Randy's Looking Over Your Shoulder w/ Dan Ryckert

Oh yeah! It's that Thursday feeling, everyone. It starts the afternoon. You know what that means. it's time for the bgb's podcast episode 51 we are so close to doing this for one solid Yeah. Incredible. I'm one of your hosts, John Warren. With me, it's by Forever Co-host, Nicky Grayson. You got wrapped up in audio cables. And with us today is a very special guest, one of the... Owners of giantbomb.com the one the only i've never had a conversation with this man in my life And I'm so excited

Excited. That's true. To be having. Not really. I shook your hand. Before he got on the couch. You did. You did. But yeah. You did. yeah but Dan but Dan Riker I'm so excited to have you on the show I'm excited to be here and it's still weird hearing the co-owner thing because that feels like a very grown up yeah yeah yeah yeah it feels You know what? It does feel grown up for y'all. It does. Yeah, which is not something I feel often. Does it feel different than owning a car?

I guess probably because the car doesn't keep you alive. I don't think about the car and I use it maybe once or twice a week to drive like 10 minutes to an appointment or something. So yeah, like... The car occupies almost none of my mind share, but the job and Giant Bomb, especially lately, has taken up.

Pretty much all waking hours and the moment I wake up to the moment I go to bed, kind of thinking about it or doing something with it. So, but it's good. I find it much more interesting than my car. That's huge. I don't care about my car, really. I just want to see where I'm going. It should be an appliance. Yeah, the giant bomb is an important thing that I find very interesting to me. Yes. Yeah, yeah. Air fryer.

I say above the air fryer. Above the air fryer. I love my air fryer. I got two Domino's pizzas for myself this weekend, and they air fryer better than they were straight from Domino's. The jam is better than that air fryer, that Kosori air fryer. Put that on the back of the fucking box. Put that on the back of the box? Yes. On the shelf? On the shelf for the website. Well, for me, I don't know about you, but when I turn on my computer... There's a big shelf.

And it's all the websites that I can go on. Oh, yeah. When I reach in... I grab one and it's thegiantbomb.com. Well, you know, like, you watch, like, well, I'm older than both of you, I assume, but, like, you know, you watch, like, Double Day. Not much. Not much. You're just older than me. I think you and John are the same. Where were we at? Where were we at, John? I turned 40 in about a month. I turn 41 in a month, so yeah. I'm the oldest here.

You wouldn't know. Double Dare. You'd watch Jeopardy or something. Oh, you could win the home game. Or here's the Double Dare. Or Antonio Guts home game. They should do that for websites. They should do that for websites. I agree. The Giant Bomb home game. For the home site. Yeah. I was yesterday years old when I found out that Rift Trax has a Nintendo Switch game. I saw Wario 64 go, Riffrax, the Switch game. I was like,

What the fuck are you talking about? I've never seen that in my life. I have no idea. I think it's like what the dub game where it's like it shows you like a clip And you kind of got to, like, jackbox the thing in there. I think it's a similar deal. That's all right. I saw Warrior64 post today about there's a new free-to-play Warhammer, like, typing of the dead game. Yes. I got an email for that. Yeah, I've heard the words Warhammer in many contexts for more years than I'd like.

And I've never once thought like, oh, cool. But then I heard this and I thought, oh, cool, because typing the dead is one of the coolest things I've ever seen come out of this industry. We've talked about this actually a couple times on the show, but whoever's running the licensing game for Warhammer is doing a great job, because

They've just become this, like, okay, we want one in every genre. They've had a combat racer, a fucking Baldur's Gate-like, a Typing of the Dead. It's like, we're doing a good tour. We're in a party game. We're in a party game. We're in a party game. We're in a party. Warhammer party. I love the idea of there being They don't- Okay.

They just don't teach kids how to type it. I have a John, I have a lot of questions about what you got at Sonic brother. So we'll work it back. Hold on. But we, we went. I think I was actually the last generation of kids that learned how to type at school. Because my sister, who is eight years younger than me, was not taught how to type. Does she do this thing?

Um, she doesn't do, she doesn't hunt and peck with like two fingers, but she's not using home row. Right. So the way she's typing is like not ergonomic and it's not like, I don't know, but she can type pretty fast, but I can definitely type faster than she can. There is now, I guess, a world where a teenager who has heard of Warhammer, who has played Vermintide, will learn how to be a better typist because... of this Warhammer typing game. Warhammer is the modern Mavis Beacon.

A lot of people are saying they should put that on the back of their box. Absolutely. Are the kids today typing on keyboards or are they just doing phone stuff? No, they have Lappy. They have Lappy. They have Lappy. Yeah, okay. They have an iPad keyboard. My sister has virtual ones. Yeah, she goes to school. I saw a Twitch streamer yesterday that was around your age, Nikki, who had wireless keyboard on lap and computer on big monitor.

So it was weird. I was like, okay, so wireless keyboard, like sitting on couch, like sitting on couch. Yeah. Oh, and then like a lap dog situation. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Got it, got it, got it. So they're still using keyboards. Yeah, people use keyboards. Okay. I still have this weird thing. Like anytime you're describing like kids in school now, and in my head...

Kids never went back to school after the pandemic. After the pandemic. I get what you're saying. I actually understand it. In the same way that like I have not like since like March. 16th, 2020 or whatever. I have not worked in an office. I've worked in person events from time to time, but like not in an office.

And so like I kind of forget that people went back to offices and work and stuff like I've gone to like Target and I see people there and still in my head it's like 2020 happened and now kids are on Zoom. And then we all sit at our computers for work. Yeah, forever. I know that's not right, but in my head, that's the world I see. No, for sure. Yeah, no. My sister was in... The 11th grade? During the pen, or no, her senior year was pandemic. of high school

Oh, that's rough. I didn't realize that. That's tough. Is that true? Did I graduate in 2013? Did you make stuff up? No, that's true. That's true. So when she started at USC, that was like the semester. It was the first semester back. Where it was like weird, like it was like 60-40 was the split. You had like a bunch of, all of your classes were hybrid. But you still did have to come into school sometimes. And then as she has finished her collegiate career.

She is now back in class all the time. All classes are back in person. They deeply do not want you to have a hybrid class or an online class, even though they had it. And it worked great for people prior. Yeah. So, yeah. I had the thing where the pandemic happened when I, two months into working at WRE, God, that's crazy. Yeah, so I was living in Stanford, and the whole idea was

Okay, we'll live in Stanford in an apartment for a year while we house hunt and then we'll find a house around Stanford because I'm going to be going into the office every day producing stuff. And the two months then pandemic hits, I'm producing podcasts for my closet. And pretty soon after that, we got a Zoom call from Stephanie McMahon saying like, Good news!

You know, it's been a couple months of this work from home thing now, so it is now, we are a work from home, you know, indefinite, like, you know, you can work wherever you're at, you know, you can work for us, you know, whatever.

and i remember going in and tell bianca afterwards like hey i think we can expand the radius uh they said we can you know it's work from home indefinitely and so we went like way outside we went to danbury which is kind of a it's quite a hike you wouldn't want to do that every day yeah and then like

So we bought a house in Danbury. And then like a couple months in, it's like another meeting with Nick Khan being like, we need to return to the office immediately. We have just bought this giant building in Stanford, Connecticut. Everyone needs to work. Oh, motherfuckers. God, this is great. That's awesome. Cool stuff. That's how it kind of was for Zam slash fanbite. They built this fucking... They built this fucking huge campus. This 10-cent campus. And Playa Vista.

Which, to be clear, I need to be so clear. I need to be so, so, so, so, so clear. This is an office that Facebook moved into and moved out of almost immediately. Why? Didn't like it. That's better. It really is. just like not a great zone i was i was working Fullscreen, which is a company that I'm pretty sure doesn't exist anymore. It was like a YouTube multi-channel network. It was basically a company that stole money from teenagers. So a cool company. I'm in! A cool company.

But they built, it was one of the first buildings that they built over in Playa Vista. Playa Vista is built on one of the West Coast's largest underground stores of methane. So if at any point there is a fire... In Playa Vista, the whole thing goes up. They made a movie about a volcano in Los Angeles. Absolutely. I think they're going to wait maybe for the explosion to happen when they built Playa Vista. When they built Playa Vista at first, they started with the housing.

which is a crazy way to go about it. It's okay if families go first. Yeah, because... Anyway, so they were starting to build where the Tencent corridor is and it was the instagram home office and it was like the la office for instagram and then other meta stuff started to move over there i think oculus might still be over there but they moved out just shortly pre-pandemic yeah And then pandemic happened and then Tencent was like,

Hmm. Never been a better time. Never been a better time. So we went remote really fast, but there was this very... intense kind of like relationship like well at some point you should go to the sue office because we aren't gonna pay for it and uh we're gonna pay for it for like next like yeah 10 years at least so we gotta probably get our money's worth you know and then then we went and visited it's fucking rancid like it's set up terribly they're like no windows

It is impossible to build an office over there that doesn't have windows in Tencent's infinite wisdom. Yeah. They did. They did. They did it. Penguin outside, though. There is a penguin outside. So far it is a real penguin but it is not a real real penguin Is it walking around, waddling and eating things? No. It's not a penguin. It's not a working penguin because it's like... Does it have a beating heart?

So is the only difference, hold on, I can work. Okay, Diggy, do you know, like, now this is a great time. The perfect episode. What is the difference between shoot and work now? No, no, here's my question. Here's my question. Is Mickey Mouse at Disneyland shoot or work? Work. That's shoot Mickey. No, it's not shoot Mickey. If it was a living rat named Mickey that ran around, then that's a shoot Mickey. That's shoot Mickey. Yeah. But is it... is a fictional character does it stop being

I think it's shoot Mickey maybe between the ages of 2 and 13. That doesn't say shoot Santa Claus. It doesn't mean it's a shoot. It's kind of a work shoot. Like, if you're a parent, Santa is a work shoot. Like, you're trying to do a work shoot with your kid. I just Wanted to maybe give personhood to this penguin because it was the best part of the office

It was the best part of the office for sure. The lunch room. It was the best part of the office except for the room where they pulled me in to yell at me once. yeah that was unpleasant i had never been in that room in my life and it i only existed i i could i think for me to be yelled at there were of um there were simply not enough desks for the number of people that worked at the company when they were just supposed to move in like they just did not

count the number of people who worked there and then they put fewer desks inside. They kept calling it the fluid vessel. Which I don't think is a pair of words that John has heard in maybe four years. I haven't heard in a long time. You can't just do that. You can't just do that. But they called it the fluid vessel. And I swear to God, there were more walls in that office than any office of that shape. There were fewer walls in the old office.

which was in a traditional office building than there were. It was like as closed a concept as your grandmother's house that you visited when you were five. Can I get theories? We're talking about grandparents' houses, and this is a thing that I've asked many people and never gotten a satisfactory answer here. Okay, so my grandparents, my father's parents, used to spend a lot of time at their house.

They had a living room, as a lot of houses are one to do, and they had their main TV, and they had their recliners. This is where you watch everything. It was the TV room, you know. But the VCR, and they had this house built, so they made this decision. The VCR, keep in mind this is the early, mid-90s, I'm going over there.

You had to go down the hall, like take a turn, and then like find like there's like a library that you'd go into, and you had to open up a cabinet underneath the encyclopedias, and that's where the VCR was. And the VCR was connected to the television? Yes. So, like, somehow rooms away. Yes. So if you need to pause while you're taking the leak, you are going to another, like, area of the house pausing it. going to the bathroom, going back to the library. That's crazy.

