Low Five Gaming
Welcome to Low Five Gaming, the book club-style podcast where two brothers, Alex and Luke, share their lifelong love for video games through engaging conversations and friendly debates. If you're a passionate gamer, a casual fan, or just have a soft spot for the classics, our laid-back, conversational approach will make you feel right at home.
Each month, we'll explore the game of the moment or revisit a beloved classic, satisfying your gaming cravings with our unique blend of humor, insight, and personal experiences. Whether it's reminiscing about crunchy classics like Prince of Persia (89), getting hyped about the latest Nintendo Direct, or diving into deep discussions on FPGA consoles (much to Luke's chagrin), Low Five Gaming is your go-to podcast for all things gaming.
As brothers with a lifelong bond, Alex and Luke bring a genuine camaraderie and relatable banter to every episode, making it easy for you to connect with fellow gamers who truly understand your love for the virtual world. So, if you're looking to join a gaming community where you can enjoy thought-provoking conversations about your favorite games, look no further than Low Five Gaming. You're also invited to join the conversation in our Discord server!
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Low Five Gaming
Donkey Kong Country
Alex and Luke Talk Donkey Kong Country.
Donkey Kong Country is a groundbreaking platformer developed by Rare and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. In this iconic title, players take on the roles of Donkey Kong and his sidekick Diddy Kong, embarking on a quest to recover their stolen banana hoard from the villainous King K. Rool and his army of Kremlings.
Originally released on November 21, 1994, the game was a pivotal moment in gaming history, showcasing revolutionary graphics for its time, thanks to its use of pre-rendered 3D sprites. The game's technical achievements and addictive gameplay garnered universal acclaim, earning it a lasting legacy in the platforming genre.
According to howlongtobeat.com, the main storyline of Donkey Kong Country can be completed in about 5 hours. However, for those aiming to achieve 100% game completion by finding all bonus rooms and collectibles, you're looking at a much larger commitment.
Alex revisited Donkey Kong Country on his Switch using NSO, as did Luke. Both hosts succeeded in toppling King K. Rool, but the question remains: Who truly mastered the dense jungles and treacherous mine cart rides of Donkey Kong Island?
This episode is unofficially brought to you in part by pumpkin spice.
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Theme music is by AJ Norman. Design assets were created by Studio Day Job.
Low Five Gaming is a Studio Low Five Production.
Someone to yeah Okay.
Speaker 2:Don't get. Oh, they didn't get to that till the 64, bro.
Speaker 1:I'm aware, get ahead of yourself. I'm aware this is cultural icon. It's like sir Zenith, the peak of Donkey Kong experience. Do, do, do, okay, okay, it's don't care, call yeah.
Speaker 2:Welcome to low five gaming everybody Podcasts that I do with my cohost and brother, luke, backlog book club style. If you will pick a game Book club, I beat that shit, and if, whether this is your first episode, or your. What are we on? Man Like pushing 30.
Speaker 1:Damn. Yeah, I am 31. Yeah, happy talking about the podcast. Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Happy birthday. Happy birthday. It's neat today as of the dropping of this recording.
Speaker 1:Oh, I was like shoot, I'm usually pretty good about this age of birth, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:We're recording before, but if it's, if you're listening on the 15th hit that discord with some birthday love. You missed Luke, so you're just not good.
Speaker 1:Unsanctioned. Sponsored birthday princess Alex.
Speaker 2:Good to see you, good to have you here, good to have everybody listening. Welcome. We got Donkey Kong country today.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Do, do, do, okay. It's been a while. Yeah, donkey Kong, I'm going to do that like 40 times.
Speaker 2:I can dig it dude, have you ever played the? 64 game yeah, donkey Kong 64.
Speaker 1:Yeah, dude is the first Donkey Kong I ever played.
Speaker 2:All right.
Speaker 1:Cool, cool. Get like super far, but we'll get there.
Speaker 2:Well, in that case, that that's a good segue into what's your back, what's your history with this game and Donkey Kong country.
Speaker 1:None Word, no, I mean I. So Donkey Kong is a genre or not a genre, but Donkey Kong is IP, or you know what's the word I'm looking for here? That's a franchise. You know the?
Speaker 2:Donkey Kong universe. You know, 64 was a huge hit and I was very young. We had a 64.
Speaker 1:So DK 64 would definitely be my entry. And then Smash Bros. He was always a he's one of the pillar characters and he's always been a fun play, so I think that's a good thing. So, really, donkey Kong countries and the 2d platformers. I didn't know the franchise came from those roots at all until the switch when it first came out. Those like first two years. Like there was some bangers obviously, but there was some dry spells too before. Like a ton of indie games are on there and like everything else that we now know on the switch. So I picked up tropical freeze and game Dude. Yeah, I'll definitely get it in the game Dude. Yeah, I'll definitely get it into that. At different points here we're talking about you know the things I struggled with in this game and like modernization, but like I remember really loving tropical freeze, but it's pretty hard for me.
Speaker 1:And it's probably because I didn't have any Donkey Kong country history, sure, but I thought it was really cool. And then, other than those two things, or three things, I should say most of my Donkey Kong information comes from video game Donkey, which I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing, but he's a huge fan, so it's fun. You can watch yourself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we we had a second Genesis in the house. A little latter end of that. That console is like official life, you know.
Speaker 1:But we didn't have this. Yeah, I didn't have this.
Speaker 2:I didn't have a Super Nintendo and I played this game at the homies houses that had it, but I feel like I skewed towards Mario man, I think. When it came to platformers it's funny. This game in particular I could think I'm well versed with like the first maybe 10 levels, but I never really got further than that. You know like we never really played much further than that, even though there's some interesting things with with Donkey Kong country, the incorporation of co-ops, pretty cool. But I was just playing at an age that I think I was too young to be good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's hard. You're dancing around the fact that it's kind of harder and definitely a more mature platformer.
Speaker 1:Not that it's delving into dark themes of depression like Celeste or anything, but like it's a. It's a lot darker in a lot of different ways and more difficult than Mario. I mean, I don't know why as a little kid, because this is an older game in general, I don't think a lot of people my age are super familiar with talking. That's a broad generalization, obviously, but I don't think like I don't remember anyone having a SNES growing up in my era Never saw or heard of this game.
Speaker 1:The Buddy James had it at his daycare for a little bit, I think, and he's the only one. I know that grew up with it at all.
Speaker 2:Yeah, dude, it's fun, though, Like the the. The funny thing about this game is even though I don't have like a, a very deep history with it, run into folks that do right. People love this, this fucking game, and it's it's warranted, like. I see where the love is. I think that you know, coming at it at this time in 2023,. This game came out in 1994, I want to say November of 1999.
Speaker 2:Right, published by Nintendo. Interestingly, it was developed by Rare and Rare started making video games for the original Nintendo. So like Battletoads was one of their first games. Six, and then people know them for like GoldenEye, obviously on the 64, banjo-kazooie, et cetera. But this was a big. This was a big deal for Rare because they basically they proved to Nintendo they like, believe they backwards, like built a the Nintendo platform to like prove that they could, that they understood the system right and that kind of caught the eye of Nintendo and and then they made them comfortable with them putting together games for them right when the SNES came around, previous Donkey Kong games. So this, this is the platformer, but you've got your history of like the Donkey Kong arcade right, so you were your yeah, I mean, he's is old, if not older than Mario, right when Mario was still Jump.
Speaker 1:Man he's fighting Donkey Kong.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and fun fact yeah, cranky Kong the old, the old Kong that you run into in Donkey Kong Country is actually just gives you shitty advice, but he is Donkey Kong in the original Donkey Kong game, Like that's the lower there, right? Oh, that's hilarious, that's kind of fun, but but so Rare.
Speaker 2:Rare proved to Nintendo that they could make these games and they were good at it. So the Nintendo gave them the reins on this one, you know, to take their IP and run with it. I think Miyamoto was working on Yoshi's Island, I want to say, during the time of this development, so he previously was the only person who had or you know, it was kind of his Donkey Kong was his baby. So it was a big deal. It was a big deal for Rare to get this one. I think they nailed it, you know they they knocked out the park. Obviously, a lot of people love it. It's funny. We we recently got together in person not too long ago and we were talking to some homies and told them we're going to be working on this podcast. We have been playing this game. Our buddy, eric in in particular, was like he got really excited, right yeah right.
