382 - Gremlins 2: The New Batch

Gremlins 2, the new batch. And welcome to Nostalgia, a chronological exploration of every NES game released in North America. I'm Mike. I'm Sean. And I'm Joe. All right. Is there no back of the box? Well, I figured the new batch is like, you know, what are you going to do? You're going to also then attach something to that? Oh, I don't know. Well, did they not? I mean, come on, Mike. You don't have to do it. No, but I guess I'm saying like Gremlins 2.

the new batch feels like the qualifier there. That's just the name of the movie. But I used, well, it's also the name of the game. That's true. I use the back of the box as like some kind of exciting qualifier. Okay. No, it's okay. We don't need to do it anymore. I feel like it was covered, but if you want the real back of the box, it was Gremlins 2.

The new batch. Can you stop the terrifying menace of the gremlins? I kind of just wanted you to stop it. You said the new batch differently. The new batch. I feel like you made it sound like it was a weird thing to request, but that is the thing you've done for the past 400 episodes. Maybe I'm just forgetting how I do the show. That thing you do.

What do I do after that? What do I do after the back of the box? I think it's the essential games list. Yeah, no. Oh, right. The and welcome. Did I do that? You did. That's okay. Huh. All right. Never mind. Instead...

Gremlins 2, the video game, the pitch meeting. Sean, what's your idea for a Gremlins 2 video game? I would be like, maybe we should make a Gremlins 1 video game first. I love it. I guess that's not a thing that we do around here vis-a-vis Goonies. But yeah, I mean, Gizmo's fun. We want to play as Gizmo.

Hell yeah. Kids love Gizmo. I love it. It's in the game. Joe, what's your idea for a Gremlins 2 video game? It's hard now retroactively to come up with an idea now that I have this game in my head. What I hope I wouldn't do, which they didn't do, is like a bunch of weird minigames that are just specifically to get scenes exactly from the movie in it. So maybe it doesn't really answer your question, but I...

I feel like that's what most people around this era would have pitched. And I would pitch this game. Yeah, I'm glad that they didn't release Gremlins 2 games. And it's just caveman games, but with gremlins instead of cavemen. So when was the last time you guys saw Gremlins 2? Right before this episode. In the future. Oh, you did watch it.

Right before this episode, baby. Had you seen it before? I had seen enough. Enough. I had seen enough to know that Gremlins 2 is, as it implies, the new batch, is just like... dialing up everything about gremlins one except for saying well the only way to dial it up is by creating more gremlins like there's just there's a lot of

Different types of gremlins that we never, like, I don't think we ever needed an electricity gremlin or a vegetable gremlin. But, like, there they are. They're in the movie. They are there. I haven't seen it, but I gotta say, Electricity Gremlin sounds pretty badass. Electricity Gremlin is in the game. Joe, did you see Gremlins? No, I saw the original Gremlins when I was a kid. I remember almost nothing about it.

It had a special place in my heart. I had a gizmo. I had the gizmo. Wait, did you have the gizmo that was also actually a Furby? Well, here's the thing. I'm only repeating information that was given to me. My mom would be like, you had a baby gizmo. And I was like, I don't remember having that stuffed animal mom.

She's like, you had it. And so I just have to take her word for it. That's how I feel like when I have kids, I think I'm just going to, when they're like 20, I'll just tell them I got them all kinds of things for Christmas, even if I didn't. Yeah. It's probably going to work. I did own the gizmo that was actually a Furby. It even had the ability to talk to the Furby. Yeah, it was not a Furby. But that also means that...

I got that gizmo in like 1999, like 2000. I guess. Yeah, that's weird. Was Gremlins having a moment? Like they were like, oh, this is perfect. I mean, I guess technically no one ever found out what happens when you get a Furby wet. Oh. Is that true? No one's done it? No, you know what I mean? Does it become a gremlin? Maybe. Did my gizmo have the ability to turn into a gremlin if I said it past midnight? You definitely got your Furby wet.

You definitely spilled that into the pool or something. I don't like the way you said that the first time. I like the clarification. Let's let that hang there for a bit. Moving on to the game.

