Switch 2 Launch, State Of Play Highlights, Fantasy Life i

You You Hello everybody and welcome to a new episode of the MinMac Show, a place about games, friends, getting better. My name is Ben Hanson and I'm thanking you personally for being here with us today on this in-studio episode. I'm joined, of course, by Jeff Marchiafava at the end. That's me. And the dog pound. We're joined by Leo Vader. Hi. Sometimes I really clock how close our faces really are to each other. It's like under a foot.

Yeah, you can really see a lot of Leo, everybody. If only you could see what I'm seeing. We're joined by Sarah Pazorski. Hello.

suspiciously far away from my notes. I know, I've been demoted. I'm second chair now. Did it feel like an attack? Oh, you think it's like a band thing? I used to be first chair and not, well, it's like I used to be at your right, your right hand, and I've been demoted to second chair. You'd be allowed to first chair, but like if you're playing the clarinet on first chair, you're not just leaning over.

reading the notes from the person next door. You usually share a music stand. We are here to talk about all things in a busy week of gaming. We, of course, have the big launch of the Nintendo Switch 2! Yes! On the damn table. This isn't some replica. This isn't some model 3D printed by some accessory company trying to squeak by Nintendo's lawyers. This is the real gosh darn deal.

And on this very episode, we're also talking about PlayStation State of Play. Highlights from that that happened earlier as well. We have reaction streams for that on MinMax's YouTube channel. We also have our launch day stream for the Switch 2. Which we just did. We just wrapped it up. So you can watch us. play switch to get used to the system all that stuff for was it four hours or so play the whole launch lineup

We devoured the launch lineup. But then also in this episode we're talking about Fantasy Life Eye. We are talking... The girl who steals time. The girl who steals time. Little respect on it. And then also we're talking about The Last of Us Part 2.

Not this HBO show, but a little version of it that Leo is dead set on talking about. And I'm excited for him to return to because he's talking about the roguelike mode. No return. Last of Us Part 2. Wait, are we not talking about Night Rain? And of course, Sarah Pudgers. Because you guys talked about it last week. week when only one person had played it. Would not have it any other way. We're talking about Night Raid! Another Raid in this episode! Fun day.

Does it feel like at Energetica time in the game industry? Does it feel momentous on Switch 2 launch day as we're recording this? It's a confusing timeline. Yeah? On social media right now. Oh, just politics and Switch 2 and SGF. Politics, Switch 2 and SGF stuff, and it's... it just feels kind of messy i don't know like normally i love when a bunch of stuff happens at once right right but at this time i'm like

Wait, I need to like digest one thing at a time, please. Let me sit in my bed on Reddit for like three hours and just think for a while. That's how most great minds do their thinking, I believe. But.

Here's the thing, everybody. SGF, if you're tuning into this and you're saying, why aren't they talking about the big reveals at SGF, all that fun stuff, we're going to be talking about that next week on the podcast from actually the Summer Game Fest Showcase. Did you see that Lucy James is co-hosting that with Jeffrey Lee? Yeah. Cool.

that tickled my heart it felt like oh my god we did it like i felt a weird sense of victory about like i know her it felt like an obvious choice you're like yes of course yep but it's still a great choice for sure can't wait to see that and so we're going to talk about that next week along with recaps of all the conferences we're doing reaction streams

min max's youtube channel and then the studio in the studio the big one uh that's right yeah we're gonna be a stream in the reaction stream in the min max studio on friday on youtube if you're gonna check that out but then kelsey and jacob and janet are actually out in la

at Summer Game Fest now going to these shows, glad handing with developers, playing hot games and all that stuff. So we're going to have them on in the future to talk about their experience as well. And they're also making a video showing off what an entire event is like for you. So I hope you all enjoy that when that eventually air.

in a while but if you were watching this or listening to this thank you we do have a special promotion if you want to directly support independent games media you can do it right now before june 9th if you jump in and support us at the five dollar tier you get this podcast completely ad free and available one day early every single week

And on top of that, you get bonus pod. You get the podcast version of The Deepest Dive. You get a ton of great stuff in there. And then also, until June 9th, here's what we got for you. We have a Steam code for Star of Providence. One of my favorite games from 2025. Do you remember Animal Well, Jeff? Of course I do. From Dunkey's publisher, Big Mode there.

I do. That's right. It was a big hit. Star of Providence came out this year. It is that same publisher, their next game that they're publishing after Animal Well. He picked another good one. He picked another great one. The reviews on Steam are overwhelmingly positive, so don't take our word for it, but you could take our word.

for it by jumping back a couple months on the podcast where we were raving about it. Before anyone even knew. That's right. But it's a fantastic game and you can get that game, play the heck out of it, and support independent games media at the same time by jumping in at that $5 tier.

on Patreon. We'll DM you on Patreon with that Steam code, or you can jump up from the $2 tier to the $5 tier. We'll also DM you that code. And here's the thing, available through June 9th, we have 200 Steam codes to give away, so check social media for availability if we run out.

we will ring the bells and scream it everywhere we got and say, we're out, we're out, don't come anymore. But as of right now, you are good to go for getting a Steam code for Star of Providence. Thanks to Big Mode for passing those on. I'm excited to partner with them for this. It's a great game. Now. Yeah. Let's get to it. Speaking of great games. Welcome tour. Period. Sarah, switch to that. Very exciting times. You woke up at.

I don't want to call you out for what time you normally wake up at, but your door was, your doorbell was ringing at six in the morning. They didn't ring my doorbell, but I was like really nervous because we got, well, I got my Switch via Walmart. Yeah. And.

The rumors were like, it's going to come before 9 a.m. Like, don't worry about it. And then it felt like kind of like Squid Games where like a couple of days before people's switches were getting canceled and they had to repurchase it. And I could hear that Squid Games like, dude. I called Walmart. I called my bank. I was like, this has to show up. And then it said, like, it's going to come before 10 p.m. And I'm like, OK, well, there's a lot of.

hours before 10 p.m. in a day. And yeah, literally, I didn't get up until like 9, and I got my email at 6.30, and it was like, there's switches outside, and I was like, oh boy! My switch is outside, and it was just sitting on my front porch in a Walmart bag. The Switch 2 accompanied with a can of cheddar and sour cream Pringles and a bottle of Coke.

after Ben had driven across town before he woke up to get one. Wasn't even awake yet. Oh my God. Yeah, I woke up because we didn't know when yours was coming. I wanted to get that stream done, but yeah.

Insomniac's James Stevenson shout out. He's like, hey, I got an extra and I showed up at like 6 a.m. Like, all right, I'm driving down there. It's a long haul. And all you had to do was slowly drive past my house. That's right. Just to double check. I could have just stolen off your porch like a gentleman. Wow. But then he's like, oh, yeah, also came with a... bottle of coke and a can of hot ones pringles i was like this has to be a bit what is this and knowing that

Walmart deliveries, they all came with a Coke and Pringles? It feels like a weird social experiment to me. I love it. It is surprisingly charming from a corporation to be like, hey, here you go. We understand. We're on the same page here. I don't believe they would give me anything free. Right.

So I'm like immediately suspicious, right? Because it came, the Switch 2 came via the grocery delivery. And I'm like, did they have to put groceries in it to make it a grocery delivery? Or are you just clearing inventory and no one wants these cheddar, sour, green, fringles? That's interesting. I hope somebody gets to the bottom of that. It's a great question. Coming soon-ish. Tomorrow, supposedly, according to Best Buy and FedEx.

We'll see. Okay, that sounds great. And then yours, Leo? I got the direct for Nintendo option because I meet all the criteria because I'm a super fan. Sorry, gamer. Lock it in. So I don't know when that's coming. Suriel hasn't sent me the tracking number yet.

It's gonna be exciting, man, from his account that it was purchased from. Okay, so you all got to touch a Switch 2 for the first time today. It's sitting right here in front of us. Give me first reactions, seeing it, touching it, feeling it. Give me some hot scoops here. Smooth? Genuinely, the feel of it is the best part. Yeah. It's like so thin and light but sturdy. I think it's a huge improvement form factor wise. Yeah.

The magnets are really cool. Like I think connecting and disconnecting is so much easier than it was previously. Yeah. But some of the accessories, like especially that little mouse foot. Some of them are just a little finicky. Yeah, it's like the wrist strap thing you slot on from the Joy-Cons on Switch 1. That is what the new mouse is. And definitely better than that, where I feel like it's locked in and cemented in if you happen to do it the wrong way on the Switch.

which one is such a janky rail system. So I do think that magnet stuff is a huge improvement, even if it is... wonky but then again it's like if you don't put on the mouse foot as we know that it's called thanks for welcome to her it's just like the mouse is like slightly wobbly not a huge way but it's just like 20 better with this little strap thing you put on it that has the the strap for your wrist and stuff

For simple eShop browsing or whatever, it's plenty fine without it. Maybe for shooters, you need it more. Leo, a lot to unpack here. Yeah. As a big PC gamer. That mouse. How are you feeling about it? It seemed like you and Jeff and we're like, okay, picking up. Fine in the menu. Yeah. Yeah. And then there were some specific welcome tour games designed to show off the mouse. Right. that control terribly, and I'm not sure why. It's about precision, and it just exists to prove that...

It's not a very good mouse. It's to disprove me that I'm liking it initially. There's three mouse settings. Low, medium, high. Low, medium, high. What else do you want? Every mouse should have. That's all you need. I do prefer that to different vertical and horizontal and aimed scopes.

sensitivity and stuff you know i guess i would take one simple setting but it really just felt like slow fast and unusable but like you know in the future like game specific stuff like i know metroid prime 4 had like game specific mouse settings whereas welcome tour i don't think it's going to customize that in a huge way for you

little aim assist that metroid obviously historically has and i'm sure a lot of shooters will it'll be totally fine but it's like built around doing something super precise super fast is just humiliating for the console. Okay, so you can check out our archive on our YouTube channel of us playing for the opening moments. Everyone laughed at me and said, welcome to our big joke. Haha, Ben Hansen likes weird stuff. Let's see how it goes.

Hey, everybody, time-lapse those faces with two hours of us playing Welcome Tour and two hours of us playing Mario Kart. Yeah. You tell me which game got more laughs and smiles. I was talking to Leah about this. The energy shift between Welcome Tour and Mario Kart was insane. The drop off. I was like, what happened? The dopamine just stopped. Here's the question.

How much of it was ironic energy about... Oh, it was... It was the total... 100%. And, of course, in a group, yeah. I was going to say, like, 15%, maybe? No. It was absolutely... The absolute sheer audacity and ridiculousness.

Yeah. That thing's a disaster. It's a disaster. It's a disaster. It does not work. 100% a disaster. The edutainment stuff is fine. Right. That could have been... you know one little thing put in a larger package where it's like hey do you want to learn about the insides of what this thing works how hd rumble actually works how the microphone is like noise canceling that kind of the fact that they blew that out into like

A hundred different things that you have to go through in order to continue progressing to get to the like sparse mini games that just universally suck ass.

Like, and I don't get, like, this downward trajectory that Nintendo has been on with their mini games. Like, Mario Party, they made good games for Mario Party. Wii Sports was... phenomenal and then it's like okay i guess we'll do one two switch crap which is like smaller mini games that aren't very fun and don't have any depth and now we're to the point where one of the last games we played which were we were all felt blessed that we stuck with it

long enough was showing off the mouse and the game quote unquote of it was move the cursor over and click on a bullseye, which is the same as clicking on an icon with a mouse on your desktop, only it controlled like ass. Yeah, but you didn't have a timer. We had to do it in like sub two seconds. Like if this was some of these mini games in Welcome to, which by the way, this is the game that it's $10 and you're a little character running around on top of the Switch 2.

I know some might say it's odd to lead with Welcome Tour, but I think it's a fascinating, weird little thing. Running around on top of it, and you pay $10, and it's a guided tour with some minigames and a bunch of tech demos. Yet, you see Leo shaking those maracas.

feeling as if there's little beans that was honestly that was one of the first things that we did and like when i came here i was excited to look at welcome tour because i figured i'm not going to spend ten dollars on it on my own and so like i'll get to

To see what it is and what it's actually worth. And it was around the Morocco time that I was like, hmm, maybe I do have to buy this because this could be interesting. And then it was just off a cliff after that point. And I like the rest of the time I was like, I am. so happy that I never have to think about this thing again once we are out of here. I feel like my favorite minigame was the one where you had to take the Switch out of the dock.

And they would show you a degree angle with a protractor. And then you would have to, using the little prop-up bar, set the switch at that angle. and it would tell you how many degrees you were off that angle. Easy to dunk on saying, why would I pay 10 bucks for this at the same time? All these fantastic critics out there, all these nerds, fans of Nintendo saying, we want weird Nintendo, we want weird Nintendo.

This is one of the oddest Nintendo releases. I also want, like, actual games. Oh, you want games from Nintendo. Okay, you want everything. All right, you want your cake and you want to eat it too. It's just like, it is like, ask ChatGPT. to make you a Flash game or an HTML5 game, and it will make something more complex than this. It is...

It's depressing that it comes from Nintendo. Every minigame is supposed to show it off. It's like you would not guess it's a Nintendo game in a million years. It's supposed to show off the new hardware. I think the music might be the center of the year. Did you hear him say the music's kind of chill? Yeah, sure. The music is nice. Aha! I rest my case, ladies and gentlemen. You're absolutely right. It is, I think, a real mark of if you're drinking the Kool-Aid here is people being like...

I think the mouse has a game changer on the switch. Like maybe the game eventually will show up where it is a game changer from, you know, the preview event I went to and everything I played today. Like. Literally, it feels like the Macintosh 1984 launched with that game where it's like you move the mouse to like dodge the mines coming through. And that was one of the best games. And that would have been forgotten about in an hour. The launch of the Macintosh when the mouse really came.

out in a big way right yes and the fact that in 2025 it's like hey mouse games you're moving a cursor and clicking on your target it is it is wild and the the other frustrating thing about that is like

If they had put some actual time into making a more interesting game, like, it would have sold the hardware more, you know? Right. Like, part of... what made Wii Sports so good like it didn't control like most of those games in Wii Sports didn't control very well and they had calibration issues and stuff but there was a charm to it and there was a depth that made people want to keep coming back to it and all of a sudden it was like oh the Wii

moat is absolutely amazing how much how much would you be turning that frown upside down you'd become like the joker after the toxins kick in if this was free impact in it would have been better okay it wouldn't have been Like it wouldn't have pissed off the entire community to begin with and felt like, why isn't the, why isn't a welcome tour? A free thing. And half of it is quizzes about the hardware that you want people to pay for. Okay. I hear you.

