056 · THE LEGEND OF KAGE

• Taito Produced and Developed this time around
• Plot
• The player takes the role of the young Iga ninja named Kage ("Shadow") on the mission to rescue Princess Kiri (Kirihime) from the villains Yoshi (Yoshiro Yukikusa) and Yuki (Yukinosuke Kiri). Kage must fight his way through the forest, along the secret passageway, up the fortress wall and through the castle, rescuing her two times (three in the FC/NES version) in order to win the game. Each time the princess is rescued, the seasons change in the game.
• Objective
• The player is armed with a kodachi shortsword and an unlimited amount of shuriken. Main gameplay revolves around killing enemy ninja (blue and red) and enemy fire-breathing monks over five stages:
• Stages
• The first stage is a horizontal and vertically scrolling forest, with the player able to jump quite high (more than a screen height), and able to grab/scale trees that are several screen heights. Grabbing a book causes Kage to stand still and meditate for several seconds while approaching enemies drop to the ground dead during a lightning storm.
• The second stage is horizontally scrolling at the water's edge. The lower half of the screen is underwater, where ninjas (blue and red) appear with breathing tubes. The player must kill ten ninjas to advance. The player can jump into the water section, but mobility is severely hampered.
• The third stage is another bi-scrolling stage. The player must jump continuously to reach the temple at the top.
• The fourth stage is the temple. The player goes up the four sets of stairs, avoiding or killing enemy ninja and monks, to rescue Princess Kiri.
• The fifth stage is a boss stage. It starts at the top of the temple, and then Kage and Kiri jump off the temple back to the forest, where Kiri is re-kidnapped by the boss. The player must kill the boss.
• In home versions, grabbing a crystal ball causes the player's clothes to change to the next level in color and thereby attain certain powers (bigger shuriken or faster speed). If Kage is hit in a home version while in green or orange clothes, he does not die but reverts to his normal red clothes.
• Talking Points and Questions:
• The ridiculous Jump
• Is it ever clear what is going on?
• Enemy Variety
• Difficulty
• What’s the deal with Taito? Some good, mostly bad. Is it future vision?
• Sequels and Spinoffs
• The Revised Legend of Kage - 2006. It features two new playable characters, Ayame and Ganin. Ayame is a ninja who can throw bombs similar to the red ninjas in the game and has an unlimited supply of throwing knives. Ganin is a dog who can breathe fire similar to the monks in the game and can perform a spin attack that does not have much range but leaves him invulnerable for an instant and kills any enemy that touches him. There is also a new final boss that all the characters face which is a giant green cobra that slithers on the ground back and forth on the screen at the end of each second run through the levels. It is the only enemy that does not jump into the air.
• Taito Legends Power Up remake - A 3D graphics remake of the arcade game along the original arcade version is included in the 2006 compilation Taito Legends Power Up for the PlayStation Portable. The game is still side-scrolling.
• Legend of Kage 2 - A follow-up game was developed by Lancarse for the Nintendo DS, and published by Taito in 2008. Taito's parent company, Square Enix, published a North American localization of the game later that year.

Auto-generated transcript. Each paragraph starts with its timestamp. Speakers are not identified.

00:00 The Legend of Kage. Be a legend in your own time.

00:19 And welcome to NEStalgia, a chronological exploration of every NES game released in North America. I'm Mike. I'm Sean. And I'm Joe. Joe, you had an observation. Alright, I'll repeat it. The box sounds like it's telling you to be a legend on your own time. Like, as if you have other things to do. There's no time right now to be a legend. There's definitely a distinction between in and on there.

00:48 I'm saying they really did come close though. Because I wasn't sure even... What does that mean? Like, are they referencing that this game takes place in feudal Japan? And they're like, now you can be the legend in, you know, modern times. Like, okay, great. But I think I'd still be the legend in feudal Japan because I haven't necessarily done anything in real life. Right. To justify me being a legend.

01:11 Anyway, the game is Legend of Kage. Cage. To some. Yep, the Legend of Luke Cage. Yeah. And Taito, again, boys, they've produced. And this time, ain't no Micronics coming to this party, okay? Taito decides that they're going to develop this one themselves, alright? This time, we do it live, okay? They live coded the game every single time somebody played it. They all get down. Even today, it's like annoying. It's like, oh, somebody booted it up again. Like, get back to the boards.

