What Genre Is Kirby Air Riders?!

Real quick, before we dive into the show itself, I want to do a big call out. This isn't the cold open. I know. No, I know. I want them to know this isn't the cold open. It's not going to be funny. There's going to be funny stuff later, but this is just an announcement. Oh, you think it's going to be at the beginning of the show? This is a cold, cold open. Fresh, this isn't a cold open. So stop trying to get what it is. What is happening right now is it is a... Sounds pretty cool. Okay, shut up all you. We have a huge discount going on for Black Friday. It's only going to be happening for Black Friday through Cyber Monday. We have a big, big discount on our Patreon. It's an 80% discount for both tiers. So if you want to get the $5 tier, it's only $1 for your first month. If you want to get the $10 tier, it's only $2 for your first month. Holy cow, that is a big discount. Yeah, so, plant remind me, we should probably put it at the top of the show. So we've done that. Cold open coming at you right now. Oh, and it's a good open. This is here it cut and it's a barn burner. I don't remember what we said. It was an hour ago. Griffin, I'm disappointed because we were just starting to record. Yeah. Oh, oh, actually, I'm no longer disappointed because right before we recorded, you took the toothpick out of your mouth like it was you were like a hayseed bumpkin hitching a ride on the side of the road. Yeah, since decided no, no, no, let's put that. Let's put it back in. It's cool, right? I want it's cool. I want to get it out there to teens that it's not just vapes. Yeah. There's so many things you can put in there and look cool and have it be kind of like an affectation. Sure, sure, sure. Like a toothpick. I got out because I. Eated some leftover turkey from a potluck dinner that my wife went to, which by the way, sweetest deal ever for me. I did not go to the thing and yet I got to eat their succulent smoked turkey. Truly the luckiest of all. The luckiest of all it got in my teeth a little bit, put the thing in there, the little toothpick and you know what I realized? It's cool to have it in there. It is. It is. What else can you put in there? Uh, vape. I said that, right? Yeah, you said vape. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh, so there's vape. There's toothpick, uh, food. Obviously one of my favorites. Turkey, because I already said I'd put that, uh, juice. And that's it. Juice, juice, food, vape, toothpick. Those are the four. Major food groups. Now those that, yeah. What do you think about like a long flower? Okay. So if, if I'm doing a long flower, are we going in sort of cross like across the mount, like I can't have it. Well, across the mouth, I think is the traditional way to do it, but I don't think it has the panache of just a long dangling flower, like a big sunflower. Growing out of your throat. Yeah. No, that's not typically how one does a flower. I mean, it is cool and it lets people know, like when I'm out on the street and I have like a single rose clutched in my teeth, it lets people know what a sort of passionate man I am. It says, Hey everybody, I ate a Pikmin. I ate a Pikmin. I'm, well, no. Okay. Again, you are still thinking of, I have taken the flower straight down, right down the barrel. I am still thinking sort of clasp. Long wise. More of a romantic, like I've been a Pikmin's head off. I'm letting you know, hey, look out. I'm not going to seduce you or anything like that. Yeah. But like, I want you to know that like, I am a romantic man. I aim all that romance that is single person, which is my wife, but I do, I have it to spare. Sorry, do you want to take that one? A vape will do that too. My wife one more time. I am not some fucking puppet for you to shove your hand in. Amen. To make me do whatever joke you want me to do. Amore. Unless you want me to do, if you want me to do Bruno references, I'll do Bruno. I don't do Borat anymore. I don't do Borat and you know that. So I'm not going to fucking dance for, I'm not your organ grinder monkey. You put a penny in the slot and I do my little dance unless it's Bruno. I'll do Bruno all day. Yeah. This reminds me of a line. If you want, you can put a tooth. If the penny gets stuck in the slot, sometimes you got to put a toothpick in there. Yeah. It reminds me of a line. Now I have to give her the fucking tooth. You made such a big deal. It reminds me of a line from a movie. G-U-R-U-T-M. That's good. I love you, Rue. I love that. Let's get to the show. I love when you decide like, and that's the quote from the love guru. It has to be the button. There's not even a question. I'm not even a doubt. Such confidence. I'm not even a doubt. My name is Christopher McElroy. I know the best game of the week. My name is Christopher Thomas Plann and I know the best games of the week. My name is Russ Froschek. I know the best game of the week. Justin couldn't play Kerby Airwriters not good enough. At games. Made him scared. The Warp Star made him scared. He thought King Dedede was going to come out and kill him. So it's just the three of us this week talking about Kerby Airwriters and some other fun, exciting games that took us by surprise. Games like Sectory, which I'm very excited to talk about as well. But Chris, before we get to that, what is Kerby Airwriters? Kerby Airwriters is a sequel, reboot, requel of sorts of the Kerby Airwriters game that came out long, long ago on a little system called the GameCube. You might not remember that old piece of junk, but you will like this new masterpiece from the director of the Super Smash Brothers series. That the things you just said alone have made me very excited for the conversation that is to follow, which is going to take place right after this quick break. This episode of The Besties is sponsored by Ritual. And you know what? Ritual is not playing around when it comes to gut support. They designed Symbiotic Plus with a delayed release capsule to help reach the colon and ideal place for biotics to grow and to thrive. Symbiotic Plus is a complete biotic formula with clinically studied pre-pro and post biotics in clinically studied doses to support a balanced gut microbiome. Ritual's Symbiotic Plus is formulated with 11 BCFUs of the world's most research probiotic strains backed by over 100 plus publications of human clinical trials. They're vegan friendly, formulated without GMOs, major allergens, animal products, shady fillers and artificial colors. So if you want to get your gut health going and support a balanced gut microbiome, you should check out Ritual's Symbiotic Plus. You can save 25% off your first month at Ritual.com slash Besties. That's Ritual.com slash Besties for 25% off your first month. Important to know the 2003 original was called Kirby Air Ride. Oh, very, very. I would say cult classic in so far as I never played it. So cult. It's so cult that I didn't play. I had a Gamecube, definitely. But there's there's quite a few like games that I didn't that I guess I just missed out on. And based on everything I ever saw of Kirby Air Ride, it seemed like that was, I don't know, it made sense for that to be one of them. Do you think it hit at the worst possible time for you age wise? Like you are like 16, 17 in the Gamecube with the Resident Evil stuff over here. Right. Comes out and they're like, do you want to play this Kirby game? And you're like, I'm sorry, me not baby. Yeah, I