nice big old. You know, there's like so much going on. That's how it goes. You have the initial build, the rough draft. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then you got to take the eraser to it and you got to start rebuilding. So now imagine, again, as somebody who's just starting, you feel that way, but you have four different biomes to do that in. Yeah. Yeah, four different biomes, let alone your own island, let alone cloud islands. So it's like legitimately, I feel like it's going to be, I'm going to go and just work on this first area until I'm like, that's fine, and then move to the second area, third area. As you should. I love this game plan. I do too. I mean, you did hear, though, exclusive Pokemon or this limited time stuff, not on the cloud islands. Yeah. I'm going to put that in my back pocket. I'm going to remember that. Cloud Island feels like, as an outsider, a playground to go hang out. And yeah, somebody's going to build. Nick's going to build a dick. You know what I mean? You're going to have a bunch of goofy shit in there. But it's like, I don't think that's where you're spending the majority of your time. I don't think that's what you're asking. That's where I want to spend my time. But I also think that there's the sixth game in it of like, maybe that is. Maybe that is what you do, where you go. I don't understand, again. Well, hopefully Game Class Plays will know more with online being working now. of like, can you discover Pokemon on that island that then fill out your Pokedex? Can you discover the new habitats there? Because that's a big part of this game is running around and seeing the flashing, you know, like shiny. You run over to shiny. It's like, oh, you thought of a new way to get a Pokemon or whatever. So can I do that on the Cloud Island? And then I'd leave all those Pokemon there for sure. But could I, is my Pokedex filled? I don't know. You're going to give me those answers. You're going to get us those answers. I feel like that's your job. You're the online jumping. I mean, I've got to get you those answers. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. I'll tell you that. I'll be all over that. short nerdy guy says is the old IGN office closer than Nintendo store if so maybe move there now that's a great idea we definitely would immediately go out of business because we couldn't afford rent very let alone the size of the spot yeah let alone we have a better studio than they ever had in the IGN office but it is getting us closer it would get us much closer it'd be a problem because we're too close to that baseball diamond and we'd be able to imagine the money you'd waste there that would be a problem can you imagine that we worked there and we were all such nerds at ig and nobody ever went to the game nobody had season tickets nobody was like let's get a dog in a bleacher seat nobody did that sunny beautiful san francisco dark ass office just fucking chilling out uh excess oddity super chat and says work keeps getting in the way of my pocopia play time being an adult sucks your mouth to god's ears let me be a horrifying ditto child Mike when I tell you I am now A ditto devotee Is that crazy I've never given a shit About this guy when he first showed up I thought he was so Creepy looking and now I will Fucking die for this guy after the credits I'm Ready to die for this guy So yeah you don't know Online right because it looks like there's some sort of like Hide and seek mechanic in this that's Going to be a fun time yeah they show that I think that was but I think that was just Friends having fun yeah Remember when we had animal costume we used to do hide and see. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. It feels like that. Wait for that. Yeah. David Flores has an interesting one. I want poke. I want Pocopia, but Zelda bring back masks and items. NPCs from past games who live in towns you build. You help with their problems and needs. Okay. I can see it. Yeah. You got a thought right there. You got a fun idea. I mean, they are, of course, you know, willing to expand on all of their franchises. Of course, we look at Legend of Zelda Echoes of wisdom where we got to play as zelda and move all that stuff around in that uh link uh the uh link's awakening style uh that was cool and i was glad to see them jump in and do that and i think again the success i am expecting to see from this again is it hogwarts legacy level of photos is it animal crossing level of photos no but i am seeing a lot of my feeds infected with the did it bought a switch to let's go poke the switch box the pacopia box a lot of people bitching about only having a switch one they will break they will fold you know what i mean like yeah this is one of this is going to be a spike in nintendo switch to sales how large compared to like some of the other big blips we've seen that remains to be seen but i think especially right and right now as this ball starts going and melissa with a y says it's me i'm breaking i'm folding as this starts to tumble