Speaker 2:But our buddy Eric got super excited right and was like, oh, that's one of my favorite games of all time. And then he also led into the soundtrack, the OST, and that's. That is a common theme. So the reason we didn't we don't have like strong nostalgia love for this game. I definitely played it, but it's not in my like gaming zeitgeist. That said, it is in a lot of folks and it's something that has been requested. This game in particular, has been requested quite a few times on our discord and then also on social media. So you're welcome, you're welcome.
Speaker 1:We're doing it. We did it. We're doing it. No, rewinds 100% of it.
Speaker 2:And I played on the switch for this dude. I started another thing on the, on the game proper, on the cart proper, but I'm not nearly as far because it's a tough game.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, and in talking to Eric because I, once again, I didn't grow up with anybody who has like extensive knowledge of this game and I was like it's just so hard and I don't know, nor do I have the patience to grind out extra levels he goes oh well, you know, and then he's like you learn all little places where you get those little animal shapes, then you collect three of them and you get to do the thing where you get like 10 plus lives. And it kind of took me back to that mindset of when I was younger playing these games, or it was just like so normal for you to like do these. We almost become instantly impatient, right, like we're we can't beat a level and we're like this is annoying to checkpoints there's one checkpoint per level. It's like pretty brutal and some of these levels just get just nails just so ridiculously hard, not platforming and the timing of things, and it's just like if I didn't have the rewind I'd be insane trying to get through this and it's like that's just kind of how games were and that's just kind of how we approached them.
Speaker 1:You took your time, you goofed around in these levels. You weren't trying to like rip through them really fast and see everything. You were just if you were old enough to be playing this game to beat it. You just found those different little strategies, the way to cheese it. And it's not really cheesing it Cause it's kind of, I feel, like how it's developed, because you would never beat this game if you weren't amassing lives this way.
Speaker 2:There is a fun little lesser known fact that so there's a 50 lives cheat code.
Speaker 1:No shit, Enter Two lives would be like destroyed so quickly, though Like that's the tip of the iceberg or what I'd need to finish some of these later levels.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So you have to enter the code barrel B, a R A L on the game's file select screen and it'll grant you 50 lives. But I'm not even sure where you'd punch that in Not to think about it?
Speaker 1:I'd rather not know. It gives us back to the playground myths. Yeah, that's right, dude. Rare candy, what's up? Yeah for sure, tm monster. I think it was real, though, so it's funny, I do know.
Speaker 2:Like so this game's riddled with secrets too. Like so that's a good point, I know where. A couple of hard in the first few levels. But as I played through this, like cranky Kong at the end gives you some shit because, like I think a percentage wise first, because there's a ton of secret rooms, secret items, you can pick up and do my percentage. Like I've got completed the game. I rolled the credits but it's like 40% or something like that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't even see that, but mine to be ridiculously low.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it feels like it feels so smart in the beginning, when you're you're nailing them.
Speaker 1:You're like I'm going to get all these. I'm going to get all the Kongs, like collecting the letters throughout the level. You're like I'm going to get all of those.
Speaker 2:Nope, dude, those things that you're talking about. So there's the Kong letters to collect throughout the level. There's also those. So you have buddies in this right. So you play as you play, as Donkey Kong, but it is the birth of the Dadey Kong.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's the birth of Dadey Kong, who I've always loved more. Maybe it's a little bit of a thing, I don't know. I like them too. Dude who did you play with?
Speaker 2:Who did you play with most throughout the playthrough? Dadey Kong easily he is weaker, which I thought was interesting.
Speaker 1:I thought they were identical for a long time. He's weaker, but he has a higher jump and he's faster. I thought that was really, it's really cool yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it wasn't until the I wasn't to the later levels that I started to favor Kong Donkey Kong more because he could take on, because he would kill the enemies, as opposed to DK just bouncing off them. I mean, the Dadey Kong is bouncing off.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if you do that roll attack, which, like that thing's really embarrassing, is how long it took me to know that if you hold the roll attack it just runs into a sprint. That was that changed some things for a while. That was brutally embarrassing. But he can like defeat some of them with that roll attack. It's just you know now you're getting into finicky timing and you're more likely to botch it.
Speaker 2:Sure, sure, yeah, no, it's, it's funny. So when I was doing some research for this, you know, for this game, I also found out which I thought was a fun little fact too. I mentioned, you know it's with the development history of Miyamoto. Apparently he was a little skeptical of this game when they're creating it right, because he at first thought the gameplay was a bit mediocre.
Speaker 2:And part of you know Shigeru Miyamoto's full like the way that he approaches video games is this idea that the gameplay itself should be really polished and smooth. And I mean graphics are kind of a little side, part of that. Which is interesting thing when you look at Nintendo as a full right, because that's, you know, that's one of their main focuses is making sure that the gameplay is super polished and graphics are kind of like second, you know, second tier, like look at your PS5s and your Xbox and you got your Switch, not a big deal, but the games that they put on Switch, phenomenal. So it's interesting that this has been a mindset of his for a long time. So this is a game that came out in 94 for the Super Nintendo, but at the time, dude, anytime you're playing one of these, like like throwback games or retro game. It's kind of funny because, like, the graphics are cool, dude, they are cool, but at the time they were fucking lit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I. The backgrounds I believe are like hand drawn type shit right. Like they're not I think.
Speaker 2:So that's like a little parallax thing going. Is it parallax or not? But it's definitely. The colors are cool, man. There's a couple levels where it's it's like the. It'll be dusk, so you've got some really beautiful oranges and reds going on in the background, but it's also darker, so it's a little harder to see. You know like, ah shit, but but the big thing about this, what they did, is they did these pre-rendered 3D graphics to create all the like, the characters, and then they turned those into sprites. So that's, you've got like a lot more detail than your. I guess you're like a Super Mario world or something like that, Like those. I think Super Mario looks, world, looks great, but like this game looks gorgeous in a different way.
Speaker 1:It does, yeah, it feels silly to say this one looked realistic, but it's the same way that, like Mortal Kombat was right, where it's the same process you talked about, where it's like the sprites versus like what you're seeing, the super color for world of like Mario.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah. So, like Miyamoto, skepticism though it's rooted in this, this fear that the dazzle in the state of these graphics would would overshadow shortcomings in the platforming, which is which I think is interesting and that was an interesting thing to read, because this game is lauded for being a groundbreaking platformer, like Rare really did a pretty good job, but I do see what he's talking. When you like, look at a game that's as tight as Mario. It's interesting to know that he's a little skeptical of DK.
Speaker 1:I'd say like it's a well one, like there's really no reason to treat Mario and DK separately when it comes to, like the discussion. They're two of Nintendo's babies, but also like they are both platformers. Right, they have their own styles and flavors, which I think is really cool, but Mario like, frame to frame, I feel like like each inch of the screen. I have a lot of trust in the game. In that way, donkey Kong, I feel like, is more, more creative. Maybe isn't fair to Mario, but maybe it's just so much different. It's fun, it's a fun mix up, but I don't have that same faith of like I'm not going to slip.
Speaker 2:Dude, there's a couple of jumps where I had some sloppy jumps and I would still kill, kill like an enemy and I would be like, oh good, other times where they get you, it is like or like even when we were playing X-Men, it's like I don't know if they're really going to like land on this corner or like like I don't know.
Speaker 1:It's weird to explain, but on Mario it's like I know each inch he's going to land on. Not that I'm any good at it, but it's just a tighter feeling where PK is a little looser, more variety and just a what would you consider like the DK flavor. It's a good little transition here. Like what? Because it is a different experience entirely. I Like how you can tag team between the two of them. I think that's really cool.
Speaker 2:I think that is cool. There's some that that definitely adds like a Stronger layer of the co-op, so we didn't play co-op for this.
Speaker 1:But you can, that sounds horrifying. Yeah, it doesn't sound fun, that just sounds horrifying.
Speaker 2:Shout out to the homie, keith, who does main quest pot, but we recently you know he it'll be airing soon but we did Expand to the clone wars, talking with the talk about that with him. So that's something that we you and I did play co-op for, that Like that was tough, dude. It's tough to stay on screen and like go in the same place and I could see that being a little bit of the same here with With Donkey Kong. I think that you know per your question, though, like what is it's? Like what brings it apart? I think obviously those graphics, like was it, were a big deal, I think you know. I think the playfulness of what you're able to do with with Diddy, but then also the other buddies, like the which you know part mark.
Speaker 2:And he's got Yoshi, I suppose. But yeah, you got your. What is it? It's the frog, the rhino Ostrich. I want to say there's an ostrich. I guess they're a good early super OP. I didn't really notice, but that's what I was reading about, which is which is interesting.
