399 · The Silver Surfer

• You are all that can stop the universe from entering an endless age of darkness and distress
• Introduction
• This is the dude from the Capri Sun commercials yeah?
• Joe Satriani’s classic guitar album “Surfing with the Alien” used Silver Surfer cover art for decades, but the image was removed in 2018 when the Marvel license lapsed.
• Origins
• Created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee. First appearance: Fantastic Four #48 (1966) “The Galactus Trilogy.”
• Real name: Norrin Radd of Zenn-La. To save his world, he volunteers to serve Galactus and is remade as the Silver Surfer, wielder of the Power Cosmic.
• From herald to hero (and occasional antagonist)
• Rebels against Galactus to protect Earth. As punishment, Galactus strands him within Earth’s barrier.
• Notable storylines and arcs
• Silver Surfer (1968–1970) by Lee and John Buscema: grand, moral fables and the definitive tragic tone.
• Ongoing in the late 80s and 90s (Englehart, Starlin, Marz): frees himself from Earth, deep dives into Kree vs. Skrull, Adam Warlock, Thanos, Infinity Gauntlet.
• “The Herald Ordeal” and other 90s arcs: examines what it means to be a herald, with clashes among Galactus’s servants.
• Annihilation (2006): cosmic war. He briefly resumes herald duties to counter existential threats.
• What it is: Software Creations’ 1990 Marvel‑licensed scrolling shooter for NES, published by Arcadia Systems. Alternates between side‑scrolling and overhead stages with strict one‑hit deaths.
• Why it matters: Legendary for its difficulty and for Tim & Geoff Follin’s blistering soundtrack—often cited among the NES’s most impressive audio showcases.
• Release, Credits, and Context
• Release: November 1990 (NES, North America). Single‑player; alternating 2‑player option from the title screen.
• Credits (manual): Directed by Graeme Devine & Rob Landeros; programming Kevin Edwards; art Neal Sutton, Craig Houston, Anthony Anderson; music Tim & Geoff Follin.
• Comics tie‑in: Story framing uses Galactus sending the Surfer to stop pieces of a portal/cosmic device falling into the Magik Domain.
  • Covered in Awesome Comic story in the manual
• Controls & Core Loop (teach early)
• A: Fire (rapid). Select: Smart Bomb (screen‑clear). B: Adjust orb position (after you collect an orb/“option”).
• Goal: Pick a villain to face off against. Survive three sections of their world; defeat a miniboss at the end of sections 1–2; face a Marvel villain at section 3; assemble device pieces; unlock the final Magik Domain.
• One‑hit deaths: Any projectile or solid scenery (walls, spikes, statues, architecture) kills you and strips all power‑ups.
• Discuss now
• Is the “can’t touch the scenery” rule fair clarity for 8‑bit visuals, or is it the game’s biggest readability sin?
• Power‑Ups & Systems (be specific)
• The surfer feels weak
• Turbo mode is the real mode
• It takes so long to get the orbs, but they are so worth it
• Enemies take multiple hits.
• F = Cosmic Power (shot strength/shape): 5 tiers. Starts as twin pellets; at higher tiers adds bullets and double hit‑power (your orb shots scale too). After the 5th F, extra F’s yield bonus points.
• B = Smart Bombs: Stocks up to 5; press Select to nuke non‑boss enemies/bullets.
• S (red) = Speed‑Up: One pick grants max acceleration; extra red S’s don’t stack.
• S (silver) = 1UP: Extra life.
• Orbs (“options”): Add a secondary shot; one orb usable in horizontal sections; up to two in vertical sections.
  • Horizontal orb cycle (B): Front → Below → Behind → Front.
  • Vertical orb cycle (B): Side → Behind → Front → Side.
• Lives/continues: Start with 5 lives (1 in play + 4 extra). Death resets you to a section checkpoint with base power.
• Presentation & Sound
• Visuals: Clean spritework; readable bullets; sometimes muddy background/foreground separation causes “wall bonks.”
• Audio: Follin brothers deliver multi‑layered, arpeggio‑dense track, but not too many of them
• Difficulty & Mastery
• Hitbox reality: The board counts—treat the Surfer’s tip and tail as live. Test safe lanes before committing.
• Orb discipline: In side‑scroll, set Below for ground clutter; in overhead, pre‑set Side before entering spawn corridors.
• Bomb economy: Spend bombs to keep power—a saved bomb isn’t worth losing F×4 + orbs.
• Speed control: One red S is enough for most; pass extras if control suffers.
• Practice loop: Use stage select to learn specific problem rooms; remember you restart a section on death.
• Stage Select & Suggested Order (use at the first map)
• Open wheel lets you tackle five worlds in any order: Reptyl, Mephisto, Possessor, Firelord, Skrull Emperor (Kylor).
• World‑by‑World Notes (ask questions where they happen)
• Stages are long in 3 sections per stage
• Very little Marvel inside the stages. Odd enemies. Mephisto has flyings skulls and eyeballs and ghosts sure, but then there’s like 2 14th century cannons
• Recommended ramp (from the manual): Start with Reptyl or Mephisto; save Firelord for later.
• Discuss now
• Does the Mega Man–style freedom actually work?
• Reptyl’s Domain
• Look/flow: Organic caverns and rocky corridors; lots of narrow tunnels and floor/ceiling scrapes that punish the hitbox.
• Threat mix: Bullet spam from stationary turrets; erratic orb swarms; tight squeezes that demand Below‑orb coverage in side‑scroll and Side‑orb in overhead.
• Boss: Reptyl with add‑ons; prioritize safespots and bomb if your orbs are poorly aligned.
• Mephisto’s Realm
• Look/flow: Gothic “hell” motifs—doors with spawning ghosts, gargoyles, bats, and hazard props that look passable but aren’t.
• Threat mix: Candle projectiles that drift; eyeball volleys; miniboss heads that demand shot cancels. Great early spot to learn Front → Below orb swaps.
• Boss: Mephisto patterns reward staying mid‑screen and timing bombs for wave overlaps.
• Possessor’s World
• Look/flow: Tech corridors, raising/lowering columns; many overhead sections with pincer spawns.
• Threat mix: Ceiling/floor turrets that trap you in the center; green droids; orb geysers from pipes.
• Boss: Possessor—safer to keep Front + Side orbs and move minimally.
• Firelord’s System
• Look/flow: Volcanoes, falling embers, collapsing supports; many places where the floor “looks” background but isn’t.
• Threat mix: Lava droplets + bats in overlapping rhythms; heavy need for bomb discipline.
• Boss: Firelord—projectile curtains plus environmental collision; enter with bombs and at least F×3.
• Skrull Emperor (Kylor)
• Look/flow: Cold metallic bases; fast turret locks; late‑game speed checks.
• Threat mix: Overhead gauntlets where Side → Behind orb swaps clear flanks; horizontal sections reward patient bottom‑third routing.
• Boss: Kylor (Skrull Emperor) with escorts; watch for last‑second spawns near walls.
• Final World – Magik Domain
• Unlock: Clear the five worlds to access this final gauntlet.
• Feel: Mixed geometry from prior worlds with denser, faster spawns; the ambiguous final boss fuels years of debate. Who is this purple guy and why does the portrait look like Mr. Sinister?
• Discuss now
• Who/what do you think the last boss is meant to be? (Manual/story cues vs. the in‑game sprite.)
• Absolutely terrible ending. Obviously Galactus was planning something and they tease he’s the big bad, but Surfer just says nah, I’ll hold onto this device (which we never understand what it does) and the game ends
• Galactus: "Your quest is at an end, Surfer. The forces of Magik have been
• defeated. Now, the device is MINE!!"
• Silver Surfer: "NO! the device is too dangerous. I will take it to a safe
• place. NEVER, shall it fall into the wrong hands."
• Listener prompt
• Did you discover the post‑game password content? Tell us what it unlocked for you.

