099 · IKARI WARRIORS II: VICTORY ROAD

• Back of the Box
• Manual
• Introductions
• Top 5 Games of 2010s
  • Breath of the Wild
  • Witcher 3
  • Batman Arkham City
  • Pac Man Championship Edition DX
  • Super Mario 3D World
• Trends of the 2010s
  • MTX
  • Mobile Gaming
  • Online Play
  • fear of Multiplayer taking over Single Player games
  • Start of streaming
• Overview
  • Vertical Run and Gun game where you have to destroy the enemy aliens as they enter the screen.
• Story
  • READ THE MANUAL
• Gameplay
  • NO INTRO!
    • Even Ikari Warriors 1 had the plane crash?
  • Controls
    • Fever dream levels of failure
  • Level One
    • Enemy design sucks
    • Where the hell am I?
  • Weapons
  • Barshop
    • Fight Bounty Hunters for Heart
  • Power Ups
    • Bonus Score - Flashing Scores (means the number on the flash)
    • Arrow Power - You can use this power only once?
• Arcade
  • RIDICULOUS INTRO
  • "You have fighted well to the last stage. Thanks. All devils have gone to the world where they should stay."
• Sequels and Spinoffs
  • Ikari III: The Rescue
    • Arcade Games, NES, Commodore 64, PC, PSP
    • It's the end of the 20th century. A worldwide economic recession wreaks havoc with the nation and the planet. The impending threat of anarchy has given rise to a secret vice organization called "Crime Ghost."
• EGL
  • I couldn’t stand it

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

00:00 Caught in a time warp, hurled thousands of years into the future, Ikari Warriors 2, Victory Road.

00:23 And welcome to NEStalgia, a chronological exploration of every NES game released in North America. I'm Mike. I'm Joe. And I'm Sean. And we have a pretty good episode here. It's not number 100. It's number 99. For some people, that might be luckier. I mean, that's Wayne Gretzky's number. So that's a big deal. If he's listening. It's the best two digit. It's the highest two digit number.

00:50 And that's important. Yeah. And you know, some would argue that nine is the highest single digit number. Some would argue that. So that's twice as powerful. Yeah. 10 times. 10 times as powerful. I got you. Okay. More importantly, this is the last episode that we are recording in the 2010s. It's true. All right. You guys don't sound as shocked as I thought I was going to make it seem. I had a shocked look on my face. All right. To be fair, I told you guys this going into it. I was still shocked. Yeah. I thought you were lying. Very good. I mean, it's on the schedule. Like, there's no more dates after that one. Yeah, that's true. It's like Y2K. Right. All right. What did we roll back to?

01:30 2000, year 2000. In Y2K, there was like that problem, right? Where it was like, what would the computer go back to like 1901 or 1900 and it won't know what's what? It won't know the price of milk. Exactly. Financials break down, you know, good stuff like that. The new target launched. But I thought that the best thing we could do to celebrate the end of the 2010s is something that we don't ever really do on Nostalgia, but talk about our top five games of the 2010s. Mike, that's like 15, 20 years in the future of the games that we usually talk about. Right. Yeah. It's very far into the future.

02:05 We're working through like March of 1988 right now, and we're going to go ahead and talk about anywhere from 2010 to 2019, but please only pick five and let's not treat this like the essential games list vote where you have to like reason it. Feel free to gush about these games. You clearly love them if they're on your top five of the decade, but let's not let's not overdo it. Okay, Sean.

02:25 So we're jumping right into this. I think we should. Don't we have a game to talk about? No, no, no. I'm sorry if we tricked you by labeling this episode Ikari Warriors 2, but we're going to wait to talk about that. We'll get there. Yeah. I think that everybody is actually thanking us. They were reluctant to even press play on this episode, and now they're like, oh, they're going to talk about real video games.

02:50 All right. So, Sean, give us your rundown. What are your top five games of the 2010s? And again, they don't have to be in order or anything, so let's just hear them. I'm going to actually go in the order that makes sense and in order of release. Great. Um, so should I talk about them as I mention them? I think so. Okay. So from earliest to latest, um, my first top five game of the 2010s is Mass Effect 2.

03:19 Um, this world that Bioware built was one of the most fun that I had in, like, in gaming. I was, like, in college, and, uh, I just really loved that even, like, down to the littlest science bit, they had something to talk about within the game, and that was reflected in the characters, in the core conflicts within the game. It was just a blast. And, you know, this is my favorite podcast on the Citadel.

03:49 All right. That's awesome. And Mass Effect 2 is, like, right there, right? It's, like, 2010. It's, like, October or March. I don't remember. It just feels, like, so long ago that it's crazy that we're talking about, like, Mass Effect 2, you know? Sometimes, even I would think about a game, like, for this list, I was thinking about Braid, and I was like, oh, that's 2008, though. But it's, like, who knows?

04:09 You know, a decade is such a long period of time that I grouped Mass Effect 2 and Braid kind of, like, together. They're in that same era of, like, Super Meat Boy and, like, that whole beginning of, even though it's, you know, Mass Effect is a AAA game. Right. I still think of it in that time period. During that King of Indie games thing. We're starting to really see those things take off. All right. So, that was the first one. What else you got? Same year.

04:34 Fallout New Vegas. Okay. Which you would... I'm surprised that it was actually a 2010 game. Like, going back and looking. I'm like, wow, I thought this was 2008, 2009. But I guess that's more just Fallout 3. But Fallout is a world that is, you know, near and dear to my heart. I think it's one of the best open world games to ever be made.

05:01 And people are still using it today as, like, a platform to create their own Fallout fanfic. Like, there was a mod that just came out last year called Project California or Fallout California. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it was Fallout California or something. Yeah. Or New California. New California. Okay. Yeah. And that was cool, too. Obviously a fan thing. But its longevity has held up.

05:27 Yeah. And New Vegas, I remember that being, like, the first game I played in college. Like, I brought my Xbox 360 with me to college. And that was, like, something I was like, oh, I love Fallout 3. I can't wait to play it. And it was so different that it was actually, like, refreshing. Yeah. I almost feel like if I got more Fallout 3, I would have just preferred it to be the great DLC that they were putting out. Exactly. What do you got?

05:49 All right. So, fast forward two years and we got Hotline Miami. Okay. Wow. Top five. That is one of my top five games. I don't even know if I know what that is. Hotline Miami is, like, it's sort of a top-down shooter. Uh, but it's so fast-paced and violent and it's just a sensory overload. I would recommend anybody that hasn't to play it. Obviously, it has influenced my taste in music more than I ever imagined a game could. As well as just my appreciation of certain aesthetics. It's got a great way of telling its story. It's just like this dazed fever dream of a...

06:29 It's a mess, but it's lovely. And now that came out a few months after one of your favorite movies, Drive, correct? It was pretty much... It went hand-in-hand of developing this really weird, like... I just want the 80s that never existed to come back, you know? Right, right. Even though I never lived through it. And I guess that's why I'm here. Yeah, different than, like, the 1980s that we're playing. Exactly. It's a very... It's some games it sort of bleeds through. Like, that whole intro to...

06:56 Freedom Force? Freedom Force, yeah. Freedom Force was very what I'm looking for. And Rad Racer. Rad Racer felt like that. Yeah. All right. And you got some more. So, fast forward again one year to The Last of Us.

07:08 I'm sure this is on many top ten of the decade lists in the actual media. So, I'm sure you don't need my description of it. But one of my favorite stories in games. A shown vote of confidence is good, though. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. If you haven't played The Last of Us and you listen to, like, a niche podcast like us, I feel like, you know, you know enough about gaming that you should get involved in The Last of Us. Yeah. I will say about The Last of Us, when I played it, I remember my brother walked in the second I beat it.

07:39 He walked in right as the credits were rolling and he said that, like, the look on my face was just, like, jaw on the floor. Or, like, it's not even for the reasons you would think so. Think for, like, an ending of a game. I won't say anymore. Yeah. Okay. And you have one more. My last one is just came out. And it may be, I mean, it's definitely my game of the year. It may be my game of the decade.

08:03 And it's Disco Elysium. It is the funniest, most cathartic gaming experience I've ever had. Could you talk a little bit about what Disco Elysium is for the listeners at home? It's brand new. It's very much a product of old 90s CRPGs like Planescape Torment. Right. It's pretty much the spiritual successor to Planescape Torment, except instead of going around D&D sort of settings, you are in this sort of alternate 1970s playing some washed-up detective.

08:42 It's spoken to me on an emotional level. It's that combined with the way that it sort of combines its setting, its characters, and its story with mechanics and how you develop your character. It's just an amazing experience. And I think that anyone that wants to see an artistic, flawed masterpiece should play this game. That's awesome. I have a question, though, because I did some digging up on Disco Elysium. And apparently there seems to be some growing narrative, now that it is winning so many Game of the Year awards and stuff,

09:23 that there's like a part two moment in the game where suddenly the game isn't as good as the first half, and that it forces you to do a lot of things that maybe, you know, you weren't, like it was a lot more open in the beginning. Sure. And so I'm wondering, did you get to that yet? Do you feel that at all? I would say that since, right off the bat, while you do have open choices to make, this is not you, the player's story. Like, you can't create your own character. You can't give yourself a stupid name.