Speaker 1:I Mean, I guess I fuck it up anyway.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I really like. I really like the rhino, but it's similar, so I mean, so that's not really making it different, though what it? What would it be? There's the music in this is that's something we should jump into too is like the Are we. We did mention the importance of it, but that was the music is amazing.
Speaker 1:It's very, it's very jazz, very afro beat jazz kind of influence, also kind of Caribbean, very cool tropical influences there. But Mario also like All-time slappers when it comes to soundtracks too, so but it's like once again it almost feels less video gamey, just like how the the graphics are a little more quote-unquote realistic we're talking 1994 here. The music definitely is more like something you would hear out and about almost like Not artistic, because I think the Mario stuff is too, but that's like very gamey soundtrack, you, where this is just like this jazz. That's like giving you different emotions and like the water grips and the caves and like the super funky underwater theme. That's like uber, famous for being like way too good for a video game.
Speaker 2:The. The composer here is David wise. That's his name, right? And another fun fact you, david wise? Well, he was a, he was a developer for rare they. They had someone else set to be the composer but then, for whatever reason, they couldn't come in and they, they subbed in David to, like you know, do some of the work, and then it just ended up being so good they're like all right, cool, that's like let's just rock with it, sure, but, um, david wise, dude, and it's funny, when I was, like you know, poking like throughout the month, like learning more about this game and everything, like I knew that people love this underwater tune which will play a little bit of yeah, there are YouTube videos that just play it on loop for for like six hours, because it is a true vibe.
Speaker 1:You like the love you're saying, said that his girlfriend caught like a 20 minute rant of what do you know about the Tonki Kong country underground theme and it had nothing to do with our recent conversation but he had recently argued of its merits.
Speaker 2:So like it lives with the people, it lives with my guy, dude, totally totally yeah and I think that's, you know, I think it's, I think it's a, it's a timepiece too, though, like because the thing is I'm playing this game and it's not one that I would necessarily I Were we'll give up, we'll give our full recommendations later, but, like you know, I do think that, whereas and I'm just, I said it earlier, like I just I skew Mario man and I think it is something to do with that tightness, something to about that world. You know, they go back to your question about what makes us different is, I think it's, it's very interesting how this game elevated the DK story, like this whole, like this world that I'm going lives in, and then going on like to the different Donkey Kong games or whatever.
Speaker 1:Like the story is like not Very deep, like he's got a good way to put it, though, that they expanded, like they created their whole world for it. And like Donkey Kong's place in Mario canons, like kind of crazy because like in the Mario movie, he's like a titular character, right like he and the Kong. So you're kind of like this is interesting because they've abandoned the games. Like the no switch game has Donkey Kong I mean, you know the sports ones and stuff but like the only game they have on the switch that is Donkey Kong, to my knowledge of extensive research, is Tropical freeze, which is a Wii U port.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1:So, like, interestingly, like it's been used for innovation, like, although Donkey Kong 64 is kind of innovative, it's also just like Banjo, kazooie, slash games of its time made by same people. But Like they also like for the GameCube, they had like a literal bongo set. I believe that you set up maybe that was for the Wii, I could be corrected here, but you had like a literal bongo that you did the game with the platforming so like.
Speaker 1:But after that type of stuff, like I'm kind of shocked of all the games I got a glow-up in the switch era, like Donkey Kong, although being held to this high status with their world and everything the world building in a fan popularity of Smash and all that Mm-hmm on the same. So it's one of the biggest IP Nintendo has and yet no new game. It's kind of weird.
Speaker 2:Hey, it's weird. It doesn't be weird like that, it's probably just doesn't have the numbers that need. Okay though over over nine million copies sold, making it the third best-selling SNES game of all time.
Speaker 1:So yeah, it just kind of goes back to something they just didn't pick up, even though it had critical acclaim and like I Wonder is because it was a rare problem.
Speaker 2:I mean, it was Nintendo property, but maybe I rare. I wonder if that's part of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, tropical freeze was fire, but I think nothing.
Speaker 2:I don't think the deal with tropical freeze.
Speaker 1:I'm not sure. Get my crack team on it. I.
Speaker 2:Will say this I brought up David wise earlier. They did bring back David wise to work on trap. Tropical fuse was just kind of cool.
Speaker 1:Did you do the music for a bunch of their games, like did they run? Because I know that Donkey Kong, like Country 2 and 3 and Because this games like this game. Have slappers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this game spun off a little, a little trilogy on the super, yeah. And it's also worth mentioning too that this game was ported to Gameboy, which is you know me. I love my Gameboy, but it's like, it's a hilarious port dude, gameboy Advance. They put it out on the, the Wii's virtual console and then it's out, it's all on the SNES classic mini and it's now on the NSO. But those ports for the Gameboy Color dude, the Gameboy Advance port pretty good, pretty close to the Super Nintendo version, which is the case with a lot of those ports for Gameboy Advance. They had enough power to run those. But the Gameboy Color dude, they took this game and they crunched it down in the most ridiculous it's how to stretch my hands, I would be no, oh, it's asking on a prayer there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's, it's. It's funny, dude, it's. It's basically like the epitome of you know, mom, I want to play Donkey Kong Country. She's like we got that shit at home, but it's fun. I still love to play it, but it's, it's. Now it's another one that I pop in. I I have not played that to the end because it's it's tough man, but they really, they really did down to For Gameboy yeah, that sounds even worse.
Speaker 1:I'm looking at in your extensive research. Alex went crazy on the outline today. Dude, my man's been hacking away. I like it, but you got the. How long to beat the more main insides is four hours, completionist is Six and it's like well.
Speaker 2:So that's the thing, dude, this is. I always love going to how long to beat. To look at these times. Yeah, I've noticed that you know, for the duration of this pot, I always try, and you know, pay attention to how long I'm taking on games and I'm always averaging a couple, a couple more hours than what the internet says.
Speaker 1:Good, take what was funny is like I would agree with these times with a rewind, like if you know exactly what you're doing and can finish each level within reason, sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like oh, that's to say you can't.
Speaker 1:If I bought this in 1994, we're talking before. I beat this thing 50 hours minimum. All that grinding, learning, memorizing, like oh my god.
Speaker 2:And we're speaking a little bit to this off-air. But, you know, because we're comparing, because both of us have a little bit of experience with tropical freeze, they changed the mod like games are just not. You know, of course, that there's there's gonna be any developers and there's gonna be people making games like this still, but I do feel as a whole like we just don't get platformers that are this grueling anymore unless, like you know, you're doing like a fucking what's that game? We played the blood moon.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's like a new old game.
Speaker 2:But but even that has even bloodstained, has you know, they've have certain elements that have made it more approachable for today's game, right, so, like this, like dude I think you brought it up to me because, or maybe it was in our discord, but the thing is, and you were speaking this earlier if you start to learn the secrets and stuff, you can build up your, your One-ups. You're, you know, catch those balloons. You know, you'll see a balloon floating around, all the, all the one-ups. You know, mario, you got the mushrooms.
Speaker 2:Donkey Kong, it's a, it's a balloon, it's a red balloon. Right, you can start to bank those. And you're also collecting bananas throughout. You get, just like the coins of Mario, you collect 100, 100 bananas. You get a one-up, but with so we both played this on the, the NSO, and Because of that, we're able to use cheese to rewind a little bit when things got tough. Right, I was looking at my light counter and I think I finished the game with like roughly 16 lights because I wasn't hunting for all that stuff. So if you're not paying attention and trying to catch that dude, it's gonna be a tough game. Could you imagine getting towards that, the latter part of this game and getting a game over, fuck me.
Speaker 1:Even with the rewind, there's a level where you hit barrels to turn the lights on and off and for some reason they turn off on their own anyway, and it's the most in like with rewind, it was intensely annoying.
Speaker 1:So, like memorizing and executing. So the thing with like I can't get into their mindset. I know there's the whole arcade thing and like game stem from the arcade. So, like, there's this one argument of, okay, this mindset of you either want this game to be arcade profitable when you have to keep feeding it quarters, or you want the game to be hard enough to beat where kids have to keep hitting the rentals. So there's that mindset. But I don't think that should apply here. But then there's the technology mindset of like did they have the power to have, like all these checkpoints within a level that you could like instantly be dropped in? And that's the thing I don't know. And it could just be the fact that you know, with pioneering you you're adapting to one mindset and it takes you a time to evolve and think past new ideas.