Do the graphics have any right to be this good? Like I know we've seen good graphics on the NES and we've talked about the cut scenes and certain things, but like the gizmo and the gremlin cut scenes and that. wizard shopkeeper his name is mr wing but whatever he looks like he looks like a wizard uh like those scenes are like i was like did they expand the palette or the color palette or something for the nes like this is those are really striking

Yeah, they look pretty good. I thought you meant the actual gameplay graphics, which are pretty good, but nothing crazy. I'd say as far as the gameplay graphics, they are as...

They are very, very good for what I'd expect a, like, licensed 80s movie video game to be, you know, based on our experience. Maybe I'm just, like, going to use this episode to just talk about how bad most other games based on... movies are well we played a lot of bad ones but it's funny you guys mentioned the uh actual gameplay graphics because that was how i knew immediately i didn't look at a manual or anything just the look of the game

I knew it was a Sunsoft game. They have a look and sound to them in a way that I don't even know if like Konami and Capcom have like the same kind of coherency. Yeah, I get that. Well, one thing that I liked about what they did was they made it very obvious that you are a small animal because you're walking through hallways and the doors are giant.

and um i i get what you mean too just like with the way that they like color things like it there's the way that they do like gradients like it kind of feels the same as like blaster master and stuff yeah I get that. I get that. And they also did the Batman video game, which was, you know...

Tied to the movie as well. So, like, you know, they've got this thing where, like, you know, I recall you guys liking Batman a lot. So they got this thing where, like, they're not phoning in their movie licenses. Yeah, that's for sure. And I think that stood out to me right away with this game, even the way it looks. First of all, while we're talking about being a small little creature, is this the cutest walk cycle we've ever had?

It's a waddle D movement, right? Yeah. Like, he is very, especially when he's walking sideways, it's just like this very adorable little waddle. We haven't seen anything this cute since our Nostalgia Bites episode, Antarctic Adventure, with the penguin. Oh, yeah. Ah, yes, the penguin was quite cute. But yeah, so the game...

uh doesn't do like a side-scrolling platformer with gizmo it does uh the isometric viewpoint but not not really it's more like it's kind of top it's not isometric yeah well you know what i mean right it gives like gizelda Yeah, yeah, but it does give off a good sense of 3D, even though it's not with just the way that it has the shadow under your jump and stuff like that. So, you know, I think those things...

make or break these top-down games, because there's a reason why in Zelda games, outside of, like, maybe Link's Awakening or whatever, like, you don't usually jump in those kinds of games. It's hard to track yourself, but this game, there's a lot of pitfalls and everything, so... What do you guys think when it comes to making a top-down platformer game, right? We usually experience platformers as side-scrollers. Sure, yeah. The platforming in this game...

I'm of two minds about it. The controls are tight. It's one-to-one for sure. And you can control yourself in midair. And you can, if you really mess up a jump... You have enough control to even just like, Oh, I'm going to jump back to where I came from. Now that said, like between a lot of the things that they're doing with the platforms, like it's not just. solid ground and void there's also like conveyor belts and like rolling things and so it can be it can be tough especially when

you're going sideways or sort of like diagonal. And I feel like when you go diagonal, you kind of go at double speed, but that might just be a me thing. No, it's. It's there. It's a little uneven, but it's pretty good. I mostly had overall really positive feelings about the platforming in this.

I think I'm used to top-down games, like you said, either not having a jump or being bad at their platforming. And this felt really good. I did notice a little bit, yeah, there was a little bit of an annoying... feedback difference when I was trying to go diagonally that was like the one part of the of the controlling that like really sort of bugged me but I was overall really impressed with how precise it all felt and and the fact that they they did this thing that a lot of companies

a lot of games don't do which is like you said allowing you to turn back in midair or to change direction in midair completely as easily as you would be able to if you were if you were on the ground and I know that doesn't make any sense like in real life but i think that it took a while for these game developers to realize that like to sacrifice it making sense in real life in order to make it fun and feel good to play and i've i've felt that this

I was very impressed with how this felt as a platformer that is basically letting you move through... you know, what is fundamentally 3D space, even if it's obviously not really 3D, but it's like, you can go in all directions. It's not just a side scroller. So it, I was, I was pleased with the platforming overall. And Gizmo has a projectile.

as his main method of attacking, or his really only method of attacking. I hated that at first. Not that, like, I'm mad that Gizmo had. a gun. It's not really a gun. He starts with a matchstick, right? That's the second thing. That's the first upgrade. Was he throwing a ball or something? It's like a splurge of goop or something. He's spitting on the enemies. Something like that. The leftover wetness that created the Grims.