Massable reasoning, is there? Money. That feels like a scam from the people who were building the house where they were like, how luxurious. You will have your television in It's not semi-clean. It's just Just the TV. And we're going to put the VCR. It's not even that far. It's not that far. It's not that far. It's just a couple of rooms. You just have to work. How frequently do you piss? Not that frequently.

No, I agree. This is what the construction people are saying. I could see them trying to work my grandparents because they were not technologically minded people. Yeah, no. I feel like that is simply like... It will cost more because we'll have to run a cable all the way through the walls. And we can charge them for that. We can charge them for that. They're not going to know. We get to say that the setup looks clean. It's like the first cable-less setup.

It's like door-to-door people would come to my mom's house and be like, oh, you've got hard water. You need to spend thousands on this thing to make your water soft. I'd be like, oh, I didn't know we had hard water. I don't know why it's bad, but this guy seems pretty confident about it. Yeah, put in the soft water filter or whatever. A soft water filter. Yeah, that's tough. Yeah, no, I feel like... I feel it would be nuts. Well, I guess the air conditioner is the same way for me, though.

like well yeah because this house is old this old house the thermostat is in this room where i am which is frequently colder than my room Because my room faces... It has windows on three of the four sides. So it gets 10 degrees, just 10 degrees higher. Absolutely, yeah. So I have to, and the thermostat, because it's in here.

No idea. It has no idea. It's like, it's cool as fuck in this house. Yeah, it's amazing. So I frequently have to come in here to crank the thermostat down by the 10 degree gap that I'm identifying, which probably isn't good for them. House. It's not my house. It's not my house and I don't pay for the electricity.

Yeah, no, my office is 10 degrees cooler than the hallway right outside, which is where the thermostat is. So when I got home today from an appointment, it was 77 degrees in that hallway. That's crazy. It's too hot inside. It was very hot in this room, so I did have to turn it down. 67 degrees, that's what I want. It should just never move. That's correct. We live in fucking Minnesota and when we go to bed, we have a screen door in our bedroom. We open it.

at like in january it'll be negative 10 and we will leave wow because we got a bed that like heats up and stuff so it makes it feel like a little hot pocket and so we get in there and just like but in the morning it sucks ass though because you know i was not the same

Yeah, that's right. But I wake you up. I can see you always get up way before me. So it's like, and she's not a baby about it like I am. So it works. I'm a huge baby about that in the morning. Huge baby. Can you turn up to help, please? Yep. Do you? I hate it. And maybe just, I guess, approach this how you want. Okay. You get in the shower. Good morning. Good morning.

Are you pinning the thing? Are you modulating the temperature of that shower over the course of the shower? Or are you getting in and leaving it at the temperature you've set it to the whole time? That's a great question, Mickey. I get in and it is It is a manageable, like if I step in and it's getting on my head and back, which are my most sensitive, temperature sensitive parts of my body. It's going to be at a baseline lower. I immediately wash my hair. Okay. Then...

Shower gets so hot, it would melt the skin off of a normal person. And it's going to be like that for the duration of the shower. Okay, got it. So it starts a little cool, and then it goes atomic.

i turn it on and i i put it in the the fairly hot i like it and i put my hand in there until i know it's hot enough i get in take the shower don't really mess with it at all unless sometimes in the morning it does help me to wake up like right at the end when i'm totally done with everything yeah i just crank it and I wait for it to turn cold and I get a good like four or five seconds and I put my head under it and I turn it off and then I get out. Okay, yeah, that's what I do. So it is now hot.

in los angeles um so it is the temperature of the showers has on average come down of my shower twice and the daytime the daytime shower is cooler No. The daytime shower is still hot. The nighttime shower is the one that has cooled down. But... In the daytime shower, I'm cranking it, similarly to you, Dan, all the way down. Crank it in the shower. Yeah. It doesn't work. Sorry. It doesn't. It doesn't work. It doesn't work. It doesn't work.

We can't talk about this, but we can't crank it in the shower. It doesn't work for me. I think it can. It doesn't work for me. It doesn't work for me. Water stuff doesn't work. It doesn't work for me. It's a thing in the movies that they've lied to about. It's not really a thing. I think the only movie I've seen that deals with Krang in the shower is American Beauty, I think, has a scene. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Has anything bad happened in that one?

What's that guy up to? I'll win an Oscars probably. So I crank it hot. are cold at the beginning of the daytime shower. And then the nighttime shower, I'm cranking it as hot as possible. So when I step out, I'm still kind of warm. Got it. And then I envelop myself in the towel. That makes sense. Yeah. Okay. Well, that's good. Thanks. Any other? Oh, what'd you get? Sonic.

Oh, well, so this is a cherry limeade. Yeah, of course. Got it. The classic. I got a double smasher. Oh, for television. They're Freddy's Burger, essentially. It's not a Freddy's Burger. It was very mid. And then they did not salt it. Maybe like a two nights at Freddy's situation. It was a two nights at Freddy's and they did not salt the tater tots. So it's like, what the fuck are you doing? Do they still have cheddar bites? Because I was a big cheddar bites guy growing up.

Yes. It's like Toys R Us, but Cheddar Bites. Yeah, wait a minute. Is that just like a cheese curd? I mean, maybe. I don't think we knew about cheese curds in Kansas. I'm sure they'd call it that up here, but I think they were mostly cheese curds, but fried. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. I looked it up. Cheddar Bites are still at Sonic. They put the apostrophes around the R. Yeah, that's good stuff. That's good. That's what you want. Yeah. I don't know. Why did Sonic go blue? Did y'all notice that? At some point, it went blue. Like, it went...

The branding went blue. Did they do that because of the hedgehog? No, the reds are still red. The reds are still red, but everything around it. Oh, it used to be yellow, though. It used to be yellow, and now it is blue. It's the color of Dan's shirt. Is it to try to get on the coattails of Sonic the Hedgehog? That's kind of what I assume. I assume that they're kind of cheekily doing that. It makes sense. So they rebranded in 2020.

in February of 2020. Did they not do a chili cheese dog? They did. That was their whole thing. It was the footlong chili cheese dog. They did that, right? I was going to put a footlong chili cheese dog and I would get the cheddar bites. That was my go-to. But there was no Sonic collaboration to Sonic, right? Then in what?

they didn't tie it into Sonic though they had no idea which is which is which is which is crazy but that's kind of in the weed Sonic shit where it's like I guess so they didn't ever read the Sonic comic book or anything and you wouldn't know playing like the Genesis game so like That's not a drive-in. So I'm on inspirestories.com.

Sorry, inspirebrands.com, which is the holding company for Sonic the Hedgehog. Nope. For Sonic. Nope. There you go. Sega owns Sega. Yeah, that's true. And this is from July of 2020. So, heart of the Pandorama. And they built their first news store in... telequa oklahoma is that how you say it yeah i would say so so that was the first one uh it had 18 docks a drive-thru and a covered outdoor patio it looked

It's nice. It looks like a nice Sonic. It's almost got a good look to it. I think the whole drive-in gimmick has its own thing. Here's what they say. The exterior of the drive-in highlights Sonic's new brand identity, with pops of red, blue, and a bit of yellow, reminding guests that summertime is a feeling, not just a season.

Oh, what are we doing? So that's what they've got going on. What are we doing? That's why they got rid of the yellow. What are we doing? And now it's more blue because summer is blue. I think of summer being yellow because of the sun. Because of the sun. Because of the sun. Yeah. because of the sun. How are the talk about chicken things? Are those good?

They're really good. I've had three waves from now between the first wave and the Minneapolis test market. I was very blessed to, that was right when I moved back here. They were great. I think they were out to impress because it was the test market thing. So it was like, those are the best wave. They came back for a second wave. They were significantly worse, but I think I door dashed them and it might have taken a while. I was like maybe the third customer or something. So they were not great.

but I had them last weekend and they were fantastic. The bell sauce, the hot ranch, that's really good. So it's like, they are now my favorite nugget and fry place on top of being just my favorite place. That's wild. That's wild. It's very good. That's wild. For a million dollars. I fuck with her cantina chicken so hard. I do. I love it. I fuck with that stuff. For a million dollars. Yes. Can you give me the other four brands? And then I swear to God, let's talk about a video game.

But I need the other four brands underneath the Inspire. Foods. Oh. Umbrella. Sonic is one of them. Let's shotgun blast. I'm not even going to pretend I can get four for four, so I'm just going to say stuff. Carl's Jr. No. Not Hardee's then. Okay. No. Sorry, John. We'll go back and forth. Yeah, yeah. Oh, what about, um... golden chick. You made that one up. Would you like to submit a real... I didn't make that one up. That's a real one, but no. Okay, that's fine. Jack in the box. No.

You need to get five guesses. Okay. So, Dan, you're at two guesses. Dairy Queen. Incorrect. They'll talk out. Oh, no. Oh, great guess, but no, thank you. Oh, taco bueno. I'm not gonna count either of those. You know it's not Taco John's or Taco Bueno. Why do I not know that? Taco Bueno! Why do I not know that? Taco Bueno's big! Alright, they count then. Guess number four. Shit. Fuck. Um...

PJ's coffee. Oh my God. No, these aren't bad guesses. They're not good ones. It is not, but that is a, that is the exact tier that you should be aiming for. Paco Johnson, Taco Bueno are above or below that? They're below it. Okay, yeah, okay. Wow, okay, all right, okay, okay, okay. All right, John, this is your last one. Because you blew them all on fucking PJ's mask coffee house or whatever the fuck.

PJ's Mask Coffee House? Yeah, PJ Mask is a children's television program. Oh, got it, got it, got it. There's a parrot in their car laughing their ass off right now. Caillou! Uh, let's see. Shit, one more guess. I just drove through the American South. Why can't I think of a bastard place? They have all of these brawls. One, two, three, four of them have national television. advertisements right now. Wingstop.

Oh, John, you are so close, brother. Well, I had another one. Okay, for the record, I was going to say Steak and Shake. But because of what you just said, Nicky, I'm going to say Buffalo Wild Wings. That is exactly correct. Congratulations. It is Arby's, Baskin Robbins, Buffalo Wild Wings, Dunkin Donuts, Jimmy John's, and Sonic.

Oh, these are way bigger than I think I was like. Oh, those are way bigger. Wow. Of like fame is like, you know, McDonald's, Burger King. I hate Burger King, but they are a big thing. McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, you know, Taco Bell. Those are the big, big ones. I think that B tier, I was aiming more C and D tier, but this is a solid B tier. Yeah. Okay.

Damn. Well, we got none of those. Well, except for one. Dan got one. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. Hey, go to bgbz.com slash join join the hive. You can ask us hive questions every single week. We're going to come back at the end of the show with more of them, but to start the show. We're going to ask some Giant Bomb slash Dan-centric questions that were asked of us by the VGBs community. So let's start right now with...

Jason. Jason asks. This is actually for all of us. Would you rather get cornered at a party? Talking to Tim Sweeney, Randy Pitchford, or Dan's close personal friend, Tommy Tallarica. I've talked to most of these people. Yeah. More nerd at a party. Realistically, for me, realistically, it is Tommy Tallarico. I just would jump at the opportunity to talk to Tommy Tallarico.

so much faster than I would talk to the other two. What was the first one again? There's Randy. Tim Sweeney. Tim Sweeney. Okay. Which is like, which is like, to me, kind of a whatever. What are you going to talk to him about trees, about Carrie, North Carolina? Like, what are you going to talk to him about? I've been there. Kerry is fine. It's beautiful. I'm not going to pick Randy because I think I got my bill when he brought Duke Nukem Forever a couple months before it came out to Minneapolis.

and wanted a Game Informer cover for it. And so he had me sit in a hotel meeting room and sat behind me watching me play the entire game in one day. So I think I got my fill of Randy Pitchford as he hovered over my chair for eight hours waiting to see which jokes I would laugh at for Duke Nukem Forever. Oh, dude. Oh, God damn it. Which I'm sure a lot of. What's it like being gone?

strongest soldier, Dan. That's fucking incredible. I've been in Randy's car. It was very impressive. I've gone to a wing place in Plano, Texas. He taught me to write his segway. I've had some Randy time. So, Dan, you've been to my hometown, Plano, Texas. I've been to Plano at the old Gearbox headquarters. Yeah, I remember. It was for Borderlands, too. I was there. So I guess I'll go with Tommy Tallarico.