Speaker 1:But when you play like tropical freeze, the reason that I would suggest that to anyone so much more than this game, if, unless you just really want to enjoy like some retro experiences, like the save points, are so much More forgiving because the rewind ruins it. Yep, rewind ruins this game. Like I will shamelessly do it. I want to see this whole game and it's grueling, but there's there's platforming sections where you're just rewinding a few seconds, cheesing it right and just ripping through and it doesn't feel good and you're like I'm a what am I doing? I might as well be watching a YouTube playthrough of someone doing this. Well, like this isn't fun, whereas in tropical freeze the save points are fair enough, in my opinion. It's still grueling, right, still just as hard. You're still hitting all these weird combos, but like you get that instant start over at like a nice checkpoint and it's like you're going on a nice little run and you're like memorizing the route.
Speaker 2:Well, that's just it. So like with a lot of that back in the days yeah right.
Speaker 2:So you're, you know you are Putting in the time to learn each level to earn up to. You know You're taking the time to send. That's just it. When we approach this game, especially with rewind, it's easy to just to hold down wine, sprint through right and it's like kind of lets me live out my, my speedrunner fantasies in a sense. But but then, even when that, even if I find myself hitting rewind a whole bunch, I'm like what am I doing here? Like slow down, like what, what house would I be approaching this game without? And then you realize You're like okay, I'm waiting for the time on these barrels to match up or whatever. I'm trying to time the spin exactly and and then that's like so it's interesting.
Speaker 2:I mentioned that I'm about halfway through this game, little less than halfway through, without rewind on the on the cart proper. It's a different experience, man, like I, I enjoyed being able to bust through this game and the accessibility that rewind gave me to do that, to see the whole thing, because I would still be grinding and you know, and I think that's just it, like I think that Will you see a four hour beat time on how long to beat. But this game, like you're putting it like it. Could you know it could take someone like a kid who got it back in 1994, like they might be playing this game for a full year before they beat it, because they they're getting good dude.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's just like from the modern approach. It's more just like Tropical freezes and celeste is a nice out of nintendo comparison or parallel. We beat that game right and the death count. Instead of it being this thing where you're gonna run out of lives, it's more of just this thing of like lulls, I died 400 times.
Speaker 1:Where that level took me like and I like that approach way better. In smaller chunks it's way more attainable for you to get through and like, like master these sections and like in donkey Kong, you country, you have one checkpoint, sometimes the smallest thing. I love how like the developers tried to fuck you over so much.
Speaker 1:There's like the little alligator dudes later in the game jump as well, there's one and you go to the exit and at the last second before you're there, it populates one of those guys and he jumps and you're just like, oh my god, like if I didn't have rewind I would have thrown a controller. I've never been a controller kid, but I would have thrown a controller.
Speaker 2:We obviously have our, our, you know gripes with it just being a big day to game and tough. It's a tough platformer but for the time when it came out I mentioned, it's one of the third best-selling SNES game of all time. So you know I don't know, I could be wrong about that. I just read that on the internet. If you go right now to and look up what are the best snooping 10 of games of all time, like this is going, this game will be on everyone's list.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's a cultural force, no doubt. Right, it's awesome. I just I get grumpy when I'm fucking shit up and I would like some checkpoints, that's all.
Speaker 2:It's. It's interesting, man, like it did. Like we had the original Donkey Kong, but then this game, because of its success and how much people do love it, it had all those spin-offs, so you've got the trilogy. But it also like they, they made comic books about this shit. They made a television, animated television series. Like this really blew Donkey Kong up. You're kind of talking to how DK fell off a little bit for Nintendo, but he's been. This shit blew him up.
Speaker 2:We already mentioned a little bit about collectibles too. Not only was this a big cultural impact, I also think that it had a huge impact In platformers themselves, especially the sense of like we were talking earlier about the collecting the the Kong, the Kong items, the different gold items for the different buddy characters that you get throughout. Yeah, this is one of the first games that like that was. That's another thing that sets it apart from Mario, whereas Mario you're kind of running through, you got the power-ups so lives and coins yeah right, but collectibles in this, so like that's like now almost every platformer has got some sort of collectible and this game introduced.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and they're god. When you actually stumble upon them, it feels good you ever stumble upon a room and you do some little mini game within the room and you get one life and you're like the fuck.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you need that, but that's how you feel about it. Playing the rewind, right you're. If you're trying to collect those lives to make it for them the game you'd be stoked about, that'd be nice to get more, yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean five minimum. This game's hard as shit. The enemy's really cool the iconic one-up life.
Speaker 2:That's a really easy one to get. Is that first level if you go back up to the house? Do you get that one when you start the game? I? Think so, yeah, so like the house, you come out of DK's house after the whole like banana heist thing. If you go back up the cave, yeah, there's a one-up in his, in his home, which I think they did that in. I'm pretty sure they added that little Easter egg into DK64 as well. Oh, that's fun. I might have just made that up, I don't know.
Speaker 1:It sounds good to me. Just confidence. So yeah, the enemies I love. King k rule is like my favorite smash character. He's just so big, fucking and stupid. I just love him and he's a huge goon and all the enemies in this game are just. I mean, some of them are just like snakes, they're little alligators, but I love those big crocodile dudes, the barrel chested big belly boys. They're like geek me out dude.
Speaker 2:I like that I think all the enemies do have like a little bit of personality, which is fun, and that's another thing that I think brings it away. You know, back to your question about mario like you, mario, you got your goombas and stuff and you know you're like all the, but then none of them like, none of them seem silly, whereas like these guys, like dog, living in their world, being good telling me the mushroom with little feet walking underneath them aren't silly.
Speaker 2:No, clearly it is silly, but like these are more cartoon. I don't not explain it real well, but these are like more cartoonish like more cartoony the.
Speaker 1:You know they got their Feraled out and shit. They're on there wiggling like yeah, I give you that. Yeah, it should also be mentioned that the bosses. It's kind of funny how they're small but also huge, like when it's like a huge thing that pops on and off the screen for like a lot of them, which I thought was kind of funny right, they're not.
Speaker 2:I didn't like. What do you think about the bosses, dude?
Speaker 1:Maybe that was just the bird. I appreciated that they weren't Insanely hard right there, that hard.
Speaker 2:Yeah, compared everything else they were.
Speaker 1:You're always in like a banana cave, like a banana stash, which is just kind of funny. Take rules kind of hard the final boss, oh okay, yeah, he's insane, but that big bird is just kind of goofy.
Speaker 2:There's that one it's like a toxic barrel type of shit where it's just like that one Little confused, because I didn't know if I was supposed to hit the barrel or not.
Speaker 1:Each other, yeah, I died a few times jumping at the barrel, so but they're all pretty cool. I don't know I was. Yeah, I was relieved they weren't like super hard. Honestly, I just kind of like that. They were goofy Right. It's almost like a little reward for getting through, like a fun little challenge, yeah no, I think it's pretty hard though.
Speaker 2:I mean, if you look at uh, it changed a bit for For Super Mario World and stuff, some of the bosses there but like the original Mario dude, like you just run and you just jump over bars and and you know Bridge for its time.
Speaker 1:It definitely feels more creative for the bosses. I can't believe we haven't mentioned this, but it's like one hit kills you and like, unless you have a dk, like diddy Kong or dk is your companion at the moment, and then it's just two hits which every time you start a new on the bosses, they have both of them. So you always have two hits for the bosses, which I thought was nice, that's cool.
Speaker 2:The barrels, like the different barrels that you run into. So there's the checkpoint barrel, there's the like the, the kegs, like the metal kegs that you can pick up and throw and actually ride, which is kind of cool.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you never found that out yeah yeah, so you can like kind of ride and roll on the barrel there there's other fun little detail that you'd barely ever use, but they are just kind of on one making a cool game. Right, there's a few of the enemies you can only kill with the barrel at the end too. So some of the platforming. How have we not talked about the carts?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, so the.
Speaker 1:Some of the most fun levels dude.
Speaker 2:They were uh, uh, those, those are super fun, so it's like a mine cart levels. Yeah there's two of them, so, like there's, I don't think Mario has an equivalent on the rails experience Do they? No, not that I can think of, not, at least not in the early marios.
Speaker 1:They might not, and I feel like nintendo bit the whole mine cart thing like a hundred times over with all their future games, so it's kind of funny that this is where it started, the best of my knowledge.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you're basically. It's basically a roller coaster where you know the the rails are broken at certain points. You got to time those jumps just perfectly.
