GamePro 170 - Super Mario Sunshine [S2E11]

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Here i had a um radio spot right before yeah
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and i love i love this guy so no shade
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to him he's.
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Like ty i found this amazing viking music it's like
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viking i don't know and oh god the most beautiful
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girl in the world sings it i you gotta see
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anyway uh like check this out so he had the
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producer play this drop you know we were talking about
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the vikings right like the minnesota vikings And.
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They're going to be good. I'm going to be, I'm
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going to be playing this, uh, you know, this music.
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What do you think? And it's like, okay, cool. And
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he's like, oh man, this girl, she's so, if she's real, uh,
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I don't know.
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Oh man, Ty, when I fell in love with her,
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I thought she was real, but I think she might
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be AI.
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And I'm like, yeah, man, that is, that is 10,000% AI. I, I,
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I'm very sorry for you.
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So he does not in fact have a gorgeous face.
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swedish girlfriend no who.
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Like no he doesn't loves to hike no and uh
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yeah i told him about there's a meme i saw
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a while ago uh it was video of an alligator
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leaping at a cardboard cutout of a deer over and
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over and just hitting it and someone just put middle-aged
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guys on facebook in ai girls replies and like that's
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yeah You've got Fun Factor, two old gamers reviewing old
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video game magazine reviews. I'm Ty Shelter, he's Aidan Mohr,
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and we are two professional creatives who grew up loving
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the video games and video game magazines of the 1980s, 1990s,
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and 2000s. Every episode, we take a critical look back
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on the games media that, for better and for worse,
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inspired us to do what we do. First, go to funfactorpod.com,
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follow the show on your podcatcher of choice, leave us
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a rating review on iTunes, Spotify, and YouTube, or wherever
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you get your media. We'll read the best, kindest, funniest,
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and most entertaining ones on the air in our letters section.
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Please consider becoming a member of Fun Factor Ultra, our
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premium tiers that unlock ad-free episodes, bonus episodes, and the
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swanky members-only channels of our Discord. That's where you'll get
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the link to live-streamed recording sessions just like the one
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we're doing right now. Just go to funfactorpod.com. I promise you,
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you cannot miss the sign-up widget on our homepage. Then
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help us spread the word. Shout us out on BlueSky
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at FunFactorPod.com and everywhere else at FunFactorPod. Social media is
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now old enough that the concept of a critical re-evaluation
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has itself gone through a critical re-evaluation. So many old games, movies,
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and TV shows have been championed by mid to late
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20-somethings and early 30-somethings as overlooked gems that we have
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a phrase we say back to these people, you were
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just 12 when you played it, when you watched it,
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when you loved it. Honestly, both this phenomenon and the
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backlash to it are valid as far as I'm concerned.
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We've seen plenty of times in these classic game magazines
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we look at, a lot of really fun, interesting, or
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groundbreaking games from our formative years didn't showcase the latest
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graphics tech, or fit the current genre meta, or appeal
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directly to the tastes of the magazine's then 20 and
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30 something writers and got written off with unimpressive scores
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or unimpressive sales. That history has vindicated a lot of
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low and mid scoring oddities that 2002's professional critics wrote off.
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The current poster child for this phenomenon might be Quest 64,
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where one guy on blue sky has slowly been bullying
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all of games media into actually trying a game as
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contemporary critics convinced everyone to skip.
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And I'm literally playing the Game Boy Color version of
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Quest 64.
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Really? Because of that account. Right now. I was playing
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it yesterday. Yeah. Yeah. And in many cases, people are
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discovering there's a lot to like. Friend of the show,
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Dave Jackson, just had at quest64official. bisky. social, a.k.a. Mike, on in
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his latest episode of Tales from the Backlog. Everyone who
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likes Fun Factor should absolutely check out their mutual deep
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dive into the game. Of course, the link will be
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in the show notes. But, of course, Aiden, a lot
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of flawed or even terrible games were still treasured experiences
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for kids who might have been too broke to do
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anything but find the fun in the games they had
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or too inexperienced to perceive their flaws or too enraptured
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by other elements of the game to care. I know
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a lot of Xennials like me had the experience of
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being blown away by like. These stunning neon slum visuals
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of some game or anime or its deep, you know,
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original science fiction world building only to get old enough
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to watch Blade Runner for the first time and go, oh, oh,
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I see. So you read Neuromancer. Read Neuromancer or watch
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Neon Genesis Evangelion. Like the number of games that were
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just straightforwardly ripping off. Other properties that were just a
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little too old for me that I didn't know existed.
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You know, there's tons of them. But what I actually
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wanted to talk about was the much rarer reverse phenomenon.
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Highly anticipated game that comes out, gets rave reviews, sells
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a jillion copies. And then over the intervening months or years,
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everyone kind of sours on it. Are there any games
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like that for you?
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Um, I, I go back and forth on this with
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final fantasy seven, uh, a game that I absolutely adored
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when it came out. And then I was like, oh,
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it's super like overrated. It's mid it's in the bottom
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portion of the series. And now I'm sort of back
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to being like, oh no, it's, it's pretty top tier. Uh,
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so that's a big one for me. Um, because I
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think final fantasy seven did a lot of like really
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interesting and exciting things.