Yeah, I guess I think that would just be the funniest one. He seems like a guy that would just wind him up and watch him go and see what comes out, you know? I also think I'm voting for Tommy. You're not saying a lot in that conversation. No.

No. You know what I would get to do? I would get to do this super weird thing that I've had several people do to me over the years where it's like, we'll do like a meet and greet thing after PAX or something. And not so much anymore. This is more like the height of Twitter days. And people would come in and be like, Hey, Dan. Nice to meet you. You blocked me on Twitter. Can you unblock me?

God! That's not a good way to start a conversation. But I would get to do that with Tommy Tallarico. That would be awesome. It's got to be Tommy. It's got to be Tommy. It's got to be Tommy. All right, I agree. Alright, this is also kind of for all of us as well, but Chihuahua Pugs asked Are there any bits you've been a part of that you regret because fans keep bringing it up long past?

a reasonable expiration date. Like, do people constantly ask Dan where Jeremiah is? Yeah. Related question, when is Jeremiah coming on? Thank you, Chihuahua Pugs. Nothing I can actually be upset about because I've only leaned into things, but it's like... You know, anytime Waluigi or Taco Bell are mentioned in any context at all,

I will get these same messages to me and texts from a million different people. But I can't be upset because it's like, I made this bed. You know, I realized, like, I've talked up Waluigi. I brought Waluigi signs to WrestleMania. I got married at Taco Bell. You know, it's like, look, I... I built this thing. I have to live with it now, so I can't be mad. Yeah, I sang the Evangelion theme song to Minions.

voice. And so I've become very associated with minions. I got really mad at people for about a year about it. And then came back around to be like, I really did this to myself, so I should really not be mad. I didn't really understand why you got so heated, because you were the one, you were giving so many off-ramp. to not have to do it. And it got away before you suggested it as a charity goal.

yes but you hadn't done it in quite a while i hadn't done it and i and then i was like well what would people like and then it was like well what would you like john let's be honest you know for sure you know and then you came to that conclusion Right. So I was mad about that at some point, but now I'm back around on it. Yeah. I mean, listen, having quote unquote fans, what an abysmal thing to talk about, but it is true in terms of like, it's such a lucky thing to have in a lot of ways.

I'll try not to look that gift horse in the mouth. You can look at any horse any way you want. You know? Well, put that on the back of Nicky's box, I think. You know? You can look at any horse any way you want. Just any single way you want. I don't think I have a bit that I regret. Okay. I think the Game Pass bit was good, just poorly timed. It was really poorly timed, yeah. If you don't know, Nikki did unironically for about four straight weeks.

talk about how game pass was the best deal in gaming and then it just kept coming up yeah and then you know some circumstances got in the way of like saying that that was probably, you know, it was really funny. But it was really funny. But I don't regret not being able to do it anymore. No, no, no, no. Or regret having done it either. Right, of course.

Yeah, I don't know. You know who has a worst-in-game podcaster? I think wrestlers, because you do one thing where it's like, how many fucking people? Like Scott Steiner. he goes to wrestle con how many people are asking him to do math and like incredible moment helped his career a ton i'm sure it's one of the most viral things ever but like yeah you gotta imagine he's so tired tired yeah he's tired yeah absolutely

Yeah. The math. Yeah. Yeah. And now Braun Breaker is doing it. So it's like, Oh God, you know, gotta do it. Gotta do it. Gotta pay your dues. Um, all right. Uh, bone truck, actual ass. Dan, are there people that you could not previously bring on to Giant Bomb under prior ownership you wish you could have on the show? I mean, there wasn't a blacklist or anything like that. Yeah, I was going to assume that that was the case. Yeah, there was no blacklist. No, no, we brought plenty of people on it.

I mean, if anything, we got to, like, there was a freelance budget, so we were able to work. With Nikki, with Sean, with Monati, we had a budget we were able to work with, and that was very nice. So if anything, it was maybe easier to do back then. versus the current situation where we don't know how much money we make yet. So, yeah, we don't know what our budgets for anything are. So, TBD on that. Yeah, yeah, no, that totally makes sense. Ian asks,

Johnny Bomb currently has a website, but most people making any sort of video content are providing ads surface to platforms like Twitch, YouTube, and social media. What kind of support structures would you like to see built in this new environment? I mean, if that...

The most important thing to us right now is definitely just the subscribers. And that's been an interesting thing with Giant Bomb's history where something that kind of near the beginning was the premium subscribers was like the backbone of how we made money.

And, you know, like all of my early series were gated behind that, you know, like all the old like Mario parties and Metal Gears and stuff like that. And then things just shifted to where it's like, okay, everything's free. That's the way the internet is. And now we're independent. And now all of a sudden, subscribers really matter.

Again, so, like, that is the main thing that, like, look, there are other avenues. Yeah, sure, there's YouTube ad revenue, there's sponsorships, there's things like that. Like, look, we'd be idiots to not, you know, entertain every possible, you know, we would start about Ko-Fi, coffee.

Yeah, is it Kofi or Kofi? Is it Kofi? No one's quite sure. I'm pushing it all the time. I don't know. So I have to KO-FI.com slash Giant Bomb. So like... that's the thing we are we need to be scrappy and we need to accept everything that like you know that we can feel good about we're not gonna be doing like you know raid shadow legends you know things like that or anything or weird crypto shit like we're gonna vet things for sure but

The primary thing is the subscribers. So that is giantbomb.com slash join. That is the main thing. Makes sense. All right, cool. Thanks. Hey, Hive, thanks for asking these questions. We'll be back at the end of the show. Ask a few more questions that are way stupider. I can't wait to ask them. But in the meantime... Dan, let's talk about Joe is Hungry. Can we talk about that? Yes, I have questions for both of you. Okay, thank you.

I'm a newcomer here now okay now I need this explained very clearly to me because yeah I as I have gotten into Joe is hungry and you know like I'm like doing research now with him like I wanted to get the Parmesan stuffed crust from Domino's this weekend. I was like, let's see what Joe thinks.

and we watched i said anything over like a seven i'll get it you know because like you know he's a tough scorer um and he gave it like a 7.4 or something and i got it it was delicious it was great but in my liking his content and stuff and talking about it on podcasts and stuff

One of my first things I think of is I'm very good at reaching out to people and just being like, hey, you should come be on a thing or whatever. Come work with us. I'm going to get to know you and you're going to do things on Giant Bomb or whatever. very confident that I would be able to get him on like the voicemail dump truck. And which is, you know, for those that don't know, it's an off topic, non-gaming thing. So something like Joe could just come on and we can answer fast food questions.

I brought it up on a couple podcasts and stuff. And I've just seen enough people in the chat just be like, don't do that. Uh-oh, don't do that. And I'm like, oh, you got to do that. The very first level of vetting, I'm just like, Joe is hungry. Controversy. And like nothing very clearly popped up. And it's like, man, I've seen like.

dozen or so of his videos that seems like a well-meaning guy was just having some fun with that a thing and it's like surprisingly good at editing you know like surprisingly good so many gopros in that car that are completely But yeah, everyone's just like, don't do that. And it's just, I've just gotten the vaguest sense that like, oh, he's like a Republican or something. Is that the extent of it? My, my, my, if we go by the VGB's like kind of Twitch chat.

Everyone is fairly convinced that he's just kind of a dyed-in-the-wool Trump guy. Okay, yeah. I don't actually, honestly, I don't actually get that sense. I don't think this man has voted in the past 40 years. That's what I think it is. I don't think it's different. It's a different thing. My actual assessment is that he's just kind of a weird... libertarian live or let live guy that might

Win Press does not have really that coherent opinions on most things. Yeah, the thing is, he has so much paraphernalia in his shot where it's like it's mostly pizza boxes and shit, but he's got like... But there's some anime shit. Yeah, there's anime stuff like...

He's not a guy that's ashamed to put his stuff all over the place. And I think with anyone that has hard political leanings, if you're putting a bunch of shit all over your walls, there's going to be some clue somewhere there. And there's no hint of that whatsoever. So I don't know where it's coming from. The only thing I would say is that his...

The relationship to the workers at fast food restaurants, I think has deteriorated over the past five years. Okay. I know they asked him not to go into the penalty box or whatever. Yeah. And he's kind of, he's kind of made it a thing where now he forces him. He's got to get his shit out.

Like, it's like, it's full-on Bret Hart sternum first running into the turnbuckle. He's like, he gets there and he goes, oh i gotta wait that penalty box over there it's like you know yeah you know he's gonna go home and think about that later that's the first time So, I would say his relationship with them has, I think, gotten more... robotic and also more impatient now some of it is understandable because he's been faced with like AI

stuff at the drive-thru which is insane like it is insane to deal with so but he used to like give shout outs to people at those restaurants. Now he kind of has maybe a slightly contentious relationship with them. That doesn't sound like disqualified. No, I don't think it's disqualified. Where I land on this man, though, is that he is always

I'm a little bit on edge whenever I hear him talk. I know. Because you don't, he almost never does say anything out of pocket, but it feels like he's real close to. Every time he opens his mouth. He said the R slur on a stream. He has done that. He doesn't wear a seatbelt. He apologized. He apologized.

He did apologize for the R slur. And he said, sorry, I didn't mean it that way, blah, blah, blah, whatever. So he did apologize, hasn't used it again as far as I've heard. He does double park. He doesn't wear a seatbelt all the time. Um, he used to talk about his wife a lot. Now he doesn't. He does not. So he couldn't just be, I couldn't be regular.

I think he's fine. I think again, it just feel maybe don't do it live is probably, like, a weird release those rare rare pre-recorded dump trucks yeah and samoa joe All we do is... We've done live to tape. We were not afraid of Samoa Jones. No. It's normal to be afraid of Samoa Jones. Yes, absolutely. To be so clear. To be so clear. But in the history of the program, recording them live to tape. I think that would be a great One and two.

But the thing is, too, like the people that would be mad about him being on for whatever reason would would still be mad if it was pre-recorded, even if he didn't say it. No, yeah, no, for sure. But can I just blame both of you if this blows up? Oh, I don't know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That sounds great. Yeah, just blame us. That's fine. I can't wait. I can't wait. I mean, the arms race is on. I think you've got all the resources to get them on first. I have reached out.

I have reached out. I did drive by Cartersville, Georgia recently. He did not get back to me to have some sort of appearance, which is fine. That's fine, Joe. That's fine. That's okay. But I am excited. He does, I know. He ran a giveaway where he was like, everybody email me your address. He did. He did. That was like two weeks ago. He's like, all right, guys, email me your address at this Gmail. Let's do it. He has that endearing kind of old man line of technology.

it doesn't really jive with the fact that like he's got sharp fucking editing no yeah he knows video production very well yes really well he is deep in the bones of the epidemic sound library like he is He goes deep, deep, deep into video editing and all that stuff. Clearly is tech savvy. I don't know if you know this lore. His wife is a gamer, plays Overwatch. We know that. No shit.

