August 2024 Podcast: Sports, our most played Nintendo Switch games of all time, and all the big August releases

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Music.

(00:24):
Good evening good morning good afternoon and welcome to the digitally uploaded
podcast a companion podcast to digitally downloaded.net my name's alan and i'll be hosting you this,
evening's morning or afternoon and with me as always is the venerable editor-in-chief
matt sainsbury hello matt hello alan how you doing oh good what have you been

(00:46):
playing this month matt i don't know i've been playing games i guess that's
good it's better than not,
we should have mentioned we should have caught your fancy we should
mention that this is the 201st podcast we uh
totally forgot that it was
the 200th podcast last time until i uploaded it we would
have made a bigger deal of it because it is a pretty big deal i like to think

(01:09):
that is our vibe to a t though yeah but we recorded it last month and we're
like yeah this is cool this is good let's upload it and then i went on to our
little pod bean site which is where we We do all the- The bean pod.
Yeah, that's where we do all the podcasts.
And then it said, oh, this is like the 200th episode. I was like,

(01:29):
oh, cool. We probably should have said something about that on the podcast.
We don't know how we fixed it.
We delete the first episode, and then now this is the 200th episode, and then we're all set.
Yeah. We'll do a Stalin wiping out his friends in the photos vibe.
Something like that. But it's good. It never existed. We've been around forever, basically.
That's pretty good. That's crazy. we're old people now yeah it feels it yeah

(01:54):
god i was still in like undergrad i think when we started,
you were still living in adelaide alan was i
you were oh shit for the
very first one oh yeah i would have been you're still an australian now you're
some weird pom person yeah and we used to do things weekly oh we did we used

(02:14):
to do this weekly that was a that was a fun thing waking Waking up every week
early in the morning to do the recording.
Wow, those were the days. It was ambitious. If nothing, if not ambitious.
And you may have heard another ambitious voice in the voice of Trent.
Hello, Trent. Hello. I'm always here as well.
He is. Better than me. You don't want to see.

(02:37):
I'm the regular. I should get a fancy, snappy title.
Uh the podcast person a podcast
person there you go what have you
been playing this month trent what am i playing oh i'm still
playing paper mario oh i forgot
that that came out it came out last ago yep that's

(02:59):
really bad i totally forgot everyone was asking
for that game and i completely forgot it existed oh dear
i now have three four
four of the stars that's fun
yeah so i'm slowly getting there i like
that my game seems nice it is
what about you alan what are you playing well i'll

(03:22):
tell you what i'm not playing but i'm pissed off about yeah he's
he's the gets what grinds my gears as part
of the part of the podcast i've been trying to get a code for marvel rivals
but it is impossible marvel rivals
being the overwatch clone that is just full of Marvel Super Heroes and apparently
it's really really good and I'm really pissed off about it so yeah I've been

(03:44):
playing not playing that and wishing I was still chugging along through FFXVI
which is a great time I got back into Civ I played through two auteur Dreamcast games,
one's a Saturn one's a Dreamcast game called D and D2,
they were terrible I don't know if you've heard about it Matt I vaguely know those names yeah,

(04:08):
it's not good but it's interesting.
And the first one is like a point and click like everything is pre-rendered
cutscene kind of game and the second one is the worst Resident Evil clone I've
ever seen in my life with elements of House of the Dead,
and The Thing but with the worst cutscenes I've ever seen in my life so yeah,

(04:32):
I've been playing that, that's been fun give D a shot if you want to play something that kind of sucks,
anyway with that said we're going to head straight into the games of the month so do stick around.
Music.

(08:01):
So, even though it's kind of like a typically like a quiet month,
there are still games coming out in August.
So, we're going to go through the list of those and tell you what we think.
And hopefully by the end, you'll have an idea about anything that you might want to pick up as well.
So, Matt, what's the first thing that we're going to see on August the 1st?
Yes. So, there is stuff coming out on August the 1st.

(08:23):
Let's start with, okay, let's try and pronounce this, shall we?
It's one of those ones. Yeah. Apathy, Narogami Gakuen Nanya Bushigi plus Kikan na Tenkushi.
Yep. Which is, I think it's like a visual novel, I think.

(08:44):
It's certainly got a nice little art style on the box there,
and it is a game in which you play as a first year student who is a member of
the school newspaper club who is asked to gather gather information from the
seven storytellers assembled by the seniors to feature about the school's seven mysteries.

(09:06):
However, when he opens the door to the club room, there are only six people
there. Without waiting for the seventh person, he's started the meeting already.
Yeah, so it's basically a detective story thing, visual novel thing.
It actually, yeah, like I said. Sounds okay.
Yeah, the art on the box art is something.

(09:28):
Interesting it's eye-catching and it turns out
the club member didn't die they just moved to a different school
what a great visual novel i didn't i
didn't know anything about this until i just read that out but i'm certainly
interested in it i do like how i mean
the seven mysteries of the school thing is quite a common
trope across japan not just in

(09:50):
video games but actually like it's it's a urban legend
thing which is it was in kingdom hearts 2
during the opening yeah it's i remember it is
it is a thing it is it's definitely a cultural thing with japanese schools and
stuff so yeah that should be interesting that comes out on august 1 also on
august 1 one of the iconic visual novels gets a switch port hakwoki chronicles of wind and Blossom.

(10:17):
Now, Hakuoki is a visual novel set during the Shinsengumi era,
so that was a little bit after the Americans came and told Japan to open its borders,
otherwise they'll get blown to bits, and then they had a little civil war,
and yeah, that's the kind of the historical It is a historical visual novel.

(10:42):
It was pretty iconic for being the one that basically introduced the ultimate
genre to the West because this was
originally a PlayStation 3 game and was certainly my first visual novel.
And it is excellent so looking forward to
playing that on my little oled switch and seeing how
well the art pops on that screen that'll

(11:06):
be a good time indeed a game
for alan on august one we've got bare butt boxing which i'm
sure is going to be his favorite game of all time that's so
good that rocks it's just no it does
what it says on the tin i'm here for it like at least
it's clear you in what it wants in bear box

(11:26):
boxing you play boxing the
butts you play as mischievous aliens mesmerized
by the sport of boxing as they battle it out over our
beloved planet earth unaware of the laws and traditions of human society enjoy
the chaos and whimsy of simulated characters and environments in this arcade

(11:47):
action brawler that will keep you hooked as surprising combat twists and gameplay variety.
If they're not using their butt cheeks to punch other butt cheeks, I'm out of this game.
Bare butt boxing. Why is it bare butt boxing? I don't know. Let's do a little...
Oh, hello. This looks fun, actually.

(12:08):
Yeah, this looks like it could be a lot of fun.
Google search it, everybody. Bare butt boxing. And you'll have a good laugh.
Oh, they're bad. This looks actually quite silly. See, I told you.
It looks fun. It's not what you think.
So, there you go. It's basically Overwatch meets Amaros meets boxing.

(12:32):
There you go. The more you learn. Also on August 1, we've got Star Wars Bounty
Hunter Remaster coming out.
Oh, hell yeah. That game was cool.
Yeah, that's all right. That was a PlayStation 2 one, wasn't it? It was.
You play as one of the Fets. You play as Jango.
Yeah. Cool. It's a fun game. It's nice when a good Star Wars game comes out,

(12:53):
we don't get many of them these days. Yeah.
On August 2 we've got Ero the Acrobat coming out. Like the Genesis game?
I guess so. I don't know, it just says Ero the Acrobat. Must be a remaster.
Who's that for? Must be a remaster, that was classic.
No, it looks like it's the GBA one, which for some reason is getting a release

(13:16):
on Switch, PS4, Xbox One and PS5.
Okay so there you go hd remaster of the gba game perhaps i don't know i'll just
read off the meta cricket list and it tells me something's coming out so it's coming out it's better.
I do remember that one being vaguely good. Scrolling on, scrolling on.

(13:41):
On August 6th, Cygni, All Guns Blazing.
This is a shoot-em-up. So I'm going to say that's probably... Oh, no, it's a shmup.
So not the first-person shooter. It's an impossibly difficult kind of top-down, plain shooter game.

