Game Scoop! 844: God of War Goes Back to the Beginning

To start your business? Up show by 5Bins.au. What's up, everybody? Welcome to IJ and Game Scoop. I'm your host, Damon Hatfield, and joining me this week are Sam Claiborne. Hey, it's great to be here. Justin Davis. Scoop. And Nick Lamone. I'm back, baby. We've got a great show for you this week. We had a really big PlayStation State of Play yesterday. Really, you know, literally very big. It was over an hour long. Tons of games, tons of surprises. I think it was a pretty good show this time around. So there's so much to talk about. New God of War. New Castlevania. Oh, my gosh. We made it happen. Remember, we were just talking about this not too many episodes ago. Someone wrote in, why isn't Konami bringing back Castlevania? I'm going to take credit for it. Yeah, I mean, we've been asking for 18 or 19 years on this show. We made it happen. What can we manifest next? I want a new F-Zero. Yeah, I'm thinking Chrono Trigger. But the biggest priority should be burger time, though, don't you think, Sam? Obviously. Yeah, that's a good point, although it didn't work out last time. I'm going to say Kingdom Hearts. Yeah, let's finally get that Kingdom Hearts 4 out the door. Let's just jump in. But first, they opened up with Kina Scars of Cosmorum, a sequel to Kina, what is it, Bridge of something? Bridge of Spirits. Bridge of Spirits, which I never played, but I always heard good things. Should I play this game? Did anyone play it? The first Kina? I think it'd be great to play while the kids are watching. It feels like a nice, like, or maybe watch while the kids are playing. No, I thought the sequel looked great, And I actually had the exact same thought as you, David. I saw the new one. I'm like, oh my God, this looks rad. And then it made me feel, not guilty, but it made me feel like I should go back and check out the original. Because the original didn't really make too much of a mark on me when I was watching marketing material for it. But I never went through it. I think it's a little simplistic. Like it's more... So maybe good for... Yeah, it's used younger. It's more like, you know, even younger than Ratchet & Clank. And Ratchet & Clank has trouble keeping my attention because it's a little easy sometimes. But it had a good art style and it was very beautiful. And this looks like it doubles down on that, right? It just looks great. Yeah, I think that's my biggest criticism of the first game. Kind of simple. But this one, based on what I'm seeing here, it looks like they're starting to add a little bit of pizzazz, a little bit of spice to the combat and whatnot. So I'm very curious to see if this adds the challenge I was looking for. It made me think of Beyond Good and Evil. I could see that Just from a vibes perspective I don't know that it's the same kind of tonally but like you know the bow staff combat and whatnot You got a cool like peacock horse Cool, sick Wolf maybe A lot of wolves in games recently A lot of 2D side-scrolling games also recently Sam Yeah that's true This is not one of them I'm not mad about it No and Kena is not one of them If you happen to be listening to this and did not see the footage Kena, Scars of Cosmora is not a 2D side-scrolling game. Looks very cool, though. I think it's coming this year, PS5 and PC for now. Pretty surprised that that's getting a sequel, by the way. It's not like it made a splash and then continued to be a buzz game. It just made a splash and then went away. So that's great. Good for them. Yeah. I mean, like I said, I frequently hear good things about Kena. Yeah. Good family-friendly game. Yeah. We got to see Resident Evil Requiem again. and I'm well past the point where I need to see anything more. They show too much. I like the ending of that trailer. Oh my gosh. I wish I didn't see that in the trailer. I wish they would have saved it for the game. But I don't know what was revealed. What did they reveal? If anyone doesn't want to know. They showed, you know, because Raccoon City was nuked. They showed the mansion after it was nuked. They showed the mansion. I don't remember seeing the mansion. uh it's the police station yeah they do show the inside the police station it's it's leon walking into the you know the place that kind of started his whole situation and it was like a full circle moment which is kind of it kind of rules not this particular shot but there's another one later on and then he also drives by the gas station that re2 remake starts at and i believe his vehicle is still there his like jeep that he was driving and then he like kicks the heads off of a thousand and zombies yeah yeah but when he's in the police station do you think it's in the present time of the game so raccoon city has like been rebuilt but they just didn't redo the police station yeah i would imagine that it's like in a quarantine area so there's a part of the original raccoon city and then they probably built out on the outskirts of it is my assumption maybe it's like a chernobyl type situation or something i think this game is going to explain the nuke and not a nuke i don't think it was a nuke actually i think it was just a big bomb but there was a big crater right i think it's going to explain all that and explore that space which the games have never really done which i'm really excited for apparently they confirmed another returning character but it's not someone i'm familiar with it's uh sherry birkin yeah who's who's that she's the little girl in re2 remake that clara and leon are yeah she's the daughter of uh i forget her name uh you lead her to the very end of the game and save her right yeah i remember that now okay Interesting. Yeah, I mean, it looks fantastic. What else can we say at this point? Just give us the game. Also, that looked like a crimson head there from RE1. See? All those things I wish I didn't see, man. Now everybody is going to complain in the comments that we brought them to them. But we didn't bring these to you. Capcom did. Yep, that's true. Someone said in the comments, this is just a fan comment. Someone said, I got a bad feeling Leon's not making it out of this one. Oh, that's an interesting fan theory. Yeah, I don't know. But everybody has died and come back in Resident Evil. That doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if he dies in this game. He'll be in the next one anyway. Completely irrelevant. Like, whether he dies or doesn't die has no bearing on whether Leon appears in future Resident Evils. That just makes me think, though, that they are going to be like, you know what? He is dead and gone. Ethan, oh, hold on. Yeah, spoilers for Resident Evil Village for like 10 seconds real quick. Yeah. Okay. Ethan dies at the end of that game, and they're like, all right, we'll move on. Then again, he wasn't much of a character. Ethan was already dead, is the spoiler there. Yeah, very true. He's become a complete replicant of himself, right? He got, like, snapped away. He got Thanos snapped, though, right? Is that true? I got to play him. No, like, he, like, disintegrates or whatever, right? I don't remember what happens at the end of that game. Yeah, I don't remember. The man is made of mold. Moldy man. Before we get too far into this, I wanted to point out that this is the beginning of a Capcom segment, and then there is a Konami segment. And it was like getting a Capcom and Konami press conference from E3 in, like, 2008. Yeah, it was great. For both of them. And, boy, getting a Konami one? What is happening? We willed that into existence, too. Yep, 100%. Not just Castlevania, but the idea of Konami being a developer. And, like, lo and behold, like, when we start talking about these games, like, they're developing them. It's crazy. Well, not all of them. No, but some of them, and the team that restored all of those Castlevania games worked on the Castlevania game, which is like, that means they played a bunch of Castlevania. And the Castlevania game is also the Prince of Persia developer, which I didn't know. I didn't clock that until afterward. I didn't actually realize that until this morning. Evil Empire Development Studios, who made Prince of Persia, what was the subtitle? The 2D Prince of Persia. Yeah. And then Motion Twin is Dead Cells, and it says they're in an advisory position. Like, what a perfect fit. Yeah. it's absolutely perfect the Dead Cells and Return to Castlevania part of Dead Cells and the Rogue Prince of Persia all making a Castlevania game look at the map! it's exactly what I said would be a perfect scenario for this and here it is there are numbers I wasn't sure if I saw numbers when I first saw this trailer but there are numbers oh my god that fire attack does in previous games they show oh my god okay anyway let's just get into this whole konami segment then so castellania belmont's curse which is a follow-up to castellania 3 mm-hmm dude i like when i watched this on the stream i didn't necessarily like vibe with the visual style but then when i watched it back and looked more closely i am absolutely on board like it looks really sick well there just isn't a better choice to replace pixels than a stylized, you know, hand-drawn look because they get to use a 3D, you know, which is what we didn't like about the previous Castlevania games is that they were 3D, 2D. And, you know, and so this, I think, does a good job at getting at the next stage that we can get to in Castlevania. You're playing as Trevor Belmont's heir, which is a little confusing because in the trailer they say trevor belmont yeah you see a glimpse of him as an old man um so i think they're also it's a clever way of leaning into the anime or the anime series from netflix because it does look like she's wearing a variant of like richter's outfit to some extent so i'm very curious to see what the lore is behind it and also how good is this little 40th logo i love my god it's so good i mean just the belmont's curse is such a good name it's such a good callback and just seeing the Castlevania typeface that's used for it. It's just like, oh my God. They just yield everything. You know what the art style reminds me of, though, is it reminds me quite a bit of Bloodstained, Ritual of the Night quite a bit. It's nice that it seems like they're kind of leaning into the Koji Igarashi art style that he came up with for that, which is super cool. At least it's more flat and detailed and sharp and cel-shaded, right? Like there is that. Yeah, that's exactly, because I was worried. I don't think that Bloodstained, and this is just a personal preference thing but like that didn't do it for me that style of 2d and i think this is more stylized and more i don't even know but i don't know if cell shaded is like the word like cell shaded yeah like whatever whatever the right terminology is like i like i just i think it looks gorgeous i'm into it