don't know. I can't remember what games came out in 2003. That was Tony Hawk's Underground. That was Kotor. I don't think it was a cool guy thing. I think it was a definitely cool guy thing. Oh, fair. We had Mario Kart. And like, yes. Do I need another? Kirby was so known to be baby that they had to give him like angry eyes to try to convince you. Yeah, I'm not sure that Kirby carried the kind of cultural cachet. Wow, the alliteration is so on point today. Back back then with me, like, obviously, I love this little creep now. A lot of that is because of the heavy lifting he did in Forgotten Land, which is one of my favorite. Literally, very strong, very, very strong, little gentlemen. And so that that was that's the history of Kirby air ride is like, I don't think I'm speaking out of turn and saying it is a cult racing game. OK, or the GameCube. So can you give me my big take of why it's perfect time for it to come out right now? Yes, please. Probably not the most original take, which is the director of this game, Masahiro Sakurai is now much better known as the director of the Smash Brothers series, the fighting games, right? And has even made this amazing YouTube series about like how to design games is is an icon in the Nintendo world, not of the Miyamoto status, but just right below it is probably the most recognizable living Nintendo game designer other than him. The extent to which he plugged into the Smash Brothers world and sort of really showed his work is I don't think there's anything quite like it in the history of of of games, the extent to which he made his made the process known there. I think what has happened is this is a fighting game. Y'all, this is just a fighting game. Like, yes, yes, yes. Let me explain it. OK, we haven't even talked about what this game is. I'm going to. And he's going to this is the way we get it. It's called a setup, my friend. It's called a baby. It looks like a kind of a kart racing game, right? And you're going to go around a track and you're going to do various laps and there are enemies that you can collect instead of items. And you suck them up Kirby style and you get their powers Kirby style, right? But overall, if you picture Mario Kart with like blocks and you're getting special abilities, it's that the humongous difference. And where I think that this is very, very similar to fighting games and very similar specifically to Smash Brothers is the difference in how each vehicle and character controls and how you match them up is far more significant than it is in the vast majority of racing games where you are tinkering stats. The actual way that you control characters and how they get around the field is wildly, wildly different. I agree with that, but that doesn't make it a fucking fighting game. I'm sorry. Yeah, let's let's set up what the game is. OK, right? OK, as as Plant alluded to, one of the modes is a racing game. I think pretty straightforward. You move forward on a track and you move forward automatically. Why not both? Well, it is there's fighting you fight while you do it. The big thing about Kirby Airwriters, I would say from a design standpoint is that it is a game you play with the stick and one button. And then there's like one extra button that you do one thing with, right? The Y button activates your special ability when you've charged up your special. You use it like once. You use it maybe once or twice a race. And then I'm pretty sure most of the other buttons are the Kirby Airwriters. It reminds me of those Tiger Electronics games where you would have, like, you know, up and down arrow on one side and then on the right side. There's a great one for the for Doug, the Doug Tiger Electronics game, where the two buttons on the right side are just called Doug and faster. So you have the special button and then you have the Kirby Airwriters button, which does fucking everything else. You break to charge up a boost dash. You suck up enemies with it. You use the skills afforded to you by those enemies with it. You break and reverse with it. It's really get off your cart at times. Run around. I think you do that with holding the special button. So that's another instance in which the the Y button is used. That is one of the exceptions. They're framing this as a one button. Yes, even though it's not really one button. It's pretty close. Pretty close. Yes. I think that's the most annoying thing about it for me is this like adherence to this very unique thing about the original. It's very cool. Obviously, like the ideas have expanded to a point where they needed to add a second button. So at that point, just go the fuck ahead. Give it. There's a spin attack that you can do. And you do that by pushing the left the stick to the sides real quick. And it feels pretty bad every time you do it. It doesn't feel great. To be controller ass stuff. Yeah, it's like you're steering and you want me to fucking real quick. Do this little flick because it's like the best way to smash open the ability blocks that you might come across while playing city trial mode or whatever. Let me put that on a fucking button. That's crazy. You know, there are buttons you're not using. You know, buttons. Let me use a fucking button, dude. I think there's a lot of people coming out this, though, that are like a fucking Mario Kart just came out three months ago, whatever it was. Why are we seeing another effectively kart racer? So I think there's it's a kart racer slash fighting game, but 90 percent kart racer. It does feel, I wouldn't say completely different. I would say like significantly different from Mario Kart. The idea that you're constantly breaking to gain boost and then boosting. Yeah, and it has the pace of like an F zero or something like that. It feels much faster than anything I've ever seen in Mario. Yes, this this break boost maneuver is basically I think the most common use case will be sharp turns, right? Sure. It is a drift that you do and you get to you get a nice boost. And obviously there is a drift in Mario Kart. Yeah, of course, it's it's a but it's a completely different feeling drift. And so far as like in this game, you really slow down a lot going around those curves because, you know, the the drift in Mario Kart, it just feels like completely different. This this idea of dashing and smashing into stuff is a kind of like tactile action that I think does set Kirby air riders apart, especially because like we've only talked about the, you know, air ride mode, which is the sort of standard road. There's a weird top down mode that feels, I don't know, maybe it's a beloved feature of the game from the original, but feels like a bit of an afterthought. Before we get into the other modes, I do want to mention one other big significant difference that we have. Yes, yes, yes, is to gain boost meter or whatever speed to gain speed. As you're racing, there are multiple ways to do it. We mentioned the like drift break and then get a boost of speed. The other way, which I think is very significant, is to attack enemies and deal damage to enemies using the items that you pick up as you go. So what it ends up feeling is like closer to like a burnout almost, where you are really trying to like fuck up the waddle deez that are making their way across this course and the various other people that you're racing against. And that's really the only way you're going to gain on people is by like really