368 · Mission: Impossible

• This Box will self-destruct in 5 seconds
• Greatest back of the box read in the history of the show
• How familiar are you with the movies?
  • First Mission Impossible movie comes out in 2006
  • Numerous efforts by Paramount Pictures to create a film adaptation of the television series stalled until Cruise founded Cruise/Wagner Productions in 1992 and decided on Mission: Impossible as its inaugural project.
  • Tom is now up there with Arnold in terms of NES games turned Movies
• How familiar are you with the SHOW?
  • There was a series in the 60s and again from 88-90
  • Premise: Set 15 years after the original series, the narrative follows Jim Phelps, portrayed by Peter Graves, who is called out of retirement to lead a new team within the Impossible Missions Force (IMF) after his successor is killed.
• Plot Overview:
• Imagine turning on your computer for work and it says GOOD MORNING your boss and his secretary have been kidnapped.
• Players control a team from the Impossible Missions Force (IMF) tasked with rescuing a kidnapped scientist and fellow operative Shannon Reed from the terrorist group known as the Sinister 7. The mission spans locations such as the canals of Venice and the Swiss Alps.
• Gameplay Mechanics:
• Top-down perspective where players can switch between three characters —Max, Grant, and Nicholas
• But the first thing you gotta ask yourself is…why are they walking like that? They are doing the Mr. McMahon shoulder swing walk ad nauseum
  • each possessing unique skills essential for mission success.
  • Max Harte: Combat specialist, strongest in direct confrontations.
  • Grant Collier: Technical genius, essential for hacking and disabling traps.
  • Nicholas Black: Master of disguise, useful for blending in and bypassing security.
• The game is not broken into action stages where you simply take out the enemies and get to the end. You are in a civilian environment where you need to enter buildings and navigate the areas for information on where to go
  • Stay out of the road, cars will hit and run you
• Players must avoid harming civilians, if they do a helicopter will come and arrest you
• And remain undetected by surveillance systems to prevent mission failure.
• Enemy placement requires a lot of forced close combat, but not in a tactical way, in a way thats guaranteed to get you hit
• Loading into new areas, the enemies surround you and are ready to attack
• Some items locations are randomized like passes to progress in stages
• Interesting challenges in levels that aren’t quite puzzles but require thought. Unlocking doors by sound, timing trick walls and destructible environments
• Boat racing and ski fighting action sequences
• Boss fights like one taking a hostage, another where you can’t step on the same platform twice or it breaks
• Critical Reception: "GamePro" gave the game a perfect 25 out of 25, highlighting its engaging gameplay and sharp display.
• IMPOSSIBLE MISSION
• Original Game (1984)
• Developed by Dennis Caswell and published by Epyx for the Commodore 64.
• Combines platform and adventure gameplay with digitized speech.
• Players take on the role of a secret agent infiltrating an enemy stronghold.
• Considered a classic across various platforms.
• Sequel (1988)
• Impossible Mission II introduced new traps, items, and expanded gameplay.
• Elvin's stronghold was divided into towers requiring password collection.
• Amiga Version (1994)
• Impossible Mission 2025 featured updated graphics and audio.
• Included three selectable characters and the original Commodore 64 version.
• New Sequel Announcement (2022)
• Icon64 announced the development of an officially licensed sequel.
• 1998 Mission: Impossible - N64, PS1, GBC
  • Based on the movie
• 2003 Mission: Impossible - Operation Surma - GC, PS2, Xbox, GBA

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

00:00 Mission Impossible. This box will self-destruct in five seconds.

00:20 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. Greatest back of the box in the history of the show? Did it self-destruct? I'm pretty sure one kid in America's copy self-destructed after they read it. That'd be pretty spooky. You have to read it, though. I think that's like a really bad creepypasta.

00:50 If you don't read the text, you wouldn't know it was happening, so there's no payoff for it. So it was like something about like they were using eye tracking software to make sure you read the whole box and then it would self-destruct five seconds after you read the entirety of the box. And then it's like, I'm right behind you.

01:07 And the box uses all that same kind of spy language and everything, and they really commit to it. Because even in the manual, there's all sorts of like, not just spy terminology, but just like this whole theme about like a mission briefing throughout the whole thing of like how to use your controller and how the screens work. Like it's all like it's debriefing you. And I feel like we've seen that before, but I do appreciate the attention to detail here on Mission Impossible, which is obviously, you know, not the movies. This is not the Tom Cruise Mission Impossible thing that hasn't happened yet. First Mission Impossible movie was like what?

01:44 96? 96, yeah. Yeah. So we're in 1990, but there is a TV show that was out from 88 to 90 that was basically like a revival of the series from the 60s. So if you're paying attention, we're going backwards. We'll go forward now. There was a TV series in the 60s. There's a shorter lived TV series in the late 80s. And then now, of course, Mission Impossible is a huge big brand name for Paramount as a movie franchise with Tom Cruise. Guys, let's start first with the movies since they're the biggest. What's your familiarity with them?

02:23 I'm pretty familiar with all of them. I recently marathoned them because, you know, when I was when I was younger, I didn't really know much about them. But then later, I think it was after maybe Mission Impossible three.

