Low Five Gaming

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins

• Studio Low Five • Episode 25

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Alex and Luke Talk Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins.

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins is a platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy. The player takes control of the protagonist Mario, whose main objective is to reclaim his personal island, Mario Land, from the antagonist Wario, who has seized control while Mario was away in the events of the first Super Mario Land.

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins was first released in Japan on October 21, 1992, and later in North America and Europe in November of the same year. The game was well-received by critics, who praised its graphics and gameplay, and it is considered one of the greatest Game Boy games of all time. As of publication, the game holds a score of 80 on metacritic.com.

According to howlongtobeat.com, When focusing on the main objectives, Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins is about 2 Hours in length. If you're a gamer that strives to see all aspects of the game, you are likely to spend around 3½ Hours to obtain 100% completion.

Alex played an actual Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins cartridge on his Analogue Pocket. He enjoyed the classic feel and the nostalgia of the game. Luke played the game on his Nintendo Switch via NSO and cheesed the hell out of the rewind feature. Both hosts completed the game, collecting all six golden coins and defeating Wario. But let the record show that Luke's win has an asterisks.

This episode is unofficially brought to you in part by children's books.

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Theme music is by AJ Norman. Design assets were created by Studio Day Job.

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Alex:

Yo, what up everybody. Welcome to another episode of low five gaming, a book club style podcast where my brother Luke and I explore the game of the moment or revisit a beloved classic back club or back log, back log book club.

Luke:

Yes, sir, second time around. Yeah, it is hard to say. Yeah, a backlog book club, if you will, like I always say, instead of cutthroat kitchen, I always end up saying cutthroat chicken, for no good reason. Nice, and that's a different show. How are you doing, luke? Somewhere I am well.

Alex:

How are you good, sir, I'm also well, man, I'm excited to talk a little bit about Super Mario Land 2, six Golden Coins.

Luke:

It's just a real game.

Alex:

It is real game.

Luke:

It's a lot of numbers and a lot of confusion and not Super Mario World, but Super. Mario Land. No, it's just its own thing. It's the first time you texted it. I was like what in God's name is?

Alex:

any of this. Yes, sir, this one's for the heads, for the Game Boy players, for the old heads.

Luke:

This is what it meant.

Alex:

But Super Mario Land 2 is a platform game developed by Nintendo for the Game Boy. Now, this, the development process, was done by Nintendo R&D one, so research and development one Instead of Shigeru Miyamoto, who's like well known for doing Mario, zelda, etc. On the NES, so he was working on some SNES projects. So when Nintendo think, literally Zelda. I think it was linked to the past. You heard of it you might be familiar, so you would think that the person who basically created Mario would work on Super Mario Land 2.

Luke:

This is his first time that he took off Super Mario Project.

Alex:

Not took off, but didn't have his hands all up in it Right, because at around this time. So this would have been a launch title. No, no, no, super Mario Land 1 would have been a launch title for the Game Boy. Super Mario Land 2 decided to go that one instead of one, just because I think it's more fun game. It's a little bit more nostalgic for me, but that is why R&D one worked on this game as opposed to Miyamoto. It's kind of a fun little fact. R&d one also known for the Metroid series, kid Icarus, etc. So a lot of cool games definitely turning out cool stuff.

Luke:

There was definitely a specific person in charge from R&D, one that Shigeru had as a mentor. Oh right on so like this was. He gave it to some trusted hands, so to speak and they did good work with it.

Alex:

Dude, I'm excited about this game. It's a cool game.

Luke:

The first one was a little bit more raw from what I could tell from the helpful videos that you post.

Alex:

Yes, so the gaming historian.

Luke:

I'll put a little link in the show notes for that, but that's on YouTube and that dude is turning out sweet content. Yeah, it seems built for you with all of just him being just an intense nerdy collector.

Alex:

I was like fair enough, yep, I can dig it.

Luke:

So that was cool and then. So the first one seemed a little bit raw, so it sold more because it was launch title, like you said. Like it didn't, it came with a lot of Game Boys. I guess Tetris was the official launch title.

Alex:

So it was your packing for, for Nintendo's packing.

Luke:

Yeah, but it was like one of the first games you could buy for the Game Boys, so like it's total sales was pretty crazy, whereas two was less.

Alex:

But I think critically is the the shining star in the Mario Land collection and I don't have the numbers on Super Mario Land one, but Super Mario Land two sold over 11 million copies back in the day and it was released in 1992. And to give a little further context to that launch title, Super Mario Land one was released in 89. So a couple years later. And further content contextualize this little deal.

Alex:

This is right around the same time as Super Mario World, right? That's my confusion, yep, so that would have been again. So link to the past. In Super Mario World, miyamoto was working on those joints.

Luke:

Yeah, and we bury the lead. The real reason this game is amazing is because it has Wario, yes, all of his cool, coolness, just yet. He's just you know his demented Mario version of himself.

Alex:

Right. So Super Mario Land two, six going coins debuts your boy Wario. So not as exciting as debuting the God while Luigi but Wario, still still a delightfully demented character I've always enjoyed it's good man and it's always kind of fun, like I mean Wario's kind of taken off, he's got his own, like the twisted series he's got you know, he's in in Smash and you've got him in your, in your Mario carts etc. But it's fun to see that. This is where he was kind of unleashed on the world. Sure Mario Golf.

Luke:

Mario, all the companion stuff. But he has like a storyline thing for the newest Mario Golf. Lol, Dude, remember those pods at times.

Alex:

How about that outfit bro?

Luke:

All right, moving forward.

Alex:

Yeah, why this game? So I chose this game this month, and the reason being I'm I love my Game Boy games and this is this is a top tier Game Boy game dude. This is one of my favorite Game Boy games and, as I mentioned earlier, it's got a very nostalgic piece in my heart right, so I installed his own. Yes.

Luke:

So, like we didn't, we never do that on this podcast. It was while sprinkling some of this I'll never do that on this podcast.

Alex:

But I was trying to think, man and I recently guested on a Pixel Project radio, shout out to those dudes to talk about the Game Boy and we're talking about how, like our past with a Game Boy or whatever and a Game Boy has been a mainstay in my life for a long time and I was trying to think, and I was. I was trying to think of that when I was talking to them, when and how I got it. I have no idea.

Luke:

Yeah, I mean, I'm the little brother, so truly, they were just around Right and I really had no controller idea and I never bought a game for a Game.

Alex:

Boy. So like either that while I did the Game Boy Advance but game like the original Game Boy even that they've like, filtered into my life where you'd get them or you'd borrow one occasionally.

Luke:

But truly Game Boys for me were just Pokemon machines. Sure, I'd play around with some other stuff, but I was never grasped by the handheld, but yeah, pre Pokemon.

Alex:

And who knows how this thing got into our household? Jesus, Probably. I mean either them or it could have been. Could have been.

Luke:

Jamie, or something Garage sale shit maybe.

Alex:

But you know some homies from the homies from the block. But, nonetheless, like we had, we had the original DMG in the house. Somehow, I snuck that in there, you know, whatever it was, dmg yeah, that's what it's called bro.

Luke:

Game Boy is called a.

Alex:

DMG the original model. Well, it's not like on the shelves. It's not like Game Boy DMG, but that's the model of Game Boy. All right, grandpa, continue on details.

Luke:

These are important things when you start collecting Game Boys, bro, sure.

Alex:

But before you bring up Pokemon, dude, no doubt that is like quintessential Game Boy. But before Pokemon, some of the main games that I played a bunch of were this one Super Mario Land 2, Metroid my deep seated like love for Metroid comes from that time as well and Tetris, obviously, good shit.

Luke:

Silence.

Alex:

I'm just watching Luke being no idea, tetris, so much, so much. I love it.

Luke:

So the other, the other main one, link's Awakening, I suppose we had Oracle of Seasons and Ages, but I was way too confusing, little later Game Boy Color. Yeah, it was way too confusing for me at the time, but this game man.

Alex:

so the house we grew up in that we had a little living room area and in our living room it didn't have a TV or anything. It was off from the dining room and I would find myself sitting in one of the reading chairs we had in there.

Luke:

right, I've made the mistake of explaining to my coworkers that our TV room had no couch. So then it's roast me for growing up in no couch, Because our dad was like no, if you've got a couch in front of TV, you're going to watch TV all day, so we just have shitty posture.

Alex:

Just you know we would make do our family computer and our TV were in like the dining room area.

Luke:

Yeah.

Alex:

And there was no dining room table to be clear, it's just that was the construct of the house.

Luke:

That's what Harvard floor and rug and barber chair over in the corner which was not positioned to be comfortable for the computer or the TV.

Alex:

A lot of Chris Cross applesauce playing some, some games on the front of that TV.