At the same time, I like it. Even if it had been free, it still would be a major letdown, though. Like, in terms of gameplay, sure.

in terms of gameplay i think just the oddities of like let's go inside and look at the chips and circuit board for the joy con and talk a little bit about the engineering if they had actual like quotes from the nintendo engineers that would have been in my shop 10 you know like if it was like a dev room from chrono trigger but it was just them talking about like all right here's a funny story behind solder in this part

but it is like 10% of that if that had been part of a package of something else with some like quality mini games that did a good job being a demo but also like forcing you to go through and read all the things to do the quizzes and having to find all the stamps in order to unlock the next area also like just completely kills it where it's like if you

If you just want to run around on the top of a Switch 2 and look at the buttons and stuff or go inside it to look at what's inside. Yeah. Like you can't do that. until you walk across the entire left Joy-Con, and then the entire right Joy-Con, which is the same f***ing thing mirrored, and it's... individual worlds in this game. Like trying to force that into an experience that you have to 100% in order to go to the next part just like kills the novelty of it.

of what like most people are going to come to it and would probably be a little interested and like would look at some stuff and be like okay that's kind of cool that's interesting yeah now i'm skating across you know the the surface of the screen and stuff that's kind of fun like like they would spend like 10 minutes with it instead of the mandatory three hours that they want for you and like doing the fucking quizzes about it.

You can go, like, I want to learn about the Switch for a little bit. I want to just play minigames. It's like you can't. We wanted to find new minigames and that we were gated by not having earned enough medals in the...

couple minigames you start with. And the issue for me is that, like, visually, the Switch 2 looks like the Switch. I know what the Switch looks like. I've been looking at the Switch for years and years. You're not like, what is this down button? And then they're like, don't you want to run on the Joy-Con and the screen? And I'm like, I know what it looks like.

I know what it looks like. Like, if this was, like, a totally different wonky-looking console, I feel like they could have maybe sold it to me a little bit better. But this looks the same as the other one! And it is...

I agree. It is charming and wonderful. Nobody said that! No, I agree. You're right. You're right. But those moments where it's like, okay, we're also going to gate you by the accessories you have. And we're playing on like a 1080p in the studio, 1080p TV. And it's like, all right, this is going to test the 4K stuff.

They called us out live. You need to connect your 4K TV real quick before you can play this. I would love to see actual data for Switch 2. What percentage of people playing Switch 2 do you think have a 4K TV?

You think we're at 50% yet in society for like overall people buying Switch 2? I'm sure it's a lot lower than any of the other consoles. Yeah. Like this is not the one that you get for 4K. It's great that it does 4K. Right. But like. 120 Hertz. You want to play that framerate game. You got to.

Crank that sucker up, man. A frame rate game. Hey, there was a game about, yes! Identify the frame rate. I've never played anything like it! Watch these two animations and tell us which one is at 120 hertz. That's not a game! It's $10. It's a weird novelty. It's $10. Buy an actual game. We've got to stop acting like our time isn't a currency as well.

You're spending... I want to listen to Ben defend it a little bit more, though. I'm going to take pictures like a serial killer of you all during that stream and send it to you and say... You're having a good time. You're having fun? No denying that. We can have a good time. Nintendo smiles on Nintendo faces. Every one of you. Yes.

Half of it was us laughing at how terrible it is. That's like the thing when like, when like, you know, a news outlet gets a headline completely wrong and they're like, well, people are talking about it though. So like, that's kind of the most important thing. Like, this is interesting though.

It's interesting. It's weird. It's different. No one's ever done it because it's so stupid, but it's different. I don't like Souls games. Typically, the most fun I've ever had playing them is doing hot seat, passing it off with friends. That just, like, injects fun into...

absolutely any activity, even as something as universally hated as Souls games. I don't... What? I'm just saying, you can make anything fun with a group of people. It is... We're saying we're really fun people, and you're lucky that we played with you. I... Would you play this by yourself alone? Oh, yes. Oh, yes. It is telling that you have to play it alone. Because there you're like, oh, if there's a two player version of these mini games, it would be something. It would have been really fun.

It would have been the minimal effort. And the fact that you can't just go somewhere and play all the minigames. What if I just wanted to... have a screen with all the minigames and then I just scroll through them that way. Maybe if you get through all the different parts and you find every lost item that people have forgotten in the world and you take back to the desk one at a time. So that's the Switch 2, everybody. PlayStation had a

big state of play uh no uh the console itself a couple couple thoughts is like unboxing it it's very nice packaging it's lovely sarah you don't like the curve on the dock i don't it's a little black and rugged the whole thing the entire thing is just dark and i guess i never I shouldn't have taken the Switch colorful Joy-Cons for granted. Because when you look at this thing, you're just like, huh. It's quite literally like the black box. There will be cool ones later.

Yeah, I hope so. It shows fingerprints pretty bad, too. Yeah, I'm wondering just how greasy my fingers are. It's mainly the Pringles probably coming through on that front, yeah. But no, it's like, there's simple things that I forgot about. Like, oh yeah, there's an Ethernet port now on the back.

That's nice. And like a whole back screen, you kind of like a back thing you can detach to get the Ethernet core cable in there, which is handy. Yeah. The boot up process for like transferring to switch one stuff was super easy. There was like super peaceful little chill music as it was transferring over and all that fun stuff.

I think the biggest heart attack I had on the list of heart attacks, one of them was just a heart attack of pure pleasure when I put it up Welcome Tour. But the second was going through and like, all right, I just got the standard, you know, Switch bundle here. So I'm going to download Mario Kart World. And even with... all of the talk over the last several months the internet when i got to that store and saw 79.99 it really was like jesus

It's just like, this is on another level. We have arrived. And then they were downloading all your games in the background while we were trying to play, and we couldn't get them. You had to individually go through the games and try to stop them. And I have so many Switch 1 games that transferred over on that SD. Yeah, I was like, oh, we can just put it on airplane mode. But you can't put airplane mode on when it's docked? Plugged on TV. Yeah. Why not?

We know you're not on an airplane right now, okay? You're docked. It's got its little quirks, yeah. But then we downloaded Mario Kart World and booted that sucker up. Jeff, you seem like you've been playing Mario Kart since the gosh darn beginning. uh i i played the old ones yeah there there was a there was a an era that i have missed since the old days but yeah i've been looking forward to this one my kids about the age where he's

He has seen, you know, he's seen the Mario movie. And so he, they ride the carts in there. So he vaguely understands what Mario Kart is. And he's looking, I'm looking forward to. playing that with him and seeing him cry when he gets totally annihilated by 24 CPU characters. Oh my gosh. It is chaos in a fun way, I think. Yeah, it's... Like, we all admitted that, like, the energy in the room dropped. And part of that, I think, is just...

It's kind of a weird format. There are a lot of weird changes going on. And it's just a little hard to parse right away what was happening. I think it's super interesting that now you'll pick like... two different race spots and a race is you do the first track and then you do like the road, the path.

to the next track and then the third the final lap is another track it's weird it calls it lapse it's like wait a minute okay we're just talking like sections of the open world now yeah but and so like i'm interested in kind of digging into that kind of stuff and figuring out more what's going on the free roam seemed a little weird i'm into that hey i'm into that

You're into that? Well, as somebody who played, when I played, like, Double Dash on the GameCube, I would like to just wander the tracks for fun. Like, I literally did it for fun. Like, I would look at all the details. I didn't have a lot going on back then, to be totally honest. I didn't want to say it, but... But, like, yeah, and then they came out with this free realm when I was...

like i would have loved that i would have eaten that up would have yeah well i think i think i love it now yeah but i'm definitely it's gonna be like i put on love island in the background and then i like do some free roaming Try to find some outfits. Collect-a-thon. The outfits thing is alright. It's like, I was surprised that you can do it online with people, right? But there's no split-screen free-roam option that I saw in there.

So it's like, Leo, you seem the most shocked about like, oh, you're expecting kind of like a single player campaign almost from the world in Mario Kart World. It's not really that. No, it's in a track screen going on in the menu of characters driving around. And when you press minus. Again, right in the bottom in like the tiniest spot possible. It's not an option on the menu, which is just strange.

It makes all the other options seem like the real options. And then there's this one little side thing where you jump into this free room thing, which going right into it from the attract screen is cool and cute. But yeah, no, no story, no structure, just vibes. That's fine. Yeah. You get a little P blocks. You can find some things. It's like, you know, they said in the marketing and the direct look, find shortcuts, but it's literally just like, just look around.

You can just drive around and kind of look at stuff. You get costumes. See what's up there. If you want a thousand more costumes thrown into the character select here, here you go. I drove into the back of the truck and got to mow down cars. That was nice. Yeah. That seems all right. I can't wrap my mind over how wide. the like the races are now because they used to be really like narrow and you'd be bumping into each other but now it's so wide

To make room. Yeah, it just seems so big. It's so much bigger now. Even like the battle mode. It's like, okay, there's a lot of CPUs in there, but like, oh, this arena seems huge for the battle mode. I couldn't find another person. But I'm used to like Mario Kart 64. That's where I played the most battle mode. So it's like, if it's not like the block 4.

And it was like, that's a really tiny one too. Right. Right. But yeah, it's interesting. They were, you know, there was an interview that came out in the last wave of previews. I think it was from IGN, maybe Washington Post, but like the director of the game, he like. Stop somebody. He shut their mouths shut when they called it an open world Mario Kart game. No, no, no, no, no. Not open world. It's interconnected courses.

Which I think is the right way to frame it. Like, don't think that it's going to have this big, you know, Forza Horizon single-player thing. And better, because, like, the closed courses are...

are the design that, like, make Mario Kart Mario Kart. Like, I want the weird things where I'm jumping off of leaves and, like, flying over a waterfall and whatever. And I don't just want it to be, like... an open world with a bunch of roads and you just pick which road that you want to go on you know yeah so i don't i don't mind that i i think it's a i think it's an interesting mix to have

Like you do a bespoke course and then you do a road that leads to another one. And so however you mix and match that is going to make a ton of different combinations. And the roads are like entertaining too. It's not just like the boring part in between. I mean, I think we did an entire race and we didn't realize that the...

second lap of that yes was was just a road to the next place right which i yeah because on the way it normally isn't a kart racer you do one lap and you kind of see oh there's a shortcut there i'll try and get that next time versus this it's like

when will I remember that from this level to this level, there's a shortcut at this part? Like, will I even notice I'm back here by the time I have another opportunity to do this? It's cool that they're trying something like that, but it is a weird change. Yeah. We played four player split screen. which was a delight. Frame rate, you know.

30-ish in that arena. It's not staying at 60 for the four-player split screen, so if you're emphasizing that. Yeah. It felt like a breath of fresh air when you switched to two people and it was running great again then. Like, okay, great. This is perfect. Yeah, good looking game. And we did Knockout Tour, which is... is the the big new mode where the idea is it's their mario kart battle royale if you will um where it is every checkpoint the bottom four racers i believe are knocked out and so

It gets surprisingly intense as you're going and you were, like, right at that borderline. Like, if I could just get this mushroom boost at the last second. Like, Sarah, you had... some miraculous ones. We're playing with the community with that room code, which I think that was the secret. It's like, okay, we recognize names from the Discord and everything. Sarah had two Hail Mary moments of...

Just devastating somebody else by squeaking in and knocking them out of Knockout Tour. Yeah, I think Knockout Tour is a lot of fun. Yeah. But it's like if you get knocked out in the first round, you just have to kind of sit there and wait. Yeah. For other people to, you know, get knocked out. Right. So you're like, OK, I guess I'll just like if you're playing with a bunch of people sitting down.

I don't know. Like, I'd be like, OK, I guess. How did you guys feel? Because you know what? I made it through all my races. How did you feel watching? I was into it, actually. But maybe it was, you know, being in the same room as other people and knowing the names from the community and stuff. It was not just time for me to check my phone or whatever. But I don't know, especially.

if you're game chatting and you have other people to like talk to and stuff. Oh yeah. I think it's, it's honestly worth it in my mind for that tension. Because I just feel like Mario Kart, God bless its soul, but I'm rarely on the edge of my seat. But Knockout Tour, it's like, oh, we're caring about Mario Kart in a new way. Yeah, for sure. It's like the perfect format for that chaos where it's like...

I got eliminated in the very first round and I was in like second place like three times during that one lap. Yep. And it's just yo-yoing back and forth. And that makes it exciting when you have this cutoff that you're constantly.

dipping down below yeah yeah i felt like more like a race for your life like i felt like i was trying harder in it than when i was uh just racing normally because i'm like okay well there's always next race yeah oh there's no stop between the races and the knockout like every time you get to the finish line there is no like placements right right so you just have to it's kind of exhausting six honestly

So you're just going, going, and you're still going, and it just keeps going, and you're like, okay. It is a very nice friendly Nintendo touch, though, when you do get knocked out after you've been going and going for a long time. And it doesn't say like, loser, Bowser eats your soul. It just says, finished. You thought you won. I genuinely thought I won. But I think that's a sign of it.

Successful game. I love that. Totally. That's what I will tell my kid when he finishes. You did it! Unbelievable! But yeah, I mean, it's fun to have the game at launch here. It's like, oh, we're going to be playing this for the next...

eight years probably coming back to every once in a while right like it is just going to be the go-to and even if it's not making us fall on the ground in laughter i do think just like oh mario kart but with like added tension with knockout tour and like just a great new mario kart with a free roam mode that

You can play if you're really interested in that type of thing. A little more skill ceiling to work on the grinds and the wall grinds and stuff. Yeah. We barely scratched the surface of that. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. It gives you a little bit of a boost. The equivalent of like the drift boost is now just kind of doing tricks and doing backflips and stuff. They're like, oh, that's great. Like, what was it?

uh doing the super jump like you squat down then you jump uh right when you go off a jump and you get higher or you go faster for exactly there's some specific benefit of that but like yeah that seems great Those are like the big two games we played. I downloaded Fast Fusion, which is like an F-Zero style game. I'm definitely interested in checking that out. Like third-party stuff, I think it's good on a third-party level for the launch year of like, you know, if...

You're an adult and you want to have some cool adult time like cyberpunk based on the videos so far seems like it's a cool version of that game that's running great like split fiction i think is an awesome game to have at launch i think that'd be super fun to play uh split screen with somebody else and stuff so still a ton of tons of other stuff to jump into but if i may read the room

It felt like everyone was like, okay, look, Switch 2. It's going to be exciting, but we're not like, holy God, right now. Yeah, and it was funny watching all your friends pop up with their Switch 2s, and it was like...

More of them were playing old games than new games. I mean, there's like maybe one or two people playing the new Mario Kart, but it was just like, they're playing the game they were probably just playing on their Switch before. Right, right. When we all got here to the setups, came into the studio, it just looked exactly like Switch 1 on the menu.

It does. It just looks like a Switch. Yeah, there's like a couple new icons, a couple new settings. Oh, yeah, the chat. Yeah, there's radical stuff. If you're holding it in handheld mode and you're going through the menu as you... scroll to the right the audio shifts and pans to the right speaker or the left if you're panning to the left it's got those types of little stereo fun quirks and you would understand if you paid attention during welcome tours stereo quiz honkshu honkshu

for that lost hat. Yeah, that was your first mistake. I feel like it's a good technological step. Yeah. It does lack some just razzle-dazzle, but it's a good technological step for Nintendo. Yep. There's a new solid comforting baseline. The Switch was super popular for a reason. Like, you know, the Steam Deck exists now, and I think all of us play a lot of games on the Steam Deck, so, like, it may not get as much play because of that, but it's like...