It's not great at first. I think that the base weapon feels a little frustrating to connect with enemies, and maybe it was just because those tomatoes and spiders in the first level, like... have kind of sporadic movement um and can hop around and stuff so it's not particularly helpful with a projectile uh weapon but it did grow on me later on as you continue to to um when you get a better weapon

Yeah, you get the spread. But once you have more range with it, it feels better. But do you think that was the right call? Should that have been like... a bonus power up like a quick projectile thing and he should have been a melee like is that the right call for gizmo i don't think gizmo It makes sense for him to be in much of a combat role at all. So if you're going to make a game like this, I think you have carte blanche. Do whatever you need to do. Give him a gun. Give him an ammo count.

Yeah, as someone that doesn't know really anything about gremlins or has no attachment to this character, I thought it worked fine. But yeah, I don't know if it makes any sense at all. Yeah, he's like helpless, like in the movies. Yeah. But I do want to circle back to this first projectile. I'm pretty sure that is the reason it feels harder to hit is because it goes in an arcing lobbing motion, which I'm assuming was intentional because...

They want it to feel like you're powering up and they succeeded in that. I do wonder if they succeeded in that by making your next gun feel better or just like maybe a little bit artificially making your first gun feel really bad. Yeah, I think I agree with both, Joe. I think it feels like it's not the right way to handle combat in this game.

at the beginning and then by the end of the game it's like it's fine right it's like cool yeah this is this is what you do and and it's very easy and you've got plenty of different uh ranges of attack and so whatever and plus there's fun other like you know little power-ups you can have for like a hot second like the pogo stick i think that's cute i don't recall gizmo on a pogo stick but sure put him on one yeah if his name's gizmo he can be on a pogo stick and it makes sense

But Sean touched on something that I wanted to get to maybe later, but now feels like a good time too. Yeah, they made Gizmo.

the main character of the game, should they have done that? Or should it have been Billy? No, it should have been Gizmo. But you don't think you should be playing as the scientist trying to stop the gremlins? Nobody remembers the guy. Everyone remembers...

gizmo in the grims so uh i think like having a nondescript uh actor who because i don't even remember who who it was uh as the main character it's just gonna feel like a lot of other games that we play with nondescript main character but this is you get to play as gizmo if maybe not for like a

uh like a gameplay reason at least for marketing like it makes a lot more sense i'm gonna bring in my gremlins expert opinion again as someone who hasn't seen this movie and well first let me ask i mean there are other gremlins that are like good right no no the gremlins are the bad ones Gizmo is a mogwai. Gizmo is a mogwai. And if you mistreat a mogwai or let it get rambunctious, it then spawns gremlins from its body.

Oh, okay. I thought they turned into a gremlin. No, no. Whatever. So there's not other mogwai?

I mean, there might have been in the deep lore in the past, but Gizmo's the only one. Well, then maybe I'll have to amend what my solution was going to be. If they wanted to have... the the human the main character I was going to say like maybe you're collecting Mogwai that are giving you like different abilities but okay if you want if you really wanted to have a human as a main character maybe you are like you have to you have to like You have like a little...

pokemon yellow pikachu mogwai following you that can like do little things or you can switch between them or something well you know they're also like the humans are experimenting on the gremlins in this uh in this movie now and kind of create a lot of of the new gremlins that we didn't know existed in the gremlins universe, like the big brain gremlin who gets so smart that he can speak English. All that to say, yeah, maybe it could have been you play as the Christopher Lee character.

