Beat the Heat with Biolizard

On this week's episode of Level Select, Mike and Fred talk about the hottest of hot, Morbius, Metal Gear Rising Revengeance, Sonic Adventure 2, NieR Automata, and more. Sorry for the swears.

Episode Transcript

(00:11):
Welcome to Level Select to show aboutgames and game development. I'm your host,
Michael Dediar, and I'm Fred Wood. How are you doing? Fred?
It's fucking hot, Mike. Yeah, I know, I know we've
been like light on the swearing,but it's it's fucking hot. My air
conditioner, which was alive, isno longer alive. I know. Last

(00:32):
week I was like, it's back. It's not. It's not back.
It's gone. It's never coming back. And I have to have some men
come and inspect every inch of myhome to tell me how many tens of
thousands of dollars I have to givethem so that way I don't live in
this burning hellscape any longer. Thatsounds that sounds pretty miserable. It's things

(00:55):
consider, it's pretty not good.I gotta tell you, I hate it.
I hate it a lot. Yeah. How are the How are the
pets doing? How's everyone? They'refine? My cat is just My cat
usually likes to like sleep in infront of a window or some space of
heat. So now she's just kindof like flopping down on the ground in
like random spot. She's like,I'm gonna just hang out here. It's

(01:17):
hot here, I'm like, yeah, it's hot here, it's hot everywhere.
Cat I love her, poor poorthing is is a little bit extra
warm. We've got one room inthe house with air conditioning because we went
and bought a portable air conditioner asan emergency unit. Yeah, which will
probably sell or return if we're allowed. I mean home Depot's return policy is

(01:38):
just yes, so we might tryto get away with this, but at
the same time, maybe a goodidea to just hold onto a backup just
in case you never know where you'regonna need a portable air conditioner. Yeah,
So that's why today's episode is hotand fast and loose and sweaty,
and we're gonna do it a littleshort, I think. I think it's

(02:00):
it's gonna end up being short.Also, just gonna go day drinking after
this. So that's that's my Friday. That's just my friends at today.
Yeah, clearly, and like,uh we I'm not going to talk about
the news and current events, butthat stuff sucks super bad too. It's
a bad time to live in ourcountry, and it's a worse time to

(02:24):
live in Texas. So yeah,it's um, it's been a rough week.
Yeah, to put it mildly.I'm not gonna I don't know that
that we're we're the podcast for that, so I'm gonna try to avoid getting
into the discussions there. But it'snot been a great week. Um.
We're gonna try to bring some levity. Yeah, bring some some lightness to

(02:47):
your day if if at all possible. Um. Yeah. And it's gonna
be a little bit of a shortone because Fred doesn't have air commissioning and
as you can tell, he's alittle hot color, a little hot under
the car. You can tell.You can't see this in the recording unfortunately,
but like I don't have lights on, so I just look like a

(03:07):
specter coming out of the darkness.Yeah, my right cam while talking to
Mike. Fred's friend's a creepy guyyou meet on Omegal. That's gonna lead
you a creepy pasta right now.No, I am not please, No,
there's no good comes from Omegal.No, But you know, I
don't know. I guess if you'rein, if you're looking for something real,
not good, Omegal's maybe not abad place to do it. And

(03:30):
if you have found something good onOmegal, why don't you write in and
tell us about it? Yeah,go ahead. We'd love to email at
levels like dot cool Mike. Whatabout you, man? How is how's
your week? My week's been prettyboring, honestly. Um, not a
lot going on, just kind ofyou know, working on stuff I can't
really talk about right now, andyou know, my usual hobby stuff writing

(03:52):
for the book. I'm working ondoing some some number crunching for the tabletop
game I'm developing very slowly but surely. And then um, you know,
playing some video games that we're goingto talk about in a bit. Yeah,
we've got some other stuff that we'regonna be talking about, some some

(04:15):
important cultural touchstones. But that's that'sgonna be for for a little bit.
But Fred, do you want totell everyone what we've got in the piping?
Yeah, says Olivia Nelson, theman who you heard an episode two
Friend of the Show. Friend ofthe Show's Olivia Nelson pitched us the idea
of doing a podcast about and Ivetoed that and instead this is my pitch,

(04:42):
which, as I put on Twitterkind of as a joke, and
a lot of people said yes,So I guess we're gonna stream the hit
sorry, the hit film. Moreobvious from Sony Pictures a big part of
the Spider Man cinematic universe that doesnot include Spider Man. Uh. Number
one movie on Apple TV by theway, Yeah, well great, that

(05:10):
movie doesn't look good and I haven'tseen it. It's not Oh you've seen
it and you want to do thisstream. Ok, we'll talk about this.
We'll talk about this in a littlebit down the line. Okay,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I look forward to being
a empty party on this one.But yeah, it's a time of recording.
I watched this movie at night anda half ago. Okay, so

