168 · Kung-Fu Heroes

• What’s waiting for you at the 8 castles? Monster Land is full of thrills and mysteries
• Introductions
  • Can games today get away with such generic names as Kung-Fu Heroes
  • Main characters are Jacky and Lee obviously a reference to Chan and Bruce
• Gameplay
  • Each level is a room where you fight a group of enemies. Defeat enough enemies and you can move onto the next room
  • Super Mario sounds? What is going on here?
  • Not just sounds! Also a fireball power up and warp rooms which are very generous
  • Power Levels
  • Bonus Levels
• Sequels and Spinoffs
  • Arcade Version first
    • Chinese Hero
• EGL
  • There’s not enough here for me to consider it. I think they could’ve done a lot more with the systems they put in place, but instead we just keep increasing our “power levels” and moving along through the 8 castles.
• Next week - Marble Madness

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

00:00 Kung Fu Heroes! What's waiting for you at the eight castles? Monsterland is full of thrills and mysteries!

00:27 Nostalgia, a chronological exploration of every NES game released in North America. I'm Mike. I'm Sean. I'm Joe. And I'm Sam. Could games today get away with such generic names as Kung Fu Heroes?

00:46 Hmm. I'm trying to think of one. Like, there's gotta be some popular game right now that's a generic name. Hitman. Hitman? I've been playing Golf Story. Okay, you know, those are both great examples and I didn't expect that, so my whole argument is flawed. Kingdom Hearts 3.5. Well, I just meant like, you know, usually it's like, you know, your game is related to something in the story element or it sounds really cool. I don't know. Kung Fu Heroes to me just sounds like the most basic, you know, arcade game I could imagine. But then Sean reminded me last episode that there's just a game called Kung Fu.

01:20 So, you know, I'm sure in the Atari 2600 days there was just Kung. Kung? Nice. Yeah, like no Fu. Yeah, just Kung. Yeah, Kung. It feels weird to say it like that. Yeah, it does. Like, like, Kung Fu?

01:38 It's the same thing though. It's the same thing. Like, Kung Fu, normal. Kung is like, I don't know, that's strange. Yeah. Anyway, the main characters in this game are named Jackie and Lee. Obviously a reference to Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee. Did you guys catch that Easter egg?

01:59 I, you know what? I didn't. I didn't either. I mean, now it's very obvious. I just didn't see their names. I just don't remember noticing their names. Read the manual, Joe. I know, he caught me. And yeah, this game is, you know, it's a, it's a, it's a, what do you describe it as? A brawler or a arcade game or an action game? Like, what, what are we saying here about this game? What genre are we placing Kung Fu heroes in? It's like a, I mean, it's sort of what you just said. It's like an arcade brawler, like, you know, devolved several steps.

02:36 It, it sort of feels like a brawler, but a lot of the mechanics are very arcadey. And I mean, I guess it makes sense because it's like pretty much just an arcade port. Yeah. And each stage is just like one screen. You're not like traversing through anything. It's like level one dash one is the, uh, just one singular screen where enemies just kind of spawn on. And it's your job to beat them up with the powers of Kung Fu. Well, what's the definition of like a beat them up? Like, what are the parameters? Like, do you have to be scrolling side scrolling or move? Cause you are kind of moving through an environment, even though it is just like level to level and beating up everyone on the screen.

03:15 Yeah. I guess that's the, that's the point I guess that I'm asking too, but you're right, Joe. Like, do you actually have to be traversing? Does there have to be some kind of like small element of platforming for it to be a beat them up? I don't really know.

03:28 I, I, you know, cause you know, a run and gun, right? Is that able to also just be on like a single screen where you just shoot at other things? Like is, is, uh, asteroids technically the world's first run and gun because you're just a spaceship with a, uh, cannon that shoots at asteroids? I don't think so. So I don't think, uh, Kung Fu Heroes gets the brawler or beat them up title here. I think you have to, do you have to play a role if you're playing an RPG or do you just need stats and level ups? Like a lot of these are fuzzy. Yeah. I say that facetiously, but like, I think we can call it whatever we want to call it. If it's at least sort of tangentially accurate.