And you're doing like a Pokemon style, catching gremlins, battling other gremlins, making your way to the Gremlin World Championships. No, no, no, no. Of course not. The only other way this game would work. Now, I don't even just mean like a Pokemon. I mean, just like playing as a human being. The only other thing that would make a game called Gremlins 2 work would be as if you played as gremlins and were terrorizing humans. That would be fun.

I just wanted to mention that Christopher Lee was in the movie. That's true. Count Dooku is in the movie. Saruman. And some of the wise. But yes, I agree. Fine. Gizmo will concede. He's the right choice for a Gremlins 2 video game where it's a top-down action platformer and you have to fight other Gremlins. Sure.

So the other gremlins that you fight, they are the bosses of the game, and they are the various new gremlin forms. Before we talk about fighting those gremlins, Just walking through like the levels, it does follow like areas that are in the movie. So it is it is like even though there's no cut scenes, it is telling the story or at least showing you this.

It gestures at the story. Yes, it gestures at the story. You start in the lobby, then you're in the labs, eventually making your way to the TV studio. The weird thing is, is that, like, obviously being in, like, a laboratory. doesn't really open itself to like any exciting gameplay for Gizmo. So the environmental hazards and obstacles that they kind of like put in your way don't really like...

they don't really work with the environment. What do you mean, like lava? Yeah, you know what I mean? It's like, why is there lava here? Or an office building with a bunch of spikes. Yeah, conveyor belts. Yeah. Yeah, conveyor belts and all that. It's like, I get it. It needs to be done to... gamified the whole thing and i'm not asking for them to tone it down just pointing out that that you know did feel it did feel like a weird stretch uh for like what it could have just been

you know, like fully embrace the zaniness, which I guess they did in some ways because they're in the movie. They make a really strong tomatoes that like you can bounce like tennis balls. And of course. One of the gremlins eats the or drinks the tomato serum and then becomes a vegetable gremlin. That was the one I mentioned earlier. So now there's big tomatoes that you have to fight in the first level.

They put their best foot forward because it's like one of the first enemies you see in the game. Yeah, so they're letting you know that they also did their homework and watched the movie. See, we watched the movie. We watched the movie. The tomatoes are core element and theme to the movie. But yeah, there is an emphasis in the game besides like... fighting enemies. It's almost more platformer than action, right? There's a lot of, again, I'm going to say verticality, even though it's...

You know, it's not side-scrolling. There's a lot of traps, pitfalls. Joe mentioned the lava, conveyor belts. It is really a movement-based game more than an action game. Yeah, especially later. in the game when almost every surface that you're on turns into some kind of movement puzzle. That's a strong word. Puzzle's a strong word, but it seems like you can't let your guard down in these lighter levels.

Because you're always on a conveyor belt, or you're always dodging, like, a swinging mace. So, it's kind of overwhelming. Like, I was very bad at these.

I was also pretty bad at these, but compared to most other games that try to do this kind of thing, I feel like I wasn't as bad. You know, like, I feel like this felt... fair and I felt like I could learn it and I felt like I did to a decent point I only got to like stage four the very beginning of it and that's when I really started to like lose my mind and and die but like I feel like given more time like this feels much more beating this game

feels more attainable than a lot of other nes platformers to me uh especially like enemy like enemy ridden platformers like yes i mean part of that is because such a it is a very short game too yeah right Right. I agree with that, Joe. Also, because like the bosses aren't cheap or anything. In fact, even most of the enemies are are not something that like they're not cheaply designed or they don't rush at you in a way that makes you lose health often. It's more like.

You know, you have to just be cautious with Gizmo. You know, you almost have to play a little more defensive and not rush through. Or I guess like if you're good at the game, just rush through these things as we don't have to deal with fighting them. Uh, but like the bosses are also like, I don't know. They're, they're fun. I like these, the, you know, these gremlin boss battles and they just, yeah, they kind of just take place in a space, which just you and the gremlin.

and that gremlin's specific abilities, but it's not, I don't know, I didn't need like some big epic battle. I feel like it does feel kind of cool of this one-on-one fight with the gremlins when they finally arrive. They all have great art. There isn't, there just isn't really that much like mechanically happening aside from kind of the electric one, which I found more annoying than fun because you can't really.

