223 · SKY SHARK

• Nobody Ever Said It Would Be Easy
• NES Longplay
• Introductions
  • Last week I called this FLYING SHARK (the arcade name) before going to SKY SHARK. How much does the name of a video game matter to you NOW?
  • I’m thinking about The Legend of Zelda games and it’s nice that they have
• Overview
  • Vertical SHMUP very similar to the 1942 series including the control of a biplane
• Gameplay
  • What’s unique in this SHMUP?
  • Secondary shot is a bomb which kills everything on the screen (which begs the questions, is this a nuclear bomb and your plane is nuclear proof or something?)
  • Only five stages, but pretty tough
    • Collision detection
  • Power Up system is boring
• Tim Follin
  • Music
• Sequels and Spinoffs
  • Fire Shark (known in Japan as Same! Same! Same!) was launched in 1989
• EGL
  • No way
• NEStalgia Byte - Tower of Druaga

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

00:00 Sky Shark. Nobody ever said it would be easy.

00:19 And welcome to NEStalgia, a chronological exploration of every NES game released in North America. I'm Mike. I'm Sean. And I'm Joe, and that back of the box changes my whole opinion on this game. No one ever said. Yeah, they're right. I should have thought of that.

00:39 It sounds like something a critic would have said about the game, but no, they're upfront about it. Yeah, I guess I respect it though. Not that I didn't. Last week, I called this game Flying Shark at the end of the episode, which is fine because that is the arcade name. But the actual NES game that we're going to be playing is Sky Shark. Which leads me to my first question of the day regarding this game. How much does the name of a video game matter to you now? Yeah, it matters when you're a kid and you're just shopping around and stuff, but do you ever not buy something because of the title?

01:19 I don't know. Me personally, I could care less what the title of a game is. I mean, I think it's still a subconscious decision that you're going to make in your headspace, in your headbrain cavity. Like, if it's a kind of clunky sounding name, which I think Flying Shark kind of is compared to Sky Shark, you might think less of it or not give it the chance that you want. It's all marketing, Mike.

01:45 Yeah, also, that's a hard question to answer, I feel like, in 2022, where it's like, I don't buy anything without researching it extensively beforehand, especially a video game. Like, I watch video, you know, I know what it is I'm buying and getting into it. So it's harder now than it was when I was younger, when I was, like, just looking at, like, on the shelf of, you know, like a GameStop, being like, that looks cool.

02:06 Sean, you're right, though. Flying Shark doesn't adequately describe the, you know, the type of biplane that you're controlling in this game as Sky Shark does. Like, Sky Shark is more of a, oh, this is a fighter plane, whereas Flying Shark could be a game where you take Jaws and put them in the cloud.

02:28 I didn't think of it in a more, like, literal sense, I guess. I just thought, you know, it's not quite alliteration, but Sky Shark kind of flies off the tongue a little bit more than Flying Shark, which just sounds like it's describing something.

02:48 I'm just thinking about, like, the Legend of Zelda games that all of them, right, we don't call them Legend of Zelda 4, Legend of Zelda 5. Right. We don't call those games, you know, numbers or anything like that. They actually get, like, really nice poetic titles, you know, for some of them, and yet I'm not gonna, like, judge the game at all if it has, like, less of a title. You know, Breath of the Wild, Wind Waker, Phantom Hourglass. It's like, throw it at me. Zelda 2. Which is the only one that's, yeah, not the Legend of Zelda 2. True. Just Zelda 2, the Adventure of Link.

03:23 Yeah. It wasn't afraid to, you know, to branch out a little bit. Anyway, we're gonna start talking about Sky Shark now, for real this time. And, uh, just a quick overview. Sky Shark is a shmup. It's one of those vertical shmups. Uh, very similar to 1942, 1943. All those, like, kind of, you know, games where it's, like, more in a World War setting or in a historical context style thing. Not, this isn't, um, filled with loads of cool power-ups that a biplane wouldn't have or, uh, a space setting. This is very grounded in our reality.

03:56 Which leads me to my very first, uh, question about the game, which I thought I already said, but this is actually pertaining to the game. What is unique about this shmup? That's where I'm kind of at at this point in the, uh, chronological exploration. I'm wondering, every time we get a shmup, what's the reason for its existence? What makes it different? Here, I kind of want to lean on you guys a little bit to tell me what is different about this one. Yeah. Uh, and that's a great question, Mike.