fucking up people. Yes. Otherwise, in Mario Kart, like realistically, it's mostly you use it as a way to like act as a nuisance to other people, but it's not going to help your speed. This is this is I think the main offender of the single button scheme for me is the fact that the boost break slide button is the same button as suck up and attack enemies. So it becomes all of a sudden a sort of context sensitive thing where if you press the break boost button and you are close enough to an enemy, you will suck them up and then you can launch them or absorb their power. But if you hit it when you're not close enough to an enemy, you bring yourself to a complete stop. Like it just it just seems so wild to me that they wouldn't just make that a separate make that a separate input. But yes, I do agree that that sets it apart and it does make it unique. And it when it works, it feels like really good to get like a good line of chugging between enemies and building up speed and going fast and all that. Like it is it is generally pretty thrilling. I I'm so torn on the button thing. And my instinct is to just say they should let you remap and do whatever you want. That's that. I also do think that the longer you play, the more you start to have the feel for it. And it is it's just a very different thing than any of the kart racing games. Some might say it's closer to like a combat type of game. I am trying to get the genre. The I want to I do want to talk about the drifting, though, and like how it's different between each characters, because I think that's that that's why it's pretty significant. Well, that's why the single button thing can work, because you can have a character where OK, you drift and it feels like, yes, like you're in a burnout game or an outrun game. You can have a character where you basically 90 degree angle on a on the dime. You know, there's no for you get instant friction, basically. Right. Yeah. Yeah. You could have one where it's a really slow, but you have a powerful charge. You could have one that has no charge, but it raises all your stats. And that is I think the appeal of the game is finding the machine for you. I think what is weird, I think it's like one of the best kids games and that a kid's going to tinker with that and find that feel. I think adults are more likely to bounce off this game because that's so antithetical to what we're used to that you you have to unlock the thing that might actually be how you like to play this game. And I do like that, by the way. I do there's a ton of fucking stuff to unlock in this game. And it is distributed in a very Smash Bros manner. This game looks so much like Smash Bros. It's fucking and sounds so much like they brought the guy back. Yeah, it's like you like during the game on and it's like achievement unlocked. You downloaded Kirby and it plays that sound. Yeah, it's it really is your it makes its itself known very, very clearly. I I I will say sort of anecdotally. This game has not been a hit with Henry, who is a huge Kirby fan because he first of all, there's like a lot of tutorialization, which is tough for him to hang with. But it's kind of necessary because the control scheme is so weird. He likes the very Smash Bros. He like extremely dramatic anime Kirby story that is happening and like seeing all the characters and is excited about all the unlocks. But it has very much been a game that he wants me to play while he watches, which is still fun, which is still like a cool way to do it. But it doesn't. I don't know. It hasn't been the can't put it down sort of experience that other Kirby projects have been a recommendation to to the grown up. I can't speak for the kids here. When you load this game, if you've never played in these games, it will want you to go to the tutorial. Do that. Don't play any of it. Just look at the menu and it will tell you everything that you are going to learn in these tutorials. The tutorials are so slow and they are literally turn left, turn right. You will get a feel for the game the sooner you hop into the game, having just read those tutorials. I think that's good advice. Yeah, doing the tutorials reminded me when I was doing admin work where my company forced me to like fill in the like IT security questions of like, should you give your USB to someone and there's like a slow meter of the video playing. There's also no amount of tutorialization. I think that can really prepare you for what a Kirby air riders races like as evidenced by the fact that the final chapter of the tutorial is now. Do this little practice race and it took us like fucking four tries to actually do it because it's insane. It's so weird to loop all of these different ideas together. It is so unlike any other racing game. And once it does click, it does feel cool. Like it does feel good. And I feel like there's a lot of depth that I am more interested in learning about than I am in like a Mario Kart world, which I picked up, played a little bit and never touched it again after we talked about it. So just one one final thing I want to throw in here. It's absurdly beautiful. If you are in. Yeah, it looks great. Chaotic, curvy aesthetic. The second level of this game is a like pirate shipwreck in the ocean. But the water has been split and is going in every direction. Gravity is being busted. And you discover that if you you like are piping through this huge split, you know, splitting in the seas and you can go into the water, they're not hard walls and that moment was for me, that's from like the game just immediately clicked for me. I was like, I'm going to love this shit. Pure vibes. It is also notable because it is probably the only racing game I've played in recent memory that has like a pretty significant single player mode. Yes. So that's what I wanted to talk about is there's there's kind of two other modes that we haven't talked about yet. The first is city trial, which was a beloved mode from the original and is so in I think it is the most inscrutable thing in the game because it is five minutes on this open world map. You're racing around, you're picking up other cars, you're doing little challenges, you're picking up power ups for your vehicle. And then once the five minutes are over, you do like a challenge. Yeah. And the challenge lasts sometimes for like 30 seconds. And then that's the end of the map of the whole match. It's like a weird. I think you have to be very, very, very into how how the game feels and works so that like all the work you're doing in the let's build up my car and make it super strong or air air rider like to make that land. But the road trip mode, I do think is really great. And that's the thing that I've been enjoying the most. Yeah, I played a lot of it as well. Story mode. Um, you're constantly going down this track, moving from event to event, but you get to kind of like choose which event you're going to do next. Like three different ones will be coming at you down a track. You get to pick the one you want to do and it'll give you a certain reward. Uh, it'll be either a race or like a drag race, right? Down a straight track or a mini game where you have to, uh, like a monthly target, like fly through these different gates and those are just short form enough and constantly unlocking shit that it is that is the right cycle for me of like dope. And it's also great, like, because Henry only wants to watch me play