You can kind of, in general, know where his projectiles are going to go, but it kind of gets random feeling, and I didn't appreciate that. Yeah, the bosses at least look cool. And there is a reason to kill enemies outside of the bosses, and that is, of course, the crystal balls that you collect in order to buy things at the shop from Mr. Wing. There's two ways to design these kinds of games. We've often seen where you shoot the enemies, take them down, and then they drop said power-up or said...

you know, like one up or a certain amount of points or whatever, and then those things help you. Is it better to handle it with the randomness that way and encourage you to, you know, try different enemies? Or is it better this way where it's like everybody just has a set?

currency amount, and then you just take that to the shop and redeem exactly what you want. I'm not sure which one is better. I guess it depends on what you want to design, but I do think that this game, you know, does the latter. But it does it in a weird way where it's not like, oh, okay, kill as many enemies so I can get enough currency to buy the things I want. Because really, after like the first or maybe the second level...

You're going to have all the money you need. Yeah, it's a broken economy. Yeah, when you go to the shop... you can only buy one thing no matter what. Unless I missed some way to reopen the shop. Every time you come across a shop, you can only buy one thing. So it's not really about money management. It's more about like...

You get basically like every time you come across a job, you get like one ticket to buy one thing. So it's more about managing what you're buying. Yeah. I just think like they, maybe they didn't intend it to be that way, but that's how it works out. Yeah. Cause having a. like a price is, is moot. If you know, you're always going to have enough to buy the most expensive thing.

um so the priority is usually like you gotta get your spread shot and then if you the next time you see it you're gonna want to heal whenever you want uh i guess you could buy balloons too i forgot what the balloons do um Do you guys remember what the balloons do? Don't they stop you when you fall in a pit? They give you one free. Oh, yeah, that's true. Yeah, they act like the...

The Yoshi baby mode on some of the Mario games now where Yoshi can't die if he falls in a pit. He just comes back. It's the same thing. Well, good, because Yoshi always got the shit on that stick. Yoshi cannot die. Right. Yeah. It's canonically true. And also speaking of the shop and everything, like the things you buy from the shop are like, you know, restoring your health and extra life. The cool stuff like the pogo stick.

you you you get those in the environment so yeah you know it's not like you can hold on to that kind of stuff buy it now and be like oh i'll save this for the boss fight or something like that doesn't happen i think that the boss is

Like, I know we kind of went over them. There's, yeah, again, like not too mechanically much going on. But I don't even think the bosses were that hard compared to just... the knockback of getting hit by an enemy, especially in those later levels we were talking about because there just is so much void. But I guess, yeah, now that we're talking about items...

That's where those balloons come into play. So it's kind of balancing itself out there. And those boss fights or even just moments of you've arrived at your destination.

for whether you pick up a new item or enter a boss fight, for the most part, they don't feel like you've reached the end of anything. The game just kind of like... starts playing music and and uh yeah yeah you're just you're just there now and it's like okay that's fine but what was really jarring is the final boss battle uh it's just like a it's like a cut to black and then you're just in The fight with, I don't know, whoever the final gremlin dude is. But he's in his robot mech thing.

And I guess that took a lot of pixel work or whatever. So there's no background. So it's just like you were doing one thing and then you just like automatically are transported into this. you know, black hole space fighting this other, you know, and we've seen that in shmups, but in shmups, I guess it's more like, well, at least I'm in space. Yeah. You know, now it's just like, I've entered some weird gremlin void where the gremlins and I,

only exist and nothing else. Oh, there was no cutscene before that? No cutscene that leads into it. Yeah, just cuts right to the fight. Yeah, not even, like, there's not even, like, a door, right? No, yeah, well, there's never a door, I guess was what I was saying, right? Right, that's true.