04:09 I feel like arcadey, but, but there's levels too. And it has like an overworld kind of view. I don't know. Yeah. Uh, well, okay. So let's, let's break it down here. In Kung Fu Heroes, each level is a room where you fight a group of enemies. Uh, the enemies change depending on, uh, the level you're in. And if you defeat enough of these enemies, a door will open and you can move on to the very next room.

04:33 Any, uh, disagreements with that? I disagree. That is the most boring way to describe a video game. The door will open and you can move to the next room. But essentially at the end of the day, Sean, are you really doing anything other than walking around a room, punching people in the face? And then when finally you've punched enough people in the face, the game says, we will allow you into the next level. If you would like to go, if you'd like to score some more points, hang out and beat up some more stuff. No, you're absolutely right. I just wanted to point that out.

05:03 And am I going crazy? Or are there like Super Mario sounds all over this game? Like what is going on here? Yeah. There's Super Mario. And also I think just Kung Fu, like from the original Kung Fu game on the NES.

05:17 Is this just an asset flip? Are we playing like a, are we playing like a, a knockoff game right now? Well, the weird thing is, is this was made by a studio called Culture Brain. So they wouldn't even be able to like get Nintendo's assets or, um, or Kung Fu's assets since that game was like, you know, had some kind of partnership with Nintendo into it. Uh, it just seems very strange that they would have the exact sounds of Super Mario. Um, and even like, you know, you shoot fireballs as a, as a particular power up. That bounce. That bounce, right. Um, what there's eight? Eight castles, right. Castles. Yeah. You're absolutely right. Uh, Sam, another, another power up there. It's blowing my mind right now. Damn.

05:58 There's just a lot going on here, but it's not Super Mario Brothers. It's not a platformer. It's barely anything resembling Super Mario Brothers. And then there's just these sounds that are just like, I know that I'm hearing Super Mario, but I guess it wouldn't be Sam. Maybe you could go in a detail here for a second, but would it be, um, like really hard to recreate those sounds?

06:17 Or would it just be like, because of the limits of the NES sound chip, it would, it could be possible that they could accidentally make a similar sound. This is kind of what I think. I think that it's that the sound designer was lazy and copied the, the sounds. I don't think that, I think it was intentional because there's too many, like the one up sound is in it. It doesn't happen when you get the one up, which is also in it.

06:46 But to me, it feels like they're definitely copying assets from like recreating. I mean assets. Yeah. And I don't think that would be too difficult to do after just listening to a couple of Mario sounds like, oh yeah, no, no, no, no. Okay. That's going up. You know? Um, do you think we're at a point in time where like they might have, they might've just intentionally done that to just like evoke people to think about a game they love? Not even nostalgia, but just like, oh, I love that game. I must love this game too. Cause it's got the same. It's definitely subliminal.

07:22 Yeah. I think it's either that or it was just whoever was making the sound was like, I don't know what a sound is when you hit something and gain a point. So maybe I'll just, maybe it's a coin sound. I'll just do the coin sound from Mario. That sounds, that sounds right.

07:37 You know? I feel like it was just kind of, I don't know if laziness is the right word, but just like not being very original. They heard it. They liked it. And they were like, let's go with that because they saw the fireball power up and they're like, I like that too. Let's use that. And then they saw the warp rooms and they were like, yeah, let's have some of those too. Like there are in this game, um, that are terribly easy to find. I found one in the second level that brought me all the way to like the third castle. Oh, wow. I didn't even, I didn't do anything. I literally just punched a block and it was like a staircase. I was like, all right. I went inside and warp me to world three one.

08:13 Wow. Yeah. I've, I've, I've, I did like that there were, you know, secret areas, uh, but that's like, it's sort of like a, it's just another trope at this point, but I did not, I did not come across that one. I did come across them pretty often though. Yeah. But they're also like, they're secret at first. It's like cool to find one. But for a while, I mean, usually there's like, there's like between five and eight bricks on the screen or like rocks or things. And you just know there's stuff hidden under all those. So just go punch them all. And like when there's a hidden level, it's under one of those. So like, you'll probably find it.