01:44 But, of course, if it's Taito, that means that it also was in the arcade. So this is an arcade game first. And, might I add, quite cinematic. It is. It's got lightning. A beautiful start to that game. So, you are Kage, which is Shadow. And you're on the mission to rescue Princess Kiri. Who was snatched right out of your hands. From the villains Yoshi and Yuki. So this was before Yoshi became a green dinosaur.

02:13 Right. Pre-quake to Super Mario Bros. Super Mario World. And that's, of course, because Super Mario Bros. takes place in, like, you know, 80s. And this was in feudal Japan. Right. So there was a long evolution of the Yoshi species. So Yoshi and Yuki have kidnapped Princess Kiri. And now Kage has to fight his way through the forest. Some secret passageways. The fortress wall. The castle. And you're going to have to rescue her two times in order to win the game. Three in the Famicom and NES version.

02:45 So, yes, Joe. I know you were getting concerned there for a minute. I was ready to jump on that. Yep. But that was the arcade version with two. Three for the NES version. And each time the princess is rescued, the seasons change. Yeah. So this is just a weird thing that I was picking up on. It seems like this is some, like, Sisyphean, like, torture device. Like, he's got to be dead, for one. Okay. Can you start there? Do we have to jump to the next point? Can you explain the he has to be dead part? I'm getting to that.

03:16 Yeah. He has to be dead, because it seems like he is just reliving one of the worst moments of his life, where his girlfriend or the princess or whatever the fuck gets captured, and then he rescues her. And then she immediately gets snatched out of his hands again. Like, I don't, I really don't know, like, how weak of a grip he's got, but it's seamless. Like, before, like, in Gumshoe, it was like, oh, the very next day. Yeah. Like, so there was some time where they got to spend... What about Kung Fu?

03:44 Kung Fu? That, at the end, Sylvia is just back to being kidnapped. Yeah, yeah, exactly. But, like, there's some, there's a moment, there's like a moment where she is, she's free. Yes. In this game, it's a seamless transition. They just, like, go right into it again. And when she snatches the beginning of something I found kind of weird, speaking of that. Yeah, you jump from the sky. Well, there's that, but also in the manual it says, the princess has been kidnapped, something along the lines, princess has been kidnapped, and many have tried to rescue her and none have succeeded. Like, no, I just saw her get kidnapped. Who's tried since I just saw her get kidnapped?

04:17 I'm the first one. You know, it seems, it seems lazy every time Sean's like, yeah, this is a dream. Yeah, this is a nightmare. But he does it so convincingly. He goes beyond the whole, like, it was all a dream. Like, he actually breaks it down as to why it is that way in different ways, too. This is not how you reasoned with Burger Time being a nightmare. No, no, no, no. Burger Time was a nightmare because that chef was overworked in the kitchen for ungrateful customers and then goes home and dreams about the burgers attacking him. That's the only way that it can work. It's the only way that it can work in these games. So I actually now think that, you know, this game is even more beautiful than it already was.

04:56 I say beautiful because I really like the graphic style in this game. And the NES version kind of gets close to the. I would say in the first step, the first level, the first, when it's a tree and then there's like a storm and there's lightning and stuff. It's it's some of the best graphics. These are the best trees I've seen yet. Yeah. But like the everything after that level is just pretty basic. I was honestly confused if I was playing Legend of Kage or The Witcher 3.

05:24 I was like, wow, look at those trees. They have great tree cinematics. So, yeah, the player is armed with a short sword and an unlimited amount of shurikens. And the main gameplay kind of revolves around killing all different types of ninjas. I get really just blue or red and blue or red ninjas fire breathing.

05:46 Yeah. And the fire breathing monks over the five different stages. And then you have to essentially like there's like a not. What would you call it, Joe? It's not really like a boss person. It's just like a person you have to. Yeah. Kind of take down at the end of the. That's really just the first level. Yes. Kill this fire breathing guy. Okay. And I honestly, the first time I did it, I had I killed. I killed him. And then another one came. So I'm not really sure what. I know the twins. What's the twins? So you had two as well. I mean, I don't remember.

06:15 Here's the weird thing. Okay. Yes. The yes, the plot is well set up of the idea of the princess is kidnapped. Yeah. The manual explains some things. But if you just boot up this game and you just like, you know, watch that little cut scene of the princess being kidnapped and then they just drop you into the woods and you just like are like, oh, what do I do? All this stuff's going on. There's like crazy music playing. There's everybody's jumping around. And then you finally take like, you're like, you know what? I'm going to jump. And you just. Soar. Skyrocket into the air.