02:39 I was I just I got I got into it. And then after that, I kind of forgot. And then later they just became like action movies without any filler at all. And like that's sort of the case throughout. And now I just have a deep appreciation for them.

02:57 And I'm looking forward to the final chapter at some point this year, I think. So as probably a surprise to no one, I'm not super familiar with the franchise. It is a surprise to me, though, because it seems like this is one where it's just like, how could I have avoided this? And it also seems like my type of thing. I've seen one of the films and it was like one of them. It was like Mission Impossible six or something. And I saw it in theaters and was like, wow, that was really good. And then I remember hearing a lot about like a Mission Impossible.

03:26 The film series does not do what a lot of these other film franchises do and just kind of like get really, really bad over time that like they actually kind of hold a level of quality. And I really do want to binge them and see if that holds true, because I did really like one of these later entries in the movie series. So I've been planning on, you know, it's on my never ending, expanding list of things that I plan on watching that I probably never will.

03:52 Joe, it's funny you bring up about the franchise, not just getting like maybe you were thinking like Fast and the Furious style where it just gets more ridiculous over time. Yeah, that's actually what caught my eye about it was like the directors that are attached to the movies. Like I always associated it as a kid with Tom Cruise, but you've got De Palma, John Woo, J.J. Abrams, Brad Bird. Like that's pretty impressive lineup of directors continuously attaching themselves to this franchise.

04:22 Specifically, De Palma was the one that like after I was like the guy who made Blowout and Scarface made a Mission Impossible and it was the first one that I just didn't know. So I went back and watched it. And yeah, it's great. It's great stuff. It's the American, the American James Bond kind of. I like that. Yeah, I think that's a that that is a good analogy. It doesn't get as campy as Bond like Bond got really weird in the 80s with that stuff in late 70s. But it isn't it isn't completely serious. No, no, it's also very funny series. Right. With the Simon Pegg. Yes. What was I going to say next? Oh, but the TV series, though, I had no memory or I feel like I've never seen it on TV. Like I never found reruns of it or anything.

05:12 So I wasn't sure if like, well, is that like a serious spy thing or was this like a comedy thing? Is this like, you know, for me, finding out about Mission Impossible as a TV show. And I'm sorry to make people feel old in this way, but like finding out about Mission Impossible being a TV show was like when I found out 21 Jump Street was also like a TV show before it was the movie. So I just don't have any attachment to the show.

05:37 You guys know anything about it? So did you find this out like while researching for this episode or did you know this before that there was a TV series? Like I found out about the Mission Impossible TV series while I was like, oh, that's what this is based on. Not the movie. I knew that there was one in like the 60s or 70s. I didn't know that there was one more recently.

05:56 Same, same. But I think this is like this is like one of those shows that like I feel like I've heard my dad talk about not to not to age my dad here. But yeah, he's old enough to have watched Mission Impossible in the 60s. So, yes, but but yeah, I think he used to talk about some of these and I imagine it was one of the shows again having never seen it, but just from what he's described, I imagine it was taking itself seriously, but maybe difficult to take seriously if we watched it now. But like like the man from uncle or something like that, like one of those types of like it's like silly, but it thinks it's being serious.

06:31 Can you confirm Mike? Like, yeah. Yeah. No, I think that I think Joe's analogy of at the time, it would have been gripping. And now it's like, you know, compared to the more serious spy thrillers or even just like, you know, crime dramas that we have, like it's just like NCIS. Yeah, just yes, absolutely. It just doesn't hold up to NCIS.

06:57 And so, you know, I think this is like one of those, you know, it came in as an as an NES game as the series was ending though, too. So maybe there was like still hopes that like, you know, like the series was just going to continue getting renewed and this would just continue to bring more interest to it. But but I don't know anything about the general plot structure of the show. But I imagine every episode doesn't start with them logging into their computer at work and it's saying good morning, your boss and his secretary have been kidnapped.

07:28 No, no, no. Which is how the game starts. I do wonder now, like if every episode did have the self-destruct thing, if it was like a like a monster of the week kind of thing or if or if it was more serialized, that that's a good thought. I don't know.

07:47 Well, in speaking of this like intro, it also kind of gives that iconic line, which I know from just the movies of your mission, if you choose to accept it is what I always heard. And that's from the movies. I'm assuming it's similar in the in the TV show. But in here it says your mission, if you decide to accept it, which just I know it's just one minor word difference. But that just feels so wrong to me. Is that what it was? It could make all the difference. You're asking the wrong people, Joe. I know. Speaking of speaking of iconic stuff, it also starts with the Mission Impossible theme, which is, you know, obviously famous for the movies now, too, but did exist on the TV show.

08:28 And Sean, you sung this out last week with that song with the main theme of Mission Impossible. And my favorite rendition of the theme is Sean's version from what episode was that? It's Mission Impossible in parentheses. Sean's version. Sean. Last week's episode was Maniac Mansion. Yeah. The Maniac Mansion. Sean's version rendition of the Mission Impossible theme is my favorite song of the year. It's good stuff. It's a good song. Sean. In the game, you will control a team of three members of the Impossible Missions force, IMF, tasked with rescuing the- Dr. O. And his secretary, who apparently in the manual maybe, somewhere I read this, is a fellow operative, so it was kind of rude to refer to her as a secretary.