Effect	Password
Emperor Section 2	B73MSK
Emperor Section 3	PL3ZZ5
Firelord Section 2	LNQ283
Firelord Section 3	1X1ZTS
Magik Domain Section 1	JMDFWK
Magik Domain Section 2	H6N7D4
Magik Domain Section 3	WVL3R9
Mephisto Section 2	CMN17D
Mephisto Section 3	TGQ2JT
Possessor Section 1	FPNFR7
Possessor Section 2	9KY3FG
Possessor Section 3	GDXK4F
Reptyl Section 2	J3PS67
Reptyl Section 3	RNHWDF

• Contributed By: ReyVGM, Anonymous
• 9 3
• Special Passwords Press Up on both controllers to access the password screen. Some passwords will give you an error sound, just ignore it and start the game.

Effect	Password
2 Extra Continues	J8SCL9
4 Extra Continues	68VKG9
Full Weapons	CKWJT4
Invincibility	KJTTJK
Second Quest	KCHDR4
Third Quest	S4FHFB
Unlimited Continues	SJM333

• Sequels and Spinoffs
• Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (2006) – unlockable/playable character
• Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007) – appears in the movie tie-in (NPC/boss).
• Marvel Super Hero Squad series – playable in Super Hero Squad; NPC/final boss in The Infinity Gauntlet; playable in Super Hero Squad Online. Wikipedia
• LEGO Marvel Super Heroes (2013) – unlockable playable character via side missions.
• Cameo – appears in Zero’s ending in Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds. Wikipedia
• Upcoming: Marvel Cosmic Invasion (2025) – retro beat-’em-up; Silver Surfer confirmed as a playable roster addition. Same developers as TMNT SHREDDERS REVENGE (Tribute Games)

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

00:00 Silver Surfer! You are all that can stop the universe from entering an endless age of darkness and distress.

00:24 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. This is the dude from the Capri Sun commercials? This is Alex Mack. I don't know if I get that reference. Alex Mack? Oh, Nickelodeon. Come on, man. Nickelodeon employee or Alex Mack, Secret World of Alex Mack, classic 90s. She turned into goo. She turned into really shiny chrome goo. A puddle of silver liquid, yeah. Yeah. No, no. Call it chrome goo. Okay, yeah. And she would break into government establishments. Yeah, she was splashed with a chemical called GC 161, if I remember correctly.

01:14 Wow, okay. I used to love that show when I was a kid. I know. This is the dude actually who's on that classic rock album, Surfing with the Alien, Joe Satriani's Silver Surfer, which actually got into a huge dispute with Marvel recently and had to be removed from the cover after like 30 years of being on it. I guess like there's no sense of like, he's been there long enough. Like I think we could win that argument. It turns out you can't. So they got to sue the T-1000 then too.

01:48 I guess, right? Yeah. Like who did it all? I mean, is Silver Surfer the first like silver being to ever appear in anything? Well, was it the first silver surfing being? Oh, that's true. I forgot about the surfer part of his persona. Well, keep in mind that the silver surfer himself doesn't do the thing that the T-1000s do, but definitely the thing that the Capri Sun kids do. And that is that metallic like oozy gooey form. Oozy gooey. It's like we, it's uncomfortable, right? To like watch kids. Oh, yeah. Robots, sure. But like kids are drinking Capri Suns. And the next thing you know, they just turn into like ooze.

02:25 It's like when they turn into the gusher heads. Remember when those kids ate the gushers? Or the air head of the thing. They became the shape of the fruit. Yeah. I've always been kind of weirded out by the silver surfer. Like I don't really know any of his lore. I just know that he's always kind of naked. But in a way that you know, like some other like when I think of that guy that's basically a rhino whose name I forget from the X-Men. I don't see him. Oh, no, that's probably I think that's that's Spider-Man. The guy's name is just Rhino by the way. Sure. The Rhino guy. I don't see him as naked even though he's clearly not wearing any clothes. This guy is very naked.

03:04 Yeah, he's like very human naked. Yeah. But also like he's not because it's kind of like he's wearing this chrome thing like whatever that is. So this is a naked man under the under just chrome stuff. Yeah, exactly. Because that's just like what Galactus turned him into. Now, you know, I don't know anything really about the silver surfer. But is this chrome like an exterior or is he this is he the T-1000 like is he just completely comprised of like a liquid metal? Right, right. He will note. I don't know where the liquid parts coming from because that's the part I want to make clear. The silver surfer is he's solid. He doesn't solid chrome melt or anything. Yeah, exactly.

03:47 And another thing that should be noted is like it's not a costume. He's not doing like Captain America and putting a costume. This is just like this is now his form, but he wasn't always this way. Yeah, but no, but he wasn't always this. He used to wear clothes. Okay, but he's not anymore.

04:05 He was not a human, but he was like, you know what I mean? Like how there's like, yeah, yeah, humanoid. His name was Noren. Get this last name. Rad. Get it because he fucking surfs. That's rad as hell. That is pretty rad. And he was created by Jack Kirby and Stanley. Whenever you say Stanley and someone you should always just probably assume that the other person who created the character. So I'm going to give a lot of credit to Jack Kirby here.