(14:02):
Game thing anyway that one's just not meant for
anyone to win because looking at it gives you a headache kind of
thing yeah i've never that's not i always
enjoy the the art style of those games and i appreciate what
they're trying to do but because i suck at them i'd never
actually enjoy playing them on august
8th we've got cat quest 3 coming out oh hell yeah cat quest pirates of the the

(14:25):
peribian that's cool i like that so it's a pirate themed cat quest which is
fun the first two were pretty good more of those they were charming they were they were easy playing,
they weren't the best games in the world but they were enjoyable very
enjoyable so the third one is coming out this one's actually not being published

(14:47):
by pq the first two were published by pq this new new one is self-published
i think so i guess they walked away from the publishing deal and now have making
it giving it a go themselves good on them all the best.
On August 8th, we've got a video game adaptation of a pretty popular anime.

(15:09):
We've got That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, which is,
I must admit, I haven't watched the anime. I know it's a pretty popular one.
That one is decent. Yeah. I just haven't had the time.
So I don't have much to say about this, other than I'm guessing it's going to

(15:29):
be cool for people that liked that anime.
Yeah. yeah that's about all i got to say about that it's a fair assessment.
On august 8 we've got steam world heist 2 coming out now the first steam world heist was a 2d,
x-com like strategy game which was pretty decent that's wilder that's getting

(15:53):
a sequel the steam world series has been going for a good like 15 years at this
point hasn't it yeah they do all
And they do a whole bunch of different things, which is good.
I like to see that. The original SteamWorld was Dig, and that was a kind of
platformer crossed with Mr.
Driller-style gameplay, which was pretty good fun.

(16:15):
And then they did SteamWorld Heist, which is the strategy game.
There's also a card-based RPG, which I can't remember the name of the subtitle
of it. And then there's also SteamWorld Build, which is a city builder that
came out last year, I think. And that was pretty decent.
So yeah, this is the next in that long running franchise.

(16:38):
And I will probably give that a go because I did like the first SteamWorld heist.
Moving on. If you were waiting on the PlayStation version of Princess Maker
2 that comes out on August 8th, that's already out on PC and Switch.
I've already got a review on digitallydownloaded.net, which you can check out.

(17:00):
And I enjoyed it enough, given that it's a remake-ish of a very old game,
but probably the most popular in the Princess Maker series.
So that's why they've given it the remaster treatment. not for alan but it's
good fun it's good fun scrolling on through all the shovelware there's plenty

(17:22):
of that on august 14 we've got seven max the devil's playhouse remastered.
So that's that's an iconic point and clicker series that's the one where people
will recognize And I said,
because it's like the dog character and the rabbit character and the rabbit
character is weird and creepy and violent. Insane.

(17:45):
Insane and good fun. I'm surprised that's getting there.
Because that was Telltale, wasn't it? Yeah. And they went Billy up.
I mean, Telltale's back.
Oh, they are, aren't they? Yeah. Because they're making New Wolf Among Us as
well, which I'm very excited about. Yeah. Yeah.
Anyway, this is a remaster of, I think, was the Devil's Playhouse the chapter,

(18:09):
the episodic one that they did?
I think so, yes. Back on the PlayStation, was it? PlayStation 3, I think.
Yeah, so that was pretty good. I did play that, if that's the one I'm thinking
of, and I enjoyed that enough.
On August 15, we've got a horror game, and you should probably check this one
out, Alan. I think you might. Is this actually a recommendation?
Yeah, yeah. This is one you might just like. like white day

(18:32):
2 the flower that tells lies that's
coming out on august 15 you probably didn't play
the original i didn't but it was interesting enough that i thought about buying
it so that the original was an old game anyway and even though they did their
best to remaster them it was i mean it was a 15 year old horror game with all

(18:54):
the the foibles that come with that yeah Yeah, exactly. That's the word I'm looking for, foibles.
So White Day 2 is a new game, so it should play like a new game, which is cool.
And yeah, Korean horror doesn't mess around.
That is one thing that you can be sure about with Korean horror. It's got no chill.

(19:14):
Gets the job done. Yeah, they really go for horror and they just kind of stick to their guns with that.
And yeah, that should be good fun. I'm looking forward to that a lot.
I did really like the first White Day. On August 16, we've got the football starting.
Madden NFL 25 is coming out.

(19:36):
I don't know about the description. Madden's like consistently doing something.
So celebrating 25 years of innovation.
I don't know if Madden's actually been an innovative property for 25 years. Five years tops.
Most of the time they just kind of stick to what works and just kind of churn
out the new one every year. But there you go.

(19:57):
I actually haven't played a Madden game since the PlayStation 4,
the early era of the PlayStation 4, I think.
So maybe you really don't need to do one yeah it's the same it's exactly what
you'd expect as like you said there's no innovation it's just it's madden you
know what you're getting into yeah it's like buying one of the new ea football

(20:18):
club games and being like surprised when they're like the new big feature for
this year is their shirts now look a bit more like claw.
It's like fucking great cool all right yeah but
i like i said i haven't played one since like the PSM4 so
maybe I should give a new one a go just to
catch myself up because I always figure if
you leave a couple of years in between them and then pick one up yeah you'll

(20:42):
be mildly impressed sounds like you left a generation yeah it was about a generation
ago I actually had that experience with NHL I started playing the newest NHL
because it landed on Game Pass and just
for the hell of it i gave it a go and i quite
enjoyed it i haven't played it in quite some time and i quite enjoyed whatever

(21:05):
the last one was or the most recent one it's one of those things where it's
it is a good game but again you can't buy it every year because all you're really
paying for is the roster upgrade and that's it it's like pointless beyond that yep.
Moving on, on August 20. Now, this is a game I've been looking forward to quite a lot.

(21:27):
We've got Black Myth Wukong coming out. Yeah, that'll be fun.
This is a Chinese-developed action RPG.
I think it's basically like Monkey King, like as in- It is the Monkey King.
Yeah, the Journey to the West, so Monkey.
But Souls-like, right? That's the- Kind of, like Souls-like DMC-like.

(21:50):
Yeah, yeah. It looks faster than a Souls.
But that is just cool when you think about it. Yeah.
I do like Journey to the West, one of the iconic Chinese novels,
and they have adapted it in so many ways into so many things from that iconic
TV series back in the 80s to Dragon Ball to various video games.

(22:15):
There was a Tactics RPG, which was actually very good, back on the PlayStation 1.
That was based on monkey that's wild and then ninja theory did a very good one
with what was it called enslaved wasn't it odyssey to the west yeah so that
was a good very good video game it's it's just the story itself lends it to

(22:35):
adaptations into film and tv and video games very easily,
and this one is going to be interesting because it's actually made by the same
people that wrote The book, not exactly the same people, of course,
but same culture. I was going to say, they've come back in time.
Same culture. We don't get that many Chinese games, and it's nice to see them

(22:56):
taking one of their own novels and doing something with it.
So, yeah, looking forward to that. I know the studio has had issues.
It's been in the media for the wrong reasons, but we're talking about the game here, I guess. Yeah.
Every studio has issues these days. Yeah. On that note, though,

(23:17):
unionization efforts, good job.
Well done to Bethesda and to Blizzard. That's all.
Yeah. Not that that'll do much. No.
You'll still get fired instantly. It won't do much. But now there'll be more of a fuss about it. Yeah.
Moving on, I guess. Let's not get too miserable here. we've
got tiebreak the official

(23:39):
game for the atp and wta coming out on console
it's already been out in early access form
on pc for a while now they've been patching it
pretty heavily it's big ants so the the
patches have come thick and fast based on feedbackers
people have been telling them what's been wrong with the game but

(24:00):
yeah it's getting its console release so therefore it's moving out of
early access i guess and that's on august 22 plays all right it's not a bad
tennis game at all and unlike the 2k one it's not drowning in microtransactions
i don't know why you could play i don't know how anybody could play a 2k sports game because just,

(24:22):
monetization is just brutal what that's what nhl is nhl's eo oh shit you're
right but it's called 2K.
Oh no, NHL 25. Oh, I'm stupid. God.
It's all the same game. 2K is the wrestling and the golf.

(24:43):
They've got a golf property and they've got the basketball. The basketball's the big one.
Yeah. God. I haven't been able to play the basketball games in a long time because
monetization is just painful.
Yeah, it's blood from a stone. Yeah.
It's just so aggressive it's just you can't enjoy the game because you know you can

(25:04):
somebody's gonna the game's gonna try and sell you something at
some point very soon moving on august 27 we've got smite 2 coming out i can't
believe they actually make the smite i love smite i actually have been playing
the alpha for that i can talk about that if you want oh go ahead um the game
is exactly what you expect it is smite 1 but there's some differences and that's pretty much it,

(25:26):
It is the same game. If you like Smite 1 and you want something a little bit
different, play Smite 2 for a bit.
If you like Smite 1 and any change is going to make you shit your head off,
don't play it because you will find it very difficult to enjoy.
The game is fine. It's totally fine. Nothing wrong with it.
It is a MOBA. It's a MOBA. Yeah. You know what you're getting into.