06:48 Several screens. It's like it's more than a full screen. You're going like two and a half screens up over a tree. Then you have the option to like stop right there and hold on to the tree and scale it. The other. The other theory is not is that it's also taking place in the moon because that's hot. The only. They're in slow motion, too, because like you don't fall at the right rate. Like you just sort of like sore.

07:11 Yeah. I think maybe that helps with the dreamlike aspects of it. But I will say that like for me, as confusing as that was, I really wasn't sure what I was supposed to be doing. Is this a game with like levels where you walk to the left or to the right? Is this a game like Ninja Kids guerrilla warfare where you just have to kill like a certain amount of enemies? That's the kind of vibe I was getting. You know, and I just wasn't sure like what I was supposed to be doing.

07:34 So I was just more like, wow, this is really cool. Like just running around, jumping, throwing shurikens. And he has like a weird way of using his sword. There's a loop the loop. Yeah. It's like a backhanded. Yeah. It's like a backhanded loop. I think overall, like crazy jumping aside, the movement is pretty good in this game. You run pretty smoothly. I just want to get it on the record. I don't think that the jumping is bad. I think it's really fun. The only thing that bothers me with jumping is it is.

08:03 I think you can adjust yourself. You can adjust yourself in the air, which obviously is realistic, but just doesn't make for good gameplay. Yeah. But I think like, yeah, I don't feel like a ninja that much in this game other than throwing the shurikens. But I will say that like just a fast paced nature of it did really amp me up. Yeah. Okay. So that the first stage, as we mentioned, is the forest level. And that's when you got to do all that stuff. And then you got to.

08:30 Oh, it says it says that there's a book in this level. Did anybody get the book? I mean, the scroll. The scroll. Yeah. The scroll, I guess. The scroll. Yeah. It causes Kage to stand still and meditate for several seconds while approaching enemies dropped to the ground dead during a lightning storm. I got it, but not in this level. I mean, I didn't know what I got.

08:48 It just, it just, people just started dying. They just all show up and yeah, they just died. There's a really weird, like ominous sound in the background. And yeah, it's, it's actually really disturbing how it happens, but I don't know how well that helps you to move forward in, in the game. Cause I think they just will endlessly respond, don't they? Yeah. But I think it's like, again, this is a title game. So it's all about the points, you know? And so you definitely want to get that bad boy. If you're looking forward to points.

09:15 There were a couple of other interesting power ups you can get throughout. Take me. And I'm actually drawing a blank on what the actual, what the visible icon was that you pick up. But there was the one that turns you green. Crystal ball. Oh yeah.

09:28 It's like a little ball. Yeah. You could turn a couple of different colors in the game. Really? I think I only got green, but green basically acts like a mushroom. I mean, you don't get any bigger, but you, you get another hit and then if you go a little faster. If you get a second orb while you're green, you go back to whatever your original clothing color was. No, you, I think you might, this way you might be confused. You go to orange, not to red. Yeah. You go to orange and then you get a bigger shuriken.

09:57 So I've gotten that too. So I got one orb and I turned to be green. I got the next orb and it brought me back and gave me an extra life. So it didn't give me an extra hit anymore. Now I could die and come back with an extra life with two hits. Hmm. Okay. I think this just, again, is proving my point though, just about like a little bit about how confusing this game can be. If you're just like jumping into it. Cause it's like, we all kind of like, we played the game and we all like saw things happen, but we have like, now we have like a different way of explaining what happens. And I also definitely got those, the bigger, I don't know, it was shurikens. The big shurikens. Yeah.

10:29 But I was, I had no idea how I got those. I got them a couple of times and I was like, what is happening? Yeah. It's all about those crystal balls. Cause that's what changes the player's clothes. And also more importantly makes it so this way, if you take a damage, you don't die immediately. Cause this is a one hit kill game, but instead you'll just go back to your normal red clothes. Gotcha. Very much.

11:20 So, you know, we were just talking about the first stage, but there are some variety in the stages here. Just besides, like, you know, the way that the settings are. Yeah, there's also, like, some different things to do. Anybody want to talk about that? Yeah, I kind of enjoyed that a little bit. I have good things and bad things to say about this, but each level kind of had a different objective. A lot like Ninja Kid. So, like, you know, the first level, apparently... The first level is the only one I'm a little confused on. Apparently you had to kill that guy at the end. Even though it didn't really work for me.