Yeah, so I'm giving you some extra detail here. He shoots his stuff from a shop where he used to repair lawn mowing equipment and cars. But I don't get the sense that he uses that anymore for that. I think he's, like, kind of doing full-time YouTubing. And he's a nurse. He's a nurse. He's a nurse.

Yeah. Question here. Yes. Yes. So when me and Bianca started watching this stuff, she was like, I wonder if he's ever given a 10 or like, what's the highest score he's ever given out? Massey's Pizza. Yes. And so that's what she found. And then she was like looking it up and.

She believes that, like, there was something, I don't know if it was explicitly stated or just implied that he owns it. And then she was like, wait, is this some, like, is he just, like, I don't know where she saw that, but I got the idea that, like, he owns Massey's. And it was like, oh, I don't know if I can trust this guy if he's giving his own stuff. And he does have a ton of Massey's Pizza stuff.

But that's like Ohio or something, right? That's Ohio. Ohio and Pauly's Island, South Carolina. I'm looking at the website. About us. It could be a mis-

reading of something. And I do want to report to her because I don't want that sitting in the back of her mind as we enjoy his content if it's not true. Massey's Pizza started its long-term love affair with Central Ohio pizza consumers in 1949 when Jim and Dan Masucci and Romeo Siri introduced pizza to Columbus at their Italian restaurant in Grandview.

Did he have him in Ohio? Do we know that? I don't think so. I think he's a dyed-in-the-wool Georgia guy, I think. Yeah, I think he's been there down there. I don't think it's him. I think he just likes it a lot. Maybe he had a franchise or something? Maybe. I could not have pulled it out of thin air. So I'm just wondering if there is any weirdness there. Here are some of the really good perks of owning a Massey's establishment. Overall positive growth for 15 consecutive years.

Oh yeah. And then something that I, it's the second one. I really don't understand. It says four to one food to alcohol ratio. And then there's an asterisk. And I scroll down doesn't say. I don't know what four to one food to-

What does that mean? Maybe one fourth of the people who come in and get pizza also get alcohol. So maybe that's like, you know, when I worked at Best Buy, they're like, you sell a digital camera, but then you also want to get at least a memory card or a case or something for it. So maybe it's seen as a bonus. Like, oh, they got alcohol. So maybe that's good then. Family friendly atmosphere, large group seating accommodations, expert advice through every step of the building and opening process.

25 grand to get the rights to it. Okay. $50,000 is how much they suggest that you have liquid. And then at a minimum, it will cost you $100,000. to invest up to $2 million on average. Up to $2? Yeah. Whoa, whoa, whoa. The gap is $100,000 to $2 million? This is minimum investment, $100,000 to $2 million. And then all they want is 4% off the top until you close.

I just watched The Founder, and I think this goes poorly. Yeah, this does go poorly, yeah. Oh, wait, but in this, I don't know if you've seen The Founder, are they the Michael Keaton then? Are they the right croc, or would we be the right croc if we're going into business with this? We're franchising it. We're franchising it, for sure.

Are they the two guys? Are they Nick Offerman in California? All I've ever seen of this flick has been as YouTube shorts. YouTube shorts? I walked out and played I'm not thinking about it. I don't know in this scenario if Nick Offerman's character exists. I think it's Croc. And then everyone else is not one of those. Okay. Yeah. Right. I feel like. i don't think we should do this i don't think we should start yeah i guess we're not gonna open a mask we're not gonna

The stardom assies, yeah. No. My first job was at McDonald's, and the district guy and the manager were just the most miserable fucks I've ever met, and I did not seem happy. That's anecdotal, but I don't think I want to do it. There's 13 locations. What was the best part of the McDonald's shop? Oh, so it was 1998. I'm 14, working there, and we just got free food. I don't know if that's still the case, but we had a break room with a TV and a CRT.

And I would time my, like, Saturdays for, like, they had some, like, WWF Livewire or something. It was just one of those shitty weekend shows. and I would time it, and I would just grab like, two quarter pounders, 20 nuggets, two McFlurries, big ass coke, you know, like just like two apple pies. And my 14 year old fat ass is sitting back there just going to town, watching it for Steve Blackman or something like, oh man, that's living.

Dude, my run is incredible in terms of just starting. Like they say like, oh, don't ruin the things you love with your jobs. My first job was McDonald's. Donald's to work at two places at the same time. A Funkoland, which turned into GameStop. A before it sucked ass and I could just play video games at work because it wasn't a busy location. And AMC theaters.

So all through junior high and high school, I was getting free McDonald's and then that shifted to free movies and free, I could rent any game from the video game place and I could buy at a discount. I went from that to, like, reviewing video games and then WWE. And so it's like, I don't subscribe to that. Like, don't make your passions your job thing. Because it's been pretty fun. No, it's pretty good. It works. It works sometimes.

That's what Living in America by James Brown is about. Yeah, and super high. Hard Rolls? That's always the lyric of that song that I think is weird. Yeah, what does he mean? What does that mean? Hard Rolls. Come on, genius, no? Yeah. He names a lot of cities. Those are some of my favorite James Brown songs is when he just starts screaming cities. There's one that's like, Toledo! Yeah, there's one that's like, people get up and drive your funky soul. It's like...

Seven minutes of him screaming cities, and I love that song. It was my alarm clock throughout, like, years of college. He was really just, maybe he just knew that he would hit these cities. And they would pop. He was working the pops into his music. As an ultimate showman right there. Did y'all see the video of the new Pope from Chicago saying Dallas, Texas in an Italian accent for some reason?

In a recent video? No, yeah, it was like yesterday. He was like, give me an address, and he was like, Panama! Dallas, Texas! And I'm like, you're from Chicago. I was like, what are you doing? What are you doing with this Buka de Beppo accent to say Dallas, Texas? God, he gave this little sly smile after he did it. Dallas, Texas. Okay, I'm like, all right, man. He's going to say it? He's going to say it. Dallas, Texas.

Dallas, Texas. Dallas, Texas. What is he doing? I don't know what he's doing, but it's really good. I was like, all right. When people say Dallas, Texas, Italian accent, I listen. Speaking of Japan, you just were there, Dan. You got to play Death Stranding. Only 30 hours of it.

Yeah, so just a small slice, a little vertebrate slice. Presumably with Hideo Kojima looking over your shoulder like Randy Pitchford did that entire time. No, he was a full rock star about it. If he was going to come into the room...

You were all getting the heads up from PR like, you know, hey, he's about to come in. He's coming. He comes out with like his like entourage. He's got like people with him and he comes out and people are like clapping and stuff. And he says like four things and leaves and then like.

Every once in a while, the mood would kind of change as we're playing. Because it was like four straight days of like... eight nine hour days of whatever playing the game and every once in a while you just kind of see him like walking behind all things like just looking at where everyone's at and so like and everyone's going oh shit it's Kojima you know

And we all, the fucking cattle call picture with the astronaut guy. We all got it. I'm not too good for that. I'll fucking do it. But it's just so funny because he's just standing there and he's like, all right, number one.

It's like, all right, Jeff Keighley, come up, do your thing. Okay, number two, okay, blessing if I'm kind of funny. Number three, okay, I'll go up, take my picture. No conversation. Just like, he's just rolling through. It's like, it's a WrestleCon thing. Take your picture with Cena and Mulan, you know? Unbelievable. For folks that might have bounced off or really, really loved Death Stranding, what do you feel like?

What do you feel like those two groups of people are going to get out of Death Stranding 2? I mean, as someone who was in both groups, the one who initially bounced off it and then came around on it, I think this one's just going to be a lot more accessible from the start.

um you know everyone's just kind of accepted what the game is now because like there was those expectations before like what is this it's the follow-up to metal gear it's the like is this going to be an action game are you just delivering stuff like now everyone just kind of knows it's a weird-ass world where you deliver shit and so like you're ready to accept that when you started and it

You are playing the game very quickly. There's less micromanaging stuff. I didn't feel like I was constantly falling over, dealing with a baby and stuff like that. So it's just more fun right out of the gate. the storyline stuff like all the character interactions I think is much much better I compared it in my preview to uh

Like, you know, the first three seasons of Arrested Development, you got this ensemble cast and they're all talking together and everything. And then there's that weird fourth season where it's just thinking, no one's in the same room. Exactly. The first, Destrani kind of felt like that fourth season of Rest of Development where it's like, I'm talking to Fragile in my room. I'm talking to Hartman in his lab.

and like now it's like you're flying around in this like metal gear head that can ride the tar currents and you got this whole you got the director of Mad Max and you got a doll and you got like Elle Fanning and there's like everyone's just kind of there chatting and stuff and they're all weird and cool and it's just like it feels more like oh this is like my crew on the Magellan the DHV of Magellan

And so I found myself enjoying the cutscenes a lot. There's still a million things where it's like you drop off some ceramics and you know holograms like hey sam yep looks pretty good all right i'll put this in like that like skip to that that's fine but like the actual cut scenes between chapters and stuff and like the boss fights are way way better i just think it's gonna be You're going to be a little lost if you haven't played the first one or if you dropped off quickly.

But I played the whole first game. And I could, gun to my head, could not fucking tell you, like, what happened at the end. Why am I blue? What is fucking, did I die? Why is my president's sister mom, like, doing with me? Yeah, I was like, Lindsay Wagner is my mom and my sister.

sister and also the same person like what's happening yeah right yeah and i didn't understand any of that shit and i still went into this like just go in be like it's gonna be a weird version of the real world where you're delivering shit And like the beach is kind of the afterlife and like some things can kind of like go in and out of the afterlife.

Don't worry too hard about understanding everything. I watched a 20-minute YouTube explainer before I started playing it, too, and I was like, oh, right, okay, that's what Chiralium is. That's what the Chiral Network is. Don't worry about it. It's a fun game. Just the moment-to-moment playing and the action's way, way better this time. It's very very good. I'm shocked that this video game is called Death Stranding 2 colon on the beach. Why does that shock you? It is so tonally...

A, like, Mary-Kate and Ashley colon on the beach. Like, it feels... It feels... Like it betrays, I understand, I get it. Death Stranding 2, High Noon at Mega Mountain. Oh, I see that. On the beach, I get that. Okay, I see. On the beach, it's like the magic tree house. on Magic JL's 38 on the beach. Yeah, if there's like a destination to Aloha Vacation or something. Yes, it is. It is close to that to me

Because when you said on the beach, I said, wait, no, that's what the game is called. Because my brain is just Death Stranding 2. No subtitle. Here's why I think they're really smart. Because Nikki, if it had been at the beach, That's a different game. That's a different game. That's so different. But on the beach, on the beach is like, there's something menacing about that. And I think that's it. Because at the beach is a dead or alive. Yeah, and then on the beach

What's on it? I'm stranded on the beach. Two? Yeah. On it? Again? Two? Caroline Polachek is there. Is she in it? Singing at me. She's singing the song. It's the theme song. Oh. Yeah. I don't know if she's in it. I can choose those. We were told not to talk about cameos of people in the game. Oh, got it. Basically, I played the entire thing just waiting to see if Nicolas Cage showed up.

Is this going to be a cage? Is this going to be a cage? That was the question. They gave us a tour, and they showed us the, like, scan food. Yeah, I was like, did Nicolas Cage and Conan O'Brien go in there? And they're like, yes. Yes, yes, yes. God, that's really funny. Well, yeah, my close personal friend and person that shares my exact birth date with me, Lea Seydoux, is, we're both turning 40 the same day. Oh, wow. I, yeah.