(05:31):
how much do you remember? Allright? Much? Yeah? How much?
Ah? Yeah, we have totake a court mandated break so that
way an advertisement can come in andpay for the platform that we're on.
So give us just a moment andwe'll be right back. So, Mike,

(05:58):
you have had air condition and yeahit's going right now. It's great.
That means that you've been able toplay some video games. What have
you been playing? So I'm stillplaying through Near Automata because I wanted to
get an ending for the people thatI'm playing alongside. That requires a lot
of work because it requires getting everyweapon in the and then upgrading every weapon

(06:21):
in the game to its max,and boy howdy, it's a pain to
get some of those items, especiallyconsidering that for two of the items that
are necessary upgrades, their only reliablesource of acquisition is from a random chance

(06:42):
of a specific merchant having a specificstock of items. It's miserable, but
I did it. I don't knowif I got that ending. I feel
like I had to have when Iplayed that game. I played everything.
No, I guess I didn't.I may have YouTube that ending. Yeah,

(07:04):
it might be time to revisit that, but yeah, yeah, yeah,
so I'm getting that ending. Andthen I got I got to the
path at least that ending. Immediatelyrealized that despite being like level seventy five,
not high enough novel, not strongenough for this ending yet, because
I just got completely body checked intothe ground. And so yeah, somehow

(07:27):
this game has tricked me into doinga thing I hate in role playing games.
It's like grinding level grinding. Hateit. Have you ever messed with
cheat engine? I'm just saying,really, you've played this before. You
could go ahead and not suffer andhave a good time and show your friends

(07:47):
a good time. But like,will my soul be able to handle it.
I'm gonna be honest. I usecheat engine for one thing in Near
Replicant, and that was just amoney cheat because I did every bit of
the side quest story stuff that Ineeded to do, and it was like,
you don't have enough money. I'mlike, yeah, I don't know.
I'll show yeah, yeah, Idon't. I try not to really

(08:13):
screw around with that stuff. There'sreally no reason. I don't have any
noble like the gaming experience about it. It's literally just a personal preference.
Yeah, I will say I usecheat engine on Cyberpunk. That's how I
played through that game. Is assoon as I got into the open world

(08:35):
part of the game, which islike pretty early on, I was like,
I wonder if I could just likeput an address in the memory checker
and see if that rises, andthen say if it rises again, every
time I kill something, it's like, oh, there's my XB. Well,
I'm just gonna keep jacking that numberup in cheat engine, and then
unlocked literally everything you could possibly unlockin a way like you're not supposed to

(08:58):
be able to max out everything.And I was just like ha ha,
I was the Master's Cyberpunk hacker.Yeah, I felt pretty cyberpunk, like
I might, just because, likeyou mentioned, I've beaten Near before.
I do want to move on toother games, but you deserve Yeah,
I mean you've you've I've got anothergame on here, but you even play

(09:20):
in something. Yeah, right,it's been hot, so part of that
is that means I can't be onmy desktop PC or playing things on my
nice TV in my office because I'mjust out in the living room. That
said, this was the week thatthe new Destiny expansion or Destiny season dropped.
Destiny two season of the Haunted,which I think is maybe the worst

(09:43):
name they've had so far. It'spretty bad. It's pretty bad, but
content was pretty good. They broughtback an old area that they vaulted,
which they needed to do for filesized reasons before, but they brought it
back. They tweaked it up abit and added a whole bunch of new
things to do in that space,which is exactly what you should do with

(10:07):
any mmou and it's pretty badass.And right now my laptop is in the
other room playing it for me becausesomebody found a small exploit where you could
buy buy a piece of armor andthen throw it away. And get slightly
more than you paid for for it. So I just have a I have

(10:28):
a little script that's moving my mouseclicking on one thing and then clicking on
another thing. And I've been livingthat running all morning and I hope I
don't get banned for it, butI should be, all right, I
mean, you know, you onlyjust completely. I'm just try. Yeah,
it's fun. And also, like, I've been trying to do things

(10:50):
that don't generate too much heat inmy home, and so I have found
that the video game platform that hasworked the best for me this week is
Google Stadium. Okay, I meanit literally runs on Yeah, you're right,

(11:11):
I just okay. Stadium has beengreat for Destiny and that's pretty much
it. Yeah. It also isthe only PC version of Judgment, so
I have that as well. Yeah, Um, Stadium is great in areas
with really stable internet connections. Umthat's as much as I can say for

(11:35):
it under specific circumstances. In Okay, I played a bunch of Stadia while
I was in Mountain Home, Arkansas, visiting my wife's family because they have
fiber internet. So like I wasplaying a bunch of Destiny. But yeah,

(11:56):
no, but middle of not middleof nowhere, but population of like
three thousand Mountain Home, Arkansas.That's probably not true. They probably have
like thirty thousand, but still likea place that you probably wouldn't expect it,
you know. Good for them outhonestly. Yeah. I mean,
I'm not going to get into butmunicipal internet, municipal power running internet along