08:49 And maybe if the, uh, bonus stages or whatever we want to call them were more, uh, more not interactive, but like at least more engaging, I'd want to use them. But I prefer to play, uh, the game than just collecting apples and balls of E, um, and while dodging like one line of bullets.

09:11 Uh, so I didn't really look after the first couple, I was like, thank you, but no, thank you. Yeah. It seems like you mostly get points from those bonus levels and we're just not points people on this podcast. So like I didn't have much incentive to go there. Like if they gave me like extra lives or, or some like, I mean, maybe it does give you power ups. I didn't get any power ups for any of the bonus levels, but if it gave me like really cool power ups, I'd be like, oh, I'd want to go to the bonus level.

09:36 Yeah. You get extra lives, which I guess is a good incentive, uh, other than scoring points. But yeah, it, it's just, it, there's not enough happening in that bonus stage to make it any more exciting, uh, than, than a normal stage. So if you're not in it for the points, you're really just not in it.

09:57 All right. So, uh, let's just break down like a single level in this game and this way we can, we can talk about what we liked and we didn't like. So, you know, in any level, uh, there is usually like some bodies of water painted around the screen so that you have to avoid those. You can't swim. Um, you have, uh, let's say those are the hazards of the stage. Then you have these blocks. Sure. As Joe mentioned, there's usually like five or six. So it's not even like, uh, you know, like a bomber man problem where it's like, oh my God, there's so much of this stuff. Which ones do I blow up? It's like, I could probably have enough time to beat up every single block on the stage.

10:36 There's the enemies, which are just randomly spawning, uh, and they'll continue to spawn. So, um, there's a set limit before the doors will unlock, but it's not like you have to clear out all the enemies in a particular stage. You can pick and choose your enemies. And then there, inside those blocks is like a bunch of different, uh, power-ups or, um, collectibles and point scoring things.

11:00 And you, you can punch people in the face and you can do this really cool, like, forward front flip kick thing. Moon kick. Yeah. Sure. Um, didn't really feel like that, but yeah, I gotcha. Um, and that's like, that's it, right? That's the game. Am I missing any element of a particular level? No, it's a very simple game. I mean, there's, there are some like more like uber enemies that I guess you could call bosses that like some of them just go away on their own, which is weird. But, um, the, it's a very simple game, but, uh, I think that it has enough like variety, at least in its enemy design to say that there's some value to it. Um, it's not like the kind of game that tougher enemies just take more hits.

11:50 Um, these enemies, you need different, uh, need different strategies of dealing with them. Um, like you'll need to either hit them at a certain point in their cycle or only a certain move will hurt them. Um, and they can only hurt you in certain ways. Uh, so I did appreciate that. Um, so that sort of balances out like the super simple gameplay with a couple more like hitches in the road in terms of like how you deal with, uh, your enemies.

12:23 I, yeah, there are a couple enemies that like you have to, you have to punch bricks into, at least as far as I know, the only way I can figure out how to kill them is like punch some of the bricks into them. Um, which was like a cool puzzle solving point for me because like there were a couple of times where, uh, I couldn't get to the next room cause I couldn't kill enough enemies. All the enemies left on the screen, I couldn't kill. So like I had to like run around and try and figure out how to even. You're talking about like the buffalo head men?

12:47 Yeah, yeah. Is there another way to kill those guys other than pushing the, the bricks into them? I think you hit them in the back, which I couldn't do for the life of me. Oh, okay. Uh, in the manual it says, these are called bison commandos and it says they're the strongest of all the enemies you will encounter. There is no way to successfully attack them.

13:07 And then on the next, on the next like page, it says like, uh, counter their attack pretty much. But I don't know. It, it's goofy. That's a bad manual. There's no way to attack them. Like, so you lose the game. Just say that in the manual. You're done. Yeah. What's funny is though, Sean, is that, uh, remember I was talking about the warp room. Uh, the one that you find in the second stage warps you to a room that is just filled with, uh, bison commandos only. And I think that's really funny as like a punishment of like, you can't do anything to these guys normally,

13:42 you know, to like kill them. So you're just stuck in a room with all of them. And, um, you know, for me, it seemed like, you know, trying everything in the room, I was able to kill like one every so often. And eventually, yeah.