04:28 Thank you so much for answering, Sean. I agree. Uh, yeah, if you, if you twisted my arm, it would be tough. I mean, I guess the power-ups being so lackluster. Yeah, you already lost me. Is unique. Like, like, the power-ups being so simple and, like, not super interesting is unique-ish. Uh, maybe the difficulty.

04:55 It's like, I think it's more difficult than even some of the harder shmups we've played. If you want my, my non-snarky answer, I think you, you kind of do have to get into the weeds, like Joe was sort of alluding to here. Um, I think the, the thing that sets this apart, um, than, than a lot of other shmups is that the projectiles, um, are faster. Um, that this is probably the fastest projectile, uh, shmup that I've ever played. Um, and that you can, at least in, in most regards, sort of see, uh, you could see the enemies tracking you instead of the projectile just sort of coming out of their body.

05:38 Like, you can kind of juke them out a little bit. And really, I, I have to get that, that detail to, to point out anything different. Because we've seen, like, World War II, or I guess maybe Vietnam, in terms of, um, like, at least this, this era of, uh, like a setting for a game. We've seen that in shmups. We've seen the air stuff. We've seen land to ground. I'm sorry, uh, air to ground and ground to air enemies. We, we, we've seen everything. So you have to just go into the most minute little mechanics to actually have it set apart.

06:18 Well, I think that's a great point though, Sean, because ultimately that's how I felt about this game was that it was a, um, the closest thing to an NES bullet hell. Both for the player and for the enemies, the projectiles are shot very fast by both leading to very intense reaction times on both the player and also the enemies. I think when you power up the thing that, yeah, it's like, it's a boring power up system, but ultimately it just continues to increase the number of projectiles you fire from a two spread to a three spread to, I think, as high as seven at one point.

06:51 So ultimately this game is just about, uh, a, a plane in the air that has a large spray, but many, many enemies also shooting right back at it. And so this game is, for me was much more focused on where not to be and how to take care of the enemies that were coming on the screen and like learning their patterns than arguably any other shmup just because of how much it takes to survive in any of these levels. Not the, not just the later ones.

07:20 Yeah. I'll say that. I think that, uh, you know, another thing that, that does make it unique, you know, started out sort of, we were, we were joking a little bit, but, but in all seriousness, the fact that, and, and all other. Other shmups. I'm usually because I'm not super focused on score. I'm usually like, I don't feel incentivized to just kill everything on screen. I'm like, I just want to kind of dodge things, get around, like kill things that I need to kill or whatever. But like, I'm, I'm trying to get through the level. This game incentivized me to kill everything on screen for no other reason than if I didn't, they would kill me.

07:53 It like, I think that in this game is like the best example of, uh, like the best, um, the best defense is a good offense. You know, like the reverse where it's like, if I didn't kill everything, there were just in, in five seconds, there are going to be way too many projectiles on the screen for me to track. And, and, and I'll just have nowhere to go.

08:12 Yeah. I think this is the first shmup, um, that I played that I was, and maybe I've just been playing shmups wrong this whole time. Um, where I was just sort of watching the immediate surroundings of my character and not so much what I was shooting at because I was trying to just like, uh, just get away from everything more so than, uh, destroy everything. Kind of, I guess like a little different than how Joe was playing because I couldn't focus on both.

08:44 Like we'll get into it, but like there, sometimes there's so much stuff floating on the screen or the backgrounds as detailed as they are and, uh, mucking it up so much that I just can't, I can't see a lot of stuff that's coming for me. I don't have the mental bandwidth to track everything at once. So I just ended up having to like hone in on my guy.

09:05 And you're fighting, you know, both land and air. So you have the fighter jets and larger planes in the sky to deal with, which for the first time ever, I feel like in a shmup, they're so aggressive that I can't tell if it's just their pattern design or if it actually is magnetized to the player. But some of these guys are like kamikaze style, like trying to bump into you while they're also shooting at you. So it's like one thing to dodge the bullets, but then you also have to be like, if I don't take this guy off the screen fast, he's just going to keep charging at me.