(25:46):
It's a MOBA. That's all you really need to know. Yeah.
And you get to play as gods. That's the point.
All the different gods. But not Jesus. unfortunately could
you imagine it's not what if they did that once remember they made that fighting
game oh fight for the gods yeah yeah yeah which is a terrible fighting game
in all every way but you do get to play as jesus and that upset a lot of people

(26:09):
which was just funny i just thought that was very funny jesus is a sure you
can in that game i'm pretty sure.
Well did you play the game no i watched like a bunch of videos i didn't have
any money at the time so it was just like living vicariously through memes no
it was it was really funny It's funny because Jesus, like, his weapon is bits
of the cross that his hands nail to.
He just uses them as, like, boxing gloves.

(26:32):
It's just- Like tonfas. Yeah, tonfas, that's it. And it's just funny.
It's such a terrible fighting game, but it's just so funny because it upset people.
Good. Yeah. They should make a sequel of that. I'll play a sequel of Fight for the Gods.
On August 29, we've got Rhapsody 25th Anniversary Collection coming out.

(26:54):
That's a classic RPG from, well, 25 years ago. That's why it's the 25th anniversary.
And it's good. If you've never played Rhapsody, then this will be a good chance
for you to catch up on that.
It's one of the better and more interesting kind of niche RPG properties.
And there you go, a collection, I guess, probably the, I think there was a sequel made, I,

(27:20):
Was there a sequel made back when it was? I don't know how many sequels there
are. Anyway, it's a collection, so there'll be more than one of them in there. Yeah.
On August 29, we've got Visions of Mana coming out, which is... Hell yeah!
Hiroyuki Kikita is back working with the Mana team. I'm looking forward to that.
I'm so excited. Mana goes through strengths and weaknesses.

(27:42):
So the reason why I'm chuffed about this one is I've been literally playing
Koudelka on stream which is the game that Hiroki Kikuta left to go and make himself,
after he was like not allowed to go anything beyond on the Tales series and
he's finally coming back to work on Visions of Mana so he's like the,
I think the director or something or like producer on it

(28:03):
it's like, it's come full circle for him and I'm really really happy for him
in that regard it just looks cool, it's exciting I love that.
It's great yeah.
Cool stuff as long as it makes a good Manor game.
Like I said, the Manor series goes through strengths and weaknesses, highs and lows.

(28:24):
And it's been a while since we've had a really, really good one.
So fingers crossed, fingers, toes and everything else crossed that this one delivers.
On August 30, we've got Star Wars Outlaws coming out.
Who cares? Who fucking cares? If Alan doesn't even care about Star Wars Outlaws,
then it must not be very interesting.
It's exactly what you think. Alan's meant to be the audience for that kind of

(28:47):
game. It's a Ubisoft open world third person shooter.
Wait, is that Ubisoft one? Yep.
Oh, okay. Yep.
Maybe the reason I haven't heard about,
much about that one in the lead up to the release is because Ubisoft's been
too busy trying to put out fires with Assassin's Creed and their audacity to

(29:10):
have a black character in that game.
A real guy. Yeah. A real person. But you know, how dare they make history game
about a real historical figure anyway.
So they've got an open world Star Wars game coming out. Cool.
It'll be, I'm sure they'll have a black character in there too.
And I'm sure people will get mad about that. it'll be

(29:31):
so crap because that's what the gamers do if you
haven't seen it it looks terrible it looks actually awful sorry
i haven't i must
admit i'm i'm right out of touch with ubisoft games and
that's a good thing i know but uh i i
totally missed their avatar game like just completely missed
it don't even know what it looks like don't know like the

(29:53):
first person one was it the first per se i did not even
know that yeah yet knew nothing about the avatar game and i have not seen anything
about this star wars game did not even realize it was an ubisoft game until
alan just said that so so i will probably miss that too i guess on the same day we've got.

(30:17):
Pretty derby party dash coming out which
is the anime about horse
racing where all the horses versus uh girls no
okay no seriously
do i want to know more about this or is it i don't know you don't know it's
fine no seriously type it in it's a very it's quite quite the infamous anime

(30:40):
property what's what's it called again sorry yeah u-m-a-m um umasumi it's got
a complex title it's like
it's it's gonna be it's gonna be not that bad it's a wholesome game u-m-a-m-u-s-u-m-e,
What the fuck is this, Matt? I'm telling you. Game of the year.

(31:05):
We're giving it game of the year.
I'm telling you. It's a weird, weird property that is. But it's a wildly popular thing.
Like, it's just crazy how popular this property is.
There are, like, there are, like, 30 characters, and 80% of them are under the age of 18.

(31:28):
Well, I mean, they're anime, so. why are
they horses that's the that's the question well
they're fun and young they like horsing around
they're horses but they're
also horses i i don't like this concept it's it's
surreal it's surreal okay yeah but it's a thing it's a very popular thing this

(31:54):
game is probably going to sell billions of copies so better get on board right
i'm the fruit 31 we've also got,
blade shimmerer coming out which is a game where you play as shin a demon hunter
who has lost his memories and is now exploring the world together with his sword

(32:18):
recollecting memories about yourself,
your missing wife, and skills you've forgotten.
So that sounds very generic to me. Is it going to turn out that he killed his wife?
It's a 2D action. It looks like a Metroidvania.
Okay. I mean, it looks all right, but it just, yeah.

(32:41):
We've got like a million of these kinds of games. But this is the latest one
of those. So if you like that kind of genre, then there you go.
And that's kind of it, at least as far as Metacritic. What?
Where's the Nintendo Game of the Month? There is no Nintendo Game of the Month.
What am I supposed to pick then?
Mario. Still playing Mario Party. Mario Party. Paper Mario.

(33:05):
Oh, sorry. No, I'm wrong. There was one Nintendo game. I missed it because it
didn't have a little box art there.
Actually, the Famicom Detective Club game is coming out in August 29.
Ah, yes. The one they announced just a couple of weeks ago as we record this.
And that's actually noteworthy because it is only the third Famicom Detective

(33:26):
Club game. And the previous two were both NES games.
So it's been a long time since Nintendo dusted off this property.
They did do the remake of the first two Famicom Detective Club games.
That was, what, two years ago, three years ago or something? Yeah.
And obviously that sold well enough that they've actually gone and made a new
one. I'm really looking forward to this. The remakes were great.

(33:48):
Really, really nice. Excellent art style. And the gameplay held up from the NES really nicely.
And indeed, this kind of series has been really popular with other developers
doing kind of homages and games in the same style of it. So, yeah.

(34:10):
I think Nintendo's trying to turn it into a thing. so
yeah that's that's the old
nintendo game for this month trent it's a shame
it wasn't kyle hyde but you should be looking forward to this right you played
i am i am looking forward to it when they were advertising a gritty scary man
and saying who is elmo like you know it could have been like anything else it

(34:33):
could have been like that horror series you like so much Who is Elmo?
It still could be gritty and horror. It's not like the previous two detective club games were...
Not mature and dark in their own way. They were pretty good.
They were pretty mysterious, pretty intense.

(34:56):
It's Nintendo's Little Investigators.
There you go. Well, Matt, once again, are you looking forward to from this month?
Yeah, I'm definitely looking forward to this one. Oh, yeah.
That's fair. Family Crime Detective Club, because I really, really,
really, really liked the remakes of the first two.
So if the next one is anything like them then I'm totally sold on that what about you Alan?

(35:24):
I mean probably just going to say Smite 2, I've already played it though so
I feel like it's not really coming out really? more than the mana game?
Oh yeah no mana no visions of mana yeah sorry I forgot you forgot visions?
Visions of mana yes visions,

(35:45):
It's late, okay.
What about you? What are you going to do? Are you going to join Wisions of Manitou?
Wisions of Manitou Oh god What are you going to play, Trent?
I'm going to still be playing Paper Mario,
so I don't know why I'm going to pick a monthly game But if I am,

(36:08):
I'm going to have to be the Falcon Detective Club pub
it's gonna be a good
game i'm telling you nintendo's onto something with this i hope
there's a kyle hyde like easter egg
like nintendo owns both ips there should be like an easter egg that he's like
investigating something nearby or something like that and it's like there's

(36:29):
gonna be a cool new game in the series just hold your heads you know and then
like next year we we Switch 2,
launch tile, tile hide free.
Yep why do i not know what carl hyde is hotel dusk it's called it the the fans

(36:50):
call it carl hyde series because he's the protagonist and there's also a second
property of that isn't that,
because they own sing they they worked well they didn't own but they it was
in conjunction with sing and nintendo owned the ip because that's how you publish
indie games you basically own the property.
So that's why we have another code made, because Nintendo owns another code.