(12:18):
the power lines and stuff. Theysince it is owned by the people of
the city or the town, theyget to vote and make decisions based on
that, which seems really cool.Seems to work really well for them,
And so now every time I visitmy wife's family, I've got very fast
internet and it kicks ass. Ihaven't said anything about Destiny too, I'm

(12:43):
realizing other than how I am tryingto break it, but and that the
content was nice and they brought backYeah, I brought which is a cool
raid space that they introduced in uhDestney two's first campaign or Desney two's first
lease, which was a cool raidand they're bringing that back and they're telling

(13:03):
more story with that, which iscool nice. I'm into it. I
just don't like the haunted spooky aspect. Somebody pointed out that the season ends
right before October, so we're notdoing the Haunted in the Halloween time.
That seems like maybe they're gonna doubleHaunted season of the double Haunted. Yeah
yeah, spook it twice. Whatelse would get nice? Um? Some

(13:28):
playing another game that is not newor contemporary, Well, it's contemporary,
it's new. Yeah, okay,it is bizarrely contemporary, and it is
a game that is very near anddear to my heart. It is arguably
Pat Platinum's best game. I wasgonna say that, if not, it's

(13:48):
top three. Oh, it's easilytop three easily, And I saw you
playing this game for a minute,and much like whatever you mentioned the game
day Sax, someone out there isgoing to re install it. If I
see Metal Gear Rising Revengeance, I'mgonna replay it because that game is incredible.
And guess what still incredible? Yeah? Still kind of a not all

(14:15):
killer, no filler, but manis it close. I mean when the
filler is just the story bits,I think, the weird stealth bits that
they like. But you can likefail those immediately and just get it.
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. Mash through cut scenes unless you you
know, don't want to. Andhonestly, most of them are not worth

(14:39):
a damn unless like jet Stream Samor like Armstrong or any of the villains
or on screen, because they're alljust insane. I couldn't name a single
person on Rydeen's team other than doctorand that's kind of in Boris. I
can name those Boris, that's right, Yeah, yeah, yeah, But

(15:01):
the rest of the other two peopleI unfortunately could not name. I know
one of them is voiced by thesame guy that voices Vamp. Yeah,
yeah, yeah, oh we know. Is that guy's named Kevin? I
don't fucking know. Sorry, that'snot I need to stop swearing so much.
And I'm not going to edit theseout because I just don't have the
time to edit in the heat.But yeah, yeah, yeah, oh

(15:24):
yeah, his name is Kevin.Yeah all right, okay, so I
remember most of the people in thegame. It's not a very big cast.
But no, that game is incredible. Yeah, just incredible action,
incredible boss fights, a soundtrack thatis like perfect for what the game is.

(15:46):
Like it it is so good andit is fantastic to listen to on
its own, even years after you'veplayed the game. Yeah, it's like
it's it's something that is part ofmy workout playlist, And honestly, it's
a game that is like it wasrelevant at the time it came out,

(16:06):
but like everyone kind of memed onit at the time. But it's been
interesting watching the the history of thatgame change and evolved as people keep looking
at it and go, yeah,this game is kind of dumb and kind
of blunt and extremely on the nose, but it's political messaging is probably the

(16:27):
most overt and the most honest ofvideo game has ever been. Yeah,
Like, there's no obfuscation about whatit's talking about. There's no obfuscation about
it what its messaging is. Like. It is blunt in a way that
only Platinum games can be, andblunt in a way that that leaves no

(16:48):
room for argument. And there aresome great video essays that have been popping
up over the past year that areabsolutely tracking down and worth watching. Um
there's also like a actual novel,like not like not a novel, but
like a like a hard copy bookokay of the game that has been written

(17:10):
by and I'm unfortunately blanking on everyone. Yeah, oh are you talking about
one of the uh, like likea journal on the book? Not yeah
I was, I thought you metthe novelization of the game. No,
No, it's like it's like ajournal talking about like the game and its
politics and its mechanics and that sortof stuff. Um, I want a
novelization of that game. I knowit would only be about thirty pages long,

(17:33):
right, which is not at allNot that's like short storyline even you
hit in novella length. No,but yeah it is. And from blanking
on all the names, I'm sosorry to all these people. Um,
there's like one that I can thinkof, but like he makes so many
jokes that I am embarrassed to laughat that I'd rather not promote that.

(17:56):
Oh yeah, yeah yeah, umbut yeah, it's like that. But
that game is, at least forme, like when it comes to that
style of like spectacle action character action. I don't you know, everyone's got
a different name for it, butthat's a character action game. But it
definitely has spectacle to it. Um. I mean that the opening bosses,
the two storial bosses, melgiar Raythe its final boss. So good.