04:31 First appearance in Fantastic Four number 48 alongside Galactus. So that's pretty big deal. They came as a pair and silver surfer usually is the herald of Galactus. Although as we mentioned in our Punisher episode, sometimes whoever the herald of Galactus, sometimes it could be the Punisher. It could just be whoever. So is he cool? Because the Punisher is. Like he's a nice boy? No, no, no. So he's like kind of, you know, to Earth's problems, he could be like, oh my God, this guy's a villain. But to the cosmos, he's like a hero. You know, it's just that like Earth and the universe don't exactly have aligned goals, if that makes sense.

05:11 Wow, it seems pretty, pretty messed up. Right. So think about the silver surfer as somebody who like for a very long time when introduced was seen as a villain because of their allegiance or rather, you know, enslavement to Galactus. But he eats obviously.

05:28 Yeah. Galactus eats the entire planet at once. Yeah. But the silver surfer eventually became like such a popular character that they were like, well, you know, it'd be a great idea. Give this guy his own comic book. And so silver surfer number one came out and they were like, well, you can't have a comic book like that if the guy's going to be a villain. So they started writing like more like, you know, morally gray stories for the silver surfer where he's not exactly. Morally silver, maybe. Yeah. Morally silver.

05:57 And so that happens. That happens pretty early on. So if Fantastic Four number 48 was in 66 by 68, he's got his own line. And then in the 80s and 90s, he becomes a huge part of like the grander Marvel Galactic Universe stuff with like the Infinity Gauntlet. Like he played a huge part of that, even though he didn't play it in the movies, obviously.

06:19 He's the only person who's able to like with the assistance of Adam Warlock, like stop Thanos from wielding the Infinity Gauntlet. So like the other Marvel superheroes are just kind of like distraction fodder for these more epic superheroes on the cosmic scale like the silver surfer. So the silver surfer is kind of a big deal. And sorry, we can get to the game in a second. But like aside from surfing, which I'm sure he's very good at, what else can he do?

06:52 In terms of what? Like super? How does he fight? Yeah. With his fists. Okay. Is it super strong or is he just? He's just got a cool surfboard and he happens to be made of metal. No, I don't think he's doing like surf tricks on Spider-Man. I don't think that's how he's handling.

07:12 Yeah. But that's the problem though. It was like silver surfer has like cosmic powers. So like he, you know, he's like one of those like superheroes. He's like the ability to manipulate energy, right? Like things that are just like stupid on the scale of like when we're talking about guys who fight rhinoceroses, you know, like it's like obviously the silver surfer is going to win that battle. So he has, yeah, he has the superhero, the superhuman strength. He has probably, I don't know, he's probably like invulnerable to a bunch of things. You know, it's like Superman scale where it kind of becomes boring, but it's interesting because he doesn't deal with Earth on a daily basis. He deals with like larger, like galactic problems. Magic, magic realms.

07:55 Actually, that part gets weird. And I know that you're referencing the game there, but like we're going to have to unpack that towards the end because it's a bit of a spoiler for the end. So we'll save it. But I actually think he deals with that stuff a lot less, which is weird that it became the game setting. The game is, was made by Software Creations, published by Arcadia Systems.

08:18 And it is a shmup, which is interesting because I guess like I've now been trained by most of the shmups that we've played on the NES to be vehicles and not people. Like I'm not saying you have to be in space to be a shmup, but you generally are a vehicle. And to just say like the silver surfer as a shmup, like couldn't like you just you could make any superhero a shmup game, right? Like Spider-Man's a shmup and he just shoots webs.

08:45 Captain America is a shmup and he just throws his shield. Yeah, but it's I feel like it does. I mean, I guess if they're just walking like in gun smoke or gun dot smoke, as we called it. But like, I feel like, you know, Spider-Man is tough because you have to be you have to sort of be auto scrolling. Well, we kind of just did that with with Punisher.

09:04 And I think this still could fit your definition, Mike, of of a shmup, because who's to say you're controlling Silver Surfer? It's it looks like you're controlling his surfboard and he just happens to be riding you unless, you know, I don't know the lore. Maybe maybe he and his surfboard are one in the same, but I'll let you get into that. No, they're not the same. That would be funny, though, if like that was a plot thing of like we just have to steal his surfboard and then he's powerless. Would you you would consider Punisher a shmup? I think like it was auto scrolling and you probably you had basically the same amount of control over your character as you would in a shmup. It just happened to be like in a different axis.

09:54 Yeah, I guess I guess I that's true. Something about the perspective, like what would you consider like time crisis? What is that? I was calling it a shooter rail shooter.

10:03 And it probably is more of that. But if we're going to start to get like existential on what a shmup is, then I feel like you could you could make the argument at the very least. Right. Well, there's definitely no denying that Silver Surfer is a shmup. And I guess I'm just saying that that's a rather boring choice for a superhero game to be a shmup because it's just kind of like fire a bunch of projectiles at enemies as the stage auto scrolls. And I feel like half the fun of being the superhero is flexing off your powers.

10:33 Right. This game doesn't give you the opportunity to do much, much cool things other than just fire off these projectiles of which I would say like, you know, Silver Surfer does have the ability to manipulate energy and stuff. So sure, he could be doing this in the comics, but he doesn't like his primary means of attack is like firing off beams. I guess that's why I had to ask, because, you know, what you really do in this game is be on a surfboard and shoot what could just be a generic projectile that like you could put like Elmo as the guy on the surfboard and it would still make sense. You know what I mean? I don't know. I don't know why I brought Elmo in this. You're just always trying to bring Elmo into things.

11:14 And Elmo don't like that. I'm sure. This game also, as a shmup, doesn't doesn't stick to one point of view. It does both side scrolling and overhead stages alternating. So the game is mostly known, at least on the YouTube side of things, for being an incredibly difficult game.

11:35 But I feel like that is mostly because of the angry video game nerd, which is I don't know who needs to hear this. Not a historical account of video games, but a entertainment production put on for you, the viewer, to enjoy the content that you're watching. I wouldn't say that like when I was playing Silver Surfer, I thought it was the most difficult game we played. Sure, it's very difficult, but it's not like it's not frustratingly broken by any means. There's definitely some design choices that make it feel like that, though. Well, the hitbox. The hitbox is absolutely one of them. The other two being just the amount of sponginess to some of the enemies, especially when you first start off and you don't really have any power-up stuff going.

12:29 That if we were playing Gradius or something, they would all be like one-hit kills. It's not so much. And then the... I think it's just like some of the stages, it's kind of unclear what isn't is not a... Something you can sort of travel over. I mean, it's got to be the biggest offender. That was very prominent for me. Oftentimes, it looked like I could... Something was in the background, it turns out to be in the foreground. And then something I'm avoiding for several tries, and then I realize, wait a minute, this isn't even here. It just looks like it's here. Yeah, right.