it. So he gets to see all the story stuff and gets all the unlockable characters and all that stuff like that. I think that mode's really, really great. And kind of my favorite way to engage with Kirby. It crushes me that Mario Kart world doesn't have anything even close to the like depth and breath of it. Like if I was unlocking like customization items and characters and stuff like that in Mario Kart world in a format like this, where it's just like a bunch of mini challenges, I would have been so fucking all over it. Yeah. And it just feels like all of, I mean, whether it was a time limitation or whatever the decision was, it just feels like all of the effort, uh, wasn't put there and it was put in this case. I will say when I'm doing that mode and in general regarding the road trip, road trip mode, when I'm doing road trip mode and in general for this entire game, when I'm presented with races or maybe like fun, like drag race modes, but anything that's like, feels like racing, I'm pretty into it. Yeah. The second they drop me into an open world area and open world being like, these are small areas, but like the third person, you can go in any direction you want. I think the game is not per for me, fun. I don't like doing that. It makes me feel like I'm not in control. I don't feel like it has the tight precision controls that the racing stuff does. It feels shoehorned, which is ironic because I know the original game also had the city trial. So that's not new stuff. I just every time it comes up, I'm like, I'm not enjoying this nearly as much as I am the racing, which is fine. It is similar conceptually to the fact that like Mario Kart has the battle mode, right? Sure. But it is much more about, uh, battling AI controlled bosses or enemies or whatever. And I don't, I agree with you that the like control scheme is not quite what I wanted it to be. Battle mode was always cloistered into its own like side thing that people barely touch. So it's not like that's weird for this. Like it's, I'm sure there are fans of it and I'm sure there are fans of this mode as well. It just did not click for me at all. Yeah. It's the, it's yeah, I, it's not my favorite. I feel the same way. If there's a race, I always go for the race when, when that is afforded to me. But, but then the bosses are pretty mandatory at certain, at certain points. So you do kind of got to figure out how to, you know, work around it. And I think unlocking different characters also will help more with this because there's like, uh, Meta Knight has like a three hit sword attack that is completely different from Kirby's like inhaling and launching something forward. Like, Can you play as other characters in the road trip mode? I was not able to figure out how to do that. Just. Yeah. No, I'm pretty sure you just switch them out before you get, get going. Before you start. I can change my car, but maybe I'm playing, playing where, where do you, where is your head at in terms of the like open world versus racing dynamic? Or you just like completely over the. Yeah, I don't have like a religion on it, mostly because I, I feel like I'm so early in the overall experience, not in terms of like, oh, I didn't play enough. But like this feels like a game of like, you play this for a very, very, very long time and then you kind of like fall into its vibe that said, where I'm at right now, I much rather be racing than doing any of the other stuff. It feels. Oh, well, you know what? This is actually a segue to the game that we're going to talk about in a second, which is sectory, but it feels like a game full of modes. Like they just kept making things. And some of them are good and some of them are bad. And some of them will have their hardcore fans and some of them will have their hardcore haters. And I'm not sure it would have benefited. I'm not sure it would have benefited the game for all of that energy to have just gone into the racing. I think that would have been diminishing returns at a certain point. You just have more and more courses or something, Mario Kart style. But yeah, I guess it's the second game this year, racing game this year from Nintendo where there's a lot of filler that I don't necessarily need. You can change. You can change your character in the road. Oh, great. I because I want to play as the fucking hamster so bad and I just couldn't figure out everyone loves the fucking hamster, man. I do want to mention you're talking about filler. There is one aspect of filler that I think a lot of people will miss because it is fucking really buried in the menus. But for every air rider, which are the cars, you can customize them in really awesome. Yeah, really good. Of that shit. You can change the text. That reminds them. You could slap fucking lights on them, dangling things. All sorts of aspects, the color that comes out of the back of it, like the whole range, the texture of each of the different components. You can really, really. And you can share them online very easily and download other peoples. There's like, there's a square cube, a cube, if you will, that you maybe a game cube that you can race on from the very beginning. And like, there's already plenty of game cube, you know, all. Steam machine. I think that might honestly already exist. I've seen Xbox and PlayStation game cubes, too. I'm sure I am. I am always very, very charmed by games that are so clearly a labor of love. And like, certainly all games have that to an extent because you get they have to be in order to get a game is so fucking hard to make to get a game across the finish line. There have to be people working on it who care about it a lot. But this feels like such a and aided by the fact that Sakurai is the best in the biz at sort of communicating with niche fans of his shit. It is such a labor of love. There is so much about it that seems like it is being held up in front of people who have fond memories of the original Kirby air ride saying like, Hey, we made this for you. I think that's rad. I think parts of it are not anything I enjoy at all. I think there's enough there that I do really like that I will keep it, you know, and keep that virtual game card installed and pick it up and play it every once in a while. And I am curious to see like what other unlockables and I got to finish that story, guys. Holy shit. Yeah, it's it's really who knows where it's going to go. Yeah. Just to close out this segment, I want to talk about one other fighting and I really like which is Microsoft fight simulator. It really dramatically changes based on which plane you're flying. And basically, I mean, just like a fighting game. Sure, just like a fighting salient points made all around today. All the points we made today were equally good. I think so. And I think we should take a break and talk about other games. The face Chris is making such a grumpy face from Chris, not called Microsoft fight simulator. I know why you're confused for us. This episode of the besties is sponsored by Ritual. And you know what? Ritual is not playing around when it comes to gut support. They designed symbiotic plus with a delayed release capsule to help reach the colon and ideal place for biotics to grow and to thrive. Symbiotic plus is a complete biotic formula with clinically studied pre pro and post biotics in clinically studied doses to support a balanced gut microbiome. Ritual symbiotic plus is formulated with 11 BCF use of