It's a solid handheld, and that's great. That's great for playing games at this point. Yep. We're set. Drew, your Joy-Cons are good? Joy-Cons are good. I mean, it's still a Joy-Con, a bigger one, but it's not the most comfortable thing in your hand for a while. I think plugged in, it'll be, yeah, playing any game sideways on just a single one.

is not going to be super fun, but I really like the joysticks on it, and I think in handheld mode, you know, normal handheld mode, it'll feel good. Yeah, absolutely. Speaking of feeling good, you said you were trying to find that lost hat, Jeffem? yeah in one welcome tour perhaps you can look at the couch next to you and find one lost hat

Ladies and gentlemen, we have this episode of the MinMax Show brought to you by MSI. If you want a motherboard, you can check out MSI, but we have something bigger than that. Is that right, Leo Vader? Because MSI! They've helped us out in a huge way where they have supplied the MinMac Studio with its first huge gaming PC. So shout out to MSI for making that possible. And they have a way for you to also get some great goodies. That's right, Hanson.

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specifically the MSI MPG Z890 carbon Wi-Fi motherboard. And that's at discord.gg slash MSI. Love it. Thank you so much, MSI, for supporting MinMax in a huge way here. Appreciate it. We've got Dragon stuff around. That's their mascot. Oh, that's what that is. That makes more sense now. Got it. It's going to be a confusing leap for the ad-free version. That's right, everybody. Also...

Sony had their big state of play this week. If you're interested, get these hats off me. The big state of play happened on Wednesday. Sony would not be left out in the cold when it comes to big, fun summer announcements.

State of Play, the more I think about this, the more I'm like, I think it was a really good show. Like, the spread of games was about everything I could hope for, for just, like, kicking off the season with, like, some genuine surprises, some things to think about, like, good range of genres. really like Japan-centric, which is kind of refreshing to see from Sony this way, even if it's not a bunch of first-party reveals. Like, first-party-wise, it was like...

Ghost of Yote, here's a teaser trailer. Ghost of Yote is not here, but we will show it soon. Gameplay deep dive for Ghost of Yote happening in July for that entire thing. But, Leo, what do you think was the biggest...

humdinger for you from this day of play. I mean, gotta be first look at 007 First Light, obviously, if you're asking me, from IOI. This is from the Hitman developers. They've been teasing it, talking about it for so long, even like that Switch video they showed, the old classic gun. barrel shot from 007. Yeah. Now, Leo, this is not the James Bond we know and love, is it?

I'm told it's not. He's got a scar on his face like the books. Yeah, I guess in the books. He's like Gen Z James Bond? He's very young. 26 years old, which is interesting because I remember hearing that Tom Holland was talking to MGM about making... like a young bond reboot and then eventually evolved into like uncharted, I think. And so I wonder how much of this is coming from.

io or just mgm and now amazon who fully owns james bond right like if they're interested in that idea or if it's just natural like we want to start this new thing of course we should start at the earliest possible point like pre-casino royale what i always heard since way before we saw anything from this was that IOI pitched Barbara Broccoli herself back before the Sesame Street character. Please let me speak. Okay. Before Amazon MGM bought, or Amazon bought MGM, and it was like...

You know, they had not made a James Bond game in so long, but they but Barbara was down for it because of the strength of the pitch and how it was a different unique. take on it and I think that included all the like it's gonna be back to basics starting I mean you gotta get James Bond to the younger audience let's be honest and they need something that they can put into Fortnite and I think if this game does well and I think we're gonna see James Bond in Fortnite and I

think? Guy in a suit? It's... Bill, it'll be easier to identify him if he's got an iconic scar on his face. Yeah, he's got the scar, he's got the scar. Yeah, so it's like he's not even 007 at this point. Like, the whole tagline is that you've got to earn the 00 status, right? Because he's still part of what he's...

recruited just into MI6. So he can't kill. He has a license to... He has a permit. ...to Noogie, and that's about it. Yeah, he'll get there eventually. Leo, as the world's biggest fan of Hitman... I was shocked by you being shocked where like the reveal big trailer showing some gameplay. You're like, there's action in it. Like, man, what do you expect? I wasn't shocked. I was just, you know, I am.

It didn't make me excited. It's like, I know there's going to be action in it. The more Hitman-y it is, the more excited I would get by that because that's the type of game I like to play. I've made lots of games besides Hitman that aren't my favorite game of all time. So certainly... Name one hot shot. um uh mini ninjas damn it he's good um so i mean i like i trust that studio's design sensibilities of course but i want to see more of it before i

Really get excited. There was, I mean, in the official description, they do call it a third person action adventure game that blends IO Interactive's signature stealth and action gameplay mechanics with the world of Bond. So they led with stealth. That's something. Sure.

Yeah, no, totally. I mean, there's a lot of stealth action games that are creeping around doing stealth takedowns, and Hitman is a lot more nuanced in its stealth than that, which I always thought was a great fit for Bond, the being at the galas, you know, the high society mingling, which is like, this is before that phase.

of his life is what they say like before the the suit yeah he's gonna be like which which one's the the broccoli knife and which one's the spaghetti barbara knife yeah yeah but i don't I truly, I just, they're showing more on Friday night. We're streaming the reaction of the IOI showcase, the first one they're doing, which again, I'm cautiously optimistic about. Always when a studio does their own showcase, it's hard for one studio to fill that.

Yes. And we'll see how that goes. But they've got Hitman stuff in there, too. I'm excited to watch that with you in the studio. Excited to learn more. But the trailer itself was like, yeah, this is what I would expect a Bond game from anyone to look like, really. Okay. You're just going to try and play it as much like a Hitman fan.

As you possibly can. Just steer it that direction. And yeah, there's a chance that it's going to work out well enough. All right, Jeff, what stood out to you the most from Cytoplay? Um... Maybe Silent Hill? Silent Hill F. Kind of looks interesting. Interesting. There were a lot of things that were interesting and didn't like... blow my socks off if you if you complain that like hey every sony game is this triple a third person kind of narrative type game sad dad weapon wheel yes then

You got exactly what you have been wishing for, which is a bunch of games that weren't that. And like, I don't know, like none of them. were super exciting to me but i liked the variety that was in it i think it's the mark of a cool show the fact that they open with the trailer for enhance uh enhance his new game the follow-up to tetris effect Which is Luminous. Luminous Arise. Looks cool. Sounds exciting. Which is...

It is just as Tetris effect follow-up as you can possibly get. What if we had that presentation? Give me any other puzzle game in that style with crazy music and visuals, and I will be happy. I mean, hopefully we talk about it enough on the podcast, but I sincerely... play tetris effect like i think i played like every two months since 2018 like i would just go back to that especially with like

I got it in the meta quest and just like, oh yeah, I will just play through that quote unquote campaign, all those levels in VR. And it's just, it's transcendent. I freaking love it. I did that too. It's really good. Yeah. It's so satisfying. Is anyone here at Luminous Nut?

I thought you were, so the fact that you're not really throws me. I like Luminous, but here's the thing. You like some other game that's exactly like it, right? Pendled Upon I like a lot. It's not exactly the same. Meteos, I think, is fine.

Is that what you're thinking of? Is there some other one with stupid squares that you're putting together? I mean, that's a lot of the puzzle games I like, yeah. But no, Luminous, I think what it is is just, like, people who are all in on, like, portable PlayStation, they're gaga for Luminous. I...

Didn't like Lumines, but the way I think about it looking back is I was such a PSP head and a PS Vita head that I was like supported Lumines in concept. Okay. Because it was such a flagship for PSP. I do think there's like that smaller gaming base that's like rallying around like...

Now look, to my defense, I've never owned a PSP. I've always looked at those games from the outside. I've played them here and there, but like, stuff like Patapon, I'm like, that seems great. I probably would like that. People proclaiming Patapon to 10 out of 10, I'm like...

I think you just were really trying to be still fully invested in the PSP that you bought. And so Luminous is like, I think it's an awesome puzzle game, but like, you know, they say that like, oh, this is the game that we wanted to make because we didn't have the rights to Tetris. You know, it's just like, naturally.

It's a cool puzzle game. And even I was second guessing it last night. I was like, God, is Luminous a secret masterpiece? So I went back and I got it on Steam Deck. Luminous Remastered on Steam, which is like, you know.

out there and and and great and uh it's playing it still in bed and being like okay i think i had the right way on this it just i need maybe if i sank another 20 hours into luminous it would unlock at some new level but in my mind it's just like okay here's the thing even if i'm not like gaga over the core gameplay that presentation style

I think is going to elevate it. And having the same composer as Tetris Effect, I think the music in that game is so unique. Similar song as the Tetris Effect main one. Yeah, Connected song, for sure. Yeah, but it seems good. It's coming out fall. 2025 and has like a new burst mechanic uh in this luminous and stuff but like just starting with that artsy of a game i think just to be like hey playstation fans remember psp here you go luminous is back like that's that seems like a really

Cool note to kick off this whole thing on. Good amount of 2025 games in general. Yeah. That's always exciting when it's like, okay, this is a lot of stuff that will be having an impact on this year. Right, yeah. First Stepped. Was Bloodstained, that sequel, was that also... This year as well, you, of course, remember the Scarlet Engagement? The Scarlet Engagement. Right. Yeah. Do you got to...

One that stood out for you, Sarah? Yeah, Final Fantasy Tactics, the remaster. It's really weird that that came out. Because I've been playing, my favorite game is Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. That's one of my top games of all time. I love my little squares. I was playing that last week.

and then the rumors popped up that they were and i've always wanted to replay or like play for the first time final fantasy tactics but i just like never really wanted to put up with like the weirdness of it because it's so hard to go like like final fantasy text advance already an old game but then stepping back even further i'm like i don't know i don't have it in me and i'm like we're remastering it i'm like oh my god perfect

Just what I wanted. Yeah. I also just want a new one. Like, I feel like Final Fantasy is like the tactics games. Nah, we don't do those anymore. Like, what's holding them back? Like, I'm ready. Yeah, I think a lot of times, I feel like we've seen this, and I couldn't say an example. The first thing we get is the remake, and then that does well, and they start to do more within the... Yeah. Once the interest is proven. Picked it up in some way, for sure.

This has been, I mean, since the Nvidia leak, which was like all those games, if you remember, that was like four years ago. And it was all these games that they're like, oh, this is just a bunch of placeholder attacks. Like, okay, but 99% of them were real. And Tactics was on there. The Final Fantasy IX remake was on there. So everyone's holding their breath about that. But...

For years now, everyone's been like, fantasy tactics, get the big remake. It's common tactics remake. And so I don't, I like tactics. I'm not, uh, I didn't finish it back in the day, but I really, I liked it. Um, and. Now it's like, is that going to be enough? Are people happy? Because like, you know, they kind of smoothed over some of the pixels and they have the old version and the new version. And they do say the new version is like, OK, smoother graphics.

but then also how do they word it? Yeah. Story enhancements on top of quality of life stuff. So I'm curious to see like how that works. And I really want to have like the old look. Give me some chunky pixels. Combine then with the story enhancements. It seems like it's going to be kind of like two separate modes that you can pop into for what you want from Promacy Tactics. But Tactics fans, you let me know if this is exactly what you wanted or if you're expecting a little bit more of like...

I'm not talking seven remake treatment for a remake, but maybe a little more than just we smoothed over the stuff and things are a little bit better now overall. I liked the style initially, the painterly sprite hybrid kind of. And then I saw people say it looks AI upscaled and maybe it just did. but it looked good to me. It looked unusual. Did you guys see the creator Matsuno? He had this post.

Is this worth reading? Let's go ahead and read it. Yeah, start to finish. He says, nearly 30 years ago, the collapse of Japan's bubble economy engulfed the nation's financial institutions in mountains of bad debt. Sounds like the scroll to sort of a good RPG. triggering a wave of corporate bankruptcies, a sudden and extreme rise in unemployment rates and stagnation of Japanese society as a whole. It was an era when many were robbed of hope when dreams were measured by their price tag.

Against this historical backdrop, I crafted a story. It was the story of Ramza, a young man who fought tirelessly against the entrenched social class system. It was the story of Dalita, who sought to take advantage of this confusion and despair to advance his own social position. It was the story of a peculiar...

destiny in which friendship and betrayal intertwine. Now in 2025, a time when inequality and division are still deeply rooted in our society, I offer this story once again. Take it seriously this time. Yeah, the will to resist is in your hands. pre-order now. Final Fantasy. It's such an interesting angle. If he's got to write something, it's better than just like, it's nice to see this. What a great marketing spin. I know. It is a good angle for sure.

And I saw that apparently in the voice cast, because it seems like some of those quality of life enhancements, there's going to be some voice acting in this at least. But I don't know if you know this weird thing, but there are... characters you can get in the original Final Fantasy Tactics and it's a Cloud and Aerith like transporting to the world of Ivalice and so it looks like the voice actors from Seven Remake

and Rebirth are going to be in Tactics as well. That's cool. That's fun to have it all tied together. Other big takeaways, things we haven't hit on from State of Play that popped out for y'all? There's the Marvel one. Hell yeah, there's the Marvel one. And it's called... Marvel Token...

Fighting tournament? What are the last two words? Fighting souls? That's a great question. I use all my brain space to remember Tokon. Yeah, it is Marvel Tokon fighting souls, everybody. This was, again, open with the new enhanced games, and then you close with... a new Marvel fighting game, specifically one made by Arc Systems Works. So the Guilty Gear developers, those games look absolutely amazing. But then also Dragon Ball Fighters.

uh team and so for a long time people have been wondering of like okay dragon ball fighters was a long time ago are you guys making a sequel to that you kind of got all the characters in there i don't know what you do and then the big reveal of like oh no There's a whole kind of dev diary baked into this state of play. So we kind of get a little bit of backstory here, but I guess how it worked is PlayStation went to Arxis.

And they said, hey, would you guys want to make a Marvel fighting game? And they're like, uh, I don't know if we're talented enough, but yes. And then together they went to Marvel and then PlayStation's like. We got ArcSys on board, and Marvel's like, well, I can't say no to, like, the greatest fighting game developers in the world at this point. Like, of course we're on board. Now this is leaving Capcom out in the cold, because when it comes to Marvel tag team...

you'd think there'd be one studio in mind, which is Capcom. And so, leaving that behind, it is Marvel vs. Marvel instead for this all-Marvel fighting game thing. How sick would it be if it was Marvel vs. Arc System works? And his guilty gay characters and stuff. I was thinking too much about this too. Thinking about like, oh my God, what if the sequel, if they may eventually make it, which is...

you can't have a Marvel fighting game that's like tag team focused and not start thinking about the versus, right? Like with that lineage, like that is, that is where it really blossomed into something special. And so thinking about like, if the sequel was like, since PlayStation is, making this with them and it's a huge three-way production here between them if it's like marvel versus playstation for a follow-up or is everybody sitting down and this is like sarah you can cast me to the darkest

depths of the internet not the dark web but the dark depths of like the normal internet yeah like facebook yeah like facebook sure yeah but imagine if it was a follow-up and it was just like marvel versus dragon ball and it was just like dragon ball fighters but then versus these wacky marvel characters Would people freak out or would people freak out, Sarah? Incredible. I know one person would. But the big thing here is, hey, this is Take Team Matches.