down that hill and we see people like yourself playing other people come in and then people hear us and all i'm talking about press in general gush about this and influencers about this, I would imagine you're going to see this really be a groundswell of this. Give me... I know you're just a new Pokemon. I guess to the audience out there in the comments down below, give me your top three Pokemon spinoff games. What are the big three spinoff games that have made a splash? And I would love to know, do you toss Snap in there? You know, when you say splash, are you talking about like... I'm talking about like... The world? Yeah, where it's like, oh shit. It mattered? We are celebrating a Pokemon spinoff game. I mean, Pokemon Go. Go, of course. You have to toss it in there, right? Snap, I think, is in there for the early days. Yeah. Stadium. Yeah. Sure, sure, sure, sure. I wonder if people would put down Pokemon Unite. It's a MOBA that has such a dedicated audience, but it did make a splash. Yeah. I'm looking over here. Pinball, people are shouting out. Pinball, yeah. Pokemon Snap, Stadium Go. Snap, Stadium Go. Pokemon Conquest, one person says. Mystery Dungeon. Arceus, sure, if we're counting that. Yeah, I appreciate that Pokemon's got a number of. spinoffs that people love and hold to you yeah too it's crazy though of like you know when when wind uh winds and waves uh got announced and said 2027 there had been the conversation of like oh wow no game this year even though this is happening and that yeah and you have champions as well this uh summer right or is it april i forget what the release date on pokemon champions is chat keep me honest i know they just announced it but it's like man this one's gonna rock for a while uh Pokemon Pocopia and where that's going to take it and what's going to happen. Crazy stuff out there right now. Big year. Celebrating 30 years. What a way to celebrate. Worlds here in San Francisco. You going? Yeah, we will be going. I'm getting a saying. Don't worry. I want to go. Let's make sure. Is Midler coming to that? April, 2026. Oh, April for Pokemon Champions? I mean, I think everybody should be here. He's a big dork. San Francisco Pokemon Worlds is going to be a big deal, y'all. Aaron Lime, Super Chat says Pokemon Mystery, Dungeon, Conquest, and Coliseum. nice ladies gentlemen and bees i will continue to cover pokemon pocopia until i die it's this year's skate for greg miller uh there's still skate this year too one last ride i digress uh of course we have more news to get to and of course we're gonna play pokemon pocopia this afternoon as part of our games cast plays and we couldn't do any of that without your support if you love kind of funny and us nerding out about games as a live talk show network each and every day, all day long, you need to pick up a membership. YouTube.com slash kind of funny games, Patreon.com slash kind of funny, Apple, Spotify. Of course, you toss us $10. We give you all of our programming ad free. That's 80 episodes a month. Your daily dose of me, Greg Miller, and a daily series called Gregway. And of course, good karma for supporting 11 person, 11 year old small business. But right now you're not using your benefits. So here's a word from our sponsors. This episode is brought to you by factor my go to shortcut for great food fast. Cold days, big goals and no time to cook factor makes healthy eating easy with fully prepared meals designed by dieticians and crafted by chefs So eat well without the planning or cooking I love factor because I get to pick from 100 rotating meals get them delivered to the studio and then have a meal ready to eat in those precious few minutes I get between shows Factor uses quality, functional ingredients, including lean proteins, colorful veggies, whole food ingredients, and healthy fats. Always fresh, never frozen, ready in about two minutes. No prep, no stress. What's not to love? Be like me. Head to factor meals.com slash kind of funny 50 off and use code kind of funny 50 off to get 50% off and free breakfast for a year. Eat like a pro this month with factor new subscribers. Only varies by plan. One free breakfast item per box for one year while subscription is active. I love it when it works out. Throw up your threes for the Dudley boys. Story number three, WWE 2K26 review roundup. currently it's sitting with a metacritic of 77 an open critic of 83 chris scullion at vgc.news home of the big man jordan midler gave it a four out of five wwe 2k26 offers another net gain over its predecessor ensuring the series continues to evolve in a positive direction while its new reversal system will initially divide players and the specter of microtransactions continues to loom over my faction. The overall package introduces more quality of life features to ensure each of its numerous modes is better than it was last time. Ben Wilson at GamesRadar gave it a 3.5 out of 5, saying, WWE 2K26 is a brilliant wrestling game where it counts, but I recommend waiting a couple of months to purchase to see how my faction