10:00 You're not making a player avatar. Right. You're not setting, like, intelligence to zero and, like, babbling in conversation, right? Like, that's the thing people like to do in Fallout games. Yeah. So. You're not doing anything like that. This isn't a true open world game in the sense of Skyrim. So, obviously, it's a more narrative focused game. And this is the narrative that they were going for. I know that people have complained about other games about, like, sort of railroading you near the end. Final Fantasy XV being one of them and many others.

10:36 But the writing in this game is leaps and bounds better than any of those. And I think that that gives it a pass in this instance. Yeah. Great. Real fast, I'm going to read off. Sam sent us his top five.

10:50 Just to give you an idea. It is completely different than Sean. So, that's good to see. But, unfortunately, it's kind of close to mine. So, I'm going to scoop myself here and announce his. Because, so, in no particular order, Sam has Halo Reach, which I feel like a lot of people wouldn't have expected. I don't know when Halo 3 or 4 came out. But I feel like 4 would be eligible. It's definitely a game that has re-entered the public's head because of the new release on PC. Right. And then one that I think a lot of people are putting on their top of the decade and their number one game of the decade I'm seeing on a lot of critic sites is Minecraft.

11:29 A game that exploded in the first half of the 2010s and is just continuing to grow more and more and, you know, made the maker of the game a billionaire. Yeah. So, like, that, you know, it can happen. It's a blind spot for me, too. Never played it. Yeah, never played it either for what it's worth. I have played it, and definitely if we're going for, like, the most influential games of the decade, it should be up there. All right. And I think that's what most of those critic websites are trying to do, too. They're not just saying, like, this. But then again, you could also say the same thing for The Last of Us. That's definitely a... In, like, a different direction, yeah. Mm-hmm. Smash Ultimate. I think that's a surprise.

12:07 I think that's a, you know, it's really fun. But we know that Sam loves Super Smash Bros. I think that makes sense that he would really connect with a game that just brings back every single one of its characters.

12:17 The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild. I think that's no surprise and is also on a lot of people's lists. Scooping up those first places. And Mario Kart 8. A game that saw life on two different Nintendo consoles.

12:30 And I think, you know, just it says a lot that it sold, like, most of the Wii U's. Like, I think it's something like 90% of Wii U owners owned Mario Kart 8. And it's not nearly as much for Switch owners. That's because there's so many more Switch owners. Yeah. But it does still have, like, it's one of the top five best-selling games on Switch after it was already so... I own it, yeah. Well-selling, yeah. So I think that's something cool.

12:51 All right. Well, my first couple are definitely very... I mean, they all are, but this you'll really be able to see my, like, personal tastes come through here. Which it should be. Yeah, right. So my first one is actually Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, which was a PSP game. I think it was, like, right in, like, 2010.

13:11 And, like, you probably know by now Kingdom Hearts is, like, one of my favorite series. And I think Birth by Sleep, even though it does have plenty of flaws, I know, like, because it's a PSP game, it's definitely, like, a little less, like, gameplay-wise, there are some... Some of the worlds are not fleshed out as much and everything like that. But I think that it hits this balance where it's trying to experiment with gameplay and not be stale. And it's trying to, you know, this is the game where I feel like the complexity, the infamous or famous complexity of Kingdom Hearts stories has reached its saturation.

13:44 And this is, seriously, and I think it's good. Like, in a good way. I love the complexity of it. And I think if it stayed at this level of complexity, maybe a little more complex of a story, that would be good. Once they start going a little too much, there's a point where it, like, could, has potential just to come crashing down after Birth by Sleep. No spoilers for what happens after Birth by Sleep. My next one is another similar one. It might be a little cheap because it is a remake. But it's Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver. Okay. That's two games, Joe. Okay. Pokemon SoulSilver.

14:17 Yeah, it's funny how, like, it's true. Like, nobody really thinks about it like that. I could have just thrown, like, another game. It's like, Pokemon HeartGold, SoulSilver, and The Last of Us.

14:29 No, so the original Gold and Silver is probably, like, my favorite Pokemon generation. It's the one that I spent the most time with. It's the one that I felt like after Generation 1, which I love, this is the one where I felt like I was, like, fully immersed in this world. And I felt like there was so much to do, especially when I was a kid. I just couldn't believe how much was packed into this Game Boy game.

14:50 And I think HeartGold and SoulSilver is an amazing remake of that. And not just in a remake that it's just completely just copying it and making the graphics better or whatever. I think it really adds a lot. You can have a Pokemon following you as you go. It adds a lot with, you know, you can connect with your friends online and things like that. And it's also revolutionary for the Pokewalker.

15:09 You know? Exactly. I forgot about the Pokewalker. The controller that attaches to your belt. And you can say that that maybe had some influence on what became Pokemon Go, which I don't know if that's good or bad. But, like, you know. Pokemon Go is up there on a lot of people's lists. I know. Well, I'm sure. Definitely a very important game, I think. But, yeah. That's, like, an early time where they were trying to get their audience to go outside. They were like, you know, here's the whole thing.

15:35 So, number three. And, by the way, these are no particular order at all. Yeah, that's fine. Number three is Skyrim. Which I had never played an Elder Scrolls game before or after this. And I really had. It was my first, like. Well, they keep re-releasing it, so there has been no after. Yeah. That's true. But, I mean, I haven't gone back and played Oblivion or anything. I see. Did you play it on, like, PS3, Xbox 360, the fridge? Yeah. I played it on Alexa. We did play it on Alexa. We did. That's right. We did that. I played it on PS3.

16:08 And this is the first time I've really played, like, a Western RPG. I was very into JRPGs before this, and I still am. But first time I played a Western RPG. And I love. I know that, like, everything is open world now. And every game has, like, you can go anywhere. But I still think Skyrim, at least of the games that I've played, has, like, the most. You have the most freedom to actually just be whatever you want and do whatever you want. You can get whatever abilities you want. You can take whatever paths on your skill trees. And it's actually, like, fun to role play in that world. Take a character and say, like, this character's motives are this. And I'm going to just follow those motives as I play.

16:44 Like, it has a fleshed out enough world that you can, you know, live that out. I would recommend going back into, like, Oblivion and Morrowind specifically. Yeah. I would like to. I've heard really good things about Morrowind. You'll have to, like, edit your thoughts on how games should look. Right. And sometimes play. Yeah. But we do that all the time on this show. Yeah. That's true. Yeah. If we can get through Akari Warriors 2. Which we might. Yeah. Then I guess Morrowind probably wouldn't be too tough.

17:17 So my next one is What Remains of Edith Finch? Has anyone played this? I have. This is my biggest, my biggest. Like, runner up? No. I'm sorry. This is one of my biggest. Gaps. Gaps in my history. Yes. I played it, you know, different things for different people, you know? I wouldn't say that I hated it, but I got a lot more out of other walking simulator style games than I did out of Edith Finch. The only other one I've really played is Firewatch, which I've heard mixed opinions on this too, but I put Edith Finch over Firewatch just because I love the atmosphere and the weird mystery behind it.

17:57 And I love the way that it, you are just walking through a story. You can't fail this game. You can't lose really. Yeah. But you, it just gives you a different, a different method of telling each story. It's telling a bunch of different stories at once. You play a different kind of unique, interesting type of gameplay in each little mini story. And it tells like an overall story too that I just, I just found it was very, it sucks you in. It makes you kind of like feel that immersion of like something weird's going on. Like what is it? You're, you're invested in the mystery.

18:31 I had three games just like that. Um, that just didn't make the cut. Like between, between, uh, Stanley Parable, uh, Gone Home and Beginner's Bot. I'm sorry. The Beginner's Guide. Like I, I really dig those games. Yeah. I was, I was expecting you to put, um, Stanley. No, the, uh, what's the one where you rewind time? Life is Strange? Life is Strange. I don't know. You recommended that to me a few times. I wouldn't call that a walking simulator. I guess it's not. I haven't heard it, but. Even though you recommended it. It was also up there. Yeah. Um, all right. How many more you got? I got one more. All right. And, and I will say that it was between The Last of Us and this one. And since you gave The Last of Us its due, I'll give my other one.

19:12 Um, Dishonored. The first Dishonored. Huh. Which I also have never really been a big stealth game person. But this is the first one I really gave a chance. And it really makes you feel like a badass. The, the abilities that you can get in Dishonored. And the way you can teleport behind someone and assassinate people. And the way you like have different options of playing. As aggressive or really playing stealthy. It kind of opened my eyes. Made me want to play other stealth games. And I've tried one or two others. Including Dishonored 2.

19:39 Didn't do it for you? It was, it was okay. Okay. But it didn't bring me back to the feeling I had with Dishonored. Yeah, it is a great game. Yeah. All right. Uh, and just to round things out here on this extended opening segment of our podcast. Uh, I will just tell you my top five. And I don't really think they're in any particular order. But I'll list them in like an order that makes sense to me.

19:59 So the first one is Super Mario 3D World. Uh, I feel like a lot of people might be surprised by that. Because Super Mario Odyssey exists. Personally, I think 3D World is better.