09:38 Meanwhile, you have to deal with everything that's on land too, such as the tanks, the turrets. Um, I think, uh, you know, the battleships later on and stuff like that, that have multiple turrets on them. There's just a lot of enemies and different types of enemies to deal with all at once that can make for a very exciting experience.

09:58 But I feel like the rate at which all of it is happening, even just from the beginning is, is too much for the type of, uh, you know, player you are, uh, not skill wise. I'm talking about like, you're not some awesome, futuristic, high tech space plane that can shoot like all different types of weaponry and switch on the fly between a large spray and a flamethrower and stuff like that. You're just a biplane that, you know, progressively shoots like one extra projectile that mind you, doesn't really increase the spray all that much. Uh, you know, the larger you get.

10:33 The right type of shmup fan would like this game just for the pure crazy challenge of it. I'm not that type of shmup fan. I like, I like a good challenge in a video game.

10:45 This didn't feel like a well enough, like intentionally designed challenge for me. It just felt challenging because there was just shit everywhere. Well, I don't know. Cause that's another point I was going to bring up that, that sort of sets this apart. Um, was that, um, that between the, the level like backgrounds, um, and the, uh, enemy patterns, like it seems to be like very, that they seem to be very handmade and, uh, actually sort of sculpted to match the context. Context of the scenery.

11:24 Uh, like you, you'll be on a runway and then, uh, you'll see a bunch of tanks just sort of like line up down the runway. And like, that's the pattern. You kind of just get up in front of them and try and take them all out at once. Like it seems very handcrafted. Uh, it's just that most of the time I'm too panicked to actually like appreciate that.

11:47 I don't know if that makes any sense. I agree that that, that, that does seem handcrafted, but the, the, the problem that, that comes up for me then is like, well, yeah, those things are intentional. But when each of those things are firing, no exaggeration, like eight to 10 bullets each, and I haven't taken them out quickly enough, there's a certain point where it's just, there's just a mess of bullets on the screen that don't feel intentional.

12:09 And then I feel like, I mean, I guess if the, if the, if the, if the intention was to make me feel like I need to be aggressive and kill everything before they can shoot at me, then, then that was successful. I just don't know if it registered to me in the way that like, I like a challenging game, like, like a cuphead or, or, or even like, um, Elden Ring where it's like, you know, like those are challenges.

12:31 Obviously it's hard to compare this because it's so different, but like, I can really recognize patterns. And they're fair. They feel fair. And in here, there was no pattern recognition for me. Yeah. I think that there's a, uh, for, for me that I couldn't feel the fairness in this game because a lot of the patterns, uh, look like they, they're put there to, to like corner you because you can only shoot in front of you.

12:56 Um, like, you know, like a game like this, it makes sense. That's the way it works. But, uh, when you, when you end up sort of getting pushed to one corner, then you'll see another pattern come, which is shooting horizontally into that corner. And you have no way of getting out because of stuff shooting at you. Like it just, it's sort of triangulates on you. So I felt a lack of fairness in a lot of this game.

13:21 Sure. And it's worth mentioning that the arcade version of this game, the flying shark, uh, which doesn't have the the in front of it, but I'm calling it that now. I'm changing the name of the title every five minutes. I've decided anyway, uh, it's worth mentioning that that is not like a one-to-one port here on the NES. They did rebuild the game and replan like where enemies like come from and how many enemies come from because in the arcade game, there's actually a bit of scroll to the screen. Something you don't usually see in a shmup, but you and the camera kind of move left to right, even though it's still a vertical shmup. So that some enemies are only seen if you're in some areas of the, of the map, if you will.

14:01 And so there's a lot more of a lull between waves of enemies. And that feels more like the traditional, um, shmup that we're used to on this console. And I'm not sure if it was just like a different team from Taito was responsible for converting it over to the NES or what wound up happening here. But ultimately I think they took the game that they made had the, you know, the types of enemies that, you know, program the same kind of behavior. But then because there's no scrolling, because it's all fixed on one screen and because of the limitations of the NES, it just feels like there's more coming at you at once than was even true for the arcade game, which is funny.