It's so amazing that she and like, you know, a handful of others have just kind of, uh, latched onto Hideo Kojima like this. It's a good boat to get on, I think, if you can. I think it's a good boat to get on. It feels right. He hasn't done it wrong, but I can't think of someone who was harmed by being like... No! I mean, Keeper's still getting work, right? Yeah. Yeah. Designated Survivor's still on TV, right? Yeah, right, right.

I think so! What's the hardest thing? There's no- Okay, when do you think this is a sequel? The third speed will have 24. That's still going. All right. And I'd kill for another 24. I love 24 so much. When do you both think designated survivor left? Television. It started, I will give you the start date. Okay. September 21st, 2016. Whoa. When did it leave television? 2022. May 2020. June 7th, 2019

Okay. Okay. It did not make it to the pandemic. To the pandemic. Is he a cop? Or what is he? No. He worked. He worked. Nope. Dan, what do you think designated survivor is about? Thank you, thank you, Dan. What do you think it's about? He survived the Sully crash and now has premonitions. One guy. One fucking guy. He doesn't know why, but ever since then he has premonitions and it says that he has to help others survive. That's a great show. It's basically 24.

except he is he's you know okay so the designated survivor is whenever there's like uh like all of the government gets together they leave like three guys out of it This is a real thing. Marco Rubio not hanging out with everyone. He's Gucci because he's high up enough, right? But at the State of the Union, everybody's there. Except, like, the energy sector. For, like, three guys. Like, Linda McMahon. Well, she was there. But, yeah. No, for sure. But like that

Like that is the tier, right? Like 17th in line for the presidency. is how far down you're not there you're watching it on tv in the show they blow up the state of the union everybody dies so like one like the president through like 16 is killed in this explosion The 17th guy on the list, the designated survivor, becomes president. And that guy is Kiefer Sutherland. Yeah. So he then has to save America.

But is he like an ass-kicking president like Harrison Ford? Or is he just like... Is he like a Jack Membro's president? No. No. It's not as action-y as that. does he kill anyone Almost definitely. Okay. Yeah, I think he does. Yeah. Okay. Does the president kill someone? Well, every president's killed someone, really. I mean, because he was always killing people in 24. He was killing a lot of people. He kills way fewer people in this.

I can guarantee it than he did in the program. Yeah, he's the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Oh, that's less dangerous than working at CTU. Yeah, okay. That's a shame. There was a video when he got drunk and tackled a Christmas tree in Los Angeles.

Kiefer Sutherland? No, I haven't. This was during the height of 24 when I was in college. I was like, man, Kiefer seems like the coolest fucking guy. And when I thought he couldn't be any cooler, a news story came out that he got drunk. He's in a lobby of a hotel. Someone's filming him. He's like,

He says something like, hey, you want to see something cool? And then he just splints at a fucking Christmas tree in a hotel lobby. Are you, Nicky, are you seeing it? I just watched it! Yeah, I'm awesome! Fuck, that's funny. That's awesome. Jesus, that rules. I already liked him a lot, and then I saw that, and I was like, this is the coolest dude in the world.

He did it on Christmas Eve. That's really, really funny. That's incredible. Holy shit. I wonder what hotel it is. Yeah, what hotel is this? Yeah, I don't know. Let's see. Let's see. Yeah, I don't know. God, that's fucking funny. I'm glad someone survived on the internet. Mr. President, get down! stupid stupid that's funny oh man uh god bless you kiefer thank you so much um what's uh all right i'm playing a trip to japan and then that Year, 18 months, Dan, what do you recommend I do?

If you see professional wrestling in Japan, that's fun. I happen to be there at the exact same time. The Deadlock Boys, my favorite podcast, Deadlock, are on a couple of shows in Japan. And it was on like, you know, me and Blessing for Kind of Funny and Marcus Stewart from Game Informer were going. And we're in the Uber and we're looking for the arena. And we're like, where the hell is it? It's like in the middle of Shinjuku. And it's just like, it's very busy and we don't see an arena.

And then we see it's like so many things in Japan where it's like one floor, two floor, three floor, you know, it's like a different business on each floor. It's the seventh floor was the name of the arena. It's like, oh man, it's the wrestling arena was above an arcade in Japan. It's like, this is fucking cool.

walking past all these Namco arcade machines and stuff to go up to watch a wrestling thing. And it was so fucking cool. So if you happen to see any kind of wrestling in Japan, I doubt you could go wrong there. But schedule permitted. Wasn't it the Shinjuku face? Yeah. Yeah, it was. Is that what it is? Yeah, yeah. I googled it. Yep, that was the one.

That's exciting. I definitely want to do that. I want to see that. I want to see a baseball game. I want to do both of those things. Is this your first time in Japan? Yeah, I've never been. That's like the big electronics, game stuff, arcades, tons of fun stuff there. I've never really done any outside Tokyo. I went to Kyoto for the Nintendo Museum, but I've never really gone...

you know, temples and outside of the big cities or anything. I've just never really had time to do that. So like if you have more time, yeah, I want to do like two weeks. take the train up and see some stuff. Are you going to get one of those wheelchairs that takes you up the stairs except it takes you six hours? I don't know what I'm going to do because every single place on that island hates me, I think. So we'll...

We'll see. Are they not great with the laws about that? They're not, they're not great with like, it's like, it's like, oh, the streets are really good, but good luck getting into any restaurant or building or whatever. It's like, you know, um, Yeah, but, you know, what I'll do is just I'll just cry in front of all these. Just cry. And they'll pick me up.

They'll pick me up and it'll be fine. Befriend the wrestlers first and then they will carry around. That's really smart. Maybe I'll befriend Kenta Kobashi and he could just walk around with me and pick me up like the Iron Giant and just take me everywhere. Do the Romero Steakhouse. I could do that. That's true. There you go. Look at that fucking move. Just had to do it.

I got one of those so fucking bad. I have to get one. I have to get one. It's a really good steak. I hear it's great. I hear it's a good place. Hey, folks. Star Citizen. I know the three of us are huge fans. We've spent thousands of dollars each of us. I can't stop talking about it. I can't stop talking about Star Citizen. Listen, I read a piece about Star Citizen this week and I learned some things. Okay. I'm going to ask you two. Ah, great. Four questions. Awesome.

about Star Citizen that did surprise me. Okay. Without further ado, this is the Star Citizen check. Jordan, can you play the music? Thank you so much for the nursing tour, and I really appreciate it. How much money has Star Citizen raised in its 13-year history? Is it a $500 million? Is it B, $650 million? Is it C, $800 million? Or is it D, $1.2 billion? All of those numbers are so fucking big. I don't know if this is a video game you can play. I've worked in video games for 20 years.

I don't know. I don't know if I can play this video game. Hey, Dan, one of the questions I'm asking is pretty much that. So we'll get to that in a second. Okay. I'm going to say that it is, what is C? It was 800 million. That's what I was leaning towards. I'm going to say C, 800 million. Me too. You're both correct. It is 800 million. million dollars that is too much in 13 years

Unclear. Unclear. This week, the game began to sell what in-game item to much controversy? Is it A, hood ornaments, B flight blades for ship maneuverability, C keychains for guns, or D plushies to put on your bed. I'm going to say B. White blades for increased maneuverability. Okay, Nikki, what's your answer? I'm going to say it's A. Okay, Dan is correct. It is flight blades for ship maneuverability. Hey, the flight blades max out at what real-life dollar cost per unit? Is it $9?

Is it B, $15? Is it C, $27? Or D, $42? $42. I'm also going with Dave. It's D. It's $42 for... Ship blades to increase your ship maneuverability. Hey, what state is Star Citizen officially in, according to Chris Roberts and the website? Is it A. Alpha B. Beta D. Pre-launch or D. Early access? Alpha. I was also going to say alpha. It is alpha. You two are correct. This game has been an alpha for 13 years.

In January 2025, Chris Roberts was quoted as saying, and let me make sure I've got it here, we are closer than ever to realizing a dream many have said is impossible. We got literally we got to the moon Taking them to make a space video game. Let me read this PC Gamer headline from Fraser Brown. Thank you so much. Squadron 42. Now, real quick. What is Squadron 42? Is this multiple choice? Nope. Can you give me the context again, please? At Star Citizen, what Squadron 42?

Squadron 42 is maybe the 42 people who have given them the most money over the course of the 18 years. Interesting. And it's like a managerial, but it's like a voting block. And they maybe get to dictate some stuff about the direction of the title. Interesting answer. Dan, what's Squadron 42? In the space cabinet, in case there's like a ship where they all are having a big council and like the 42 most important members of the squadron get killed, the 43rd.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. It's a different game they're making. In addition. to Star Citizen, which is a single-player shooter which entered a polishing phase in 2023 and is now targeting a 2026 launch so needed just three short years three years to clean that guy up To clean that guy up. Now, who is in Squadron 42? Oh, I know this. Name two actors. Name two actors who are in it. Okay. Who's the other one? Freddie Prinze Jr.

That's a great, Dan, that's a great one. Thank you. Yeah, Gary Oldman is the other one. Gary Old. Yeah, so. And Mark Hamill. Yeah, so. This game's never coming out. I don't know what it is. I went down a rabbit hole and I'm like, I can't believe they've not been like, now it's, now Trump is in office, so no one's going to do it. But like, This has class action lawsuit. Like, they better launch this while Trump is in office. Do you know what I mean? No, it's the only way.

Because the next guy is this. I'm going to say something so carefully. Okay. Allegedly. I know someone in Los Angeles that worked for Chris Roberts' wife. Okay. Allegedly. Her company got a very mysterious injection of cash about six years ago. Interesting. That no one's quite been able to understand what happened. Yeah, really hard to say where it came from.

Allegedly. Allegedly. I need to be so clear about this. Allegedly. Allegedly, that is true. Okay. Well, look, I've got an idea. Okay, what's that? We the three of us the three of us okay make a video game called star citizen 2 Okay. No, let's do the dumb Starbucks, Nathan. Yes. No, yes. And for satire life, we'll just make it dumb star citizen. Dumb star citizen. Dumb star citizen. And it's going to take us.

I think we can ship this fucker out the door on September 15th, gang. If we lock in after SGF, Yeah, we could probably really get on the keyboard. Shadow drop it at PAX. Shadow drop it at PAX West. We'll beat Hollow Knight and Star Citizen to the punch. I mean, that seems easy. Yeah, I just searched for Star Citizen on Steam. It's not there. I don't know how. Nope.

No, it's not. It's certainly not. They've got their own launcher, I'm sure. It's not in early access. This launch week 2955. Well, I mean, this looks like video game stuff. That's Gary Oldman in a video game. That's Gary Oldman. Is that Julian Anderson? I believe it was Jillian Anderson. That's Squadron 42 I'm looking at here. Oh, I see. Can I download this game and play it? Is that possible? I think if you give them $80, I do think you can play Star Citizen right now.

You're not a real fan then. Are you not a real fan? I'm super not. You're not a real fan if you're going to spend $80 right now on Star Citizen. From May 15th to May 27th, Star Citizen is free to play. Start your new sci-fi MMO adventure today. I just clicked fly for free. I'm downloading it. I'm not making an RSI account. What is that? I'm not getting out of here. I'm not doing this. I can't believe you're not because Steam has rules.

I can't believe you're not getting a Robert Space Industry account made for you right now. Robert Space Industry. Do I want the True Valor patch bundle, or do I want the Duelist Invictus starter pack? What does the Duelas Invictus starter pack get you? Let me click in. It's normally 75. It's down to 63.75. Oh, that's a steal. 63.75?