(18:22):
Um. But yeah, it's oneof those games that like I'm glad it's
getting its time in the sun.Like steam metrics for it have skyrocketed a
thousand percent because of all these thesemultiple percent over its peak, its peak
right when it was relevant, whenit was new. This is now more
successful now than it was a decadeago when it came out, and you

(18:48):
know, and I think it's duein large a to the like the just
infinite memes that can be made aboutthe game, but also just because of
the of these video essays and becauselike the fact that the game just like
the game is just good and it'sreal good. He's just really good.
And the point I was building toois like I think in the conversation of
games like Devil Maycry of Bayonetta andyou know, in that style of game,

(19:10):
like there isn't a lot to reallylike Gun for the Throne, right,
it's always like oh, you know, Bail one and oh DMC's three
and five, Like you know,it's it's like those are usually the games
of the conversation, and it's like, no, revengeance deserves to be in
that narrative as well, because likeI've not played a game that allowed me

(19:32):
to be so aggressive and then go, yeah, dude, that's the point.
Like dodging, like you have tounlock dodging because Dodgings for nerds Perry
that, yeah, what do youdo about relentless combat and in like really
rewarding in really fun ways, likeit's fantastic. Yeah, And so like
that's a game that I don't goback too often, but I kind of

(19:56):
feel like I need to because likeI can play that game pretty consistently un
normal, but I get the hardmode and I'm just like I'm getting obliterated.
I wanted to point out, likethat game doesn't just run on PC
though, like on modern computers,you have to do a little bit of
work to it to make it workproperly. Unfortunately, Yeah, you have

(20:18):
to do there's a little bit ofelbow grease stuff that you have to do.
Like if you're running it just atten eighty, it's pretty stable,
pretty solid, but if you're wantingto go above that, it weirdly gets
capped at like fifty nine frames persecond though, which he introduces hitching in
like lag. There are fixes outthere that like all originate from a message
board post that yeah, thankfully stillexists. So if you just google like

(20:45):
how to fix Metal Gear Rising PC, you'll find it. Yeah. Yeah,
yeah, those things take care ofit. I will say the four
K patching does occasionally introduce weird crashingbugs, which is a bit of an
issue, and it's sort of theunfortunate nature of like it's just like how
Japanese PC games reported it back then, because they just weren't the focus.

(21:10):
I don't think we're going to geta rerelease of this game because despite making
the most sense in the world,especially with its popularity right now, and
they're not being a modern version ofthe game to play, Like, it's
metal Gear and Konami is scared totouch that, and it's metal Gear,
but it's also metal Gear with Platinum, and Konami and Platinum haven't been working

(21:36):
together, so that would be awhole nother relationship that they have to start
back up and spin that machine andthen and everything. Yeah, Like,
the only hope I have for itis that when the Nvidious Shield came out
way back in the day, like, they paid to do a full port
of Metal Gear rising to Android,and so if that has been done and

(22:00):
still exists, maybe they could manipulatethat version fairly easily. Right right,
I completely forgot that existed. Oh, I just realized that there might be
Oh man, there might be away to run that Android version of the
game on a hacked and Nintendo switchsince it's a Tiger X one chip.

(22:22):
So if it's just running a versionof Android, it already has the chip
that's required for that exact version ofMetal Gear. So you have to do
now. Yeah, well, maybewhen my air conditioning is fixed, I
want to spend on any more timein my office. Yeah that who I
might have to do some research becauseportable Metal Gear Rising or Vengeance that's not
on a Steam deck that I don'thave. That sounds cool, Yeah,

(22:45):
that would be read um. Butyeah, so those are the two things
I'll be I've been playing, I'llprobably have I should have new things by
X week to talk about. Yeah, yeah, when when the when it's
not too hot, game still kicksass. Oh and just on the subject
of Beat Saber, I said lastweek that I was going to try to

(23:07):
do it right now if if youhave a modern version of Beat Saber or
any of the any way to playcustom maps. I was allowed to release
the level select theme song on BeatSaber, and it is fun and it
kicks ass. It's got custom lightingand two difficulties for people who are just
kind of okay at the game andpeople who are good at the game.

(23:29):
So I guess if you play BeatSaber go check that out. Yeah.
Nice, And the full version ofthe level select theme song is up on
YouTube at YouTube dot com slash.That's my trunks just because that's the channel
that we have already set up,So enjoy it there. We've got to
take another break, but whenever wecome back, we'll be touching on the

(23:49):
news because we've got some we gotsome news, and we'll be touching on
it. All right, this isn'tweird. Have not made this weird at
all? No, no, no, see, you know it's fine,
folks, So what's up? Hedon't know. I don't know much of

(24:17):
anything about this phenomenon. Uh,for better or worse. I have not
been morbid. Okay, what isit to morb I mean, morbing is
more a state of being. Itcomes from within right. To morbe is

(24:37):
to understand your true self. Um, and I've recently had the opportunity to
figure that out on Twitch with aboutten thousand other people as Morbius twenty four
seven are Our Savior and morb streamthat movie for about twelve straight hours before

(25:03):
getting taken down, allowing countless pilgrimsto come through and morebe a bunch of
swashbuckling pilgrims showed up and watched themore vious illegally on switch and then earlier
today a bunch of willing criminals,all of you. Yeah, And then
earlier today he came back under thehandle. I believe Morebus twenty four seven