20:09 And, uh, what I really like about it is it brought back a sense of, uh, just like pure thrill in the controls of Mario and like the, the play style of it that I hadn't felt since I was like a kid not understanding how to play those kind of games. Like there's so much variety in level design and, and options, especially when you play with all four players that, uh, this game was just a blast to me. And it's one of those games I got on like a Christmas one time. So it has like that whole joy behind it too. This one might be more of a feel than an actual game. But, uh, when I'm thinking like Mario, like Super Mario 3D World's up there with me with the old Marios too. Like Super Mario World and 64. Like I think 3D World's like right there with them.

20:52 Uh, another one that, uh, is, is kind of funny and is like a meme around us right now, but Batman Arkham City is a legit game that I think is deserving of my top five because it's the only game in my entire life maybe. Uh, yeah. Mass Effect 1 comes close. But it's the only game in my entire life where as soon as I beat it, I watched the credits roll and then just hit new game plus and started playing again. Just being like, I bet I could do this in like four hours now. So specifically City, not, not Asylum. Not Asylum. Not Night.

21:23 Okay. Specifically Arkham City. Uh, I think that like now the script is flipped and people hate City and like Asylum. I love City. Right. I think that like they did a good job with making it contained in an open world that makes sense for Batman. I think once you took it to like outside of the, uh, for like night and stuff like that, like that got to be a bit too much. And the Batmobile was weird and stuff like that. Like I think containing it to the, um, like now the Asylum is this whole area and stuff like that. Like I thought that was really cool.

21:53 And there was something, you know, like the plot wasn't really there, but I didn't care because the gameplay was so fun. Oh yeah. And another game that I really enjoyed, uh, Spider-Man on PS4, uh, basically failed me in the latter half of the game. I did not. I wound up not enjoying it because of how the second half of the story goes. But that game, I realized the reason why I was liking it so much is because it reminded me of Arkham City. You know, it wasn't really doing anything too different. It was just taking the Arkham City thing and being like, yeah, we could do that in 2018 again. Yeah. No problem. So Batman Arkham City for sure.

22:26 Uh, okay. Witcher 3. Uh, a game that I don't think either of you have played. I have owned it since it was released. I've played it, not gotten very far. Never played. I've played a little bit. And I've watched you play. This, yeah, this deserves, uh, a mention from me specifically because I hate this like area of fiction. Like I can't, I can't stand Game of Thrones. I don't like medieval times. Fantasy things in general is just like, not for me. So for The Witcher 3 to like hook me, I played it strictly because it won Game of the Year, uh, the year that it came out. I think 2015, 16 maybe? I think it's 15. Yeah. And in one game of the year and I was like, oh, I gotta get my hands on this. I heard it looks beautiful. I just built a PC.

23:06 So I, uh, I was playing it and I thought I wasn't going to care for it just because of how it started. But even the game, like the gameplay, it's weird. It's not that like intuitive. The controls aren't great. Like, like, like, like, you know, like melee is very weird in The Witcher, but there's just something so. You're like reading the back of the box right now. Yeah. There's just something so engrossing about the story, the characters and the, uh, like the quest themselves.

23:31 Like you really feel as you, as you pick up the quest and stuff, it doesn't feel like it's like, okay, cool. Can you go pick up this thing over on the other side of the map and bring it back to me? Like each thing is like, oh, there's this very specific monster. And I have to think about like, maybe I should read up on like what it's weak to and like how I'm going to tackle that. I thought that was so cool to have that in a game. So people are probably gonna tell me, well, you'd really like Monster Hunter, but I don't. I don't like Monster Hunter at all. Actually. It's a little too jank for me. Okay. Pac-Man Championship Edition. Oh my God.

24:06 It's a real pick for me. And I have to say this was, I could have never expected this, but this is the perfect arcade game. And I am confident after playing Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 that nothing will ever top Pac-Man Championship Edition DX in terms of like what is just incredibly fun, both visually and, uh, and in terms of like gameplay loop. Like the, the, it's so simple the way that they change the game to be the ghost chasing you to like you luring in the ghost behind you. And there's just something like the way they designed the puzzle format of it.

24:44 It just speaks to me on a whole nother level. And I get into a groove and I really like tackle the leaderboards on that one. So this isn't meant as a counter. Yep. But my question is, what did you think of, or have you played Tetris Effect? And I have played Tetris Effect and the difference there I think is while that game is also very visually stimulating and a different way of playing Tetris, at the end of the day, it really is just Tetris marathon mode set to like music.

25:10 You know, it didn't redesign Tetris. Whereas like you might argue Tetris 99 actually did like a better job of like redefining what Tetris is. Pac-Man Championship Edition DX is not playing Pac-Man. It's not like the arcade version, but now with better visuals, whatever that would be. It's the same exact visuals through like all different kinds of layouts. But instead now it's about like the puzzle of the maze itself and how you would, how you use that to get like the highest score possible all set to really nice music and great music and great visuals. So I had to put that on my list. I actually felt weird at first because it's such a tight experience, but I've been playing it since it came out.

25:49 Like I just always go back to that game. It's easy to boot from Steam. It's like I'm playing a game in like two seconds. You know, I would really, really like to get that on Switch, but I got the second edition, which isn't terrible. That game. It's just like, it's not, it's not as good as the first one. Definitely play Pac-Man Championship Edition DX. And my last one, the most obvious I feel is Breath of the Wild.

26:10 There's something about Zelda games that everybody seems to like, like if you're a Nintendo guy. But for me specifically, Breath of the Wild was the first time where I was like, oh, you can think about like designing video games in a different kind of way. And they, and they thought about the problems of open world games and they didn't fix every problem. And they actually created some new ones in the way.

26:35 But just those first like 20 hours of Breath of the Wild, which I think is better than like some other games where I'm like, oh, I like this game up to a point. Like to get 20 hours of just pure bliss before you start to notice like, oh, these are all of the monsters I'm ever going to face. Like they didn't design enough enemies and all they did was change colors, you know, or like, oh, there's really not a story here.

26:56 They just want you to go rush Ganon's castle, you know, when you start to figure those things out, that's weird. And that the dungeons are all like, not the way we know Zelda dungeons. I'm confident that Breath of the Wild 2 can polish all these things. But I'm not confident that at the end of the 2020s, Breath of the Wild 2 is going to be on my list of like top games because you don't know.

27:17 Yeah, no, it's true. But at the same time, I feel like these games all get me on like an awe factor, you know, and I feel like now I've been spoiled by it. That Breath of the Wild 2 is just going to be a more refined version of something I already love, which is kind of like why I didn't put Soul Silver and Heart Gold on my list because like for me, they're great games, but Silver and Gold were like already there,

27:38 you know, and like they took away like the thrill of being like, what? There's a whole nother set of gyms and I can do all this other stuff. So that's that. And that is a very long look into the top five games of the 2010s. If you stick around for the post show, we're going to go over the trends of the 2010s and stuff like that. But I think now would be a great time to actually talk about Ikari Warriors 2.

28:03 We are going to talk about a vertical run and gun game where you have to destroy the enemy aliens as they enter the screen. Sounds pretty standard, right? But. It'd be fun. But it comes with an incredibly complicated story. You see, when we last saw Paul and Vince, they had saved the colonel and were about to head for home in a special plane given to them by the general. But then while in flight over the ocean, the sky suddenly blackens. The ocean begins to churn and the plane goes spinning. A booming voice fills the cockpit. Hear me, warriors. Zhang Zip, the war dog, has enslaved the people of Earth. Only you can save us from his grip of evil.

28:51 Caught in a time warp, hurtled thousands of years into the future, Paul and Vince know they have no choice but to meet this impossible challenge head on. After all, they are professionals. Dot, dot, dot.

29:06 They are the Ikari Warriors. They said the name. And we've had some goofy stories and manuals before, but is this like the laziest story? I'd say maybe laziest, sure. But there have been more goofball. Oh, there's been more ridiculous. But this is like the laziest like, oh yeah, they were flying away and then someone attacked and they gotta go fight now. This is clearly just trying to get like an aliens thing going on because that movie is like taking off and now it's like, cool, let's make a game for you. Do you see the aliens influences in this game? I just think like, you know, just the idea of like aliens. Yeah. Any kind of aliens. Yeah. Marines taking down aliens too.

29:45 I won't lie. Halfway through playing this game, I stopped and checked to make sure I was playing the right game. Just thinking back to the original Ikari Warriors, I was like, this can't be the sequel. Think about the way this game starts. There's no intro whatsoever. There's nothing about this like, you know, plain. There is an intro. Yes. And it is horrible. You have to wait. Oh, okay. Okay. That's good to know because I was going to say, Ikari Warriors 1 has an intro.

30:08 You know, like even that one has like the, they actually did like some aspect ratio thing for it too to make it look like it was a movie. And the plane like crashes in the jungle and then you have to like start the game. So please, now that you've seen the intro, what happens in it? It's more or less what you just described, but with three semi-moving pains.