you saw big creepy bosses um i don't know man like i'm i'm so on board the stylization too of one of the bosses really stood out to me there's one that looks like a religious painting where it has like a like a halo around its head which i'm like what a cool idea for a video game to have like a saint-like figure that you have to fight and it's really neat looking have you have you covered up that her whip is also used for traversal oh my god she's like slingshotting herself around yeah it's a freaking grappling whip it's so good it's so smart and they show a few other traversal things one of them kind of x-rays the walls which was so perfect because that's what you do with these games. You want to walk around every single scene and find the broken walls. This is now tied for Wolverine for most anticipated game for me. And coming this year. That's so good. But here's the thing. They didn't say the words roguelike. Obviously they're not going to say Metroidvania, but it's a little unclear. Is it linear like Metroidvania 3 is? They can't say the word Metroidvania, but what they can show is a map and so I think that that to me is the tell. Yeah, yeah. I think this is a Metroidvania. I went to the official website and they used the word biomes. Okay. Yeah. That's like Metroid. Yep. You think so? Okay. It's a search action game. That's what the kids are calling it now. Oh, God. Search action. That's so boring. It looks so good. I'm just so pleased that we made this happen. Thanks for listening, Konami. Everyone just say thanks, GameScoop. So we actually have an email on this very topic here. Cool. Let's check in with listeners. Hey, listeners. Listeners, remember you can always reach us at the email address, gamescoop at IGN.com, just like Ali from Singapore did. I say, I've been a big fan of the show since the pandemic and listened to every episode since. Now that a new Castlevania game was announced, I wanted to ask something I've been meaning to ask for a while. I've been getting more interested in Metroidvanias recently. I soon realize it's become one of my favorite genres. However, I have to admit, I've never actually played any Castlevania game. I searched Steam and was immediately confused about the number of games in the series. I thought it was more like four or five games. Anyway, I know the GameStreet crew are big fans of Castlevania, so I thought it would be fun to ask and hear from you about how to start the series. Which games should I play and or skip? Are there different versions? Basically, what do you recommend? What there's seven? You start with Mirror of Fate. I'm joking. I'm joking. There's seven Metroidvania Castlevanias. right and like so symphony of the night was first and then there were three on the game boy advance and then three on the ds do i is that that's right and it's a million castlevania games but out of the ones that are non-linear you're exploring a map and getting ability you know the metroid style ones those are the those are the seven yeah and you you don't need to tie them to get they are tied together but you don't need to play them that way and i think if you go by scores that's helpful but you really should play symphony of the night first it is the prototype for the rest of them and it has very funny gamer memes in it that you'll notice while you're playing that you'll pick up on, like Miserable Pile of Secrets and stuff like that. And then you'll be primed to play the follow-ups. But the follow-ups don't immediately become good. There's a Circle of the Moon game that's like, okay. It's Aria of Sorrow that you skip to after that. Aria of Sorrow is probably the best one. And if you just play those two right in a row with each other, you get it. At that point, you can go a bunch of different directions. But do that and check back in with us, I'd say. It is true that Symphony of the Night is the best Castlevania and one of the best video games ever made. However, it's not available on Steam. If Ollie is trying to look for a game on Steam. Is that really true? That can't be right. You can only play it as part of the PlayStation bundle that comes with Rondo of Blood, which is also an excellent game, but not a Metroidvania. I mean, if you're playing on PC, you can probably figure it out, man. Probably some way. If only there was some way! If you skip to Aria, you will notice that your sprite's kind of big in it because it was a Game Boy game. But from there, you're going to get that in a collection probably, and then other games in that collection are probably all amazing too. I will correct the panel here. There was a Metroidvania before Symphony of the Night, and it was Castlevania II, Simon's Quest, and it's not great. It's impenetrable. But at the same time, very cool. It's very cool. My other thing I was going to recommend is, so if you're playing the Metroidvania-type games, the Castlevania core games now, it is fun to go back and play Castlevania 1 and 3 because those games reference those games a lot. You can see that they came from basically platformy arcade games, which have exquisite music. Like still to this day, you're not going to find like bugs that just stick in your ear that well. Those games are just perfect. You're going to hear bloody tears over and over for like three hours in your head. It's amazing. That's what I was going to say. You have names now, which is weird. For Ali, if you want to play Castlevania, buy the books on Steam. If you want to do a Metroidvania one, get the Dominus Collection, which is the DS games. or if you just want to, if it's Belmont's Curse that's got you interested get the Castlevania Anniversary Collection which includes Castlevania's 1, 2, 3, 4 Bloodlines and the Game Boy games and that's just sort of an introduction to what Castlevania is and all the music and the vibes 1, 3, and 4 are linear action games that are arcade style even have scores and everything when you play them now you will have an advantage that we only had once Game Genie existed because they're difficult games, they're fun and you can beat them without Game Genie, that's not what I'm saying but they are more fun now if you save states and just see everything because they're just full of pixel art and great music and just things like experience the music as a museum style. That is a challenge to yourself. Anyway, super awesome that we've got new Castlevania to look forward to. And I did just mention that, of course, you can always reach us at the email address, gamescoop.igin.com. Or you can reach us the old and like the way you would reach someone in the time of the Belmonts via the mail. And we have two mail items this week. First of all, we had a very, very nice something sent in the mail here from our friend. Where's the card here? We have a friend named Justin McDaniel. Justin McDaniel just wrote in to say he's a very, very big fan of the show. And he sent a kingly gift along with his message here that was very, very nice. And we want to say thank you very much to that. It's very, very kind of you. We also have a valentine out there in Scoop Nation. Let me grab our valentine. One second. Oh, boy. Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap. Damon has run away. We heard a large crowd. Did you hear that? What was the kingly gift? He said there was a kingly gift. Did he not show it? Yeah, we're not going to talk about it on the show. Oh, okay. Okay, we have a Valentine here. This is from... We don't want to encourage generosity, Nick. No, bring on the generosity. I'm kidding. Let's see. This is from Ryan. Dear Megacops, just in time for Valentine's Day, I have included your vintage Super Mario Bros. cards, just as Mark suggested several episodes back. Yes, this is a shameless gimmick to try to get you to choose my 20 questions recommendation, but also a heartfelt thanks for being the only video game podcast out there today. They're the Valentine's cards? They are. Oh, I remember those. Yeah. They don't, like, schools are not allowed, at least my kid's school is not allowed to do Valentine gift exchanges anymore, but they still did them in Girl Scouts. And so you get that, like, my kid's got Crocs-themed Valentines, and then each one had a little pun in it. Does it have a pun on it? No, it says, I want you to be my Valentine. That's so cool. It's Mario 2 era? Yeah, it looks like it's got that little mushroom, the cloud guy. That doesn't sound like a thing Mario would say. This one's Sam's. Nice. Sam's is a super valentine. Wow. That one's a little more appropriate. I actually looked these up, I think, last year as designs, and my wife and I were looking at them. They're so cute. Ooh. Justin's. Go for it, Valentine. Wow. Yeah, so that's definitely Mario 2, and Mario would have been hitting a turn up in the stock art for that. Oh, my gosh. You're the tops, Valentine. Yeah, climb on a line. Mario's iconic line. I love it. Let's catch race. We have one for Mark, too. That's great. Very, very nice. Yes, we will be your Valentine. Yeah, gladly. Those are so cool. What a cool era that was when Mario was more recognizable than Mickey Mouse. Ryan also provides four possibilities for video game 20 questions, and they're all good. So when the time comes, I'll let you pick which one we can go, what number we go with. Got it. Getting back to the show. Oh, yeah. So it was the Konami show for a minute there. Konami wants to make it known that they're back. Yeah. And I'm here for it. I'm okay with that. they announced the Metal Gear Solid Master Collection 2 which frees Metal Gear Solid 4 from its PlayStation 3 prison that didn't seem easy either to clean up that game it's like 30 hours of cutscenes I'm always very fascinated and it's come up on Scoop many times over the years about great classic video games that are just inexplicably trapped on an old platform that never got updated or ported or up-res'd it's completely crazy that Metal Gear Solid 4 has just been in purgatory for so long. And so, you know, it's really rad to have it back. Even though, you know, look, like, I don't know. Nobody needs to replay Metal Gear Solid 4. Sorry. But, you know, I'm happy to see it more accessible. You're not wrong. But also, I am kind of curious to see if anything gets, like, relegated to bonus features or something. Because, like, one thing that – and this is, again, me just being an ungrateful jerk, and I think it's very cool that it's coming. but like the whole uh installing a disc thing of snake just smoking i'm curious if they're going to relegate that to a bonus feature or if it's just going to be missing from the release because in that case it would kind of be lost media and i think it's a really cool part of the experience if not an annoying one so i have two things about these games one i think metal gear solid 4 is very accessible and playable compared to any previous metal gear game and so you know