(37:16):
For some reason, I always think that the Hotel Dusk game was one of Goichi Suda's.
It does have that vibe. I don't know why.
No, Kyle Hyde Hotel Dusk was to try and be hardcore Americanized.
Oh, Flower Wind and Rain, or whatever it was called.
That was the Goichi Suda one, wasn't it? Yeah, that's why I think I get those two.

(37:41):
I don't know why, but I get those two confused. I've not played either of them,
so I don't know why I get them confused, but I do get them confused for some
reason. Do you remember?
No. I don't. That's the problem. Oh, shit.
And yeah, that's it. So August is not the... It's weird.

(38:01):
August is not the busiest month for game releases, but there's actually quite
a good... there's stuff in there that'll keep you playing through the month.
Like there's White Day and then there's the Mana game and then there's listen
to Famicom Detective but there's just enough to keep you going.
Music.

(39:51):
If you have a TV, you probably have noticed that the Olympics are on.
Wow. Are we actually allowed to say that? Are we now going to get sued by the IOC?
I guess that we're not an official partner. It's okay. If you're in Australia,
you don't know the Olympics are on because Nine is not.
They all did a walkout.

(40:12):
What? Yeah, like all the staff for
Nine, basically like the newspaper publications, decided to do a walkout.
It was like yeah wow on
the eve of like the opening of the olympics they
did like yeah walk out there you
go cool well i mean if you can go on the internet and you can probably find out

(40:32):
that the olympics are as well well the other reason that nobody in australia
is interested in the olympics is because it's in paris and not because
nobody cares about paris although that is the time zone but
the time the time difference is just obnoxious and
nobody's going to watch the olympics this year in australia that is
who's going to be up at three o'clock in the morning football
freaks not many not many people maybe

(40:54):
people did it for fifa sure but people
are not going to be doing yeah we're saving our energy for the
brisbane olympics oh god that's going
to be such a train wreck anyway yes the olympics are happening and it is a good
chance to catch up on all the sports that you never get a chance to watch otherwise
it's the chance that everybody gets to become experts in badminton and handball

(41:19):
for a week. Yeah, see, I would have hit it like this.
I do love watching the social medias during events, during the Olympics,
because last time with Tokyo Olympics, for example, they had rock climbing as
a sport for the first time and just seeing all the amazing opinions about rock
climbing from people who have probably never left their lounge rooms.
It was pretty funny. We can't climb up their own stairs. Yes. Yeah, I do like that.

(41:45):
That's why, I mean, I love the Olympics because of that.
I don't really care about the mainstream sports in the Olympics.
I never watch the tennis, for example, or the football or, you know,
anything that you can watch elsewhere.
Kaz. Yeah, I'm not that interested in the Olympic version of that sport.
But I do love the Olympics because it is basically my only chance here in Australia

(42:07):
to watch volleyball or handball or kayaking or fencing.
These are all sports that are great sports. Love them. But we don't really get
a chance to watch them here.
We'll get ruddy back in. Except for the Olympics. So...

(42:28):
Yeah, that's my interest in the Olympics. I'll probably try and watch at least some of it.
Yeah. By that time of night, I'm usually pretty deep into the beers,
so I'll probably be the one sharing opinions on social media as well.
Yeah, it is definitely sports time, and that's what we thought we'd do with
this section, right? Talk about sports games.

(42:49):
Yeah, because I feel like there's two schools of thought in the sports game.
It's the fun ones and the ones that try too hard to be like
a simulation to the point where they're no longer fun so ea
and 2k yeah and then and then
and then the sports games that people actually like to play yeah like
i've been playing a little game called oh gosh

(43:10):
what's called like face to face or something like that but battles
oh no it's it's like a hockey roguelike
like an ice hockey roguelike game it's nothing
that you would it ever played before but it's
really really cool so it's it's literally like an old school like snes style
hockey game but you go through it and do like the slay the spire style choices

(43:33):
of like going this way going that way and it's really really fun like it's such
a bizarre bizarre game to exist.
But it's fantastic and it's genuinely like it has no place being as as good
as it is and it's because it's actually a goddamn video game and not just a
vehicle to make you spend money on things,

(43:55):
yeah yeah i don't know i just don't have the patience anymore
that's probably why i've kind of fallen out of
love with most sports games is because tape
to tape by the way they're they're they're super
super complex like well
in the last section i was talking about how i picked up the
nhl one and gave it a go and i have been enjoying it

(44:17):
but at the same time i turned the control option to whatever they call that
retro version yeah the the the what they call it that's 95 error like the 95
controls yeah it's basically just two buttons and that's it pass shoot and And then you've got like,
you know, one option for defense or something,

(44:38):
but they actually, they come up with a little warning saying,
if you, you can select this if you want to, of course, but if you do so,
you'll have like your gameplay options will be limited or something.
And that's fine for me because when I try to play the full simulation,
it's like the, there's so many combinations of, so many combinations of controls

(45:01):
and inputs and all that kind of stuff.
And i just don't have the patience to learn that crap it's the same problem
i have with the basketball game they're just so complex in terms of what you've got to do and,
it's just exhausting to try and learn how to play them so that's
why matt's probably the one person playing the way sports basketball no i'm
not i'm not playing that the the other sport of game i'm playing at the moment

(45:24):
is mlb and i always kind of get into that each year because i do like baseball
for one thing and then for another that's kind of a one button press,
game if you want it to be where you've got the option of just timing the swing,
And that's the way I like it. That's the way it should be.
My brother and I play a lot of Mario Golf at the moment for multiplayer.

(45:49):
And again, it's the same thing. It's kind of a simplified down version of the
sport, but they get the essence of it, right?
Like hit the ball and try and knock it into the cup at the other end of each hole.
But there's not that incessant need that the simulation sports golf games have of.

(46:09):
Just being so complex with the physics and
the angles and all that kind of stuff that the precision
that you need to make the swings and things that it's just
exhausting to try and play it like it's boring
yeah i don't understand a lot of these
simulations and what they're trying to achieve like
if you're that invested if you're that

(46:30):
interested in learning the real sport just go
and learn the real play the real sport it's not like it's hard to find people
to play basketball with or whatever i i get some sports are less accessible
but for the most part just play the bloody sport if you're that interested in
a full simulation of it i i want to play a game that's It's fun.

(46:52):
I want to play against Silly.
I want to spend 17 hours learning how to control the tape on my hockey stick
to make it glide on the puck on like a 45 degree angle.
But it's 45.6 degrees now. It gives a shit.
The same with Thief. But like, why play Thief when you can play Mario Soccer
Smash or something, you know, and just.

(47:13):
There's a lot of reasons why you wouldn't want to play Mario Soccer Smash.
Hey, Mario Soccer Smash is good fun.
No, Strikers, the new one is bad. It's fun.
I insist it's fun. It's not great single player But in multiplayer In multiplayer
the way it's meant to be played Like the way it was designed It's as fun as
it always has been I can't believe that.

(47:34):
But I guess the other thing The other point to making this Little thing There
hasn't been an Olympic game this year,
No there's only been a Mario Sonic one Yeah it's
weird isn't it It's surreal that we've got The Olympics
out and there's just no sports game
to tie into it well and they're usually good fun

(47:55):
like i i enjoy those you only
play them during the course of the olympics and then you kind of forget that
you ever did play them but ever they are the definition of a two dollar sale
at eb games for the longest time i've been playing pretty much every olympic
game that's coming up both that both the summer and winter Winter Olympics.

(48:17):
And yeah, I have great memories of, for example, Nagano Olympics back on the N64.
A bunch of friends of I picked that up and played that like crazy over the course of the Olympics.
And that was great fun right through to the Tokyo Olympic games.
Video game was actually very good and they released it in 2020, which was insane.

(48:43):
That was one of those weird ones that they actually released it before the Olympics
and then they canceled the Olympics for that year because of COVID.
COVID, so then the game got re-released, I think, when the actual Olympics happened
a year later, but it still had the same name, so 2020 rather than 2021.
But it was a very good game. It was good fun.