13:07 I also had... Sometimes had issues with enemies just kind of spawning at times that I couldn't have possibly... Or at least it feels like I couldn't have possibly reacted to it until I had died once and known it was coming.

13:20 So that was kind of frustrating. Well, I think that comes down to a huge problem with this game being a shmup. Is like, Sean, you said it well that in Gradius or most shmups, everything else is also... Like, you're a one-hit KO, but so is mostly everything else aside from large enemies.

13:37 When you blast them, they go off the screen. That is very untrue in this game, especially at the beginning. The surfer feels weak. It takes a long time to get any additional orbs. You know, they're so worth it, and they change the gameplay dramatically. But it takes a long time to collect them. And your overall, like, power ability is collected via these letters that you pick up. F, B, S, and the orbs. But all those things aren't, like, given out, like, candy. So for a long time in this game, it is really...

14:13 It's really tough because of how weak the surfer is comparatively. And I think that's just such a strange choice to make a cosmic being weak to, like, some enemies that, like, I swear... I don't know where they pull these enemies out of because you'll have, like... You'll have, like, cool space stuff. Then you'll have, like, ghosts. Ghosts. And then you'll just have, like, two 17th century cannons. Like, it's like, what are these doing in space? Don't forget about the dinosaurs.

14:39 Yes. But the cannons specifically, like, made me question, like, where these sprites came from. Like, were they all aware that they were designing a game under the same, like, setting? Or were they like, okay, you're going to design these sprites, you're going to design these sprites. And then they all wind up in the same game. Yeah. Was this, like, intended to be a silver surfer game? Or did they just, like, kind of plop them into this other game? It doesn't feel like... Because, okay, so the ghost stuff, right? Like, that happens in Mephisto's world. And Mephisto's kind of like a Satan-like character in the Marvel Universe.

15:15 So why isn't his level, like, more healthy? Like, I get the ghost a little bit, but they're, like, popping out of doors. And they're supposed to be, like... I don't know. It's kind of silly. The cannons, though, don't make any sense in Mephisto's world. But the dinosaurs kind of do make sense. Because then you're taking on... Forgive me, I don't know his name. But you're taking on that dinosaur guy. And that's like, okay, cool. I get it. Like, he's a reptile. He is a...

15:40 Isn't Reptile also in, like, Mortal Kombat? Just a character. Like, that's kind of funny that there's, like, a character that can just get away with being called Reptile. I think this one has a Y instead of an I. Oh, that is so cool. That's so rad. Yeah. Yeah, it's pretty good. Yeah. So, you know, sometimes it makes sense. But other times it's just, like... I feel like they could have leaned more into the Jack Kirby of it all. Because he designed such amazing cosmic worlds that I feel like they just didn't tap into at all. And a lot of this stuff doesn't feel like it's part of the Silver Surfer's world.

16:13 Well, it's funny you say that because I do... Like, sure. I buy that it's not canon. But one of the things that I was going to say that I liked about this game is that there was at least a lot of... There was a lot of unique stuff going on with the backgrounds. And it wasn't just one repeated tile set of a ceiling and a floor that you just had to sort of follow.

16:40 And it was actually, like, background elements that were going on. So, as much as it may not have been Silver Surfer vibes, it was still vibes. I can respect that and agree with it. And while I was talking about the Surfer being so weak, what I kind of did, call this cheating, if you will. But I feel like the real version to play this game is just with a turbo controller. Once you use the turbo controller, it plays like an actual smup again. You hit enemies and you hit them so fast that they do take the one-hit KOs for the most part on screen. It doesn't feel like I'm cheesing the game. You're still very vulnerable. One hit will kill you.

17:20 And I enjoyed that a lot more. That is absolutely how I played this game. That's how I played it, too. Yeah. And I think we've played enough shmups where we don't even... Like, maybe I was cheesing it. Maybe this is a completely cheesy way to play this game. But I feel like we've earned the right to do it at this point. This is also a particularly unforgiving shmup anyways. I mean, you really do...

17:43 There's not many checkpoints in these levels. I mean, the one-hit kill, I guess that's pretty common for shots. But I do feel like these are... I don't know. Maybe I was just bad at it. But I did feel like there were a lot of very difficult to avoid enemies on that first. Well, you're a larger sprite, too. Exactly, yes. You're larger than the Vic Viper. And it's confusing.

18:05 Like, it gets in my head every time because the bulk of your sprite is the person, the humanoid on the surfboard. And then there's... Especially in the side-scrolling, the horizontal levels, you are just... The tiny little line of pixels of your surfboard sticking out also counts as your sprite. But, like, it's very easy to kind of forget about that. There's a lot of times where I would go, you know, like, I feel like I had pretty good control over where I was going, but just would forget about that tip of my surfboard. And if you nick anything with the tip of your surfboard, he just goes tumbling off.

18:39 And it's kind of funny to watch. And I don't know. I think something about the fact that he's a guy on a surfboard moving rather slow makes it a little harder pill to swallow that, like, touching anything at all kills you. Because it doesn't feel like I'd be in this fiery crash. It feels like, oh, I bumped into the wall.

18:55 Like, I didn't explode or anything. I just died. So, I don't know. Something about it just felt, like, really unforgiving. Well, granted, I think that if you were on a surfboard, like, that would happen, too. No, if I were on a surfboard, me, personally, never losing my balance. Yeah, yeah. Throw rocks at me. I'm not falling off. Oh, okay. Well, maybe you. Maybe you wouldn't. I'm a good surfer. But most people, if you, like, ran the tip of your surfboard into something, you'd probably... I think that that's true if you're going a lot faster than the silver surfer. He's going very, very slow. I think you could correct. Okay. Okay. Thank you.

21:17 That's pretty cool that you get treated to a nice little Marvel comic to sum up the events of the game. It's kind of a weak one, though, because Galactus summons you. Totally makes sense, right? You're the Herald of Galactus. He needs you to do his bidding. Go ahead. Do it. And then he's like, there's this unnamed device that comes from the magic dimension or the magic domain that you need to collect the six parts of in order to stop this prophecy.

21:50 It's like, that's a lot of vagueness. Like, I don't know if they were setting up Galactus to be the big bad who like, oh, collect these parts. And then actually it was Galactus who wanted it all along for a bad deed or something. And now you have to take him on. They don't go that way. But like, it certainly felt like they were setting that up because why not explain what's actually at risk here? What is the magic domain? And what does this device do? And what will happen if they assemble it? Like, it takes two extra sentences as far as I'm concerned. Well, they absolutely do do that. Like, you get all the parts for the machine.