14:39 We don't usually experience that. Usually the arcade game is harder because they want you to put more quarters in. I mean, that's what I was going to say is that it's, it's interesting that you say that, uh, so much was changed between the two, because if anything, I feel like that this port, um, really captured the spirit of, of an arcade game. Because if an NES could take quarters, this would eat through all of them.

15:43 So, I mentioned the power-up system. As pretty boring at one point. Uh, is that fair? Am I being, uh, like, am I just throwing that whole thing away? Should we talk about it a little bit more in depth? I think the power-ups themselves are kind of boring. Although I will say when you have all seven of those, it does feel like you've earned some power.

16:03 Um, but, but like, just the fact that it's just like, you just get one more bullet in your spread each time is not exciting. You know, there's not like some crazy new bomb or something. But I do think what's, what is interesting is the, the, the, the means to get the power-ups. Where there's a, there's a formation of, I think, seven or six red planes that appear once in a while. And I don't think we've ever seen power-ups where it's like, you have to accomplish this task. It's not just shoot this thing. It's like, take out all seven of these planes when they appear. And they show up in different formations at different times.

16:35 Did they do that? Yeah, they did that. And, and as red planes, in fact, not to, not to harsh or mellow here, Joe. No, it's all right. It's all right. No, I'm just saying it's like funny that if you look at this game, it's developed by a completely different company. 1943 is Capcom. Um, I, you could argue they stole some of these assets, like the battleships and stuff like that.

16:55 Look right out of 1943. Well, now it certainly seems like it, but I'll say that it, it was cool for 1943 to have come up with that. That's a cool, it's a cool, a cool point to 1943. And I know that it wasn't tied to any power-up, but I do know that in a lot of shmups, if you complete the pattern, you'll get like bonus points. Like there's at least some, uh, there's some reward for doing that. But yeah, I, I guess these two games are the only ones that we see a power-up, uh, come out of it.

17:27 Yeah. And as someone who doesn't, who doesn't care about points, like I've never had, I never felt like I need to accomplish this little like side task before. But, well, I guess I did in 1943, but, but this time, yeah, it was, it was nice to have this like, this like little extra mission whenever those red planes came out. Like, I gotta get those because, because as much as the power-ups are boring, I do think that they actually are significantly helpful.

17:51 Like, I actually feel like later in the game, only if I got power-ups and never died, which was very rare, but like would be easier because I had, you know, all those power-ups. Yeah. I mean, I remember I was, I was doing pretty well, um, and I was able to get, I mean, it wasn't a maxed out power-up tree or whatever, but I, I had a, a pretty thick shot.

18:15 And, um, then, then I died, uh, it was, I think either late level two or in level three. And I, then I just, it was just a downward spiral and it was actually pathetic. Like, it was just a few seconds and then a death and then a few seconds and then a death. Like, like we've seen in, in, in many of these shmups, it's just a trope of the, of the genre. Like, once you die, it's just, it, it's a self-fulfilling thing where you're just going to keep dying.

18:42 Yeah. Well, I was just gonna say, it feels also like this game, like nowadays, I feel like someone who's into like speed running or like a Nuzlocke challenge, someone who really wants to challenge themselves wouldn't, would, you know, would, would get more out of this game because it feels like you want to try and get through this whole game without dying. Because when you die, like for me, at least someone who's not good at this game, like if I die later in the game, like I might as well start over.

19:08 Because like, I was like shooting that one shot does not really, uh, does not really, uh, give me enough of an advantage. But this kind of rapid reaction game, Joe, isn't the same as like a fulfilling challenge of a Nuzlocke or even like, people who play Kingdom Hearts 2 on critical mode or something like those games have like a systems thing that you're like trying to take advantage of and play it in a way that maybe the game didn't expect you to.

19:31 This is just like, you know, you've got to have amazing reaction times and, uh, and yeah, right. And be aware of, of your surroundings, which is a skill in itself. Don't get me wrong, but that's like, that's why the shmup genre is so focused in for like particular players. And nowadays, when a shmup comes out, it leans into the influence of like 20 years of design decisions that are now like the standard and then, you know, make it even more exciting.

20:25 We'll see you next time.

20:44 We were talking about dying though. And I just wanted to ask if it was just me who felt like the collision detection in this game was, uh, was so unfair for specific instances where, you know, I almost felt like the plane maybe touched another plane, but it would default as a kill. I feel like it's more, it's one of those things where it's the box, you know, around the plane rather than the actual plane is the hitbox. Yeah. I mean, I, I would agree with that.