You know, you've had your 2v2s, you've had your 3v3s, baby stuff. This is a 4v4. The technology can handle what they've always wanted to do. I would say the big takeaway is that Arc Systems is designing all of the characters. Yeah. And so they look kind of in their art style and they look different from what you recognize as like the Western take on. All of these classic Marvel characters. That was really cool to see. And also to hear them speaking Japanese, which I hope they just keep it.

to just Japanese. That would be so awesome. It's so good. Like, hearing all the Marvel characters, yeah, screaming in Japanese, and the one line that killed us is when Spider-Man's out there, he goes, Spidey Sense! As he's doing, like, a big kick.

course yeah and again i think this is it feels so fresh when people might be a little bit burned out on marvel overall but suddenly it's like oh no our the motto they had was quote from japan to the world and having just like this gundam looking version of iron man it's like this feels unique enough people want to embrace this from like a studio like arxis yeah of course um but the thing with 4v4 before i forget because that does sound intimidating and overwhelming

But the way they explain the video is like, oh, you can you can just kind of main one character and then have three assist characters pop in and help you a little bit. Like you're not you don't need to be mastering all four necessarily.

If you want to just focus on one and have just very helpful assists from the other three, that's a way to play it as well. Like the health pool shared then? No, I guess it'd probably be separate. But I guess that'd be weird if they're just sitting there. Maybe there's a different mode of like health pool.

collection with assist versus four different health bars as you're swapping between all these folks but yeah it's cool to see like miss marvel in there and spider-man and like you know they're gonna get to a cyclops reel eventually and everyone's gonna freak out and be like oh my mvc2 is back we're here but it is like it was it's crazy to see how much fighting game stuff was here from Sony. Cause like they, they own Evo now. Right. And they had the first official PlayStation fight sticks.

Which is weird that they have not made one yet. That was weird. And then they also had the Mortal Kombat collection where Digital Extremes is not doing the full documentary Gold Master series treatment, but it's like, hey, we are...

making a wild collection of all the old Mortal Kombat games with all the different versions in one. If you want to play the Super Nintendo Genesis, I'm going to play the Game Gear Game Boy version of all these old Mortal Kombat games, along with like documentary footage and stuff like that. Like, I think that's going to be fun.

Japan-centric and fighting game-centric is a good niche for Sony's state of play, I think, if we're not getting the new God of War game, the new Spider-Man game, like all those huge things. I think it was a success. Yeah, it's two things that were in my wheelhouse. So it being such a big, long chunk, it was kind of like the last quarter.

of the state of play. Yeah. I was checked out a little bit, but it is a weird thing to end with in a way that I respect it. Also got a new look at Pragmata as well, which is that... new IP from Capcom that has been development for a long time and constantly delayed. It's a game that looks like it's a Kojima game, but it's not a Kojima game where it's the little girl, little robot Alicia, riding the big guy and kind of the mech-y, stupid-looking thing.

So you got a little bit of dad weapon wheel for the fans out there? Yeah, yeah. If you're craving dad weapon wheel, I think a Pregmata from Capcom. Does that do anything for you, Sarah? Ew. Okay, I'm going to be mean for a second. It looked like people who play Death Stranding and you're like, I wish this baby was kind of hot and right on my shoulder and talked to me. Sarah, this girl is like nine years old. Yeah, but they glowed her up.

That doesn't look like a child to me. Pragmata. Pre-order now. They say 2026 in the works. Yeah, great show. You can check out our reaction on YouTube if you want to see that full thing. Thank you for saying that. You betcha. Somebody had to. Someone needs to have a freaking soul. Sarah, Night Rain?

Oh, my God. So fun. Is it? I'm literally obsessed. Literally, I'm obsessed with it. You love some multiplayer games. I know you love Elden Ring. I love multiplayer games. I love Elden Ring. I did not know how it's going to sit, even with somebody like you. I feel like it could go either way, but this is working. It does.

off like a little rough like the learning curve is quite it's literally vertical i feel like and there's a lot of stuff that it's like oh like my tiktok is just entirely night rain stuff and it's like did you know did you know and i'm like no where were they hiding this information

But it's just such a fun game. I've played Elden Ring a ton. Yeah. And it just feels like a new way to enjoy Elden Ring. Like I'm using items I've never used before. I'm using spells I've never used before. And it just feels so good to like. get to engage with it in sort of like a non-penalizing way.

Right, you're not committing to like a full 100 hour run. Yeah, the runs are like only 30 minutes a run. You do like day one, day two, day three, hit up the boss. But it's like every run's a little bit different. And I pick up different spells and like you don't find the same things each time. And I just feel like it's been so fun to like.

Like, I've never used this bubble before. I've never used this weapon before. Like, let's see how it works. And like the bosses, because in Elden Ring, it's kind of a bummer when you beat a boss and you're like, OK, well, it's like bittersweet. Yeah. Right. Because you're like, well, I'm never going to fight that boss again unless I commit another 20 hours to this game. And you just miss them.

And you're like, I wish I could have tried that boss again, but with different items, a different build. I really only want to fight this boss, and I don't want to have to fight that boss. And with this game, it's like, the mini bosses are sort of randomized.

But it's nice that it's like you get to play them enough where you can actually feel like you're getting better at it. Like you can win consistently against them. And I think that's so much fun. I think the multiplayer aspect is great because it's like I've always wanted to enjoy.

this From Software antics with my friends, like, the Souls antics, where, like, you're literally fighting for your life, you're running across the map, the things, like, the circle's closing in, and, like, the Fel Omen Morgoth, like, falls on you from the sky.

And you're like, everybody's screaming. We're all fighting for our lives. And it's like, we just literally just spawned on us. Like, what are we supposed to do? Like, real welcome to our energy. Yeah, absolutely. Like, people just lose their minds. And it's just so fun to, like...

get to experience that with friends yeah i will say i i've only played with like a few randoms and like i do get attached with them but like it is kind of a bummer that you really need three people and like yeah it really shows the communication that you need

Are you on voice chat with you? Oh, yeah. We're on like Discord. Because it's like we need to communicate like where we're going, what we need. You know what the boss is weak to. Right. Before you go into the map. So it's like, okay, we need like. Holy, we need lightning. And then you dive in, you look for where the lightning is and you can mark it on the map.

But it's like you kind of have to be on the same page when you're sprinting in the field. And when you first start playing, you don't have that map sense. And I felt like stuff was just going by so fast.

i literally was like this is impossible i don't know how people do this but then once you're on your like 10th game you're like yeah i know let's hit up that camp we'll go into this cave get a smithing stone and then we'll hit up a church to get our flasks ready and then we'll check to see if we get any drops from the lightning um and it's just like i feel like a fun

new way to experience Elden Ring. It is only $40. Yeah. And it's like, I feel like I got $40 for fun out of this. Is it? This is something we didn't cover last week, but like, is it literally the Elden Ring map and there's like circle here, circle here, circle here? Or is it like a remix? No. So it's like,

It's like a remix, right? Like, it's mostly limb grave, I feel like. And then it's not really... much and they kind of just kind of piece it together and then what happens is you drop on the map and you see the circle and you don't really know it closes in a few different areas each time but you don't really know where it's gonna close

So it does get kind of annoying if you have to like sprint across the map. But what's nice is if like if you miss something, like say you miss a church. Yeah. Like the next day, like day one, day two, it reopens and you go pick it up again. And I also really enjoy how death doesn't feel penalizing.

Like, in Elden Ring, dying is, like, a big deal. Like, when you die, you lose your souls. You're like, I gotta do that all over again. Maybe I lost a level. I have to run back to the boss. That's really annoying. Like, you're like, I died, and I have to sprint through this cave again. But in Night Rain, you die, and then your friends just come over and, like...

beat the heck out of you for a little bit, and then you're back. You know? And it's kind of nice! Yeah, and it's, um, so it feels like dying isn't as big of a deal. Of course, you could die and, like, lose a level, which is bad, but... like it's only like it's like 30 minutes in and out quick adventure if we lose we lose we lose we try again

And it's great because they have all the different characters and they all have very different play styles. I really like Recluse, the Mage, Revenant, the Summoner, and then there's Iron Eye, the Archer. And it's just so nice to go in and be like...

I'm a magic user. I don't have to worry about my levels. I just have to find spells, and I'm good. Like, I'm good to go. Yeah. So it's just kind of like a little snack, a little Elden snack. That is a nice way to put it. I don't think I was framing it.

that way in my mind. In my mind, it's like, oh, it's Elden Ring, but multiplayer, so it's going to feel more hardcore. But the fact that it's like, no, it's Elden Ring without consequences. It's just like, get in and have fun and mess around and then wipe. Like, that sounds fun. Yeah, get in, 30-minute adventure.

Fight some crazy bosses from other Souls games. Yeah. I'm stupid. What an idiot I am. It was my game of the year back in 2023. I don't know why I'm resisting a sillier remixed version of it. You really do need to like...

play with other people like some of the randoms are good but yeah I feel like the hardest part of the game isn't the game itself it's just like finding two other people who are like willing to play with you and learn because my personality same as Elden Ring proper it's like this game comes out and I just

See all my friends, like, so excited to be unpacking it together, discovering it together. Like, getting so much out of this thing that I've, like, tried so many times in the past and I've just bounced off of. And so it's like... seeing them squatted up in the Discord and stuff, it makes me, you know, when I think about it, it makes me feel kind of lonely and isolated. Yeah. That's because the game sucks. So they gotta make it better. I mean, do you think, Sarah? I know this is uncouth.

I mean, is it like one of your favorite gaming experiences of the year so far? Or just like a fun novelty? I feel like it's one of my favorite multiplayer gaming experiences of the year. Because I didn't really like it. I like schedule and was fun, but it was like just okay. I wasn't really interested in repo. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's one of my favorite... I'm sorry, Leo. It's definitely, I think, one of my top multiplayer experiences of the year. So Leo is pretty wrong. I'm happy for you.

I don't know what... I would love a deep dive into just how Souls games have hurt Leo in the past. Yeah, what's wrong with you? Leo, you hate 3D Mario. You hate From Software. He doesn't like dodging. Oh, yeah. It doesn't like rolling. I don't like roll-round drink-pushing his games. Yeah.

But yeah, I don't know. It stacks on itself. I'm not getting this and now it's making me more and more upset because I wish I was getting it because it's clearly doing so much. Have you ever streamed Elden Ring? I stream Sekiro. Oh, no. Everyone knows you can't stream Sekiro.

Come on. But, like, I am so thankful for the times that I was streaming Elden Ring. I mean, not like beating the final boss, but everything else that I was streaming for Elden Ring. Like, having just, like, supportive nudges, like, that community was...

unbelievable and so i feel like that was crucial for getting me to love that game like just getting over just a couple little humps and then it's just like chill run around some twisted green fields and slowly poke around like i feel like you get into that

Maybe. Maybe, man. I don't know. I really have tried a lot of them. Really? Yeah, it's okay. Leave them alone. I just don't like them. We don't like them. I mean, Leo has a lot of Leo games. Yeah, but it's really nice to shift away from... blame about not playing night range it's like Leo should probably play Elden Ring I yeah no I it's if I was hurting for games this year maybe I'd be thinking about it differently but I got another

New number one for the year to talk about in the next couple weeks. That's crazy. I feel like I've been struggling this year. It's been for Leo. It's a Leo year. Hey, for Leo. I've been feasting. Including going back to the good old classic Last of Us Part 2. Yeah. On PC. No return, we say. Except for Leo, he says, I'd like to return.

to that game that came out at the start of last year? No return policy. I'll keep it. This is the roguelike mode with Last of Us that we talked about on the podcast with Huber and Jacob Geller and stuff. I think it really was like the start of 2024.

And then we all said, cool, novelty. And then what was this? You got a code for the PC version? Yes, we had a code laying around and I said, I will take this opportunity to finally try that. Yeah. Because obviously I like roguelike stuff. And honestly, I'm interested in any roguelike.

of that production value you know that's just novel and cool i went back to eternal recently too that game is so good um yeah um it's it's cool i i don't think i really took the time to learn that combat that much when i was first

playing that game because i was not into the story and i was trying to just kind of move past it and now when the motivation is my build and keeping the run alive the stakes being i if i die i have to start the run over there's automatically this story i'm caring about in every run enough to be like

Like, really invested in playing just the right way, learning really how to maximize this combat against each enemy type with each set of items I end up having. Yeah. And so it's just, does it feel... more satisfying to play something that looks that damn good with a genre that you like. Yeah, there's something really cool about that for sure. And it's, you know, great combat. It's really tense and scary.

And you're fighting for your life and you're getting knocked on your ass and shooting from the ground and sprinting back up. All that stuff feels and looks so good. And the way that mode is structured is really cool, too. I think you're unlocking a lot really fast. It's really...

fun as it starts and then unveiling new layers of the challenges within each level that you're trying to do different types of levels different characters with different quirks and the fact that the boss is always the same at the end until you beat it once and then it swaps to the next one His boss is like, I'm David. I'm in the fire. Or is it like weird Rat King type stuff? The Rat King, I think, is the last one. Okay, fun. But it is like the big arcade bloater or whatever. The big...

It kind of manufactures raider captain boss. I forget if that was a boss in the campaign, but it's, yeah, you know, big mobs with a big boss as well. Distinct encounters for each type of each faction or whatever. It's fun. It's just like fun comfort food. Yeah, pretty much.

I have a setup where I can just press play on my headphones and pause on my headphones when I've got a podcast going. Because you can't have podcasts going when you're doing this tense gameplay. But the slow Last of Us workbench weapon upgrading stuff, I press play between.

rounds and it's a perfect vibe because it's a lot easier for me to boot up a podcast game frankly unless it scratches both itches yeah no I get it that's sweet it's like because you were such a big fan of the factions like multiplayer yeah it does it feel like oh just I like that core gameplay and just having another approach in a similar way

factions of like just let me play more of that in novel scenarios totally where i can be a little more headcanon with it imagination making my own builds it feels a little more of a personal experience which i always like yeah that's sweet uh less of us part two

Maybe don't watch the show. From what I see online, I'll just send you into a blind rage or something, but go back to that roguelike mode, everybody. No, that's the virus, I think. Oh, that's the virus. What's the difference? Online discourse? I'll take the fungus.

Oh, I didn't actually mention why I'm not touching your pants. True slobber on my knuckle. Yeah, thanks. Hey, Jeff, that's why you had to switch spots there. Jeff, you wanted to talk about a game called Nine Kings. Nine Kings. Nine Kings. Nine Kings has... Welcome to my roguelike deck building segment. Oh, here we go! Yay! But listen, it's not...

I don't care for that tone. You embrace it. You love it. You don't need to be defensive. I do. What I was going to say before you interrupted me was as far as deck builders go, it's not... It's not that much of a deck builder, and so don't let that scare you away if you don't like deck builders. Yeah. But the core gameplay, it's more kind of strategy, auto-battler. Tower defense-y?