(25:27):
returns. It's already been taken downvery obvious reasons. And that was so
fast, that was within like hours. Yeah, yeah, yeah, compared
to the the original. But Ihave seen the most movie of the year,
the most movie of the year morebecause yeah. And so when we

(25:48):
do this stream, I don't knowif Olivir has seen it, but I
will be. I will be comingin a changed individual, a morbed individual,
if you will, um, andI'm looking forward to your experience with
it. There's not been a lotof good in the world this week,

(26:08):
and there's been even less in thismovie. It's not it's that's damning.
Um. And despite the fact thatthe lines it's morbid time and stand back,
I'm beginning to morb do not appearin the movie, as as numerous
people have stated online, there's alot of morbid going on in this movie,

(26:33):
like you kind of know morbing whenyou see it, and this movie's
got hit. I was encouraged.On May twenty sixth, Sam person Prode
took on the the onus of puttingup the entirety of Morbus a Twitter threat.

(26:56):
It is fifty two tweets that isthe entirety of the movie more via
it's two minutes at a time,so which is obviously how the creators intended
it. Yes, that has notbeen taken down. None of those fifty
two tweets have been taken down yet. Incredible, incredible. I am just
worried that Sony is going to seepeople talking about more Abous and get the

(27:22):
wrong idea, which is that theyshould do more. Yeah. No,
of course, it's the number onemovie on Apple TV. It's this movie
is probably gonna get memed into asequel that sucks. Yeah, but like
it's also hilarious. The only goodI can see is that this movie has

(27:45):
its time in the sun being completelydunked on and then it just goes away
forever. That's the hope, right, Yeah, yeah, but yeah,
I haven't seen more basics. Idid watch the first two episodes. Like,
just now watched the first two episodesof the Obi Wan Kenobi Disney Plus
TV series. How is that?Isn't any good? I haven't seen it

(28:06):
yet. Um, it's more StarWars for better and worse and mostly worse.
I think I just want a StarWars miniseries, like almost like they
did with the first season of TheMandalorian. Or you tell just a small,

(28:26):
self contained story in the Star Warsuniverse. Don't tell me about Luke
and Leah. I don't want tosee a skywalker. Just have a fun
small story. And like obviously theyweren't going to do that with Obi Wan
Kenobi. Yeah there's no way,But think about how cool an Obi Wan
Kenobi series that is just like tenyears in the desert an old man becoming

(28:52):
a grumpier, grumpier old man,or like maybe he goes around the desert
towns and like helps people in likenon Jedi ways so that way he doesn't
get caught, but instead, likeend of episode one, he's like time
to leave the desert. Like okay, all right, I guess not then
okay, yeah, yeah, Iremember this was like years ago. I

(29:15):
had this conversation and I remember someone'slike, this isn't right. When all
these TV shows were starting to justget into production, right, you know,
there's like, oh, they're doingStar Wars TV shows, and someone's
like, what if they do likean obi Wan one? And I was
like, I would want it tobe. You know, it's like Star
Wars and a Kiakura Sawa are alreadyso intertwined that I'm not saying anything new
here, but I would want itto just be like obi Wan hitting the

(29:41):
greats, you know, going throughlike this episode he's the wandering Samurai and
your Jimbo and this one he's oneof the dudes and seven Samurai. You
know, like just kind of haveobi Wan riffing on these classic samurai flicks
and maybe don't even just do curSawa go into like the entire year chambara
genre, yeah, you know,and just and just riff on that and

(30:03):
just yeah, like you mentioned havingto be this dude in the desert that
just wanders up. I was gonnasay lone Wolf and cut, but that's
what was sweetly about. Just loneWolf right right, and just have it
be these sort of Chambara style filmslike I would love to see an episode
of Obi Wan where like he justshows up and you're only seeing them through
the perspectives of like the people inthe village. Maybe he doesn't even talk

(30:23):
that episode, right, you know, and just really play with like like
the format and like building the characterin these very new and interesting ways.
I am into the setup for thisshow, like they they put some stakes
into it, and they give areason to tell this and buy the second

(30:45):
episode. They're like, Okay,we have revealed something to this character in
a way that is at least aninteresting conversation piece. Now we'll see if
they do anything valuable with it.But you know, like, I'm gonna
watch it because I'm I'm just aslut for Disney Plus properties. They keep

(31:08):
making them, I keep not lovingthem, and I keep consuming them.
I was because like you, whatwas your opinion on Boba Fett, because
it was bad. Yeah, Iwas not the biggest fan. The first
couple episodes were like all right,cool, yeah, and then they kept
going and that was unfortunate. Andthen there were two really good episodes of
The Mandalorian that happened in the middleof that show. Yeah, like wow,