09:17 Shannon Reed, from the terrorist group Sinister Seven. Now, come on. What kind of terrorist group just like- that's where it gets like back to the James Bond territory, right? Of like, Spectre is a little more like ominous than Sinister Seven, right? Like, this sounds like he's fighting Spider-Man and Electro and Venom and stuff like that. It's just like, it's weird that they went through all the mission debriefing thing and then you take on like, you know, mini-me.

09:45 I do think this harkens back to a time, which I think it was more like a Cold War thing, where, you know, the enemies of the United States government were more outwardly, like, villainous on purpose. Like, I think this was just a thing, like, and we're- it's just odd to our postmodern ears. You mean they were actually outwardly villainous or were portrayed as more outwardly villainous? I'm- I'm- I'm just making shit up, Joe. Okay, I never know.

10:17 And you play as these- these three members of the IMF via a top-down perspective. Uh, so you have Max, Grant, and Nicholas, and, uh, they can be switched freely, but not in like a Grand Theft Auto V kind of way, where, like, you switch between the three characters and it jumps over to wherever Max was left off or wherever, uh, Grant was left off. It just switches to them as if they were all three of them were hanging out together going through this mission, and now they just automatically change into- Right, like, tagged in. Yeah. Uh, so, say what you will about the actual game and everything. We'll get into that in a moment, but the first thing I gotta ask you guys is, why are they walking like that? I don't know what you mean by like that.

11:01 Look- I think if you're gonna make it top-down to- to this extent, this is kind of like what it's gonna look like. Yeah, I think that for me more- They're doing the Mr. McMahon shoulder swing.

11:13 My question was more like, man, why did they go so committed to the top-down? Like, you could go top-down and be not quite this top-down. I love it. Because it is literally directly overhead. I'm a little biased because I think what I really like about this visual style is it looks so much like Hotline Miami.

11:34 And I think part of that- it also kind of plays like it, like a much more slow Hotline Miami in a way. But I guess maybe my brain was just used to it from the countless hours of that game that I played. So this- that didn't bother me that much. My brain did get used to it over time. But at first I thought I was playing as like all three Geodudes. Just like their arms and their heads just like bobbing around. Yeah, it's- it's strictly a graphical thing. They do not walk in a way that hinders the gameplay at all. They are not slow moving.

12:08 It's a slow-paced game in a way, but they're not walking slow or dragging along or anything. It's just because of how bird's eye we are on this whole thing. They just swing their shoulders very aggressively at times as they're walking around. And you don't really see like their feet or their knees bending or anything. So it's a little- it's a little strange just to see like that much shoulder swing. So Joe, I like the Geodude analogy.

12:33 Now, Max, Grant, and Nicholas wouldn't be interesting if it was just switching between like health- available health that they have, right? Their life meters if you were just like, well, Max is about to die, so I'm just gonna switch into Grant. They, of course, also similar to like how, you know, how we were talking about Castlevania 3. Like they all have their own specialization stuff. So Max is the combat specialist. Grant is the technical guy. And Nicholas is the master of disguise.

13:03 And you kind of have to think about the situation you're in and who you want to swap into. But it's not like if one dies, they all die. If you lose Nicholas, don't worry, you still have Max and Grant. You can be down to just Max. And so therefore, there has to be a way to get around this. It's not like Grant's the only one who can, you know, disarm a bomb or open a gate or something like that. Are there not instances specifically with Grant where you need him? That's the only one that I couldn't figure out. Like if I didn't have Grant, how would I get pet? Because he opens these doors that like I feel like you couldn't open with other characters. Sorry, which one is Grant?

13:42 Grant is the second guy he's got. He punches. The middle guy. And he can open the coded board doors. I thought they all could open the coded doors. I thought I just had to be Grant. I just kept switching to Grant for those. You can open the... Well, which ones are you talking about? The ones in the first level or like in general? Because the ones in the first level, don't they, aren't they like by sound? Yeah, but I thought you had to be Grant in order to hear those sounds. Like when I walk up to it as the other guy, it's just a wall.

14:07 I had to look it up to figure out how to get through. Unless I was misunderstanding. I didn't try it without Grant, so I can't say for certain. I just didn't run. I didn't hear about any soft locking like that. Yeah, unless I misunderstood it and I was just Grant the whole time after looking it up. I thought that the first time I went and walked into one of those doors as someone else, I was like, oh, it's just a wall. And then I looked up where do I go and I said, oh, that wall, you use Grant to disarm that wall or something.

14:34 Interesting. Well, I mean, the other differences between them, I did appreciate that there were actual substantive differences between... Like Mike mentioned, kind of like the vibes of each, but they all have different weapons, the different sub-weapons. Or I guess in the guy in the rights case, tell me his name. I think it's Nicholas. Nicholas even has like that...

15:04 The one thing that kind of makes it feel like Mission Impossible that isn't the song or the name or the self-destructing, which is like the... What do you call it? What do they call that in the movies? Like camouflage? No, it's like a face maker, which is like making him look like one of the guys and then the AI actually treats him as if there's no enemy there, which I think is really cool.