They left out doors in this game. Yeah. But they didn't drop any... any balls on the music though the music is fantastic and i know i said sunsoft is known for having great tracks but i did this was one of those games where like i did want to uh keep getting uh by to see the new stage music

Oh, I completely agree. I mean, every stage had a banger. I think it was one of the last ones I played, so it might be 4-1 or 3-2 or something like that, but one of those was just... really playing on loop in my head afterwards i'll have to look it up and it's hard for an 8-bit game but like you know the the movie although we might not have made it sound like it to joe i just want to say you know the movie is a comedy

Uh, it, it's like, it has horror elements, but it's not scary in any particular way. Uh, it's a, it's a, you know, it's, it's funny. Maybe even like a little, um, satirical towards scary film it's it's very uh irreverent sure but like the game doesn't achieve any of that i don't i'm not sure how it could Maybe with those amazing graphics and the cutscenes, it could have had a little moment to hear it in. I feel like it tries. Even in the very beginning, the title screen, I mean. You got...

You've got the gremlin wearing, like, street clothes, and it's like, oh, they're going to try and get that vibe, and then they don't really do that. Yeah. I guess it's hard to do. I don't have any ideas off the top of my head, but I just think...

Even if the gremlins in the boss fights would have been a little more, like, cheeky at the player. I mean, like, you know, the movie breaks the fourth wall with Hulk Hogan. So why can't the game? Where is Hulk Hogan in this game? Yeah, why wasn't Hulk Hogan? Yeah. Joe, were you expecting Hulk Hogan? I was expecting Hulk Hogan, yeah. I didn't know if he was in the movie in any way. I just was expecting. I was like, it's been 370 episodes and we're going to have Hulk Hogan soon.

On the sequels and spinoff side, there was another Gremlins 2 game. I'm sure there's another Gremlins game somewhere, but I only looked into Gremlins 2 games. Another Gremlins 2 game released for... DOS. Was that just like Microsoft, right? Like Windows? That is Microsoft DOS. Yeah, it just feels weird to call it DOS. It's like it was released on PC. And that was a year later, but it was poorly received. And do you know why?

Because it wasn't Gizmo? Hell yeah, brother. You play as Billy. See? No one wants to do that. It is so boring. You're like pest control trying to like clean up and track down the gremlins. There's like a map on the screen. You're in like the laboratory and you can see a map where the gremlins are and you have to like go find them.

while you're searching through office cubicles and shit. It's like, nobody wants that. But a game where you're catching gremlins and having them battle each other eight years before Pokemon? Nobody wants that, Mike. I'm surprised that there isn't like, is there like a Pokemon Gremlin? There should be like a, you know, like when he evolves, if you like.

If you treated him poorly, he evolves into an ugly-looking creature. But if you treated him... I guess that does exist. That is what a gremlin is. No, I know, but I guess I was saying a Pokemon, right? Is it melodic? A gremlin Pokemon, you mean? Yeah, what about... It's a newer one. I'm looking it up. Impedimp and Morgrem. Impedimp? Impedimp. They like are gremlin based. I don't know if they treat them poorly, but they...

They're like little gremlins. Sean, we're at like 1,000 Pokemon. You can just say a name and it's probably a Pokemon. Impa Dimp is 859. How about Bunga Bunga? Bunga Bunga, yeah. Who could forget the caveman Pokemon? But cavemen didn't talk like that. How do we know? Cavemen were actually probably smarter than us. I'm just going to throw it out there. They didn't waste their time making podcasts. That is true.

We are an inferior being. Any other comments about Gremlins 2? The concept of Gremlins? I feel like I'm really surprised. Not that there weren't more video games or that we didn't get Gremlins 1 on the NES or anything. I just feel like it's kind of surprising Gremlins isn't still around, like getting killed to death.

franchise reboot. It's only a matter of time. I'm sure there will be like a 3D animated like Smurfs-esque Gremlins movie at some point soon. But I have a question about Gremlins. This is always something that like... I'm not clear on because it's been so long since I've seen the movie, but you can't feed the gremlin after midnight.

You can't feed the mogwai after midnight. The mogwai. That's what I mean. Joe, Joe, you keep getting tripped up. The gremlins are already. They're from the point of no return. This is decades of. me believing this i'm trying to undo right now that the gremlins are these cute things um it's like you know it was it was dr frankenstein that was frankenstein's mom yeah yeah yeah but is there something where you can't get it you can't get them wet

Yeah, you can't spill water on them. So both of those things will cause them to spawn gremlins? Yes, exactly. It just seems like just make it one of those things. No. No. Oh, okay. Fair enough. Yeah. And if you spill water on any of us, it forms the Essential Games list.