Luke:

It wasn't called that back then, but that's okay. Yeah, a lot of like temporary chairs that I'd smear boogers on. Yeah, one time I flipped the chair over and she's like dog is nasty.

Alex:

What the hell we digress. The point is, I would be in the living room.

Luke:

I was like I should have you know was out.

Alex:

Just kidding, Sitting on this chair and this game takes. You know, it's like it's a nice little romp dude, like it takes about two, three hours to beat so you can do it in one set of batteries, like during the afternoon, if you know what you're doing.

Luke:

consideration I forgot about the hustle for begging for batteries.

Alex:

Yeah, man, and it's funny. We'll talk a little bit more about this later, but the game overall is quite is quite simple and it's fun though, but like dude. But then when you get to Wario's castle, fuck me.

Luke:

Did I? So I play on the. What do you call the NSO?

Alex:

I don't do what I want to hear it, I'm just gonna make it so angry.

Luke:

The rewind. I have no patience for games like this anymore so like when I go and like when we were playing a little bit of Mario Maker and I didn't have the rewind, I was like I'm just nodding to platformers for the challenge which makes this game great, and then you combine that with the NSO is rewind. It was definitely a cute little John.

Alex:

So that's as it is. It was some little get into it.

Alex:

We already wanted to hold it for later but oh man, so the whole and we'll talk a little bit more about like the levels and the way the world set up in a little bit, but you, essentially you end up going and we'll get to the story. But the last level fucking platforming it's it's difficult, dude, like this whole game is easy, it's all pretty simple, and then that last level is fucking hard and I died straight up about 80 times before I beat it. That's a lot of time. That's like Celeste style of fucking frustration, I suppose to a true Mario game, though that's.

Alex:

you know, it's normal, I mean so it's like it makes sense and it's fine. And the thing is, is that type of that type of difficulty makes it so rewarding? When you do win, you're like, you're like, oh, fuck, yeah, I did.

Luke:

Yeah, I, so you collect coins and. I like you get past 100 coins and you don't just get a one up and it doesn't restart and I'm like what's going on? And there's this like little house thing that you go into where you play like a slot machine. Let me slot machines too.

Alex:

Dude.

Luke:

I had like 999 coins because I just been cheese and shit and I went in there and I got some lives and I think I got like the thing for like 50 lives or 60 lives.

Alex:

It was like something ridiculous.

Luke:

And then I had 69 lives and I went nice to myself, and then I got out of there and then it only went up from there, Cause if I ever died, I was rewinded. Sometimes I was like no, you can play this fairly. You're close enough to a checkpoint. But other times I was like that's fucking stupid, Do it Just rewind and do it again.

Alex:

I was like, no way you brought up the midi game slot machine. So there's a, there's an overworld and there's, you know, six cone coins. So there's six main levels or six main like stages to go to right. And then there's also a couple of other things on the map, including this little mound that you can walk into, and then there's a slot machine you have a certain amount of coins, a house mound hobbit hole, a little hobbit hole, whatever you want to call it, sure.

Alex:

But you go in there and, depending on the amount of coins you have, I think it's like I can't remember the exact denominations like 510, 200, 999, something like that, but anyways, so similar, I had been playing through this game and I had, you know, almost about like one short of a thousand, cause it doesn't let you hit a thousand. But I go in there, I play it and, dog, I hit 99 lives. I was so happy, dude, I was like and the funny thing is, is it brought me back to you know, I was telling you about playing this game at a, you know, at our parents house, back on that chair, and just that, like dude, it's not like I looked it up because I was like I wonder how, like, how easy it is, like, does it always give you 99? Yeah, and there's like a 1% chance you hit that 99. According to the internet.

Luke:

You're playing on an actual. Was it a Game Boy? Or one of your little?

Alex:

not an emulator, but one of your toys, like Pocket Analogs or so I played this game on the original Game Boy cartridge, so the game itself, on the Analog Pocket, which is a. It's a very Game Boy-esque machine that plays Game Boy Game, gear games, game Boy Advance, et cetera, but it's made by a company called Analog and it came out a few years ago now a couple of years, but it's great. It's like the best way to play. Cool, fun little toy.

Luke:

Totally so, for you lives matter.

Alex:

Dude. Yeah, but the hidden and all lives matter.

Luke:

I'm fucking with you. But uh, but no, for me, like it was never an issue of whether I unlocked a one up, Sometimes you do it just because you're playing a Mario game and you can find stuff and you're like all right cool. But I guess 99 lives when it actually matters and you need to get through a castle.

Alex:

Yeah, that would be. That'd be really cool. I know that, like I told you, I've died like six. I've died like 60, 80 times trying to fucking beat Wario. He's driving me nuts, I can't. And when you have 99 lives and you and you whittle them down to like 60, you feel it did not feel good about that. I was like what the fuck? Yeah?

Luke:

So I go back. It would get worse when you get real low and you got to grind because it doesn't feel like a game like you'd have to go out and grind. I'd hate redoing levels to grind. It would piss me off.

Alex:

There's some tricks to that, though, but the so like the. The funny thing is, though, is I did whittle my lives down quite a bit, and then I was like man, I need to re-up my lives, and I set up a bunch of coin Wario's castle.

Alex:

You don't, you don't collect any coins there, so, like I set up a bunch of coin and I went to go play the slots and I ended up winning 40 lives or something like that, and I was like cool. Well, the thing is, I was like cool, I can go back and I did end up beating it with that coins or like with that life set, but I was like man. What happened here? This game was so easy. And then all of a sudden it was quite the spike. But let's rewind a little bit.

Luke:

Is there any checkpoints in the castle? There's not. Yeah, I noticed that. That's why I got pretty aggressive with the rewind on the castle because I'm like I'm not redoing all that other shit.

Alex:

That's what I'm saying. This castle is unreal, but let's rewind a little bit so you have an idea of why this game is very nostalgic for me. Yeah, what's your? Do you have any personal history with this game?

Luke:

I didn't know it existed until so. I probably saw the cartridge or long house, but I have no memory of playing the game and you picked a game that only took a few hours and I've been balls deep and brother or tears Get the fuck.

Alex:

Tears of the kingdom.

Luke:

It was a nice companion and even so, I was getting so into it that I pulled an Alex. Alex always just tries to beat the game the day before we pod, and I was like I feel like to keep it fresh for our talk Right and I have lots of thoughts now, because now I was playing, I did like three of the levels over time and then I did three in the castle yesterday in an hour when two boys were napping like good old boys Nice.

Alex:

It was tight. So yeah, it's fine, so no, so no personal background. Really saw the cartridge laying around the house. What is this old background?

Luke:

Never knew it was around. Saw the title and was like, what is this? My first impression of it was like, was this like a McDonald's giveaway and a happy meal? It's like shout out to Grimace. Yeah, shout out to. I didn't get a shake man this kind of either.

Alex:

I did play the Grimace game though Sick but Go in.

Luke:

It's kind of like when you're like I want the new Mario games, Like we have Mario at home and like this is Mario at home, and I actually really didn't like it at first. I was like this is kind of busted in we're you're a hate.

Luke:

Yeah, it was weird and I don't quite like you have so much built in expectations around Mario and it's the way it feels and the way it looks and like even like some quintessential Mario stuff. Like you get the fire flower in this game and there's like a feather on your head and I was like what is going on Right Now? You were like fuck you, al is real aggressive on this one, like preemptively aggressive and then follow up aggressive on this one, like he really was. Like you're in place, fucking game. You're like it is dope game.

Alex:

It is cool in the end.

Luke:

But you definitely took some more aggressive cajoling than usual.

Alex:

How to set the table, how to be like watch this video, right? No, so when I did watch the gaming historian video.

Luke:

It actually. So, you know, to the audience who hasn't watched said video, the feathers. Because the original Game Boy for those of us that aren't a million years old, the original Game Boy was like, not quite black and white, but like hues of green and those four shades of gray.

Alex:

Well, why? Does it always look greenish. It is green. I don't know why people. It just kind of draws me a little nuts that people always refer to it as great, but it is. They're like four shades of green.

Luke:

Yeah, it's like black and white as far as a color palette is concerned, like a palette being the variety of what you were seeing, but like yeah, it's like a greenish hue. So you can't have Mario turn like red into the different overalls, so you have to show that he has the fire ability. So I guess you know that means a feather.

Alex:

Yeah, it's funny there's a few different power ups in this game.

Luke:

There's just two, right, Well? Well, there's a star if you count that, but there's the feather.

Alex:

Three, four, four technically. So you've got the feather, or what?

Luke:

No, which confusingly makes you shoot fireballs Right, right, right so you grab a fire flower, there's a feather on your head and you shoot fireballs. If that Right, right Keeping track.

Alex:

There's a regular mushroom that you're maybe used to Sure.

Luke:

I guess yes. That makes you super Mario from small to big Sure.