11:49 Second level, you have to beat a specific amount of enemies. You have a counter at the bottom and it counts down to the amount of enemies. Very much like Ninja Kid's Guerrilla Warfare. Right. Third level, you just have to get to the top of the level. So it's like... And the problem I have with some of these is that there are... In some of the levels, there aren't really many clues as to what you have to do. Well, at least in the third level, there's a big blinking up arrow. That's the one that I think has, like, the most blatant clue. Yeah. There's a level later on.

12:17 After you do the first four levels, you go back to the beginning. There's a level at one point where you have to kill a butterfly before you can kill any enemies. Did you guys get to this level? No, I did not get to this. I watched a video of this and, yeah, it's very strange. Because even in the manual, it's just like, I wonder why a butterfly's around here. Right. Yeah, I was playing with my friend Mark, who you may remember from the Duck Hunt episode. Yes. And we had a couple... That's a deep cut. Yeah, but that's, you know, still one of my favorite games of the... There you go. I can't wait to see on the best of 87 where it winds up.

12:53 But we had a couple of, like, experiences that were just really inconsistent. There was one point when he was playing. And on the fourth level, when you actually find the princess, you can free her by slashing her chains, I guess. And then what I imagine is supposed to happen, which is what happened every time after, is you walk forward and you both automatically... You're not controlling this. You both jump up to the top and progress on to the next level where she gets kidnapped immediately again.

13:17 But the first two times that I think Mark was playing and he did this, he freed her. He did everything right. They walked forward to where they'd start to jump up and they both died and fell off the screen. This happened twice. We can never get it to happen again.

13:33 But they just died. And then there was nothing hit them. It sounds like a bug. Yeah, it must have been. Yeah, I can't imagine that being intended. But it definitely helped Sean's nightmare theory.

13:45 Guys, you know, I'm going to ask right now. What's the deal with Taito? I don't really like what they're doing. I'm not a big fan either. But I just want to... And this is a hard question to... We actually can't answer it. But do we have a level of future vision here where because we're talking about these games in 2018, we just can't see the appeal because these games are just kind of lost to their time of being arcade-like machines? I'm inclined to say no to that too because I enjoy other arcade games still today. But I don't think if you showed me a Legend of Kage arcade cabinet, I'd be like, oh, gotta play that one instead of, say, Galaga.

14:27 I mean, so a part of it is I actually don't know how far back we have to go to get to a designed-for-home console game. Like, what was the last one we reviewed that was designed for home console? The last one that we did... Yeah, because even Solomon's Key was arcade, which is weird. But yeah, you're actually testing my limits there. It might be Kid Icarus. Yeah, I was just going to say Kid Icarus.

14:54 Oh, no, Rygar was arcade. Oh, it was? Yeah, Rygar was arcade. Different game, though. Okay. In the doldrums, I don't know how long this is going to go. Actually, I do. But we seem to be in the doldrums of it's just ports, of games that were already made for the arcade, and so we're just getting an arcade experience. And I think it's not that these games are particularly bad, which some of them are. It's that it's kind of getting old. Well, I don't even know if it's the arcade port part of it that bothers me. I think what bothers me about all this, with Taito specifically,

15:36 is that I'm just not really digging any of their games. Like, look, Legend of Kage is visually interesting. For the first level. Yeah, it has a fun thing about it here and there. But for the most part, it kind of falls flat for me. Elevator Action definitely wasn't a big one for me. Burger Time, which is kind of like a fan favorite, didn't really do anything special for me. And so it's like, what are they consistently doing wrong?

16:01 That like other arcade developers that bring like, because, you know, think about it. Capcom and Konami, both of those are bringing their arcade games to the NES and we're liking those. What's Taito doing wrong? I think they're now that you say that, I think they're too faithful of a port. But because Capcom, like they, they change their games up a little bit when they come to the home console, right? Like, or was it? Well, yeah, I'm not gonna, I think like, you know, Konami did probably more when it came to changing them up. But I think like, what I'm kind of gonna say here, and this might be out of line, but I think that what it comes down to is that Taito is making the more traditional arcade style game.

16:45 Whereas like, you know, Capcom and Konami are definitely thinking about the arcade first and then porting these games. But they're, they're like that next generation of arcade games. I feel like the Taito games are very similar to like, that Pac-Man era of like, arcade games. You know, the early 80s. Whereas like a game like Ghost and Goblins is like, yeah, that could very well be a console experience. Cause it's a long game that goes on for a while.