it's kind of like a Metal Gear Solid for people that don't know anything about Metal Gear Solid, and it's fine. I will say that Peace Walker is as... If you only like Metal Gear Solid V, Peace Walker is the other one. That game has the fold and recovery system. It has, like, you steal stuff, and it's really fun. You infiltrate. It's a great game, and it looks like it was cleaned up really nice in this collection. Yeah, no, Peace Walker is an excellent game, and honestly, kind of mandatory story wise, if you want to really understand what's happening in Ground Zeroes and the Phantom Pain. But yeah, very, very stoked to see this finally get a release. And did you guys also see that it has a little something-something, too, that they didn't even talk about in the PlayStation State of Play? I did not. It comes packed with a Metal Gear Solid Ghost Babble or Ghost Babble as well. Yeah, what is that? I saw that in the snapshot at the end of that. I remember the name. That's the Game Boy Color game. I was going to say, isn't that the Game Boy Color game? Yeah. And it's one of the best Game Boy games that's currently just like in the top. It's frequently in the top tens, top hundreds, whatever, of Metal Gear. So if you never played it highly highly recommend It beautiful very very fun What type of game is it It just like the original Metal Gear It like a top you know like Metal Gear on the NES was Yeah, okay. Well, that makes sense because, like, you could, like, that game, you know, the NES port wasn't very good, but it was a PC game, right? Oh, yeah, MSX. MSX. Yeah. Oh, yeah, that's right, MSX game. And so the MSX game, when properly translated, probably made a lot more sense. So if they spent time on a top-down Metal Gear for the Game Boy in that era, I bet it's pretty good. It's very good. I'm very stoked more people will get to play it as part of the Master Collection Volume 2. I just think it's so weird they didn't even talk about it. They just showed it in a PNG. Yeah, that's weird. Yeah. Okay. But, Damon, if you haven't played Peace Walker, totally accessible, great 5-like game. You're in for a treat. Yeah. I haven't played 4 or Peace Walker, actually. definitely look forward to checking that out and then this game this interesting game darwin's paragraph paradox finally got a release date that's coming april 2nd and this looks to be like kind of like a kind of like a cinematic platformer inside like where you're an octopus on an alien planet i think yeah it does look cute it looks it looks it's a little bit random that konami's publishing it yeah but i also think it looks cool so i have a funny so it's like as i was watching the uh the state of play from my house i was also like you know answering email and answering Slack and had the state of play on my other monitor. And for some reason, I thought we were still in the Metal Gear segment. And I thought that it was like a 2D octopus Metal Gear game. And I was like, what? Yeah, because of this, because of how it's like some kind of connection. Yeah. But I missed that, like, you know, because we're watching the footage of the octopuses in the box and, you know, it's a Metal Gear parody. But I thought that that was like real. I did not understand what was going on. But the game looks very, very cool and very cute. It looks like... It made me think of Octodad, which I liked. Oh, I love Octodad. But this little Metal Gear homage, it looks like it's part of the demo that's playable today, the day of recording, which makes me think that it's actually not in Darwin's Paradox as a whole, but just like a fun little thing for you to check out. So I will definitely check that out. Reminds me of the era of Xbox Live Arcade games. Yeah, totally. Tactical Octopus Action cracked me up, too. Yep. and then nick is silent hill townfall doing anything for you oh it's doing a lot for me i've loved uh silent hill 2 remake and silent hill f i adored give me some more uh very curious to see i i just learned that this is like setting a town in i think scotland scotland yeah yeah so very curious to see that perspective on it along with uh based on what i'm seeing and my very little knowledge of the overall situation it looks like it has to do with a cancer patient and like there's a lot of like uh syringes imagery and a lot of things like that and uh it looks like it's borrowing quite a bit too from not borrowing from but it's interesting that in the span of a year we've seen two games that use a little game boy camera thing to spotlight the horror i'm thinking of routine which finally came out uh this past year and this looks to do something pretty similar to that which is a very scary way of doing things. Yeah, it was cool that they held this whole Konami segment. They went to Konami's studio in Tokyo, and Konami seems to be making a statement, right? This portable television is the coolest thing ever, just what Nick was just saying. It's so pretty. They seem to be making a statement that they're taking video games seriously again, and that's great. Yeah, it's fucking exactly what we wanted. It's so crazy that they're doing it. I just can't believe we talked about this exact vision for this. It's so, so crazy. And they're still making a wholly original JRPG called Rev Noir, which is like, cool. Didn't look bad, right? Yeah. Pretty good. Looked really pretty, but I'm like, I'm just glad they're making something new. What's Konami's history with RPGs? Because that's not my era in which I play JRPGs. Suikoden, yeah. Suikoden. Suikoden, yeah. So I never played those. There's another one. Hmm. I was just thinking about this yesterday, but now it's... Justin would know. It's lost to me. So you could have the Konami... That's the big one? Yeah, that's the big one. They didn't do Wild Arms? Is that what it's called? That was the one I was thinking of. Is that Konami, too? I didn't know that. I didn't remember that. Now we just need Capcom to bring back Breath of Fire. Wild Arms is media vision. Different. It's not related to Capcom at all? No. No, no, Konami. I'm sorry, Konami. Okay, anyway. There are lots of surprises in this state of play. For instance, we've got not one, but two new Legacy of Cain games. I guess one of them is a remaster, but still. Yeah, it's the first new Legacy of Cain game in, I don't know, what, 20 years or more? Well, that one wasn't even in the state of play, which is weird. The 2D one, right? Because I was like, wait, did I blank out and forget this one? It looks cool. It looks pretty. It does look cool. So the remaster that was in the state of play is Legacy of Cain Defiance, which I never played. Is this like a PS2 era Legacy of Cain game? I did never play that one either. These are what the kids call action exploration games, right? What was the term you just used? Search action. Search action. Search action. See, I don't really have a, like, I'm happy for the people that this is for. Very stoked for you because I know the fans of this series have been clamoring for this. But what I think is more fascinating, the most fascinating thing about this re-release is that it is a definitive all-in-one museum curio piece that has an unreleased version of the game. And it has cut content reintegrated in the game. And I think every game should do that. That's obviously a crazy thing to request. But it's so cool that fans of this series get to experience these things that were just things that you would read in the margins of GamePro at some point. you know well that's like the digital eclipse approach right that's exactly which we can talk about digital eclipse in a moment too and i think well i just can't you know i i didn't get a chance to look it up before the show like i you know i like the legacy of kane franchise i've played most of them defiance this was like the final one right i believe i'm saying with a question mark like i think this is the last one and so it's a weird place the point i'm making is it's a weird place to like start with you know remasters and remakes like why or did they already remake and remaster and re-released the older Legacy of Cain game? They remastered it already. That was just last year or something. Oh. Really recently. That explains that. Soul Reaver and Legacy of Cain 1, I believe. Yeah. Those are the ones... I played the first Legacy of Cain and then Soul Reaver, but then I didn't continue with the franchise after that. It looks a little bit like Darksiders ended up being a spiritual successor to these, which I didn't realize. They're kind of third-person... I don't know. They're this type of game that's just gone now, right? It used to be every game was like a third-person combat platformer like Beyond Good and Evil or Prince of Persia and Legacy of Kain was like... Jack and Daxter. Yeah, Jack and Daxter, Sly Cooper. And Legacy of Kain was like a more RPG-ish kind of story-forward take on that. And they were rad. They were awesome. But then I guess maybe I'm part of the problem because like everybody else, I never played the last one. And then outside of the state of play, they announced Legacy of Kain Ascendance and this is the new 2D... Another 2D side-scrolling action game, which looks cool, although the developer doesn't have a lot of pedigree. It's called BitBot Media, which seems to be like a multimedia outfit that they've done some graphic novels. They have some licensed Terminator, officially licensed Terminator T-shirts that they sell, and then they've got a couple games. One game is like a compliment to a synthwave artist's new album. So it's just kind of a strange question mark of a developer. Yeah, maybe they're super fans of Kane. Yeah, maybe. Yeah, man, I completely missed that Legacy of Kane, Soul Reaver 1 and 2 remastered, existed, and came out in, looks like, December 24. Wishlisting now. They announced a new game in a series that I'd never heard of, even though I'm a big fan of tactics RPG games. I guess Justin or Nick, have you ever played a Brigandine game? Yes, I played the first Brigadine on, I think it was a PS1 game, if I'm not mistaken. But, yeah, I saw that. I was like, what the heck? I haven't thought of Brigadine in forever. Who's the developer? I don't know. It's being published by NIS, who does all the Disgaea games. Yeah, yeah, great. Cool. So, I mean, I don't know. It looks cool. The official tagline here, or part of the description from the press release was, for a more classic Brigadine experience, turn to mission mode, which lets you take the role of one of 24 different factions, each with their own win conditions. So that's interesting. A lot of times, Tactics RPGs, different battles from battle to battle will have different win conditions, but here they have all these different factions that have their own win conditions. Yeah, that's cool. This was me in last week's Nintendo thing when Cold Sept was being talked about. I like