and ringside pass rewards play out in the medium term. For now, action in the ring is solid and some of the best in the series, but it can sting when rewards feel so miserably and centered on monetization over skill. And then Jason Finelli at Restart.Run gives it a four out of five. WWE 2K26 will scratch that video game wrestling itch with a WrestleMania-sized offering of matches, modes, and wrestlers to choose from. Changes to the way things are unlocked are disappointing, turning the game into more of a grind than it should be. But the different formats that you'll play in order to unlock those items rise above the grind. The island continues to impress while the my GM and universe modes allow you to get deep into the nitty gritty of show planning in a way other wrestling games have yet to manage. WWE 2K26 is another championship caliber entry in the franchise, but it still is a ways to go to become a hall of famer. Snow, Michael, Michael. We, of course, got codes for WWE. Yep. And it was, of course, too competitive of a goddamn time for us to even turn it on. We had sent Roger to play WWE, of course, at the preview event where he has to interview some wrestlers and stuff. But today, I'm sick. You can't even come in and tell us about it. Where are you this year with 2K26? I've made the promise that I will return to the island. Oh, God. The live report from the WWE island because I need to know what they will do. Okay. I was astonished, flabbergasted, at a loss for words at what happened on the island season one. Most people were. Most people were. The idea that they've returned to this. I mean, coming from a big 2K background with NBA 2K and what they've done with the neighborhood, to the street, to the city. It's like I knew where they were going. Yeah. And I saw what WWE was going to become. Now here we are at year two. I need to know what they're doing with this. What is the vision? How do you improve upon that? How do you even make it fun and relevant to play, right? I'm blown away that we're returning to it, So I have to find out for the people. Have you kept up with ringside pass and what they're talking about here? Super chat from big curses new WWE looks good, but $150 for all the DLC is whack. Of course, talking about the millions of additions they have, but as the reviews, we just read call out. There is a ringside pass. I'd like to read you a little bit about it. Okay. Ringside pass XP is designed to reward skill and engagement. You can earn our XP across a variety of game modes in WWE 2K26. completing a match will earn you some rxp but winning will still reward you more than losing there are better ways to level up faster there are better ways to level up faster in wwe 2k 26 ringside pass than just playing exhibition matches some of the top reoccurring ways to earn rxp include weekly island challenges my faction challenges my gm season challenges some of the off some of the top one-off ways to earn rxp are completing showcase matches Complete my Rise story, Island Quest, my Faction Lifetime challenges. Completing some of these will level you up multiple tiers in one go, so choose your path wisely if you want to unlock all the Ringside Pass rewards as quickly as possible. Also keep in mind, with the old DLC model, you had to wait several weeks slash a month post-launch for the first pack of additional superstars. With Ringside Pass Season 1 available at launch, you're able to unlock new characters as quickly as you can advance. so basically there's a battle pass going on here yeah so you get to dive into and go into it now this sounds like a battle pass it does sound like one of those of like you're rewarded for playing right that's always what you want yeah it's like i want to be rewarded or at least recognized for playing the game a bunch right when we talk about wwe's in the past there's sports games in the past it was oh mike and greg just play thousands of matches but there's no incentive or there's no no no reward right nobody's seeing us do that yeah so it sounds like hey we're going to reward you for play right yeah what's the catch i mean the catch is i mean you're yeah i'm on the thing over here i'm trying to find out if they even say how this shakes out and money was yeah no money no money on here right but it's there's multiple ringside passes right uh is there any way to unlock everything at once so let's say you're still like mike of course you of course love jumping in playing a game but you don't necessarily want to do this in the past wwe's offered a supercharger or 2k is offered a supercharger you could just pay and unlock everything right is there a way to unlock everything at once for those who play through the ringside past season one select wwe legends are unlocked by earning rxp and completing the entire first season the supercharger pack has been retired for players who have purchased the premium track we will provide the ability to purchase tier skips but those are completely optional players can continue to unlock rewards with rxp by playing