22:25 And then you have to go to pick up the last part. And then you get it. And then he's like, ha ha, now I can use it in my conquests for whatever I do as Galactus. And then Silver Surfer's just like, I would prefer you didn't. And then you apparently like, just keep it away from him. And the game's over.

22:50 Yes, yes. But Galactus, he doesn't do it quite like that. Like, I agree with you that I interpreted it that way. But it really is just like, your quest is at an end, Surfer. The forces of magic have been defeated. Now the device is all caps mine, right? And like, that does imply that like, now he's going to use it or whatever for bad things on in this reality. But like, we still don't know what the magic we're planning to do with it or what would have happened. But okay, so he's got it.

23:16 And you're right. Surfer does just, you know, rather than fight the Galactus, right? Which would have been an awesome fight. I could picture a big Galactus sprite where like, first you have to fight his hands. Then you have to fight his face or whatever. It would have been fun. But he just says, no, the device is too dangerous. I will take it to a safe place. The end. Like, what the hell? Like, okay, so I just, I guess I need more, I need more context here. Because if, if he's like, is he like a thrall to Galactus? Like, yeah, like he's, he has free will now?

23:46 Exactly. So like, could he do that? I feel like that's like against the contract. Like, that's the employment agreement. I don't know. Well, he was freed of those kinds of duties in the, in the 80s. So I guess presumably at this point in the timeline, he's not exactly the Herald of Galactus, but still like open to working with the guy. Yeah, like a contractor. Yeah, right, right.

24:09 Maybe, yeah, he was like, you know, you just didn't pay me for the job. But wait a minute, is Galactus like a good guy across the galaxy also? No, he eats people. Right, it depends. So then how is the Silver Surfer like his sidekick, but he's like a good guy? The sidekick. Galactus is mostly a bad guy. There are definitely some stories where he turns out to be a good guy because again, there are larger threats in the cosmos. But Silver Surfer turns out to be a good guy when he frees himself of belonging to Galactus. Like, you know, like basically being not under the spell, what have you, but whatever the agreement is. Yeah. Breaks free of that and becomes an independent superhero.

24:48 Gotcha. For hire. Yeah. And since we're jumping ahead to the end and we're talking about story and everything, it's worth mentioning that along the way, you have to go through a lot of stages. And the stages are long, too. Stages are three sections per stage. So one side scrolling, one overhead, and then another side scrolling for each one of these villains. And they do this like Mega Man style, choose your, you know, choose your path first.

25:21 It doesn't quite work because you're not acquiring the powers of these enemies or whatever. So it doesn't really matter what order you go in. I guess theoretically, if you knew where the, which one is it? The F power up is the one that like, yeah, the balls, but the orbs, we're going to call them. Okay. Um, but the F power up is the one that like doubles your strength or whatever.

25:44 Um, so like you want to collect those more than anything because that just makes you stronger against these enemies. If you weren't playing with turbo mode, uh, I guess if you knew that you would pick to go those directions first, but for the most part, you just kind of pick it in whatever order. The game actually does recommend, uh, a specific order. They say like start with reptile or Mephisto and save fire Lord for later.

26:07 I'm not sure. Huh? I guess if I replayed it, I might be able to see why, but maybe it's just because they're easier bosses or whatever. You do all this, you take down all those guys and you do have to enter the magic domain to get the, um, uh, the, the ending to face off against the final boss. Now the final boss is like, but who the hell is that?

26:29 Yeah. Well, one thing I wanted to know real quick about just the, the, the length and just, I guess the structure. I do like what they did with the level structure, at least internally within each guy's world where it sort of starts out with a long, uh, a longer like side scrolling part where it's pretty much any, uh, shmup level. And then, but then the second one is this, it's a bit shorter and it's got a little bit more of like a twist to it. And then whether, because I think they also changed the order of whether it's overhead or, uh, side scrolling, excuse me, um, within each one. And then the final one is much shorter and it's just sort of like a little bit of a prelude and then the boss. So I think at least there's a good rhythm to the levels.

27:26 Uh, and, and because it's split up that way, they never feel excruciatingly long. Uh, but I do agree that the fact that there are three full like sections, uh, it is a lot, but yeah, I don't know who that guy is. I thought maybe you would. It's very interesting because the, the portrait of the final boss looks like, um, Mr. Sinister who would not necessarily be someone who's silver surfer would, you know, like be like his big bad or whatever. But even if it was like, okay, Mr. Sinister is from the Marvel universe.

27:59 I totally get it. I don't know who this purple guy is. He doesn't look like the portrait of the person that we're supposed to be facing off against. Um, like they put for all the other boss portraits and it, I don't know. It's just kind of like a, it's a bit of a pushover too. Like it doesn't feel like a big climactic final boss for this. Yeah. He's like not even really shooting at you. You know what he reminds me of Sean? Who was that? What was the name of that character? And he only got the name, uh, Morador Shear Shields in Mass Effect 3.

28:31 Uh, Marauder Shields. Yeah. Marauder Shields. Yeah. The final boss. The final boss of Mass Effect 3. Because it's like, he just seems like he got in the way of like, you know, like this purple guy just like got in the way of whoever you're supposed to face off against. You killed him, got the part, made it out. And it was like, wait, we planned something much grander than this. What are you doing? That's funny. I haven't heard that reference in a while.

28:57 Something's very weird about this guy too, that he's kind of like completely naked except he's wearing boots. Yeah. No, again, with the new, the weird, and like he's got kind of like a built-in cod piece that kind of looks like a dick. I don't know. It's just a little, uh, it's a bit much. And all the bosses in the game were kind of just like whatever though, if I'm being honest. Yeah. For how like challenging the game is, I did think the bosses were going to be a little harder. I think it was like the first boss that I did was the level, uh, whatever the level is with like the little pumpkin heads. Okay. And that boss in that level is just another pumpkin head. It doesn't look any different than the other ones. It's just like taking more hits.

29:38 Well, there's also like candles you have to blow out, right? What's that? Aren't there like candles you have to blow out? I don't know. I don't remember this. I don't, I don't remember that. Maybe it's just like spawners, spawners for the pumpkin heads that look like candles. I don't know. Well, as I'm saying it too, I realized that I don't think, you know, this isn't the boss of the whole section. It's just like the boss of like one world of the section or however you want to. The mini boss, you know, break those up. Yeah. But still, I was just like, what, what's happening?