13:55 He was able to like leave the room somehow. But, uh, these guys are, are really strong and also capable of doing their own like moon kicks if we're to believe, uh, Sam's terminology. So these guys are pretty, uh, darn strong. And I think it's weird that the manual refers to them as the strongest of all the enemies you will encounter.

14:14 Because what about the, you know, like what about the bosses and the other things in this game? Like it's just so early to introduce the strongest enemy in the game. Yeah, I, I think that they, they needed a bit more, uh, uh, like teaching through just doing, because I wouldn't have known.

14:33 I mean, I basically, in the entire time that I played the game, I was only killing these guys by accident. Um, but if they had a little bit of like the, the tutorialization, um, that games have started to sort of, uh, have started to use to, to teach the player how to play as they're playing. Uh, that, that would be a little bit more, uh, it would feel better that I'm playing the game when I know like how to, how to kill these guys, at least in, in theory. Uh, that, that definitely just didn't, it didn't feel good. Also, I feel like the, the hit boxes in general are pretty janky.

15:15 And I mean, even the, the first enemy variant, let's say, is not just a guy who goes around punching. Who are those guys that look like the normal guys, but they also do the, the kicks, which are called moonsault kicks, like somersault.

15:30 Uh, I just screwed up. Um, those guys, I feel like I would, especially if I'm coming at them sideways, if I land on them, I feel like every third time it wouldn't count as me landing on them and they would just punch me and then I'd die. But if they land on me, it's like a, it's like a knockout. I don't know. I feel like there's some weird, there's some janky, uh, janky hit boxes. Did you guys feel like that? Oh yeah. It's got weird hit boxes.

16:01 It's got weird movement. Like you kind of like move in these weird, uh, like they're like little segments of, of movement. Like you can't just sort of sidestep a little bit. You're always going to move like a square over, but it's still sort of counts your hit box as moving with you instead of like square by square. So it's, it, at least that's the only way that I can explain it. It really just feels off. Like, I guess what you just said, I'm just agreeing with you.

16:33 Yeah. He's also like, he's kind of a wide sprite and he, he punches with just his right hand. I think he's always just punching with one hand. So like, it's weird because it's, your attack doesn't come from like the center. Not that it needs to, but then like sometimes you're very clearly like your right hand is right on top of the person, but because that person is too far to your right. Like, it's not like, I've noticed that like I, I hit people more often if it's centered, even if my fist doesn't actually hit them. But like, if my fist clearly hits them, but I'm like too far to the right, it'll just be like, oh no, you're too far to the right.

17:08 Yeah. It was just like weird things like that where it was like, I'm not even explaining it right, but it just didn't, it just didn't work based on like what your eye saw. The fist is really funny too. It's, it's just like this whole like detachment of your body. It's gigantic and it just comes out in front of you. But somehow, even though it's so big and it's in front of you, I think part of the jankiness that Sam was describing is like, I feel like, come on, didn't I make contact with that guy?

17:34 But like, you don't. And it's like this, this fist is so big. How could I have missed him? But I'm always like, I'm always like a pixel off. I also appreciated that the enemies, there are some enemies that won't really do any damage to you, but they'll like inflict a certain status effect. Like this, mostly just paralyzation.

17:54 There were the ones that, I guess they're coffins, but I just saw like speakers. Me too. Like they look like big speakers. I saw like beefy books. Yeah. And they'll just sort of latch onto you. I guess they're trying to put you in their coffin, but I thought it was just like a big subwoofer trying to hug me.

18:15 And then there are these weird blue dudes that, that, that sort of look like beatniks that will also do something similar. I just appreciated that it wasn't just like always one hit kills. Like you could get into a situation where you're kind of trapped and you have to get out of this, this situation before they kill you, but they weren't going to kill you themselves.

19:00 You know, I know it's been a while since we talked about the manual, but if I, if I may, uh, as confusing and as like, whatever, the manual is, I do like the hand drawn diagram of like what happens on any particular stage. Like, I feel like even though I tried to describe everything that could appear, this really simple art piece on the tips on playing the game on page 19, really like, I would love to see more games approach like a diagram based, like, here's everything you need to know.