the game without additional purchases okay so what are the bad things here, right? What is the things that turn you off when you hear this? Locking players behind a battle pass system instead of just giving them $15 for the new character pack, right? Because that's what they've been doing is, hey, here's the initial roster. Okay, cool. These seven wrestlers that we forgot about, you give us money, we'll put them in the game. Correct. And so like, now it's just locked behind a battle pass. How do we get the new DLC characters? Each premium version of the ringside pass will include a new post-launch DLC characters with the first one unlocking automatically. The rest can be unlocked with the first 20 tiers by completing or earning RxP just for playing the game. Other playable characters such as Persona will genuinely be available through tiers 21 through 40. Beside the new DLC characters, each ringside pass premium track will also include new Personas, yada, yada, yada. So, the argument here is that I'm I won't lie to you all, I have been completely devoid of this. So I had gotten this email about the ringside pass stuff and I was like what and so now with the reviews in this we're learning together but the argument here and chat keep me honest if I'm getting it wrong would be in the old days I pay for the DLC the season pass let's say I pay for all the DLC okay and when I when it happens they drop seven new characters I unlock those they're they're there I download them I get there my faction card they're all set to go I rock and roll I want to be and we're hacked as Jack and I'm off to the races now it would be whoever's in the ringside pass for the next six seasons or whatever they're there on a Fortnite battle pass. So I have to actually go earn them or as this says, pay a premium to skip the tiers to go do it. Do not do that. We don't like that. Don't incentivize that. Okay. Yeah, I mean if it was free and it was, hey, we're rewarding you for play, we're in, right? The idea of buying a battle pass and then having the characters unlocked behind it, I mean it just becomes a live service kind of video game when you break it down like that but i guess the old model was just hey on season one when we have the seven characters give me 15 we'll give it to you let me keep going with chris scullion chris scullion has wwe 2k 26 how quickly earn how to quickly earn ringside pass and blah blah the ringside pass is easily one of the most divisive new additions in wwe 2k 26 for some players especially those who only buy the standard edition of the game each year it's a good way to regularly get new content For others, especially those who usually buy the special editions of the game, it's an annoying way to slowly drip-feed new content instead of getting full DLC packs like before. Whatever your stance, the reality is that WWE 2K26 Ringside Pass is here to stay, and you have 40 tiers of content to unlock. I've been seeing lots of different takes from players who've received the game early, including some who say the Ringside Pass content is taking forever to unlock. after playing the game for five days, I've reached, after playing the game for five days, I've reached to your 26 to 40. So the fact that each season lasts seven weeks means you've got more than enough time to get everything. And then now he goes into a guide of what's going on. But let me give you this. How does it work? First, let me touch your finger too. First, if I just said finger, I just said finger, thank you. First, if you're new to it, the ringside pass is similar to battle passes in other games like Fortnite. WWE 2K26 is set to get six ringside pass seasons over the course of its life, and each season will last for roughly seven weeks. If you're concerned that you might not be able to complete a ringside pass in time, don't worry. Unlike most other games with season-based battle passes, when the new season starts in WWE 2K26, the old one won't expire. This means that if you're still working through season one, you can do blah, blah, blah. Each ringside pass contains a free route and a premium route, with each route providing different rewards. As you gather RxP, the experience points you collect for ringside pass, you'll unlock tiers on each route at the same time. Reach tier five, for example, you unlock all the tier fives for free. And if you've paid for it, the premium tier. We understand that. That's where we're at. And now we're into the quickest ways to go. So, yeah, this comes down to are you one of the whales that buys the special edition and want to unlock everything? Or are you buying the standard thing, tacking on the season pass, and then earning as you go down? Well, if you're one of the whales, now you're kind of being punished because when I'm giving you all the money, I just kind of want it. Well, depends on each person and what they want, right? But as me, as somebody who's like, if I buy the special edition and I'm saying I want all the DLC, I don't want, I personally don't want a drip fed to me. I