A little tower defense-y, which is not a genre I usually like, but this kind of works. The core gameplay is you have this kind of grid, and you'll put your castle out, and then you'll build... towers out and then each battle like a group of enemy characters like an enemy army will come up and and like i wish you guys could see it because they're like very like

Each character is like a couple pixels. It's very tiny stuff. So you have these giant armies that come out and they battle each other. And the card aspect of it is after each fight... You'll get three cards, and those are basically just things that you can build out. So you can put out an elf army, and they're archers, and so they'll attack from far. Or you can build a tower that will shoot out a ballista.

things like that. And so you get a new one of those after every fight and then you do another fight. Fights only last like about a minute. And it's all automatic. Your main castle has a catapult, so you just kind of click around. So you're doing... like the bare minimum of like actually interacting with a fight as it's going on. But like, but the rest of the game is just that kind of engine building that I like where you are choosing which things you're getting to put out.

And if you put out a duplicate on top of a unit that you already have, it makes it stronger. And you're just looking for interesting synergies between them that will like... do huge amounts of damage and it just kind of spirals out from there the the name nine kings is that like you play as one king there are eight other kings that you will unlock the ones that you're not playing as are the

are the different armies that you're battling and they each kind of have their own theme to it. And they will also have their own set of units and, you know, different... towers and things that you can build as you're doing it and it's just at the end like it's nice that The actual runs aren't that long. It's they they take it's like 35 years that you play through, but each battle is a year. And so it's really like I got to the end of my first run. The main difficulty level two is.

is easy enough that like you you probably won't lose at it which is which i also appreciate in roguelike but but like i got to the end of my first run and it was like 37 minutes for 35 rounds. Like it's almost balanced to a T to just be like these short little bites where it's where you're mostly just sitting back and seeing like, okay, like. How is my build going? Did I pick a smart thing and is it like ramping up the way that I need to?

to stay, you know, ahead of this damage curve. Would you go all the way to say it's an auto battler or is it more like an RTS? It is 100% an auto battler. The only thing that you're doing, like I said, is you're shooting out like your catapults. So you'll just like...

pick an area it will show you like the area of effect which you can increase depending on which cards that you choose and stuff and like so like every couple seconds you're kind of like okay there's a there's a lot of enemies there so just hit there and then

some there and yeah but but otherwise it's like all of the different armies that you pick will automatically go out and they'll figure out where to space themselves and then they'll go back and forth and it's kind of just a goofy little fight but it's like you know

a thousand people in this tiny little square that you're watching. And like, I did a couple of runs and once a run is over, very Blatro-esque, you can... you can choose to like continue going if you want and that's when it like the damage really ramps up in like a stupid way and like i had one run that last it ended up lasting an hour instead it like um like

pretty much it got to 70 years and it was like 70 minutes when it was over. But like the damages were like, you know, seven E to the 10th power or what? Like, and it shows you. it shows you like each unit that you put out because you're you're kind of expanding the grid of where you can put different things it'll show you how much each one is doing damage wise so you so it's really easy to parse like okay these guys are doing really well so when i get an enchantment

I'm going to put it on those guys because they're like my heavy hitters and stuff like that. And it's, it's just very fun building out these, these different builds and there's meta progression for each King. You can unlock things with different perks and kind of make. subsequent runs easier and it's just a really fun chill kind of auto bad that sounds very appealing yeah may 23rd came out early access on steam there are there are seven kings right now

Total. What? Okay. The last two will be unlocked at a future date. False. Where'd you find this? It's Steam. Steam's algorithms got me. Really? It's doing a great job apparently. They do like, you know. It's turn-based fest Thursday or whatever. So all these games are, you know, discounted and like, I can't, I can't help myself. My discovery queue is ass. I never get anything on there. Leo games, you know, they're rare.

breed. You can't define them. There's no algorithm that's figured me out yet. Split screen with some systems where numbers go up. Isn't that kind of your... That's what fantasy life is. And I hate it. The girl who steals your time. Fantasy Life Eye, everybody, from Level 5. Level 5 is back. The beloved developers have been around for oh so long, going back to...

Overblood? Did you know that the head of Level 5 was the writer and director of Overblood? No. Technically two, but he wrote for Overblood 1, if you're a big PS1 fan. Sarah's also been playing this. Sarah hated that analogy. I know. That little tidbit. He could have said stuff about Game Informer and he chose not to. I know. I look in her eyes and I've never seen hatred boiling quite like that. No, guys, I need you guys to help me because I started this game in the tutorial and...

It's probably only like an hour. But I think it took me five hours because I kept putting it down. It was so boring. And it was just so incredibly... You're not done with it. It's just so incredibly long. And it's like, I played the original Fantasy Life. I'll be honest, it's not rocket science. Give me some classes. The way they space everything out, I kept putting it down and just... I want to play it. I'm convinced it's a good game. But I just...

I cannot force myself to pay attention to it for longer. I don't know what's wrong with me. Is my brain rotted? And then I play Night Rain for five hours, and I'm like, no, we're fine. I feel similarly, though. For somebody whose this is right up their alley, I can't. can't even judge it by those marks because i'm like wanting it to be something different that it is then it's telling me that it is and it keeps being what it is and i'm not liking that and what it is is run around press a

Swap between different classes. You're going around building up different numbers, leveling up. And the charm I remember from that first one, was it 3DS or DS? 3DS. 3DS. was just like the number of different wild classes and stuff that you could swap around to, right? Jeff, you're playing Fantasy Life? Fourteen different lives, okay. Not jobs. More valuable than the last. Yeah, I am really liking it. I played it till five last night. Wow!

It's sick. I'm like 20 hours. Your life is so weird. It was such a stupid... choice because then when I went to bed the baby immediately woke up and was wide awake yeah it's like hey enough with the fantasy life dad I've done this yeah so much for fantasy life they don't got dad in there for a reason it's one of the jobs yeah Yeah, like this game for me and and

I totally get it. And the tutorial is terrible. And you do it 14 times. They do let you skip it if you want to. But I'm a sicko and I haven't skipped it. I haven't even unlocked all of the different... lives yet. I didn't know you were supposed to. I thought you would just pick one or two and you'd be like, this is what we're rolling with. No, they're all interconnected, Sarah. They've created... But I've gotten to the point where I appreciate that because...

I'm enjoying the separate ones. I honestly really don't know why. Because as I was playing it, it was like, this is so great. I love that there are all these different jobs that I'm jumping into. Except it's really like any kind of farming, you know, Stardew Valley type game. Like, these are all the jobs that you always do. But it's like, but they have because they have made them these specific things. That's like.

clicking in my brain in the in the same kind of way that like oblivion did where it's like you have all these different skills you level them all up you're you're constantly leveling something up and like progressing and unlocking different skills each each life has a different skill tree in this one that you're

that you're going through and they just all you get to a point where they just all synergize and it's like well okay i'm i'm gonna go out and i'm gonna get a bunch of ore with my mining skills and then i'm gonna go back and i'm gonna become a blacksmith and i'm gonna use those but i need cashmere to build this so first i have to become a tailor and i'm gonna go get this wool and then i'm gonna but like i'm not high enough to to do those yet so i have to

make these other clothes but those clothes will actually help me when I'm being a hunter and it's like and it just becomes this big synergy that that is also like the game is really generous with all the resources and stuff like right you cut down all the trees you go in a hut you come back out all the trees are back and you can just like farm whatever resources i i am this is

I'm a sick person. Jeff, can I introduce you to critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV? That literally has a very similar class system with crafters. Yeah. And it works the same exact way. It probably would. I'm sure it would work on me. Because imagine feeling a level of shame that you have, but imagine there's a subscription every month at the same time to make you feel good. And imagine there's a story that gets good after...

100 hours or so. Yeah. It's like they keep building in it in a way that just seems completely insane because I had already put like 15 hours into it and then it turns out you go to like a completely different continent that is... just massive and has like shades of breath of the wild where it's like you're going to different shrines that you can hang on you don't go to a place with a bunch of different shrines leo let's run around press a hand

yeah like those are the controls everything that you do is you press like three different You press three different buttons. All the gameplay is very simplified. It is the progression that is exciting me. Yeah, I can build a bunch of stuff. I can go sell it. I can use that to get more resources. I don't know why that works for me. That is that is my own broken brain. But like.

And run around press A can be great. And the crafting, like, you know, tailoring, alchemy, the specific jobs where you are just kind of going from table to table, doing the quick time events of pressing A or twirling the thumbstick to do the crafting. That is like...

Good enough to be interesting. As simple as it is, it's like it's cute that I am making an item this way. I like being that engaged in the crafting. But for me, it's like I wish it was a little more interconnected because I am... picking the jobs as i have my first few as like what is an interesting combination alchemist and mage you know and then i get this spell as a mage where it helps me lower my stamina consumption when i cast it i go okay this is

smart i'll be a miner and i can mine rocks above my level because i can cast the spell to lower my sp consumption and then do the mining but when you switch jobs it undoes the effect you put on yourself as the mage which is like i wish there was more of that smart build stuff rewarding me and that feels a little simplified from what I would find mortgaging each

Each life and the skill tree that you do is siloed from all the other ones. It's crazy that we're all carrying shame with this game, but just in different ways. That's true. What's yours? Well, it's like I couldn't even get the tutorial. Yeah. I was horrified when, Leo, you said like, oh, yeah, I want to play with my sweetie. You don't unlock co-op for like four hours. Three and a half hours of skipping every cutscene. And then the co-op sucks!

It was so disappointing. It's like a really different thing where you're going on a distinct adventure where you can't do any of the stuff you want to be doing. This was such a waste of our time. Lock in, get your sweetie, night rain. Night, rain, night. Separate monitors. There's no duos, so we have to open up that marriage. Open the door. You can do it from the start, right? Yeah. Great. Great design. That's genius.

I think part of the magic of fantasy life, how much of it is just a really good name? Just like super cool. This is it. This is what we gamers want. And again, the novelty of the different jobs that I don't feel like I've gotten that much of a like... skill tree 4 is really cool. I just feel like they need to give me more.

And sooner. And it is so much story. And let me work through it. It is so much story and it is just one of those stories. You do not want to spend any time with the story. So does a girl steal time or not?

Probably. I don't know. That's what I care about. You ride a bone dragon. Doesn't like stealing time. All I remember is on the A4Play podcast, your alma mater, Roy was like... yeah the original fantasy life yeah yeah was that your era of like playing that a lot yeah i played the original fantasy life and i was like it's so good it's such a different experience but i think it's i've played other games similar to it

That have given me more challenge and I just feel like it didn't age up in terms of like systems, you know? And I, you know, I say run around press A because I think it's evocative and funny, but it is. Sometimes that's good. I like the mining. They're like spinning around the mines and the trees to find the sweet spot and doing the heavy hit to finish it off, like timing the last hit to be the heavy one to get the extra resources.

That's simple and satisfying. And getting the buddies to help you do it, I do enjoy that for sure. But it was like wanting so hard to just like let me do my thing and let me play with my sweetie. And there was so much in the way of that. And I will go back to it on Steam Deck by myself and see how I feel about you.

just grinding stuff out. Which is weird that they screwed up the... I haven't tried the co-op, but it's weird that they screwed up considering you always have three other people running around with you, like three NPCs. Yeah, but not in co-op. And you have to go and you get a room code. I had to make a keyword for Maria to search and then put in the password. You okay, man? It's just like... Sometimes you play a game and you're like...

These people like Fields of Mystria or Fay Farm. It's like these people are students of the genre. They know what the quality of life features are that we need to be comfortable and to be past the bar in this. series. And sometimes you play a game and it's like, have they played a video game before? Have they thought about what they might want out of one?

Yeah, it's crazy because, like, they really upsold the co-op, too, when they were, like, advertising the game because people love co-op. Like, co-op is kind of like the new normal, right? Everybody expects games to have co-ops in it. And then... It's like they don't understand why, and then they just completely fumble. I would love to just drill them on just these basic ideas. Like, how...

how do you not understand the basics of people want to play this game with other people? Why are you, why are you torturing them? What is, what is this? Why do you hate them? Um, fancy life. I mean, the reviews are, I didn't give it a nine. Like people are, steam reviews are pretty good. Yeah. Like, that's good. I definitely feel like there's a good game, but I fear my brain may be too...

It needs to spin faster for the games that I've been playing lately. I feel like I have just played a ton of games that my brain does not work at the speed and pace at which fantasy life wants me to progress. So it's not the game's fault. I need faster. And you wouldn't think a game like this would have such a slow start. You know, you kind of expect to get in and do it. I don't like it.

I can see the vortex you all are swimming in. You know, I see it and it's like, God, I just, I'm scared to jump in because I know that feeling of that type of game and just the, okay, all right. One more tutorial. Here we go. It's like, okay, one more text box. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, go somewhere. I can't, I can't. I can't do it anymore. I can't do it anymore.

I'm a 38-year-old man. I cannot do that specific flavor anymore. Speaking of 38-year-old man, thanks everybody who supports us on Patreon. I greatly appreciate you all out there. And he helps spread the words appreciated. And here's a special thing you can spread the word about if you'd like. If you subscribe to this very podcast on your favorite podcast app, subscribe to this very podcast and.

You leave a review on Apple Podcast, Jeffem. Leave a review on Apple Podcast with some way to contact you. This could be Instagram handle, could be Discord, could be Twitter, could be Blue Sky. You're in the running to win a Switch 2.

If you're hearing us talk about the Switch 2, you're feeling the FOMO. You say, I would like a Switch 2. Oh, and this is free, by the way. We're not going to make you pay for this. We are giving away one Switch 2. If you would like one, subscribe to the Mid-Max Show podcast. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Leave that username on one of those platforms so we can reach out to you. We're going to be randomly picking one winner on June 10th.

June 10th, the full randomization of the latest wave of reviews on Apple Podcasts for the Minimax Show. So get in the running. It'll be a fun time to see who is going to win a Switch 2! Yeah! Also, shout out. It doesn't come with a welcome tour, though. No, a welcome tour you provide on your own. You don't have to, but it kind of feels right, doesn't it? No. The deadline for the MSI contest is one month from today, by the way. July 5th for the MSI.

Competition. It's good to know. Tight turnaround for us. Also, thank you to your friends at iMateBit. They want everybody to know about Diablo. They're not talking about the man, the myth, the legend, the... Final Boss? Why no, they're talking about the four vinyl set for the vinyl soundtrack to Diablo 4 specifically.

it's an im8bit joint so of course it looks absolutely gorgeous it includes the eighth sound in-game mount trophy for diablo 4 music by the composers it looks fantastic it's im8bit help support them directly by getting these things in wonderful online store you can use the promo code throughout the month of june for 10 off that promo code of course for the month of june melted ice cream melted ice cream for 10 off of everything

under $10, 10%. What am I saying? 10% off of everything under $100. And I'm a, it's one online store and you should help support. I am eight bit because they support the min max community in a huge way. So you. can go to I'm Ape It's Wonderful Online Store and use that code. And here's the thing. They ship out a prize each and every week to whoever has the best questions submitted over there on Patreon. If you support us at any tier on Patreon.