(31:32):
Bryce Dallas Howard showed up and shewas like, don't worry. Yeah,
and then the last episode undid allof the good that the two previous
seasons of The Mandalorian did. Itwas Yeah. It was one of those
things where it's like I really enjoyedthe because I leave. Bryce Alas Howard
directed both of the episodes that focusedon Jinjar and The Mandalorian. Yeah,

(31:52):
and she has been consistently my favoritedirector on the Star Wars TV projects.
Um, whatever I like. Andat the end of an episode of The
Mandalorian, I'm like, wow,that was that was great. That was
incredible, and it's like directed byBryce Stallas Howard. I'm like that makes
sense. Yeah, Jack, Iwant to I want to apologize because I

(32:15):
know we said this as a videogame podcast and here we are talking about
stars like I so don't want tobe that podcast. But you know what,
this week has sucked. And soI'm talking to my friend about Star
Wars right now. Yeah yeah,And I was like I was so excited.
I remember because I'm a big fan, like I am unfortunately a huge
fan of Star Wars. Um itwas like the first thing I got really

(32:36):
into as a kid. And Iremember really as I was like watching the
Clone Wars animated series, Uh,really falling in love with the character of
cad Bane. You know, Iwas just like Eastwood style, idea,
who that dude was in the inthe animated series, He's incredible. Yeah,
he's this like Clint Eastwood style reallyjust like that, you know,

(32:59):
very chill to tude, super usuper smooth talking kind of criminals. So
when he popped up in the yeah, both that, I was like really
excited and then he just kind ofgets completely stunted on. Yeah, the
the way that episode or his storyended, I watched that, I was

(33:20):
like, that probably meant something tosomebody and meant something. Yeah. I
was kind of bummed out, honestly. Yeah, you know, and it's
like it it's I don't know,it's it's a bummer that I didn't really
like Boba Fett as much, becauseI do generally enjoy um Robert Rodriguez's work.
Yeah, and I felt like theepisode of The The Mandalorian that he

(33:40):
directed that brought back Boba Fett waspretty solid all things considered. Yeah,
Um, the problem with that lastepisode, the problem with the way that
the book Fett ended, was justthat it was very important to the Mandalorian

(34:00):
storyline and I hated everything about Nowthat's not true. I liked all the
action scenes. It was actually fairlyfun in that regard. But like,
and I'm like not spoiling, I'mlike avoiding the the specific plot points just
in case anybody hasn't watched those.But if if you were watching The Mandalorian

(34:23):
and he just watched that, andnow the next season the Mandalorian starts up
and their characters there that are surprisinglythere, I'd be pretty pissed off that
a very important plot point for thatshow was wrapped in some other weird show
that I didn't want to watch.Right, Absolutely, so that's a bit

(34:45):
of a bummer. Also watched BetterCall Saul that. Oh my god,
the latest season is incredible. Theyare wrapping things up in ways that shock
and surprise and delight me. That'swhat you're done. You can go watch
the sequel series Breaking Bed. I'mgood, I've seen it. I'm I'm

(35:05):
good. I'm talking for sure.Yeah, yeah, yeah, uh yeah,
better call Seal Kicks as I've beenwatching a lot of TV because I
can do that sitting in front ofan air conditioner in front of my TV.
Yeah, that's fair. Yeah.Um, oh is there anything else?
Sound like that? Jog three themovie? Um, they're apparently trying

(35:29):
to find a good celebrity voice forShadow of the Hedgehog. So who would
you cast? Um? Who screams? Who do you look at in the
media and go, yeah, that'sShadow? I would go and grab.
I'm gonna say it was Steve Bloom, but I'm not sure who who was
the voice of Age. Was SteveBloom, Piccolo or Vegeta neither? All

(35:52):
right, well I've made a Yeah, I do not remember who voice Pickle
Chris Abot would be? Who Iwant? Okay? For you know they're
gonna go for like a Hollywood actor. Yes, I know, so what
you ask me who I want?Oh yeah, but what Hollywood John?

(36:12):
Not who I would choose, Notwho I would choose either, But you're
making me choose a Hollywood guy,and that's not what I want. Okay?
Uh no, Actually, like theanswer is not good, but it
is what I would like. Itwould make me happy. It would be
Donald Glover. Okay, I couldsee it. I can't, but like,

(36:34):
I really like Donald Glover, soi'd love to see I'd love to
hear him in the Sonic that jogright, not who I would choose,
but I would prefer him for Knuckleshonestly. Yeah, yeah, younger,
Yeah, but like Yourselba as Knucklesis so good, something just inherently hilarious
about have you seen the second movieyet? Not yet. I've heard it's

(36:54):
so good. I'd normally have complaintsabout everything that I like. I have
no plaints about that movie. Okay, Um, I'd cast Aaron Paul Shadow
Aaron Paul I, I like that, like that a lot. Yeah.
Yeah. He voices a character inan animated series called Toronto Toronto Uprising.