that these developer showcases can have one game that there's like 11 sickos in the country that absolutely love and then nobody else knows what's going on. They talked about Cold Set during the Nintendo Direct? Did I get to miss that? They announced a complete ground-up remake of the first one and a new one. All right. I got to get to my wish list. Yep. Dead or Alive 6, last round. Sure. This is like what? It's like a definitive edition of Dead or Alive 6? Yeah, and then like a little wink at the end, right? Yeah, there's a free-to-play version that has, I think, just four fighters. it's basically like a demo. And they announced a new one too, right? DOA 7? Yeah, they announced a little too. They didn't call it DOA 7, but yeah. Which is obviously a little bit strange. You know, Itagaki is not with us anymore and so it's just a, I don't know, like these franchises in this IP has a right to kind of continue existing, but as the original wave of game developers continue getting older and some of them are not with us anymore, it can be kind of a strange feeling sometimes. his passion for the physics and the ninjas are still shining through yeah we my my wife is my wife popped into my office because she had a question right at that moment she's like well it brings back like i i thought that extreme beach volleyball would just be a thing our whole lives and now it's been like 25 years since there's been a is that true i think maybe it's I think they made one semi-recently. I think they did make one fairly recently. And PlayAsia can hook you up, Sam. Okay. I'll get one for you in Japan. Okay, that sounds good. Go to book off and get me the latest extreme beach volleyball. This state of play was so long and there were so many games. I wrote down a game here that I don't even remember what it was. What was Crimson Moon? Hold on. Hold on. I think that's – was this the – yeah, this was the one that was – It was the third-person action platforming looking game. I was like, this looks like a PS1. Not the chicken one. It's like two knights that are fighting. Oh, that's right. Yeah. Yeah. It looks like a co-op. It did look a little bit lo-fi, didn't it? No, it looks nice. It looks nice. Cartoon-y, though. I thought this was Lords of the Fallen 2 at first. Oh, yeah. I thought this was a Darksiders game. After these setups, once they show the gameplay, it looks low. It doesn't look like this stuff. well i mean i know what you mean about it doesn't look lo-fi it just looks old school like in its gameplay style yeah like it just it's just like what you're talking about before it's like a style of game that we just don't really get as much anymore yeah like a maximo army of zen or ghost and ghost and glory there you go yeah um it does yeah it does seem to be like a cooperative game. If it's a cooperative action, melee, fantasy game, sure. Looks interesting coming this year. Yeah. Maybe it's just like it took two. It takes two. I don't think it's going to be like it. It could be about a messy divorce or whatever. One is a demon and one's an angel. Who knows? It's just like, they're just like Paul Abdul and MC Scatner. I love that cat. We got a release date for Beast of Reincarnation, the Pokemon game that Pokemon fans wish they could have gotten. Yeah. It's coming out August 4th. It's completely insane. I mean, you know, and we talked about it when that game was announced. Like, Game Freak, they've always made other games. Like, they've not always been exclusively a Pokemon studio, but it just feels particularly weird and raw right now, given sort of the iffy state that the last few Pokemon, mainline Pokemon games have come out in. Yeah. The one thing that's driving me a little bit crazy about that game is that everybody's tail becomes a plant and then talks to other things, and that's just from Avatar. And we don't need to encourage more Avatar. Yeah, this is a huge question mark. It's very, very interesting. The game looks cool, but, man, Game Freak has not pulled off anything at this scale ever before. Yeah. So we'll see. We'll find out August 4th. I love the mechs in the game. That's kind of selling me on it more than anything else. I love the little AT-STs everywhere. And there's like a big mech graveyard at one point. It looks cool. It reminds me a lot of Nier, so I'm interested. This game, I know you made a quick joke about this, but this looks so much better than Pokemon looks. What are we doing? Someone said in the comments that Game Freak has never made a game that looks better than a GameCube game before. And now they're making this? Hold on, hold on. They made Drill Dozer, which is beautiful. Drill Dozer is pretty dope. I've actually never played Drill Dozer. Oh, man, you would love it, Damon. It's not a Mr. Driller game? I guess I thought that was a Mr. Driller game. No, I think about Drill Dozer all the time. That game's great. Okay. I'll check it out. And then Sam mentioned Digital Eclipse, and we got a new Digital Eclipse game that's out today, I think. Today, yeah, Rayman 30th. Can't wait. Yeah, Rayman. I've never played any Rayman, so. But I don't care to play any Mortal Kombat, and that was one of the best things I've experienced in the past year. So I'm really excited just to see what this, and I think Rayman looks really playable. I've never played it. It's fun. I don't get Digital Eclipse releases to play the games. I get it for the documentary material. Yeah, the Game Boy port blew my mind. I couldn't believe the footage of that. The original Rayman came out in 95. I don't know if it was literally a PS1 launch game, but it was in that launch window or launch year. And it was hard, like, this is something that people kind of like poo-poo now thinking about it. But, like, there was a genuine, like, Sony did not want 2D games on the PS1 for, like, a few years. And Konami had to really fight to make and release Symphony of the Night. And, you know, and Rayman, the original Rayman is a gorgeous 2D platformer. And, you know, and it looks like, I mean, I'll just leave it at that. Like, you know, they moved to 3D after that and would never go back. Yeah, I thought this was always made with polygons. I was amazed to see that it's drawn with pixels. Yep. Good game. yeah i missed it entirely yeah i've never played the original rayman yeah this is probably it's probably my evening ahead of me once why didn't this get ported to super nintendo i don't know i mean i remember like i know the music was like really good so you know maybe there was something about the cd stereo sound you know was too tricky to sort of you know they couldn't do midis for the 16-bit consoles. It reminds you of Earthworm Jim is the vibes I get from it. It's like Earthworm Jim, but you know where you can actually step. Everything's so round in that game. It's so true. We got an update on Mina the Hollower, which is nice. Still no release date. Remember, this was supposed to be out on Halloween Day last year. Don't remind me. Then a few weeks before, it was just delayed indefinitely. Now it shows up in the state of play. It says it's coming this spring. Still no release date, just spring. So it's weird. It's I don't know, man. Like, I don't want to be like, let me preface. Like, this is a dark horse for like a game of the year candidate for me. Like, I absolutely can't wait. I think it looks incredible. I think so much time has passed between this and Shovel Knight that people forget that like Shovel Knight is an all timer. Right. Like one of the greatest ever. And this is like their next big AAA project. So the but like something clearly went sideways with Mina. like they went dark on it for years and years and years they re-revealed it hey it's finally coming out in october and then they're like oh nope never mind like and now and now when they re-reveal it it still doesn't have a release date it's still just spring so like it's it's it's a little bit i i want to believe um but i just i hope i just it's more like fingers crossed i hope that like it turns out to be as good as it looks i mean they put out a demo for it on the switch last October, and it's good, right, Sam? It's so good. It's hard as hell. There's a new demo out on PlayStation. Is it new? Is it new? It's new content. Okay. I just also don't want to play it because if this genuinely is in spring, then please just let me have it, y'all at Club Games. They're down the street from me. Let me see if I can go march on over and see what's up. it looks really really good okay during the state of play i laughed out loud when they revealed the chicken man yeah me too project windlass is that what this one is yeah i mean it looks like black myth wukong except instead of a monkey man you're a chicken man and the developers the pub g team it's crafting it's well yeah craft in montreal right oh yeah set up from a former Far Cry guy who's the game director. I also think it's funny. It tickles me that it's being made in Montreal. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. It's based on a Korean book series, I think, so I couldn't get a sense of is it tongue-in-cheek or are we supposed to take it seriously? I think it's a serious chicken. It's been described as the Korean Lord of the Rings. Wow. The book series, at least. daemon just can't yeah it's like i don't i sorry if i'm supposed to take it seriously i'm gonna have to do that look i'll fully admit that everything in lord of the rings is goofy and silly like hobbits are ridiculous so this chicken man is just as ridiculous as those those little shirelings but he kills real good i think it's like dynasty warrior moment combat but it seems like there's a lot more exploration and like open world-esque stuff you can do as well which is what I always kind of wanted from Dynasty Warriors apart from mindlessly killing thousands of people. Not mindlessly. Strategically. It looks good. A cock! It looks good. I'll play it, but I cannot promise to take it seriously. What's it called? Unwinded? What's it called? Project Windless. Windless? Dewinded? Dewindified? And that's an allusion to the fact that chickens can't fly. Or this chicken can't fly because he's getting big buff man muscles. I completely didn't clock the joke about chickens can't fly. That didn't land with me until just this moment. First of all, we've all played Zelda. Chickens can fly, and they can fly with you while hanging under them. They're so good at flying. Well, I mean, that's why they're so buff, dude. Yeah, I got to go. Do you think you get to carry around a much bigger character as this chicken in this game? We got an update on Star Wars Galactic Racer. How are we feeling about this one? I like that there's a story mode, like a campaign it looks like. That looks good. Yeah. It looks – I can't wait to play it because I can't tell if it's fun looking or not. It kind of looks like clunky and like Star Wars. Like