All right, so I'm going to be honest here. I like gremlins, mostly because I owned a gizmo doll that was kind of like a Furby. And I took good care of it. Never really got it to do anything. Would love to do a whole tangent thing on Furbies. Like, could you actually ever... teach them English that was like a rumor I don't think that's true but that's not like you know my affinity and nostalgia for gremlins can't possibly play a role because that's not the point of this podcast

So I went in actually with low expectations because as Joe alluded to throughout his many comments on the show, we've been having some pretty bad movie tie-ins. I should have known though. Sunsoft. You've done it again. You make good games, but mostly just play it. And I think that's where I'm winding up with Gremlins 2 here as well. I really enjoyed my time with it, but I'm not like...

I'm not seeking to go back with it outside of, you know, reviewing it for this show. I guess I was just more surprised at how competent and pleasant. it performed as a game like it was like oh gizmo's fun to be and uh the the challenges is like the right amount of like it's hard but it's but it's achievable so i you know these are like things that are like

Actually kind of low praise when you think about it, but at this point in the catalog, it becomes high praise because we play so many bad games. So I'm settling in at Gremlins 2 is a play it. And a solid play it as that, but doesn't quite reach the threshold of essential. Sean? Yeah, I agree. There's a lot of polish here, but it is still half-baked at its core. But, you know, you play as Gizmo, you fight the gremlins. What's not to like? It's just not a lot to love. So, yeah, not essential. Joe.

I also was very surprised at this. I mean, I guess you alluded to the fact that I alluded to this fact already, but I was very surprised that this was such a competent game. But I do think as I played it, you know, I recognized... how polished it is and how well designed, I mean, not just the look of it is, but also the gameplay, the music is beautiful. And there are so many games on the NES that even games that I love.

that I have to go into it with this, like, I gotta put, like, sort of the glasses on of, like, I'm gonna see this through the lens of, like, remember, this is an NES game, it doesn't have all the, like, modern, uh...

you know, luxuries that we might have now. It might not feel as good as a modern game. And then I love it for that. This game, I don't feel like I had to do that as much. Maybe with a few things, but like, this felt like a game that I would just sit down and play today. And I think I would revisit this. I'm a little bummed because I have no power here, but I am going to vote at Essential. I really thought this was a hit for me. I'm going to throw my feeble little vote towards Essential.

You've made your statement. That's all I needed. You know what's funny? This is the second time that a Sunsoft movie-licensed game... has gotten a last-ditch Essential Games list vote. Sean did the same for the Batman game, actually. He was last to speak and said he's also going to throw out Essential. Hey, maybe we can make some deals offline.

line when Mike's not around. That's pretty corrupt. What are we if not corrupt? I was actually thinking, Joe, that you were going to suggest a Batman The New Batch game. Yeah, if we combine them, they're essential. It's kind of like a Pokemon game, but instead of Batman, you play as Gizmo in the Batman world. Everybody wants to play as Electricity Batman.

I want a Batman game where you just play as, what's his name, the butler. Alfred? Yeah, Alfred, and you just tell Batman where to go. Now you said Alfred. Like Alfredo. That is his name. No, I said Alfred. You did. I couldn't tell if that was on purpose or not. I don't think I usually say that, but because I said it, now I'm unsure. Oh, so that wasn't on purpose? That slipped out? Well, that's what I'm saying. It's kind of like Mario Mario. I used to say it one way, now I say it the other way.

just uncertain what made me choose. There is no universe where it's supposed to be Alford. That's true. Whereas I can understand mispronouncing Mario and Mario differently. Just as somebody who's famous for mispronouncing things, I just feel like maybe Alford could catch on now. What did I used to say? Mario, right? You did say Mario. Mario caught on for a while, and there are still people around me in my circles who say Mario. Why can't Alfred become a big thing? Bye. Outro Music