15:33 And then they also have different move speeds, which is very important, at least underground in the first level where you keep having to dodge falling sewage. And so a quick thing, I did not realize how to change between characters, because this is one of those games I did not read the manual for, until pretty late. And I was like, every time I walk by this falling sewage, I get hit. So I'm going to die eventually.

16:03 And then I was like, oh, wait, no, this middle guy walks faster. So, yeah, they all have their purposes. Yeah, and I had a similar thing. I knew how to change the characters. I just didn't recognize how much quicker Grant walked than the other two. I just thought, like, I recognized all the other differences. I didn't realize that they had different walk speeds. So that, I was a little pissed off at first. I was like, what, you just can't get past this waterfall without taking a hit? And then when I realized, but yeah, I mean, in traversal and in combat, like they each have different weapons where, and now I'm confusing who has it. So Nick has the camouflage.

16:44 Grant has, like, a stun grenade. Is that Grant? Yeah, it's like sleepy gas. Yeah, and that's helpful a lot of times, too, because there are a lot of enemies that are just, like,

16:54 constantly firing in one spot that you have to get past. So, like, you know, that gives you some reason to use Grant. And then the first guy who... And luring them out isn't easy, Joe. Like, while we're on that, it's just like, you have to... They'll stay stubbornly stuck in that spot where they're shooting. Yes. It's not like they have, like, you know, a dedicated ammo that they'll eventually run out of. You just have to kind of get into their view to have them chase at you. Otherwise, they will just hide behind that corner continuously shooting at the player. Right. And then speaking of getting them to chase after you, the other guy, the first guy... Max. What's his name? I could do this all day. Max.

17:33 Max has his, like, detonator bombs where you can, like, get one to chase you, put down a bomb, and then detonate it at the right moment. Like, and they're all kind of doing similar things, but it's fun. Yeah, that's how I took care of Riot Shield, guys.

17:46 It's fun. Joe, while you were talking, I took the opportunity to just look up about the Grant thing of it all, because I do think that's an important detail. And yes, there are other ways to solve any of these puzzles without Grant, but Grant is, I don't want to say he's easy mode, because you're just basically rewarded for keeping him alive, essentially.

18:48 So, for instance, there's one gate where one side's locked, the other side is not, and so obviously unlocking it on the left side with Grant will provide an easier path, whereas the side on the right is a little more perilous. But then there's other things where, like, if you don't have Grant to get this gate open, you have to, you know, kind of try to find another way in, and it involves going up a couple floors and then finding a hole,

19:14 falling through that hole to get through the area. So it's a little more like, I'm glad, actually, that that exists. But I also really like the use of the characters here, where, like, again, I don't think Grant is making the game easier. I think you're being rewarded for keeping these agents alive, and they should all help you in those kinds of particular ways. But it would suck if Grant was like, you know, you have to get to, you're on stage five, and you have to make sure that Grant's alive at the very end of the stage, or else you can't get to stage six. Like, that sounds like bullshit.

19:45 Yeah, yeah. Well, yeah, it's good on them to have not done it that way. Yeah, that would be a sin. Because I feel like a lot of NES games do it that way, where it's like, yeah, you just, you failed. If that's the case, if that were the case, then it would have to be a game over if anybody died, or at least, like, a continue situation. Right. The game stages are not broken into the more traditional, like, action stages in games, where you just take out enemies and get to the end of a level. You are in, you know, different environments. One of them is, like, just the streets with civilians, and others are in, like, the Alps, and so on and so forth. But all of these different environments require you to kind of, like,

20:28 it'd be nice to call them puzzles, but they're really just, like, different ways of getting through the environments that aren't just clear all the enemies in a screen and move along. You're constantly tasked with basically just trying to figure out where you have to go next. And I think that's especially true in the very first stage of the game. The very first stage of the game offers a very interesting idea of what the whole game could be, in the sense that you are just out on the streets. There are regular civilians.

20:58 Unfortunately, the enemies dress exactly the same as the civilians, but you're not allowed to kill civilians. If you do, a helicopter will come and arrest you. It's a pretty crazy scene. You get down, like, on your knees, hands over your head, the helicopter comes, and they take that character away. Your other two agents are free. Even though they witnessed it, they were right there. It's totally fine. So if you witness a crime, you should be arrested, Mike? Yeah, absolutely. They're government agents. They basically coerced them into it.

21:30 Anyway, my next point was just going to be that, you know, it's not inherently obvious, right? Like, in that first stage, like, oh, I need to go here, then here, then here, right? Like, a different game would do it that way, but this one doesn't. It's also not obvious, like, what kind of game you're stepping into, because when I started this first level and I walked into a bar and the bartender gave me some info and not every NPC on the screen was trying to kill me. I'm like, am I in, like, an immersive sim right now? Like, is this going to be, like, sort of more open-ended in how I do this? And then it very much was not that. Like, it's basically just that first screen that feels more lifelike, and the rest is, like, video game land.