the world's most research probiotic strains backed by over 100 plus publications of human clinical trials. They're vegan friendly, formulated without GMOs, major allergens, animal products, shady fillers and artificial colors. So if you want to get your gut health going and support a balanced gut microbiome, you should check out Ritual symbiotic plus. You can save 25% off your first month at ritual.com slash besties. That's ritual.com slash besties for 25% off your first month. Trying to get a little bit healthier food going, you know, give your body a little bit of the good stuff that it needs that it craves, but you don't have a ton of time lying around. And who does honestly? Might I be so bold as to suggest factor factor is a service that is going to send you delicious, really fantastic meals. They got a ton of 100 rotating weekly meals to keep things fresh, mix it up a little bit. And these are meals that are going to be ready for you in two minutes. Real quality ingredients, protein and vegetables that look like vegetables, not the sad vegetables you may be thinking of when you think of pre prepared meals. These are beautiful, vibrant, and they're ready for you really quickly. I love factor meals. They're great to have on hand when you want a nice dinner that feels substantial, but you don't have a lot of time to prepare and cut, you know, even delivery stuff takes 10 times as long as factor minimum. You know, think about it. It's worth a shot if you haven't given it a world head to factormeals.com slash besties 50 off and use code besties 50 off to get 50% off and free breakfast for the year, offer only valid for new factor customers with code and qualifying auto renewing subscription purchase, make it healthier, eating easier with factor. OK, the next game we're going to talk about is a game that I don't think any of us knew existed as of two weeks ago. Did you know Chris plant before two weeks ago that this game existed or was coming? No, I can pretend. No, of course not. So brutal to do that at the end of November to drop a fucking hot one on our lap. Like, you know how many games like I know, I know, I know. But to have a surprise this this late in the game, I know, man. I know. It's really, really wild. Is sectory sectory. So S E K T O R I can't can't say the branding is super great. The logo is basically illegible. So a little hard to find on Steam. But if you do, you're in for a fucking treat. Sectory, in my opinion, is the best geometry wars like I have played since the original geometry wars, I guess, retrovolve, not the side mode, retrovolve. It is fucking fantastic and detail and has just so much content in it and ways to approach it. And so if any of that is appealing to you, an arcade twin stick shooter. Very basic how that works. Gemini Wars, which is sectory, they are more or less the same in a lot of ways. You are the little ship on a 2D plane and you are inside a closed arena. It's not infinite and it is relatively tight. It's not like vampire survivors and you have enemies that are flying at you and the different types have different strategies. So you have some that just kind of float around randomly. You have some that will try to get close to you. But then when you aim at them, they will try to evade and back. Squares, each one has a different movement where this game just expands so much on the geometry wars formula is everything is moving at all times, even the arena. So you are imagine you're in a square arena and then suddenly you see the outline of a triangle and everything outside of that triangle is glowing red. The arena is about to shape shift into that triangle. And if you're out of it, you are gone. The arena might shape shift into four separate circles. So you want to get in one of those and you're going to be trapped in that circle with whatever is in that circle until it's your chance to get out. It all of this all of this is happening at all of this is happening as it walks you toward a boss fight at the end of that world. As this is also kind of a campaign. There is a campaign that is sort of happening. You are like I don't want to use rogue like that, sorry, but but RPG mechanics that build to boss fight. I'll say rogue like mechanics. And so far as you will at a certain point, unlock ability cards and you can change. You have like eight stacks of ability cards that you can select before you into the the you know, the campaign. And as you hit these like unlock points, you can spawn those cards into your like drawing deck and then they will give you abilities like this is a bomb drone that will like shoot stuff. So like I do think it wears its rogue like kind of nature on its sleeve. Yeah, there's also another character customization aspect where as you're playing, you'll pick up these pickups that give you a point, an upgrade point, if you will. And you can spend that upgrade point very quickly on the first tier, which is just speed. It'll increase your ship speed. But if you collect more of them, you can get higher tier upgrades like your blaster or you'll get rocket attacks, things like that that let you again, fully enhance and control how your character evolves over time. Yes. And those play play directly back into the card system, which again, is like, oh, you're building a deck around charging around the map. Then you're going to want to bring a lot of those cards. There's there's one more piece of the puzzle that I think really makes this game what it is. And it is it is what sets it apart enough from Geometry Wars that it feels like its own aside from all the rogue like shit and the upgrade points and like all that jazz, which is like not progressive when you die. It's all gone. It's not like you're getting some sort of permanent upgrade cycle. The one other thing is there is a strike maneuver that you do. And once you use it, it has to charge back up. But you basically dash a short distance and cause an explosion that kills all the enemies around you. Geometry Wars is very much a game about like mob management. Like you can't let too many enemies get on the screen at once. You have to always be shredding through them, because if they outnumber you too too much, then they will kill you. This the spawn rate is insane and sectory, and you will have to use this. This strike to manage things. It is the thing where it's like, fuck, there's way too many dudes right over there. I got to strike into it. But if you strike into a power up that is spawned, it instantly recharges your strike. So now all of a sudden you're deciding like, OK, there's a power up down there. If I get it, it's going to give me one of these power up cards. It'll give me something sweet bonus that's going to be like really exciting. I have my strike ready. Can I get through all of those dudes to get down and strike that power up so I can instantly have my strike recharge? Or am I going to have to spend that strike to clear out some of the enemies and make a path and you are having to make that little micro decision fucking constantly? And while the literal world around you is changing, while a dozen characters are spawning in, while a boss fight is on the precipice. Yeah, it's super duper. It is super duper chaotic, but I do think it still has the benefit that Geometry Wars had going for it, which is that it is like easy enough to kind of understand what happened. Right. When you get blown up, it's like, yeah, I let too