(49:07):
Yeah, I mean, I have such a vivid memory of playing the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics,
PS2 game, and it was one of those ones where I didn't understand any of the
controls, and half a minigame clearly did not work.
I remember doing the skeleton or the bobsled down the hill one and it never

(49:29):
tells you how to actually play it, even in the little manual thing you get with the game.
Incomprehensible, didn't tell you anything, didn't explain any mechanics and.
It was awful, but I played it.
Oh boy, I played it. I like them because they're just, you know,
most of the minigames in those things are very simplified versions of the sports as well.

(49:51):
Like we were saying before, they're not the overly complicated set of mechanics when they're working.
The running game, for example, the races are always just kind of button mashers,
just how quickly can you mash a button to get to the end.
And there's something that's just a lot of fun with that.
It's just easy to play. It's good with a group of friends, and that's kind of the point.

(50:17):
Yeah, it's a vibe. Yeah, exactly. And they're always terrible,
but you'll still play them and you'll still have fun.
That's all. Exactly. I do wish that there was a return to more arcade-y stuff
in general, though. Just having more options.
Because I used to really love the old wrestling games from the PS2.

(50:38):
Well, that's another example of games that have become overly complex,
isn't it? I haven't played wrestling games much at all.
But from what I've seen, the more recent ones are just very complex. Yeah.
They're just a lot. yeah but the the issue
is is that they're also trying to be simulations of the kayfabe

(50:59):
so like you have to play a character essentially which
is not like it's fine it's kind of fun but it then just becomes i have to do
this every match in order to make sure that i get the right amount of appreciation
and it's like that's just it's not what i want i want to drive a forklift into
someone and have them fall over into a pile of tables you know i mean that's what i'm there for.

(51:23):
Like with the worst controls of all time i want
it to barely function and i want it to be really silly that's
all do that well isn't that that's the
point of wrestling isn't it like yeah it's not meant
to be this serious thing it's stupid that's that's
it's really the theater kids who went to the gym yeah
exactly do you

(51:45):
play any of these sorts of sports games trent well i play
all of a nintendo ones obviously yeah the good
one but i haven't really played i guess
the actual proper like olympic games or
like probably it's been a while since i played probably anything which is actually
hardcore gritty like like those sort of like sport games maybe i play like some

(52:09):
of the golf ones i think i played a realistic golf one recently yeah okay yeah but you know what was
a fun sports game. Golf Story. They were great.
They are pretty cool. Yes. I remember really liking that, actually.
That was a Switch launch title, wasn't it?
Yes. Yes, it was. And it was Shades of Australia.

(52:31):
That's also true. More things should be like that.
Very fun. I don't think anyone has really enjoyed the sequel, like, Sports Story.
It just sort of, like, the hype sort of died down. No one really like talks about sports story.
Oh do you know why did you play it i
played it it was great but like i don't know it's just

(52:53):
like golf story had like that really big hype and
it was like oh yes golf game and then like sports story
is like i mean i guess some of the games were a little bit more
like like there was just like a lot crammed into
it so it just kind of felt like maybe a little bit all over
the place but i mean it was still equally as good
as like golf story but they were both fun like just random

(53:14):
rpg so like pastime what would
it take for you to play like a new sports game that isn't like a mario one probably
really good advertising something's fun like it's fun sport i i don't want richie
hardcore like you know sweaty like you know kind of sport games like maybe something
fun like maybe a swimming game that would be cool like on the vr a swimming vr game.

(53:38):
I i'm gonna be completely honest with you that sounds like my worst
nightmare man the idea of
like using your arms just like in the air like with
no resistance that would kill my shoulders almost
instantly yeah i just remembered i
played kayak is it the playstation 5
vr game for and i like enjoyed

(53:59):
it but i also hated it for that exact reason
so yeah i retract attract my
wanting of a sports game in VR which is a swimming
game see everything should
just go back to being on the eye toy every sports game
should just be an eye toy game where you kick a ball an excess sketch a sports
game where you just like shake it I love that I wish they did a by the one thing

(54:27):
that I have noticed is that the sports games getting made.
Have a less and less range like they don't really make that many niche sports games anymore,
no and if you do see them they're terrible like
there was a handball game that came out on the ps4 it was one of
the worst things i've played in my life but at least there was a handball game that
came out on the ps4 that's the thing they're not they're not making that

(54:49):
anymore you know they're not making that handball series and well
i mean those kinds of niche sports
are never going going to have the same quality as the
2ks and eas and whatever of the
world but those were pretty important for helping to
share the message about those sports you know and and get give

(55:10):
people the opportunity to experience them or at least be aware of their existence
as sports and there are all kinds of studies that have been done about how important
the video games were for the kind of growth of football as a sport.
And the fact that now the FIFA World Cup is bigger than the Olympics has a lot

(55:31):
to do with the fact that the sports game was so popular as well.
And sports games are really critically important to growing the prestige of these sports.
And we're seeing less and less of them made. It's not just the handball one.
We haven't had a volleyball game in a long time.
Volleyball is a wildly popular sport around the world. It's something like
the seventh biggest sport in terms of audience in

(55:53):
terms of participation that's awesome and
it's just we haven't had a volleyball sports
game in a very long time handball's good example of that as well that's a obviously
a popular sport in europe but not really anywhere else and it's not really getting
the chance to go anywhere else because the only chance that we get a chance

(56:13):
the only chance that people like me have it to watch it is during the olympics
Otherwise, we just have no exposure to it.
I appreciated the fact that the handball games were there, not that they were
great, but I played them because they were an opportunity to engage with the
sport outside of the very narrow window of the Olympics.
So, yeah, I wish that there were more of these niche sports games being made again.

(56:38):
Do you think that's also because sports in general just aren't big anymore?
Obviously, they're big, but when we were kids,
kids it was like if you played like sports like
you were a cool like alpha male it's still the same bullshit
but no everyone likes esports now
like it's all about no they don't for people which

(57:00):
are playing like call of duty and all that sort of stuff
on the esports and like you don't hear about the
other sports anymore you just hear about the video games
i think that might be kids are playing too much fortnight and we need to stop
fortnight that's basically it i guarantee you guarantee you trent sports not

(57:20):
going anywhere it yeah sports sports is still as popular as they always have been,
you.
Oh, I love the idea that, because I mean, this actually leads into something
I was going to bring up, but do you say they've approved the Olympics for video
games, like the eSports Olympics?

(57:42):
Yeah. Yeah. That'll be good. I can't wait to see them play Counter-Strike and
having to rename what the terrorists are called.
Like, because the idea that an Olympic commentator is going to have to be like,
oh yeah, the terrorists are planting the bomb, and that no one can watch it under the age of 15.
No, it's just going to be an eSports competition. So it just happens to have the IOC brand into it.

(58:05):
So I'm not particularly interested in that.
But yeah, it is good they've kept it separate to the actual Olympics, I think.
I fully agree. That's a good thing because I know that esports has been a thing
that they've been trying to get into the Olympics for quite some time.
I don't think that esports has any reason to be in the Olympics.

(58:29):
A gold medal in Overwatch. watch for one thing i don't
think that i i don't think
that the esports needs the olympics and
its inclusion because there's a whole bunch
of rules about how many sports can be added to an olympic game and then when
sports get added other sports need to be dropped so for example in france they've

(58:50):
dropped baseball after it got like a one game run in tokyo and instead they
They brought in breakdancing.
So the sports that are actually... Yeah, which is good.
The sports that are actually in the games varies from games to games.
But the point that I'm making is...
The value of the Olympics to a lot of these sports is exposure.

(59:14):
And there are all kinds of studies that show that after every Olympics,
participation in sports that are represented in the Olympics jumps around the world.
So kids watch gymnastics, for example, and then every year after the Olympic
year is a year where they have more registrations for gymnastics classes.

(59:37):
The same with volleyball and all the rest of them so if a sport or if an event
doesn't need is already growing separately separately to the olympics including
in the olympics is kind of a.
Waste when another sport could be there so esports is growing perfectly fine
without being an olympic sport whereas something like break dancing will actually

(01:00:01):
really benefit from having
the boost of being an Olympic Games event.
So, yeah, I think it's a good thing that they haven't included esports in the Olympics.
And at the same time, I guess this is their solution to having some kind of
Olympic branding around an esports event.
The fact that it's being held in Saudi Arabia is just all kinds of funny to me.