Yes. Is the number they landed on? Yeah, but listen to what you get for that. Okay. You get the Star Citizen digital download, which is free right now. You get Avenger Invictus blue and gold paint. You get 40,000 UEC. You get 120 month insurance. YOU GET WHAT? What? Hang on! You get Ork MKX helmet singularity, Ork MKX core singularity, Ork MKX arm singularity, Ork MKX leg singularity,

stone skin undersuit, death head helmet, clash core, clash arms, clash legs, and a markanda undersuit. For $63 you're gonna make fun of that? For $63, you get 10 calendar years of insurance. It is listed as 120-month insurance. there's no hyphen there's no hyphen no I don't understand it. Wow. It sounds like an insurance for your ship based on this description. So is there an economy in this video game? I can boot shop my own. in my own insurance company. Could I do AAA?

I'm sorry, there is an asterisk on the insurance. Oh, okay, tell me about it. Special event edition. Comes with an exclusive 10-year insurance contract. Asterix. War bond version pledges cannot be obtained with store credit. Oh, not the war bonds. The war bonds are getting 15% off, so, you know. Okay, well. Star Citizen Insurance Explained.

You type in Star Citizen Insurance and then there's literally a thing like it's fucking Geico or AAA that says Star Citizen Insurance claim cannot be processed. Can you imagine submitting a claim in Europe for a fucking digital spaceship? Your spaceship has exploded. And it's the people, like, so crucially, insurance usually relies on a third party to look at the situation and go,

Oh, yeah, this other party fucked up. You're basically going to the guy who sold you the shitty stuff and going, hey, my shitty stuff fucked up. And Nikki's camera blew up because they were laughing too hard. It's like, it's the same person. It's one bitch going from one ear and out the other. That's crazy. Folks, there is a convention. Okay, CitizenCon 2954.

They do a convention for this. I need to go there with the camera. We need to go. We need to do... It's in Manchester, United Kingdom. Ooh, let's go to Northern England, folks. I might go to the north. Will my insurance carry over to ships I have upgraded? When you upgrade your ship, only the relevant ship within the pledge will be changed. This is, this is lifetime, what is lifetime insurance? The last thing on here is I'm encountering an error when attempting to file a claim. You fucked up.

You simply have fucked up. If you have a help article on your website, That says, and again, I quote, I'm encountering an error when attempting to file a claim. You have fucked up. There is a Galactopedia. It has its own wiki. There's a roadmap for this fucking game. What's that look like? What's coming in three months? The roadmap has... The roadmap has changed a lot. Oh, look at the roadmap. Whoa, this is a lot. Okay.

i don't know how to read any of this there is a lot on this well the z archive napu gameplay feature team uh is nowhere on the horizon for 2025. Nowhere. That's why I wanted to get in. Yeah, me too. They are working on the SCSQ42 core gameplay pillar. There's 45 deliverables coming this year. Oh, so the video game part? The video game part of the video game that they're making. Yeah. The two games.

Like the audacity for them to do a Kickstarter that's like, oh, it's like a No Man's Sky. And then for halfway through to go, let's make a first person shooter and finish that first. No, I'd be pissed. It's so funny. I would also be pissed if I gave them any amount of money. It would be really crazy. I check in on this every 18 months and I'm always shocked that is not a... the biggest class action lawsuit in the world.

One of the worst flights I've ever been on, and I've had many panic attacks on flights and they were not as bad as this one. I was on a five-hour cross-country flight. And, you know, the guy next to me was, you know, we would just kind of do a little, hey, how's it going? You know, whatever you're from here, what are you doing? And he said, oh, what are you doing? I said, oh, I work in video games.

And he was like, oh, I love video games. Okay, well, I guess we'll talk soon. And it turns out the only video game he had any interest in or knowledge of was Star Citizen. So did not play anything else. I don't know how you go from not having interest in video games

to having a deep interest in the most inaccessible video game of all time. Yes. Of all time. But that's all he wanted to talk about. I'm, like, doing the, like, nice, like, putting my AirPods, loading up my iPad with a movie or something, and he's just, like, talking about Star Citizen for the entire flight. Do they still make Elite dangerous? that was a different space game from the people who made roller coaster tycoon 3 oh

What about Colony Wars? Is that still going? Colony Wars? There's a PS1 space game that's probably not still going. That might still be on. Planetside, is that one still on? Oh, I've heard of that, yeah. Damn. Wow, I love the box art for Colony Wars. Yeah, yeah, it's a good one. That's good stuff. It's good stuff. Elite Dangerous is out, but it's just out. There's nothing else going on with it. It sold 5 million units. That's a lot. That's pretty good. For that studio, that studio's little.

Yeah, good for that. That's wild. Yeah, sorry. I saw that came on my radar last night, and I was like, wow, I really want to talk about that. I really just don't understand why they don't go play. No Man's Sky? Yeah. Because it's not like... Realistic. Oh, is this one realized there's no insurance? This one's like, there's like, yeah, there's no insurance on this one. Do you think, is there a Jake from State Farm equivalent inside? Oh, my God. Is there a Star Farm Mysterio mask?

Yeah, like what's the... What's the... The island of... God, what if they scan Flo and put her in... Well, I'm not just saying what she's investigating to. Hideo, I'm kidding. We're kidding, we're kidding, we're kidding, we're kidding, I promise. Hey, what have y'all been playing or doing? Nikki, I want to start with you. Have you been playing or doing anything, like, fun? No. No, yeah. I shouldn't have started with you then. No, that's fine. I... Actually

Hold on. Let me check an embargo. You know what? Here's what I'll say. I've been playing the demo. For the new video game, To a T. I also played that demo. Oh, yes. Which is the video game where you are a child and your arms are stuck in the T-pose. I believe we can talk about the demo. We can talk about the demo. It's really good. It has made me cry like four times. I'm particularly soft right now just generally, but it is a very sweet game about being a child who is different.

I'm excited to continue to play the full release when it releases on Steam, whenever that is. It is publicly available. Yes, whenever it is publicly available. But for my time with the demo. The demo. Crucially, the demo. I can say that it is great. There's Rebecca Sugar, the creator of Steven Universe. They play, there's a giraffe that makes food for the children in the city. And they play the giraffe.

And there's a little song about how the giraffe wakes up in the morning at like 4am to bake bread for all of the kids. It's very sweet. It's very sweet. The dog helps you put, you can name the dog. The dog helps you put your pants on in the morning. Helps you shit. Helps you shit. The dog helps you put toothpaste on the toothbrush.

Your mom has specially designed a faucet that you can use because other faucets you can't use, which is very sweet. You know, it's really cute. It's a cute, good one of these. like very much a Fits in that bucket of video games that I would recommend to people who don't play video games that will be like, wow, I didn't know video games were like this. I'd be like that. That are like, in that bucket is like Florence and Venmo. and games that are kind of of that ilk.

I think this is a really good one of those. It doesn't really require any knowledge from the demo. From the demo. Yeah, there's not really, like, fail states or anything, you know? It's just kind of like, you're kind of moving just from vignette to vignette. I'm just like, yeah, here's the part where you're brushing your teeth, here's the part where you're making cereal, here's the part where you're doing this. I think it is very, very charming, opening song and everything. It's just like...

I really like that, you know, like WarioWare is one of my favorite games ever. I just love games where it's like, here's this weird shit. Here's this weird shit. Now do this, do this. You know, and you're just like, you're laughing while you're trying to figure out what you need to do next or whatever. And like, I love Katamari. This is from the creator Katamari.

but there is just something about like, you know, I've never been one for like narrative games and stories and stuff like that. Not to say that this is like story heavy necessarily. Yeah. The game part of it isn't really... Yes, it is very much like the things that you are doing are the same things you are doing. Kind of the whole time. There's no new mechanic.

that are like again for my time with the demo with the demo yeah so yeah i don't know i'm i'm having a good time with it um and excited for the full release on

The day that it comes out. Yes. On the day. What about you, Dan? Have you been playing anything worth... chatting about or doing um i mean like i said most of the time right now it's just sgfs coming up we're just trying our best uh it's big time turns out yeah when it's just five people doing every part of it there's involved and a lot of things coming together uh coming in hot

But I have had some time to play Deliver at All Costs, which is... Konami makes video games again. That's crazy. Yeah, it's wild. They made an active decision to not, and then they said... We're back, actually. And they're good? Yeah. They're the HBO Max of video games. Right. Yeah, I first became aware of this where I went out to England for this press event with Konami that was just, I thought it was just a snake eater thing.

And then as it got closer, I realized, like, oh, there's a couple other games there. And I was like, oh, shit, they had Snake Eater, which was awesome. They had Silent Hill 2, which Silent Hill's never been my thing, but obviously Silent Hill 2 fans liked it a lot. And then there was this weird little indie game where you're just driving around isometric 60s city delivering weird shit.

and driving straight through buildings and churches and stores and everything and like incredible physics and destructibility and a really weird quirky sense of humor like with the stuff you're delivering it's not just like boxes or anything. It's always just something super weird where it's like, it's a bomb that if you, you know, touch anything else, it's going to like, you know, nuke, explode the whole city. There's, you know, you're delivering a swordfish and painting it so this

Guy can pretend he caught it to impress a girl and get a date. Fireworks are going up. Everything's just like crazy physics sandbox. And it's been super fun. I mean, it's not a game that's like some 10 out of 10 game of the year thing, but... And it's just, it reminds you of just like a weird ass PS2 game.

and there are a few things I have a softer spot for than weird-ass PS2-era games, and this kind of made me feel like that, you know? So we're checking out, and I think right now it might be free on the Epic Games Store, I think for like launch week or something. So check Epic if you want to check it out for free. It's very fun.

Yeah, I definitely want to check that out. I want to check both of those out. And I have been checking out Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tactical Takedown. I've got that on my Steam Deck. Works well on that. That's a Strange Scappol Joint. And it is a small, it's like I think about five hours long. It's a pretty short game. But it's got like some nice cool technical mechanics. It doesn't go too far with it. It is a brief experience.

I've been enjoying that. So if you like the Ninja Turtles, if you like little tactical games, it's a fun one of those. I also think it is at a discount right now. I think it's like $30 off on Steam, something like that. It's not the one. I'm sorry. It's not the one that is, um...

There's a side-scroller beat-em-up, right? It's not Shredder's Revenge. No, it's Shredder's Revenge. That also just came out, though, right? Like a year ago or something. Yeah, that was like a year and a half ago or something like that. But yeah, this is more like, you know, tactical, you know, turn-based stuff, which is...

a fun genre, uh, for me. So I enjoyed that. And, um, strange scaffold, once again, trying to, you know, relaunch about eight to 28 games a year, which is, really interesting wait no there isn't pretty good hold on no they just no wait they did sorry wait wait that game is are you thinking arenas rewind There's a Power Rangers game. Power Rangers. Power Rangers. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle splintered face.

Oh, what was that one? That is another thing. And then there's the Cowabunga Collection. I feel like in the last couple years, there's been like nine Turtles games. Yeah, yeah. This one is like a roguelike. Oh. Okay, it's from 20... 20, I understand what has happened. You set your date on your computer to 2020. This game was an Apple Arcade exclusive.

Because I just turned on my PlayStation the other day and they were like, yo, have you heard of this video game Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Splintered Fate? And I was like, no. But it just came to PlayStation. Two days ago is why I thought the video game was new, but it is not. That makes sense. It was an Apple arcade game that has now been ported. That makes sense. Perfect. Does the Turtles guys still get money?