that's good. That could be a cool thing for Star Wars. I don't think the clunky is in this one. I know what you mean, Sam. Like this is former Criterion devs who were like – when they were at the top of their game, they're kind of like playground games level of like racing fidelity, and I don't get a sense of that from this. Not quite. But it does look fun. If it's just a fun Star Wars racer, it doesn't have to be at the level of Horizon, you know, Horizon, uh, Forza Horizon 6, you know. I'm not, not excited to use a double negative. I think I want to play this game, but it doesn't have a sheen to it. I think it's a little bit missing in some parts. And then like, yeah, it just looks like, I don't know, when they keep on show, we're just going to get in trouble with racing fans for Star Wars now, because these don't look like fun things to race. But then people are going to be like, well, I'm tattooing. You must understand that part of Tatooine culture is racing the station wagon of Tatooine, which happens to be. Speaking of Star Wars. I liked it. I thought it looked great. I thought it looked great. As a little segue, I've been watching the second season of Light and Magic. There are only three episodes. And I know it's not new. I just never watched it before. Did you watch some, Sam? Well, I thought I watched all of it, but I'm not sure now. You said a season. I don't know if I did. Well, it's three episodes. They call it season two, but it's just three episodes. What era does it cover? They go through the 90s, and then they focus on the prequels. Oh, no. I never saw those. The last one I saw was Jurassic Park. Yep, me too. So it picks up right there. It talks about how during the 90s, they're helping everyone, all these other directors, incorporate CGI into their films. and they did Twister and Casper and whatever that George Clooney big wave boat movie was. What was that movie? They actually spent a lot of time on it. Master and Commander? No. The Perfect Storm. Perfect Storm. Yeah. And then they get to the prequels and of course they spend a lot of time on how he was developing. They had to create these digital cameras to film those movies. They just didn't exist when they set out. And it's interesting. They spend the whole first episode talking about Phantom Menace and then they open with the second episode talking about the backlash to Santa Mip. Oh, really? Interesting. And they have Ahmad Best on there and just talking about the backlash to Jar Jar and all that. And it's just, it's just an interesting reminder that like at a place like Lewis film, there's just so many incredibly talented people that work on these films. And like, like the people that made Jar Jar are really really talented but it not their fault that he was annoying AF Yeah right It just that it all really good I mean in the documentary there a part where George Lucas comes in and says can you make him annoying AF Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's not even a joke. He really is like he's like, I want this to be a goofy slapstick character. Yeah. and then he tries to say you know when A New Hope came out people didn't like C-3PO and the director of the documentary even calls him out and is like I don't think anyone ever had a problem with C-3PO and then he's like oh no it was the Ewoks it was the Ewoks that's it oh that's weird what a weird thing oh you remember when that came out everybody hated R2 yeah Okay, getting back to it. We're running long. 007 First Light kind of like Resident Evil Requiem. You've shown this game many times. It looks great. Let's just get to the game. Yep. I think they're operating on really kind of a next level of facial animation in this game. I'm sorry. I feel bad to jump to another game right as Moriah brings up B-roll. but I don't have a lot more to say about First Light. It just looks good. But we're getting this John Wick game. Oh, yeah. Which, I don't know. It's Saber Interactive. That's the I don't know about it from me. Yeah. What's everyone's... Okay, at the same time, let's everyone say your favorite Saber Interactive game. They may price this, right? They may... They're supposedly working on the KOTOR remake. I mean, I don't know, and maybe this is just wishful, I don't know that this is the game we're actually getting, but watching this footage made me think that a higher budget, something that really puts an emphasis on hand-to-hand combat and kind of technical, like a Sifu-like experience, but with a bigger budget and with Keanu Reeves and more set pieces. Like, again, like, I don't know that that's the game this actually is, but, like, that's the vibe that they're presenting with this CG trailer, and, like, that would be pretty sick. They show a little bit of gameplay after the CG trailer, and it does – that's what I said as soon as I said it. I was like, this looks kind of like Sifu, and I could see that really playing to John Wick's strengths. But, like, me, I love John Wick movies. Don't get me wrong. I love my action. I think it is just pure artistry in terms of stunt action coordination and blocking, and that's why I watch these movies. But I think the biggest sin that all of the movies commit is they demystify John Wick with every release because that's what made the first one so special. It's like, who is he? He is the Baba Yaga. We never got to see him in his prime prime. And it seems like this might be in his Baba Yaga days, and I don't really want to see that. I just leave him be a mystery. I think it would be interesting if it was kind of like the Bond game. Like I'd like to see a mixed format of like figuring out how to infiltrate places and fight and shoot. Right. Because John Wick shoots a lot. I don't want to do hand to hand combat all the time. I would like like there to be that. But then that just becomes like if you do it the wrong way, you become Kane and Lynch. Right. Which is kind of generic brawl through a cinematic scene thing, which is like not terrible. Yeah. You know. Yeah. Yeah. I have two thoughts on this. when it comes to the combat in this game, in the movies, John Wick improvises. He didn't plan to kill someone with a pencil. It's just like that's what was right there. So if the game actually offers you the freedom to improvise and use the environment and whatever, rather than being, okay, well, now it's just like quick-time events, like now pick up the pencil because that's what you have to do in the game. Could be cool if you actually have the ability to improvise and use things that are around you. But also I wonder if this game has just missed the boat on the John Wick interests out there. Because they had that TV show that was... I don't think anyone even watched that. But then Ballerina was actually good and no one went to see it. So, I don't know. Also, I think Keanu Reeves is like 60, right? So, it's like, maybe they're going to pull out a John Wick 5. They're going to bring back the films. But it's like this sort of Android, this sort of digital double version of like, we're going to keep making the video games forever. It's like, that's just going to be the way that things go now and IP gets extended. I mean, maybe this is the reason they're able to make this game now is he finally has a moment to be like, okay, I just want to do some voice acting for a month. I liked it when I did it for Cyberpunk. Let's do that again. Okay. Saros, that continues to look good to me. We know that's coming soon. I don't think there's a lot to say there. Marvel Tokon, we got a release date on that. That's coming August 6th. Big deal. That's great. I like that we're, we got a lot of release years for this year and also some dates, so the release calendar is starting to fill up later in the year. We need Nintendo to do that now. And that all brings us to this pair of God of War announcements. So, God of War Trilogy Remake. There's a lot of excitement out there for this. I think that's great. I think it's great to revisit these games. I just think it's a little bit strange from Sony Santa Monica because they took God of War into a whole different direction and kind of like, what's the word? Yeah. They added more layers to Kratos, right? And now it just seems a little bit different to go back. Well, I don't know if you were going to say this, but they did subvert the kind of stereotypes of Kratos in these games, right? They were a little bit subversive, and now they're just going back to the old ways, which I don't think is necessarily bad. I'm just surprised. Well, I'm surprised Santa Monica's making it, and you know, whatever. they're probably working on multiple titles you know sometimes and this is purely me speculating but sometimes these remakes are like like the Oblivion remake the rumor is that you know that's Bethesda getting their arms around Unreal Engine because you know maybe they're going to be moving to Unreal Engine so do a remake first so it's like you know whatever they're doing for God of War next or maybe it's not even God of War whatever third person action adventure game like sometimes a remake is like safe and easy ground with which to get your arms around new tech. But seeing that the Santa Monica team was doing it surprised me, I guess, is my point. They could have BNC divisions within one team. That's true. But to point to the Oblivion remake, though, that was mostly Virtuous, right, which is owned by Microsoft or owned by Bethesda. So it wasn't the core of Bethesda team actively doing development. The fact that it is Sony Santa Monica, or at least from what we've seen so far. Again, this game just seems like somebody thought today to put together an animated CG trailer. Hey, by the way, we're making a remake of the trilogy. We just started, so don't worry about it. My concern, and I guess maybe interest, is this going to be a Final Fantasy VII remake situation where they completely turn the gameplay of the game? I think something is too retro of a series to do that to. I don't think they'd want to do that. less retro than Final Fantasy VII. No, I just mean, are they going to make a 3D action game, though? Like a 3D action brawler for a PlayStation 5, PlayStation 6? Or is it going to be a 2018? I mean, I guess it didn't even cross my mind. I assumed that, yeah, it's absolutely going to be a ground-up remake, because those original games had fixed camera angles and pre-rendered backgrounds. I think it'll have all that. I think it'll just be a nice-looking version of an action platformer game. I don't know. I didn't assume that. I assumed it was going to be like a full-on 3D, you know, we're redoing the game. I think in this context, the remake means that they're going to use a different engine and not just up-res it. They're going to, like, make everything play the same but look really good. I just don't see why they would not do that. I mean, I had to just