(01:00:25):
I can't wait for them to alter all the skins and stuff for all the characters or LGBTQ presenting.
Ending no i think they should have dead or alive as
the one of the events because that will
make them lose it completely like that
would go mental though why saudi arabia why why do these not just why do they

(01:00:47):
keep doing it yeah why do they keep giving because they got the money to pay
for the ice i i see whatever it is the olympic commission they got money to pay for ice Ice,
yes. Well, maybe they do.
And I say that as an inhabitant of the ice capital of Australia.

(01:01:08):
Yeah. That's pretty good. It is good.
You know what sports we do need in the Olympics? Lion dancing.
Well, I think dancing in general would be good for the Olympics.
I'm hoping that break dancing does well, because if it does,
then they can expand that in future games to other sports, other versions of dancing.

(01:01:35):
It'd be good to see ballroom dancing get a run there, for example,
ballet would be another one.
There are actually ballet competitions, which people don't realize,
but there is a sport version of ballet out there and it would be good for it
to get a run in the Olympics.
Why not? Who cares? Yeah. Which I guess brings me to another point I wanted

(01:01:58):
to raise here is sports that don't really work as video games at all.
Because not every sport can be turned into a video game, I think.
Yeah. That's true. For whatever reason. Like, dancing doesn't work in video games.
And I know saying that, somebody on the comments is going to say something like,

(01:02:21):
did you? That is not dancing.
Not fucking dancing. Even Just Dance is not dancing.
No, Just Dance is most definitely not dancing. These are not dancing. That is completely...
Did you have a cat? Who's got a cat? I have a cat. I shall now deal with the cat.
There shall be a dealing with cats for Epilandix.

(01:02:43):
But yeah. No one can win that. There are just some sports where mechanically
you can't turn it into a video game.
No and yeah that's
okay that is okay it's fine
it's unfortunate for the sport because as
we're mentioning you know sports benefit from having a popular video game but

(01:03:05):
yeah swimming is a good example of that like yeah it doesn't work as a video
game because like you said alan the resistance The resistance of the water is
kind of critical to the actual sport.
So you can potentially map buttons to recreate the action of swimming,

(01:03:28):
but without that resistance, then you're not really...
I guess they could do it now on the triggers for the PlayStation 5.
But is it really the same thing still? No, it's nothing to do with it,
no. Yeah, it just doesn't work. Yeah.
And how entertaining would it actually be to have that do you know i mean like
how how much fun would it be just to hit the same buttons i say this as an overwatch

(01:03:51):
player it could always have like,
controller peripheral like weighted like bags which you strap to your arms that
could give you the resistance of like trying to swim and then make it a vr game problem solved,
yeah i don't know.

(01:04:12):
Like another point of swimming up
swimming which is pretty is pretty important is the fact that you're
horizontal if you do it oh it's
fine i don't know if a uh a sex swing for you to mount yourself the the amount

(01:04:35):
of work that you'd have to do to basically make a swimming game work is It's
just that nobody's actually going to want to do it.
But the reason I mentioned that, I guess, is there is one example of a sports
game that somehow gets made that I don't think works as a sports game,
and that's the Tour de France.
Yeah, I've not heard about that series. I say that as somebody that actually

(01:04:58):
enjoys playing them, weirdly, but there's just something really odd about a
marathon kind of experience
and the way that they try and translate that into a video game because.
Yeah it doesn't it doesn't really work as a video game it's odd what they try

(01:05:22):
to do is they do try and turn it into this strange kind of simulation thing which is mostly about,
managing stamina and then picking
the right time to do the sprint and you know strategize with
their teammates so that's just like in i guess in the real sport you know all
the kind of those those bits those components of it but yeah it just it's a

(01:05:45):
it's a really odd video game series and i don't know why it keeps getting made
because it doesn't quite work does it sell,
well it must do because otherwise i wouldn't be making them i guess
it's just odd it probably sells
perfectly around the Tour de France and then
every other time of the year it's in the two dollar

(01:06:05):
bargain bin or two euro as they
say and then they yeah and
then every other time I'm not sure I'm not sure I'm not
sure who the audience is for that series like yeah it's like cycling fans really
that's that's my that's my nan are cycling fans really that invested in it as

(01:06:28):
a sport that they want to play the video game version of it i'm just not sure about that.
I don't see it either. I mean, I think that's the thing is like cycling is a
sport for your dad after he's retired or like, you know, like people who are
going through some sort of midlife crisis, you know what I mean?

(01:06:48):
And they've just bought like a $700 bike and then upgraded it to like be worth over $2,000.
And it's just one of those things where like that person is not going to then
sit on a computer to play the game when they can then just go outside and cycle.
Just but have you been outside? side i
have it's yeah exactly that's why
you play the video game version no you

(01:07:11):
sold me you're correct put the
bike on a treadmill hook it up to a vr goggles hook
it up to a like you're loving vr today i
am all for the vr revolution just no one else is no one is making the games
i want for vr i don't think i could play vr sports games to be honest i'd love

(01:07:37):
to do vr cricket or something like that now the thing that bothers me about
vr sports games is the fact that,
if you start sweating your goggles are going to get all fogged up and oh god
yeah yuck then it becomes unplayable and yeah and the fact that like vr would
be a serious disconnect like you you say Say VR cricket. Like resistance.

(01:07:59):
Like VR cricket would seem to work if it was just like Nets practice and the
bowler was coming in and then you did the swing and the bat and whatever.
But the minute you had to run between the wickets, like you hit a single and
then you have to do the running action.
I don't see that working. And I don't see the bowling working either because
you have to do the run up and then the delivery.

(01:08:20):
I think archery is one that would work. Yeah, archery would work.
If you were to cut out the running bits, baseball would work.
Like if you were to automate the base runs and whatever.
So if you hit the ball in a certain spot, then you get a single,
you know, single, use cricket term there, you get first base.

(01:08:42):
Or, you know, if you hit a good shot, then, you know, you get three bases or whatever.
If they automated that, then baseball could work, I guess.
Basically, sports games that would work in VR would need to be the
stationary ones yeah even like
dance works really well you can all fly a
kite pool would work pool would definitely work in vr that would be good fun

(01:09:07):
i would definitely play a pool game in vr not a swimming pool swimming pool
yeah but like i mean the general i just like when's the last time you played
a decent pool game though like which isn't like
a $5 rush job just to make a pool game?
The good one that was released not long ago, Hustle Kings, I think it's called.

(01:09:30):
I feel like that was actually longer than you think.
It was an earlier Switch game, I know, but that was a very good one.
The reason they probably haven't made another pool game is because that one's just that good.
Does the job. Yeah, exactly.
How are you going to compete with that? It's the thing that sets that to me.

(01:09:52):
Music.

(01:12:03):
It is said you can tell a lot about someone from their most played games.
So now is the time for you to- And in my case, it's nothing good, right?
Oh, no. We're- Yes. Oh, no, no, no. Yes, yes. I'm all for this segment now.
This is- I mean, it'll be Miku. I'm willing to put money down. It's going to be Miku.

(01:12:24):
You're going to bet on that, are you, Alan? No, I won't. Miku's wire for a simulator, maybe. Maybe.
But yes, as Alan was trying to introduce before I decided to jump in and just
disrupt his flow. Ruined it.
Off the emperor's cruise. Given that the Switch is not dead yet by any means,

(01:12:44):
it's still got another good year of life in it before the sequel,
the next Switch even comes out.
But it has been around for, what, eight years now.
And in that time, we've had a lot of time to accumulate.
Firstly a lot of games and then a lot of hours played in those
games like for example i've got the i i
had my original model switch is still going strong i still use it and it's got

(01:13:08):
over a thousand games on it now the joys of being a game critic and one of the
handy features of the switch is that you can sort the list of games that you've
played by the number of by time played and And in doing so,
kind of create a list of the top 10 games that you've played in terms of sheer
hours drowned into them.