22:24 But, yeah, the information that they give you, it's not complete. You end up really having to figure out everything by yourself, but it's also just a little misleading how the game starts. Yeah. Well, and I was also, I mean, just from familiarity minorly with the franchise and how it started, I was also surprised with how video game land it became, where, like, and I was pleased with it. I was glad that they didn't, like, take themselves so seriously that, like, yeah, we can't have two giant magnets that pull your bullets in one direction.

22:58 Like, that's just, like, fun video gaming stuff, and I got to imagine that kind of thing wasn't in the Mission Impossible show, but as I'm saying that some of those 60s spy shows maybe did have giant magnets that were, like, or, like, suits of armors that would, like, would swing their swords at you or whatever. Like, but having that stuff, or even just the idea of, like, there doesn't need to be an explanation as to how you can be Grant and then switch to Max and still be the same place, and it's like, well, where was Grant before? Where was Max before? Were they in his pocket or whatever? It's just like, eh, it's a video game. Just, like, this is how the system works.

23:34 And I don't know why I, like, was surprised by that, but I just feel like there have been other games where, like, no, no, no, you've got to go back and get this character now. It's, like, just, like, too much work to make it realistic instead of just make it fun.

23:47 Yeah, and I think there's a lot of fun little set pieces throughout the game, too. Again, I was trying to, I didn't want to say puzzles because it's not a puzzle game, right? But, like, you have to, like, you're blocked off somewhere, so you have to figure out, like, well, where's the off switch on this thing, right? Like, how do I get past the next thing? And you find, you literally find an on-off switch. You just have to trigger that. Or there's a certain, you know, you need to shut down the power, so you've got to look for the power box. Like, the game has creative ways of having you explore the levels

24:20 without getting too far away from the combat of it all. So how is the combat of it all, right? If the game is going to stake its name on that, is the combat fun? It's simple.

24:32 There's kind of three or four different kinds of enemies where you've got, like, a standard, like, melee guy that will just rush you. You've got gunners. You've got these giant Molotov cocktail-throwing guys that can really give you some damage. Like, I think getting hit by one or just even stepping into the fire that they leave behind will cut your health in half.

25:00 And throughout the game, like, there's robots that you've got to avoid and, like, the aforementioned suits of armor. So there's definitely a good variety of enemy classes. It's just those special ones are a bit more rare. And the riot shield guy. And you'll have to deal with similar enemies throughout the game. I'd say it is pretty simple. Most enemies only take a hit or two. It's more so just finding an angle to get that hit in without getting hit yourself like we've been talking about.

25:41 I wouldn't say that there's anything massively wrong with it. I wouldn't say that there's really much to really say about the combat other than, like, oh, you've got to make sure, like, you know. Because also, this top-down thing, like, you're shooting from one of your shoulders, basically, and you could miss what you think might hit. So there's a little bit of a trick to it, but no major sins, no major pluses. Yeah, I'd say that more so than the way the combat is designed, the way that the, I mean, I guess this is combat, but the way that the, like, enemy design is around you

26:21 does, for better or for worse, make it feel more tactical than a lot of other games where it's like, yeah, like you said, there's enemies that are shooting at you. There's enemies that are, like, sneaking up from around corners, and you've got to sort of, like, get the jump on them when they're in the right spot, where you can hit them and they can't hit you. And there's enemies with riot shields that are trying to push you off the edge, and you've got to kind of get behind them. And, you know, all these different little things. I mean, there's even, like, if you get caught

26:47 by, like, someone you're talking to that turns out to be an enemy, or you get caught by, like, a camera or something, these, like, giant, like, robot things or something with claws come running in, and they're, like, really aggressive. It's just, there's a lot of different ways you have to think about the different enemies,

27:02 which does make it feel, I assume intentionally, like, you're this, like, tactician, and you've got to decide who's going to take on this battle and how am I going to take it on in as much as, like, this kind of simple action game can do. Why can you shoot the guys with riot shields? Because they've got the riot shield. Yeah, but I know, but they don't know how, it's like three shots, and you hit all three of them. Like, aren't they supposed to be using the shield to bounce off the bullets?

27:31 I think, okay, wait, you're asking why can you shoot them? Why can you? Why can you do damage to those guys? I think, like... Can you shoot them from the front? Yeah, I did it. I think there's one little part of their sprite that has a hitbox, and the rest of it is shielded, because I have been cornered by one and just, you know, spammed shoot and could not break through. I had to, like, lay a bomb. I think there might be a little corner. Maybe I have to get the head shot. Yeah, that is an exposed shoulder or something.

28:07 But yeah, I also don't want to gloss over what you mentioned, Sean, speaking of, like, this accuracy thing, what you glossed over, or what you mentioned about the... The fact that you are shooting from, like, one side of your body is a little weird, because it's like you can never, like, line up properly. It's never just the thing directly in front of you. It's always, like, in front of you and a little to your right. Yeah, because the angle that these guys can be standing in, it'll just, like, oh, your bullet just went right past them, but there's no actual way to line up the shot otherwise, because it's also kind of grid-based.

28:39 It can be tricky. That's the word I'll use. Yeah, and, like, I know they're trying to go for, like, oh, he's using his right arm. This is more realistic. Like, just have it shoot out of the center of his body so I can, like, easily see where I'm going to shoot.