Speaker 1:Uh it's a cool ride, man, at this game. It's like a trope in games to have this type of cool like literal on the rails section. So like I wonder if this is the first of it. I would bet, but it can't be certain but I enjoy those and I also enjoy.
Speaker 2:I was just talking about the barrels. So you got the barrels that actually shoot you out like those are pretty fun, man, that's, that's pretty iconic donkey con. Totally so. You jump in the barrels and some of them will like spin around and then, yeah, the angle, other ones Will move up and down, so you got to line up the shot, yeah there's the auto ones, so sometimes you fire into an auto one, so you got to sit right.
Speaker 1:rewind is nice for this, but you got to see where you're going.
Speaker 2:I can't remember what. That level and all the levels have great names. They all, they're all giving great names.
Speaker 2:So it's kind of cool, like I don't know how much you paid attention to those, but as you're running through, they're all. They're all kind of fun, and I can't remember which level was, but the one you're just describing, where it's just a huge Section of shooting through the barrels if you do that quickly and you do that without any mistakes. So I mentioned the, the red balloons that give you one ups. There's blue ones that give you a handful. I can't remember the number, but it's. There's certain things just like that in this game that rewards you for perfect platforming. So a blue balloon will show up because of the time that you do it or something, because it's like a timed event.
Speaker 1:Lord knows, I never saw that shit.
Speaker 2:So it's like that kind of stuff, man, and that's the kind of stuff that you learn, and when you get good at that stuff, it makes the game Easier in a sense, because you're getting more lives, but it's I don't know, it's still tough man, but it's a little reward you get, which is kind of cool.
Speaker 1:So water levels are generally the scourge video games and it's like they have to have them but no one's really liking them, mm-hmm. I liked the water levels in this game.
Speaker 2:They're fun. There's a the one of the latter ones a little tough when those squids start to get kind of fast. But they're, they are forward to them. Yeah, like you got to admit, dude, riding that swordfish pretty dope dude.
Speaker 1:Killer mario games. I hate water levels. Zelda games. The water tumbles are always notoriously Annoying as fuck. Underwatering games isn't always like. What was that?
Speaker 2:Uh, my personal take on the zelda water levels like I don't mind them. I don't know why I think it's so much hate, but that's just me.
Speaker 1:Whatever cool indie bands. But no, I mean, yeah, I guess I agree to some degree, but mario levels I always hated mario water levels. So like to have a game where you not only didn't mind the water level but you actually look forward to them because of the slap music, the cool fish riding and like I felt like the platforming was like pretty smooth in the water.
Speaker 2:I don't know, that's not something you usually say yeah, it's good. The swimming works pretty nice and they they don't Time you on on your their amount of oxygen you have, which I appreciate.
Speaker 2:I know that's a good point the same, but this game we mentioned earlier in 1994, so that's in the, that's like in the heat of Sega Genesis, super nintendo, console wars, right, sure? So this game dropped around the same time sonic did, so both of these games are really pushing the envelope on what graphics could be doing for those 16-bit systems, which is interesting, and I bring this up one to make that parallel. But two Water levels and sonic can suck on my balls.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that might be the birthplace of my childhood anxiety dude.
Speaker 2:There's not a bubble around here, but but I'm with you 100%, man. The water levels are one that aquatic ambiance, like I don't know, man, if any time I can get that groove going again like throw me back in the water.
Speaker 3:I.
Speaker 1:A special fuck you to these lights on, lights off out. There's at least two levels that employ some function of you can't see much and like. That is like I understand why you do that in a platforming game, but just don't yeah, that's a lot of tough.
Speaker 2:Those ones are tough for sure.
Speaker 1:This isn't a fun challenge and what I'm looking at is the coolest part of your game, and I don't want to be looking at darkness.
Speaker 2:And another fun fact I ran into, you know we mentioned earlier, you collect bananas throughout like you collect coins, and mario Got a guess on how many bananas are on your hoard 6,900. 12,000. A thousand bananas in this thing. That's a lot of bananas of steel from from DK. I understand why he was angry at and can you have to, you have to retaliate.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you can't, you can't let that one slide. It's the kids would say when do you go from there?
Speaker 2:Right, the hidden war barrels. So I was mentioned earlier. There's like all these different barrels that do different things and it's funny because there's certain things, like even the con icons that you had to catch, like some of them. Dude, you have to do some crazy stuff to catch some of those, so I just get them. Obviously it makes more sense if you're trying to collect more lives to get through the game to hit them. But there's other like fun little things. We mentioned all the secret little doors and stuff that you can find. But there's also war barrels in a handful of the levels that are hidden that if you jump in, basically to shoot you to the end. So it's like little, little fun deals like that throughout this game there's just so much.
Speaker 1:We should probably talk about Kinkai Rural Star the show and any show that is. In the final boss battle you can only hit him when he throws off his crown, which is a great smash move. I love that move and, hilariously, like you beat him and you're like that wasn't too hard, but you're like pretty, pretty grueling, pretty fair, and then the credits play but it's kind of like some weird credits hey, king K, king K, cruel credits.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like red and it looks a little off, but it's like we're on the credits. It's with the K.
Speaker 1:You're kind of relieved because it's definitely not the day that you're shooting the podcast, and then you put on your controller, you attend to the babies in front of you who need attention and all of a sudden you're dying and you're like excuse me. So, you hit the rewind and you sneak attacks you and it's back in.
Speaker 2:And I wouldn't say haven't been juke that hard since Hades, when dad wakes up again. I was so happy when I beat, when I beat Hades for the first time and sorry if I blew that for anybody who hasn't played Hades yet, but there's two phases, and there's two phases to fucking King K Cruel too. Oh man, it got me. I was like oh shit, we're back yeah.
Speaker 1:And he's coming. That was way back. It's way time for that bouncing ball attack was super annoying.
Speaker 2:Dude, I can, in that particular sequence you go through and something we didn't really tell we talked about, like the graphics, but you, you know, you hit everything. You've got your snow levels that make you slide. You got your caves which we kind of touched on a little bit where the minecarts are. You've got your jungle, like you cover some good ground throughout, whatever you're Donkey Kong's little islands called Right, but then you hit. Then you hit the iconic, you know, King K Cruel's pirate ship, which was also interesting too. I thought there'd be more of a lead up to that, Not to say that, yeah, Not to say that those levels weren't enough lead up, but I just kind of I assume that there would be more like I don't know, like you're, you've got your like Bowser's castle whole area in.
Speaker 1:Comp and circumstance which you're looking for here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, there was none. It was just like, well, let's go, I kind of like that, though, especially after you know what the other level bosses kind of easy so like to get thrown in there. You're like, oh shit, I guess we're going, let's go.
Speaker 1:They should make a King Carol pirate game That'd be, great, I'd play it. Kind of bite that whole like assassin's Creed ship combat thing, but it's just like I'm just King Carol fucking shit up. I'd play it.
Speaker 2:He's got that classic platformer Like if you learn his, you learn his tales. He's not terribly hard and jumping over him especially. See, I use DK because he's a bit stronger so he's easier to jump over with with Diddy. But I did find that jumping over him and tying it not too hard, but that second phase you're better off running under him and I had a lot harder of a time trying to time that shit.
Speaker 1:It was the balls, the cannonballs that really like you have to, really those dropping the ceiling, yeah, yeah, you have to, not only like the ball hits the ground and then you can't run like it went, and then it rolls off the screen.
Speaker 2:So that's second yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that second will like trip you up and then you don't have any time.
Speaker 2:So I had to yeah.
Speaker 1:I had to groove that and it's like if I wasn't playing the cheesy rewind way, like that'd be really cool but intensely frustrating because you'd be doing that battle for a while, timing everything, because it's only two hits, like you don't get any type of boost halfway through or anything. It's like it's your two hits and I remember that from Tropical Freeze. That's actually when I quit, because it's weird to say but before the podcast, like I didn't play as many games as like homework or to finish like if a game was like yeah, I would, I would just shelve it Like yeah you're free.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:You bounce off or like you get distracted by something else. But I remember there's this boss where I was just dying and dying and dying. But games like Metroid and Hollow Knight and Shovel Knight have all kind of taught me to like persevere through that and just kind of grip my teeth through that. And this game the whole time dude just made me want to play Tropical Freeze Like I have to kind of beat it now.