30:10 These things are just coming endlessly. And then I realized like, oh, one of them is like just tanking hits. And I think I just have to focus on that one. Uh, a little weird, kind of cool to see a boss that's like not a big scary guy. It's just like any other enemy. I guess it's kind of an interesting idea.

30:24 Well, even when you bosses, there are big, scary guys. Yeah. Come on. Even when you are fighting, you know, against, um, Mephisto or whatever, like, yeah, they're not huge sprites that all of a sudden they become like godlike characters or Fire Lord is just kind of like, he's, he's chilling in his castle or throne room or whatever. And you just got to like shoot at him as the surfer. Now there's tons of other things flying at you. Yeah. Projectiles. But like, but at least he looks like a guy. Yeah. And not just like one of the other random like shmup ships that have been flying around this whole time. Yep.

30:57 Yeah. I don't know what's going on with the purple guy and I don't know why he has like such a big gun and everything. Like I, I want answers and I don't think we ever, I, I, I tried looking it up. I don't think anyone's ever conclusively said who that guy is. So we should probably talk about the orbs though, because I said that they're really cool, but I didn't explain why. And this probably, you know, this is like the, uh, option power up in a lot of Gradius style shmups where, you know, uh, you have a second shooter, but this one as a second shooter has an orb that can be set in three different positions so that you can shoot.

31:31 Um, you can have a shoot directly with you in the same direction. So whatever you're firing off at, or you can have a shoot to the side of wherever you're shooting. So this way you can kind of clear off enemies that are on the same, uh, uh, X axis as you, or you're going to have the truth from behind. And the behind one is very situational, but there are some levels where enemies do appear frequently from behind. And it's very nice to have this additional orb shooting from the back so that you can just kind of continue to keep focus where you need it.

32:00 Cause this isn't the kind of game where, um, you're going to be able to, uh, tightly dodge things, you know, like if, if, if something's coming your way and you haven't reacted already, chances are you're going to get hit by it. Yeah. You pretty much covered it. It it's, uh, I think there's even been other shmups that have a kind of like, uh, an orb that you can, that you can situate where you want it. Um, but they even, there's even like a boss that I feel like is a couple of the bosses are designed to, uh, make sure that they will go a lot faster if you are diligent, not diligent, um, uh, agile with your orb placement.

32:42 Yeah. I'm going to, I'm going to be a little negative here. Uh, and I realized I'm being a little overly negative with it, but I, I, I just really couldn't care less about these orbs. Like I, like I get it. I do think it's, it's a cool idea, but I think for me, maybe it's just this, this classic shmup fatigue that I have, but yes, it's something different. It's something that I don't remember seeing before, but it's also like not that different than other ways I've seen shmups try to do it. And I think I'm just at a point where I'm like, you got to really do something special to like, wow me with a shmup at this point. And like allowing me to shoot in two additional directions while cool is just like, I feel

33:18 like we've seen it in other ways. And I don't know, I think I'm just like, I think I'm just drained on like, yeah, it still feels like the same as all the other shmups. This one felt even slower, you know? So like, I don't know. It's pretty upsetting that the only, it's like the only real upgrade you get one that makes your thing, your primary attack more powerful. You've got the option orb ball, which yeah, you can sort of set it up how you want, but we've seen it before. And then you've got the, the B bombs, which will just sort of clear your screen if you're surrounded by normal enemies.

33:56 And that's about it. Like you would think that there's also, I mean, you can get multiple or so you can shooting multiple, you know, you're shooting like three or four in the overhead sections. But if you're on a side scrolling, you just get the one anyway. Yeah. And you would think that if he's a superhero that ostensibly does more than surf, if we're to believe Mike, you'd think that there would be more power ups or more powers that he could do. So it's, it's, it's strange.

34:28 Yeah. If only the surfer could match the intensity of the music that was set for him in this game, because this is another Tim Fallon specialty. And just like, this might be my favorite one yet. Like I know we talked about Pictionary and how awesome that was for the type of game it was, but this one actually makes you hype to play.

34:51 You know, it feels, it feels larger than life, which is great for, especially like what's possible on the NES. Like it feels great to be paired up with something like silver surfer. I just feel like because it wasn't, there weren't like so many tracks like that, that

35:06 the probably the one that everybody can think of on the top of their head. It repeats often. I felt like the game could have maybe tried to, to match that energy more frantically throughout. Like we've played on nostalgia bites, uh, Rekka, which it was an incredibly fast bullet hell shmup possible on the Famicom. Why couldn't we get something that least matched that kind of, uh, intensity here with silver surfer? It is kind of weird that even on his board and everything, like it, he just feels like he's drifting. He doesn't necessarily feel like, like you should be able to control the speed of the surfer or do fancy like spins or turns or yeah. Hang 10. Why can't he hang 10?

35:53 But like even making the background, like we've seen games that maybe don't even go that much faster than this, but the background has like an effect that makes you feel like you're going faster. Yeah. And that makes a huge difference, but it does feel like you're trudging and it's almost, it's almost a little laughable when you juxtapose it to this music because the music is like so frantic and you're just like, just trudging along.

36:19 Yeah. I thought the main track was all right, but I think what like my favorite and what I want more of is like, once you select the dude, uh, and I think between each section you've got, you've got this like sort of groovy interlude. And I was like, just make that a song, you know, like that would have been cool. But the main, the main song's fine too.

36:42 And we talked about the weird collision, uh, detection and stuff, but it is just worth mentioning, uh, that it goes beyond just like not knowing what is, um, like, like what will kill you, but also that the color palettes remain the same too. So there's not even like a color coded way to, to understand that like, okay, these kinds of things cause damage. It's just decided live and you kind of have to remember it in your head that like, well, this wall I can go through, but this kind of wall I can't go through.

37:15 Yeah. There was a point where I was, I was convinced that it had, that I, that I kind of had solved it based on like the, the way the shadows work. You can kind of tell which ones appear to be more in the foreground than others. But then I think like on other levels, it, that rule falls apart. And there are times where it's like, okay, this looks like those other background things, but now I can smash into it. Yeah. It is funny watching him bump his head though.

37:40 And I just agree with Joe that I was being overly cautious as well while playing that I, I, there is that one stage, uh, with like those fences where I was just like trying to, uh, going down like a very narrow corridor, just trying to like glide through them. And then I just didn't, well, I accidentally screwed it up, didn't die and was like, oh, I can do that. Great.

38:02 Yeah. There's apparently a password system in this game. If you have a second controller, what is up with all these NES games having secret like stuff? If you have a second controller plugged into the other port, is this a glitch or is this a, is this like a known thing? Did you guys ever do this with like a PS2 or anything? Like just plug the second controller in and unlock the debug mode?