If it wasn't a $5 tier, you get a Star of Providence code on Steam, which is pretty sweet. Which pays for itself. Yeah, if you jump in before the 9th. But... Jump into any tier, you can submit a question for the podcast. We choose your number one favorite. And this week, thanks to iMateBit, we're shipping out the World of Warcraft classic double vinyl soundtrack.

They're in a blizzard kind of mood. Those are fun songs to have on vinyl. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. So there you go. Thanks to iMateBit. They're really shipping out a prize to whoever we deem is the best question. So, Sarah, you're ready to hear all these questions and remember every single one and then choose the one that we like the most and that person gets the prize from iMateBit.

Yes. Stop us if you've heard this one before. You thinking about it tells me that you're confident in your answer. I was thinking about saying something and I chose not to say it in the moment. God bless you. George Sneezy writes in. More people should do that. George Sneezy writes in and says, Summer Game Fest. Stay to play.

Nintendo Direct. If MinMax created... This isn't beat poetry. If MinMax created their own showcase event featuring new game announcements and the like, what would you all call it? Um... You mean like instead of like a direct showcase, state of play? We'd have to kind of choose one of those. God, a lot of them are taken. We'd probably be humble and it wouldn't even have a min-max in it, right?

Yeah, that would be the smart business. It's all about the business, man. Okay. MinMax Presents. MinMax Presents. MinMax Presents the MinMax Experience, yeah. It's pretty close to MinMax Spotlight. We currently have that. Or MinMax Presence. That's a funny idea. And these are presents that we give. That's pretty good. And every time somebody says it, we have to correct them. Yeah. Like you say, you know, two N's, except it's like, presents.

Like that it's summer game fest and not summer games fest. Right. Yeah. It'd be that equivalent. We'd be really hoity about it. Like get up in everyone's face. I like that a lot. Presents.

I do wonder, like, you know, kind of funny for a while I did, like, showcases. I don't think they've done one for a couple years. Right. And I just kind of look at them as their big buddies. And so I look at them and they're like, oh, they probably stopped doing that because that was probably really freaking hard. But everyone's fine. I do think, like, is there something there? Would that be kind of cool to...

I don't know, get in the showcase game? Do a showcase? There's a ton of showcases now. There's so many more than you think. I feel like every week there's another showcase popping up that I didn't know about. Who do I love more than IOI? And when they announce they're doing their own showcase, I go, really?

YouTube. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of funny. Kind of partner with the mix. That's right. I mean, they're kind of getting that other system there, but they did a great job of them. Um, hauling gas rates in. Hey folks, simple question. Will, Leo, stop looking at the screen. Hey, man, look away. There's no notes. It's fine when Leo does it. That's crazy. There's something weird about...

Like, even if I'm reading a book... Well, I think it's because Sarah famously judges Ben for lots of things constantly. Oh. He's probably expecting being yelled at for something. I noticed that.

Do you ever have that thing, Jeff? Like, if I'm reading, like, a book to my kid and my wife's, like, you know, laying on the bed, too, and she'll, like, watch it. Like, every time I stumble over a word, I feel like, oh, I'm such an idiot. I feel like it's a weird level of self-conscious about, like, just basic reading, but... Does she belittle you? Yes. I would do the way I butcher this question. Hey folks, simple question. Do you think, do you think you're a patient person?

I found that different people have different definitions of being patient, whether it's being able to wait in a queue for a long time or to tolerate a rude person's attitude. What does it mean to you? Are you a patient person? I think I'm patient with people. And with technology, I have a really short fuse. And it extends into like gaming.

Kind of rage gaming and stuff. Yeah, I'm like Leo, but also people. I mean, like in a car, are you like a freak out in a car kind of guy? Like trying to drive down record off the road level of... I swear. Hey, I was the most patient person on the planet on that day. Every day with Dan, you were the most patient person on the planet. Yeah. Yeah. No, people annoy me when they drive. Because they drive so poorly. I try very hard to be patient and I'm more conscious of it now.

because I don't want my kid, like, like, I'll hear my kid playing with a toy in the other room and he'll, and every now and then, like, it'll fall over and he'll be like, come on! oh man you're you're getting that from me aren't you teach him and and then sometimes he'll he'll see that i'm upset and he'll be like it's okay dad take a deep breath and count to 10 really because i've done that

to him as well. And he'll throw it back in my face. That's really sweet. But it's a struggle. I have triggers. I don't know. I think everyone's probably in the same camp where no one's like, yes or no. It's like some things, yes, very much. And something's nowhere. I think about like, God, am I a patient person? I'm like, wait, like with video editing, I think makes you a patient person in some ways where it's like, you got to be pretty patient to just.

comb through 10 hours of summer game fest footage and just patiently go through it and piece it all together slowly like there's a certain amount of patience that comes for kind of like the zen of video editing i think i think i'm pretty patient patient with people but like We had so minimal, but even just like...

corporate nonsense or business. Yes. I feel like I have zero patience. Like to the point that I'm sure it was a dick a thousand times a game for me. Like, just get to the point. Just do the thing. Like, can we just do this thing and get over it? Like, stop having unnecessary meetings. And we had like, again, very, very bare minimum. performer but still just like company bureaucracy i am i have that much patience yeah

I feel that. I mean, it's like if you want to feel like we're at least accomplishing one little thing. Yes. And that is not the feeling. Yes. Oh. Sarah, are you patient? Um... I feel like... I like corporate bureaucracy because if you can extend it long enough, you don't really have to do your job at all. So it's like, I'll forward you to as many people as you need and we can have as many meetings on the calendar because then it's like...

I can say that I was working, but let's all be honest. We're in a meeting together talking about working and then not actually doing it. Beat the system. This basically is a meeting right now. Wow. Yeah, we just record them. Yep. I don't know. I feel like I'm fairly patient.

But it's like, I won't outwardly show when I become impatient for the most part, like if I'm in public, you know. I think I've seen you be impatient. That's because it's you specifically. Oh, really? It's a different layer? Yeah. Do you think you have a shorter fuse with me than most people? I feel like I kind of do, but I feel like it's because we're exact opposites. Really? Yeah. How so? Because I asked you why you won't hook up Ethernet to your basement today.

And you had this really long excuse about why you won't put Ethernet in your basement. And then I found out you were streaming off Wi-Fi. And it's apparently caused a lot of issues in your life. Look how patient this man is, though. I am going to explode.

It's not that I am aware that streaming of a Wi-Fi is not ideal. It's a longer, more complicated story that's intertwined in a lot of different things. I am aware. And it was an issue once, in one stream, once. And then again today for this podcast. We're in the middle of this! Okay, you lost your patience Chris That's all it took. Do you take my suggestion seriously about it? Or are you just being nice by saying it? No, let's do it. Let's do it. Okay. Good. Jonathan Ding.

Jonathan Dinn. Hey, everybody. I finished up my Doom the Dark Ages playthrough and found myself trying to 100% the levels on my first playthrough and realized halfway through that it kind of ruined the vibe for Doom. Do you all go for 100% on the initial playthrough or not?

Or is it dependent on the genre of game where 100% runs affect the pacing like it did for me in Doom? I can't remember the last time I finished a game. I'm not 100%ing anything. Come on. You strive to. You 100% the first seven hours of everything. Yeah, maybe that's my problem. Yeah. I've tried to cut down on that. But even when I don't, we play so many games. How do you guys do it? 100%. How do you guys finish a game?

Oh, period? Yeah. Hmm. I'm not someone to ask about this for sure. I do feel like I 100% the first five hours of a lot. And I do think, yeah, that might be a problem. But I also end up liking the side content the most. And I always tell myself... If I really love the game, I'll finish it while doing everything in it and I'll want to play it as much as possible. But I do wonder if I would like more games more often.

if I saw them through, even if I let more things go. I feel like if you feel like you got 100% of what you wanted out of the game... It's not worth it to 100% it. Yeah. You know, because I don't do a lot of side content stuff unless it's like I know that it's decent side content stuff and I can get 100% of what I want out of a game without playing it 100%. I stop when I feel like if I go any further.

my experience will degrade. Yeah, and I don't want to feel like I have an obligation to get 100% because when it becomes an obligation, that's when I quit playing it. But, on the other hand... I was super invested in getting every stamp and welcome to her today. We had to. I thought I'd be above that. There was no choice. I wish there was a choice. There was truly no choice, yeah. Yeah, people didn't ask Haley. I think she's clearly the person to go to to ask all these things. Sir, did you...

Are you still playing Claire Obscure? Mm-hmm. Without spoiling anything, where are you at, roughly? I'm like... Act two? Middle act two-ish. Middle act two. You digging it? Yeah, I really like it. How thorough are you being on that one? I mean, like, I don't really quite understand.

the thoroughness of it. Like I haven't looped back to anything yet. Okay. I tried to clean up any bosses. I'm just trying to get through the story. Have you been like poking around on the world map and stuff? I poked around. I poked a little bit. I found some stuff. But yeah, mostly I just feel like I need more levels. And then once I get to a point where I feel like, okay, I can go back and start to explore a little bit more, then I will. Yeah.

Are you streaming all of it? Yeah. Okay, how's that going, doing that with the community watching you? Well, the community's not too bad, but the issue is I only stream Thursdays and Saturdays. So it's like a big gap between Saturday and Thursdays. And I have to like relearn like the dodging and all that. Like what characters are setting up one with moves. The characters I'm fine with, but it's like just the feeling of the dodging. I kind of have to relearn.

right this is clear obscure to me feels like a kind of game that like you want to play it every night for a couple weeks so like when you're really in sort of like you really get how it works and you're in the swing of it and you understand the parrying and you don't forget anything it's hard to take big breaks i think

yeah yeah for sure i started clear obscure last night oh did you nice first hour cool great setup isn't that a cool setup yeah yeah i'm glad it's like it it's doing its job of like getting its hooks into people who don't even really like that type of genre just with that opening you know and like so yeah

Oh God, if it gets you and you keep playing on Leo, I'm so excited for you. Yeah, we'll see. Yeah, we finished up The Deepest Dive this last week. If you want to check that out on YouTube or it's in the bonus podcast feed if you're a $5 supporter where you get that Steam code for Star Providence. But yeah.

Loved it. It was so fun to unpack that game's ending. I feel like the internet's been really great about not spoiling things in that game, which is fantastic. So the water's still warm for a great game. Jump on in. Splash. Splash. Renzo writes in and says, with so many games revealed during these showcases every year, has there ever been one you initially dismissed or didn't think was for you, but later it got a lot of praise and you ended up loving it?

You ended up loving it. And you ended up, you ended. Ended up loving it. You ended up. But later it got a lot of praise and you ended up loving it. Perfect. Great job. See, positive reinforcement. Positive reinforcement. Famously... I feel like I'm being the first to answer a lot of these. That one game I like. What is he talking about? Yeah, the game you like, Hitman. What the?

The cat skinwalkers? Skinwalkers? Are you thinking of skinwalkers? And then it's turned into a co-op game. An MMO faithful? Instead of just getting shut down, they said now it's a co-op game. Fortnite. The Division. Starts with a W. Wayfinder? Wayfinder. Oh. We were streaming the reaction to that, and it was like after a bunch of games that were like looter action games like that, and I was like, how are we supposed to react to this? Who cares?

But then I played it at SGF on the show floor, and it was solid, and I played a lot at home. It was great. Yeah, it is fun to think of, like, the trailers in particular were, like, fart. I'm sure, like, the announcement of, like, Call of Duty Black Ops 4, I probably looked at the screen and said fart.

And then that ended up being one of my favorite games of the year. I just got so into that blackout battle royale mode. So it's nice to have those types of surprises. I was even thinking of the kind of... Biggest surprise along the way of like, I was a Telltale fan. I enjoyed Telltale games. I feel like I knew what Telltale games were. I don't care at all about Walking Dead.

So when they announced that, I'm like, okay, I'll skip that one. And then they'd be like, oh no, that turns out it's one of the best games of 2012. Who would have thought that they would hit it so far out of the park? Was that not one of the first ones? Telltale Games? No, no. I mean, the first one that blew up in a big new direction, but if you want to go back to Jurassic Park, Back to the Future, Wallace and Gromit, Puzzle Agent, Poker Night at the Inventory, they got that kind of early stuff.

Do you have one, Jeff? I don't think so. Good. Eric Perez writes in and says, hey, everybody, if spiders can talk and you can reason with them, would you like them or at least be okay with them living with you? I would love to say here's... I'm going to go first again. I would love if you could say you can build a web there. Yeah, that would be nice. Yeah, this is your corner. Stay out of the bedroom. You can even make a really easy little room for them.

You know, just like a little Kleenex box. Just stay in here. I just want to communicate, like, this is where the bugs come in. I know this is where the bugs come in. If you could watch this for me, that would be incredible. Also, PS, do you eat ants? Do spiders eat ants? They probably eat anything that goes on their web, right? But they love the flying things, I guess, because that's what goes on their web. Flying ants. Yum, yum. Wow. Humans eat ants.

My aunt makes me food to eat. Also, only aunts. Hey, it's been a long day. Um, so, Reznet. Hour seven of content. Resonant writes in, if y'all got a portal gun tomorrow, how long do you think it would take until you seriously hurt yourself? You'd have to be really careful. Only against walls. Carefully step through.

Yeah, gosh, it'd be scary. Yeah. Yeah, I would need it only in wall usage. And we don't get... Because I think she had those, like, special shoes, right? Yeah. So she didn't get hurt from, like, falling. Springy bounce thing, yeah. I would need that. I don't know. I think I'd be afraid to use it. Where would you use it, practically speaking? I feel like I would turn to crime if I had a portal gun. But you have to go to both places. You do. But you can set one up before you go to bed at night.

set one up in front of the front of the loo and then when you wake up in the morning it's like i don't want to go to bed but i guess i gotta go to the bathroom isn't that a family guy joke Are you just stealing Family Guy content now? I just got Family Guy playing on YouTube. They made a joke about a portal gun?

Of course. I feel like Family Guy or... No, The Simpsons had the one where they had... It was a teleporter. Some kind of teleporter. It was a teleporter and he was reaching his hand to grab the beer. Right. Oh, wasn't he like starting to set up in the bathroom and Marge is like, don't. I think something like that. Or like Marge was in there or something. No, that's something. It was the tree on Marge. The flyberry. Yeah, that's it. That's exactly it. Yeah.