many. I'll let too many guys get in there. The boss fights get a little too like confusing, I think, from time to time where it's like, what the fuck was I supposed to do? How was I possibly supposed to deal with that? There's one that every time it spawns in, I'm like, well, OK, that's the run, because I just simply don't know how to fucking beat this guy. But for the most part, it's like, if you blow up, you kind of know what happened and what you could have done differently. And maybe you invested your upgrade points. You you charged them all up for your blasters, but then you got to that boss fight and your ship wasn't fast enough. So you blew up for that reason. So all of that would be enough. And yet they said, what if we give you many, many more modes? Each of them also excellent in each of them unique. And that's the part where it blows my brain wide open. I mean, first, you want to dive into one or two of them. Yeah, sure. So for the people that love geometry wars and are maybe a little bit stressed out at the prospect of picking perks and stats and whatever it is, there is a mode that is pretty much geometry wars where it'll just constantly auto upgrade you as you play. So you're really just score chasing, but you don't have to worry about upgrading anything. So if you want a very simple mode like that, that's in there. Retro geometry wars fans might remember a mode called gates where you had to fly through a gate and they would keep spawning in and spawning in. That was the only way to like deal damage to the area. That's in there. Let's see, there's a boss rush mode. There's a crash mode where you just use the the strike attack. And I think you can use it like multiple times in a row. Yeah. Yeah, my favorite mode is like, oops, all offense. I can't remember what it's called, but you build up search. You're very strong. Yes, you're very strong. But then when you collect enough of your XP from killing things, you become like Super Saiyan, right? Yeah. And the whole point is that you need to basically at a certain point be constantly in Super Saiyan. Which means you should always be pursuing the biggest, baddest enemies, diving headfirst into them and then sprinting to the next power up and always landing that that boost move that that Griffin's talking about. Yeah, it is. So it fucking rules, guys. It's fucking great. The music is just slaps ass and it really it is the type of game I would advise you not to play too late at night because it really will fuck you. And like, it really will get you get you fucking psyched out of your mind in this like trance like state where you will lose track of time and you will stay awake too long and then you will get in bed and you will have that still just like fucking pumping in your ears as you try to fall asleep. It is it is not a good game for that. And the runs, if even if you do the short modes because you can get 20, 30 minutes in a long run, if you do the short modes, it's somehow more dangerous because it's like two and a half minutes. And like, I am. And then suddenly you don't realize that you've played 30 of these things and that's an hour. Yeah, there's a fun metal system where you're trying to like complete achievements and those in turn unlock like customizations for your ship. Yeah, there are mutators. So if you want to play with like less enemy health or more enemy health or all sorts of variables, I think there's like 50 different mutators you can attach, they just dove so fucking deep into this concept and just kept going and going and going. Did we mention who made the game? It's House Mark devs, right? It's a former House Mark dev. Maybe I don't know if it's multiple. But yes, House Mark for for people who remember Rezo Gun, which we talked about, I think very early, like maybe the first season of the besties. House. There's a PS4 launch title, right? Correct. Yes. This is a studio that for a long time, this is what they were known for. Games like Super Stardust, Rezo. Rezo Gun and then more recently, they have transitioned into, I would say, more traditional games like Returnal, Third Person Shooter, stuff like that. But this feels like the continuation of House Mark. Yeah. In the best possible. Chemo Factor is the developer, listen, who made Barbarian, the bear based hack and slash game. Yeah. Which I do remember, that's a fun one. I do want to say it is really fucking hard. It's really super duper hard. And you unlock a lot of the cool stuff through the campaign mode, which even the easy mode is pretty fucking hard. And it is a game that, I don't know, you you know, what's funny, guys, is I feel like there's a lot of parallels between this discussion and the discussion we just had about Kirby Airwriters, because it's the same way where it's like, there's a rhythm to it and you have to play enough times to kind of like understand the rhythm to it. And once you do understand it, you kind of see through the matrix and that's like really, really very exciting. I think there's just so much familiar here with all of the like, I mean, some of the and I'm pretty sure that Pink Square motherfucker that like dodges out of the way when you aim at him is the same color and shape and behavior as one of the enemies from Geometry Wars. Like it's it's it will take you back into that that translike state very, very easily. But there's just there's a lot of stuff to do here and it's all really, really very fun. Yes, I agree with all that. The only thing that I will tweak on difficulty is their games are hard and you're not going to enjoy them for a long time until you get good where this game is it's difficult to reach the end. You will be having fun from the drop. It is not about getting to the end of the level for you to like have enjoyment of this game. No, but there are some fun things you unlock by getting the medals, which. Yeah, like there I found myself when I started a little bit frustrated that I couldn't just like do the different modes that I wanted to do because I haven't unlocked enough medals because I can't beat that fucking one boss that sometimes spawn in. Yeah, I kind of wish that there was like a half step more of a baby mode so that people could see more of the game earlier rather than having to like like normal mode feels fucking legit. And I'm sure once you pay it played 20 hours, normal mode will feel easy. And then you're up to a higher mode than that. Yeah. But I do think that people might bounce off a bit based on the difficulty at the jump. If you are willing to, if it sounds like something you want to play, right? Like I actually would suggest playing the campaign at the normal difficulty and bash your head out against it for a while and then switch to the easier difficulty. And it's like Luke Skywalker running around with Yoda on his back and then or go try the ankle weights. And I don't think I I ever tried anything higher than the lowest possible difficulty. Yes, it actually I think when it's like tutorializing, it starts you on experience mode, which is the the lowest difficulty setting. And then there's like the standard one that is like how sectories intended to be played. And it's like not how I intend to play sector because it's beaten my ass down, man. And also, you should hold off from that mode outside of the training that Griffin is talking about, because if you are a score chasing person, the game has not been balanced for that. So you're