double-check that this was true. Like, Ragnarok came out in 2022. So, you know, over three and a half years ago, almost four years ago, that game came out. So it's like they're clearly... have anything to show of this yet so it does make you wonder what have they been working on this whole time yeah which i don't that's why i think it can't be a final fantasy seven level thing because i think this is just like get this out the door so we can work on this other thing well i thought that they were doing like a cory barlog uh like sci-fi game was what i had heard and if that's happening then this is there's no way they're spending all this time and effort to to like yeah do this god of war instead of a god of war sequel that would be like the natural thing to too. That was the rumor, and to be clear, none of this was ever confirmed, but the rumor was that one team was working on the next God of War, and then another team was working on something new. You know, a new IP. And so then who knows? How does this remake fit into any of that? Hard to say. I really like title screen teases, so I know that drives people crazy, but I do like that this exists. But in this one case, I do wish we had had the lightest wireframe of what this was going to look like. But it sounds like we're not going to get that. It sounds like they might not know right now. Maybe. I mean, yeah. Anyway, I'm very interested to see how this shakes out. There's also some questions raised around this, whereas the Dead or Alive series seems to be fully embracing what people like about that series all along. There's some elements of the old God of War games. It'll just be interesting to see if they want to include that. There's sex minigames is what I'm alluding to. I mean, we talked about this a minute ago. Like a lot of the new modern God of War is like letting go of an evolving past what came before. And like what came before is fine. Like it came out in the era that it came out, right? But like they made a statement that like, you know, we're taking it. We're giving a more mature. It's almost like we're growing up Kratos in the franchise, but now they're like reverting. Yep. Well, I think it's also fair to be like, yeah, he was a stupid 20-year-old in his Greek days. and he outgrew that sort of behavior. But the depiction is a different conversation entirely. These are smart developers, and Sony is a very smart publisher. But they really have, you know, like, let's talk about the sex minigame for a second. Like, they are in so much trouble if they remove it or if they keep it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're just dancing, dude. They should just keep it. Just keep it in there. It's in the original game. Just keep it. And then there's this another 2D side-scrolling game based on the existing franchise. Sons of Sparta, and this was the big shadow drop. Yeah, it's real. There's just so many of these things. Terminator 2D, no fades, and man. The Prince of Persia went 2D in two different ways. Yeah, this is out now, and I didn't get a chance to play it, unfortunately, yet. Yeah, it shadow dropped, and I haven't had a chance to check it out yet either. I think I would have been a little bit more excited about this if this didn't drop in the same presentation as Castlevania. Personally, I don't really like the art style of this. Who made this one? The backgrounds look cool. I just said characters don't look great, but the background looks cool. It said Mega Cat was the developer. Oh, Mega Cat. Ah, okay. So I think that – I mean, look, I think the pixel art looks gorgeous, and I think the animation is really fluid and pretty. But I'm also like I'm an easy mark of just like a high fidelity pixel art. I'm like, okay. Like I'm on board. But my sort of bugbear with this one is like Kratos' character model, and I get it because it's a prequel and he's young and he's not the God of War yet, but he just looks kind of skinny. And like I just – I don't like – that bugs me about this. I think that he looks – They should have made him a chicken. Yeah. He looks kind of skinny and not very powerful. Mm-hmm. Megacat, responsible for such hits as backyard soccer, backyard football, gumball in trick-or-treat land, backyard baseball. Yeah, so. Okay. Well, backyard baseball is pretty sick, actually. But, like, you know. I don't know. We'll see it. Shadow drops. I'll play it at some point. But it's not high on my priority list. I do like the little 2026, and then it's available today. That's a nice little touch. Yeah. We got an email about this game from Pete in Vancouver, who says, like others following yesterday's State of Play, I felt immensely excited with the shadow drop of God of War, Sons of Sparta, but then got to thinking, could an increase in shadow drops become problematic for consumers? Game reviews like that which IGN provide are services for consumers. For example, the recent review of Mario Tennis Fever has informed me that while it is a game I certainly want to play, the $70 price tag might be too steep for myself. By not allowing sufficient time to review, could we see developers cashing in on the excitement of Shadow Drops and start to use it as a tactic for selling more copies of games that might not review so well? This isn't to say that the new God of War doesn't look great. It does, but when they are charging for the experience, is there a responsibility to allow time for review? I feel differently about God of War Valhalla, for example. That was free-to-play, so its Shadow Drop was no harm if I didn't enjoy it. There's also the added complication of whether a Shadow Drop game carries more anticipation like Silksong, which other indie devs criticize for encroaching on the pre-planned releases of their games. I'd be interested to know what the panel thinks. Love the show, which is the perfect start to my Friday evening every week. Shadow drops. Problematic? This is a nuanced topic, and it's a little bit – it's slightly sensitive. We have to be a little bit careful because sometimes it is a signal when we're not given a game or getting a chance to screen a movie or screen a television show early. It can sometimes be a signal that the PR team or the developer or publisher is trying to shield critics from that game and trying to hide negative opinion before the product comes out. But that's not always true, right? Like sometimes it doesn't mean anything, and it's just not aligned with, you know, their launch planning and things of that nature. So I would describe it as a sometimes bad news thing and probably rarely, if ever, a good news thing. But it doesn't have to mean anything. So often it's DLC in a surprise in DLC form, and that becomes an impulse buy because you're already hyped by the marketing of the event. So it's just really I think of Shadow Drops as usually being tied to these newsy events, right? And then there's ones that aren't, which is just like this game came out of nowhere and we're announcing it and it's out today. That's a little bit more to skip the review process, I think. But in these cases, I just think it's become an expectation. There's one more thing. There's a world premiere. you're going through the motions and this little bite-sized exciting thing is usually a little game or a little DLC that's out today. There's like Oblivion with Shadow Dropped so I guess there's some nuance here between sort of access to a product being withheld by critics versus Shadow Dropping. Even though I'm the one that introduced the segment saying that I do think that those are very different situations and very different things. The shadow drop is like, you know, what, like Hi-Fi Rush was shadow dropped to great success several years back, right? So, you know, you, if I put on my PR hat for a second, the PR perspective would prop, where does David go? Where did I go? He got shadow dropped. He's in the shadow Let me look at my camera. Okay, so that all comes to the question, was this a good PlayStation State of Play? I think yes. Hell yeah. Yes. Yes, although no Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy VII Remake Part III, so I'm sad. Just as a show and as a revival of Japanese game interests and stuff like that, it's a 10 out of 10 for me. No Wolverine and no, what's the other one, Interstellar? Yeah. Interstellar, yeah. That's the other one that's kind of floating around out there. I thought it was a very good show. It's impressive that they can hold my interest for longer than an hour, showing game after game after game with tons of games that I want to play. I mean, this is Sony we're talking about. They have the best-selling system. They should be doing this every single time they do one of these. It's really a stark contrast to some previous ones, and I hope their findings are fitting. That's good. Yeah. Okay, real quick. Sam, you went to Chicago and played a new Pokemon pinball game. Yeah, so the Pokemon company worked with Stern Pinball to do a big, that's a big license for Stern to get, right? They do Marvel, they do Star Wars, they do these things, but to do this is a big deal. They did it for pinball fans. They did a kind of an Attack from Mars, the Eagle Madness layout. It's designed half by two designers. One of them made Monster Bash and Lord of the Rings, two of the best games ever made, have this kind of setup with characters and shots and stuff like that. But the Pokemon stuff is what I can talk about most on this show. You have a phone app where you just turn insider connected that you scan every time you play, no matter where you play. And as you unlock and catch Pokemon, you fill out a Pokedex on your phone. There's 182 Pokemon to start with. So that's super smart, right? That's sick. Yeah, arcades and bars, wherever you're at. Every time you play, if you catch a new Pokemon, you're filling out your Pokedex. And it's really cool. Like, that's a really good thing. So the game feels great. It feels very Pokemon. They did a great job with that. But that collection aspect is really fun because you have to, like, do a few things. You have to hit in the pop bumpers the tall grass to really make Pokemon appear. But as you're playing, you're doing other stuff. But then a Pokemon appears, just like in the game. It's like a random encounter, right? And then you have to do – you have to hit a Pokedex target. Then you have to hit a capture ball. And, like, so it has a cool sequence like that. There's also a sequence for battling, which you have to – you have the four Kanto starters automatically when you start. You have, that's including Pikachu when I say four, because Pikachu is only a starter in yellow. And with Bulbasaur, Squirtle, and Charmander. So what you do is when you're battling, like a Pokemon will pop up depending on what zone you're in, be like an insect Pokemon, and you're just hitting it by hitting shots on the playfield. They