Yes, that's what I'm ripping off accidentally. Wow. Um, so shame on you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, yeah, I don't know. You could, what, take a tour of a bank, sneakily shoot a portal into the vault? I was thinking, like, how is it like... Like, yeah, behind a door? Is it open? Like, where could you possibly hide a portal? There's gotta be some way. I would, like, steal and sell secrets in corporations. I would do corporate espionage, I think. Oh, that'd be fun. But you'd still have to go in there.

and shoot a portal, and it would be a giant glowing thing on the side of the wall. You'd pull the screen down or something. You'd do it behind a TV, or you'd hang something up in front of it. Yeah. He could help people who were unjustly put in prison. Yeah. Take a tour of the prison and say, hey, lift up that poster real quick. Hey, Rita Hayworth, I got something for you. Sincerely, Eric writes in, they say, what franchise are we forgetting about? Which is a question I...

and Gaga over. I love that. That could be an entire episode of the podcast. What franchise are we all just forgetting about is big? But if we remembered it, it wouldn't be forgetting it. That's exactly it. So I tweeted it out to see what people would say. Joey over there, kind of funny, she says Viva Pinata. We're all kind of forgetting about that collectively. I think that's true. Tack. Great answer. Tack and the power of Juju. Absolutely. You kidding me? You kidding me?

Totally forgot about that. There's stuff that's like one-offs, like Skies of Arcadia. There's going to be multiple games for it to be a franchise. I feel like it's got to be. Yeah. Let's see. Because we haven't forgotten, okay? Skies of Arcadia. What about Level 5's Dark Cloud? You think that's been forgotten? I'm proof. I'm living proof that that's been forgotten because I don't know what the hell you're talking about. Good games! Good games!

Dude, you like Fantasy Li-Fi? Then you'd love Dark Cloud. It's fun to see the DNA, actually. You like DNA, right? Sure. I like seeing it. Mr. DNA from Jurassic Park. Spore. Speaking of DNA. True. Yeah. That's a franchise because they had dark spore, so that's technically a whole series of spore likes. NBA Street, that's a great one.

one this is i posted on blue sky this is everyone they had really good suggestions big man x is a series we're forgetting about maximo is a series we're forgetting about toe jam and earl we're all forgetting about yeah well i feel like i hear enough about

Toe Jam and Earl. I hear too much about Toe Jam and Earl. Yeah. Cool it. We got it. I mean, they announced that movie a while back. Sure. You're probably directing it. That's what we need. What about this? I thought this was a good one from Cube Enigma. army men those games are probably sold

tens of millions of copies. It's like, oh yeah, there's a lot of people who wanted to play Army Men games on the PlayStation 1 and, were they on N64? I think they were on N64 as well. Huh, based on the little green guys? Yeah, yeah. They were solid little games. Huh. Oh, of course. We got Louis Perez saying, with not E3 2025 going at full steam. Not E3. No kidding. It's interesting to think that the last regular E3 was on 2019. It was in 2019.

With SGF adding a physical event in 2023, nature is kind of healing. With all this in mind, what year will we hear the majority of people start saying E3 is truly back? My money's on 2027. Does that mean by the event or just the feeling of the summer? Yeah. Do they mean like it actually just becomes what E3 was?

Because people have been saying E3 is back. I feel like every year. And then every year they all say E3 is actually really dead for sure this time. I do think this year of SGF we're at that turning point of like, you know, you can put SGF in a headline. SGF predictions, the way we used to do E3 predictions, and most of the audience is there with you, right? They get it. Sure, but at the same time, it feels like it really snuck up.

I feel like I didn't start thinking about it until midway through last week. Yeah. It doesn't feel like the tentpole that people think of, like, oh, E3's coming in June, you know, like. Yeah.

I think it's the lack of Microsoft, Nintendo, PlayStation. They all kind of do things around the event, but it's scattered and it's not... what it used to be which was like all their best stuff that's coming we didn't know about the state of play till a day before yeah that's i don't like that yeah yeah at least xbox is gonna call their shot from a long ways away um yeah but the idea of just kind of like

Be excited for the state of play. It's coming tomorrow afternoon. Here we go. It's like you want to feel that. It feels like they're trying to announce it as fast as possible. So we don't. Get hyped. Get hyped or have expectations. Yeah. Kind of worked well for them this time. Don't say week showing this year. It's like they weren't even there this year. That's right. If you think about it. There is. It's easy to forget. They announced the ESA. Remember that they have the follow up.

convention that's going to be happening in las vegas in april in 2026 and it's called icon with two eyes sure so that is officially the follow-up to e3 i don't like that great job sarah would you go to icon with me I've never been to Vegas. Okay. That'd be kind of fun. All right. Done. Done. When is it? April 2026. I think it'd be fun to go to the first of this. Yeah. I didn't think about ever that. The first and last probably. Exactly. Right. That E3 Kings with.

Jeff Korg was the last E3 ever. Like, it's good that we got... Oh, yeah. That we did coverage of that quality for the very last one ever. That's cool. I'm getting forward to his YouTube channel if you want to check it out. Ricky Winterborn.

Is there any positive aspect to developers showing deceptive tech demos like the infamous Killzone 2 E3 reveal trailer and now potentially this new Witcher 4 presentation? Even though I know they shouldn't overhype their games, I can't help but get excited to see graphics that good.

The actual game ends up being watered down. I never even played Killzone 2, but I watched that trailer like 10 times because it made me excited for the future of all video game graphics. Huh. I hear that. It is fun. Yeah, that's cute. The answer is no. Yeah. And you're a sinner, Ricky.

Yeah, I mean, did you watch that Witcher 4 Unreal tech demo? No, I've only seen, like, short clips. Okay, yeah, I watched it, and, like, when they set it up, and they're like, this is a tech demo in the world of Witcher 4. It was like, oh, no, people are going to... misrepresent this because the wild thing is like this is running on a base ps5 and it just looks absurdly good it is unbelievable looking but it's like the difference is they don't have the full world built out they're just rendering

That one area. Right. And there's nothing else in it. There's no mechanics in it. Yes. this really tight, like, how good can we make it if our game was only a five-minute trailer? Yes. Yes. And to be fair, the answer is very good. But, like, it seems like they're already kind of doing a little backpedaling. Like, that's not technically Witcher 4 gameplay, even though it...

looks like go to four gameplay. And it seems like we're announcing things like the horse and all this stuff to communicate. I know. Like you would know putting that out there that people were going to misunderstand it. Yeah. Yeah. Unless you have a big watermark on the screen.

But then at the same time, like they don't want to emphasize that too much because Epic is like they're trying to sell the engine to people. So they want it in the showcase to look as good as possible. It's like, hey, you know what? If the community gets confused, not our problem. We're selling the engine, right? Noodle says, as a relatively younger viewer, I feel like the term game journalist comes with a negative connotation in a lot of my social circles.

It seems to me that this judgment comes from people jumping to conclusions after video thumbnails, article headlines, review scores. People still meme on IGN's Too Much Water. Do you all think this negative attitude towards game journalists is something that can be targeted and addressed? Or maybe it's just a symptom of a greater societal issue. When Haley talked about how there actually was too much water in that game.

Like you spend too much time going through water? That changed my whole world. It was like, I almost drank the Kool-Aid on that. It's very easy to, something to just live forever as, look how stupid this sounds. Right. Did they have a point? An interesting insight about how it carries a negative connotation. I feel like that's very common. I think the only way to quote-unquote fix it...

from this outsider perspective, is to get somebody that, like, that generation already respects, like, a content creator, and then have them pivot into calling themselves a game journalist and maybe starting to be a game journalist. That's the only way this could be ever, like, fixed. Yeah, but then it's like you're taking a reputational hit if there's a negative connotation. I just, I don't know. I think the negative stereotype is just so ingrained. It's just going to take a while. Right, yeah.

I mean, you can't, if a content creator, yeah, was like, I today am a game manager. It's like, what does that mean? It's all such a weird shade of gray, even that like, we just say like, oh, we're content creators that are. professional. Even that's condescending to so many great content creators that grew up on YouTube and stuff. I don't even like calling us journalists. I don't know what that means. Don't put pressure on us. It basically just is a pejorative at this point.

Because there aren't any more journalists. That's true. Very few, at least. And they're the ones that get all the crap because they say things that fan bases, rabid fan bases don't like. Right. You're not going to... PR that into something that people are like, oh, actually, I was immature and stupid and actually journalism is a good thing now. And it's like, you should be nicer to those eight people.

five people, four people. That guy's nice. What are we doing here? You know, sad, but true. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We're in like a really weird state of content creation and media in general. then it's going to be interesting to see where we go in like 20 years. What do you think? I don't know. I think we're definitely going towards the influencer content creator thing where it's like everybody just has that one person.

That they're like, oh, I watch like so-and-so's content. And when the game comes out, I'll watch them play it. And then I'll kind of decide for myself if that is something I want or not. Yeah. You know, and I might not get exposure to a lot of games unless like insert content creator talks about them. Yeah. Yeah. What term like games journalist do you all use for yourselves if it comes up of having to define yourself with that general type of label? Yeah, I don't know. Enthusiast press.

Enthusiast Press? Can you unpack that? It feels easier. That sounds a little bit too like rah-rah. I'm here to... I don't know, like champion welcome to her and say everyone should spend 10 bucks on it. It's their job. It's their duty. I mean, Jeff, you're a writer. I don't know. Maybe just on the video side, I have a tougher time with it, but like, you know your journalism. Sarah, you know your journalism from schooling.

Yeah, but I never went with the intent to be a journalist. Oh, it was just for the perks? I wanted the writing. Yeah, but it's different from an English major? I don't know. I wanted to be able to write and communicate clearly.

And I feel like English is not, it doesn't really cross over very well. And that era's over now anyway. Backstage Pass is right. The answer is games media. I was going to say games media. Even when I was talking about, oh, for kind of, not slogans, but things to... hit for messaging mid-max like I support independent games media it's like it's like games journalism I don't know if that really fits if people are just looking at new show plus and us like

Having a picnic, you know? Games Media is like a better road. But I mean, yeah. But you do your interviews and you ask your hard-hitting questions. Yeah, but I don't know. I don't know. I feel like it's too... It's too much. You don't like Games Media? I like games media. I don't like the games journalist. Oh, yeah, no. Yeah. But, like, Jeff, would you confidently say for I am a journalist?

Oh, when you're working at Game Informer? No, but like a Game Informer, would you say that? With kind of that, like, Dracula accent? No, I used to call myself an editor because that was closer. to what we do i mean we wore so many hats there and we we do hear that it's just like The journalism part is a very small part of what we do everywhere else. We balance microphones. Professionally. Yeah. So I don't know. It's not a label that like.

i i feel like i have to i mean like you said it it only carries negative connotations now anyway so like what are we trying to live up to It's weird that we won't call ourselves that because we hold it in higher regard. Right. That's interesting. But everyone else. it's in lower regard yeah so there's a time i say like if you don't it feels like if you don't like i don't want to call myself a journalist i feel like that implies like you're on the take then that means like you know

They're sending you money. The journalists are on the take, though, according to most people. Yeah, it's a mess. It's a mess. Whatever. We're going to do what we're doing. We talked about it, I think, the last time when Polygon got closed or whatever. And I remember looking through Reddit and there were people who were saying like, good, I'm glad they're gone. They were just middlemen. We should just get our information straight from the publishers. Yes. Because that's pure.

Yeah. And we don't need other people manipulating what we think about it. Yeah. And that's just like, it's horrifying. Well, okay. Journalism is dead at this point. So like, yeah, I mean, Kit and Krista, great podcasts are really at their. peak right now only to climb higher but uh no like the switch to launch i think they've been fantastic and they were talking about like how scared they were about like you know we were on the pr team for nintendo for years and years uh and now

It's like, oh, Nintendo, there's no reviews day of for the Switch 2. They're not giving out early systems to anybody. They're being so tight with messaging and all this stuff. And they're like, we were freaked out. And we were on the pure Nintendo team just seeing how much the community is like, good.

I love that they're cutting journalists out of the system. It's like, whoa, you guys. Don't damage my hype. Yeah, it's exactly it. It'd be nice to have some independent thoughts and voices in this thing. Okay. Hey, speaking of which, Chris Hanlon. Friend of yours? I don't know.

They say, Ben, do you wish that Max Dude had used a screenshot of you with your eyes open in his recent video? What a good question. This is a Maximilian Dude. He posted on his YouTube channel a reaction to a rapid fire interview with Hideki. you um yeah i look like an a-hole in the thumbnail that he used uh but the good news is he only has 1.8 million subs uh yeah no

Honestly, he also has his eyes closed in that. So you know what? Whatever. I want to know what the inspiration behind the double eyes closed thing was. Maybe we're like, we couldn't believe the beautiful Joe headline that was happening there. So we went along with it. And they love a funny face and a thumbnail like that. And maybe that's as funny as your face.

God. Thanks, man. But you got the sunglasses and the bald cap, bro. That was funny as hell. But then they'll think it's like, why are there two Kamias in this? Sure. Yeah, that's kind of confusing. Lazy thumbnail. He's coming twice. No, so Max Millian, dude, I'm a huge fan of his Final Fantasies. content in particular and i genuinely was a real geek out meeting when at a preview event i got to actually meet him in person it was a real thrill

Um, but I like his YouTube channel. And so he did a Twitch reaction stream. I think the night of when our rapid fire interview went live, cause he's a big, you know, Capcom fan and a Kamiya fan and stuff. And so like, I watched that on Twitch cause I think somebody pinged me in the discord. They're like,

there are 10,000 people watching your reaction streams or the rapid fire things. Oh my God, that's wild. And so I thought this was going to be the end of it, but it's so fun to see his Twitch chat reacting. But then I feel like it was, you know, I'm not angry at all. Like he's, he's.

siphoning our views he's stealing our content on youtube like because he did it in a really classy way really he linked to us and he was posted on youtube like a week after our rapid fire went live on youtube um and our rapid fire was at 10 000 views kind of flatlining there where it's like, okay, a little low for rapid fire, but I'm happy-ish with it. There we go. And then he posted that reaction video of that interview on his YouTube channel. His version now has 100,000 views.

um because of him posting it there like the second it was posted somebody pinged me the discord again So I went and left like a nice comment on that video. Like, oh, thanks so much for reacting to this. It's really fun to see, you know, subscribe to Mimax's channel for more interviews like it. And we got 400 new subs. Nice. Just like a boost on our YouTube channel from that.

And then also like the YouTube algorithm magic, like because he posted that, we got like an extra 4,000 views on the primary rapid fire. it's like unclear if people are clicking through or all that stuff. So it's like this win-win as far as I see. And like the goal of those interviews and those rapid fire interviews that we've talked about a lot is like, it's our best bet to kind of get out of there.

orbit and see some new faces meet some potential new uh min max fans and stuff um and so i feel like yeah 100 000 views on a channel that's not ours where people hopefully have the takeaway of like, oh, who's MinMax? That was kind of fun. You know, and he was really complimentary and nice. It was just like, I loved it. It was really lovely to see. That's great. And it's nice to see so many comments to be like, now Max has to do...

Some Final Fantasy VII content with you guys. I agree. He legally has to. He has to. We'd love to. Got him. Blake Barber writes in and says, it's been a while since I've heard anything about y'all getting better. Yeah, we've been getting a lot worse, actually. I'm turning 40 this year and planning a reunion with some high school buddies. Reunion, speaking of fantasy 7. Come on, let's get the show moving. I've been thinking about asking these guys what they would tell ourselves when we were 16.