21:13 I think, um, that the only, the only situations I think that it was fair, and this isn't quite so much about like the hitbox, which I do agree was, was pretty large was that you kind of had this escape hatch of, of the bombs. And, uh, I was, I was kind of surprised that, um, you had these bombs, which I assumed were for, you know, the land to ground. So, oh my God, I keep saying that, um, the air to ground combat, cause there's so many tanks and, uh, so many vehicles.

21:43 Uh, but it's really just more, yeah, this like escape hatch where when the screen is just crawling with enemies, it will just get rid of all of the projectiles and, and sort of give you a moment to breathe. So, all the unfairness that, that comes with the, the large hitbox is, at least, they're at least trying to give you an out here. I don't know what you guys thought of that. Yeah. It gave you a little bit of like a, of a chance after that.

22:11 I was just surprised at how frequently that power up is also, uh, sorry, secondary shot is also given out to the player. Uh, I found that bomb thing to, to pop up, you know, if you're good enough to last long enough, it shows up fairly regularly. And that's a, um, you know, that's a big, that's a big thing that you can use when you're completely overwhelmed.

22:32 I wouldn't waste something like that. So when you see that you only have three of them, you might be a little cautious and save them for like towards the end of the level or if you really, really need it. But then I started collecting them. Yeah. The fact that you can bank a good amount of them, uh, kind of makes you have to train yourself out of saving everything for the end and actually using it as a tool throughout a run. Um, which I had trouble with.

22:57 I felt like, um, I, I did, I did get to get a lot of them, but I felt like I needed every single one that I got. Specifically for those battleships. Like I wasn't saving it for the end of the level. I was saving for those battleships because I could not get past a battleship without the bombs. There's just so many turrets on them. I never tried it on a boss, but it, it must take some damage from them, right? It doesn't like one hit KO them, does it?

23:21 No, but I think it, um, it, it does good damage. I mean, it may be sometimes in some cases, I mean, bosses, they're hard to even like identify with the boss in this game. But like, but like for the things that I consider bosses, some of them would be like two hit KO or three hit KOs with it. Um, but even, but after a little while of playing it, I stopped even using it on them just to save for the battleships. The secondary shot being a bomb that kills everything on the screen, uh, kind of begs the question, is that a nuclear bomb? And if so, is your plane also like nuclear proof? Because it seems to be taking out all the planes in the field as well. So what, what's going on here? Uh, you know, this is a pretty grounded game.

24:04 Okay. So I'm going to, I'm going to try and answer that. And also like an underlying question. I don't know why it's sort of like going off of this whole bomb thing. Like I thought that was just for the vehicles, like I said, and why are you able to shoot everything? So I think the bomb and the, the planes and the vehicles, they're all like right next to each other. They're all in the same vertical axis for some reason. And, um, the bomb is hitting both the planes and the vehicles because you're really just driving. You're, you're, you're, you're actually driving the plane like down the runway and, and over the water. Like that, that's what's happening.

24:47 Oh yeah. That now, now I see it. Actually, you were never flying. Yeah. I don't, I don't know that I would, that I would think it's a nuke, but, uh, but, uh, it is weird that you don't die from it. But I guess, yeah, if you're, if you're just on the ground the whole time, that would make sense. I mean, Mike did say it was a grounded game, so I guess that would put you on the ground. But you know, you also, you also destroy things that are on the ground. So. Well, that's just in front of you. Like you're, you're just, you're destroying things that you're. Yeah. But if something's behind you on the ground, it'll also blow up and something's in front of you. Why aren't you, you're in the middle of the blast radius then.

25:22 I see. Yeah. I don't know. I was spending this time trying to find out the NES game that we played where they did let you drop bombs on land freely. It was another type of weapon shot that you had. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking of. It was the only way. It was the only way to take out enemies on land. And then there were enemies in the air. And I thought it was Tiger Heli, but it is not. Tiger Heli also lets you. Yeah. Tiger Heli just lets you also shoot tanks on the ground with the plane, which isn't wrong, right? You can do that in an airplane in real life. It's fine. I don't know. I guess. Wasn't that the one where you're like in like a residential neighborhood?