Alex:

Then you've got the fire flower, which gives you your, which gives you the feather hat, which is confusing when you start combining that with your knowledge of Super Mario World, where you get a feather and fly.

Luke:

Yeah, but like now in this game, you get a feather still.

Alex:

Is it a?

Luke:

feather to get the wings on your hat.

Alex:

It's bunny ears dude, so it's like well, so sure. No, it's a carrot or some sort Right.

Luke:

So it's like yeah.

Alex:

So it's not a feather, it's a carrot.

Alex:

You get the carrot then you get bunny ears, which is ridiculous because those allow you to float through the air, which is actually a really cool power up and I you know that's a problem and I love the Cape like feather in Super Mario World as well, I'd have to fly with Mario Sure. So in this game, and actually, if you are able to bring that power up to the infamous Wario, slash Mario's castle. To play that level like it does make it a little easier. If you don't get hit, in my opinion, because you don't get that power up throughout the game until you're fighting Wario, there's a spot where you can get it. Maybe, I can't remember.

Luke:

The bunny ears and wings are all over the place. Fuck you.

Alex:

Talking about it, not like in the castle.

Luke:

Oh, you mean like? Ok, I thought you meant like at all in the world. No, I'm not playing this game wrong for all these years.

Alex:

They're everywhere, so it's funny, though, that those bunny ears slash whatever the fuck they want to call them to make you fly. It's very similar to Kirby's bunnies fly children.

Luke:

Right Keeping up and that's not really a fly, as much as a little float flutter. Yeah, yeah, but it lets you to.

Alex:

But you, like, don't really descend, like you descend gradually. But, dude, if you jump up high, you can like just just cheese through the level that you want to just kind of similar to Kirby, which is, which is funny, fair, but yeah, so we've been talking a little bit about you know, like I think we do, I keep, we keep mentioning Wario's Castle. It's.

Luke:

Wario's Castle, Wario just your shit, right, right.

Alex:

So some some just speaking of setting tables, let's briefly set the table for our audience.

Luke:

What a story, and story and gameplay Right Continue.

Alex:

So Super Mario Land 2, as we mentioned, marks the debut of Wario, so he's taken over Mario Land. Believe, it's pronounced Wario, but you know whatever. So he's taken over Mario Land while Mario was out defeating the evil alien Tatanga and saving Daisy. So Super Mario Land 1 was our introduction to Daisy Sure, and Super Mario Land 1 was the first time that Super Mario wasn't in the Mushroom Kingdom.

Luke:

Oh yeah, all right, it was like almost like distinctly not Mario enough, and people were like he's weird, right, right.

Alex:

So they actually for this game. When they, when they made the successor to Super Mario Land, they wanted to make it more Marioesque, right.

Luke:

Yeah.

Alex:

And so they brought us to this new base. Basically, they made it actual Super Mario Land. So, like I guess, the I guess the player is meant to believe this is where Mario lives, and you know why Mario has this suburb of the Mushroom Kingdom and he's been doing quite well for himself. He's got big old castle.

Luke:

This is like the New Jersey. He's got like a big mech.

Alex:

He's got like a big mech Mario, like there's a shit going on.

Luke:

Yeah, we're trying to himself.

Alex:

But then, so like, while he was out saving Daisy over in whatever they call it, sarasa land, daisy's little place, wario has come in and said some crazy spell and enchanted Mario's like home and like made all these enemies and he's taking over. He's like fucking taking your house. Fuck you, mario. Classic tale Tales old as time. Right, my shit now.

Luke:

Right, and so he locks it behind some fancy door that you need to collect coins, so this is.

Alex:

This makes us a direct sequel to the first game. So presumably Mario comes home, shits fucked, he needs to go collect coins so he can get into his house All of his abosemen trashed around and put in different places Right.

Luke:

All the humanity, but that's what we're going to take out of the case and just left to stray.

Alex:

It's a mess.

Luke:

Yeah, it's disgusting.

Alex:

A couple of things that this game introduced to Mario and the Mario franchises. You have a save feature.

Luke:

Yeah.

Alex:

Pretty nice, like a checkpoint and you have check points.

Luke:

Why am I ringing these fucking bells? Checkpoints, dude. Well, I was cheating so hard I wasn't dying, so I didn't know that the checkpoint was a checkpoint for a while.

Alex:

And similar to Super Mario World. You have an overworld when the game starts right. So you've got this Super Mario Land that we've been talking about, and then you have six different zones. In each of these zones is where you have to one of the coins to collect.

Luke:

Yeah, they're very distinct. They're very thematic and pretty cool. That's probably the strength of the game.

Alex:

Great music in each one too.

Luke:

Didn't notice that as much.

Alex:

Like. I had the sound on there it was cool, like good sound effects at all, but it's a gameboy too, and I think that's one of the things you have to kind of I mean, they're, they're definitely bops, but like at the same time, you're like you know it's, it's, it's gameboy.

Luke:

Yeah, it's not as involved as some of the others, it's more limited, I guess totally.

Alex:

Yeah, that said, you've got all of the zones tree zone, space zone, macro zone, pumpkin zone, mario zone, turtle zone. Did you have a favorite zone, because they're all very distinct, as you mentioned.

Luke:

I would say that turtle zone was probably the lamest Right on, and that's the one.

Alex:

I started with yeah, so that's another you bring up. That's when you started with, so that was. Another cool thing about this particular game is it gave you a sense of agency and freedom to decide which direction you wanted to start in.

Luke:

Yeah, which also makes all of the levels equally difficult, which is not very difficult, right, which I actually thought was pleasant because it's just a little round, yeah, so I wasn't like looking for that damn castle, yeah sure, so like I can see this being accessible to all ages and if you're really into Mario, you don't care, like some people really love the challenge, which is cool.

Luke:

But like it makes it a very accessible game which makes a ton of sense on a Gameboy. So I think that would probably irk some people. But for me I found that cool. Like it wasn't like oh crap, I got to be at this game and I was like getting progressively harder. It was more just like all right, what's the theme here? And it really let me like take that in.

Alex:

Although this game was critically acclaimed when it dropped. So, like you know, reviewers did love it, and I think that it's hard to look at some of these retro games and kind of realize you have to contextualize the time, right, right, so like in the hardware that it was being put on. So the fact that this game is on Gameboy is actually pretty fucking cool yeah.

Luke:

So then I'd say Turtle Zone, although the boss is fairly cool and like the fact that you could see like you're like fight the last battle in the whale and it's ribs are like we'll stab you. That's the strange thing, but it was cool, and that's what the game did really well is like it did a pretty decent job of making you feel like you were in these thematic levels, that associated with the overworld. So then I'm just going to do a whole order here. The space zone I don't remember anything from it Tree zone.

Alex:

It's kind of floating around.

Luke:

No, I'm saying of my personal ranking. Oh word, bird, I see what you're saying yeah. So then, turtle Zone, the space zone, was just like meh.

Alex:

See what? Okay, I'll hold in that. I'll say about this You're allowed your opinions too.

Luke:

Tree zone was pretty cool, and then I think somewhere between the Mario, the pumpkin and the macro Macro is just like a house. Yeah, it's almost like a tiny thing in a big house.

Alex:

Right, so it reminds me of like Poly Pocket, and you remember, those are micro machines.

Luke:

Micro machines yes. Poly Pocket no, honey. I shrunk the kids vibes for sure. What was that? Grounded Just came out more recently where you're a kid that got shrunk into the yard. So I thought that was really cool. The pumpkin spooky zone I thought was really cool. The little Jason mask enemies Right, it's like the goofiest thing about the whole game. Perhaps that was just kind of funny.

Alex:

All the enemy character design. I think in this it's all pretty fun yeah.

Luke:

And then the Mario zone, where you're in this giant mech children's museum, mask type of Mario.

Alex:

That might be the coolest one. Because, it's just so fucking weird. And my favorite boss battles in that one too. What was it? The three little pigs? Okay.

Luke:

I don't remember the bosses as much, just I remember the vibe and the themes of the different levels and, once again, if you have any access to this game, it is a fun little romp and the yeah, it's on NSO.

Alex:

So folks that have that definitely can play it there and it's on the original. Game Boy so therefore, you don't even need the expansion pack.

Luke:

Sure, yeah, it's on the base one. But yeah, the themes and the difficulty being challenging at times, like it's not like a total walkthrough but like the fact that it's not super intense and you can just kind of enjoy these themes, made it pretty cool and exploratory.

Alex:

Yeah, so for me, dude, tree zone. I'll just go another way. I've had them listed on our outline, but tree zone, that's a no. Rank them right now. If you want me to rank them, dude, I'm going to have to put a podcast. If we're not ranked, I'm going to have to put Mario's on the the mech Mario deal going at number one.

Luke:

Reverse order. You don't just blow your load. Your first podcast.