What would us 40-year-old guys tell ourselves when we were 16? Blake says my personal answer would be to have kids earlier. Does anything stand out for y'all? Have kids at 16. um i've thought had many things occurred to me over the years of that would be great to tell my younger self a lot of epiphanies about whatever the way i move through life but the god's honest truth these days canka

Oh God. Yeah. I could use that too. Yeah. It's a mouth pain liquid. It's like an oral anesthetic. I get canker sores when I have like too much sugar. It happens, like, pretty often. They're pretty painful, and I keep, like, tonguing them, and it makes them not heal, you know? But you put the canka on, and then you can't feel them. You forget they're there. Canka? Canka. K-A-N-K-A. Mouth pain liquid. I didn't know a product existed for this until...

A couple months ago. Yeah, it's really great. Wow. So like when you were just like cromping on those Sour Patch watermelons today during the stream, it's like canker follow up. Well, you know, if a canker sore forms. Oh, you keep it on you. I knew this question was coming, so I put it in my backpack. But I do have it in my backpack first. No wisdom? No wisdom? No wisdom teeth. My answer.

To my 16-year-old. Being invest in Amazon. Stock money. Sure. And defend Bezos at all costs. Well, get out. Get out on a reasonable time. Have you guys seen My Old Ass? Yes. That movie I watched on an airplane. It's a cute little concept of like, you know, yourself. It was like 37 or something going back and talking to yourself from 20 years ago, right? When you're kind of graduating college and you're graduating high school and going after college. Like is that time frame? Mm-hmm.

um but then like god by the end of the movie it was just like haymakers to my gut like it really like i love that movie okay good i'm glad you're with me because like bawling on an airplane like all right i didn't expect to just be openly weeping but it really got me but

Can I tell you this fun premise? Right. So she's going out and like camping with friends, the younger version of her rent. And then she has a bunch of mushrooms and just all of a sudden, like her older self comes and sits down on the log next to her and starts talking to her.

And then they spend, like, the rest of the night just, like, talking. She's like, oh, I'm tripping. This is so crazy. Ha ha. There's a fun, weird moment where she's, like, tries to have sex with herself. And her older self is like, this is so weird. Dude, stop doing this.

But then it's very fun because she falls asleep and the older version's like, I don't know, I guess. So she like put her number in her phone, in the younger version's phone. And then it's just this great thing. Like as she's sober the next day, then she just like calls the number.

And the older version's like, oh my god, I can't believe that worked. Like, we're actually talking now, and I'm back in the future, and we can actually communicate. And it's like, how did it resonate with Ilya? It hit you? Big time. Yeah. Without giving too much away, it's like...

A lot of wisdom from her older self and a lot of wisdom from her younger self too. Like a lot of value that we don't necessarily give our foolish younger selves. A lot of value in the way they see the world too. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, I think I have this weird thing where I never wanted to like join anything, like any groups or sports or any activities.

Nothing. I just always had this feeling my entire life. Look, I don't do that. Like I'm different. I don't, I don't do that. I don't join the crowd. I don't do that. Just like contrarian to the core. And I look back and it's like, Oh, I think like that. Most fun social things is like when you're working with a group towards a larger goal, that's as satisfying as things can be. And so I'd go back and just slap myself like.

What are you doing? Don't just be like, I'm not the type of person that does that. I'm not the type of person that would ever be in a play in high school or anything like that. It's like, no, just join the group. That's where the satisfaction comes from, you idiot. Yucko. All right. Sarah, what do you like for question of the week? Oh, no. Oh, yes. Oh, no. It's okay. We're all patient people. We can wait for you.

Let's see. There was... I like the one about the negative attitude towards journalists. That was a good one. That was a good one because it came from a younger person. And I feel like it's nice to finally have... that perspective yeah on things they taught us all something yeah well i think i think we all know how like you know people who grew up with like

you know games journalism feels and they're like I want it all to come back and I want it to always be the same as it was and my magazine in the mail and I want it to read like this and it's like I do think we need to change a little bit I think everyone needs to evolve and i i don't think we should you know i think we should change a little bit but i think people should be nicer to games journalists

That's true. But we should change. But I think we might need to change something because it's not working. Yeah. Yeah. And there's a reason it has moved the way it has. Yeah. And I think I see so little of this. So little of this.

Um, but like the idea of like, I don't know, there's still kind of this feeling of like looking down, I think on some content creators and it's like, they were, they're out in the trenches. They rose to the ranks most likely for a reason. Like they're very talented. Like there is this feeling of this kind of disdain.

A little bit. For like, oh, popular content creator. Right, right. It's like, I think, Sarah, I think, yes, you have that feeling, and I think it's shared by me and other folks as well. It's like, you know, just like this feeling of... I don't know, making sure people are earning it and appreciating how rare it is. The old boys club being handed stuff is frustrating. And I think a lot of that...

And the era of game journalism was very much that. And we exist in this ecosystem together. Yes. Whether we like it or not, we all exist in this ecosystem of content creation, personal branding and video games and journalism. Right. And. We either adapt or we die. Mm-hmm. They'll make us choose. There we go. Congratulations to Noodle. I may be shipping out that prize. And now it's time for something that, of course, we call... Get a load of this.

That's right, Leo! Take it away! Well, I just got my phone. Hey, get a load of this, Jeff. Did you know that English alphabet... used to have something after the letter Z. Now you're just making shit up. I am not making this up. After the letter Z, used to say the word and. And used to be at the end of the alphabet. Well, how'd that work with the song, Hanson? You can make it work. End, Z, and? Here's the thing.

Here is the thing. In the 1800s, apparently, when kids would recite it, you'd say X, Y, Z, and per se, and. For ampersand? they would say and per se and yes which was like and in and of itself and not saying like and and implying there's something after that right and that was a thing over time and per se and evolved into ampersand huh

Isn't that funky? Isn't that cool? And then the actual icon itself evolved from Latin and stuff, if you're interested in all that stuff. But it's cool. Ampersand, everybody. Fun origins. Check it out. Thank you.

I yield my time. Okay. Mine's like super low-hanging fruit because I just saw it this morning in the news. But apparently, did you see that GameStop that was stapling receipts to Nintendo Switches? No. And the staple went through the box. Because the Switch is right at the surface. Yeah, because...

Because they put the screen at the very top of the box and it went through the box, through the protective plastic and onto the screen and like damaged it. I love it. I love it. So anyone who got their Switch from this one very specific GameStop. And they stapled the receipt to it. Now are having a lot of issues. Should that person be fired? Sarah, innocent mistake? It's just, it's a common sense thing.

I fear this one may be a common sense thing. And if that wasn't, the initial reaction wasn't, maybe we shouldn't staple... directly onto this box with this $500 console in it, maybe not the line of work you want to be in. Yeah, okay. Well, GameStop's always putting those stickers on the boxes that are impossible to get off. They got no reverence for these items. That's true. Zero reverence.

Get a load of this. This is so much easier. Shut up. This is so much easier to do in person for who's going next to get a load of this. Get a load of this. Remember Vanquish? Yeah. Remember? Forgotten franchises. Yeah. Forgotten franchise. A six hour game. Right. 15 hours for a completionist playthrough. Sure. I was holding the official guide. Not a prima guide, a future press guide it was called. Yeah. At a retro game store. 320 pages.

This thing was gigantic. That's games journalism. Yes, that's what we need. That's what we're missing. Good games journalism is a list of all the stats I've ever got. And I was looking like, why is it this long? Really long detailed walkthroughs of walkthrough the...

first hallway and take cover and throw a cigarette for cover and for, you know, distract somebody and then dash to the right. Like, move by move to get through this whole game. Do you also have a sick part of your soul that's, like, kind of fun just to, like, read this on a Sunday? A game guide? Yeah. Honestly, guides might be making a comeback like physical guides because I'm so tired of looking for something and then having to scroll like a recipe through like 20 ads. I'm like, where is it?

Where is it? I literally need just one clue. One hint. Why is it so hard to find? Get a load of this. It's a new video. uh from the movie rabbit hole it's part five of no cg is really just invisible cgi perfect um

And the first four-part series that he put out was really good and went into the entire controversy of how movie companies... The talking point now is how they do everything practically and how... those stupid movie journalists don't get me started on them they just go and regurgitate that without actually looking at it but then you have uh you know examples of like barbie where they they like

green screened out all of the green screen in the behind the scenes parts of it like they put they made it look like it was all sites and so he did a great job of Going through all that, he is a visual effects artist and he went through all of that. And then like months later, now he has put out a fifth.

um episode where he talks about wicked because that was another big one where everyone was like oh it's all practical and and as he's talking about it it's just like 20 minutes of all of the different you know cg and green screen everything into it but then he also does the entire Mission Impossible series. It talks about how in some cases like

He it's an it's an interesting take that he takes in this one where he talks about like some of it like they just shouldn't have done practically to begin with. Like they did the high the high altitude drop for for that one.

Whichever... that was six and that's the halo jump respect it yes into paris uh and and it but it's like when you see it it's just him coming out of a plane and it's filmed from underneath so you can't even tell how high he is it's exactly the problem and the part that turns me nuts about that too and i love

mission impossible but also it's like oh we did this all real it's great it's great and then he's like jumping into like a thunderstorm yes what don't have the stupid you're not that's not adding anything in fact that's just like lessening the impact of like is this real because suddenly he's jumping into

pixar's thundercloud yes i was just noticing this in mission impossible dead reckoning part one yeah where he's driving off that big ramp and they cg over the ramp with the mountain so it looks like he he talks all about

all about that one as well. And now it's just like a mountain. It's just a perfect ramp. It's so dopey. And it's just like... And in Final Reckoning, which I just saw last night, like it does the same thing where it's like, oh, this amazing underwater subsequence, but he's still like swimming around.

to get into the sub and it's just like a giant CG sub everywhere. And it's like, I get you're not going to have them swim next to a real sub, but like, it's just to have that right next to each other still feels jarring. Even if the stunts in that movie are like.

10 out of 10 Tom Cruise is just addicted to doing stunts yeah and they build it all around those and it doesn't really even matter for the movie but he likes doing it and it's really good PR for the for the movies because he goes out and says well we did it all practically and then screen rant writes that and says not a speck of cgi was used in this and he really tears him into one so did you see that the time crazy is really making the rounds i've really been

absorbing a lot of Tom Cruise and he did like an hour long interview and all that stuff but do you see that clip where somebody asked him what his ideal father's day is no no somebody's like hey Tom Cruise like the worst person The guy talks to us, what's your ideal Father's Day? And he's just like, short circuits, and he says, don't look, Leo. He says, alright, what would an ideal Father's Day look like for you? And of course he says, quote,

Oh, you know, just having fun, man. Making movies, big adventures, having a great time. Are we sure this man is real? Where's your kid while you're doing it? You know, just making movies, having fun. Movies, baby. Maybe he means like TikTok dances. Yeah. Probably, yeah, yeah.

Hey, from the get a little of this discord, Mighty Ethan shared this post from Toby Fox, where with the launch of Delta Rune, he just tweeted, is that good? And it was the stat of... percentage increase for players playing Delta Rune, and it was a player count increase with the new chapters of Delta Rune dropping of 3,300,350% increase in Delta Rune.

Unbelievable spike. Sarah, are you going to play the next Elta Rune chapters? Do you think you're waiting? I haven't played the first Elta Rune chapters. I feel like I'm kind of missing out. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like I want to wait, but if that many people are jumping in right now, maybe it is the time to kind of go through those four.

All right, that is it for this episode of the MinMax Show. Thank you so much, everybody, for watching, listening, sharing, leaving a review on Apple Podcasts, and including your Discord handle, Instagram handle, Twitter handle, BlueSky handle. your Mastodon handle maybe I can figure it out and leave that review include that handle

in the review and you have a chance of winning a switch to thanks to us. We'll ship it on out to you. Um, other stuff happening here at min max, a new episode of bonus pod and that bonus podcast feed you unlock at the $5 tier. Haley hosted every single week. She has a great job except for this week. She blew it. Yeah, because she let these jackals in the doghouse. Arf! Arf! Arf! Arf!

It's been a very long day. And so we were on BonusPod this week with Jacob Geller and Dan Reichert talking about Nathan Fielder's The Rehearsal Season 2. It's basically a max spoilers about the rehearsal season two. Truly one of the wildest seasons of television I've ever seen in my life. Phenomenal. Phenomenal. So glad we put that together.

And went for it. Yep. Great chat. Yep. Absolutely. Super fun chat. So thanks for unlocking that $5 tier. Again, if you unlock that $5 podcast feed tier before this coming Monday, the 9th, we'll DM you on Steam with that Steam code or DM you on Patreon. Sorry, with the Steam code.

code for Star of Providence from Dunkey and Big Mode. It's a fantastic twin stick roguelike. Very cool. If you're a Binding of Isaac fan in particular, I think you'll love it. Otherwise, for New Show Plus this week, Leo, what happened? We did the 10-2s debate. Move over two 10s. We did the top 10 games that have a 2 in the title. Perfect. It was a good pitch. details were fuzzy and then right before it I feel like I'm like okay

What if it's debating the games with twos in the time? I was like, that is the perfect idea. Nailed it. Loved it. Right before you recorded it. I mean, when was it? It was like the morning? It was the night before. Okay, the Charles had that good.

But definitely well after we put it on the poll, yeah. It worked out great. Again, you can tune in on MinMex's YouTube channel for a reaction stream for Summer Game Fest happening Friday, then Women-Led Games Showcase on Saturday, and Wholesome Games Direct on... on saturday then xbox on sunday and then we'll wait for nintendo maybe they'll get into this june season there's probably something and uh hopefully it's sooner rather than later otherwise sarah peep your bang coming up monday yeah

You can subscribe in the standalone feed for PP Bang. What's this episode all about? Smart people games. Oh, good topic. Nice. And this is the ninth... Episode of 10. Of our 10 first season. Yeah. And then short break after first season. But if you haven't jumped into Pew Pew Bang, please do it now. Leave a review. Help spread the word. It's truly fantastic.

Constant comments of this is the new best episode, this is the best show that Minimax does. I like that, yeah, Haley took over Bonus Pod and everyone's always like...

Bonus bot, that's the primary show. Minimax show, this is the backup show. And now PewPewBang's like, okay, this is the primary show, and then bonus bot is the backup show, and then Minimax show proper, that's the third show, and I'm all for it. Yeah. I love it. No, it's true. It's so fun. I love listening to PewPewBang. And then...

Yes, SGF Travelog should be coming up soon from those folks out there in LA. So look forward to our YouTube channel to relive that whole adventure. And this time, their entire SGF trip is sponsored by Lost and Cult, who are launching additions. Cool physical games are getting out there. Stuff like Immortality or Thank Goodness You're Here. There'll be links in the description for all that stuff. But they look fantastic. And they're also publishing Jacob's book.

They know quality. It's truly an artistic eye for that stuff. But that is it truly for this episode of the MinMax Show. Thank you so much for everybody being here. We enjoy it. And hey. Leo, what's important is that we enjoy it. And we'll be back here tomorrow to enjoy it even some more. Summer Game Fest. This is the time, baby. E3 vibes. Thanks so much, everybody. Until next time, be good, have fun, let's go!