19:29 I'll point it out on one particular screen. That was very clear and concise, but it also lets you know that there's not much, uh, to clear up in this game. You know, like, uh, if, if you, if you can describe everything that's going to happen in your game on a particular screen, there's probably not a lot to your game.

19:44 Yeah. I didn't know. I'm looking at it right now. I didn't know that each, uh, rock had something assigned to it. Like, I figured that it was always just sort of going to be like a random number generator whenever I hit any particular one. Um. Oh, I think you're reading that wrong though, uh, Sean, cause it's, it does say it's, that's for stage one, one.

20:07 You know? But that does say that it's like, like for stage one, one, that's what's in each rock. Correct. Yes. Right. And I actually don't know. I just thought that for all of them. Um, I, I see the manual saying that, but I swear cause the rocks would reappear and like, I know I'd hit the same rock more than once and sometimes it would, it would move and other times it would explode or there'd be something under it. And I, cause I was trying a lot of times to push the rocks into enemies and like the one that moved earlier wouldn't move the second time.

20:36 Huh? Yeah. I don't know. It's really weird. The block thing and making that like the discovery of all like power ups and, and collectibles and hidden things. Like the fact that it's just these blocks that are very obviously different from everything else on your screen and they're non-threatening and all that. Like the fact that that's the reward system feels strange, right? It feels like there's these enemies trying to do one thing and you're really just trying to like, you know, clean up town and, uh, take care of a bunch of blocks that rocks, you know, that are like keep appearing. And the enemies are more like, uh, Hey, you stay out of my way and I'll just keep collecting this stuff.

21:16 Right. Yeah. That also feels very super Mario to me where you're just hitting blocks to get power ups too. I just put that together. I love it. Yeah. No, it's true. We can make a whole list because this, this could just be, um, a lawsuit for, you know, we could just gather up everything here for Nintendo and I'm sure, you know, 30 years later they could sue them for this. Yeah. And most of these enemies you just jump on and they die. Yeah, that's true. Also, it's a video game. Oh, whoa.

21:46 And it was an arcade game first, just like Mario. Oh my God. That I didn't know. Yeah. The arcade version. Um, you didn't know it because the arcade version was called Chinese hero.

21:58 Um, which I meant about super Mario. Oh, okay. Uh, well, super Mario brothers didn't come to the arcade first. I just meant like Mario existed in the arcades. I was kind of kidding. But yeah. Oh, cute. Cute. Yeah. I'm very cute. If I can go back to Chinese hero though, for a second, that, uh, was very interesting. Cause now I want to like, you know, go to the grocery store, buy like a big sub and then just put Chinese food on it and have a Chinese hero. Like I think, I think that could be pretty good.

22:25 I actually kind of agree with you after the initial disgust of the idea, but no. Yeah. Well, don't put like lo mein on it. No, no, no. Get some sao or something. I feel like it'd be better on a burrito if you're going to mix it up anyway. I feel like the bread is what's going to take away from it. So like the burrito would be, uh, my choice. The taco bell. Cause a lot of the chicken is breaded. Yeah. Mushu kind of deal.

22:46 It's like the taco bell Panda express crossover. They, it should happen. Hmm. General chow supreme. Yeah. Chinese hero. Chinese hero just sounded also like, you know how I was saying, can you get away with a name as generic as Kung Fu heroes? I feel like Chinese hero was a, uh, you know, a step in the wrong direction. So I'm glad that they went with Kung Fu heroes as the, the final title for the NES version. It's slightly less generic. Yes. Yeah. Uh, but it could have also just been called hero before Chinese hero. Just like, uh, Kung Fu was just Kung.

23:21 Kung. That makes me want to play a game called King Kung Fu. And it's just King Kong, but like he knows Kung Fu and yeah. King Kung Kung. Sounds like you want to play Donkey Kong 64. Oh, does Donkey Kong do karate? He has like a karate chop. Does he do karate? He's got an over the head karate chop. I love that. Yeah.