(37:15):
Great show, Watch it if youcan. But the character he voices has
this like deep, raspy voice,and I'm like, oh, that would
be perfect for Shadow. Gots go. Okay, what you could do?
And I'm not sure that they keptthis in the most recent Sonics, but
there was a Sonic voice actor whowas also voicing Shadow, so it was
both Sonic and Shadow. So giveme Ben Schwartz Si. Yeah, yeah,

(37:43):
I'd be down. Let's go.Oh my goodness, that'd be so
good. Actually, i'd be verysilly. The real question is who's gonna
play Gerald Robotnick? Great Grandpa,What was the what was the lady's name?
Maria, Maria Robanno. Who wouldyou choose as the composer the composer

(38:04):
of the movie, the third Sonicmovie. Yeah, um, the same
person that's been doing it. No. No, If I had my drothers,
it would be Crush forty because Imean, because that is can you
the Sonic a Venture music? Butsince we can't have that, because we
can't have Sonic music and Sonic movies, apparently I would want Danny Elfman.

(38:29):
Yes, can you can you imagine? Can you imagine if they opened with
the stage one City Escape in thatmovie and just like Sonic is just like
fucking we're just falling and you hearthe slat bass opening of City Escape?
Oh yeah, and Live and Learnwould be the big battle against yeah yeah,

(38:52):
which if they don't have bio Lizardin the movie, which they probably
won't, what are you doing?What are you even doing if you don't
have the the incredibly memorable Sonic characterBiolizard. The thing is that bio Lizard
is dumb as hell, but itrules You're You're you're grinding on the rails

(39:15):
of a giant lizard who becomes bigger, and then you fight him in space
by running into his pimples. Likeyeah, no, god, Sonny VR
two is a good video game.It's a good video People that are like
it doesn't hold up. It doesa bunch of that game sucks, but
you know what, You fight agiant lizard in space by running into his
pimples. And you go to PumpkinHill and you go to Pumpkin Hill and

(39:37):
playing Pumpkin Hill sucks, but itlooks awesome and it sounds great, right,
and you get to hear knuckles dothe uh yeah, you know what
a break? Yeah, I thinkit's tough for a break. We'll be
right back all right. Um,we've only got time for like two two

(40:06):
of these. Yeah. Um.This one comes in from two High Labs
and Kyoto's Mark Lentz says, hopeyou are doing well. The podcast really
seems to be taking off. Ithink I can speak for the whole fan
community when I ask what would yoursecond Duke Nucomb three D tattoo be?
So, you know, the theDuke Nucom three D box are where he's

(40:28):
kind of got like the Frazetta posingand he's you know, on top of
the hill, he's got the twoguns full back tattoo. That yeah,
okay, rip off my shirt,you know. Yaka is a style.
Yeah, that's the the text popsup and it's like, I want like
a beautiful Japanese illustration, like thefine work for ye for that beautiful tattoo.

(40:52):
Yeah, I don't. I wantedto be like slightly discolored, like
I found the box in a wetlike uh garage sale. Yeah, you
know. And then again when Iripped my shirt off, it's like,
you know, ahead of the devYarklin Michael, And that's that's why that's
my Yaka is a back tattoo beforecuter. You just completely breaks every bone

(41:15):
in my body. God. Theother day when somebody sent me the the
Duke Nukeham voiced over commercial edits Yeah, that turned into a delter and add
At one point I felt seen inthe most surreal way. It's very it
was very weird when you then itwas to me and I was like it
was a Venn diagram that was apicture of my face. It was weird.

(41:37):
Yeah. So the thing is like, obviously my first tattoo is the
the atomic symbol that is on thefront of Duke Nukeam three D Atomic Edition.
Yeah, I have the mine,you know, right above a part
of my body I'm not going totalk about. Yeah, of course,
where else are you gonna put it? Yeah, right above your duke.
So the thing is so awful.I would want the atomic health, the

(42:04):
automic health, probably like right undermy neck, on my back, on
my shoulders, just that that perfectlittle like that's your brand of sacrifice.
Yeah, exactly, exactly. Yeah, you couldn't be more right. It's
exactly not even if I tried.Yeah. Um, yeah, that was
an easy one. Yeah, maybesomething us a challenging one next time.

(42:25):
Mark, Thanks, Yeah, comeon. So the other thing that I
wanted to point out, so wewere talking about time based games last week,
user David wrote in or listener Davidwrote in to tell us about Lifeline,
which is a series of phone gameswhere a fictional character can only text
you or it can only text you, and you have to advise them through

(42:47):
their situation, and it operates likea Chooser and Adventure, but they're texting
you in real time, so likeyou'll get a text message like a few
minutes later that's like, hey Idid that thing, but I need help,
and I haven't played it yet,but I've read about this just a
few minutes before we started recording,and I'm real into It's two dollars on

(43:09):
Android. Really interesting. Yeah,yeah, yeah, yeah, so I'm
I'm into it. Let me knowhow that is and if I should check
it out. Yeah, I forgotto say at the beginning of the segment.
So if you want to write into level select our fine podcast and
have us talk about the thing thatyou are interested in, you can do