28:51 I found the game to be pretty difficult for... because of the enemies. I think the combat for, like, what your characters are given, like, they control well, it makes sense, the sub-weapons are good and everything, but the enemy placement requires a lot of forced, closed combat in specific levels, and I don't think it's in a tactical way. It's almost in a way that's, like, you kind of have to guarantee

29:15 taking a hit or two just to even get these guys to come out of their spots to be able to progress around them, and I found that to be pretty difficult with the life meter and just, like, me personally getting through these levels. I don't know if, like, maybe I just wasn't thinking about these combat situations correctly, but there were a lot of times where, like, you know,

29:40 you are on a bit of a linear path and to get through you must take out these guys because they're shooting at you or they're, you know, using whatever they have on you, and the only way to get through is to, you know, kind of have them get out of those areas and chase you down, and so you have to kind of, like, run over there and bring them back. Yeah, you can kind of kite some of them. If you're playing as Glass's guy who has kind of, like, a boomerang thing, you can kind of shoot around corners.

30:11 It's a little tedious, but if your main concern is I don't want to get hit, it's probably the best way to attack those guys. If you go in as Machine Gun Dude, Max, I believe, yeah, you're, with especially how plotting your walk speed is, you're definitely going to get hit a lot, but I was doing some

30:38 wanted bullet bending with the eyeglasses guy. And I also found out, even just reading through the walkthrough, that some item locations are randomized in stages, so they're not always in the same place. that's interesting. Yeah, maybe make for some replay value. What kind of, like, key items, I guess? Yeah, like, you know, just to go back to the first stage again, like, where you got the pass might not have been where I got the pass.

31:08 Interesting. I also got the Maniac Mansion, too, like, that kind of built in. Well, at least there were, there were numbers that changed. I don't remember if there were locations, but they were definitely like, oh, you can't just remember the number you typed in last playthrough, because you gotta, it's a totally new number now. I mean, that would kind of trivialize the early part of the game if they didn't do that.

31:28 Yeah. Yeah, yeah, like, it doesn't enhance the replayability, but it makes sure the usage on that doesn't trivialize it, because if you just know where everything is, and that's what was interesting about the walkthrough, was like, it was like, here's places it could be, but I can't promise it's gonna be that on your playthrough. So I'm down for something like that, especially in a spy game, right? Like, you're gonna have to do some sleuthing.

31:51 Yeah, yeah, I mean, if that's part of the design of what the gameplay loop is supposed to be, then, yeah, make it so I can play it again without just remembering everything. I think it's a better call than what we saw in Dick Tracy, where you know where everything is, but you just have to do it in this order, or it just doesn't work right. Right. And there are some other action sequences in the game that, again, lean into the, you know, the tech and the Mission Impossible side of things, with the, there's a boat fight and a ski fight, and both of these,

32:28 you know, I guess could be considered breaks from the other stages and everything, but they're not, like, they're not trivial by any means. They are cool, though, that, you know, now it's taking that, like,

32:43 action set piece from, like, what would be, like, a, you know, probably, like, the finale of the TV show, right, is, like, they made this huge ski chase thing, and now they're putting it into the game. Did either one of you play through either of these sections? Yeah. Just the boat section. Yeah, just the boat section. It's tough. There's just a lot going on. Yeah, and there's even, like, well, speaking only to the boat section, there's even, like, the helicopter that you can't even hit because they're accurate about, like, the plane that you're on. No pun intended because it's a helicopter, not a plane. But, like, the different planes that you're on for being on the water

33:20 against something in the sky. You can't shoot at it. You just gotta dodge, and it's, like, dropping things on you. Which I think if it was Ethan Hunt, like, you know, if this was, like, the movie version of Mission Impossible video game adaptation, I think we'd be able to shoot at it. Yeah, because it's like, wait, is the gun mounted to the front of the boat, or is it just in your hand? Can't you just shoot up?

33:41 Handgun could take out a helicopter, no problem. There's also the addition of side-scrolling levels, auto-scrollers, I guess I would say, not side-scrolling because they're scrolling from top to bottom. But, you know, just another way to break up the gameplay here, but did you guys find that maybe it was switching things up in a way that, you know, just switching it to switch it, and that it wasn't really, like, cohesive? Well, I mean,

34:09 I didn't get much further than the Venice level. So, I, the water fight was a welcome change to me. Because it's like, not that I'm against this gameplay, I liked this gameplay, but it is a slow-moving thing. It's nice to have a little pace change. I don't know how it would get, like, in, like, the later levels, like the skiing one or any of these other, like, really change-up ones, but I'm open to it. Yeah, Mike, the only side-scrolling that I saw was when you manually walked downstairs.

34:44 And if we want to talk about weird walk cycles, that's where I think we should really talk about it. they're just being careful. Maybe somebody put a mine on one of those stairs. That's a good point. And just to be clear, I just mean, like, overall with the game, too. You know, we were talking about how the first level kind of sets up an idea for, like, what this game is, and they kind of abandon that. But then they do that a few more times, too.