23:44 All right. This is a Donkey Kong 64 episode now. Hell yeah. Oh, I'm so ready. Which means it sucks. Oh, how dare you. Donkey Kong 64 is one of the worst N64 games. It's not true. It's a great game. I know. There's so many bad N64 games. There's no way. Uh, all right. Back on Kung Fu Heroes. Did I miss anything? Was there anything that Joe in your like book of notes that you wanted to talk about?

24:06 Uh, well, okay. This is maybe moving on a little bit, but, uh, but I want to talk about multiplayer. Yeah, sorry. I want to talk about multiplayer and the fact that I actually think that this would be, this could be a good time in multiplayer. Like it's not going to be great. You still have problems with the, um, you still have problems with the hitbox and everything, which is kind of unforgivable. But, uh, I think going through these levels with, with a partner and kind of having that, like, uh, that like co-op experience takes this game from like, from like an F to like maybe a, a C, D plus maybe in my eyes.

24:46 Yeah. I think multiplayer usually is a saving grace for, for, for drink games. Uh, I, I haven't played the multiplayer on this, but I'm willing to try it out if you guys are. Yeah. I mean, I haven't played it either, but I feel like it's just, it's, it's designed for that like camaraderie of like, you know, you can, you can maybe be like, I'll take this guy out. Like watch out for that guy over there. And I don't know, I guess I'm just describing what it's like to play a game together. Play a game with somebody. I don't know. You really think this is the game to be like, all right, let's finally do multiplayer.

25:17 Absolutely not. But I, but I'm saying that we are very negative on this game, rightfully so, but I think that it's, it's a little less negative for me if I were playing multiplayer. I'm assuming. Sure. I just think it's like the multiplayer adds the element of like, yeah, we can get through this quicker. Yeah. I mean, I wouldn't say that. I mean, I don't know. We've, I, I know we have been pretty negative about this game. I, until I ran into the Bison Bros and really like, wasn't sure of how to approach them. I was having fun with the game. Like I didn't have any illusions that this was a great game, but I, there are a lot of better games that I had less fun with. Um, but so like, I, I don't think that this is a trash game, but it's just so simple.

26:04 And, uh, has some very glaring flaws that it's hard to, to, it's hard to say anything else. So like, I, I would be down to play this multiplayer is what I mean. Okay. And let it be known. Uh, any listeners just reach out to Sean. Play with me. He'll set up the, um, what's that, what's that app? Parallels? Uh, no. No. What's it? What is it? Uh. You're like, no, I will not set it up. That's all. That's a note. I do. I do forget what it's called. Parsec. Yeah. Parallels is something though, right? That's like windows in your Mac or something. Yeah. It's a windows emulator for the Mac. There you go. So it's all the same thing at the end of the day. Emulation. Funulation.

26:52 King Kong Kong. Yeah. You can say whatever you want now. This is the time in the episode where we just let Sean, uh, make one statement. Jambalaya. There you go. He said it. All right. Uh, moving on, moving on. Uh, the essential games list. Are you saying that right? Are you pronouncing that right? Okay. Kung Fu Heroes, essential games list. Votes are happening and they start with Joe.

27:21 Yeah. So, I mean, there's not too much to say about this, but I will say we were maybe slightly hard on this game. Um, as Sean was kind of saying before, but it's definitely not an essential game. I mean, I, it, it wasn't, um, I don't know. It just didn't even, I think, function properly. The hitboxes really kind of, kind of hurt me specifically. Uh, and also like there's a lot of levels and as much as there is enemy variety, I think the gameplay loop for me gets, gets a little stale. I mean, maybe if it was, uh, I don't know. Maybe if it wasn't for the hitbox thing, I would, I would not get sick of it as quickly,

27:56 but, uh, not essential. All right. Sam? I mean, it's kind of fun. It's kind of interesting. It's, it's also very lame and it's, it's, it's going in the jank folder for sure with 10 yard fight and whatever else is there. I forget. Uh, Shubby Cherub maybe. Um, oh, there's a lot more than that. Yeah. Oh, I don't know. I'm just thinking of like the original ones that the one of the founders of the folder. Um, but yeah, like it's, it's a game. It's, it's okay.