will want that day one when it is released. Just give it to me. Some people will say, I like playing game. I like playing. I want to be rewarded. I'm fine with that. But to me, if I was to put up the special edition and buy these things, give it to me now. I think so from the sound of it, the biggest thing is that this is just a change and changes are always hard. And I think this makes more sense because when this got announced, somebody put in my BS. That's a blue sky team. Is this what I always wanted when I was like, I want WWE as games as a service. And if you remember my hit blessing show where I did that. No, I was saying WWE 2K period should be a free to play thing. Then they layer this kind of microtransaction. Exactly. Not a game. You're fucking giving them 70, 99, $150 for the edition and also have to do this kind of stuff. Yeah. Now you got to start adding on every year that's going to happen. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just a crazy world. It's back to like, you know, again, even though salute one last ride, skate. Like when they drop these skate passes, I'm not offended because the game is free to play. So if I want to buy this pass full of all sorts of stuff that I don't need, I can. And then it's something fun for me to unlock as I go and feel like I'm earning rather than just doing sick tricks. What was the PlayStation story you, me, and Bless talked about? Whether it was going to try to monetize their existing player base a little bit more. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's what this is. Yeah, of course. How do we get more money out of the people that are playing right now? This is one of those tactics. Not only is it, I think, it's more money, obviously, yes, for the thing. I think there's a lot, too, of like, let's keep them engaged. Yes. How do we make it that you don't play WWE for a month and drop it and move on? Instead, we do these seasons where you have to be engaged if you're one of those people. Yeah, I mean, when you look at the model, right, you look at NBA 2K that has the player engagement, right? They do do seasons, and they have a My Team where people want to play with the cards, and they're excited for each season that drop new player cards, whether it be the college cards now, whether it be a special season of Luca or Devin Booker. So it's like they're clearly looking at their other side of the world and going, oh, NBA can do that. Like, let's figure out ways we can do that with our wrestling. And again, like, this is all just who you are and what you're doing and how different you are. If this was Greg Miller back in high school when I was fucking obsessed with all the wrestling games, I would be stoked. A reason to keep going and grind all this shit and be rewarded for what I'm doing. two things before we move on Foxy Steve super chat and says as someone who spent over 1000 hours playing universe mode in 2k25 the changes to that mode and creation in general have me excited so again they're on the right track that way and then Miguel super chat and says maximum possible spend the game plus all seasons plus skipping every tier would be 69 99 for the base game 59 94 for all the seasons plus $477.60 for all the skips, meaning that if you were to skip everything like you would in the old ones of just unlocking it or whatever, it would be a $607 before tax. Yeah, that's I wouldn't recommend doing that. Wouldn't like that. I understand wanting Cactus Jack right away because when I turn it on, I need him and Tommy Dreamer. I need all these right away. It's right. I mean, don't make me break down the microtransactions. NBA 2K, you know that. Don't do it. I'm doing some quick math on you. Yeah. Okay. This is their new tactic. That's fine. We'll see how it plays out. number four speaking of a new tactic greg way jackbox games jumps feet first into third-party publishing this is bryant francis over at game developer jackbox party pack developer jackbox games has unveiled a new division dedicated to third-party publishing the company announced today they would be publishing toot games is my arms are longer now and that this is the first of several games it plans to bring to market toot is an australian indie game studio helmed by former Need for Speed No Limits game designer Matthew Jackson and web series creator Millie Holton. Jackbox Vice President of Business Development Andy Knaz said in a statement that the makers of the quote unapologetically weird game are quote exactly the kind of creative partner we want to expand Jackbox's publishing efforts. I was going to say can I see this trailer? Yeah. Yeah it's weird. Okay. This is what I'd be. Oh then you go to that looks exactly like Jackbox. No I think this is like the partnership team. I looking at a game that looks like this I think that the team up to announce Kevin can you Google yeah my arms are longer now trailer Oh this is the announcement trailer Interesting Good The steam thing Oh yeah I was just starting right then and there Yep. Okay. Okay. Our