(01:13:28):
So what we thought we'd do with this section is just kind of list out our top
10 Switch games by hours played over the last eight years.
And as Alan said, learn a little bit about people in doing so.
So what we might do is we'll go, and unfortunately, Alan doesn't have his Switch

(01:13:49):
with him. I don't, but I know the top three.
He has at least a couple of tops that he definitely knows that he can talk about.
But Trent and I both have our switches here, open and with the list.
So what we might do is go...
For the top one because i can talk about my top one we'll start by listing the
top three i guess each so go you go alan what are what are definitely the three

(01:14:14):
that you've played most on your switch
it is smash bros it is mario kart and it is oh what else would it be probably probably xenoblade,
xenoblade two or three which is wild to me because i don't like those tips yeah
but just playing Playing through them once kind of results in them getting boosted

(01:14:34):
up to the top anyway because they're long games.
I mean, Smash and Mario can't make sense because they're just endlessly replayable. They are the best.
Yeah. And you just kind of pull them out every time you have multiplayer sessions
as well as playing online and whatever.
So that makes total sense to me, Alan.
Yeah. Your list is in no way surprising.
Yeah. It's just they're good games, I think.

(01:14:58):
I hope. I hope I feel that way later. I'm sure when you look back on your time
with the Switch, you will not regret your time spending those games, except for Xenoblade.
I think they were good. Maybe. You did like the big titty girls.
Yeah, not really. That's your thing.

(01:15:20):
Trent, what about you? What are your three? I want to know. My three,
obviously, this is since I got the Zelda Switch.
So i've got obviously number one is
tears of kingdom then i've got pokemon scarlet
and then i've got animal crossing interesting i
would have thought animal crossing would have been number one for you given

(01:15:40):
how you it probably is it probably is a number one if i had my other profile
still with like all the information and it probably yeah and a breath of the
wild is probably like Like, well and truly higher than Tears of Kingdom.
Yeah, that would make sense.

(01:16:01):
I feel like that's a decent top three, though. Yeah. I mean,
Tears of Kingdom is bloody good.
Yeah, nothing surprising in that top three for Trent either.
Nothing we didn't already know about you, Trent.
Yeah, my whole top 10 in general is pretty standard.
Game-wise, you could probably guess the whole top 10 and be probably correct.

(01:16:23):
Act it's all just mario yeah yeah
there will be games for sure yeah well it's
on the square it's a nintendo console yeah well
it's weird because not one of mine nintendo games really okay let's go there
that's interesting i guess one of them kind of counts as a nintendo game but

(01:16:44):
we'll get to that uh so my very number one most played game of all is wingspan
amazingly the bird card game Yeah, the bird card game.
I mean, there's a reason for that, because my brothers and I and a friend have
kind of a weekly multiplayer...
Session on Saturday nights and Wingsman's pretty much top of the rotation of

(01:17:08):
the games that we play on that.
So just purely for years now, we've basically played that every week.
So that's why that's number one.
My second one is Civilization VI, which is also completely unsurprising since
if you just play a single campaign on that,
that's going to throw that game up to the top of your list and

(01:17:29):
it's a lovely time and i've played
more than one campaign on civilization 6 i
can assure you that's a that is a great game and
it works well on the switch and such a good port yeah
really i was really happy that they announced that next civilization 7 will
also be a switch game as well because it should be because it must have made

(01:17:50):
them a shit ton of money oh i imagine so but i was worried you know updates
graphics and all that kind of stuff and the Switch being an older piece of hardware,
they would just kind of overlook that version.
But they haven't, which makes me very happy. I'm sure that's going to be at
the top 10 as well once it comes out.
And then my third one is, this one surprises me as well, I guess,

(01:18:10):
but I guess it's an easy playing one, so I pick it up a lot. Easy Come Easy Golf.
Oh, that's nice. Easy Come Easy Golf is Clap Hands, which is the Hot Shots Golf developer.
Oh. they made this golf game and it's huge.
It's got like 30 characters and you unlock them by playing an awful lot of golf.

(01:18:33):
And it's got 11 courses. It's got weekly challenges and whatever.
So it's just one of those things that I kind of pick up a lot at the end of
the day, just to play for 15 minutes to half an hour.
I think it's just kind of accumulated that way. It's got a lot of charm.
It's got a lot of, and it is Clap Hands.
It's a very good arcade golf developer. So that's that.

(01:18:54):
Fun. I mean, I'm not, I was not expecting any of those. I'm going to be quite honest with you.
I can assure you some of the ones that you would have expected are coming in
the, they're coming in the top 10, but yeah, that's my top.
I'm surprised that easy come easy golf is I've played it that much, but I can't.
I feel like golf games as well. You kind of can just like slink into whenever.

(01:19:16):
Yeah. Particularly like, like knowing hot shots as well.
Like that's just a very fun, easy
game to like, just jump into for like a couple of hours and then leave.
Yeah and this one was um originally designed for
the apple arcade so it was also made around being kind
of endlessly playable but not with micro
transactions so okay yeah it's
it's definitely designed to be played for dozens and dozens and dozens

(01:19:39):
of hours just on an ongoing basis trent what
about your four five and six games
four five and six so this is
this shows how broken my play
times are on this console so my next one is paper mario so a thousand year door
so i've obviously racked up some decent hours on that or i am just horrible

(01:20:03):
at video games the next one is another code and then the one after that is super mario bros wonder,
okay so i'm taking this this this this profile of yours is relatively new one
it's been probably Probably since last year when I got the new Switch, the Zelda Switch.
Oh, I see, I see. Yep. Yeah. Yep.

(01:20:25):
Mario Wonder's all right, Alan. I say that as somebody that's not a big fan
of platformers. It's all right. Yeah, I'm not a big fan of them either. Gets the job done.
Yeah, that's cool. That's charm. Is Nintendo. Is good.
Yeah. I don't know. I think most of the Switch library that I had,
I didn't really go too much beyond just playing it one time through.

(01:20:47):
None of the games that I really played in it were those replayable sorts of things.
Even then, I was always kind of like... What are you talking about? about you
you just mentioned mario golf sorry mario kart and
smash brothers it's the only two very real like
not they're not like they're not like single player
sort of things that i want to play by myself do you
know what i mean yeah like it my logic is i've got the issue of i'm an adult

(01:21:10):
with too many consoles and the fact that the switch is slightly less powerful
than my other consoles makes me be like wild at that on the switch when i can
play it on my pc and like i I know that I'm very different in that situation to most people,
but like, I mean, even playing, I double dipped for sim switch and on PC.
And it's a great idea because it means I can play, see where the fuck I'm going.

(01:21:32):
But at the same time, like if I'm getting the choice, I'm going to play it on
switch, always play on PC.
And that's kind of why I feel bad. Cause if, if I counted the civ six as my
game time, it would be on percent civ six.
Like I've spent too much time in the game. It's one of the best things I've ever made.
Yeah, no, that is a good point.

(01:21:53):
Like when you're at home and you can choose which console you play,
then yeah, the Switch is easy to overlook for the versions on third party Switch
games are easy to overlook for the other versions on more powerful consoles.
Me it's just the portability the thing like yeah one
of the main reasons or one of the main reasons that the switch is probably my

(01:22:17):
most it's definitely my most played console actually is because i liked to have
the tv on as well while i'm playing games yeah so i can have a movie on the
background or whatever while i'm playing and that means that can't really play
the playstation at the same time,
that's changed now that i've got the playstation portal i've actually picked
up i've played a lot Oh, really?

(01:22:38):
Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm with Matt. Since I got the PS Portal,
it's changed how I actually enjoy the PlayStation 5 a lot more than the Xbox
right now because I can play it audibly really easily.
Yeah, I play the PlayStation a lot more. You just made the Wii U.
I play the PlayStation a lot more now that I can have the console running in

(01:23:00):
the background. I can play it on the Portal and then also watch TV.
It's just the way I like to play games. Anyway, yeah, so my three,
four, and five, the Nintendo 64 app is for... Isn't it surprising if you play Goldeneye?
No, not Goldeneye. More Mario Party and Mario Golf.
Again, multiplayer sessions with my brother. But also some of the single-player like...

(01:23:26):
Paper Mario and Ocarina of Time. I did a run through of Ocarina of Time as well.
So yeah, there's a lot of games on that N64 app now.
So it's just easy to rack up time on that.
Then we've got Hatsune Miku's fifth.
So that's not surprising at all. It would be much higher, except that's because
I spent like over a thousand hours playing Miku on the PlayStation 4.