Alex:

Come on, I'm going top down. He's just cropped Top down, dude. They're all fun. The thing is that we've already mentioned here's the deal.

Luke:

He's just sitting with a load in his pants, and who's going to listen to the rest?

Alex:

Continue, though you said maybe got six loads dude Doing porn Great pod. This is a family podcast. It's a no one Dude. I'm going to start with the top. Here's the thing, though, is they're all like pretty equal. Because you've already mentioned you know, the way that this game was designed is there Honestly like.

Luke:

Yeah right, they're all their own flavors. Act like turtle zone isn't your least favorite.

Alex:

See turtle zone. That's your quintessential water, like which always so Thing so yeah, I'm not really a fan of turtle zone, to be honest.

Luke:

As a kid did you have favorites? That's actually what I'm more interested in.

Alex:

Yeah, no, so that's. That's. That is why I love Mario's zone the best and that's because not as Okay, I'm going to resend that a little bit. There's this is a, there's those two ways. The actual zone that I like the best is a kid space zone, but the reason I chose Mario zone is for the three little pigs. That's my favorite boss. Okay, space zone was fun because it plays with the physics, right. So, you're, you go and that's a. There's a weird I can't remember. It's like the, the dragon.

Alex:

It's like the big hippo right.

Luke:

Like a big dragon ass tail, all right.

Alex:

Well, no, on the, on the overall map, though, there's that, that hippo thing.

Luke:

Doesn't really have to go.

Alex:

Maybe I can see I can see the always lot of us a hippo, I guess.

Luke:

I thought there was like a tail.

Alex:

But in the in like I guess you'll call like the northwest corner of this overworld map there's a hippo thing that brings you to space zone, and space zone Mario wears a space suit.

Luke:

I actually like how the turtle came and gobbled you up together the season.

Alex:

But yeah, but so Mario wears a space suit, right, and it fucks with the physics. So if you hold down the jump button, mario can float and float cross end. So as a kid I always thought that was really cool, you know, like the.

Alex:

Mario was doing that and as an adult I thought that was pretty cool. It's like a playful way to like fuck with these worlds. So space zone. But you bring it back to a favorite boss three little pigs. So all these bosses, tree zones, got Big Bird, that's whatever. There's nothing to write home about tree zone. It's fine, it's fun. It's like you're like regular Mario.

Luke:

I often write letters to our mother about tree bird.

Alex:

So you're fighting Big Bird and all these bosses same, pretty much the same deal Soops down, you jump on it.

Luke:

Soops down, jump on it.

Alex:

Three times game over, done right.

Luke:

Yeah, that's pretty.

Alex:

Space zone I mentioned, that's Tataga, that's the boss there and that's a fun throwback to Super Mario Land 1. So that's that evil alien that fucks with Daisy's home world. But he comes back. Unfortunately, it's not a schmup style battle like it is in Super Mario Land 1.

Luke:

Oh yeah, but you know I digress.

Alex:

Yeah, sure, Macro zone, that's the poly pocket thing we had going on Sewer rat Again. Like I do think that playfulness of like having Mario be small and everything real big is really cool.

Luke:

Yeah.

Alex:

But then pumpkin zone. I thought that was really cool.

Alex:

The little Jason character that you mentioned is a lot of fun, but it has a whole mask and knife right Some very strange Mario enemy, but that has a whole like Halloween vibe going to it, which is which is cool, and the witch is kind of a fun battle too. But again, all these bosses are the same. It's like hit them three times you win. They swoop down. That's, that's kind of the deal, but I do like the vibe for me and the the Halloween vibe in pumpkin zone is pretty cool and the music there is pretty cool too. Turtle zone we already mentioned that. Octopus same deal. Water, water always kind of sucks. Water has to be thrown in everything, but it's where we are. Yeah, mario zone with the three little pigs. Now, this one, the one I keep saying is my favorite is because the three little pig battle is pretty like. It takes that same formula, but in my opinion it's just more fun. You got three pigs that you got to deal with. They jump out of their little houses and they all do different stuff, right?

Luke:

They have a little cadence almost of how they buy that.

Alex:

Right.

Luke:

Like, even as a kid I was like nice, I didn't quite get that length right, let's jump a little higher.

Alex:

So, like we said earlier, I didn't have the rewind and I took them down, no problem. But you know that's just where we're at with that. I didn't have a childhood of training for this game. But the three little pigs, man, that you know, just like the old story, the three little pigs. You've got three little pigs of different sizes, so you're like, why is that the boss for a giant Mario?

Alex:

Who knows I don't know, but you know they have one like the big, tall, skinny one, like does this huge boying up in the air? You know we're in the room being like.

Luke:

So our giant Mac Mario toyland. What's the enemy?

Alex:

three pigs bet, bro, that makes so much sense to it.

Luke:

Put it on the board. What about our spooky land Like how much is like a Jason mask with legs.

Alex:

It's like goombas, but they're Jason mask wearing but the three little pigs. That was my favorite, favorite. But yeah, dude. And that brings us to Mario's castle that has been taken over by Wario. No checkpoints, pretty grueling platforming, and then you have three stage boss battle.

Luke:

The boss battle was less annoying than, like you went through these three rooms with like these swooping orbs that were like dude.

Alex:

I don't even know what that seems supposed to be, but it sucks, it's just yeah.

Luke:

And it wouldn't let you finish the room, like you could run past them.

Alex:

Oh, that's what you're talking about. Okay, yeah, they sucked. They're like big balls, that like.

Luke:

yeah, I was like, this isn't interesting or particularly not unfair, but I was like this is an annoying challenge, that I don't care and I had rewind.

Alex:

So this thing has been memified, so even the people that like didn't grow up with the DVD player screen, or like in their schools, where you know the gear meme community you're in. But you know what?

Luke:

I'm talking about with the DVD, where the DVD logo bounces off the edges of the screen.

Alex:

That's awesome.

Luke:

I totally thought of that. I was like cause yeah they do bounce around like that thing, okay, so that's why I break it up with the warms dude.

Alex:

And they have like the little. They have the little mustaches like Wario.

Luke:

So it's like it's presumably some sort of wario. I'm like if I wait long enough, we'll one hit the corner.

Alex:

Yeah, yeah, Well, that's a little trick to that If you run to each corner and you hide in the corner, there's a way less chance that those will hit you and you can kind of time your jumps better. That's fair. And there's different stages to the platforming. I don't even want to talk about it because it's so frustrating, because there's no checkpoints and you have to restart. If you die, you restart the level. So, like dude, you've got fire flowers coming at you. You've got these little platforms at the time like your jumps correctly. It's annoying. And there's like dude. It's also like it's not fair man. There's like a. There's like secret switches on the floor where you touch and then like a big fist will come down and punch you. Yeah, dude.

Alex:

You get used to that, but I yeah.

Luke:

I rerun that more than I'm proud of. It's worse is there's like this little, like there's a platform that moves that you got to jump and then you got to jump off to another one or like duck, and I'm like that was annoying. The rewind was real nice.

Alex:

Oh man, that's what I was saying earlier when I was like I'm going to come at you, dude, but I was so angry when I was doing it I knew that you had rewind too. I was like oh, that's motherfucker, he just doesn't even know.

Luke:

He doesn't know how difficult this will be Technically. One take, Technically speaking.

Alex:

I told you earlier he wore your one.

Luke:

He can't beat. But there's a different path into the castle that he looked up and did. And I was like damn he can say he actually beat that game. Some of those boss battles and like levels are really intense and like there's a certain like pride that you can have, which is cool, like, but also like gives a fuck, like I'm not yeah, my wife isn't married to me because I'm like. No, actually.

Alex:

I can't probably beat this game without a.

Luke:

I'm going to rerun future.

Alex:

And I'm not hitting everyone, because I'm accessible and it's cool.

Alex:

I agree, and it allows people to like. It allowed me to like, you know, not be a champ at Super Mario World and to take that game down for the pod and for just for fun, like because that's it. But if you want to give yourself that challenge of not using the rewind or playing it on a system that doesn't allow it, I think that's fun too, and that here's what you're missing out on. And here's what I was. When I beat it, I was like man, you know what Luke doesn't get the satisfaction that he fucking did that shit. It's true, it's very true, oh man. But yeah, dude, that that boss battle, though you've got all this platforming. Then you get to Wario. Oh, you get after these orbs, which there's one orb. Then you go to the next room two orbs, paying the ass. Third room two orbs again. He's like come on, man, why, why, we had to do this, why are you fucking me?

Luke:

And he's like well, fuck you, either give me three orbs or no orbs at all. Right, I was kind of like, oh, they're two.

Alex:

They're really hard.

Luke:

And here's the thing, is like speaking.