players have asked us for a fun single player experience in Jackbox's tone, and we look forward to seeing my arms are longer now to live around. This looks a lot like thank goodness you're here. Yes. Yes. Kind of goofy humor. The company's website states that developers who do sign with Jackbox can expect the following benefits. funding aligned with what your project your project actually needs production and release support from planning through ship marketing and audience development platform and certification guidance QA localization porting and external services life term I'm sorry god damn it long term life cycle planning and store management because a game doesn't end at launch nice awesome I mean yeah this is one of those we saw inner sloth have outer sloth and help out we saw Blumhouse games of course as well but it's like, it seems like these teams that have a lot of money and are willing to get involved and maybe get a small investment going with that and help out these teams. That's a nice thing to hear. 100%. I think we talked so much on this about studios, closing publishers, closing, you need people investing money back into video games. Yes. Steven Totello had a game file newsletter that went out this week. That was like, I think I I'm paraphrasing, but I think it was a chart on the industry showing that less money than ever is being invested back into it. So yes, congratulations to Jackbox. Great call on that. And that game looks fun. And you also have a team with Jackbox Games who's been around. They know their stuff, so it's like, yeah, you can trust in that. That's great. Yeah. Number five on the Roper Report, Ruiner 2 has been announced for PC. This is Alessio Palumbo over at WCCF Tech. This afternoon, independent publisher developer Rikon Games, Recon Games, announced that Ruiner 2 is in development for PC. As suggested by the title, it will be a sequel to 2017's twin stick shooter, which was well-received by fans and critics. Here's the trailer. However, Ruin or 2 will be greatly expanded. It will support co-op gameplay and shift its genre to cyberpunk action RPG. Merrick Rolfer, game director on the sequel at Rikon, said in the statement, We are massive ARPG fans, and Ruin or 2 is the game we've always wanted to play. We built the shell system because we love theory crafting and finding broken combinations, but we hated being locked into a single character for hundreds of hours. This game is for players who want to experiment, swap builds on the fly and discover synergies that tear the screen apart. Color me a tree. Let's keep going. Do we see gameplay? No, I don't think on that trailer, I brought up some run or one top down gameplay for you. Sure. You know, you have been on a big Diablo kick, Greg, and I wonder if run or could be cool for you for ruin or two, right? Cause it's a change. Yes. Okay. Well, I think it's a change more of like you're kind of creating your character and then building sets and build out classes with it. It's how I took that. What did you take that as? I'm going back to it. I'm just reading as I go. It's just shifting its genre. So here it goes. Shift its genre to cyberpunk action RPG. You're telling me then it was already an action RPG. It's just shifting its genre. yeah to a little more rpg is what i would think okay so they said we didn't want to play as the same character for thousands of hours okay it's like oh you're gonna i guess it's someone who doesn't know what runer one looked like i was like oh this is it was oh here we go here's a little bit gameplay cyberpunk's such a cool look yeah i'll play this okay fuck yeah and it's co-op you won't play with me I won't you're gonna cut me out of fucking Pocopias I play at 830 you got a family that's what I'm starting to get online you know what I mean I can't guarantee it okay okay I like what I'm seeing I'll take it no date on this yet no date on that fair enough Mike when there is a date for Rune or two ZD Gross says it was not an RPG. It was a top-down shooter. So that's the difference of what changed. Yes. Now adding the RPG elements to it. Okay. When there is a date for ruin or two, that'll be big news. But where would I go right now if I wanted the tiniest news I need to know about? If you wanted some small news, I'd take you to our last news story, the Wii News channel, where we cover all the small news items. Number six on the Wii News. From VGC, Suda & Suiri's Hotel Barcelona has received a free major overhaul, adding new content and significantly altering its gameplay systems. Cool. Marathon has been rated for Xbox One and PlayStation 4 on the ESRB. What? Kana, Bridge of Spirits, is coming to Nintendo Switch 2 this spring. Ooh. Assassin's Creed Unity 60 frames per second update is now available on Xbox and PlayStation 5. Hmm. Okay. What? You don't want it for 60 frames? I just don't go back to a lot of these old games. A lot of people, they were waiting for that, I bet. From GamesIndustry.biz, Velen Studios has expanded into Canada opening a new office in Toronto. Man, what