(01:23:51):
So by the time this one came out on the Switch, I'd already played a lot.
Like i i've already played the game to death so this was really just you know
past the thousand dollar mark basically so yeah it's but it's still a top five
game for me and then chocobo gp.
Really yeah i love that game it's actually surprising you know i'm not a big

(01:24:15):
fan of playing multiplayer online against randoms like i play you know with my brothers and.
Friends and whatever but yeah i very
very rarely go online to play against randoms that
game for whatever reason i just got really into playing it
online as well because it had that kind of 64 person grand prix oh the battle

(01:24:36):
royale mode yeah the battle the competition mode so you race in groups of eight
and then if you're in the top four you'd qualify for the next round and so on
that effort to try to get to the finals and win i don't know just it just really got
me so i spent a lot of time playing
that since i've taken the servers down for that
stuff i've stopped playing chocobo gp unfortunately but i

(01:24:59):
did really shame i really like it yeah it's
a sweet little game it's a lot of fun i think it got
very poorly like the
season pass stuff pissed was terrible
yeah it pissed people off and that was really unfortunate let the
game down but yeah it's a
it's still fun and charming and the lack of four player was also

(01:25:20):
a big deal of deal breaker for a lot of people like local
you can only play two player it's so bizarre it doesn't have the mario kart
like you you would you would think for a four player for a kart racer four player
is mandatory and they have yeah so i understand why it wasn't so popular but it is chocobo so.

(01:25:44):
Trent, what are we up to? What's your next three? Seven, eight, and nine.
Yeah, that's how I've been doing it. All right. So, obviously,
you guessed that they were all Mario games. So, what do you reckon is the next one?
On Odyssey? Odyssey. No, Odyssey came out years ago. It's not on this list.
Yeah. I'm sorry. We're talking about newer games.

(01:26:07):
Newer games. We're talking about the best Mario game in existence, Princess Peach.
Beach oh yes that's nice it is a nice little game that one and then mario versus
donkey kong and then super mario rpg i didn't really play a lot of the rpg i
sort of rpg is so good yeah.

(01:26:27):
I really liked we're at the end of the list so i
might as well just say that but yeah the 10th
one is like story of seasons a wonderful life and
honorable mention to duck detective been right
after that so everyone should play duck
detective yeah this is definitely a
newer console for you because duck detective is like a four-hour game

(01:26:49):
so for it to be on the top in your top list
then yeah it's obviously a newer profile for
you yes yes but it is a very good game
like duck detective is brilliant it's an absolute must play
you should play it alan if you played it yet no i haven't
but i like you have to play it it's that good it's so so
good it's a quacking good game yeah it's so

(01:27:10):
good alan you've got to play duck detective so the
name of it just makes me think that it's a game for my wife because
she loves that kind of sort of thing like i'm getting her
into the little gator game i'm getting her into yeah detective
she needs to play duck detective i'm serious you need to play it i gave a five-star
review on digitally downloaded.net alan you absolutely it's brilliant get your

(01:27:32):
wife onto it it's a simple investigative game but it's full Full of puns and
you're a duck. It's like great.
I do like that. It really is good. Really, really recommend it.
So my last four, we've got Fire Emblem Three Houses.

(01:27:52):
That's not surprising. Yeah. You can't. You liked that game a lot.
I did. I've played it through twice, and that's why it's kind of bare.
Because it is a very long game anyway.
So yeah, you play it through twice. It's just going to rack up the hours.
Now, this is an odd one. Billion Road.
Billion Road. So Billion Road is a board game.

(01:28:16):
Which is kind of sort of
ish somewhat like monopoly you kind
of move around a map of buying properties and making monies
and stuff okay but yeah it's it's good fun i'm surprised it's i played it that
much but it is fairly lengthy to play through a single game so perhaps not so

(01:28:37):
surprising that's probably the oddest game in my list but i've obviously spent
a lot of time I'm playing it. And that's all single player too.
I never played that online.
There you go. Interesting.
Ninth is Dead or Alive Extreme 3. Yeah, there we go. There we go.
There we go. We did it. We did it, everyone. You can stop listening to the podcast

(01:28:58):
now. We've got it. We did it. It's over.
Super chill game. Yeah, yeah. Very relaxing to play. I'm sure it is, Matt.
Good Lord. I really like that game. I can tell. It's in your top ten.
It's in my top ten. I'm surprised it's not higher.

(01:29:19):
It's not higher because it's hard to play for long, long periods of time.
It's not really designed for this. I thought you played it on the train.
I do play it on the train, but train trips are in your hour.
That is so ambitious.
Great game. How'd you like it? Masterpiece. Ten out of ten masterpiece.

(01:29:41):
Yeah, sure. The last game on my top 10 is Dark Souls.
That's a good one. Yeah. Yeah, of course. That's fair. It's a classic.
It's pretty hard to argue with that. Yeah. Being able to play it on the go has been a good thing.
I know it's not the perfect port because the Switch doesn't do the frame rate particularly well.

(01:30:06):
But it's the closest to the original experience. but yeah and
and again being able to play it on the go
is really neat it works really well otherwise i
have to play on my console
at home so yeah and then one
just one behind that was project high rise which

(01:30:27):
is sim tower basically i
go more on the pc see are you that's right you played it too yeah i i didn't
get i did i actually i ended up with the switch version didn't i because you
said it was good possibly i've been i've been raving about that game for yeah
i've got three versions of it i got on peace playstation and pc as well.

(01:30:48):
There you go it's a good game if you like your sims if you like building things
if you like i do like the sims if you like building a residential tower and then putting a hotel
right next to it and then put in a nightclub in the hotel so everybody gets pissed
off because of all the noise that's what you do that's what
i do just like nimby simulator yeah but yeah it's amazing that there's just

(01:31:12):
so many games on the switch like only one of my top 10 is the jrpg and everybody
knows how much time i spend playing jrpg that is crazy like there's a lot of jrpgs in the next bit.
Like, if we're going to 20, then we've got Bravely Default 2,
Xenoblade Chronicles, Pokemon, Xenoblade Chronicles 2.

(01:31:34):
Like, the number, it does pick up after that for me, in terms of...
But, yeah. Because I've had it for eight years.
Yeah, I mean, it's gonna... It'll eventually build up like that.
How many hours I would have played on this console. Aye.
It's a great console. The Switch is an excellent console. It's been...
There's a reason why it's almost like eight years old and it's still going really

(01:31:55):
strong yes arguably arguably the best console ever i would say that's a fair
cop i mean obviously there are plenty of other good consoles,
and you know playstation 2 isn't you know is one of the all-time greats the
super nintendo of course,

(01:32:16):
I would say probably the GBA as well.
No, the DS is very, very good. The DS is also very, very good.
You know, these are all great consoles, but the thing that kind of helps the
Switch stand out is the fact there's just so many games on it as well.
Like, PS2 had a limited number of games released for it because it was just

(01:32:39):
for digital distribution and everything was made available.
But I'm not kidding. I really do have over 1,000 games on this Switch.
That's wild. But also unsurprising again. Well, I mean, obviously I didn't buy nearly all of that.
There's only a small percentage of these I would have bought because I just reviewed most of them.

(01:32:59):
But the fact that there are 1,000 on there, I've never had a console that's
had 1,000 games on it before, I would think.
Like even PlayStation 4. Actually, maybe PlayStation 4 would be close too because
again reviewed a lot of them but yeah yeah quantity equality is up there,

(01:33:20):
it's pretty cool it's a great console i i'm glad that i bought one i just i
don't know if i was a kid i would love it and i think i'd play it a lot more the switch yeah,
yeah i guess but like it's still the best console.
It's pretty good it's getting the best games like

(01:33:43):
i haven't even touched like the playstation 5 or xbox for
like ages yeah i don't really do
it for i mean i i picked
up like i said i'm playing the playstation more than
i've now that i've got the portal i do
play a lot more pc games these days because i got
the rob and again i'm not a big

(01:34:04):
fan of pc gaming in the sense that i think
i've talked about this on the podcast in the past i have
this weird thing about computers that i
use them for work so i can't
it feels like i'm doing work yeah i can't unwind with them so i load up the
steam library i'll open a game or whatever and then i'll immediately start to

(01:34:24):
feel some weird kind of anxiety about the fact that i've got emails yeah it
really is and i know that's That's like a weird mental thing that I've got going on,
but it is just, I can't distinguish.
I can't unwind using my PC. So when I got the ROG, the ROG doesn't work as a
work tool at all, even though it uses Windows.

(01:34:45):
And technically, I guess you could pull up your email and Word on it.
It just doesn't work that way.
So I've been able to categorize it as a gaming device. And as a result,
I've been kind of exploring my Steam library a lot more and enjoying it.
So, yeah, I do play Steam a lot more.
But even then, I still find myself going back to the Switch as my kind of default

(01:35:07):
console. And it has been for quite a few years now.
It's a very good console for a lot of reasons.
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