35:10 Whereas, like, you know, the second stage of the game, and I don't even know what kind of level that is. Like, what kind of setting it's in? Yeah, what setting? Is that, like, a warehouse, or is that... It says it's a temple. I'm gonna go with warehouse slash, like, evil base. Okay, yeah. I completely agree, but don't they say, like, oh, we gotta go to the Venice temple next?

35:36 Maybe. It's not like a temple. Yeah, this does not look Venetian to me. Yeah. Let's see. Yes, it's a... No, it's a temple in East Berlin. They just got out of the canals of Venice in the previous... Uh, no. Never mind. I'm out of order. Okay, so you start in Moscow. Okay, yes. Now I see it.

35:57 Yeah, this definitely looks... This looks more churchy. So maybe they're, like... It's more of a... An ancient mansion in Venice. It's the Syrinx Temple of East Berlin. You've left the clammy canals... The clammy canals... What? The clammy canals of Venice. This is all from the manual. And now you're in the Syrinx Temples of East Berlin. And these are the specific canals that lead directly to East Berlin. Yes, everybody knows that. Yes. Which lead directly to the Persian Mountain Range and then the famous West Alps and then Cyprus and where does this end? Yeah, this game ends shooting by the dock of the bay. What? They couldn't commit to a final villain's country origin? Like, they just made up a place? I think it's Chinatown.

36:49 Forget it. The boss fights are also interesting. One takes a hostage. There's another one where you can't step on the same platform twice or it breaks. I like that they're changing that up, right? And that it's not just like, oh, here's just another big, strong, shoulder-swinging guy who has all the same stuff as you but he's stronger and he has more health. Yeah, it makes them seem like actual villains from the show. Like Monster of the Week, episodic villains. If that's indeed how they are on the show. Right. It makes them feel like what they would feel like if they were like that on the show.

37:30 We should have done more research. I should have played this game. Yeah, just on the show. The show is the show and this is not a podcast where we check out all the TV shows but I will say for whatever we've said about the game which I think has been a good mix of praise and criticism, GamePro Magazine gave the game a perfect 25 out of 25 in its magazine and I don't want to spoil anything here but a perfect score I think that's reserved for a particular kind of game. Where do they think about this 25 out of 25 nowadays? Would they stand by it? I'd have to assume that whoever reviewed it for that publication was really just itching for the Mission Impossible video game and was just a huge fan of the IP.

38:31 That's just a guess. Or maybe they were paid off. I do see like I'm not I guess I'm maybe tipping tipping my hand a little bit here. I don't think this is a perfect game but I can see like how the scope of this game and the things that you do and the places that you go and the you know the more fundamental mechanics I can see why someone would think like wow this game has everything and it's not just and it's not just a running gun just more DACA situation like this is a game where you have to be methodical about what you're doing it's it's kind of Metal Gear-y in that way I can see that this scratch that there's there will be people where this scratches a very specific itch so I get it

39:28 yeah I mean I think it's I think it's like one of those situations where you think of a game like you think of like Skyrim or something when that came out it's like wow this is like the peak of open world games all this stuff that we've never been able to do before but now in 2025 like oh yeah that's interesting that's a cool game but like is that the peak anymore is that like are we all as hyped on it or even like GoldenEye you know like that was like the first person anyone go back

39:59 and try and play that recently like it's not really fun but like back then it was so fun because like it was so unique yes and are you guys aware of rival video game franchise Impossible Mission didn't we play that yeah I thought that was an episode already Impossible Mission I just think it's funny we have Mission Impossible and then Impossible Mission did we get one on the NES I don't know it sounds familiar but I don't think we played Impossible Mission yeah that was a shot in the dark I have no idea okay yeah the original game came out why do I know what it is

40:33 well it's a series of video games I don't think it's any other kind of media so did you play Impossible Mission on perhaps the PlayStation One no okay good so that would have been impossible there was no PlayStation I might be on one of my other podcasts that I Moonlight on you played Impossible Mission on the Commodore 64 I know you're a B64 head that's true yeah 64 head C64 head they call it C I did not get confused with the N64 they call it the C64 I was just confusing it with my forehead right

41:07 so Impossible Mission I don't know I don't want to get too much into this but basically it's the same thing right it's like a spy series but they couldn't use the Mission Impossible name because these games came out in the 80s and the TV series already existed in the 60s so they just said well what if we just do it the other way and I'm just wondering is there anything currently that that could work for Mario Super Brothers Throne Games!

41:39 Furious Fast! Fast yeah I like the addition of guys will definitely protect you in a court of law yeah yeah yeah that's true that would definitely be like a transmorfer situation Morty and Rick sure sure don't know if that would get you around the loophole and Mission Impossible has some games of its own other than this one 1998 Mission Impossible game just called Mission Impossible again but this time obviously based on the Tom

42:08 Cruise movie came out for the N64 the PS1 and the Game Boy Color that game I did play what'd you think of that game I like that is kind of what my first impression was when we first booted up the way described it like you are not immediately like attacking people like you start off kind of undercover and almost in a hitman style are trying to like navigate a place and then only when like your cover is blown do you start