a name. Chad Zavallon Studios. Congratulations, continuing going there. Yeah. The coin game leaves early access and launches on Xbox, PlayStation 5, and PC March 16th, or 19th, sorry. The Steam description reads, A collection of ticket redemption arcades with realistic physics, a carnival, goofy robots, open world design, a global ranking system, and silly prizes featuring 50-plus modern-inspired arcade machines at a pawn shop to keep money in your pocket. The coin game is made by a solo developer. You were just talking about this one, saying this is Blatro for this generation. No, we were talking about that one that was the push coin game. That's not what this is. No, I'm different. Run me the trailer again. What the fuck is this? I thought we were looking at, we were looking at you and I, the one where you put coins in and it builds up on that. This is telling me it's an arcade, Greg. Okay. Yeah, you're looking at Ratcoin or Raycoin. Oh, okay. good luck to both of you Space Warlord Baby Trading Simulator is coming to Xbox on March 26th Fishbowl launches April 2nd on PlayStation 5 and PC and End Dreams is shutting down its near light in Compass Studios back to the conversation of all these studios closing thank you Jackbox for investing money back into video games thank you Vone Studio for opening a new office End Dreams people who are losing your jobs we are so sorry And that is it for the Wii News. We turn our eyes to the Super Chats. We'll start from the bottom, go to the top. Ethan just wrote in and said, Hey, Greg, thanks to you, I've got Pocopia and played Octopath Traveler Zero, which this is Greg interjecting. They just put a new patch for Octopath Traveler Zero. Add us some bells and whistles there. Thanks for having the same taste as I do. No problem, Ethan's. Go play Starfield now. And skate. Magic Gun 23 says, hey Mike any chance you hop into WoW Midnight been playing all week and it may be the best X-Pack yet. Extra fun if you were a big TBC fan originally. I'm dying to jump in I'm just trying to find the time I'm just, I'm juggling Greg, I'm juggling everything known to man but I am paying for my WoW subscription so I'm ready. You gotta keep it ready, keep it fresh I'm ready. You know we could probably get you that for free but you gotta keep paying, I understand. Gotta support him. Gotta support, actually that's a good point Jack B2 super chat and says Mike Backyard Sportsline dropping on Roosevelt's today. I need you to reach out to you people They sent you clothing. I need you to be like They always make it feel like I'm putting them out I guess I guess we can send you a blue shirt I'll do it. I'll do it. Show me the lineup Do they got a cool lineup? I'm opening it right now It's not the Backyard Sports everywhere I'm going to slap it into control There it is. Slapping into assets for you too Kev. There you go. One of these show me Roosevelt's of course the all over print shirts I wear all the time and love RSVLTS let's talk about it scroll on down 8-bit bleachers get a grip oh this is just baseball I clicked on the top thing which I thought was it but it's just a baseball line I guess yeah I can't help you anymore I've taken you as far as I can that's alright you took me where I needed to go I'll find it I'll find it Backyard Sports RSVLTS Oh Land before time Backyard sports stuff I got a little teaser trick I got a thing for you Kev I'm tossing this in here now Is that the problem? I don't fucking know On Facebook they have something I toss that in there I'm helping you as much as I can Oh you gotta log into Facebook I don't know what's happening everybody We tried Alright Yeah Oh, yeah. Nine second. We got nine second out. It's just one T-shirt. Just buy it. It's great. Okay. It's all the kids and player cards just smashed on a T-shirt. That's what you want. Smashed on a T-shirt. I'm just a Billy says shot to Pokemon go for getting us close to world peace in 2016. Also remember this creepy Pokemon company lore leaks a few years ago. Well, I remember Pokemon go. I don't remember the Lord. I don't remember the Lord. We can't help you there. Sorry. sorry sorry uh guy who game says in a super chat first time super chatting you guys inspired me to start my own channel talking about games thank you guys for continuing to be the best at what you do thank you for listening taking the inspiration congratulations and doing it good job keep doing it gabriel says in a super chat man i would love to play pocopia if it was available for switch one I don't think I can justify 800 and 900 us dollars for the switch to is worth here in Argentina. Oh, that's rough. That's rough. Yeah, it's tough. Sorry about that, but you should still do it. It's worth it. Generations. Super chat from Ben says birthday tax. Thanks for the daily entertainment. Happy birthday, man. Delco scooch super chat and says, thanks for keeping me posted on gamer news while I'm delivering packages. Just wanted to ask if any of you guys will be reviewing Slay the Spire 2, which also released in early access today. Thanks. KFT. No, I don't think anybody's reviewing Slay the Spire 2. No, I don't even think we remembered that one, even though we talked about in the March games. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe that'll be an Andy thing or a Bless thing. I don't think Andy Bless or Roger. But again, we're all in the middle of other things, and then you got Marathon, and then you got Crimson Desert. Then you got Skate Season 3 next week. You got GDC next week. How do you do it, Chad? How do you find the time? You just commit. You know what I mean? There's so many games. Jay Dublin says, a shame that Greg doesn't realize he's sitting next to a ranked Overwatch goat. Picking up Pocopia today so my daughter and I can play together. Thanks, Big Jay. Have a great time. I'm ranked. I'm getting ranked. I'm going to just commit to it. I'm going to become the greatest ever. But an hour a day, that's all. Not enough hours. Yeah, exactly. Dolphin Corn says, Greg, let Mike play Zelda. I love you, Mikey. Shout out to Dolphin Corn. He's going to play Zelda. I'm just saying, let's play it with the N64 controller, right? Yes. Demon Hacker says, you see Arc Raiders intercepting private Discord DMs? I did not see that. I don't know what you're talking about. Arc Raiders Discord. In the news, that'll get me right. Intercepting? Receiving? What? I mean, nothing, you know, everything's getting intercepted here. Yeah, remember, they're always... Okay, so gaming on Linux. No, here, GamesRadar+. Okay. GamesRadar+. KhanSaren says, arc raiders was recording private discord dms in plain text engineer claims in a report on serious privacy and security violations which prompted a hasty hot fix from embark okay this is maybe a required reading if you're an arc raiders person because it seems like it's more detailed than what i'm for right now yeah but that is news to me i did not see that thank you for surfacing over here uh and then final one is rabbit of cancer nog bog nog i can never get it right? Happy Slay the Spire 2 day for anyone that celebrates. Oh, sorry. There's one more here that came into line. Spike Knox says, I got some beef with Mike. You've been on Games Daily all week and haven't mentioned the new Warcraft expansion release on Monday. You're awesome. I'm failing. I'm sorry. Like I said, they've been coming after me. The chat has been telling me to stop what I'm doing to play, and it's been a whole week. Even if it was out on early access. There's an alternate timeline, Mike, that goes into the pocket dimension and only plays World of Warcraft. I know every ounce of lore. I've read every single scroll of text. I play that game to the fullest. But here I am. I'm playing Pocopia. Okay. And having a good time. Okay. That's fair enough. I'm looking through. You're wrong. Okay. Here we go. Inner Jetstream wrote in to kindoffunny.com slash you're wrong and tell us what we got met wrong and says, Minecraft has notoriously long credits that show after defeating the ender dragon and returning to the overworld thank you uh kabob says missed we news build a rocket boy the developer of mind's eye has announced more layoffs on that saw that and then banders is breaking we news nintendo posted an image of an upcoming event for mario kart world which had a new icon for battle mode featuring a bomb a bomb a bomb uh which likely means that bomb blast from the classic battle mode is coming with an update oh we will see if that pans out as we head towards Mario Day, just five days away from Mario Day. Oh, my gosh. That's probably when it would come if you're going to do it. We got Mario Day. More importantly, we got Pi Day is coming up, too. We got to buy Pi. I mean, you never, don't twist. On Pi Day, you got to have Pi. Remember that, chat. You got to have Pi on Pi Day, everybody. Everybody, this has been another episode of Kinda Funny Games Daily. We hope you're happy. We hope you enjoyed it. We hope you're going to hang out. Remember, we're all about live talk shows. After this, we're going into Gamescast where we're going to preview Mouse, P.I. for Hire. Myself, Andy, Bless, all played it, and I'm excited to tell you if I liked it or didn't like it. After that, there is In Review for Interstellar, and after that, Joey and I take over Gamescast plays and give you an episode about Pokemon Pocopia. So, if you're watching live, don't go anywhere. Like, subscribe, share. If you're watching or listening later on YouTube.com slash Kind of Funny Games, Apple, Spotify, any other podcast service, go over to YouTube.com slash Kind of Funny Games. Watch the archive of everything I just said. have a great time. And if you really enjoyed what we did today, pick up a membership. Of course, patreon.com slash kind of funny, youtube.com slash kind of funny games, Apple, Spotify, get everything ad free, get your daily dose of me, Greg Miller in a series. I call Greg way. And of course, get good karma for supporting an 11 person, 11 year old, small business until next time. It's been our pleasure to serve you.