Speaker 2:Well, I think I don't think Tropical Freeze gets enough credit, like I don't think enough people maybe have played it or like what, but because I do think that that game takes all these awesome elements from Donkey Kong Country, polishes them and it makes it more of an approachable Donkey Kong game. Yeah, it's like now, man, tropical Freeze over Over, not Country, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1:But it's like. It's like that's not even an insult though, because it's like Tropical Freeze is just like an excellent take on an excellent game. It's just modernized for all these ways that make the game so much more accessible. So the music is still amazing. Same composer, like you said earlier, the graphics of although still Nintendo they're still not pumping out, like you know, starfield out here when it comes to graphics. But like the whole idea is like the game is just intensely slick, like I loved it when I was playing it. And another comparison they have like a lot of rhythm sections. I feel like where you get into this groove and you do this thing. Rayman Legends you ever heard of Rayman series? You know Rayman.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm, I do, I'm never, I'm never like.
Speaker 1:So it's a super underrated platformer because it wasn't a Nintendo property? Yeah, and it's Ubisoft or whatever, and they have different flak, but it's, it's really good. Reminded me of that too. So awesome game, dude. That's if you're looking to play Donkey Kong Country, for nostalgia, for sure, if you want, just like a nice, modern, cleaner take like this is definitely freezes, definitely where you should be headed, totally and also you know we had a bit.
Speaker 2:You know we had a bit of a comedy we talked about. We talked about it here a bit and we talked about it on our Super Mario World pod. But but rewind, dude, it makes games like this approachable. Like, oh dude, it was so funny. I was playing this game. My wife Anna was watching me for a little bit and I was. I was on one of the bosses and I was. I was teasing the rewind a little bit and she's like what's the point? Aren't you just cheating right now? I was like kind of Like listen.
Speaker 1:I got me this game. I beat this game, oh man, but that's just it man.
Speaker 2:Like I think that you know it's one of those games. So, as far as a recommendation, go like I've never I don't think of this pod yet there's really been a game that I wouldn't be like, right, they're all. You know. We pick games that are worth playing, even though we made fun of loop here.
Speaker 1:Oh, still good time for what it is. Dude, totally this game, it's just it's just one of those games.
Speaker 2:It's a game of its time. I think you said it perfectly that if you're looking for something a little bit more polished and you don't want to, you know like, play tropical freeze. I think that captures the essence of Donkey Kong country and elevates it. I think Donkey Kong country, though for a timepiece, excellent fucking platformer, really pushed the envelope on graphics of the 16 bit era. Like the music, like it's iconic. It's an iconic game. You're in a gaming history. Absolutely play it. If you don't want to be pulling your hair out on, you know, platforming, play it on NSO, play it with some rewind. And if you weren't born in the 80s like, yeah, it's brilliant.
Speaker 1:He's like, yeah, it's pretty decent to go back to this game.
Speaker 2:Yes, sir. Well, man, you want to take a little break. Come back with their unsationed sponsor. This month's pod is unofficially brought to you in part by pumpkin spice.
Speaker 1:Get the fuck. My wife ever to put this in here September.
Speaker 2:You know you've had some spunk of spice in your system, dude. How have you not?
Speaker 1:I haven't, I mean I've sipped my wife's cold foam from we go Starbies. But I intentionally I protested it because it was like the first day of pseudo fall. It was still like hot out. So I got this weird apple crisp type latte shit and it was. She was like Apple coffee. I'm like motherfuckers, you drinking pumpkin punk like coffee right now. What's the difference? Like how are you going to look down upon it?
Speaker 1:Like furthermore, they got that she got Mac and cheese flavor. On pumpkin, spice has gotten out of control. Oh, I can't believe you're condoning this.
Speaker 2:I'm, I'm, I'm taking no money from pumpkin spice because they're not actually money, but in spice beer in this fridge right now, dude.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I kind of wish I did. I wouldn't do pumpkin beer. I was from pumpkin beer and that's just it. Dude, pumpkin pumpkin flavor is the official like granted. So we're in the Midwest, we're in Minnesota, and it was hot. It was not. When Starbucks unleashed their pumpkin spice on the world. It was like 90 degrees. I didn't sign line to get one. Yeah, was that my choice? Well, I mean, yeah, I was like you know, like I wasn't like anti doing it. I went. It was my wife who really wanted to get it, but you know what I was like.
Speaker 1:I will condone this month, brought to you by compromise and choosing your battles, and learning to enjoy yourself in these moments of.
Speaker 2:Indeed Capitalism. My wife has had multiple pumpkin spice drinks since Starbucks unleashed their pumpkin spice on the world for this season.
Speaker 1:My wife's had at least three times.
Speaker 2:Yeah, anna's at least five Dude. But here's the deal. First time I got it. Next time I went with her. I just went back to my cold, my cold brew with cream dude.
Speaker 1:Because, like you, know, do you get the cold form though?
Speaker 2:Dude, I get cold brew with cream. Dude, I have a cold foam and all that bullshit. I'm like whatever.
Speaker 1:Like no dude. The cold foam is kind of lit. I'm not going to lie, I'm not saying it's bad, I'm just saying that my order. I'm pretty sure that one's pretty.
Speaker 2:I'm just saying that my order is cold brew with cream. Give me that. Give me that fucking caffeine straight to the veins, but pumpkin spice, this podcast being brought to you with pumpkin spice. Yes, pumpkin spice. But that is also the official entry into fall. My friend, we are here that you?
Speaker 1:have this space background and you're like prophesizing on pumpkin spice. You're like listen, brother, and there's like a world behind you and stars. This is not a visual product, but just know that it's a strange vibe for me to see Alex being like I've been to space and you know what, after some reflection you know what they have pumpkin spice. What I can see the world from up there.
Speaker 2:I just had one feeling yeah, the only reason you can use the only reason I find this place out here unofficially bringing this podcast to the people is because I love fall. Fall is the best season dude. I love it so much. I wish it wasn't so short Sweater weather brother.
Speaker 1:I wore my Vikings hoodie today.
Speaker 2:Skull yeah, so there we go.
Speaker 1:Oh, one one Got it from Casco. I was a little disappointed, though. I got the double X. I wanted it to feel like a boyfriend sweater, because what's more fall than a boyfriend sweater? You know what I'm saying, and the double X just fits me. So fuck you, casco.
Speaker 2:That's a problem with clothes. No, there's no true standard in size.
Speaker 1:I'm not a cross me, I've been out in these streets. I am not a Midwest double X.
Speaker 2:I am you, but I'm also six, six yeah you get that Six, seven.
Speaker 1:Next time you ask All right, pumpkin spice makes you grow fake inches when you grow older.
Speaker 2:Dude, pumpkin spice, pumpkin beers, pumpkin life.
Speaker 1:But more than mac and cheese. Alex eats it all. Man Pumpkin cereal.
Speaker 2:I'm more more excited about fall. To be honest, I feel that All right.
Speaker 1:Welcome back. We have achieved a secret room in Donkey Kong. What is your side quest?
Speaker 2:Good sir, I have two major side quests this month. One See if stars to Starfield.
Speaker 1:Stars. This is why you have the space background.
Speaker 2:I do. People are good to see it. I'm living space now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, alice in the stars, although Sea of Stars, I don't think you're ever in space.
Speaker 2:No, Well, maybe I don't know. I haven't beaten that game yet.
Speaker 1:I okay, so I started Sea of Stars I I really, this one's a mutual one, so we should start with that. Sure, do you know the name of the studio?
Speaker 2:Dude, I was just trying, I was just reaching for it. It's, it's a cool name. What is it called Sabotage studio? It's Sabotage Studios, that's right. And they did the Messenger dude, and I've never done it On the Sparey pod.
Speaker 1:Alex has pimped it before as a fun time.
Speaker 2:And I have not. I have not rolled credits on the Messenger. I probably got about maybe three quarters of the way through and because it wasn't a part of the month that I shelved, it moved on to something else. But we might have to play that game because it is. It is great.
Speaker 1:I almost hijacked this pod to become the Sea of Stars pod, but you got distracted by Starfield so that wasn't really possible.
Speaker 2:Because, because of my love for Sabotage, is the Messenger I heard about Sea of Stars and then I got super stoked One. I was as stoked that it was coming out because I love the idea of like this homage to turn base, like a turn base RPG that has some like modern flair to it or whatever that just like that tickle my head. I was like, oh, that sounds like something I might like. And then it was coming to Game Pass, which I, which I have. So I was like, dang, I'm going to be able to play this game, like you know, I won't even have to buy it off the bed. I might buy this game physical because it's dope Game.