28:29 We've played better games. We've played worse games, but it's not anything special. I don't think. Fair enough. Sean? I mean, like I said, I had, I had fun with the game, but like, you know, in the only, in the way that you have fun with anything relatively simple and not too hard and like, it was just kind of mindless. It's, it's way too simple to be, uh, way too simple and it doesn't have enough ideas to be essential. So I'm going to vote it as such.

29:00 All right. Yes. Thank you for making that very clear. Um, now, you know, for me, there's not enough for me to consider this, uh, on the essential games list. I will say though, it's interesting to think that like, there's a game that came out in 1989 and no one should be looking back at it. You know, like this is, this is not a game that like people have nostalgia for. There's not a game people think about on the reg.

29:24 I don't know. I'm speaking for people, but like, I can't imagine people are like putting this in their list of like childhood games they grew up with. There's all those games. Like it doesn't matter when you were born or anything like that. The games that you had as a child, you know, you remember the good ones and you remember those and you talk about those and they don't have to be good or bad games.

29:44 I would just be shocked to see somebody put in like Kung Fu heroes up there with like, you know, yeah. Like my, when I was a kid and I had the NES, it was awesome. I had Super Mario brothers, Castlevania and Kung Fu heroes. You know, like I just don't see it happening. Like you just would, you would opt out to just not say that game. You would just be like, yeah, the NES was awesome.

30:02 I had Super Mario brothers and Castlevania and you would just forget about Kung Fu. Kung Fu heroes. And I'm forgetting about Kung Fu heroes after this episode. It is not on the essential games list, but the essential games list will continue. Really? Yeah. Next, next week it will live on and we will do it again with another episode. Like we always do. We always do an episode every Friday.

30:23 I know people are anxiously check at like Thursday at like 11 o'clock at night to see if we posted early. We will never do that. I will never make that mistake. We will always post on Friday at 8 a.m. on the dot.

30:35 I'll do it. Good job, Mike. I'll just send my audio early. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The isolated audio tracks of Sam, which I mean, like could give you all the insight you need. Yeah. You know, his, his audio recordings. Usually you can hear everybody else in the background because his headphones are so loud. So why not? Hey. That's a low blow. It's kind of a day. It's a low blow, but it's also like, you know, it's a little insight into the development process of the show. You know, like that's a little BTS. We use a noise gate. It's okay. There you go. Exactly. But next week though. Okay. Everybody hold on to your marbles because it's marble madness next week.

31:17 Don't spill all your marbles out of your fanny pack because you're going to need to hold on to them for marble madness. Sean, you've been saying marble madness for a few years. Do you feel excited that it's coming up? I usually only say that in my deepest sleep. So I'm never like fully aware when I just start saying marble madness, marble madness, marble madness. Very good. And I hope that that gets treated soon. Someday. I hope I have health insurance next year. All right. If you would like to, you know, recommend a doctor for Sean to get that treated, preferably one where he doesn't need healthcare, obviously.

32:00 Witch doctor. Yeah. If you have a witch doctor for this, or if you have like soaps that he could, you know, like use in the shower to get rid of this. Right. Anything like that. Heavy gems that he can wear as a necklace. We want to know about that stuff. And we want you to tweet at NostalgiaCast with pictures of really large gems and soaps. So if you wouldn't mind, maybe just for like, let's just say like the next two days after this episode is published. So you have Saturday and Sunday to send us really heavy gems and soaps to recommend. If you can cure my schizophrenia, I'll give you one Bitcoin.

32:39 Now, after Sunday though, you can still tweet at NostalgiaCast. We would just prefer it be thoughts about this episode and, you know, like things that we're doing. And if you liked the show and how we could improve the show, we're always looking for stuff like that. Remember the Twitter handle is at NostalgiaCast, not NostalgiaCast. You wouldn't believe how many people actually spelled Nostalgia, Nestalgia, and then tag us. And it's like, that's a little strange.

33:07 Anyway, I'm Michael Esposito. You can find me at EspositoFilm on Twitter. Get ready for some Marble Madness next week and be on the lookout for Sam's isolated dialogue track. And welcome to NEStalgia.