light up with the attack type you're doing. So like purple shots, it's just the whole playfield. Anything purple is a poison attack. Anything green is a grass attack. That's so clever. Yeah, and if neither of those work on an insect type, then you need to switch your Pokemon out. You do that, and then they're all like fire types from Charmander, and then you just torch that bug Pokemon. So, you know, it's like it's taking all these elements of Pokemon, and then you have to have good ball control, and you have to understand the layout. Like, it couldn't be a better theme and game match. I'm really impressed with this. Like, usually you have these overwrought, like, we're going to make Jaws into a pinball machine, but nobody knows enough about Jaws to make that into an easy to understand Pinball Machine with all the modes and everything. But this game, if you play Pokemon, there's a lot more easy to understand stuff. I don't know. What else do you guys want to know about it? It's pretty interesting. Is this the first Pokemon Pinball game? It is, yeah. It's actually the first Nintendo-involved Pinball machine since the two Super Mario Bros. games from Gottlieb in the early 90s. So that's a big deal in itself. There's, of course, been Pokemon spinoff games and Ticket Redemption stuff in Coin-Op, but this is the only one. They're going to sell so many of these. Yeah. There's a few like burger and pizza joints near us that have recent pinball machines. And if this appears one day, Kingo will flip his lid. Yeah, I think the approachability, because they use the Pokemon art and everything, and I've talked to them a lot about this, they really had to be careful. And usually we want like custom, you know, we drew art for, you know, this game and it's all unique and it's not using clip art. For this, like the clip art really works. It's like it feels like a Pokemon game and everything's licensed so carefully. I mean, you touched on this earlier, Sam, but the system for logging into pinball machines using the Stern app is so clever. It uses a reverse QR code where every other QR code I've ever seen in my life is you're scanning the QR code with your phone. But how you log in on Stern machines is this little camera on the machine, and the QR code is on your phone. And so you hold the QR code up to that camera, and then you're logged into the pinball machine. And like that, that's so clever and fast and it just works. And I don't know. I love it. So they push updates too. Because of that connected nature, which tracks your scores and achievements and stuff too. They have this always online. So they've been doing a thing with the John Wick machine where there's like bounties and people will go to the arcade and do those for the weekend. And the D&D has some things that happen each week. The D&D. So it's like they've been getting more and more sophisticated. is it started with achievements and trophies and badges that you collect in the app, and then the D&D machine was the first one I played where there's missions, and your character levels up and earns XP game to game, and now they're just pushing it even farther with Pokemon. And this is an RPG too, right? So it is going to have that same idea. And then you get to save all these credentials and stuff, but also they get to update the game in the background. They said they're going to add more Pokemon. So that's really cool. Cool. Yeah. Good stuff. Okay. I just want to say real quick. Yeah. I got to go to the Stern factory. It was amazing. Yeah. We're talking about like a NASA sized building that you could stack four or five cargo containers into the ceiling. It's so huge. And they have a line where they're making in America parts, assembly, pinball machines from scratch. And it is like seeing a Ford factory in 1930, right? Like it's crazy looking. and it's all based on old EM technology with computers and all this other stuff. It's crazy. It was an absolute pleasure and thanks to Stern for having me out there. I hope you all get to go there at some point because they love IGN. They'd have anybody do a tour there. It's just awesome to see a company like this thriving today. Yeah, and they just built this factory. There's two other pinball factories right next to them right now. What a crazy industry. Okay. All right. No, no, not at all. All that brings us to Video Game 20 Questions. And again, our suggestions come from our Valentine Ryan, who added a little, there's a layer to this here. He has four suggestions, and he says, each of these four games were discussed on Damon's very first episode of Game Scoop, which was episode two. Okay. It was not on episode one. I just listened to this. This will be easy for me Oh wow Okay Why were you listening to that I just kidding I did So that a little bit of a hint you know That would have been June of 2006 So you weren talking about God of War Ragnarok on that episode. Or was I? June 2006. So we're like Oblivion. We're like Dead Rising. Xbox 360 has just hit the scene. Yep. Maybe not Oblivion yet. Maybe we're still a year or two away. But we do get to choose a game still? Yeah, so 1, 2, 3, or 4. You can pick up. I mean, I think game one. Yeah, that's fine with me. It also doesn't matter at all, because we have no... Yeah, let's do it. Okay, let me... There's one third thing I have to look up about this game. If we don't get this, then I knew we should have picked one. Nobody look at Damon's glasses. We might... That's great. So this one's probably going to be a 70s, 80s, or 90s game. Probably. Statistically. Was there more shovelware in the 2000 to 2006 range than there was all games combined until that point? Probably. Because it was after the iPhone came out. Okay. Let the questioning begin. was this game new released within the last i don't know let's say two years from like when you discussed it on game scoop in 2006 was okay was this game released within two years of when it was yeah was it was it a newish game yes oh okay great so ps2 yeah 360 ps3 gamecube could be bioshock xbox could be gears of war Was this an exclusive? No. Multiplatin. Is this game made in Japan? Nope. I think it's Bioshock. I'm going out on a limb. Bioshock would have been 360 era. That's like 2007. It could have been 2006. I don't know, man. That's like a round. Okay, maybe you're right. Did this have a version of this on PS2? Yep. Okay, not Bioshock. What was the answer to Japan? No. Okay. Was this game developed or published by Activision or EA? No. That's five. Does this game have sequels? This game? Oh. If he doesn't know, that's a whole clue into itself if you can't just say a game has sequels. I don't think this game. Does that mean it is a sequel? Dragon Quest Rockets Live. DQ Rockets Live is sick. Yeah, Burnout Paradise. That's sad. Yeah, it's the last. Is this game the last of its lineage? Wait. Is this game a sequel? No. What? Sounds like it's a spinoff. Yeah, it's a spinoff of some kind. Is this game focused on violence? Yes. Could be so calm. Is it focused on multiplayer? Not every version. Some versions. Oh, interesting. Or focused on. Maybe it's a Lego game. Maybe it's like Lego. Not violent, though. Lego Star Wars? Yeah, I can't quite remember. Lego Star Wars or something. Is this based on a license? Yes, that's 10. Is that a PS2 based on violence based on a license? Is it a sci-fi license? Hold on. God. On the multiplayer thing, I'm confused. Some versions have it and some don't. That's it. That's all I can say about that. Okay, is it a sci-fi license? No. is this a military game no wait wait wait hold on so there was uh you know damon i don't want to metagame too much we were just talking about the godfather on slack the other day um so ps2 games you know not made in japan multi-platform games based off license. It's violent. Yeah, I mean, you know, Godfather. Or Scarface was on the PS2. The world is yours, yep. No multiplayer, though, in those games. Is this based on a cinematic franchise? This franchise has appeared in cinemas. Maybe it's Lord of the Rings. Yeah, could be a Lord of the Rings game. Is this a fantasy series? No. Oh, boy. striking out i mean the godfather technically is a book so david answering that way could have like but he said that the versions of this game had multiplayer and those ones didn't i also think that's a 360 game anyway if i'm remembering right um gosh i don't know like what are we too are we too early for um uh like escape from butcher bay I'm getting my years mixed up which I know that's single player only that would have been Xbox so yes this is within the range it was on PS2 I think it was on PC this game was on PS2 we already confirmed that the original was an Xbox exclusive wasn't it and sci-fi I definitely had that on my mind you're right it's not sci-fi not fantasy that's actually really complicated We could probably get this by just figuring out if this is this anime, for example. What about like Jet Li? Like The One or something? They had to have made like a The One game. I would say that's cinematic. Yeah, I don't know. I think this had a TV series too. Wasn't there also like True Crime, Streets of LA, Streets of New York? Is that a thing I just made up? Is it true crime or is it something else? We can just ask the crime question. Yeah, is this like a real world earth crime game? No, that's 15. Not a real world crime game based on violence. But wait, hold on. So it's not real world crime, but it's not sci-fi and it's not fantasy. And it's not military. But it's violent. I love it. Maybe anime. Yeah, maybe you're right about that. Although I don't know. I can't think about... Ninja? Yeah, it could be Ninja Game. It could be historical violence. Based off a license. Kingdom Come type stuff. Yeah. A license. Soldier of Fortune. Maybe it's just comic book stuff. Or it could be World War II. Superhero. Although that's military. I don't think superhero counts as fantasy or sci-fi. Yeah. Crackdown. yeah it has to be from the generation before crackdown maybe just spider-man 2 or something yeah that's true like yeah a ps2 like spider-man 2 on the ps2 is centered around violence though what you're cracking people's heads against the ground constantly in it or or maybe it's horror themed or i mean i can't oh there was like an evil dead game on the ps2 where you play as ash i i can clarify a previous question you asked if it was based on cinema and i said this franchise has appeared in cinemas actually this game is based on a specific movie oh there was a there was a fight club game oh yeah you can unlock abe lincoln we didn't eliminate that with crime i don't know i mean it's not crime in the way that like the godfather is crime sure it is it's of an illegal fight club. But the fight club game isn't just a fighting game, right? Yeah. It completely missed the point. And it's also a book and a movie. And there is a movie for this game. I bet