Speaker 1:Pass was so dry for my ass all summer when I could have been gaming with children taking naps. And now that I'm back at work and I have an hour and a half maybe a video game and no time, they're like how about all the coolest shit Fucking ever, dog? I'm like fuck you.
Speaker 2:So there's a lot of good games, man, they just drop. I haven't played it. I played it. You know I have it on the switch, but Grizz is on there now, Gris that's a great one, like you know well, we got.
Speaker 1:We got to keep folk. I got to, I got to bring it back on the rails. This is my fault, but CSTARS is sick and sabotage studios. It's so video gamey. I love this so much that like they come out with this super crunchy like throwback that throws back both eight bit and 16 bit arrows and marries them in the super cool gameplay. I haven't even played it, I just know how fired it is. I bought it recently because CSTARS is so cool and I want to support the studio. But it's like the money they made off of making this super killer game they put in to make an even bigger scale game. That's still another homage to a different, although adjacent, era. But it's just like this. They're Canadian. Where's this developed? Like sabotage, but regardless, like this classic JRPG format Chrono trigger, yep, as always brought up. So paper Mario, which is a huge soft spot for me, having those little like inputs to for the turn based combat to be a little sexier. This game is so fucking cool.
Speaker 2:So you can go back.
Speaker 1:You can go back to talking about it. I just had to say all that.
Speaker 2:Oh no, that's fine. I mean so the mess. The only thing so messenger is, it's a, basically an homage.
Speaker 1:I am Garl warrior cook. All right, pirate chef. The dude's my fucking hero. All right, my bad.
Speaker 2:Messenger, it's not you. You mentioned that eight to 16 bit thing. So basically that game is like a love letter to your ninja guidance, like that type of game, and then, which is over halfway through, jumps to 16 bit and becomes a Metroidvania. So like, for me, that game was my jam dude. Like I love everything going on with that game and I also have a very like nostalgic spot in my heart for like some of the final fantasy and some in like some of the early like final fantasies and shit that like the ones on Nintendo they're so crunchy dude and if you go back and play them like yeah, they're fun, but like this is an elevated to today's standard. Like like you bring up the paper Mario bits, like trim the fat, the trim the fat for sure, 100%, and it's like cheeky, like I won't throw them super.
Speaker 2:Yeah, fuck it. Like you know, I was listening to the only critique I heard. Jason Schreyer, who's like big on the video game beat, was given see if stars a little bit of shit for its writing. I don't give a fuck man. I didn't come here for the writing on see if stars and I think it's cheeky and funny. Dude, like I don't know. I was like get out of here with that because this game is so beautiful and cute.
Speaker 2:Exactly, dude, I have no problems with it and it's like it's approachable, it's fun, like I've been watching a lot of people on social media that, like you know, some cozy gamers are getting into it, gamer gamers are getting into it, like it's. It's a dope game and I look forward to fishing it, but I've moved to it. Starfield has has captured me, so I was super loving see if stars, but then Starfield dropped and I've. I've been living in space bro.
Speaker 1:The ultimate respect to see if stars is that, like there's been days where I'm like I can't do Starfield, I have to play. See a stars Like. I've been thinking about it more all day, and also if I have one hour of gaming and it's at nine o'clock at night. Starfield is so intense to understand it's so dense dude, so crunchy, it's too much.
Speaker 2:It is great, though, dude, it is, it's, I'm pretty happy.
Speaker 1:I think I'll get there.
Speaker 2:Totally I'm about 15, 20 hours in already. Yeah, damn.
Speaker 1:We're both space scoundrels because apparently we're Han Solo simps. I always thought I was a Luke Skywalker guy because of the name Luke, but as I get older Luke Skywalker is kind of a weenie and Han was way cooler always.
Speaker 2:So I saw this meme the other day that could deject the post. Luke and Anakin and it was like Anakin by age, like 24 or whatever, and it was like had a seat on the Jedi council, like all this other bullshit that he did. And then Luke, it was like his sister.
Speaker 1:That's it so random. But yeah you're, we're both space scoundrels. I'm an old lady named Patty Duke and I couldn't be happier about it. That's awesome.
Speaker 2:I want to remake.
Speaker 1:I can't wait to romance people Like. I'm not a big romance and games type dude, but as role playing as old lady space scoundrel Patty Duke is lit, let's tell us about your character a little bit. Or, howard, what are your impressions?
Speaker 2:So far, man, I think it's really good my character. I was going to make it A lot of these times I try and make somebody that you know looks like me. I started doing that and then my wife came downstairs and she's like are you trying to create yourself? And that panicked. Him was like no, I switched it up, for whatever reason. I kind of wish I would have rolled it out.
Speaker 1:Did this too during cyberpunk, but it was just on the penis.
Speaker 2:I gave him an average dick. I was like whatever sounds good.
Speaker 1:Like how do you make the tip a weirder color than the rest of it?
Speaker 2:Oh, it's coming, but yeah, no, the character because they had this game has been, you know they've been teasing it for a while and they had that whole like Xbox whatever you want to call it like they dedicated a huge showcase just to this game. So I knew a lot of stuff that we were going to be getting into when we first went to first drop. And the character creation is super cool, dude, but it's a little too dense, like I knew it was going to give me an anxiety tech and it kind of did.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're making pretty clear. You can redo it whenever you want.
Speaker 2:So I like that. That's cool. I think I'll go and change some things.
Speaker 1:There's just so much going on in the early moments of that game and I just it's I keep reading it everywhere that like somewhere between like five some people say 20 hours somewhere between five and 20 is when, like I think, you finally land the familiarity with everything and I guess from there this is supposed to be a game that you're going to play a ton over time. But if you can get past that first leg, which is admittedly a huge leg, I'm I'm enjoying it and I love Bethesda games. So, like I will give it the time, but it's been a lot.
Speaker 2:So are we going to cover this game next month as our for the pond, or or not?
Speaker 1:It's a great question because I almost feel like we might not be servicing it correctly, because we might not be getting through that huge of a chunk in that time with how big this game might be.
Speaker 2:I might be there.
Speaker 1:I hope you are. I hope you are.
Speaker 2:I just, I just want to know, I just want, I'm trying to get a feel for how much hot takes I should give this game. So like because, uh, because we're going to do a full episode and I'll have more to say, but I guess I'll just get early, early reactions. I'll give you One yeah, I think the game's dope. I think like the, you know, like I think, beyond the character creation, like the immersion that they have going on and everything is cool, but I also have some qualms with that and that it is truly a lot of fucking fast travel going on here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's kind of bummed me out. So far I've been playing.
Speaker 2:I've been playing primarily on on the series X and then I also I'm streaming it via Xbox streaming or wherever they call their little streaming stuff to my Steam Deck and because I have pretty good, very good internet, like that's a. That's a nice situation for me, although it's some of the queue times to get that going, like I have to wait 15 minutes. That's unprecedented. I've never seen, I've never had Xbox like streaming, like I put me in queue that long. There's that many people playing this game.
Speaker 1:I don't stream much, but yeah, I've seen that on the internets.
Speaker 2:And and. But that's cool, man. I've seen some stuff out there about um, and that brings me back to something I want to say about CS stars. I don't know what we're calling Twitter anymore, twitter anymore, x or whatever it is, but I saw a post out there on CS stars that they way smashed their um, their sales. Uh, they had forecasted that they're going to get for this game in the course of a year and they blew them out like six, seven times the amount that they thought they would sell in the year they sold in the first month. So I'm super happy for for Sabotage Studios. That's, that's awesome. So similarly for for this game. You know, I was saying with those queue lines, like dude, they put something out and there was like a one and a half million people playing all at the same time, like I'm like the first or second day of release. That's wild.
Speaker 1:Yeah, starfield Xbox had a lot of pressure and I feel like they put their hands in this one a little bit more, but that's just obviously respectable. But also some of that respect comes from 10 years ago now and there's been tons of controversy about everything else they've released since, about quality and like all these types of things right, like incomplete games that they come back to over time. So it was very relieving to see Starfield come out in a. It's got glitches Most games do and it can get dogged for it, but generally it's a very especially for them. It's been a very clean game.