38:24 No, siri. No, but yeah. I mean, assuming that's what it must've been, right? That's just like how they, they probably just felt like, well, nobody would ever do this. Yeah. Well, there is a two player mode in the game, but it's just alternating. It's not two at the same time. But yeah, if you press up on both controllers on the start screen, apparently you access this password screen where you can do all sorts of, uh, different, like you can, different sections that you can start in or have invincibility or have all your weapons powered up or how many extra continues.

38:55 But then there's an option for a second quest and a third quest. And I just wonder like, is what is that? Like, is that like you beat the game? And like, I couldn't find any note of like, okay, the second quest is like all the enemies are harder. Like it's not Legend of Zelda style second quest either, where it's different routes. Did you guys catch anything about that?

39:16 No. Um, but you, you, so you weren't able to try it. I wasn't. Right. No. Okay. Cause I, yeah, I wonder like, oh, for one, if you're going to make a second quest like that, put it in the game, like, like get credit for it. Don't make it a dot behind your like debug menu. That's like not even supposed to be there. It's a lot of work to not be officially in the game.

39:39 Yeah. I didn't know anything about this. I just, I got, I got the end, uh, the end cinematic and then I turned the game off. Right. Exactly. You would just think like, okay, whatever. Uh, I did get the end cinematic as well, obviously through, uh, safe states and all that stuff. And so it's a, it's a short enough game to experience at all, but I would not have been able to, um, beat this game on my own accord. Oh no. Oh no, sir.

40:05 Yeah. I'll be honest. I, I, I played each of the, of the original levels a little bit and that couldn't, we couldn't beat any of them. And I was like, all right, I got to beat one of these. I ended up beating, uh, trying to remember which one, like the, the, not Mephisto, not the dinosaur. Well, I ended up beating one of them like all the way through. And I was like, that's as far as I'm going. Was it the biker guy? The, uh, I got to look at the, the, uh, opening menu here. Macho man. Um. Possessor. Let me, let me open it up. I got my little, uh, NES right here. He kind of looked like a divorced dad.

40:40 But, uh, yeah. Then after that, I just kind of, I, I watched the final, uh, part. Cause I was like, I, I'm not getting there by myself unless I, unless I use some cheats or something. Uh, continue. I'll find the guy that I started with. Well, while we're talking about second quests and third quests and all that, uh, is, is like a difficulty scaler in a, in a second quest, like enough to keep you interested

41:02 if, if that was the case here or just in general, has there ever been a time where you were like, huh? Well, I'm not going to do that right now. Cause I just beat the game. But if I ever go back, I'll do the second quest, you know, like, uh, I can't think of too many new game pluses that you mean, or just new game plus, like where you, you know, like everybody scales up with you now. Like, did you ever actually like do one of those?

41:24 Um, I, yeah, I mean, I feel like that's what I always say I'm going to do with Bloodborne is just play it again through new game plus or like, uh, but it, I know there are some new game pluses that do more than just difficulty, uh, or like, I guess number expansion. Um, I don't know. I don't, not really. It's never been like a thing that I'm chasing.

41:50 Yeah. I think that's what I was getting at. I've always been enticed by like the, the legend of Zelda, uh, like second quest. I, I, I'm, yeah, I'm trying to think if I've really, if any of the main games that I played in my childhood ever had second quests, but I think like, if it was a game that I really liked that, you know, that wasn't like, you know, if it's a story heavy game, I think it'd be kind of weird, but like, you know, crash bandicoot had a second quest or there's just like other levels. Like, yeah, fuck.

42:18 Yeah. I'm doing that. Like, but if it's, uh, if it's something that I'm just like, you know, like a shmup, I don't know if I just, cause I'm not a shmup guy as much. I think like once I beat it, I'm like satisfied. I don't want to do it again. So I think it depends. I don't have a lot of experience with it, but I'm, I'm open to the idea. Are you satisfied or are you relieved? When I finish what?

42:39 A shmup. I, I mean, most of the time relieved, but I mean that we've had. I always talk about how I shmups, but I feel like we've had more than like, you'd think that I'm like, Oh, this is actually pretty good. This one surprised me because of how much I don't like shmups. So maybe, I don't know. Maybe I'm just a curmudgeon about shmups.

42:58 Like even on the episodes where I liked the shmup, I have to mention how much I don't like shmups. I think there's just too many video games for me to replay. Like I do replay games, but I mostly just replay from the beginning of a game. Not like from like, Oh, restore this save and go back and do the new game plus thing. Like it's very rare for me to do that. And I'm sure I've done it maybe for one save one time or something, but for the most part, I don't do that. Uh, even with like the Spider-Man series, which I love those PS4, PS5 Spider-Man games. Like I've never gone back to do the hard mode or whatever that gets added in later.

43:35 Yeah. If it's just a hard mode afterwards, it depends. That's like a totally different thing to me. If that's what this, if that's what this alternate quest is, is it just like a difficulty scale? I don't consider that an alternate quest. I consider that like a difficulty mode. European extreme. Yeah.

43:53 Grounded. As for the silver surfer, uh, he doesn't get another game to star in. Uh, he has other games that he appears in or is an unlockable character, but he's not the star of those games. So, uh, Marvel ultimate Alliance, he's an unlockable playable character in that, but so are many other Marvel superheroes. Fantastic four rise of the silver surfer. He's a boss, you know, he's in the title, but he's just a boss. Like you would think. Is he at least the final boss? No, isn't Galactus the final boss. That's the cloud Galactus. I don't know. Do you remember this movie?

44:28 No, no. But do you remember this movie? I never watched. I remember the, I remember the trailers and I saw the first movie, but I never saw the second one. I watched the first Fantastic Four and I didn't care to watch any of the other ones. Yeah. I didn't see this. I also saw the first one in theaters, but did not see the second one. And I remember finding out that Galactus was like a cloud in the second one and being so disappointed because I mean, I still haven't seen this Fantastic Four, this, this one that came out this year. So I don't know what they did for Galactus there, but I hope he's pretty freaking cool. No spoilers.

45:03 So, you know, it's, it's like Galactus, Silver Surfer, they go hand in hand, but they are kind of also like two separate scales of things, right? Like the Silver Surfer does one thing pretty cool and that's surf. And, and the Galactus does one thing pretty cool and that's eat. Yeah. They, they complete each other. They have the two things that you need, that you need to be a good duo surfing and eating.