42:41 fighting so I did like that game I didn't really I wasn't very good at it but I did like there was a mission that I can I can remember very very very clearly where you are on some like Russian military base and you can steal like ranking officers face and then walk around as if you are the ranking officer on the base it was very cool it really set up what I expected out of like yeah immersive sim games and then there's Mission Impossible Operation Surma in 2003 for the GameCube PS2 Xbox and Game Boy Advance and I always think that's funny that was a thing that happened a lot right where like

43:25 you get the console games and then you'd get obviously not just the console game ported to handheld it would be a completely different game but there's like there's so many games like that like that just get like a Game Boy Color entry where it has literally the same exact name and everything and plot but it can't be the same game the Game Boy Color can't have what the PS1 had and I feel like somebody should explore that we're not going to on this podcast but like somebody should explore all these handheld titles of popular like console games Mission Impossible Operation Surma

43:58 starts to go and maybe it was already true of the original Mission Impossible based on your description Sean but Operation Surma leans more into the whole like Metal Gear Solid

44:08 Splinter Cell Hitman style of things you know now that that groundwork had been you know fleshed out fun yeah so a lot of like you know put the guy to sleep pick him up drag him into a closet nobody else will notice blah blah blah you get it espionage and the guy like the guy looks a little bit like Tom Cruise but it's not Tom Cruise they weren't allowed to use legally distinct com trues yeah com trues is that you said yeah great band great band is it a band if it's just one guy it's just a guy yeah great guy great guy probably and I'm just gonna be controversial here for a minute probably better guy than Tom Cruise

44:52 I'd take com trues any day that was a very hot take yeah thank you I appreciate it I'll reserve until I meet them both we'll save our next batch of hot takes for the essential games list

45:11 I like a lot of this game mission impossible and any kind of like critiques about anything other than the combat are more just like an identity crisis of the game itself and sometimes that's like sometimes that's just what people want right is like good I'm glad that we didn't stick to the same thing over and over again

45:35 so that I'm not going to like single that out I really just think this is actually like a pretty tough game and not in a way that is like rewarding to the player so for that reason alone it's not gonna go on the essential games list for me but I would implore people to you know not just like just because it's difficult right like not check it out like I do think especially even just if you just play the first level and say well I got my taste in mission impossible I think that's like an

46:04 interesting enough film like it definitely is doing something similar to what we saw with metal gear without being the same game at all like they are not the same kind of game so it's taking the whole stealth thing in two different ways one because you're not really being stealthy at all in mission impossible where you have to be in metal gear but you still feel like a spy and you have cool gadgets and you have to like figure out your way through the streets of Moscow

46:29 one thing that was like really funny was like if you're just hanging out in the street eventually a car will just like hit you and you go flying yeah you go you go flying so far it's actually the first thing that happened to me in the game yeah but it's like okay you know what that's that's like good that's like in a weird way that is like NES world building in a way right like

46:52 it's silly it's fun but it like it made you think like wow I didn't think that there would be just regular passenger cars on this street but here they are like they they did a good job in all these levels of making them feel like something I just don't feel like the actual total product was cohesive Sean yeah I agree I kind of kind of echoing what I said earlier where I do see who this game was made for and that that person would fucking love this game and I do like the game more so on paper than in practice I

47:29 think it's indicative that like there's a lot of games that we play where we just can't shut up about how annoyingly hard it is like it's almost the entire episode I can't think of which one specifically off the top of my head but they exist whereas we didn't really touch on how super hard this game is which it is I just think there was enough interesting stuff going on under the hood to talk about where it kind of took a back seat to that but that is why I could really only get through a couple levels of this game and why I probably will never finish this game but I do think it's cool I do think it's interesting I just don't think it's essential.

48:15 Joe? Yeah I actually kind of find it hard to figure out put my finger on exactly what it is about this that that gave me that same sort of I did get kind of burnt on it pretty quickly because like yeah everything we're talking about I'm like generally describing it as like positives and I do think that they're positives I think that like maybe there's a little like over ambition to this game or something that I get kind of like maybe almost too lost isn't really the word but like it's taking me too long to get somewhere to make progress or I think I'm I don't know that the gameplay Luke just wasn't fun enough to really suck me in for the amount of time I have to spend figuring out what to do next

49:01 but I do think that like yeah I'm gonna echo what both of you said I think overall this is like a really cool game to check out and I think they did a lot right it just it just wasn't up there with the with the essential games of the world so I'm also going to not vote of essential now take two on this next week's game has NES in the title isn't that weird well I'm not playing I think that's exactly what you said last week did I say that well this way I'm actually not

49:31 going to be on next week's episode so it's supposed to be a funny setup that people would have taken very seriously it's supposed to be a surprise when we're not on an episode Joe you can't just announce that people thought Sean was dead I will have to be on the episode nowadays yeah it's NES play action football and I I'm just gonna be honest I'm sure it's I'm sure it was true of video game magazines but I didn't think Nintendo themselves would refer to the NES

49:55 like on the box like that like it's it's really weird I don't want to get into it right now but it says Nintendo and NES a lot on the cover of this box like more times than is comfortable for me let's talk about our podcast a lot on that episode that's a great idea but you won't catch me dead on that episode because you'll be alive look at that in the look at that in the look at that in the

50:35 look at that in!