30:29 But is it clear if you didn't read the manual, would that have cleared it up and like, I think I'm going into the future right now. Does that make clear? There's obviously some supernatural thing happening to the plane and then there's some guy talking to you and then you start playing the game. Like you could piece it together like you could watching like a foreign film and not really knowing the actual plot, but at least getting the gist of it. You know what I mean? Yes.

30:55 You're missing a big detail about this, this intro too, is that. It has the worst text crawl speed of anything I've ever seen before. It is painful. It's almost like more than a second per letter that has to appear. And you know why? It's because it's Morse code. The beeps that are, I'm not kidding. The beeps that are appearing are Morse code. Like, so it just plays Morse code of the whole story it's telling you. It's four minutes long.

31:22 But you have the option to hit like empty, right? You do. You can stop it. Maybe that's why they didn't make it like automatic, like that you should start with that. Because as anybody who's ever played Ikario Warriors 2, Victory Road will tell you, you will die very quickly the first time you ever boot up this game because I would describe the controls of this game fever dream levels of failure. You know? And what I mean by that is when you're in a dream and all of a sudden you have to punch something. Flip a light? Yeah. Flip a light switch.

31:53 Anything, actually. Not even just combat in this game. Just when you're trying to do anything in this game, including walking, I just feel like you have very little control over what is going on. And I think that this game shocked me the first time I played it because I started, I died very quickly. I started again. I died about the same rate. I didn't learn a damn thing from the first time because you really just can't target anything that's coming at you. I found it was, so what was interesting about it is I appreciate that it tried to kind of fix a problem with the original where it allowed you to strafe.

32:31 So you don't, you don't have to turn when you, when you, when you want to go left and turn when you want to go right. The strafing, you hold the fire button to strafe, which just makes it like almost, they created the opposite problem. Now it's really, really difficult to turn and things come up on your, on your sides. It, so I had completely forgotten almost all of my gameplay experience from Ikari Warriors when I played.

32:56 You didn't go back. Then I, then I went back after, after like, you know, the first five minutes of playing this game, like I need to see what I'm even working with here. Like what should I have remembered of how to play this game? And yeah, I did realize that, okay, that they've added this new control feature that allows you to mimic the arcade game a little bit better, but at what cost?

33:18 Yeah. The, even if you're not trying to fire, if you're just trying to turn around, your character makes like a semi-circle. Yeah. He doesn't pivot on the spot. It's like this really weird mix of sludgy mechanics that creates this terrible experience.

33:38 When I played, yeah, yeah. When I played Ikari Warriors 2, I said, hold on a minute. Like I, I must've died like six times in a minute. I said, hold on a minute. Ikari Warriors 1 wasn't this bad, right? And I went back and played it and I was like, okay, no, no, I remember this now. This is, this is kind of normal. And then, and then sure enough, I was like, nah, man, we just, we've come a long way in the NES. It's like, like when this, when that game came out, Ikari Warriors might've been like episode 25. I don't even know. It was early, you know? When that game came out, we were like, you know what? Something new. It's cool. It's fun. I still hated it. Right? It was better than Commando. Sure. I think we said that a little, some, for some reason.

34:18 Wow. This game is like, uh, both games now to me are just like, oh, trash these NES games. I'll say, I remember, I remember liking it a lot when we first played it, when it was early. And when I went back the other day, when I was playing this, I went back and played the original.

34:33 It was not anywhere near as good as I remember. It was not great. I would probably amend the fact that like, I'll probably have to amend where it is on my overall list of games we've played. But I do think it is head and shoulders better than Ikari Warriors 2. I don't know if you guys agree. Oh, I agree. I can, I can still at least enjoy that game. Ikari Warriors 2 is just a step in the wrong direction in so many ways too. Nobody asked for these same characters to go to space. You know, like, just make a space game. And then I started actually thinking about it though too, with the alien motif behind it. And I was like, these are essentially, these kinds of games, these vertical running gun games are like space invaders, but you can move.

35:14 Sure. Like, enemies are just coming down and then you just have to shoot them before they touch you. But that's the other thing about the first game is that it doesn't just feel like you're just walking in a straight line because there are a little, there's a lake and there's a bridge and there's, you're going left and right. And this feels like it's trying to do this weird like, Legend of Zelda thing where you're like, go into a dungeon and you're like, I don't know. It feels like they're trying to do it, but you're still going just in a straight line. There's nothing. I would say it's barely trying to do that.

35:41 Like, there are different areas where you can, like, there are breakable walls and you go different routes, but the path of least resistance is always the best way to go. And there is eventually a lake. Yeah. Just as straight as you go. Like, there is hope. It's a purple lake.

35:54 I guess I just mean that the environments are more immersive in the first game. Whereas in this, I'm like, okay, I'm in the gray environment. Now I'm in the, you know, it's just all, I'm in the white. The secret of the ooze. Yeah. Ooze. And there's, um. Oh, there was something else. Well, it's funny because the arcade version of Akari Warriors 2 has a eight-way rotary joystick.

36:17 Yeah. Which definitely, like. That was what it was for Akari Warriors 1 as well. But I just think, like, again, if you're going to port something to the NES, you have to at least think about, like, the control restraints now that you're playing with a four-directional D-pad. And the way that they handle, like, shooting diagonally and stuff like, like, it's not opportune compared to the amount of enemies, the speed of the enemies.

36:45 Like. It's obviously something that they thought about. Otherwise, they, like, it is a, if you're just looking at it on paper, it is a sort of elegant solution to this problem. But in execution, yeah. There are too many things on screen. And there aren't really that many ever at one point. I don't think you could handle it. I think that's why. Yeah. But, like, even the few that are on screen at once while you're playing this game are too many for you to handle, usually. At the rate that you pivot. At the rate that it notices that you're trying to lock a position and then move instead of pivot some more.

37:22 And just the rate at which you move, like, run and gun. Like, this is a, like, trudging gun. Yeah. That sounds very appropriate. And there are fewer enemies in this. I keep comparing it to the original because that's all I have. But there are fewer enemies in this, I feel like, than the original. But it also just is so much more frustratingly difficult to kill all these enemies because

37:42 even when there are no enemies on the screen, you're just slogging through the world. Whereas in the original, you're at least, even though it is frustrating as well, you're at least, like, it's a little bit like, you feel like you're in the action. There's people coming in directions and you feel like you can do something about it. You can get in a vehicle and you can do things like that. But in this, I'm just like, you have to shoot through the walls to get through. Like, why? There's no point to that. Yeah. And just speaking of the enemies, since we're on it, like, the designs are awful.

38:10 The enemy designs are just like, take it or leave it what any of these things are. They're all like bugs of some kind. Large green bugs. Right. And I'm just not into it. It's not, it's more like, to me, they just look like mushes coming at me. And then I'm just like, okay, that's the one that, like, is on four legs. That's the one that looks like a cactus.

38:31 That's, you know, like, these things bother me about how frustratingly, like, boring all of this space in the future is, you know? Yeah. And visually, I mean, even if they were very creative character designs, like, visually the game is so unclear. I really can't tell where one thing ends and the other begins. If there are, like, two enemies next to each other. Yeah, they're just splotches of color.

39:08 And then, of course, itんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんな

39:38 Now, to be fair, in Ikari Warriors 1, I don't think you ever got the chance to wield a sword. True. Right, and now in Ikari Warriors 2, you finally get that opportunity to take a sword. That was my biggest complaint. Right. Yeah, I don't understand it, but basically you have the choice of the sword, the machine gun, the bazooka. Those are like your main shooting weapons, and they try to list like disadvantages for each of them in the manual.

40:06 And it's like the machine gun disadvantage does not destroy some enemies. And it's like, yeah, that sounds like a disadvantage. But then bazooka cannot fire repeatedly. It's like, all right, just... My favorite is, I think, on the grenade. And I just imagine that it's US GI spec grenades, and they all have this stamped on the side of them. Like, if you throw this in the wrong direction, you may not have a good time. My favorite was the boomerang, which I thought was the best weapon. And the disadvantage was, it might take a little getting used to.

40:46 Disadvantage. But by the way, the boomerang is the only weapon to use. Oh, 100%. Unless you're fighting a boss or something. No, I agree completely. There's also some power-up items in this one, which I think Ikari Warriors might have had some. But this definitely gives you more, because you have a whole other thing that we'll get into in the subscreen. There's a lot more things to control in this one. So, just something that I wanted to talk about is, I like arrow power, because it says you can use this power only once. But it means, like, just once upon pickup.

41:21 Like, it sounds like you can only use this power once in the whole game. Like, there's only one moment where anybody would ever want to use arrow power. And you'll know when, but it's not now. It just means you just get one. What does it do? Because the one time I threw it, it missed.

41:35 No, it's kind of like a one-hit KO kind of thing. I think I was doing for, like, bosses, too, and stuff like that. Oh. Yeah. Maybe I should have saved that. Well, maybe, but, like, how would you know? And also, what are you going to do? Not shoot? You're right. So, it's like, whatever. You know, all these things also don't appear to be, like, programmed to appear, like, at appropriate times, right? They're just kind of, like, littering the screen. Yeah. You know, so it's not like arrow power was, like, strategically placed. Yeah, usually they're...