Alex:

They sprinkle very sparingly some power ups throughout the castle, which, like I'm glad they do. But and so with the power ups to you have regular little Mario. If you get a mushroom, that will bring you to Super Mario bigger. But unless it's a third way up, you get your fire flower or whatever Right. So if you get knocked by an enemy, an enemy. If you get knocked by an enemy, it will give you an enema. No, I'll bring you back one time so it digresses back. So you don't call it like some Mario games. If you get knocked with firepower you go back to just regular Mario. So it is nice that on that third level of power up it brings you back to two and then one if you get it again, so it allows you.

Luke:

What game did we play recently where you go all the way back to tiny marina? So fucking suck balls. Is that Super Mario World?

Alex:

I think it might be.

Luke:

I hate that shit Like give me, give me super power to medium sized to crappy Mario.

Alex:

Super Mario World lets you like bank one though, which is kind of nice, that's true, but uh, but yeah, so like that was. The one saving grace about this is at least like especially if you enter the castle with a power up already like you're better equipped to like go through this fucking gauntlet Always, but oh man difficult.

Luke:

I suppose if you die, though, you're robbed of that, unless you want to like really grind.

Alex:

Right, but in the end, if you beat it, you get your castle back. Everything's good in the world. You boot Wario out of there. See you later, dude.

Luke:

And that's it back to your brother's house where you live together, presumably while we do. The only thing we didn't mention is at the end of most all regular levels, they're without a boss. I guess, like uh, there's the, the easy way out or the basic way out, and then, there's up high, there's a bell that you ring which is another strange like interesting way.

Alex:

And that's a, that's something that was introduced in Super Mario Land, one, not the bell per say, but the uh, that mechanic, which is the uh, the two options, yep, and the topic to give you.

Luke:

Yeah, it doesn't give you, like in other games that might give you a secret level or a secret path, and in this game it gives you like kind of a crane game with a moving path and then, dude, so for me, I always hated when, sometimes, when I fail, I'd rewind.

Alex:

I'm having an epiphany here, dude. Like I'm obsessed with the crane game, I used to be like that's a story for another day.

Luke:

Okay, but I like one crane game extra for Alex's crane thoughts.

Alex:

Two I'm like I dig slot machines, like if I'm in Vegas or something like, I'll play slots. Fuck it, I'll play. I can play both the crane game and slot machines in Super Mario Land. Two, and I think that's why I'm obsessed with both those games. Sure.

Luke:

I hate gambling of that variety.

Alex:

Maybe it's cause.

Luke:

I didn't play this as a kid.

Alex:

That's what I'm saying. Mario has tainted my life to be a gambler.

Luke:

I'm not really much of a gambler, to be honest, but those two things I do like to play, but that's it.

Alex:

And then uh, so that is, that is the second installment in the Super Mario Land series. Super Mario Land three is super? No, it's not. Super is Wario.

Luke:

Hmm.

Alex:

Wario.

Luke:

Land. Yeah, you play as Wario, yep.

Alex:

So that is, uh, you actually get to and that's a. That's a cool subversion of the series too, because you get. It's actually a really great game and maybe we'll play it for the pod sometime, but it is a good one they release it on an SO.

Alex:

And it's a that is a fun one, but that is uh. That's your trio. That's your Super Mario Land games. Super Mario Land two man, it's a good one. Hell yeah, cool. And with that dude I'm going to take a little break. Come back with an un-synced sponsor. All right, wait, how do we do this again? That's it. Take a break for our un-synced sponsor. Come back with our side quests. Great podcast Right on. This episode is unofficially brought to you in part by Star Wars Children's Books Duh Duh, duh. Dad, I'm about to be dead.

Luke:

Yeah, oh yeah, I thought you meant like your dad, like you know, yeah, we got a dad, dad, dad's dad's was the answer. It's much the last month right, I am a dad, yes, but here's the deal.

Alex:

Star Wars Love me. Some Star Wars Star Wars children books have been starting to be coming into my life Because because my wife and I we've been reading nation's been reading to to our child in the womb Wow right, right, and we've been, you know we do that shit.

Luke:

That's me with my boys.

Alex:

But a few people. That's hilarious. But a few people have a blessing up gifted us Star Wars books, right Sure, and you actually you interest, gifted us where the wild things, are sure so not Star Wars themed.

Luke:

For those of you who are confused Right right.

Alex:

Oh, could be pretty delightfully co-opted into that I feel like I'd be in the universe.

Luke:

somehow I'm a wookiee shit I don't know.

Alex:

but, dude, pun intended to be grateful dad folk been reading to our little baby in the womb, trying to make them smart and trying to make them understand my voice, right. Sure, then I play in the pod, just so you can, like you know.

Luke:

I don't do that. All my baby heard was just like stressed out, heavy-sized and like you know but I'm saying sponsor.

Alex:

Star Wars books, dude, dude. I love it. It has been so much fun reading these books Because, dude, it makes me think about, like, how funny and ridiculous is, like Star Wars a big part of my life I've loved Star Wars since I can remember but the fact that I have a child coming into this world that is gonna grow up with Books about Star Wars.

Luke:

You're naming it Han, by the way. No, no, he's got a name. I'm gonna say that for later, for y'all.

Alex:

And it's not Star Wars related. Nonetheless, though, I really love this idea of Human being growing up in a world where his first, like pivotal memories and favorite books could be Star Wars themed Dude like I hope you just hate Star Wars.

Luke:

I want to sports dad, stupid.

Alex:

Oh man, but I think it's so hilarious, dude, I think it's so funny I think about like my life and like where the wild things are very pivotal and in my childhood and mine like I love that book and I'm sure that I hope that my, my child will love listening to that book as well. But I also hope that like these Star Wars stories I was reading this one last night or whatever, and it's about Anakin, pod racing and shit, right, oh. So it's like this lower I'm like this Star Wars, lower I'm like dude, some people like grow up reading the Bible. My kids gonna like be like talk about Jedi's and shit.

Luke:

There is someone had to.

Alex:

Like you know, do some like explaining, I think.

Luke:

Forgets into schools.

Alex:

Here's the reading your kids, whether they're what are there born already, or whether they're sure.

Luke:

Read your kids that encourage reading.

Alex:

Mm-hmm.

Luke:

Trisha's been reading this book. One cool thing about the doctor's office is they give you I don't know if you've been told this, but you'll definitely find out you have a lot of checkups, not a lot. You'd actually kind of appreciate more, because you get stats. They're your baby zone, this percentile, this stuff. It's fun, it's the door. You part of me really enjoys that. But what's really cool is that there's some sort of initiative where the doctor's office gives you books.

Alex:

Appropriates, whatever your checks.

Luke:

So you're three months check up they're gonna give you a book. Six months check up they give you a book. So and so forth.

Alex:

It's really cool. Yeah, it's like.

Luke:

I can afford books, but I just kind of love that when you go there Sent home of the book. But there's one where it's just different animals. So Trisha just adds the different animal noises and my boys are squirrelly as hell. So like we try to read to them but they don't just like sit down, there's like they're moving and grooving, trying to chew on the book. You know baby stuff, sir. But she makes these exaggerated animal noises so they kind of like listen, howl goes, who? I was cooking dinner. I was like what the fuck is that what I was supposed to say? Who's had my dough? It geeked out really hard. So now every time she reads it I'm like who's, how you're really good, so you know wait, how do you really do it?

Luke:

Oh, not who. You make an owl noise. Whoo-hoo, mario, haha.

Alex:

Oh, that's Mickey my bad. What's Mario's?

Luke:

noise. You just played a Mario game and did a little Mario game.

Alex:

I do that. I was making noises.

Luke:

Yeah, it does, it's like the only thing Chris Pratt did in the movie. Oh, I Don't know. Ha, I don't you get the fuck boy. I can put in some sounders. Whoo-hoo, he's reading books. Read your fucking kids. I don't care if they're 20 years old. Be like, sit down more. Call them up in college.

Alex:

Hey, I just thought I would read you this book tonight.

Luke:

There is a really sweet book and it's like I love you now, I love you forever or whatever, and like mom rocks the child.

Alex:

Dude, we've been reading that one too.

Luke:

Dude, it's weird. As a doll she like breaks into his house with a fucking ladder, like it's something Throughout the progression of her life too.

Alex:

She like, every time she like, creeps into his room like crawling and stuff. It is creepy, strange, very sweet book.

Luke:

Well, the end of it brings it all like tears you up first time You're gonna tear your child. But like you're gonna take care of me someday. But like if you haven't seen this book in a while, you're like this is a strange relationship she's developed with her son dude. He's a grown ass man, nice two story house. She'd be taking a just like what, a 16 foot ladder and getting all up in there. It was strange it is weird Dude.

Luke:

Oh man, I love it. Kids books who? All right, man, you've had enough, no that's cool, I'm gonna turn up again.