26:00 Right. That's true. What was that? Yeah, I can't remember. They all blend together. Mike, we count on you to remember. Yeah, you need to remember games because I have wet brain. I dumped the memory immediately after the episode's recording. But I guess that whatever game that was that I can't remember the name of has left such an impression on my understanding of these old school setting shmups that I thought that was just like a trope code. I thought that's just what had to happen. And now I'm learning that I'm being silly to think that.

27:01 I'm learning that I'm being silly to think that.

27:07 What did you guys think about the music in the game? Was it something you were paying attention to at all? Is it weird that I bring that up? Phenomenal. I thought the music was fantastic. That was the biggest takeaway I had. The biggest positive. Well, I shouldn't say that. But the biggest positive takeaway I had was I really thought the music was really good in this game. And only right now while watching the footage I'm always watching did I realize that it is composed by Tim... Fallin. Fallins? The guy who did... I only know that name because I've heard the Pictionary music so much. The Pictionary music? Okay. Yeah, that's a weird...

27:44 That's a very weird thing for Joe to say. But I think most people are probably familiar with Tim Fallin's work at this point. If not, I've linked in the show notes a very cool YouTube channel called GST that does like music composer... Like just goes through their... You know, it's a chronological exploration of their music, if you will. It's nostalgia. We're going to sue them. But for music.

28:10 And they do a whole thing on Tim Fallin's. I feel like that's the best way to get an introduction to him. But he is known as the guy who not only just takes the NES to its limits, but all early computer and video game console hardware. Just the stuff that he is doing. And maybe it's not like shown well enough here, but I do feel like all these tracks are phenomenal. But like later on, he will just blow your mind with what he does with some of these like solstice and... What's another one? You mentioned Pictionary, but there's...

28:43 Silver Surfer, I think he also did. So you're saying he's the Yingvei Malmsteen of 8-bit music. He really is. That's a good explanation because it is an obscure guy. You wouldn't quite, you know, pull him out of a lineup on the street. But if you're into this kind of stuff, you know him and you think that he is like the newest Mozart of video game composers.

29:06 Amazing. I can't wait to hear more of his work. Worth a shout out, I thought. And still can't remember what the game is where you can shoot bombs on land. So this is a time for our listeners to email us at NostalgiaCast, which is the Twitter. So you want to email us on the website, www.nostalgiacast.com. There's a contact button. You send that form. Believe it or not, it sends an email to me. So that's like the best way to get in touch with us. And people do that, believe it or not. You would think that they don't because we never bring up listener questions on the podcast. But they use it and then we just ignore it. I don't know.

30:20 I don't know.

30:42 The Mega Drive or whatever. Fire Shark sounds cool and all, but I thought it was funny that in Japan, the game's title translates to same, same, same. What? So it's like, you like this? You like Sky Shark? Here's Fire Shark. It's more of the same, same, same, same.

31:04 That's not how it's pronounced, right? Well, I have no idea. Yeah, it's the, that's the transliteration of it, you know? So it's not written out S-A-M-E, S-A-M-E, S-A-M-E. It's just when you translate the title. Yeah. So I thought that was kind of funny. Came out in 1989.

31:22 And also in the show notes, I have a link to the footage of it on the Genesis. And it seems like the only thing it does otherwise being the same exact game is now it does have a flamethrower power-up that extends throughout the entirety of the screen. And just vaporizes any enemy that comes into contact with it at one hit KO. So something this game desperately needed but didn't get. And the purists are like, I can't believe they caved to the international pressure and gave your character the flamethrower.

31:56 That ruins the sanctity of the shmup. Yeah, because it's much more realistic that a plane that is like, you know. Driving through the jungle. An inch wide can fire projectiles that's like three inches wide from all around it. The sanctity of shmups may be ruined with Fire Shark, but we are going to keep the sanctity of the Essential Games List alive as we vote for Sky Shark on the Essential Games List.

32:26 Sean, it's always you. It's always me. And like I usually do recently, I will defame the Essential Games List and say that we've already broken the sanctity of it. But I will say... How have we broken the sanctity of it?