17:11 You know, Gradius is a game that like offers a lot of player choice. You know, like a lot of different options that we haven't seen before. I think like, it's the, it's the repetitiveness of the, of the, of the gameplay and the actions. And then also like the super simple nature of the loop. Exactly. You know, I think that's, what's killing me about this. Cause it's like, I don't know, would I really be that excited if Pac-Man, which by the way, does not come to the NES. But would I really be that excited if it did get an NES port? Would I be like, finally, Pac-Man.

17:41 And I think the, kind of to springboard off of that, I think that the biggest thing that, that maybe upsets me about this being, about this port is that. It doesn't feel like a long enough experience. It doesn't feel, you know, it feels like either you get hit and you die and it's one hit KO for the most part.

18:01 Or you kind of like learn the levels. And like, by the time you understand the levels, it's like, you know how to, you know the objective. But that being said, I did have a good time with this game. I mean, I, I, I did enjoy it. It was fun. It wasn't, wasn't anything, you know, it didn't amaze me, but, but I was enjoying it. Like, I think this did better than some of the other arcade ports. Um, but also, as I've mentioned on the show before, I'm not a big fan of like traditional arcade style games.

18:29 Right. I will say that, um, a lot of the artwork that was done for the game, even outside of the actual game was really cool. Uh, there was a lot of like cinematic approach, especially in the Japanese artwork that was done for it. I think, um, earlier this week on our Twitter page, we've been posting some of that art and I definitely recommend going back and checking that out because they kind of do even like, you know, like they make them look like movies almost.

18:54 And then it turns out, I was like, no, it's just this arcade experience you can go get. And it's like, I like it as an arcade game. It's a very simple loop. Kind of reminds me of, um, Donkey Kong in, in some ways where it's like, you know, it's just four levels in this, in Kage's case, five, five levels that like to Joe's point, if you're good at this game, you can get in a loop and you really be addicted to the, you know, to that feedback. But I think if you're someone like me, who's kind of like, well, there's just a lot going on here and I'm like really just fascinated by the jump. I think like it only held my attention for so long. Yeah. Oh, well that's, I'm sorry, Taito.

19:27 Any, uh, any straight thoughts? We've been giving them a lot of like a lot of hoops to jump through, but we've also been giving them a lot of chances. Yes. I don't think I'm being tough on Taito. I just feel like, you know, Taito is respected. Yeah. Uh, they are a respected company and, and, um, you know, definitely in the eighties were a big, you know, company making games. Yeah. I just think that like, you know, the future hasn't been kind to them. Uh, these games have not aged particularly well. No. So if we're going to go into the sequels and spinoffs section. The squeak walls. Yeah. The squeak walls. Um, I wish you would stop doing that.

20:05 And I, and I do have a quick, it's not even really a straight thought. I'd love to hear it. I don't have an answer to this. Um, but I think it was in level six. We found this, you know, a little floating icon floating around and we were like, oh, let's catch that. We catch it. And we became almost translucent and double.

20:24 Oh, wow. You got that. Both sprites of us were locked in to each other, did exactly the same thing. And it seemed like only the front sprite or the, I guess the sprite on the right side was interacting with anything, but they both had a sword. They're both doing exactly whatever we did. So you're saying that if you did the attack. I did the attack. Both of them would attack. Both of them do the attack. But it seems like only the one sword does damage. Does damage. I could be wrong about that part, but.

20:48 Wow. So they were so close together that I don't even know, even if they both did damage, I don't know how much help it would be. Yeah, you took the LSD. Yes, that's what it was. Because you weren't actually doing anything, but it sure looked like it. Yeah, then we shut the game off and everything was still double.

21:04 Okay, so here we go with the squeak walls. We got the revised Legend of Kage in 2006, which features two new playable characters, Ayami and Ganon. That's weird, but it was like G-A-N-I-N. Oh, okay. Uh, Ayami is a ninja who can throw bombs, similar to the red ninjas. Most ninjas can't do that. And has an unlimited supply of throwing knives instead of shurikens.

21:31 And Ganon is a dog who can breathe fire, similar to the monks in the game, and can perform a spin attack that doesn't have much range, but leaves him invulnerable for an instant and kills any enemies that touch him. Uh, there's also a new final boss that all the characters face, which is a giant green cobra that slithers on the, uh, on the ground back and forth to the screen. That's very weird, uh, language, but I directly took this from Wikipedia. So leave it to Wikipedia to have something like slithers on the ground back and forth on the screen. Like, who can forget that chubby cherub moment where we read the Wikipedia page, which was a translation.