45:27 Otherwise, uh, Silver Surfer just shows up as like playable characters and like Lego Marvel superheroes or Marvel superhero squad, which is like a whole series of, uh, more kiddie ish, uh, Marvel games. But apparently he's coming up as a confirmed, uh, roster addition to Marvel Cosmic Invasion. Oh, yeah. What is that? Marvel Cosmic Invasion is a retro style beat-em-up from the same developers that made, uh, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Shredder's Revenge.

45:59 Uh, so that was the TMNT beat-em-up revival game that kind of, you know, uh, revived, brought a lot of attention back to that series. Cause then after that, they also re-released all the other ones. So maybe they'll do something like that because there's a lot of Marvel beat-em-up games. Obviously everyone knows the X-Men one, but we played that Spider-Man and Friends one. That was all right. The one we played like Spider-Man and Hawkeye and... Friends. Who was the girl? No, there was a girl. Yeah, yeah. She was there. Oh, yeah, yeah. Her name was just girl. It was so weird.

46:32 The girl. Yeah. Uh, and Silver Surfer never showed up in Marvel versus Capcom series. That's kind of interesting. Is he like two-op? I think it's... I think they just didn't think of it, man. I feel like they should have included exactly this version of Silver Surfer. He's an 8-bit sprite scrolling on a little surfboard.

46:52 He does appear in, uh, Zero's ending, which Zero, I'm assuming, is from Mega Man. Uh, he appears in, like, his ending of that. So that's interesting. Like, do they always, like, cross over the endings of these characters' stories, too? I always think it's interesting when you have endings for this kind of stuff. Because, like, Marvel's Capcom 3 has so many characters. And they all got, like, an ending. And I get it. It's, like, 30 seconds or whatever. But it's still, like, it's a lot of work. 30 seconds across 40-plus characters. Good job. Good job, guys.

47:24 For the record, it was the Fire Lord section that I beat. Oh, thank you for following up on that 30 minutes later. Yeah, we appreciate that. Well, I was looking for the in for the past 30 minutes. And I was like, well, I don't want to interrupt here. Yep. So thank you for that follow-up. And now we are going to close out with the Essential Games list.

47:46 I'll put that in somewhere. Don't worry. Yeah, I think it's kind of obvious how we're talking about this game. That it's not going to be on the Essential Games list. But I, and I wasn't trying to call out the Angry Video Game Nerd by any stretch of the imagination. But I think it is worth mentioning that, like, this game is more enjoyable than the internet leads on. Like, I have played a lot of really bad NES games. And I wouldn't put this in the bottom 20 by any stretch.

48:13 It's a shmup. So it's kind of like you played one, you played them all. And then to this kind of level of difficulty, that helps. It helps that it's not all of a sudden inventing, like, all new rules for a type of game that you have to learn and play while it has, like, these kinds of controls. I feel like the controls are fine.

48:31 It's fine. It's serviceable. It's really just the overall difficulty of the game comes from the gigantic hitbox and the lack of, like, knowing what is going to collide with you and what isn't. I feel like the second-rate story is not, like, those kinds of things weren't detracting me. The fact that it doesn't feel like it's two silver surfers, like, whatever. I don't really care. I was playing as a silver surfer, and I acknowledge that. So it's really just the actual, like, gameplay mistakes that bother me and get this off the essential games list.

49:04 I'd probably still keep it as, like, a skip it unless you're a fan of shmups. But even if you're a fan of shmups, this one's going to be tough. So just keep that in mind. Sean? Yeah, I feel like this. I didn't hate this game. I appreciated at least, like, I know that, you know, it's not too silver surfer-y, as Mike is saying, if you know what silver surfer does. But you do get, like, some cut scenes, and the levels are at least, they have some variety to them.

49:37 So I, if you play it with a turbo button, you'll probably have just a grand old time. But it's definitely not essential. Joe? I agree that this is not, like, in the top 20, you know, least enjoyable games or anything like that. I'm not sure what the, like, internet idea of this game is exactly, but it sounds like I would disagree with it. It's not, like, one of the worst games of all time, but I still would not say this was an enjoyable experience for me. I think those little things that we're talking about that, you know, that are really the only, like, major flaws, which is, like, the hitbox, the not knowing the background stuff.

50:22 While those are, like, the only, like, big issues to me with the gameplay, those were both by and far big enough issues for me to really frustrate me the whole experience. Like, I really, I would not give this a play. I would say a skip it. But, yeah, definitely we've played much, much, much worse games, but I did not enjoy this one either. It's interesting from, like, a comic viewpoint, though, too.

50:46 We've played a Superman game, a weird one, but we did play a Superman game. And we played a Batman game that was pretty good. And so DC's superheroes, they always focus on, like, their most important ones. Even today, right? We get a Superman movie, and now we're going to get a Batman movie. And, like, you'll take it, and you'll like it, and we'll get to the other weird characters when we get to them. Marvel does things a little differently. We still don't have a Spider-Man video game. We don't have a Hulk video game. We did get an X-Men one, but it was one of the worst games on the system by far.

51:19 So to focus on, like, the Punisher and Silver Surfer, I mean, you know, I don't hate it. But it is, like, it's just worth knowing that, like, I know these guys were popular at this time, especially the Punisher having that movie. But these are not, like, Spider-Man is way more popular, even in 1990, way more popular than the Punisher and Silver Surfer. Now, aren't we getting a Spider-Man game pretty soon, relatively soon, or is that far off yet? There is one on the NES, right? There is one on the NES. You made me say that almost with a question mark, because you're saying it so confidently that I felt like you were looking to me for confirmation.

51:56 Well, I know that's what was happening, yeah. I pretty clearly remember there being one on the NES. I guess I'm just assuming it's soon. I don't know why. Yeah, I don't know. I don't think it's soon, but I also recall a Spider-Man game being on the NES. I know that there are Spider-Man games, like, on every system, so I would hope that there's one on the NES. And hopefully it's pretty good, because it's no secret I'm a big Spider-Man fan. I appreciate that we're all pretty confident that this is a game that exists. Yeah, you know, maybe I'll just surf the web.

52:32 Silver Surfer and Spider-Man. I'll surf the web and find out if there's a Spider-Man game on NES. Did you start talking about Spider-Man in the Silver Surfer episode so you could tee up for that, or did that really come right off the cuff right now? That came off the cuff. Well, that's impressive, then. Thank you. I really appreciate that. You're the best podcast host, Mike. Well, while we're being candid, I should say that the surf part just wasn't intended to be a Silver Surfer thing, if I'm being honest. But then when I said it out loud, I had the light bulb of like, oh, yeah. Oh, it was subconscious. That's just how good you are, Mike. Yep, well, that's why they pay me the Patreon bucks. Okay.