32:46 We're not going there. What? I get to say what I want to say and you can't respond. I don't know what you mean. Joe, you will wait for your time to be called on. You will wait. Okay, all right. I think that in any universe that an Essential Games List exists, the amount of things that we had to list off before we could think of anything that made this one truly unique, I think that sort of speaks for itself that this is not an Essential Game. Even though it is competent and it's enjoyable at times, I would say that it doesn't have enough to offer. It's not memorable enough. I will forget about this game in the next couple weeks.

33:35 That's me. All right. Thank you for that, Sean. And just like any podcast should work, Joe, now is your chance to talk. Okay. There would never be any free-flowing conversation. No, no. Yeah, we don't... We actually don't even record these together. I just respond to Sean weeks later.

33:53 I won't address the sanctity of the Essential Games List, but I do want to say one quick thing to kind of give you the idea of the kind of person Sean is here. Is that he said he started his within any universe where the Essential Games List exists. I don't know that Sean has any jurisdiction in those other universes to make that decision. You don't know me. Just like, you know, he doesn't decide the sanctity of the Essential Games List. But I had thought so hard about what I was going to say there that I hadn't really come up with what I'm going to say about this game. But I think that, you know, we sort of said it all in the episode. I think that this game presents a really, really extreme challenge.

34:33 I personally don't feel like it was like... I don't feel like it's designed in a way that it's like a really, really fun challenge. I think it's... I kind of agree with everything that Sean said. It's kind of basic. I'm not going to really... It's not going to stick in my memory. It's just another basic shmup that's going to sort of, like, fall by the wayside. And I'm sure in, like, 20 episodes we'll be saying, like, what was that one where, you know, where you get the power-ups and it shoots out and no one will remember. It shoots out. The power-ups, you know how they shoot out.

35:04 I meant outward horizontally. Oh, okay. Not essential. I have a lot of questions, but instead I'm just going to vote here. And I have written down on my note sheet next to my Essential Games list vote just two words, no way. And I don't usually just write out something so simple, but there's just no way, right? I mean, like, I was making my point very obvious with my first question about what's unique here. And, you know, you guys ate right into my hand. Once again, I am controlling the Essential Games list in every universe.

35:38 So I have it here once again that Sky Shark is not essential because I didn't want it to be. Just like every other game, we have always voted the way I wanted us to. Now, if you want to see us vote potentially differently next time, we will play Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Maybe based on the movie. I don't know. You know, with these games these days, they're either like a one-to-one recreation of the movie or they're like Back to the Future and they just take the names of the characters and put them in situations.

36:10 Nothing else to say from you guys. Great. We logged off. We're done. Great. Okay. Well, then I'll keep going and just mention real fast. I'm getting something off of Uber Eats. Okay, good. Real fast. We also do a whole other show on our Patreon, patreon.com slash nostalgia. It's called Nostalgia Bites and we just did Dig Dug and now our next game, Tower of Druaga. For more of Nostalgia, you don't have to pay us a dime though. You can always just continue to listen or tweet at us at NostalgiaCast on Twitter or go to the website www.nostalgiacast.com. But you probably won't. Sean, there's one thing they got to do.

36:49 They have to sign up for the mail-in rebate. The only reason that we don't charge you a dime is because of the rebate. There'll be a $50 surcharge per download. But if you keep your download code and you mail it to a P.O. box in Scranton, we will refund you your money in treasury bonds that may or may not have been expired. Yeah. A lot of grocery stores now have next to like the bottle return machines. You can return your podcast downloads from specifically from Nostalgia now. So you can get that. Yeah. Five cents. Yeah.

37:30 You guys remember at the grocery stores when they used to have the things in the aisle that would just like print out a coupon and you could. Oh, yeah. I used to love grabbing those when I was like a little kid. And never buy anything. Oh, yeah. I was a little kid. I just like to watch the next one go.

37:47 Well, I have nostalgia for that in a way, you know, like now I'm just remembering that for the first time. You just have nostalgia. In 20 something years. We should do nostalgia bites on it. Yeah. That's what I was thinking is I'm sure that it's, you know, in some way loosely related to, you know, the computer chips inside have to be somewhat the same nuts and bolts as what an NES is made of. I think Tim Follin's designed that sound that it makes when it comes out. Yeah.