42:05 Before I get into what I think we're going to get into, which is, like, the shop mechanic, but I just want to go back to the boomerang one more time. Yep. And I don't know if it's just broken code or if they were trying to simulate something, but when I was shooting the boomerang, it seems that I could clear a full third of the screen without actually hitting an enemy.

42:30 It was just, like... Like the hitbox is too large? The hitbox was a third of the screen, whereas the sprite was maybe, like, 30 pixels wide or something like that. Did you have the same experience, Joe? Yeah, something like that. I felt like sometimes I would just be aiming forward and the boomerang would just magnetize to whoever I... See, I didn't even see it. I didn't see the boomerang hit anything. It just would evaporate them next to it. I just thought I was really good at the game.

42:57 But yeah, I felt the same... I felt, like, the same thing. I was, like, never sure. Like, I guess the boomerang is killing these things. I'm just never sure what's actually happening. And it's fine when something like that is reserved to, like, a thunder power thing where it just zaps all the enemies off the screen. Like, that's okay.

43:11 It's another thing when, like, an item that you can just repeatedly use takes up half the screen. It's like, why even bother switching and stuff? But you do have the option to switch and buy things and collect money in this game because there's also the bar shop. Yeah. Which was exclusively, I think, added for the NES version. It wasn't in the arcade game. Just trying to jump on that RPG thing that's been going on recently. And I don't know. It just feels like it's completely not needed in this, like, clear arcade-style game.

43:46 I'm not trying to, like, you know, like, just keep it to high score, even though I always say I don't care about that. Like, this is one of those elements where it's finally, like, I'm like, I don't know. What do I need to take on the next thing? I think that's, for me, that was, like, a matter of I was excited when I saw it. And then it was just I thought it was a cool thing. It would be great to have. And then it was just implemented into a really poor game. I think it's the way that you control, though, in this game. Because we saw this in Gun.Smoke, a similar, like, you can buy items. But I felt like in that one I knew what I needed to get done for, like, a particular situation or level.

44:21 In this one it's like you have no idea what's coming next. And so it's like just, I don't know, give me, you know, I'll take the boomerang, I guess. You know, like what else could I really want out of what they're selling? The whole, what this is replacing is just drops. And this game already has drops where you just run and pick something up. But this is sort of like having, you're playing Time Crisis.

44:51 And instead of, like, reloading, you have to play this weird mini game where you talk to somebody about how to reload. And then you go back into the action. Like, it's just completely unnecessary for the genre of the game. It's just completely tacked on. I like the, like, the art of these weird creatures in a bar. But that's the only thing about it. Yeah, for the shop element I do agree. Yeah. And I guess I was referring more to the, just the element of having, like, customizable or having, like, different items or whatever. The entire inventory system. Yeah, exactly. I see. And then there's the, um, the subscreen.

45:28 Yeah. Which is just the, uh, UI of, like, hidden behind the select button. But I'm actually going to say that this is maybe the only thing I was like, oh, good job. Because it feels like a very efficiently, like, designed thing to see everything that you would need to see. The screen itself. Right. But when you use anything that's on the screen, like, half the time it's like, I didn't need that. Right. But it actually feels like every piece of information is communicated on that screen.

45:53 Yeah. And it was easy to kind of get between the different, uh, segments that you need. Like, oh, here's your weapon, your A weapons and your B weapons and your items. They had a very good menu design. Yeah. Yes. And it's just funny because I could see. Great game. I could know because I could see them actually making the mistake of, like, specific, some items go up by your character and other items go in the item box. And, like, the weapons for player one are on player two's column.

46:17 You know? Like, you can see those things happening because the rest of this game is so sloppy that it's amazing that they managed to make something that was easily digestible. I think that the manual actually, like, over-explains what you need to use the subscreen but doesn't quite flesh out, like, power-up items and weapons and stuff like that. What they should have done, since everything in this game seems to be, like, an extraneous feature, is add, like, some Resident Evil 4-style inventory management where you have to, like, each item is different size and you have to, like, rotate them and stuff.

46:49 Like, I think that would be really cool if we're going to have, like, a shop. Sure. We also didn't have... Did we have an ammo thing here? Like... No. I think ammo was unlimited, right? So that would have been, like, a good reason to have a shop, too, if you have to buy ammo. But, you know, I guess they weren't counting on people being able to hit things when they need to because I certainly couldn't.

47:10 All right. I think that's everything I wanted to talk about the gameplay of this game. Does anybody have any straight thoughts? I was a little... I mean, not that I could be more disappointed by anything because I didn't really like my baseline experience. But the bosses were all the same except for the last one. And... And they're all different than the arcade equivalents. Yeah. The arcade bosses look pretty good, actually.

47:34 And it was basically just, like, here's a spider of some kind, I guess, or a scorpion. And then here's a scorpion with no arms. And here's a scorpion with longer arms. And then there's the main antagonist's brother at the very end. Like, well, I don't really understand what went into the boss design of this game. Did you get to the final boss? No. Did you? I didn't get to the final boss. I think it's, like, level three. And then I watched a video of the final boss.

48:05 I did get to the final boss. And it was just the most... It was more frustrating than the rest of the game because it was just adding on every frustration at once. Got it. It was just like, here's everything the game has to offer all at once. Yeah. And apparently... Can you describe the final boss? Because apparently the final boss... I watched the arcade version and I thought, like, oh, that's really cool. It's like this green monster with tentacles and flies around the screen and stuff like that. Would it like that? In my mind's eye, it's a, like... It's sort of like a scary teddy bear. Okay. That sounds a lot different than what I've described to you. And he comes in and he's just like, hey, I'm Zang Zip's brother.

48:52 He's a weird dude. And then he starts fighting you. And I didn't beat him. But, yeah, again, watching a video, as soon as he dies, it just says end. Right. Yeah. It doesn't even say end. It just goes to the credits. Credits and then end. Oh, does that end? Not as abrupt as some of our games, at least. They did give you, like, the, like, at least, like, a song or something. But you don't even beat the guy, the named main antagonist, Zang Zip or Zong Zorn. Like, you don't fight him. You fight his brother.

49:20 That's crazy. Yeah, that's really weird. What was the... I don't know. I didn't even think of that. What was the decision? I have no idea. Yeah. I have no opinion on that because I didn't get that far. So I don't really know what to tell you. But also, speaking of the other bosses, there's the scorpion guy you're talking about. His arms extend out to, like, a certain point on the screen. Yeah, you just stay behind it. If you just don't pass a certain line, you cannot get hit. And you have a projectile weapon.

49:45 You just can't lose that battle. Sounds great. Happens three times. Yeah. There's also some connective tissue here that everybody needs to understand that I withheld purposefully at the beginning of this show. Usually I talk about the developer at the very beginning of the show because I think that that's important to get, like, a mindset for the history. But we've talked about this developer enough that I didn't think I needed to bring up their name until now because now everybody can understand why this game is such garbage. This is a Micronics game. Oh, no. The same people that brought us. 1942. Ikari Warriors 1. Athena. Elevator Action.

50:26 And what is it? Oh, Tiger Heli. That one was okay. Not great. I kind of remember enjoying that. Ghosts and Goblins. Okay. Yeah. And Super Pitfall. One of the worst NES games we've ever played where you're so delicate that you can't even, like, jump and jump. Yeah. So, yeah. Micronics not really bringing it home.

50:50 And SNK, who's the publisher and the developer of the arcade version of the game, really letting the ball drop here on, like, continuing to trust Micronics. This is a problem that developers even today still commit the sin of, like, trusting their ports to subpar companies. But to do it over and over, like this company, is insane. Unless I'm mistaken, the next time we see SNK will be for Iron Tank, the Invasion of Normandy. Wow. And that's episode 109. I almost said issue. That's episode 109. And apparently in that one, they're going to right that wrong and develop the game themselves.

51:35 So, we'll have to take a look at that and see if they learned anything from... Or if it's just a better game. Because that would say a lot, too. Because they are making the actual arcade versions of these games that are getting a lot of love. Yeah. Right? Like, no one actually hates the original Ikari Warriors, the arcade version, as far as I understand. It was actually, like, a pretty big hit.

51:55 But obviously, the NES version must have sold well, too, if they were like, yep. Release the second one. And it's actuallyんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんなんな

52:47 I need to tell you about the ending to the arcade version. After you defeat that giant monster at the end, that's totally awesome and way better than this, like, Sandshrew you're describing.

53:00 It comes up on screen with text that says, You have fighted well to the last stage. Thanks. All devils have gone to the world where they should stay. The world? All devils have gone to the world where they should stay. Great. I think that's a, you know, it's something. I prefer to read it as... It was written by AI. Yeah, why couldn't they have put that text in the NES version? I prefer to read it as, All devils have gone to the world where they should stay. So, instead of up here in space, they've gone down to your shitty planet.

53:36 Right, and they should stay there. They should stay there. And then real fast, I'm going to show these guys the arcade intro, because it's a little more involved than the intro for the NES game. But then I'll play the audio from it, because this is a really ridiculous start to a game. And I think, like, if anybody ever wanted to be intimidated by a boss that doesn't wind up being the actual final boss, that guy we were talking about, this is a great way to see that happen. Warriors! Show some guts! You can't escape me! Come get me if you can!