Speaker 2:Totally. And you know what, some of those, some of those glitches like, some of that glitch stuff, I'm like I don't know I'm gonna throw my bone, that's just. That's a little bit of that. But that's the charm, right, right. But, dude, honestly, it's the fast travel that bugs me about it the most. I like it in a sense because it allows me to progress. Whatever thing I'm like mission I'm working on, because you can honestly go to your mission tree or your mission like list and then go to whatever one you want, to press X and it will shoot you right to where you need to be. A part of me really likes that, a part that's aggressive, yeah yeah, and then like and it's clunky man, like you start to learn the different. Like you know your inventory management and all the different screens. Like you start to learn it.
Speaker 2:This game is definitely made for a controller, like. I think that be. You know, I've talked to some folks that are playing on PC. I think it's a little bit harder to manage. You deal with it, you learn it. I don't really mind that because I've been playing with the controller, so I think they figured it out. It bugs me that I can't use my bumpers to switch my, switch, my guns. But you can have like so many.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So it's interesting, like there's some things that I'm getting used to and like you more, but it's truly the travel and like, if you're going to juxtapose this game with something like Skyrim, right, which makes sense because that's, but that's this other, like fucking, you know that's a big thing. Skyrim, like you know, if you're in that world, it's kind of fun to ride your horse to the next place, like you fast travel and stuff once you've been places and whatnot, whereas this, like dude, it's kind of the shortcomings of space, like in theory, sure you can spend years flying or however long it takes to get to the next planet, but who's going to do that? You know, like that's ridiculous and there's nothing going on out in space.
Speaker 1:So like it's so big it does not encourage exploration.
Speaker 2:Exactly so it's like it's almost so I'm figuring that out Like I'm not deep enough into the game where I know if that's a problem or not. But it and I don't want to say it feels sparse. But it's space and by definition it is a little lonely sometimes. I've seen some shit.
Speaker 1:I too have so for my side quests. There are some deep parallels between those two. I'm a bit further in Sea of Stars and I only love it more, so you'll have to get back to that one. Right on Starfield. I just, I just need me a nice sesh to really get deep, deep. I'm like. I'm in the stage where I'm like, do I pick up cups? Okay? I know not to pick up cups, but, like there's so many named items in this game, I'm kind of whacking this, to be honest.
Speaker 2:Like you, everything gets really heavy. Oh, one thing that's really dope, though. That I think is like cool, that's kind of a lot of that. That vein is your, your skill tree. I've never seen this before in a game. It might not be new, who knows, I've just never seen it. But instead of like, like when you're playing Spider-Man, you got your skill tree and you unlock things and you get your powerups or whatever, in this you unlock things in the same way, but it also gives you a task list. So like, for instance, if you're upping your, your weightlifting section or whatever, which allows you to carry more items, not only can you, not only do you unlock it, but you can't go to the next part of the skill tree until you've sprinted for X amount of like time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's cool because it encourages different play right, but it's also weird that key functions are locked behind, unlocking it on the ski, it's like yeah that's a little strange, like you can't persuade until you unlock the persuades. So that's a little sure sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but but I do think it's cool and it sends in like a role playing factor. Like the fact that you like have to pick pocket a certain amount of people before you can move on to the next part, it like actually makes you an expert pitpoker. You know, like I think that's kind of cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean Skyrim's similar, where if you do the action that boosts your skill. But it's just kind of nice to see it Like I. I like the persuades stuff in games and their persuade system is really cool. But it sounds like we're doing this pod next week. So we're going to talk about my other games, which is I'll be brief on this one Assassin's Creed, historical murder, similar simulator, dude.
Speaker 1:No, because I was vibing with this game so hard and then just went ahead and did its Ubisoft thing. Especially modern Assassin's Creed is really bad for this where they just like lock you out of some stuff, where it does not matter your skill, like it's all about are you a certain level? And like one or two levels makes just a massive difference. And it's like you know, in a video game where they're like this is a point of no return, make sure you've saved and you're ready for this shit. And I was like bet. And then I did what felt like five hours of story oh weird. And I picked, I picked. It was definitely not that long, but it was kind of long. And I picked this game because I heard it was the smallest, yeah, and the most like curated and contained, and I did all this stuff. I thought I was finishing the game. It definitely gave me all the reason to feel that way. And then all of a sudden they're like all right, go level up like two, three levels and you can continue the story. And I was like what the fuck? And it's like not, it's never been done that bad within the same gamer series, but like it wasn't the first time that like I totally should have just been able to like Move on, but I couldn't and I'm like let's normalize tackling these games at our own fucking pace.
Speaker 1:I so it went from such a massive recommend because, like ancient Egypt is super cool, like as I did with my grad school project, like dude, I'm just like getting curious and learning things just because I'm bouncing through the game, like I would not have registered how much like yes, you could have told me the Greeks invaded Egypt and did all this stuff. But like, when you're in Egypt and you see what feels to you, like this mix of like you like Greek cities, like it totally. Like you're like, oh, my god. And you see all these names like Memphis, and you're like, oh, that's not, like that's from Egypt, right, right, and it's got this whole different vibe than the other cities and it's like and Then the game's like do a bunch of fucking bitch work for two, three hours and then come back to the story that you're deeply invested in.
Speaker 1:And then the assassin's creed games just need to drop the whole fucking whatever, a sub-stergo, I don't know any of that fucking present day shit where they just yank you from the story in the gameplay to like walk around and have some shit, dialer Rant, corner, all right. So on one hand, that game's fucking the shit, on the other hand, fucking Ubisoft, am I right, gosh? And then to close us out, my guy, slay the spire.
Speaker 2:Are you back on it?
Speaker 1:dude Never stopped.
Speaker 2:I knew you were.
Speaker 1:I see, I see you see me on there, dude. There's no better. I don't know if I'm like willing to put it in like my greatest games of all time things, but like it's not in Civ territory yet, but like it's creeping towards, like Civ adjacent, like Civ's got the house on the hill, but like Slay the spires, like in the neighborhood, like they go to this, they send their kids to the same school, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Like they were within the boundaries To 50, 300 hours now, something like that it's, it's just over to, it's probably like the 220s if I'm gonna be a little bit, but, like also, I don't know if it's because it's a rogue like, but it has a really good reddit community.
Speaker 1:Hmm and I don't mean good, like I don't judge the overall behavior, but like Just good content. It's good content for people, interesting things for me to engage with, and like I follow a decent amount of different subs and like I Say, say, the spire is like one of the ones I do the most. So I'm doing ascensions now for the five listeners that are big into slay, I do that. It's not about beating the heart, it's about beating the boss to unlock the next ascension level and that's. This is nitty gritty as fuck. You just gonna have to live with it. It's tight. Yeah, the game's dope by that game. All right, you want to send us off proper?
Speaker 2:Yeah well, thanks everybody for an episode coming in for another low five gaming episode. Holoradis at the discord. Go to low five gaming, calm you can do there and this is a. Independent pond, which means we fucking produce and put this shit together by ourselves. But you can help us if you like. You can go to our website and throw some duckets to help with all the cows.
Speaker 1:It'd be a pretty good yeah but you know what Alex you can. Alex makes a million dollars. He'll do the DK rap, oh Steel wearing just a million dollars.
Speaker 2:Dk rap naked in my backyard.
Speaker 1:He'll do just a necktie Donkey Kong Big Goddy necktie. I dig it, dude. Donald Trump makes Donkey Kong's neckties. They're so fucking big till next time. Did you see that Joe coming bet not.
Speaker 3:Oh, first, when she needs to be, she can go through the air and climb up trees If you choose her. You're not too strong. We're the skipper and a hop, she's one to call. What is this case? What you got? He has no style, he has no grace With this car. There's a funny face. He can handstand when he needs to and scratch his arms out Just for you and play himself Just like a balloon. This crazy car Just digs its chew.
Speaker 3:Peacecake Donkey Kong. Peacecake Donkey Kong. Is here, we back again. And the Bob's turn too, and this time the moves. Why will I, with this tip, back on With his pistol. Now he's one to call. He'll make you smile when places do, but remnants, beware, coffee's out. Peacecake Donkey Kong. Finally he's here for you. It's the last member Of the DK Crew. This Kong so slump, it isn't funny Can make a family. I'm full of money. Pick up a folder With relative ease, make a fortune. See such a dream. He may move slow, he can't jump high, but this Kong, he's one hell of a guy. Come on, cranky, take it to the fridge. Look, look, look. Walnuts, peanuts, pineapple smells, crank melons, oranges and coconut shells. Oh yeah, walnuts, peanuts, pineapple smells, crank melons, oranges and coconut shells.