(43:29):
such. Do such. You cando so by emailing mail at level select
dot cool, or by writing intoour website. Just visit our website level
selected dot cool and just fill outthe forum. It can be anonymous if
you want, or you can putyour name on it if you want to.
Yeah, I had an idea aboutanother little segment that we could do

(43:53):
while we're generally good. I appreciatethat. I don't think that's entirely accurate,
but I'll get with it. Whatabout instead of questions from the audience,
we asked questions for the audience,using the same way of having people
right in but getting to know thema little bit and also giving us something
to think about and something to chatabout. My first question is what was

(44:17):
the first video game you ever played? And how did you get introduced to
it? Mike, what about you? What was the first game that you
ever played that and how did youfind out about it? Like? Who
showed you video game? So mysister showed me video game in an arcade
and it was Street Fighter too.Heck yeah, she and I just you

(44:38):
know, I was what when ikadcame out. I would have been between
three to five years old, youknow, And she needed something to play
with. And so I waddled mytiny little body over there and got my
tiny little body bodied because she knewat least how to do Chunley's lightning legs

(44:58):
and spinning bird kick. And Ichose Guile because he looked like a toothbrush
and like that he had an upsidedown kick. And that's how I learned
to take my first l What aboutyou? My first game that I ever

(45:19):
played was on the Siga Master System. It was Alex Kid in Miracle World.
Yeah. Last year they put outa remake of it that is not
not great, um, But thatgame is a two D side scroller.
It was the first side scroller everplayed where you make your way through these
incredibly challenging levels. You can getsome upgrades and items for Alex Kid,

(45:45):
and you can get a motorcycle anda helicopter that you pilot by pedals.
That game doesn't hold up, butlike at the time, was something like
the idea of a video game wasso foreign to me, of course,
but like that game holds a specialplace in my heart, not only for

(46:07):
it being the first game I everplayed, but just for being such a
weird one. The bosses that youfought were gosh, I can't remember.
The Japanese name is John ken something, John KeNHA maybe, But it's rock
paper scissors, and so each enemyor each bossy fight their head is just

(46:28):
a hand doing like rock papers orscissors. Oh, and it's weird and
neat, and the way you doit is by playing rock paper scissors with
them. Yeah, yeah, it'sweird. It also was the game that
first confused me about Japanese rice ballsslash Jelly Donuts slash Hamburgers, because there

(46:50):
were multiple American versions of the game, one of which had a hamburger,
one of which had the onigiri.Is that still a thing where people sensor?
Yeah, Japanese. I don't thinkso. I think Phoenix Right games
are the last like, oh mygoodness, yeah, the last time I
remember that being like a major thingof like americanizing a Japanese game. Yeah,

(47:14):
and gosh, that really cost sometrouble with the later. Oh my
goodness. I would love to seethem do another localization of those games where
they just go and say like,yeah, no, this is Japan.
Yeah yeah, or because what wasit in the US visions of San Francisco.
Yeah, I think it was maybeonly the first game that they went

(47:36):
for that. Yeah, but yeah, I played The Great as Attorney last
year and that takes place in Japanand then goes to London. And it's
too important for them to actually representthose things because it is, you know,
critical to the narrative. Yeah,it's Japan opening up to foreigners for

(47:58):
the first time in their history andall that. So like you can't be
like, oh, here's San Franciscoopening up to immigrants. Oh yeah,
I know, that'd be oh mygod, Oh no, yeah, that'd
be horrible, It really would.Um yeah, my brain just shut off

(48:21):
there at the end of me tryingto say the next thing. So I
think I think that just brings usto the end of this week's episode.
Yeah, we have more questions forthe audience coming up. We've got a
few slated, but you know,we want to give you guys a chance
to write into us and tell usabout stuff, so that way we're not
bombarding you with questions. Yeah,us to have content and a reminder for

(48:43):
that prompt, it's what was thefirst video game you ever played? And
how are you introduced to it?Yeah, so I'd love to hear your
stories. Feel free to send aslong an email as you want. I
will probably edit it down for you. But yeah, that brings us to
the end of this week's episode.If you would please review us on Apple
podcasts. It is weirdly the mostimportant place to leave a review, even

(49:07):
if you don't listen on Apple podcasts, and the best way to promote the
podcast is, of course, bytelling your friends. Yeah again. You
can write into the show with questions, ideas, and whatever else by visiting
level select dot cool or writing intomail at level select dot cool. Thanks

(49:27):
to Toby Fox for composing our themesong Level Select. It is a short
banger and I love it. Yeah, Yeah, it's incredible and again Thank
you Toby for taking the time outof your like what I understand to be
incredibly busy life all the time anddoing this for us. Yeah, I
guess I'll be the one I waswaiting for you to say sorry, this

(49:51):
is no that's that's been who.This has been Mike, and this has
been ft. Thanks for thanks forlistening, and see you next week.
You what a mess? What abeautiful mess, wonderful mess have you managed
to fill out like fifty minutes