actually not rewarded for playing the more hardcore mode. If you're trying to like climb the leaderboard, you're going to climb it much faster. Just but if you are a sicko, if you're a sicko like that, you can spend your upgrade points on score points, which is like, yeah, I don't know. And but pretty huge flex. I feel I don't need to be faster or have my guns work better, give myself extra shields or missiles. I just want the points, baby. I was wondering whether that upgrade increased the frequency you're getting other upgrade. I've never gotten it. So maybe it just seems like something for. Yeah, it did seem pretty people who are better at the game. I wish this is one that I keep playing because I want to get better at it. Yeah, that's cool. That doesn't happen to me with a lot of games. So, yeah, sector is a damn a real late late game dark horse. Genuinely, I haven't for sure put it in my top five, but it is a genuine competitor for I'm definitely going to update my top 10 list for sure. I don't know how else it ranks above that. Yeah. I'm really I'm not saying that this is a recency bias game because I agree with that statement, but the sheer number of games that are coming in at the wire that could make a play for the top 10 is. Yeah. Can I read this reader mail from SNES Chalmers who said, I'm surprised no one mentioned Metroid Prime 4 for the list of games still yet to come out that could potentially be contenders for some Cody list, did it slip everyone's mind or are you just not really excited for it? I am excited for it. I have never finished a Metroid Prime game. It's not my favorite way to play Metroid, but, you know, I play all of them. And I think they're solid games. I am excited for this one. I just don't it's coming in so late in the year. I don't I don't know how to be in real with you. I was so certain that game would get delayed at least one more time that I had fully written it out of my brain as a game coming out. I don't like it. It's very late. It's very late. Very late. I'm super duper. I'm this may be an Indiana Jones situation where we have to consider it for contention in 2026 is deliberations because I don't know we haven't scheduled out our recordings for the rest of the year. But this game's out December 4th. So I think we will have time to include it for at least for contention. I think we will have time. Probably not to finish it. I don't know. I will say. But I mean, we're not going to finish every game we put up anyway. Yeah, sure. Finish a bunch of them. But I think it will be something to keep an eye out for. Obviously, we have no idea from a quality standpoint. Is it going to be neck and neck with some of the other games we've talked about? We don't know. But I do like Metroid and you want more of it. Absolutely. Letter from Eric here. Where did you get the idea that Expedition 33 is a personal persona length 70 hour affair? I beat it in under 40 and I'm very slow with games and I played it on hard. How long to beat has it under 30, which is honestly, this is only making me more excited to play more of it. Sure, sure, sure. It's it's Griffin, you beat it, right? Did I did? I logged 51 hours into it. You just bad. Is that what's going on? I did everything. I really I really wanted to do all of this stuff because I was. But I also had a point with it where I don't know. I had grinded my characters out to be these like demigods. And so the challenge wasn't necessarily there so much for me. But there's like a lot of different little odds and ends you can go do. And the story kind of like takes some pretty dramatic twists in the like final act of the game that I feel like you can really only get all of the context for if you go and you do the additional stuff. And so like in doing all that stuff, I played it over 50 hours. So yeah, it's not I mean, it's not personal length, but like. That is I still think a pretty significant amount of time to invest in a in a you know, in a game. Yeah. But it is I will grant you that if you don't want to do all that shit and you do want to play it at a at a lower difficulty, especially you can. That's me. You can definitely blaze through it pretty pretty quickly. While we're on this, I know we did some expectation setting last week. I want to do a little bit more here for exhibition 33, which is I think whatever game wins game of the year this year, there will probably be one person who did not love it. I think that's like basically bound to happen. Yeah. So I would prepare for that, whether that's expedition 33 or any other game, because I can say right now, not super into it. Didn't like you have played in and have not been grooving on it. Yeah, I mean, I was very I think I was the first person to bring it to show. And I was vibing with it at the very beginning, but ultimately I'm just not a big Paper Mario fan. Sorry, that is like what it's like. The yeah, no, it is very Mario in the story ultimately did not click for me. I completely get why it clicks for other people. It wasn't really like what I was searching for. It's a game about grief and I think games about I think any fiction about grief, it's like going to either click with you or it's really not going to. But I also don't think that rules it out at all for the gaudy this year, because I don't think that there is a consensus game. Yeah, actually, Pepe Pepe, Mario. And yes, I agree. I agree with you. I think the ending and sort of like, I don't know. Twist is like not exactly the word I would use, but like where the story goes, I think has been pretty divisive and I I really loved it because I sometimes like a very kind of like, I don't know, philosophical sort of thing. They like a big swing. I like a big swing. I do. I do like a big swing in a story. And I also like people kind of like debating. There's been so much debate about the ending and not in a like Mass Effect 3, this was shit kind of way. But like, you know, people talking about like, which one do you think is the true? What do you think is the real thing? I don't know. I find that stuff really interesting. I think like this, it matters when it hits you because I don't think near-automata is so unlike this in some ways. And I think it hit me at exactly when I needed it. And that's the nature of games that take big swings like these. But I'm so excited for that conversation. Hey, have you guys been playing in anything else? Do anything else? Dude, dude, I think we'll talk about this more on resties, but I need you all to play News Tower. I desperately need you all to play News Tower. This game is so, so good. OK, so News Tower, it is a management sim where you are managing a newspaper in like the 1930s in New York. And you have to build it up while also building up the tower. And it is everything like you are building up the floors. You are buying the desks. You are putting vents in there so people are comfortable. You're assigning out all the stories. You have like a telegram that is letting you know that like, oh, there was a boxer passed away in the rural Midwest. Is that worth covering or do you want to cover these questions about the stock market in New York? Do you want to stay local? You move out through all the different points of New York and New Jersey's neighborhoods. It is so expansive and also genuinely the closest a video game has ever gotten to what it feels like to actually manage a newsroom. Like very, very much like, are you going to