54:16 And so, yeah, it's just a series of taunts, and then, like, the most obnoxious laugh ever. And you do wind up gunning him down, I guess, in the arcade version of the game. I don't know if you actually consider killing him, but I just think that's crazy, right? Yeah, it's aggressive. It's just in your face. I can't think of too many other, like, arcade games where, like, an enemy's just, like, about you like that. He's adding you so hard. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, he needs a Twitter account, is what he needs. Last but not least, we do have one more Ikari Warriors game to get through, and that is Ikari 3, The Rescue.

54:53 What episode is that? Yeah, it's a long time from now. It's worth noting that Ikari Warriors 2 is sometimes just called Victory Road. Yes. And this one is never just called The Rescue. It's always called Ikari 3, The Rescue. And it's coming to the arcade, the NES, the Commodore 64, eventually the PC, and then got, like, a re-release as part of a collection on the PSP with all the other ones, too. The Ikari 3, The Rescue, quick synopsis for those looking forward to it. It's the end of the 20th century. A worldwide economic recession wrecks havoc with the nation and the planet. The impending threat of anarchy has given rise to a secret vice organization called Crime Ghost.

55:40 It sounds very contemporary. Yeah, so did they come, did they get sent back in time? They must be getting sent back to go to, uh... Crime Ghost. To go to, because now it's the end of the 20th century, and there's a recession, which I guess is like the dot-com bubble that they don't know is about to happen to them. And, um, I love that now a secret vice organization called Crime Ghost is, uh, trying to screw things up. That is an awesome name. Well, I think we should go right into the Essential Games list.

56:15 And since it's been a hot minute since we heard from, uh, Sam, I'm just gonna start with his vote. This game is a step up from the first Ikari Warriors NES port. Interesting. Alright, well, we'll just stop it there. Actually, it's more of a half-step.

56:30 There was more content added, but its implementation left a lot to be desired. The core game was boring and way too slow. And what's with those statues that shoot bombs at you at the start of each level? Screw those guys. Yeah, I forgot about that. Not essential. I agree with you, Sam. Joe, do you disagree? I don't have that much more to say other than what has been said in this episode, so I'll make it short.

56:54 Um, I don't think this is essential. I think this game was frustrating. I see where Sam's coming from, but I don't agree that it's a step up in any way. But, um, but I do agree that it's not essential. There was my circular talk. Great. Didn't go anywhere with that. You did an incredible job making it short. You're making it shorter as we speak. Yeah, perfect. Okay, Sean, what do you got? This game is a hot mess. And it's almost beautiful, but it's inessential.

57:20 And for me, uh, this game, uh, stacks up with legends like stack up, karate champ, tag team wrestling, deadly towers. Oh, yeah. That's where, that's the echelon. That's the closest, I think. Yeah, that's like the echelon of games that we're getting at when we refer to Ikari Warriors 2 Victory Road. I could not believe that, uh, something, something as franchisable as, like, Kari Warriors was this bad then. You know, like, this is not good compared to the other NES games of the time.

57:55 And so, it shouldn't, forget about the essential games list. We need to start, like, a garbage list where we have, like, just the worst of the worst. The trash heap, yeah. And I think those, those ones would be on there. This winter games would be another one. Um, but stack up will always be the worst. Agreed. Because it's shameless. Uh, that is all the time we have for this episode of Nostalgia. But join us in the post show if you want to hear more stuff about the 2010s. I'm Michael Esposito. You can join me on, uh, Twitter. You can join me. Uh, yep. You can play the games, too, if you want, but not on Twitter. Uh, I don't think there's any emulators on Twitter.

58:34 Uh, and... Tweet-based emulation. Yeah, tweet-based emulation is something we should all be working on. Tell you what, uh, just send a bunch of zeros and ones at me with the code for Super Mario Brothers, and I'm sure we can find a way to inject it directly to the website. I'm Michael Esposito. You can find me on at Esposito Film on Twitter, and I'll talk to you soon.

59:16 And now that we're just kind of casual and we can say whatever we want again and talk about 2010s, wasn't that nice? Talk about modern video games for a second. Thanks for joining us if you want to hear more about our thoughts about modern video games. And, uh, we're not about to start a podcast, uh, where we focus on, like... No. Yeah. There's enough of that. Yeah, there's more than enough of that. There's plenty of ways for you guys to find that coverage, but we thought this would be a fun time to get, like, our opinions on what's happening now in gaming. So, with that in mind, we talked about our top five games of the 2010s, but just give me one. What is your biggest disappointment of the 2010s in video gaming, not in your own life?

59:57 I mean, there's a lot to pick from, uh, in just, like, the direction that this industry is going in some regard. Uh, but for me, personally, my biggest disappointment of the 2010s was the fate of Silent Hills. I feel like because we got PT, PT was one of those games that I was, I was going to put a demo on my top of the decade list. Uh, because PT was one of the finest horror experiences in media, I think. Like, going back to, like, Silent Hill 2. So, that's how much I loved PT, and I could not wait until Silent Hills came out. And then it was ripped from me, and millions of others, by the evil Konami Corporation.

1:00:48 And that whole situation with Hideo Kojima, like, yeah, that, that was bad. But if they, they took Silent Hills from me. So, that's my biggest disappointment. Will you, um, consider that in your voting for the essential games list when we're talking about Konami games? I don't. Yes, okay. I will never consider, uh... It's a different Konami. It's there. I mean, like, who's there, who was there that was there today? I don't, I don't know. Maybe many people, but they had a different, they had a different philosophy, definitely, back then. Yes, uh, now they're definitely more focused on pachinko machines, and, uh... Indeed. It's sad.

1:01:23 Uh, okay. Joe? Remember when I mentioned how Birth by Sleep of Kingdom Hearts was at the saturation of complexity for the Kingdom Hearts series? I love the complex story, but I do think that Kingdom Hearts 3, the game I've been waiting for since, like, 2006 or whatever, um, is where it just came crashing down. Like, they just had, that 100% my biggest disappointment of the decade. Maybe in video gaming.

1:01:48 Um, I don't have as many, that many huge disappointments in games, but, um, but I, they retconned weird things. They've just brought characters back because people like them, and it did weird things to the story. And even, at first, I really liked the gameplay, until I realized that I feel like the game is just remarkably easy compared to other games, uh, other Kingdom Hearts games. And I just... But you have not played the critical mode. I haven't played the critical mode yet.

1:02:16 Uh, so, okay, maybe that'll change, but... Well, yeah, and you haven't paid $30 yet for the privilege to play the Remind DLC. Right. Um, so, yeah, maybe the Remind DLC will do some spectacular thing, but the... Maybe it will remind you of what you love about Kingdom Hearts. Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. But, yeah, that was 100% biggest disappointment, especially because Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 are, like, two of my favorite games ever. And my biggest disappointment, uh, I think some of them were about to be, like, we're focusing on a video game specifically. Because I was kind of bleeding into, like, trends for a second, but I think we'll just talk about that after this.

1:02:55 My biggest disappointment, even though I joined it late and was totally aware that it was going to happen, I still was not prepared for the ending of Mass Effect 3. Uh, I heard so many things. Things I said, I'm sure that, like, even though it sucks that I won't be able to, like, fully choose my ending based on, like, all the amazing decisions I made. I'm sure that the, like, actual ending will still pay off and reward all these characters. And, wow. What a mess. I, you know, I'm with you in terms of, like, yeah, that was a disappointing moment. That was a disappointing moment in my video game career.

1:03:35 Um, but I was able to forgive it a little bit just because the journey was so, it felt so good. Like, it was the friends you made along the way. So that's why I could deal with it a lot more, in a much more healthy way than a lot of people on the internet. Sure. I think for me specifically the reason why it's such a disappointment, though, is because I was having such a great ride. And I agree that the ride was definitely worth it. But the ending actually made me think, like, what was the point?

1:04:05 And why would I ever play any of them again? I haven't touched them since the ending of Mass Effect 3. I didn't look at Andromeda at all. I was like, I could care less. And it turned out to be shit. But, like, I could care less about it. It completely killed a franchise for me. A franchise that was selling millions and millions of copies of a game. And its ending, actually, like, its ending of its trilogy, like, screwed up that badly. Like, even no Star Wars ending trilogy yet.

1:04:34 Actually, the movie would be out, right, by the time they record it. That's funny. We'll see. Yeah, we're, like, a week away from the release of Rise of the Skywalker. So, we'll see what happens. But, like, no ending of any Star Wars trilogy yet has, like, talked me out of not seeing that franchise. Well, it's also, it's acting on a different baseline. Like, you're not, you aren't making these decisions that you think you're going to see come to fruition in the final moments of the final game. And I understand that, but in Star Wars. But I'm saying, like, I still wasn't even okay with the story that they chose to tell against my own will.

1:05:07 No, no. It's a little, the whole Crucible thing was sort of goofy. And the fact that it's. And also the elusive man just becoming who he was was a disappointment. The only way that I could cope with this, with this entire thing was just to headcanon the whole thing away.