Alex:

Come back for some side quests. Yeah, yeah, come back. You ready for some side quests? Yeah, dude, right on, you got any. I didn't write any down because I didn't want you to be like, oh, you got a million side quests. I mean the side quests do? We played Super Mario Land 2. We had a whole month to do it. It takes two to three hours to beat that game.

Luke:

He wrote in the outline, side quests are fun. Luke is a hater. I'm not sharing my side quests pre-pod, so he'll know if I have one or a thousand and then I'm. So yes, because I do viciously Skulled Owl. He leaves it in most of the time but he might like it.

Luke:

It depends on how hard you go in on me, yeah, Like, yeah, three minutes, Don't be silly. It's also like some games we spend like an hour talking about and I'm like I don't have 30 extra minutes on this pod dog. But anyway, Tears of the Kingdom has been mainly the game I've played. I'd say I've lightened up on it as far as when we recorded our pod we were like what? 30 to 40 hours deep, Maybe a little bit more than that. Actually. I've ripped past that. I'm at like 120 now and what's wild is I've done two temples.

Alex:

And there's huge. What was the second one that you did?

Luke:

The water temple. So I had a. Have you done that one yet? Nope, you just did the rock and the air, what's called air for the bird folk, the Rito village one. Yep, yeah, you call them the fire temple, the rock temple. Yeah, ok, cool, I mean it's in a volcano right, yeah, sure, this is amazing. You have to have a fire proof Lava Lava.

Luke:

So, yeah, it's your traditional fire temple type shit, but anyway, the water temple, which is you know, probably got a stupid other name, and I also did the spirit temple, which really deeply surprised me, so you've done three, I guess. So, because it says to investigate the four disturbances and I just like stumbled into the fifth one because there is a fifth one and if you watch, the cut scenes.

Luke:

there's like the different sages or whatever they call them. That's a pretty typical Zelda thing, so that's not really a spoiler and it was really cool because you started in this and it really the layers of the game, which is really cool. You know the sky, the base level and the depth.

Luke:

It was really cool because you investigate this thing in the sky and then also there's this beam and then also in your down below and you're doing this quick thing and then you're in the depths and then you're assembling these things and then there's this I won't ruin it because it's pretty cool and then you you're in the spirit temple with this little boss. That wasn't like particularly hard, but it was all thematically really cool and it all. It all really hit like all the right, like it still isn't like your traditional really cool Zelda dungeon, but it was like the closest to like. This is so cool because it felt like I naturally stumbled into and discovered and got into this ridiculous thing. Excuse me, so I loved that. Similarly, have you run into any of the Colosseums down below? Did I talk about this on the first?

Luke:

No, because I think on the first part we talked about, I had yet to run into a Lionel Right. I ran into one in the depths and the motherfuckers wear an armor and it's the first time I've fought like. They have like different patterns that they're pretty easy to choose once you know. But it had been since Breath of the Wild, since I fought one Right. So he just kept fucking me up and then I beat him, but the armor had to knock off the armor that I had to fight him. And then you're in the year in the depth, so you have like the things that take away your hearts and you have to like eat special food or get to back to the light to even be allowed to heal. So then I stumbled into this area and it's a Colosseum. I'm like there's definitely cool gear in there. If you so you haven't done any of these Dog, you fight like five Lionels.

Alex:

Oh, fuck that Five six in a row and they get progressively harder. It was so cool Like that's what you call those like a boss Conlet pretty much.

Luke:

Yeah, so it was really it would. It would like auto save for you, so if you lost to one you'd be on the next one, but you didn't get the gear from the first one. And I'm like anal. And that's like the biggest thing in the new game, in my opinion, is the way that they've redone the thing where all your enemies drop unique loot, so to speak, and it's like the guts which are the nails and teeth or whatever the stupid things and those are attached to your arrows used for crafting. But the third thing is it's usually some sort of crown or horn and that's what you use for your weapons and that's what makes making and fusing weapons really unique and really fun and like the joy of creativity and combination in the game. Right, so Lionels drop like the most powerful stuff. So I was like I'm not going to like, even if I get through this, I don't want to get through this and only have like one Lionels crown and horn and things, because you get like two from Lionels actually.

Luke:

Ok, so I had to run off, I had to cook a bunch of meals, I had to prep. I got back in there, I got the cadences down right now, fucked them all up, I got some gear and it was really cool. So that was like another moment of like really liking this game. And then I finally took down one of those Glee locks or the dragons or whatever those are tough too. Those are tough, the trick is to use the eyeballs, ok, just because that, like auto, hits your opponent.

Luke:

So that like really helps and I thought those battles are just like really epic, kind of like set pieces, almost really cool. The first one I ever killed, I like flew all the way to this island way off in the Northwest, like on its own. I was like what's over there. Then I got close and I was like a fucking dragon and I did it, though Like I died the first time. I learned all the patterns and then I did it and it was really cool.

Luke:

But I, low key, don't like the loot from the dragons. I thought that was a missed opportunity. They're not as strong as the Lionels and they're in the different things. So in the first game, or in the first part, I really couldn't avoid the comparisons between Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. And it's natural right. They feel like the same game but one's just super charged, whereas now I've played enough where I had a rut and I played some other games and I powered through it and I'm back in and it's like it's all I've been playing lately Other than Swim Marieland.

Alex:

Six Coins and the motherfuckers Rewind of shit.

Luke:

Rewind of shit Ripping through because I got, but it's like it hits all those same points where I'm obsessed with finding the different outfits, I'm obsessed with the different weapons and the different discoveries. But it's just so much, man. I'm 120 hours at least, I think and like it's like double my time now.

Alex:

Yeah.

Luke:

Al has fallen off.

Alex:

Defend yourself.

Luke:

But I have huge areas of the depth still don't love the depth. It's pretty rare that I actually like really vibe with what's going on in the depths. I've just mostly found it frustrating, but like there's cool moments.

Alex:

Have you done a little ninja campaign or whatever that dude's name is from Breath of the Wild?

Luke:

No, because the only I still haven't unlocked the full overworld up full base level.

Alex:

And.

Luke:

I love. You know it's gonna be all my side questing. I still have all this area to like, two, three areas to unlock the towers in in the old, the base world, which is crazy. I've played so much and I still haven't even got that. I do love how, even though the base area is the same map, which is like the greatest map of gaming, so I get it, it's the same map but they're like different. Little things have changed. So you go to an old town and like the dynamics are different, they've been built up different, there's new buildings, so it's like that post apocalyptic, like oh, we survived. And like how are we going to rebuild? How is things going to be different? So like, even though you're going to an old place, like it's different, now it's new.

Luke:

So, there's tons going on. I'll probably play it for another month, I would assume, before I'm done. So like this might be like the rare story based game that cracks that 200. Nice, usually games that crack to 300, or like Civ or it's like campaign. It's like.

Alex:

I like your slave, the spire type of deal.

Luke:

Yeah, like rogue likes, like these things, where it's like there's almost like a compulsion to play it or games you've replayed. Sure Like these open world games are good for like 40 to 100 hours and then you're super burnt out.

Alex:

See, I got a little burnt on it. I definitely fell off. I. Here's the deal, though. I still really enjoy it. I just took the opportunity to take a break, I would say, because that was the only game I played pretty much all of last month.

Luke:

I have to give myself little objectives, or else it's too much.

Alex:

And that's just it. And that's kind of what I ran into is the ADD of it all, so like if I have purpose and I don't always, I don't always want to like enter the game with a purpose, so it's like an interesting thing.

Luke:

It's a cop. It's conflicting.

Alex:

Yeah, and if I like, if I give, like I was really enjoying kind of this, like the, the dragon tears for me, Like I really enjoyed, like going and unlocking all those memories and I thought like the storytelling behind those really cool. But then once that was done, sexy Ganon, you mean.

Luke:

Yeah, dog, there's actually an art of Zaddy. I want to have a zippo polygon or someone interviewed. Someone interviewed the dude who got to do the character design and basically he got the okay to make Ganon a little sexier and he was like he was like pumped for that and I was like we'll fucking love Send it.

Alex:

Yeah, fucking love that he's like. Can I make him like a little daddy? Come on, that's great Dude fucking. I mean all those you know like what's his, what's his people called again.

Luke:

Oh, they're the Gerudo.

Alex:

Yeah, dude, if he's the only dude. Gerudo, you got to be sexy, otherwise I feel bad for all the lady Gerudo, all the bows, all the bows, I don't know, they're always weird. But dog dude. So like that's, the ADD of the game kind of made me fall out. I don't want to say fall off of it because I'm not like I don't want to play this game again, I want to play it again. I just took like a big breather, right.

Luke:

So I'm going to get back into it. I mean, 60 hours traditionally is like a whole ass game, right, I've basically like yeah, so me being at two hours and literally two, two, two and a half, three undungeons of the five deep and not even like. That's like half. I'm like halfway through the game, If you think about it.