it's... I think it might be Fight Club. Is this a fighting game? Yes. Was Fight Club a fighting game? Yeah, it was. Yeah. That's so crazy. Okay, may I maybe potentially burn a question, but it would 100% confirm this? Is Abraham Lincoln an unlockable character in this game? No. Fred Durst is also unlockable, I believe. Yeah. Yes, too. Do we have one question and a guess? Two questions and a guess. Licensed fighting game. Movie-based fighting game. Meaning there's a lot of fighting in the game Well no, we asked if it was a fighting game Yeah, there's a lot of fighting What? Remember Justin To Damon's credit And I think Justin's right here But he did say that some versions of this Don't have multiplayer Yeah, but I'm still stuck on Like, is it a fighting game? Yes Oh, there's lots of fighting in it Fighting game is a genre A lot of games have fighting we're looking at the Warriors I think you'll see that I I think you'll see that I answered it probably is the Warriors but I would not call the Warriors a fighting game it's a brawler yeah great game too I know it was a rockstar game yeah not made in Japan yeah it probably is the Warriors it was I would call gang activity real-world crime, so I don't know where we're going with this. Maybe we're wrong. I bet it's the Warriors. I don't know how to narrow it down further without burning. No, but that doesn't make sense with what he said about their having... It's based on a movie, but there's other things. I really think it's a superhero thing. Oh, man. I mean, so if that's true, then I don't know, Marvel vs. Capcom, there's all kinds of weird... No, it's not one of those, though. It's more of a brawler from that period. Maybe it was like, it's got a lot of fighting in it. Yeah. You will be ashamed of your words and deeds. Maybe it's that Wolverine game. X-Men Origins Wolverine. Well, there was a PS2 version, but I believe it was a 360 game. So that would have been late. Something like that. Did we just get rid of the comic book thing? Is this based on a comic book? There was, hold on, there was Matrix. There was Enter the Matrix. and Matrix that's sci-fi yeah no question there was a 50 cent game Blood in the Sand yeah it could be that Max Pain that's not based off a license well it is now hasn't there been a Max Pain movie now yeah I mean there was like we're in the era there were in the era of like of like Simpsons you know like Simpsons hit and run 100% the Simpsons movie game does exist then there's a sense that there was a Futurama movie game or Futurama game too not a movie game I kind of like Sam's approach of if this is a comic book I think that's a broad enough is this a comic is this a comic book thing yes it's a comic book thing great great Wow. So maybe it is... We just have to guess. You have one question left. There's a Hulk game that was about smashing, but I don't think that was tied to the movie. I think it's probably... Not tied to a movie, though. Yeah, we should have gotten on the comic book thing. What about just Iron Man? There's no Iron Man game. Yes, there is. That was until 360, though, yeah. Oh, yeah, there's a Wii one. I think that the two highly regarded PS2 era comic book games are Spider-Man 2 and Hulk Ultimate Destruction are the two that people remember and talk about. But none of those would have had multiplayer. And they're not based on the movie, right? Is Spider-Man 2 based on the movie? Spider-Man 2 is based on the movie. Is it? Yeah. So multiplayer means it could be, what was that top-down franchise that was kind of like Diablo of Marvel characters? That's what's confusing with the Spider-Man thing. Oh, Marvel Ultimate Alliance? Marvel Ultimate Alliance, that's what I was trying to not based on the movie. We're just not getting it. We missed something. We have a question and a guess. One question and a guess. I mean, one of those games could have had some weird multiplayer mode in it. I don't know. I don't think so. I think we used the hack and then lose. Okay. Have we mentioned the name of this game? No. No. Okay. Based on a comic book. Well, what were comic book movies that were in the PlayStation 2 era? That's not too bad. We can get that. Well, yeah, but also in movies. Spider-Man. There was a movie. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Comic book movies. I'm saying, yeah, what were the comic book movies of this era? What was the one, the Todd McFarlane one? Spawn. Not Spawn. The Darkness or something like that? What about Ninja Turtles? That's a comic book in a movie. 100%. I don't think the early 2000s had a movie, though. I don't know, but I don't remember it being that. No, there was no early 2000s Ninja Turtles. Iron Man was 2004, so it has to be around that era. What was Pop-O? What about it not being crime but being violent? What about, I don't know. Is it the Punisher for Xbox? I think that had a PS2 port and it was very violent. That existed? But was there a Punisher movie then? There was a punishment. The one with Thomas Jane or whatever. It's so obscure. Could it really be that? That could be it. I mean, go for it if you want. The other thing I was going to say is it could be a Godzilla something. They're always up to something on the video game side, but I doubt it. Comics, though. I think it's good. Batman. Oh, what about Batman? It's too early for Arkham. I mean, there's obviously other. Yeah, there was a Batman. What's the rise of Sun Tzu? No, what was the first Batman movie of the trilogy with the Heathleth? Batman Begins. Batman Begins had a tie-in video game where you just drive around and hit people as Batman. It could be a Batman Begins tie-in game. I'm going to pick either that or Punisher. I don't believe that the Batman, like personally I'm saying, I don't believe that the Batman Begins game would have had a multiplayer mode in any form. And you think Punisher did? But I could, I don't know, I could see it having a multiplayer mode because it feels like it's a bad game, but I played a lot of it. Go for it. I think, Nick, if there's a tiebreaker, I'm going to vote Punisher and then accept my fate if it's Batman Begins. You really think this Punisher game came to PS2? Yes. There was a movie that anybody knew about and cared about, and they would have talked about it on GameStreet. Yeah, it's one of those movies that aired on FX nonstop. Really? Yeah. Is it the Punisher? It is not. funny enough you mentioned uh marvel ultimate alliance that was option number three no this uh game everyone seems to have forgotten the 2007 film tmnt oh we did talk about ninja turtles 2007 though i thought we were 2006 we were talking about it ahead it's within two years we were fooled I don't think you're a fool from Ubisoft it came out to literally everything and some versions have cooperative which makes sense for TMNT yeah I was stuck on it being pre-2006 I don't know why because people never talk about games that haven't come out yet, Damon come on I definitely don't remember it being a movie, so then it would have been hard for me to get to the game. That would have been the Michael Bay one? Or no, not to the Michael Bay movie? I don't even know what movie that is. I can't... What is it? I don't remember. I remember the poster. Oh, it's an animated movie. Oh, okay. Was this the one that ended up being like Smash Brothers? Remember there's a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Smash Brothers type game? It's not that one. This one's just a brawler. Oh, I remember... I do remember this movie. I think it actually has DNA from the Prince of Persia Sands of Time in it. It has that same PS2 blurriness from the Prince of Persia Sands of Time. It was a hard game. Nicely attempted. Your four options here would have been TMNT and then the Darkness, which you also mentioned, Sam. Oh, my God. We were really in the 2006 zone there. Marvel, Ultimate Alliance, or Castlevania Portrait of Ruin. Yeah. Wouldn't have been appropriate. I would have loved that one. We would have gotten all three of those. We would have 100%. We did. We did get them in the course of this episode. Some fun facts about the Godfather game, which I was recently researching. I never played it, but I know it was actually pretty well received. Yeah, I liked it. It's not terrible. And I never knew this. The game has Marlon Brando recorded lines from it, even though he was very ill at the time, and I don't think they could use much. And James Caan is in it. Wow. The guy who played – or Abigoda is in it. They had all these actors from the movie, except they couldn't get Al Pacino, even though Al Pacino is in the Scarface game. So I don't know what happened. Maybe he had a contract. He could be only in one video game. I don't know. One video game for life. I think the Godfather game is supposed to turn out better than the Scarface game. Yeah. Anyway. I really like the Godfather. Did you play it on Wii? No. Because our review really talks up the waggle controls for it, which I thought was a moment in time when the Wii team was like, listen. Please don't strangle people with the Wii remote. Oh, 100%. It was like, it's so fun shivving people with a Wii controller. It's like you can tell there's this little window where us Wii owners are like, it's more fun even though it looks bad. I'm on the Godfather Wikipedia page now, and there's a whole section on Francis Ford Coppola's reaction to the game. He was not impressed. I don't think they even floated it by him before they made it. They just made it. It's fine. He makes mid-wine. What does he know about video games? Wow, wow. The Sophia cans are pretty convenient. Thank you for your suggestions and your Valentine's cards. Viewers, listeners, if you have your own suggestions for video game 20 questions, you can email them to me at the email address gamescoop at IGN.com. I have to leave you with some important messages before we go. Viewers, listeners, do you have what it takes to host videos for IGN? Can you do what I do? Can you talk about video games on camera? Well, we are looking for new voices who love games, movies, pop culture, and more. In all seriousness, IGN is looking for a new host. So if you have a strong on-camera presence, you can read from a teleprompter. That's important. And know your way around the world of video games and entertainment. We want to hear from you. Head to audition.ign.com for more details. Again, this is real. Oh, if the Noid wants to apply, that's fine. You're welcome. That's great. That's all the scoops that we have for you this week. Thank you, Nick. Thank you, Justin. Thank you, Sam. Thank you to Mariah, who's working behind the scenes to make this episode possible. my name is Damon this is IGN GamesCube and we're out play it Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That's a two-hour scoop. You have all that weird sex stuff behind you. Yeah, but I'm not worried about that. Oh, got it.