1:05:23 That's a good idea. I have my own. Indoctrination. Yeah. The indoctrination theory, I'm just going to stick by that. This is like when we talked about Dragon Ball Z. You fucking people have your Jar Jar Binks as the emperor sort of thing. Yeah, Sith Lord. Whatever, Sith Lord. So, you can have that. I'll have the indoctrination theory. Right. All right. So, to bring Joe back into the conversation, let's talk about some trends of the 2010s. I'm going to list off a few and we can just talk about them. The first one I want to talk about is microtransactions. Yes. That was. Love them. Right up there. Like, it was a slow death. It was a.

1:05:57 It sort of creeped up on us. Yeah. People saw it, like, at the very beginning, like, at least in my opinion, like, I still consider expansion packs an entirely different situation because you bought a full game first. Yes. And something half priced just adds more to it.

1:06:17 But the horse armor was the first. That's what I was just about to say. I was going to say. Skyrim. That was Oblivion, actually. Oblivion. Really? Okay. Because that's what I was going to say. That's the first thing I remember of, like, ever hearing about it. And it's, like, for me, not a big deal because it was just armor for a horse. It was, like, cosmetic. It was a funny joke. If you want to buy that, go for it. I don't need that.

1:06:40 It bleeds into. It probably starts, like, it kicks it off. Right. It gives everyone else the idea. It unfortunately continues to roll. Exactly. And it gets to the point where now you can't play an entire game until you get nickel and dimed. It turned into full-blown addictions for people in the mobile market. And even in some, like, in the AAA console-based and PC gaming, like, between...

1:07:08 Most of it is still cosmetic. Yeah. But it's just... But most of the biggest games, too, not only have microtransactions, but if you think about, like, even games that we don't necessarily play, like FIFA, right? Oh, yeah. That whole thing is, like, a microtransaction game. Yeah. If you're not playing... If you're playing with the card system game. You know, like... Ultimate game. And we were just talking about Star Wars.

1:07:28 Yeah. That's another EA... I mean, they're, like... Battlefront really, yeah. Like, hurt them on that. Yeah. And I just kind of came off of finishing Jedi Fallen Order. And before that came out, I know that they had, you know, EA and Respawn are doing it. But they had come out and said, like, there will be no microtransactions. And people just didn't believe them. No, yeah. Because they're just like, they're going to find a way. They're going to find... Because they put all these microtransactions in their games.

1:07:52 Thankfully, there weren't. But that's how, like, big of a problem it is. It even corrupted what was, at one point, one of my favorite developers being Bethesda. And it corrupted them. They made 76. They locked off, like, an entire, like, tier to people that are now paying a monthly fee to a game that was at once paid for it once. And now it's yours. Like, right.

1:08:17 It's sad. So, microtransactions are definitely hurting. You mentioned that microtransactions are their worst in mobile gaming, probably. But mobile gaming also took off at a whole different rate than, like, Nintendo had ever anticipated. Yeah. Because now, mobile gaming on your iPhone and Android devices is actually, like... It's the market.

1:08:38 Yeah. And granted, it's not as exaggerated as everybody, like, thinks it is with scale. Like, yes, everybody has a cell phone, so it's definitely bigger. But it's not like it's destroying...

1:08:48 I think research has actually shown that, like, it's not actually destroying console gaming. It's getting people into gaming as a whole. So, whether it's, like, destroying it, it's definitely now the leading market. It is the leading market. I would say, though, that while it hasn't, you know... It hasn't made it financially impractical for people to still focus on making console games. That'll never happen. But the philosophies that go into making a mobile game have, to its detriment, affected, like, mainline PC and console gaming to, like, up to microtransactions. And the sort of ways that you play these games, like, I think it has negatively affected the experience. Like, just the idea of a single-player...

1:09:34 A single-player game itself is now becoming more rare. Right. And I think another thing to bring up with the mobile gaming, too, is, like, you don't see Candy Crush Saga on anyone's best of the 2010s. Whereas, like, that game maybe has more players than any game in the world, right? Like, think about how many people you just see on the subway just, like, who don't even think of themselves as obsessed with the game.

1:09:59 But they've definitely, like, you know, it's just like, oh, I'm just using it to pass time. But it's like, but how long have you been passing time with it? You know, I think that's kind of crazy that that happens. But you also, for a long time in this mobile gaming blow-up, you didn't see anything that, like, competed with console gaming on, like, a scale of, like, that's a great game. And it's only available on mobile. Like, you're just kind of starting to see that now with, like, the Apple Arcade and a few.

1:10:29 I would say that, like, my favorite mobile-only game, I think it is now on PC, but many years later, my favorite was 80 Days. Yeah, okay. And games like that, which sort of, they use the small time that you usually will spend on a mobile game to its advantage. And you can just keep going back to it at little points. There's something about mobile games, and just for me personally, the way I see them is not even, they don't even feel to me in the same category as console games. Yeah. Like, they just seem like a totally different animal.

1:11:04 So, like, it's weird to me that they are, like, kind of, that there are instances of them, like, stepping on each other in some way. Yeah, I think mobile games really, like, and they don't have to do this because they're clearly making enough money, but a true impact in mobile gaming is something like what Pokemon Go did, where it's, like, anybody can, like, be like, hey, what are you guys doing? And, like, oh, I have that device. It's a cell phone.

1:11:25 Like, I have that, too. I can play it. And, like, just that idea of, like, you could play with anybody because you don't always find people who have, like, an Xbox plus $60 to spare to get the newest game to play it alongside you. Whereas on mobile gaming, it's, like, all you need to do is just have an internet connection and be able to download it from the app store, you know?

1:11:44 So, I think, you know, if we want to forecast a little bit, do you see mobile gaming growing in the right or wrong direction as we enter the 2020s? I guess it depends on what you mean by right and wrong. I guess what I mean is, like, more towards traditional gaming or will we continue to see just, like, blatant theft of people's money, you know? I think we're going to continue to see that. Got it. Nothing – I know that there are some European nations that have classified many of the negative things in mobile games as, you know, gambling and being regulated and sometimes even banned.

1:12:22 But I think as long as the United States sort of has, like, that laissez-faire philosophy going forward, this is going to continue. There's going to be people that spend thousands of dollars on these games.

1:12:36 And if it works, it works. Right. And I think Norway was one of those countries that said, like, you can't have those things. And even Nintendo said, like, well, we don't care then. We'll just pull out of your country. Exactly. You can't even download the game in that country. Yeah. Like, they'd rather not adjust and make it free for them. They'd just be like, nope. And it kind of goes hand in hand. We didn't even mention it. And I'm hoping that it's a blip, like a three- or four-year-long blip. But the whole Battle Royale thing is so far just for the – just in this decade. Well, we should talk about that trend. Yeah. Because that's so far – yeah, you're right. It is just in this decade.

1:13:13 There was a – I want to say it was 2017. Yeah. Was the year where all of a sudden every game – every AAA game, too, needed, like, what's your Battle Royale mode? Well, it was around the time we started this podcast, wasn't it? Yeah, probably because I think we were joking about – Because I was talking about Duck Hunt and I would rather play that than Fortnite. Right. So it was maybe a little earlier than that because it was – No, I think – Fortnite was the second one, right?

1:13:35 I think you're right. But, yeah, yeah. I mean, like, there's – you know, there's so many – especially at that point in time where, like, even every Battlefield in Call of Duty needed, like, a Battle Royale moment for it. And it seems like maybe a result of Fortnite just being such, like, a leader and, like, winning it. Yeah, because it has that whole – that has the mobile market, like we mentioned. It has the microtransactions of cosmetic items.

1:14:02 It's basically this decade personified with all of its warts. Yeah. Mm-hmm. But also I think, you know, it helped stop so many, like, new games becoming Battle Royale because they realized, like, well, this game is just going to keep doing this and putting out, like – they're on, like, season 10 somehow. Don't like that. You know what I mean? Yeah, it's cornered the market kind of for – It just cornered that market whereas you don't see, like, somebody be like, well, everybody's playing Resident Evil so let's not make horror games. You know, like, they just figured it out and no one's going to come to Arden.

1:14:35 Whereas, like, Fortnite is just a continuous thing. Yeah, it's almost like it's just, like, it's, like, not even Fortnite. It's, like, it's a sport. It's, like, it's just a thing to do. I mean, it is. It is a sport, yeah. And you win millions of dollars on it if you're one of the best. I mean, it's got – everybody jumped in.

1:14:50 And, yeah, I mean, I think it's starting to fade. I'm hoping it's starting to fade in terms of at least, like, being the sole subject of the video gaming zeitgeist or whatever you want to put it. But, like, EA's got their Apex Legends. Even Bethesda tried to turn 76 into a Battle Royale kind of. Like, I don't know which way we're going but I feel like it's starting to fade because, you know, everybody got their toe in the water and they saw if they could make a buck on it. And I think only the leaders are going to stay.

1:15:20 Yeah, I think that makes sense. But you mentioned, you know, that fear of multiplayer and microtransactions taking over single-player game experiences. And I think that was, like, a thing people actually, like, were scared about for a while. But I think 2018 and even this year have kind of showed us that, like, there still is a market. There still is, yeah. For single-player games. And that's not going anywhere because there still is a large market of people who want to buy, like, Assassin's Creed, the latest one, and just play the story.