The original Turtles guy? Yeah, like the guy who made Turtles. Is he alive still? I think he's alive. I wonder if it's something where he sold it forever ago and just kind of made bank and other companies run it now. I'm not sure. What, Eastman and Laird? Yeah, I hope Eastman's the guy with that one funny picture, right? You've seen the funny picture? With him in the sunglasses? Yeah, he's fine. He's holding action figures.

Man, that's my only frame of reference for him, and I can't even produce the picture. Sorry about that. That's all right. It's like that sometimes. I'm going to look up Kevin Eastman. Photo that Dan likes. Just a funny looking picture. He's doing a little smirk and holding up an action figure of Donatello or something. Yeah, I'm finding nothing here. I'm finding images of Kevin Eastman as an action figure. Oh, that's weird. But not, not, not the...

not the photo editor. I apologize. It's all right. No, it's okay. It's okay. Uh, by the way, we're back around now to ask, uh, asking more hive questions. Go to VGBS.com slash join. You can join the hive and ask us questions every single week. Hey, what's the dumbest game you would want to play on the sphere in Las Vegas? Great question. Great question. Thanks, Jason. My mind went right to Fantavision, but I actually think that'd be cool.

Yeah. Wait, on the inside or the outside? Oh, that's important. It's a pretty good question. On the outside. I just think Tetris effect on the inside would bang. That's not really dumb. I think that's just a good idea. It's just cool. Like in VR, being a little high, that's just a great time. That's just a good time. Yeah. Dumbest. Dave Mira BMX 2. BMX Triple S on the inside of the sphere is pretty good.

The Triple X on the inside is pretty fun, but it's like, yeah, I would probably just play the original game. What about the Wheelman? What about the Wheelman, the Vin Diesel game? The Vin Diesel game? Yeah. That'd be good. That'd be stupid. What about The Blob? The Blob would be great. The Blob would be great. The Blob would be good. Thomas was alone. This game about squares. That's a really good one, John. That'd be pretty good. That's a good one.

I think Mike Bithell would probably be cool with that. Do you think he would pay for us to do that? I'll ask him. He's definitely got the coin. He's got that Tron money now. He's got the Tron money. He's got that Tron money. The Sphere. How much do you think Da Blob is on the Nintendo eShop right now? Da Blob 1. I'm surprised it's there. It was at $29.99.

I'm going to say $19.99. It's $29.99. Whoa! That's nuts. That is a $5 video game. That is crazy. It should have been $29.99 in like 2016. Yeah. Wow. That's incredible. That's really good. Yeah, no, that's a great question, Jason. Thank you so much for asking it. You died, uh-oh, and woke up in another world. Would you rather start your new life in Mario Party or Fortnite? That's a pretty easy question. It's Mario Party. Whoa, don't worry. I'm not even thinking. I feel like...

Is the plot of Ready Player One that the kid played so much of the game that it becomes his life and he's really good at it? Because if that is the plot of the movie, then that's me and Mario Party. I know how to do this. Wait, but are there stores?

Like, where do you get... Well, I guess there is food. There's so many places. There's whole islands that are just made of food. But that's, I think, the beauty of Fortnite, though, right? There's a cake I can walk on. But all that shit is also in Fortnite. I think... Slurp juice? You're going to live off slurp juice? I can do whatever I want in crime city. Exactly. They've got crime city. Sometimes Darth Vader is there. The burger place is there. Tomatoes, an old town of tomatoes.

There's a whole exactly the whole map is gonna change around you until you die, but people are fucking shooting you Yeah, that part's gonna be tough. Yeah, that part is tough. Yeah, nobody's gonna kill you. Yeah, Bowser's gonna, like, take your money or whatever, but he's not gonna hurt you. But do you think it hurts more? To fall in the lava.

in any of the Mario Party minigames that involve lava. Or do you think it hurts where to get shot in Fortnite? Getting shot, because if you fall in lava in Mario Party land, you're not... terminators sinking in the lava it's you go and like your your fucking pants don't even get to stay out of shit And then you just fly up. Yeah, fly out. Okay, that makes sense. I still get my mark. I get to drive a car. Yeah, I want to kind of wherever.

Yeah. There's definitely cars in Mario Party. But they're not the same, is it? They have race cars. They have F1 tracks in Mario Party. That's true. That's true. If you are counting the rich world of the minigames, it's a pretty expansive place. There's a lot going on. There's so many pancakes and restaurants. Is Jake from the State Farm in Mario Party? Not yet.

I'm out. I wonder if there's going to be a point where it's like, you know what? If they put Sabrina Carpenter in Mario Party, I will change my mind. I'm picturing a world where it's like, you know, like, somehow believe it or not Vince McMahon never wanted ads on the ring and somehow he kept that like secret for all of his faults and everything he's like the most gross capitalist of all time but he never sold out the ring canvas

And as soon as he was out, Nick Khan and the TKO guys and stuff like Hulk Hogan beer, Sonny Rabe go to town. Like, what if, like, Miyamoto dies and Nick Khan takes off? Oh, dear God. open. That's not going to be Peach Motors or Bowser Oil in Mario Kart. It's fucking Castrol GTX. There's no one-up mushroom. It's just prime energy. Logan Paul against Luigi. One of the things I am the most curious about, because to that point, Dan, Nintendo really doesn't do a brand.

they will go outside and be like, mario will stand next to this but like not really but that that mercedes yeah ben's collaboration from mario kart 8 yeah who who called who Who called who? Right. Was that Mercedes calling Nintendo or did Nintendo call Mercedes? Yeah, Bill Mercedes called Shigeru Miyamoto. Yeah. Who gave who money? Yeah.

How much was it? I would think Mercedes would have to pay Mario Kart. By the time that happened, that game was like four or five years into its run and it was still selling like crazy. How many people? You get a survey at the end of your car buying process, which is how it goes. They say, how did you hear about us? How many people on God's green earth said, well, I learned about the GLA.

In Mario Kart 8. Because that number has to be. It can't be zero. It's not zero. It's not zero. And I think if we stop doing it, we don't go to SGM.

Okay, we just commit all of those resources all of those dollars all of that time to finding somebody Who bought a GLA because they saw it for the first time in Mario Kart 8 that's good that's good that's good yeah i think there's something that's good there's something there i i totally agree hey lovick asks hey my first gaming experiences were playstation 2 pc so i never really experienced a lot of games before that era what are some lesser known

pre-PS2 gems, that's covering a lot of ground loading, you'd recommend checking out on a handheld emulator of choice. Kickle Cubicle! Dude, what a fucking pull, you know? I know! I'm obsessed with that game! I fucking love that game! Yeah, absolutely! No fun! That's a great NES game if you like. Puzzle action games. That's pretty much that. Pushing blocks, a lot of levels, some boss fights. That's a great game. It feels like an indie game that could come out now on Steam. It's aged pretty well.

Yeah. Really good pull. I would say Mischief Makers on Nintendo 64. Go play that as a treasurer. i'm gonna say platformer but boy it is a genre like bending There's a lot of stuff going on, and it's one of my favorite games from the N64 era that I think a lot of people in my circle know about, but I think outside of it, not so much. I think Namco Museum is awesome.

I really like that music. They were kind of the first ones to do that, you know? Yeah, to have a collection of emulated games. Because for me, I didn't know what any of them were. There was a Pac-Man machine at Tito's Tacos. in Culver City. You love Cheetos Tacos. I love Cheetos too. Only thing that you need to know about Tito's... Wait, no, hold on. The only thing better than a Tito Sacco is two, is what the song radio says. Okay, that's good. Anyway.

In that one, you walk around as a formless, human-hided creature, and you walk into these rooms that have big tables at which you walk up to them, and you can play rally at. and then you walk around some more and then you get to play pac-man um and i just like the idea that there would be a building on the excellent planet that we all live on that is just five old video games. It's a cool thing. I don't know how novel it is now, but like...

I really liked it. It was a star novel back then because that was like PS1 they started doing those and like They did like five volumes and each one was like N-A-M-C-O, like really sharp cover art.

And then they started doing like midway arcade treasures on like PS2 and Xbox. And that was like, you know, NARC and Mortal Kombat and stuff. So like now it's so easy to play old games. But back then it was just like, shit, I can't emulate anything past like NES back then. It's like, I can actually play these now. I would also suggest from the PS1 era, if you like RPGs, play Vagrant Story and Xenogears. Just do that. Those...

Those two games are fucking wild for different reasons, so yeah, check those out. But there's a lot of ground to cover. fucking Vector Man. I love Vector Man. Psychogenesis. Yep. Go check that out. That's a weird one. Incredible Crisis for PS1. It's a weird WarioWare-esque thing for WarioWare. Yep, that's a good one. Yeah, there are a lot of weird games. Good question. It's a little one that people might miss. I mean, I will tell you.

Those still hit. Those old ones are still really good. Three is the best one. Three is the best one. But two is also very good if you're wanting a pre-PS2. Okay, now you are in charge of designing your own arcade. What games does it have? What kind of accoutrement does it have? Thank you, Electric Gauntlet, for asking this question.

It's a boring answer because I feel like every barcade kind of does this, but it's like, I think everyone knows now what the ones are that are crowd pleasers and it's going to be Mortal Kombat, Blitz, Jam, it's going to be The Simpsons, then Turtles 2, or I guess it was Turtles 1 in the arcade.

Yeah, just a lot of brawlers, beat-em-ups, fighting games, like a virtual fighter. You don't see as much virtual fighter or Tekken in the barcades. You always see Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter. I'd love a Tekken 3 machine. I'd love... I love Virtua Fighter! Like one, two. I'm so nostalgic for one, honestly, but like that two, two as well would be good. There's a bar near me.

John, it's the place where we're going to have the mixer up, but are no longer. No, no, no. Because it was a billion dollars. Because it was. Wait, real quick. What is the. Wait. We got two quotes from two places. Okay, this is great. So the place we're having it, okay, and the place we were quoted and passed, What's the cost of going to the one that we picked versus the one that we did not pick?

Okay, so the one you picked up is a one-night thing. One-night thing, 150 people, three hours. Three hours, not open bar. No, but we are feeding people at the event. From the event? Like, is the food coming from the venue? Yes. So you're paying for that? Yes. Okay, so no alcohol. One night. Is it three hours?

three hours oh man i'm gonna mental math here because like i've been looking at like you know five nights for like two of them are production nights and you know three of them are just yeah it's just so i'm gonna have to do some math here I'm going to say the one you didn't go with. was $2,500. I don't know which angle that laugh came from. And the one you went with is 1,200. Okay, you are pretty much on the dot with a 1,200. Okay. Yes. That's like 25.

$1,000. $1,000 American dollars. Were you going to own the bar? I don't know. I'm looking at the quote right now. For the room, $2,500. For food, $45 a head, that's $6,700. Assuming an open bar of $75 a person, that's $11,000. Wait, so they were assuming you wanted an open bar? They were assuming yes, but it's still way more expensive. Even not including the open bar. Yeah, that's way too much. It's only 10 grand. That's crazy. And then 300 of arcade money.

A money. Yeah. $300. Yeah, it converted into quarters. They don't just turn on a front line. Wouldn't it have been easier to just turn on? You could just flip a switch in the back. Yeah, flip a switch. Really dumb. Anyway, Killer Queen Black. There was a bar in San Francisco when I was living there called, who the fuck knows, whatever. It was one of the arcade bars in the city. Yeah, I know, really bad. Typing into Uber was tough. They had Killer Queen Black, which was awesome.