Alex:

The thing is is, when I approached this game too, like the nice thing about doing the, you know, having going into it with a little bit of purpose, like it's helpful for me to plow through and like give him more time, because I'm like, oh, I want to like take care of these tasks. But the thing is, though, is no matter what you do in this game, no matter if you like, if you headed one direction to go take care of one thing, there's going to be 13 things on the side that like no, pay attention to me pay attention to me and I'm like, oh fuck, all right, get to a shrine.

Luke:

And it's like not immediately easy.

Alex:

And I'm like.

Luke:

I don't want to grind on this one right now.

Alex:

Right, but those, you know those. That sounds like I'm taking a negative take on Zelda. The thing is is like it's great game, like, but for like I'm happy that you have like doubled your time and I'm looking forward to jumping back in and kind of like getting back into the groove of it. I just needed a little breather.

Luke:

Yeah, I would just say don't take too long where you're like oh my God, what's going on? Right, right, like you definitely want to chip away at it.

Alex:

But yeah, it depends on what we do next month.

Luke:

No, I'll definitely keep playing it, which is why I've got to select my game of the month just yet for next month, because I'm like what will not get in the way of Zelda Right.

Alex:

So you're going to have to check the socials and you're going to have to check the discord. For that announcement We'll not sign before the 15th.

Luke:

So Alex always mentions you can follow him on Twitter, Instagram, even some Facebook. I'm on Truth Social 4chan.

Alex:

Dude, before we, before we sign off, you try to get you try to get sidequests. And now let me talk about my sidequests.

Luke:

No, I just I had that joke. I was going to like try to find a time when you like actually brought up all the socials like earnestly and I was like yeah follow me on all these deplorable places and just see if you're going to keep it.

Alex:

Luke's got like life side quests where he goes out and signs up for fucking two social.

Luke:

I'm on no social media. Just be really funny all the times that you say you can't find Luke's on the social.

Alex:

I'm sorry.

Luke:

I'm number one and like do like a really weird one, like follow me on 4chan.

Alex:

It can be done.

Luke:

I'll be busy harassing female celebrities for no good reason.

Alex:

You've been playing anything other than Zelda. Just straight up, zelda. I picked up a description again.

Luke:

Oh nice, that's right. Act 2 is hard as fuck.

Alex:

And I don't know it's way till three. I think it depends on your deck man. Act 2 is going to depend a lot on the deck that you choose, still super cool.

Luke:

The art is so gorgeous Like I actually took some screen shots. I love that Nice Still play a show won the world series. Didn't actually play well, so I baseball games are really weird because, like your batter isn't even doing that well in your teams Like we won the world series. I'm like I didn't even really contribute. Hit 59 home runs in a season. You know how fucking frustrating that is. Like I'd rather have hit 55. But the fact that I was one shy of 60. I was like I'll be bashing them slow down.

Alex:

You got started juicing in the off season, Dude I wish.

Luke:

They made it a lifestyle RPG where you like had these weird moral. That'd be so great if someone took sports games and, like, made them a little less ethical, a little bit more like real.

Alex:

That's, that's our thing. That will be the more like the juice and baseball game. That will be it. More dingers. That's what it'll be called. More dingers.

Luke:

No, like I've always wanted. Like because I signed a contract and you know the team offered me some bullshit contract and then I'll get in the nitty gritty of arbitration. I won't explain it is, but I won the dispute and I got paid $30 million a year. That happens. That's not cool. That's how, in real life baseball, you have like team control, so to speak, for like three years, where they pay you the Dick salary that they pay you and then it's up for arbitration.

Luke:

So you submit a number oh the team submits a number and a judge literally decides who's right, right, oh, that's like really happens in baseball. For three years and so, after six total years, you hit true free agency.

Alex:

And then you're yeah, anyway, no one. No one came here for that.

Luke:

But so badly in sports games. I want there to be a reason for me to like push for a huge contract. Yeah, like, let me do something with that money. That's fun. Give me a reason to want to hit free agency and cash out. Give me a reason to beef with my team about how much Cutscene's or Luke's like driving a portion shit. Something stupid like that, or like your teammates are mad because you're mad salty about your contract, like give me those weird nitty gritty like that's what I really crave in these baseball games.

Luke:

It's like let me be a giant asshole with money. I don't know, I don't know Give me a reason to need.

Alex:

You're not gonna remember this, but there was a there's the playboy mansion game that came out like it was basically the Sims, but it was playboy this is ridiculous, dude, no we need to get at some developers on the line so we can create our like baseball sim where you just talk to a ridiculous playboy mansion type shit, that came us the cot.

Luke:

So I have so many more questions about that. Did you play it? Yeah, dog, we had it at the house. Oh yeah, you did, this was an Alex thing. No, there was. No, there was no, so it was no, I played in the open.

Alex:

It was like very the Sims, it was like I mean it was. It was a little bit more extreme, but there wasn't like actual nudity in there or anything. I don't know. You might have been able to see some titties I can't remember. This is definitely like do those?

Luke:

remembering there's no way you weren't doing this in college versus the house.

Alex:

No dude was at the house, cuz I'm like I Pired at the game as a kid, yeah, so I didn't like go like target and buy this game or whatever but you also pirated a ton at college.

Luke:

So like this is a public forum, let's not suck Thomas up a leg.

Alex:

The piracy here. I was kidding.

Luke:

I was a former life, but dude. That's why he's saying he was in high school.

Alex:

No, I really wasn't, I was a minor. I'd have to look up the. But the shit. What's his name dude? There's an actual. I think it's what who's Dude is. It's a who owns partial ownership of the Tim Rawls right now. Is a him, rodriguez, I don't know if it's a house or Regas. Who is it? There's dude. There's a baseball player that, like comes to the Playboy Mansion though in this game and you get it's so funny dude like this, oh I would love I'm gonna have to dig this game up, fucking eight.

Luke:

Yeah, all right. Yeah, you have a side quest, that's. I do have a lot of strange strangers for a while.

Alex:

So, going off the, going off the sports man, I got really into NBA 2k again. I've been playing through the, the, my Jordan challenges or whatever. Yeah and I've been having a lot of fun that with that. So there's um, yeah, basically pretty cool.

Luke:

They showcase the second best player of all time. Get the hell out of here. That they would.

Alex:

You know it's funny avenue for as I I pitted Jordan and LeBron James against each other and one-on-one match Just for fun, to see where we're in but then I got bored and I didn't go.

Luke:

Lebron's not a one-on-one player. There's oh yeah, well, you know, more of a team, more of a team. No, honestly the way his game is modeled. He's more of a magic Johnson than he does Michael Jordan continue.

Alex:

Yeah, so he's not the best player of all time, but here's the deal best player of all time has this game, whole entire game mode that shows all these pivotal moments of Jordan's career. So there's a little bit of story, a little bit of an interview with a, you know, someone pivotal in NBA history, like talking about whatever happened in the games more, more Jordan propaganda, and there's definitely no show. That's great, it's great, but but then you play these games and it's, it's fun.

Luke:

Last dance is like have you smelt Jordan's jockstrap, though?

Alex:

but, but they have good do they have all these different? They have all these different challenges for you, or there's three challenges to each challenge. Right, there's three things you have to check off.

Alex:

You don't have to, but progress I like yeah, pretty much the thing is a ridiculous though. So, like some of his games like you know, they'll be one of these deals it's like you have to score like six, you have to score like 60, some points, so like 63 points or whatever is Jordan, and it's like okay, cool, I. Uh, that's a lot of points for one player to score in a game by themselves, especially when it's like when the game is, on default, set to be five minute quarters.

Alex:

It's like I did so, like that's how I was able to like change it to 12 minute quarters and then you can check that off, dude, and this particular game 48 minutes, so I know.

Alex:

So here's the deal, but like. So the funny thing is that the game were you like, where he sets the scoring record or his personal scoring record, uh, I said up to 12 minutes, in the fourth I hit it. I, I like, was able to do that check mark by. I think I scored one point over, so it was perfect. Uh, and then I ended up falling out of the game because I had too many fouls, as Jordan trying to steal a ball and shit.

Luke:

So did you not pass that? No, I passed you still get it.

Alex:

But it was just kind of funny to me because they're like in the commentary, they're like talking about Jordan's game and obviously it's like what do you play against? Uh, that particular game was going to have allures.

Luke:

Okay, cause I know early in his career I actually know shit about Jordan and obviously I respect Jordan, but like there's early in his career, he's just putting the absolute work on the Celtics in the playoff game. It was like a ledger, so there's that game too, but that's one of them. He actually uses them, pretty sure, yep.