22:10 Uh, okay, but wait, that's not all from, um, from Kage, because other than the revised Legend of Kage, which was 2006, we got Taito Legends Power-Up Remake, which was a 3D graphics remake of the arcade game, uh, along with the original arcade version, which was included in the Taito Legends Power-Up. So it is exactly the same game, right? Just imagine, like, an HD version of it. When was this out? It was 2006. Okay. So it's like, now it's like Mortal Kombat-looking graphics. Wow. You know, like an old Mortal Kombat-looking graphics. I'm talking about, like, that, you know, the way they looked in the old days, where they looked almost like...

22:52 Like that. And then, of course, you know, the sequels and spinoffs have all been strange for the last couple games. Athena had, like, a ton. Elevator Action had more than three, which is just surprising. And also, I was just thinking, I think all three of them had one in 2006. Yes. It's like Taito's year to bring 3D versions of their... Well, I remember that Athena was SNK. That's true. But... We're gonna do that in every episode from now on. Please remember who made Athena. SNK also just makes games all the time, so it's no surprise that in 2006 they released something.

23:24 Legend of Kage 2 finally comes out in 2008 for the Nintendo DS. To acclaim. Taito's parent company, Square Enix, published a North American localization of the game later that year. Square Enix owns Taito now? Square Enix owns Taito now. Now, that would explain, of course, the Elevator Action stuff that's going on. Yeah. With Square Enix making their own Elevator Action.

23:48 You know, guys, I'm just kind of blown away by all these sequels and spinoffs. Who knows if I'll ever get around to them. I'm never gonna play these games. But I'm not necessarily dying for any of them. It's always amazing when I see, like, on the Wikipedia page for these games, a legacy section. Yeah. Or, like, I don't... Almost every NES game gets it. At least to the point that we're at now. We should have Nostalgia 2, where we only play sequels of games we played on Nostalgia. It's bound to happen sooner or later. Right? We're running out of episodes. We only have, like, 700 more. 650 more, something like that. All right. Let's do the Essential Games list. Okay. We're here. The Essential Games list. Not that much is losing us in this time. Because it's Legend of Kage. I'm gonna go first. I'm gonna say no. So, Sean?

24:41 Yeah, it's a no for me. Joe? I mean, spoiler alert, it's a no. Okay. But I do think that I enjoyed it more than you guys. I'm getting the vibe. Yeah, I'm not even gonna say play it.

24:53 I don't know. Are you gonna tell the average citizen? I would be on the verge of, like, a play it and a skip it. Like, I think you'd be okay either way. But I had fun, you know? That's all that matters. I had fun, and I thought it was kind of fun trying to figure out how to beat the level. Even though it doesn't really lead you into it, it kind of gave me a little bit of a Ninja Kid vibe. Which, looking back on, wasn't incredible either. But I can't put it in, like, in the jank folder. I thought it was okay. I understand. I'm not putting it in the jank folder either. I'm putting it in the forget folder. Right. That's a good question, though, Joe. Let's do that instead of this Essential Games List thing. Would you rather play this or Ninja Kid?

25:34 That's tough. I need an answer. I'd have to revisit Ninja Kid before. It's been a long time. I thought you were gonna say, would you rather play this or nothing? Nothing. Wow. This is not elevator action, though, Logan. I'd have to revisit Ninja Kid, but right now it is a toss-up. But it could very easily be this. Sean? I'd rather play Ninja Kid, I think. I'm all in on the Ninja Kid. I still go back to Ninja Kid every now and again. I don't. I don't think it's great by any means. It's just like, every now and again when I'm like, what NES games can I think of off the top of my head? Somehow Ninja Kid still makes it in there. Yeah, golf is up there. Trust me. Golf has a shortcut on my desktop. It's a mouse button.

26:21 You right click on the mouse. I quick mapped my side mouse click to that.

26:27 Yeah, so. You're Nintendo mouse, right? Yeah, no, no, no. It's okay. Emulation, NES hardware, NES classic, NES on Switch. We're playing these things every single way, especially me because I'm playing them on so many different consoles, too. I think fans of the show by now know that we're really committed to the cause. You're on to us. I think it's okay if I play golf on my computer every time instead of going back to my cartridge. I guess so. Especially because my cartridge is out in Long Island, so I don't really want to take the train out there just to play some golf. They can dox you if you tell them where you are, man. No, you just said we're the cartridges. Yeah, it's weird. They don't know that we're in L.A.