choose this story or that story? Here is like the the the the goods and the bads of choosing each. Are you going to choose something that's going to get you a lot of readers but makes you feel gross? Are you going to publish an unfinished story or a story that you did more sources? Like it goes so deep. Well, then also being like, hey, have you have you remembered to hire a janitor because like someone just no dump in the in the closet because you didn't build a bathroom? Look at the look of it. It's it's somewhat I don't know. It's somewhat like a fallout shelter, except everything kind of looks like sort of sticker paper like everything you're putting down the games they've made. And the music is that very I don't know if you ever watch Fantasia 2000, but they have what is the famous? It's just like beautiful, classic New York piano music. Vengebus. Then that was the one that I was looking for. Thank you. It's it is so, so unbelievably good. A Rhapsody in Blue is the name of the song I was looking for. But yeah, I I really hope that you will take a moment to check it out. Also, this might get you on board for a stick. It runs perfectly fine on a Mac laptop. So it's a game. But you do. But it probably doesn't have controller support would be my guess. No, you're going to want to play this with a mouse. Yeah, I definitely want to play with them. But that is enticing that it runs well on a Mac book air because, you know, there aren't enough games necessarily that can push the hardware in that way. Um, I don't know that I have anything necessarily new. I've been playing a lot more Hades to on the on the AYM Thor, which feels does that feel appropriate? No, those are different mythologies. Um, there's there's a different there's a different guy. It's it's I mean, it's pretty fucking great. I still haven't like finished it. I've like finished the routes, but haven't kind of finished the the meta narrative. I guess. But there's so much shit to I have. I am so deeply in the new stuff now. And it's I am glad that I burrowed through kind of the shit I was familiar with because like it's it's definitely got its hooks in me and definitely warmed its way up my list. And just Rachel and I are on the finale of physical Asia, which I know I've also talked about on this program, but really, really, really beats ass. Really fucking cool challenges. Great, like camaraderie and kind of spirit of competition between like the eight different nations represented. And I don't know. I love man. I don't really, aside from, you know, St. Louis Blues hockey, we watch every game of that and I'm familiar with the roster or whatever. I don't find myself being particularly interested in general in the like story of athletics or athletes. Like I don't watch a lot of the 30, 30 for 30, 30 for 30, like all of those things. But there's something about this show and the original physical 100 and especially that final draft show that came out of Japan of just seeing athletes kind of like interact with each other and talk shop in a way that is not like Instagram influencer, like, are you fucking cramming your pro? But just like, I don't know, looking at each other's technique and talking about how like Turkish wrestling, sometimes you actually would send your serum wrestlers over there so they can learn these different. It's just so fascinating. And again, the production value is unrivaled. So I'm definitely enjoying it. If you're listening to this and normally this is a part of the show where we talk about the patron heads up because we are going to be doing a Black Friday sale starting this very day that you're listening to this, which is indeed Black Friday. It's going to be running through Monday. I guess you would call it Cyber Monday. And the sale is a big one. It's going to be we're going to set it up so that it's only one dollar for your very first month of Patreon support on the bottom tier. The tier that includes resties and bracket battles, et cetera, et cetera. And if you want to get the ad free, which includes all that other stuff, it's only two dollars for your first month, which is an absurd. I think it's an 80 percent discount, which is wild to me. But you know what? You think that two dollars is 80 percent off of ten dollars. It's not know that you think you think that two is I think it is eight tenths smaller than ten. Know it in your heart. I don't know it in my heart. I'll be honest, I really have to make sure. Anyway, really big discount going on in theory. If you're not already a member, you can sign up for this. I don't think it works for existing members, but this is for new members. A good way to get people in. Have we talked about with the most recent bracket episode or I guess maybe the next bracket episode will be the one that is coming up this coming Tuesday after you listen to this is a very exciting one. You can see it if you want. Yeah, it's we talked about our favorite aesthetic, basically character creators in games, and it basically kind of turned into like a pretty much every game we talked about was from Monster Factory. So it did turn into a bit of a retrospective on that end also. But yeah, a super duper fun one. I want to send some love to the Liberty Science Center, which is in New Jersey. It's a bit of a drive for me, but some friends were visiting and we synced up with them. And man, if you have a young one with you and you want to have a really great day and you're within spitting distance of the Liberty Science Center, just really great facility, very spacious, didn't feel super crowded even on a weekend, great, like live animal exhibits and fucking dinosaurs. They had a big suit, the T-Rex exhibit going on right now, a giant volcano exhibit, et cetera, et cetera. So I really highly recommend it if you're looking for some kid activities. Amazing. Props for folks over at the Patreon that are already members. Thank you to Adeline, Cartoon Henchman, FourEyed Forecast, and Elias W. Thank you for being patrons over at Patreon.com slash The Besties. It's gifting season. If you want to buy a gift from someone, you can do that. You go to Patreon.com slash The Besties slash Gift, and you can gift your favorite Besties fan a chunk of time as a patron. Get all those bonus features. Thank you all so much. Thank you for listening. Next week. I think we're going to make some fun game awards predictions because next week is going to be right before the game awards happen. Yes. We will not have Metroid. I know that next week Metroid comes out. We will not have it by. Yeah, we're going to be playing that on launch day, which is indeed when that episode would go up. So we'll talk about Metroid the following week. Yes. Game awards, big time of year. So. You know what game we might talk a little bit about? Maybe, maybe, maybe. Can't guarantee this. Routine, which has been in development for I think it's 48 years, 49 years, has been in development forever. The closest indie games have to a Duke Nukemass vaporware game. It is actually coming out on December 4th. It seems very confident that we would be talking about, especially if it's coming out of December 4th. We're not going to be ready for that, but it's going to keep an eye on. Who knows? Game awards predictions. We're definitely going to win the game awards. So join us again for the besties next time it comes out. Because shouldn't the world's best friends pick the world's best games? Besties.