Alex:

So that's another interesting about this. Jordan challenge stuff is like the challenge might be to win the game, but in real life they may be the loss, that type of thing. Uh, so I've been playing NBA 2k and that one's been a lot of fun. Dude, the other game uh, also played a couple of other games, but 2k has been taking a bunch of time recently to game pass. One of the games that they've added is called fist. I don't remember the second part of that title. Look, ski at it. Yesterday, when I was bored.

Alex:

Yeah, it's a cool Metrovania. Uh, it's kind of like the steampunk like, or cyberpunk uh it's it's like this cyberpunk, like animal thing.

Alex:

Yeah, it's like this cyberpunk animal thing, but it's very like Metroidvania, but it's cool. So you like this weird like noir, rabbit or whatever that is like. You know, we don't really need to get in the weeds on the story. The gameplay is really nice and whereas you have like a Metroidvania in the sense of uh, let's just take Metroid, where you're like have your guns and you're shooting stuff, like this guy has this huge mechanic fist and it almost incorporates like it's almost like a beat them up game where you have the succession of different buttons, will like do all these different hit combos and you unlock like a skill tree and shit. It's very PlayStation. That's the game. First game out for PlayStation a while back. Oh, really, um, so it's like has this PlayStation as skill tree, but it's, it has a very, it's a very um, satisfying button combos for when you're when you're fighting bosses right.

Alex:

So that was. That's another main one, and the final one that I just started the other day is fire watch. You heard of this one, yeah.

Luke:

It's like one of the first uh walking Sims that got a lot of uh acclaim, yeah Something about halfway through Chris Parnell?

Alex:

Oh, that could be, I don't know who does the voice? He does the shark in that one shark game, but he might also do this Do that reminds me we didn't even mention that the sharks in Super Mario Land were boxing gloves. What's that about?

Alex:

That's a great point, Nonetheless nonetheless, fire watch has been the other, the other main game in the rotation for you know this past month, and it's a fun one. It's like it's a, you know the. The art style is really cool, yeah, um, and it's a. It's a nice like relaxing, little little deal. Uh. And then outside of the gaming realm I have to mention this because this has been eating a bunch of my free time up is I've been watching the fucking Sopranos and I mentioned this a while back.

Luke:

I mentioned this on a previous one.

Alex:

I definitely mentioned it in our discord. I don't know if I mentioned it on the pod. But, dude, I'm, I'm into season five of the Sopranos and I've bounced off the Sopranos previously in my life two or three different times. I've gotten up to like season three and then, for whatever reason, I was just like you know I did either got burnt out on it or whatever just had other stuff stop watching it. So this time I was like I'm going to fucking watch the Sopranos in my, in my free time, when the wife is at work or whatever, Sure, and so I've been doing it, dude, and it's been a lot of fucking fun. And like, dude, I used to, I didn't so like because I bounce off at so many times, like when people are like, oh, the Sopranos are so fucking great, and I'm always like, yeah, I don't know, Never really captured me enough to like watch it all.

Alex:

Like I'm finally there. I'm finally there where I'm like this, this show is pretty fucking good.

Luke:

I finally got like it took me until just out of college before I watched the wire and that was awesome, but I've never done the deep dive into the Sopranos. I have some buddies that have. It's weird because obviously I was like a child when it came out, so not a lot of children have access to HBO, right, for very many good reasons. So like at not at some point to now, it's going to be such a period piece. Yeah, no, it already kind of is.

Alex:

Yeah, so like that'll be really interesting for me. Yeah, it's funny and it's like kind of similar to what we're talking about with the Game Boy earlier and the limitations. And just wait, it's not exactly. It's not apples to apples here, but you wouldn't have Breaking Bad without Sopranos, that type of thing, right.

Luke:

So like a lot of ground Right and it's cool man.

Alex:

And it's a story where, in today's world, I feel like there's so much action, so much like every, there has to be so much going on in each episode, whereas in the Sopranos it's very character driven, so overall you're very involved.

Luke:

Less about the action of what's happening and more about the development of each character.

Alex:

It's like a whole episode where they get like lost in the woods or something.

Luke:

Yeah, it's considered one of the best ones.

Alex:

It's a pine, barons Sure.

Luke:

So, like my first introduction, to even the fact that the surprise or anything to culturally was like the Simpsons did, like a whole couch gag intro or it was like based on the Sopranos theme, and I was like I was supposed to know, yeah, what's going on here? Like it's one of those awkward moments where, like family guy, we used to be the worst for this, but they had just like always be referencing like 80s sitcoms and I'm like who's this?

Luke:

for the creators, yeah, and like sometimes you see a movie and you're like, huh, that was like a whole family guy episode, right. So the Simpsons especially. Like I was more of a Simpsons kid but yeah, it's kind of funny.

Alex:

But, sopranos man, I might even have the entirety of the series done by the next pod, which I'm excited for. So you're not watching the Witcher SE, I haven't started the Witcher.

Luke:

No, I got one episode and I was like it was pretty good, but it's just. Video. Games are not TV for me. I don't watch a lot of TV shows.

Alex:

Let's do something together.

Luke:

Watch the bear, which is pretty sick. Oh dude, should we run around calling people chef in real life? Yes, chef, yes, chef, heard.

Alex:

Heard. So that's funny because people in like the bears another big likewise. We finished that. I fucking love that season two. The bears are great. But it is funny for me, for non-industry people, because I work in the industry part time to like start Industry.

Luke:

The service industry, I know, but like it's just so funny whenever you hear people like they come into. I briefly worked at the restaurant. People would come in and be like yeah, we're in the industry, treat me different. I'm like where'd your fucking table?

Alex:

I'm gonna ever manage to relate to you.

Luke:

Yeah, I mean teachers is not like we don't do dumb shit like that, Like every, every profession does it. I just love. Like the industry, everybody hears a deal.

Alex:

It's so funny.

Luke:

Like your actor is like you know. Show me his name. You wouldn't get it. You're not in the industry.

Alex:

I love it, though. I work with us. I work in the restaurant for four days. You know the industry. But it's great because, like you know, the whole world's watching the bear right now. So it's like in my life, like my regular work life not regular, my main work life is marketing dude. So I had a meeting with one of my one of my partners. She was like we're talking about something. She was like her chef and I was like the fuck or something like that it's hilarious.

Luke:

You must be watching the bear People at in the industry are like this show gets us, or are?

Alex:

they like all these normies, trying to understand. It goes two ways, man. I think it's it's funny because it's like it is a fairly good betrayal. That's not entirely. It's like they do a fair portrayal of, like, what's going on. Every restaurant's going to be different, dude, but it's just funny because for some folks it hits too hard.

Luke:

Yeah.

Alex:

And for other folks are like oh cool, I'm being represented.

Luke:

And like you know, some people are like this is ridiculous, our brother won't watch it. Yeah, our brother is a chef, yes, so he won't watch it, he's just like I'm like you know he recently already lived that life. Hey, he recently escaped the industry, you know, kind of like drug cartel type shit, like he escaped that life.

Luke:

So I think the idea of watching that show, probably and he you know as far as, like you said, that every restaurant's different I think this does a pretty good portrayal of like a specific type of high end type of culinary world, whereas maybe season one a little less so, because it was that end like a typical beef shop in Chicago. But, yeah, add to our list of brooding male superstars. You know we had Henry Cavill, you know, Arthur Morgan and now Jeremy Allen White.

Alex:

Yes, sir, just always I'll give a grunt for Jeremy, but all he does is like squint. He just squints and like smashes his forehead and like stressed out smoking.

Luke:

He is the king of stressed out smoking, bro Like. I've never like he went to acting school, I'm sure, but I'm sure that all of his classes are just like how do I look? Like a brooding male who smokes and has too many feelings and they. I don't want to talk about them, but I'm going to talk about them now. Like that's his whole between shameless and this like. They're very different characters but at the same time they have such through lines of like it's speaking of it's going to brood and rip a heater.

Alex:

Time to escape this pod. Thanks for hanging everybody. Wow, dick, oh no, it's been a fun moment. Thanks, Luke, being, as always, Rip a cigarette. You want to talk to Bear? You want to talk about other shit? Get at us in the discord. You can holler at me on the socials at low five gaming dot com. You can also shoot us an email at hello at low five gaming dot com.

Luke:

Alex on threads for chance. Yes, sir, Get him everywhere dog.

Alex:

I'm on threads at other shit. That's Luke, no.

Luke:

Luke's not on the socials.

Alex:

If you want to talk to him, he's on the discord. Much love you all. Thanks so much for hanging with us again. I hope you enjoyed. If you did, please leave us a rating on your pod catcher of toys, If they have it. If not, tell your fucking friends about us. Share us around. That's the best way to get this podcast out there.

Luke:

Further, yeah, you fucking rock till next time. The nineties are overrated Bye Jordan.

Alex:

I continue with demo and content, more about myself and even stuff. That's a great game. I'm bragging before you a Liz you.

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Alex

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Luke

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