1:15:51 Or, like, you know. Or Jedi Fallen Order. God of War last year was a big one. And Control this year, like, those are games that, like, Control is a terrible example because it did not sell well at all, actually. It didn't? No, it didn't sell well. And apparently, Phil Spencer went on a Microsoft Talk thing and said, like, yeah, it's a shame that it didn't sell well. But, you know, we're going to have it on Game Pass. So I'm really excited for that. And Control had to be like. I mean, I'm sorry. That was a lie. Yeah, they had to be like, no, no, no, whoa.

1:16:24 Like, they're actually probably not a lie if you think about it. It probably will be on Game Pass eventually. Yeah. But they scooped the story and now they're missing out on all these holiday sales, which only makes the fact that the game didn't sell well. But who cares? You know, I think the point is that, like, AAA single-player games are still. They're still here. Here. But, and I guess I was wrong to say that they're dying. But that is a fear that I will still hold going forward. It's sort of like they can take our toys away whenever they want because they'll still make their buck.

1:16:52 Yeah. So. And not to keep talking about Jedi Fallen Order, but that's the first game, the first Star Wars game that's a single-player experience in how long? Yeah, since, like, KOTOR 2. Yeah, and they were such popular, successful games whenever there was a single-player Star Wars game that it's just crazy to me that EA has had it for how long now? For, like, seven years they've had Star Wars or something? Yeah, but they've completely screwed up. Yeah. All right.

1:17:19 We're in lightning round now because we have 12 minutes left. I've got one real quick of fun. What do you got? Yeah. So I don't know if this one's good or bad. It's kind of up in the air. But it's the ability for developers to edit their games after they're released. Because I think, on one hand, there are probably some games that would just stay bad. Yeah. When we got them. But on the other hand, it's like, are developers just releasing them unfinished because they have the ability to... And then, you know, the people who pre-order it, which I'm not a big pre-order-er, but, like, or buy on day one, you get kind of ripped off. Yeah. So, you know, I'll just give my quick thought and then I'll let Sean give his.

1:17:55 But my thinking on all of this is, like, I just haven't done the research for it, so I'm not sure. But I'm totally fine. With patching games. And honestly, like, who cares if your game was bad at launch? If you can patch it and get people excited about it again, great.

1:18:07 However, what does that mean in, like, 30 years? Like, how do we play that patched version of the game? Well, right. For preservation. Yeah. For preservation. Like, do we just, like, have that? Like, how do you get that if you still own the console, but you don't have, like, a connection to the internet and you never patched the latest version? Yeah. How do you get a hold of that? Like, that's the problem. It's like, if you put in Super Mario World and the Super Nintendo, it still plays Super Mario World the same exact way as everybody else.

1:19:05 Yes. It's single player experience. Like, whatever. However many hour experience now when it's not at its optimum. So then I was like, I'll just wait and I'll wait and I'll wait. And I keep, like, hearing about new things that they'll edit, that they'll update. And then I ended up never playing that game because I'm like, I don't want to play the less optimal version of that game. The example for that for me would be Paradox Games. Like, between Crusader Kings 2 and more on the topic Stellaris.

1:19:35 They have rebuilt that game basically from the ground up like three times now so that people are waiting for a patch to start their runs. And then just realizing, like, wait, no, I should wait for the next one because they're going to add so much more content.

1:19:53 And I think that you can get into these, yeah, those weird, like, so why am I doing this sort of thoughts? But I like the improvement that they make every time. I think that if it's done in that way in terms of patching things as they go along, like, I like the growth a good game can get through this sort of design procedure. But it can also go a completely wrong way. And the opposite end of the spectrum is early access forever.

1:20:27 And I just steer clear of those games because I sort of feel they just have a weird... Star Citizen. Yeah. It actually, it would never pay off for them to leave early access. No. If releasing a completed game will kill them because they have, like, $250 million in funding for a game that hasn't been released. They should just keep doing that.

1:20:48 Not to scoop Sean's story here, but just to move on to another topic while we have time. The start of streaming, both Twitch streaming and also streaming games directly via the internet. Yeah. You know, PS Now and Xbox Game Pass are two things that we're definitely seeing, like, a lot of people. Stadia is another one. We're seeing people try to be like, well, maybe we could do that Netflix of video games, which PS Now, a long time ago, was trying to be. And apparently has, like, 800 games on it. It's a pretty good program. I mean, it's not perfect. It still sort of feels like you're watching a video of yourself play.

1:21:33 Yeah, you've got to play, like, a Quantic Dream game or something. We just don't have the internet infrastructure in America yet for most people to be happy with streaming video games. We have been, like, in 2009, if we were doing this in 2009, we'd be forecasting the end of physical media. And that hasn't happened yet. And I still think that by 2029, actually, maybe we will by 2029, but it obviously isn't feasible yet. And ownership still has enough lasting power that I think that even a game release in 2029, you can put into a CD-ROM, or sorry, like a Blu-ray 4 drive.

1:22:17 Yeah, but it's worth noting because Xbox is going out. They already have their Xbox One S Digital Edition, but they are, for their next console, like, at launch, releasing a version that apparently won't have a disk drive. Oh, well, then I'm completely wrong. No, no, no, no. I feel like, no, no, they are going to have a version with a disk drive, too, obviously. I see. But, like, I think physical media is here for a lot longer than people would care to be. I hope so. Similar to TV thing.

1:22:40 Like, the television is dying, yes? Like, the rate at which people are watching linear television is going down and down, but no one's prepared to just be like, all right, let's just shut it off. Like, everybody, Netflix won. Like, you know, there's things in place. It's further out, you know? Like, I'm not saying it's going to be here for 100 years or even 50, but to say, like, TV's got, like, five years left, it's like, how? Millions of people are still watching. It's like millions of people are still buying that physical media.

1:23:10 Okay, cool. And then my last one that I have listed here is, and it's kind of weird because it's not the first year, the first decade of it, but I think it's the first decade where it's working seamlessly. Online play. Just the ability to play these multiplayer games in a way that you don't have to have a broadband internet connection. Sure, sure. I mean, everybody still complains about the netcode of games, and it's never going to be perfect because just of the essence of the communication method. Practically physics are limiting us.

1:23:43 But no, I mean, that's, I'm glad we've sort of perfected that. That's one good way to go about it. Because I think, like, you know, if we're going back to 2000s, that's, like, around the time that, like, SoCom 2 is on PlayStation 2 or, like, Final Fantasy 11, like a huge MMO. And it's like, those were games that someone like me who lives close to New York City was like, ah, maybe someday. You know? Like, I knew I couldn't do it back then. It wasn't just because of my age. It was because I knew I didn't have the ability. I was always like an, I want to play an MMO. Because it just sounds like such an awesome idea. Until I was old enough to realize I don't have, I would not want to.

1:24:22 I was exactly the same way. I have no interest now. When I was younger, I was like, oh, if I could only. We would have totally played an MMO, though, if we had the money. Oh, yeah. Maybe. Back then. We had the time. You know what I'm saying? Star Wars Galaxies? Come on. We would have been all over. Oh, I would. But I do think that, I don't know, I wasn't a big online gamer anyways, especially in the past decade. But I do think that in 2009, by 2009, it was pretty, it wasn't as tough to play online, correct? I mean, that was, you know, Xbox Live and stuff. Xbox 360 and PS4 or PS3. Yeah. I have one last thing. Yes, please. And I don't really have too much to say about it, but it is very important. And that's just crowdfunding.

1:25:06 Yeah. Kickstarter. And I mean, going back to, what was it? Star Citizen? Yeah. Star Citizen. Shenmue 3. Yeah. It's like the weirdest example I can think of. I mean, I think it's an interesting idea. It's obviously very easy to take advantage of because people have gotten scammed out of their money countless times already. Yeah. Mighty No. 9. Yeah. But maybe people just aren't even making the game. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's actually very true in the board game world. Yeah. That's a thing that happens a lot. And that's just weird because there's no enforcement of that. I have another quick one.

1:25:41 The, like, rise and just, like, total domination of Western developers. For a long time, Japanese developers in the 2010s were kind of, like, losing out on their audience and, like, Western RPGs and everything were really taking over. It's only recently that, like, Capcom got its footing back. Yeah. You know, Sega maybe, like, now Yakuza's finally, like, become a big thing in the Western audience. But it's, like, again, you have to, like, appease this Western audience. So it seems like for the longest time it was always Nintendo, Sony, like, these guys were running everything. And now it's, like, you know, 2K, who, you know, like, they run the market, essentially. Whatever they do, like, the industry follows.

1:26:22 And European developers are sort of having a, they're kind of rising up as well. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, indie developers will just always continue to grow. But I would argue that it's probably not moved as fast as people expected. No. Based off of the success in the late 2000s. Yes. But, you know, what would you want them to become anyway? Indie developers would just become... More AAA developers. And then we'd just have new indie developers. Right, right. So that's everything. We made it. We're going to finish the episode. Thank you so much for listening to everything. And if you like this, let us know on Twitter, as we do film, you know where to at.