That is a really good game to play with other people who you do not know in that kind of setting. Um, yep. The Minecraft Dungeons port, the arcade version of Minecraft Dungeons, which is update and busters, I think, exclusively, is really fun. Like, it's really fun. It does not feel like a Diablo-like would be conducive for drop-in play that way, but it also prints out physical cards. that are items that you can then use later. And if you play the game again,

So I would love those two machines. Obviously set on free play, but I would love those two machines. Those could be fun. Like the drop-in Diablo type thing, like Gauntlet Legends and Dark Galaxy. Those were fun, yeah. Hydro Thunder, you've got to have one of those. Yeah, yeah. with the pedals and all that. So a Hydro Thunder and a Daytona USA. All I want I want to play Daytona USA 2 so badly. Oh, sure. Whatever the HD one is. They released one last decade. I can pick it up. Daytona USA 2.

The weird Mario Kart from Amco that never came out elsewhere. That's a really weird one. I would also... There's a place here called Cidercade, which is just cider and a bunch of arcade machines, obviously. I would do that, but not for cider, but it's fucking cider. No thanks, I'm good.

I don't need 30 different kinds of cider. Maybe some beer. Yeah. Maybe, maybe, maybe we make our own, maybe we make our own mescal. I don't know. Oh, fuck that. I did have an incredible cider over the weekend. That was a mint julep cider. And it was, John, it was delicious. That sounds great. I'll bring you a crawler. I'll bring all crawlers of it. Oh, yeah. Next week. Oh, good. I'll drink a whole crawler of... Oh, hello. Wow, I've had this whole mint julep cider in one sitting. Mmm.

Let's go play some video games. Do you think the Mario Kart arcade version is any good? It's- it's- interesting the novelty it's not bad it's just like it's more of this novelty of like i've played every mario kart for hundreds of hours, and all of a sudden there's this weird arcade one where it's like, I can be Pac-Man. Yeah, Pac-Man. Namco made a Mario Kart game, which is so nuts. Yeah, so I can't see that without playing a round or two.

I would say the only things I would really probably bring from a David Busters would be the crossy road and doodle jump machine. No. No, I would quicker have the Kung Fu Panda. The Kung Fu Panda bongo thing? Hit the bongos. Yep, yep, yep, yep. I would definitely have that. I have COVID testing at the door.

That's a great game. Yeah, that's a good one. See how far you can get the PCR test in your nose. I'd have someone basically just doing fever checks at the door. That's pretty much what I would do. One of the walls is just... Skable. That's okay, good. We've got Skee-Ball and we have maybe... Two of them instead of at the end? No. Okay.

Three quarters of the wall is skee-ball. Yes. Two Papa Shop machines. Mm-hmm. And then we have that one... There's also a Dave & Buster's game where it is like... long table ping pong ball beer pong except it's just digital beer pong and you bounce it on the table and there's this huge like pad of lights and you have to turn them colors you can play them with multiple people and you take turns And the goal is to have the most squares your color by the end of the round.

They had that when I was growing up at arcades, but it was like a Bozo the Clown branded thing, which is the oldest sounding thing I can imagine. And it's just like five buckets in a row, and you're trying to go one after another as far as possible, yeah. You know, speaking of the oldest possible thing, it's something I think about every once in a while. Nothing will make me feel older than the fact that I have had an in-person conversation with Bob Hope. Продолжение следует... Holy shit, Dan.

Yeah. In Brits, Missouri, I talked to Bob Hope in person. That is Brad. And we're walking to like dinner or something from the hotel and we walk I'm like

Eight or nine years old. I have no idea who the fuck Bob Hope is. And then we walk past this old couple on the sidewalk, and then my dad sees a sign at this hotel. It's like, welcome, Mr. and Mrs. Bob Hope. And my dad... just 180s and starts sprinting in the other direction oh my god what the fuck is going on he didn't say anything he's just sprinting and i catch up to him and he's just talking to the oldest man i've ever seen and he's like son this is

this is bob hope this is a legend and i shook bob hope's hand i shook mrs hope's hand i have no idea who this ancient man is and now i look back i'm like oh my god that feels so old that i've talked to bob hope nuts that's crazy that is nuts wow that's really nuts That's a... I've never... I've only been to his airport. Oh, yeah. It's a fine airport. It's a nice airport, yeah. All right, we got one last question. Imran Khan, friend of the show, asks...

If you had to fight one of the Mario Brothers, Mario, Luigi, Wario, or Waluigi, and win, which would you choose? No. Luigi. I think it's Wario. You think you could win? Wait, did you say win or lose? No, no, I was saying I thought in this scenario we are going to win. And I thought the question was which one would you not feel bad about beating up? I'm going to interpret this differently. I'm going to say which of them could you beat up? None. Yeah, the answer is none, but Luigi.

I think that you could, with a combination of cruel things, said out loud wedgies him, yeah. yeah and physical violence insulting stuff yeah you think you could kind of cut luigi down to size so he just is kind of like and then i would beat him up yeah Have you played the Mario video games? Like he's got a major. Yeah. So I think I would probably pray on that. First, get him softened up, and then I would kind of go at it. You can't do Wario. He's very strong.

Oh, yeah, I misheard the question. I certainly, out of all of them, Laurie would be the one you could not beat the shit out of. No. I think to go to the original interpretation, I would also fight Wario if I knew I was going to win. Yeah, I thought that was the question. It's like, hey, you're going to beat one of these dudes up. Which one would you feel the least bad about? It's a little confusing, the intent of the question. Sure.

I would beat up Mario, but I think Luigi would be the easiest one to cut down. He can jump so high, though. He can jump high, but he'll never be as good as Mario, and I'll say that to his face. I'll just say that to his stupid face. I'm going to have, you know?

Oh, you had to vacuum ghosts. That's your claim to fame. Good job. And you kind of suck at it. You're just afraid all the time. Yeah, you're just afraid all the time. Hey, go to vgbz.com slash join and join the hive. You can ask us questions. every single week we really appreciate it hey i also said if you leave us a five-star review and leave us a review uh i will read it on the air i have two this wow One is from SUFFIE

Gaming! Five stars says Fantastic Fo- Nope, let's start that over. Fantastic Pod. Jordan cut that out. Fantastic pod from two people with questionable taste in PB&J. Weep bread is good on PB&J. It feels healthy. I'm a granola man. Hold on. As someone who eats a peanut butter sandwich every day, had one a few hours ago, what is the discourse here? I just don't like wheat bread generally. I don't really remember this. That's the other beautiful thing about this gig, right?

talking to him by corona and none of it means anything for someone else it is the most infuriating thing anyone's ever said but for me I've gone through the whole gamut of breads from peanut butter. My current one of choice is the murder bread. You know the murder bread? What is the murder bread? It's Dave's killer bread. It's a guy that got out of jail and he gives jobs to other murderers in Oregon and they make bread and it's good as hell.

I don't like his woke bread because it is too seeded. I don't want seeds to eat. You don't have to worry about it. Your body's not falling apart yet. Don't worry about nutrition! I don't want some bread to have texture other than bread the harvest seeds and stuff. Yeah. I don't want a seeds in my bread. I might as well be being chunky peanut butter, which I won't eat. So, junk all day. You go super chunk all day, okay? have put extra peanuts into Super Chunk before.

Wow, that's a lot. You're doctoring your own chunky peanut butter. And I never had jelly until maybe five or six years ago. So, I mean, I was just going chunky ass peanut butter for a very long time. No jelly. No jelly. No bananas. So you're not a PB&J fan. I was a PB. I've had... 20,000 peanut butter sandwiches

I've had, um, I've probably had a few hundred peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but like most of my last, like my last 300 have probably been peanut butter and jelly with an occasional peanut butter and banana. What is the jelly? What do you mean? It's like fine taste. Nope. Oh, what kind of jelly? Dan, tell us about bread. Where does that originate? What's the origin of bread?

It preserves. It's like a glass thing. It's pretty good, yeah. I do like the idea of the squeeze bottle, though, because that just seems so much easier. Here is something that is so incredible, Dan. You have given me two full-throated answers. About the jelly. I know, but I've told us what flavor. And you have not told me what kind of jelly it is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like a glass jar. What color is it? Dark purple.

Okay, we're getting somewhere. Would you identify it as grape? I think it says mixed on the thing. Mixed berry. I think it's mixed berry. It's mixed berry. Like at a diner, they have the Smucker's gimmicks where it says grape or strawberry. I've had both of those. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So it's probably mixed berry. That's probably mixed berry. I think currently I have mixed berry. That tracks. Yeah. Okay. Okay. That tracks. Okay. Or I'm a strawberry jelly person.

Okay. No one's perfect. Jelly is really good with peanut butter. I completely understand. It just goes. It is. We have another review. This one is from Cap'n Haggis. A podcast about video games. Five stars. Due to recent, I'm sorry, speaking of bits that get old, due to recent brand safety mandates, it looks like I'm in the market for a new favorite video game podcast. And wow, his VGB is in the running. I started saying stuff.

bangs like Nikki does and all my IRL friends think I'm cooler, smarter, and more attractive. It can work for you too. Listeners of the show should also go check out If You're Driving, Close Your Eyes. I agree. Wow. That was a two for one. That makes me laugh a lot. Yes. That was a two for one. Thank you so much. I really appreciate Captain Haggis.

If you leave us a five-star review, I will read it on the show like I just did just now. If you leave us something outside the U.S. story, you gotta fucking tell me about it. I'm not gonna go look at New Zealand's store and look. I'm not going to do that. I actually did look up Canada today, which is where I got Captain Haggis.

Thank you so much for your wonderful reviews. Let's get the fuck out of here, huh? We've been doing this for a while. Dan, what a pleasure. Thank you so much. This is fantastic. for coming on. We will see you in a couple weeks at SGS, of course, but in the meantime... Where can people find you? What do you want people to know about Giant Bomb? All that stuff.

Giantbomb.com is independent games media. 100% independent. No weird company ahead of us or above us or anything. There's a reason we didn't say subscribe for the last several years because we didn't see any of that money. and now we see all of it minus whatever fees or whatever uh so yes support independent games media giantbomb.com join just want to watch all of our stuff is free youtube twitch giantbomb you can find us wherever

And I am danreichert.com on Blue Sky. And I'm also Dan Reichert on Twitter. Thanks, Dan. Nikki, what do you got for us? Make you think, Dot Club. Good one this week. I started writing it already. Which again, is a bad sign for my mental health. I started watching television again. I started watching Andor and I started watching I started watching Barefoot Contessa be my guest. which is where Ina Gartney brings on her friends.

Uh-huh. And they just chat for a while. And it's their... our 20 episodes question mark and i think one black person has been on the show which is really funny um okay the one i watched yesterday was stephen colbert and his wife and Um, Ina Garten. And if you just want to like, listen to rich white people talk for a while, it is like some of, about being white. Really? There's not a lot to talk about, really. I mean, damn.

They talked they talked about Stephen Colbert and his wife talked about how they met.

and how they work together because she's a producer on his show. But it's like, the reason I said it like that is because it's like... They have so much disdain for this thing that they're watching every episode of. No, it's not that. The reason I said it like that is because it's like... come like anything else like they've almost definitely told that this is how we've met and we're professionals who are married and work together

Like, I'm frustrated with the program not because of the content of it, but because it could be better if anybody on it tried. But instead, they are doing what they should do, which is cashing checks. They get to hang out with their friends on camera and then they hang out. So yeah, so that's where I'm at. So anyway, make you think doc club.

Good one, mistake.club. Hey, go to bgbz.com slash join. That's what I got. I'm floppyadult.com over on Blue Sky. And hey, if you're a dream hack Dallas this weekend, You can go play video games as your feet over at the Glider booth, 36A. Go to feetlegal.com if you want a glider. These will ship out at the end of June, so you better get yours. right now all right folks let's get out of here until next time Keep on buzzing!