27:09 Or Norwegian. Norwegian. I tried to make up a location on the spot. All right, that is Nostalgia. You guys are one step closer to doxing me, I guess. I'm Michael Esposito.

27:27 You should check out all of our content on NostalgiaCast.com. We have the entire essential games list up there in case you're wondering of which games you should be playing right now. Right now, right now. And if you're wondering for which games you should play temporarily, well, we have a whole backlog of episodes that you should listen to first before you play any game. It is not safe to play a game before you've heard our opinions on it. That is certain. We're like consumer reports. You know, like, don't buy anything unless you read the reviews. Yeah, I don't think we're being disingenuine with anything that we've told you not to play. We're looking out for you. Sometimes if the game is really bad, we issue a recall on the game.

28:04 I'll say this much, okay? I haven't been wrong about anything. Same. So far. Ever in your life. Ever, yeah, yeah. So what I mean, if you haven't played Legend of Kage at this point in your life, you probably don't need to play it. Like, you know, that's where I'm at. I'm not saying if you were a fan of this game, your opinion is bad and you should feel bad. No, I'm saying great. Okay, good. I'm glad you enjoyed this game. I couldn't get into it. But if you've never played this game, chances are this isn't going to be the moment where you're like, oh, wow.

28:32 My new favorite game. That was a good wow. Oh, wow, wow. My new favorite game. Like, it's probably not going to happen. Especially when you have, like, Breath of the Wild as your favorite game. It's like Legend of Kage is not about to just come in and blow your mind. Okay, I'm Michael Esposito. You can catch him at Esposito Film. On Twitter. Good night. And we'll talk to you soon. Or good morning, depending on what you're listening to. Have a good day at work. Also, welcome back. Welcome back to Nostalgia. This week we're going to talk about...

29:31 Oh, it's the Poe Show. Yeah, this is the Poe Show. Hey, guys. Welcome to the Poe Show. We're going to talk about the ladders. Ninjas. Oh. Ninja movies. Have you seen any ninja movies? I saw... Karate Kid? Get out. Karate Kid's coming up. Is it? Yeah. One of our first movie games. Maybe the first. They're all going to be incredible. I don't remember anything about that movie I saw. You don't remember Karate Kid? I remember, you know, like, parts of it. I'm just going to tell you right now. For all of the NES games that are based on movies, watching the movie is going to be mandatory for the podcast.

30:07 You'll have to watch the movie and play the game. Because otherwise, think about, like, how weird that is. We'll be talking about a game we don't even understand the references to. I mean, we could read the synopsis. All right. Just don't watch CinemaSins.

30:19 Why would I watch any CinemaSins anything? I'm just making sure. Because some people are really hyped about that guy. And it's like... Why are we... Wait. Did he do something recently? No, no, no. I'm saying, like, some people just really like CinemaSins. And it's like, that's really not clever. No. What's going on there. It's like, you know, plot hole for this thing that, like, doesn't affect anybody's enjoyment of the movie whatsoever. Yeah. No, I do not watch or listen to that, to those people. Yeah. All right?

30:48 I'm looking at the mic. I'm making eye contact with the mic. Joe, any ninja movies? Ninja movies. I mean... If you're not counting Karate Kid, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. What about the Ninjago movie? A couple of iterations of those. Secret of the Ooze.

31:03 With Vanilla Ice. Yeah. It was in that movie. That's very nice. It did the Go Ninja Go rap, too. Go Ninja Go Ninja Go. That was a revelation to me when you told me that. Yeah. Okay. That's all. No, it's not. I have more things to say. All right. Continue. If you enjoy being on the internet, but you also... Like to make your own websites, you need to go to Squarespace.

31:30 I was wondering. I was like, I feel like it's got an ad vibes. I thought I had ad vibes for sure. No, we don't do ads on this podcast, baby. Can you bleep out Square... Yeah. Twice now. So we don't... Yeah. Just don't actually make your website on Square. Square Enix. Square Enix is also a different company. Square Enix. That was just a market. Square Enix is the... Oh, yeah. The card people. Yeah. They take your credit card info and they report it to the lizard people. Oh, yeah. Yeah. All right. Good night. Good night, kids.