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Poorly.
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In 1997, right? It was very much like a tech demo.
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It was like a proof of concept. But I would
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say Final Fantasy VIII came out, same thing, got tons
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of rave reviews and kind of has like a bad
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reputation now in that series for being strange and taking,
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you know, a lot of risks and changing up the
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formula and stuff. So those two come to mind. And
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also Bioshock Infinite. I don't know if you played that
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original Bioshock.
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Yeah.
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Like obviously a classic, um, had a lot of interesting
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things to say. Bioshock infinite was like really interesting and
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people were really excited about it. Uh, and people like,
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you know, got great reviews and I liked it. I
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played through it and really enjoyed it. And then like,
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it just like, it's reputation just went downhill so fast
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as people started to like put the pieces together and
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really look at it like critically with a bit more time.
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Then maybe the reviewers had to give it right off
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the bat.
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Or even, like, my first impression of it playing was
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pretty cool. I thought, hey, this is pretty sweet.
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And then it's like, oh, okay. Maybe, yeah, Doom Eternal
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is another recent one that comes to mind.
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Where it was like, oh, Doom 2016 was so good.
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And then Doom Eternal came out and people were like, yeah,
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more Doom. And then it's like, oh, wait, this is
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way different.
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Than Doom 2016. Yeah.
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And now it has sort of more of a divisive reputation,
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I would say.
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Yeah, I had actually written in my notes seven Final
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Fantasy VII as well. Because for me, as we've talked
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about many times, we started our show. Our very first
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episode was about PSM's review of Final Fantasy VII. And
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then we closed our first season by reviewing every text
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review we could find of Final Fantasy VII and cross-comparing them.
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So it's like I had my qualms about it when
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it came out. And I think eight and nine each
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surpassed it in different ways. Each became more beloved than
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VII by a different subset of the series fans. And
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I think if Final Fantasy VII hadn't been effectively Final
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Fantasy I or JRPG I for tens of millions of
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Western gamers, I think the narrative might have calcified there.
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And we'd think, oh, yeah, this is good, but Flaw
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not as good as VI. you know, 8 and 9
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are better on the same platform, you know, depending on
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what you like. Like, I feel like that's kind of
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where it would have ended up if it weren't just
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such a mind-blowing tech demo and centerpiece and first impression
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of the genre for so many of the gamers who
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played it. Yeah. Can I make, like, a future, like, prediction? Yes. Like,
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six months after GTA 6 comes out.
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And the shine wears off, people are going to be like, wow,
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this game feels like it was made in 2003.
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Like, Yeah. I don't know.
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Like, I feel like that's one where like, it's so
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shiny that it's going to like win over a lot
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of people, but you, while I watched the previews and
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I'm like, this game looks like it came out on
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the PlayStation two, uh, in a bad way, you know, like, uh,
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just in terms of how the gameplay looks and, and
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the type of game it is. Like, I just don't
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think that has aged into the Trump era, uh, as
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well as maybe it needed to.
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Man, while we're talking about Tales from the Backlog, he
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and I forget the names of his guests, but they've
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just had a deep dive into the concept of games
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holding up well and whether that's even a valid thing
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to say, which, again, recommend it. But the review we're
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going to look at today, well, and let's just start here.
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What do you think of Super Mario Sunshine? It's like
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the one 3D Mario I haven't put much time into.
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I didn't buy it on GameCube. um i did i
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have played it because i got like the.
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The three pack on switch i think um you know
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so i did play it a bit on there but
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i haven't played a lot of it because honestly there's
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just other stuff i probably wanted to play at the
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time and i thought the the water backpack thing was
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was weird like it wasn't the sort of platforming that
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i wanted out of that series um but i played
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it for a little bit and it it was not
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not good did not did not seem good to me
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so i just stopped and that's my experience with it
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so which i think kind of leads into your point
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i came to it late without the hype and went
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oh this is kind of not great.
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Yeah, and it's interesting, and we'll get there. I've been
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debating with myself how deep I want to get into
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it right now, but I'll just say that my memory
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of it was I played it, and I thought it
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was really interesting, and I thought it was really technical
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in a way that Mario games often aren't. It also
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had a kind of overt pro-environmental message, like just the
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basic mechanics of it, right? Like he's using, you know,
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water to clean up all this, you know, toxic goo
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or whatever, you know? And it's like, okay, interesting, interesting.
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Like they're taking some swings here. And I think, especially
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as you look at like Super Smash Brothers Melee, Pikmin,
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the GameCube, I think is kind of this generation of
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Mario games that I think is going to be remembered
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as a time or, or should be remembered potentially as
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a time when Nintendo went a little down the, like
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more grown up, more technical, more, you know, aging with
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the audience. And that made some of these games be
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absolutely beloved. And then other people remember these instances of
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the franchise as the bad one. And yeah, I think
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we'll see when we get to the review.
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I mean, So much of this, so much of our
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show comes down to like, when were you born?
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Yes.
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You know, like the GameCube is like the console. Now
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that's so many, I see so many younger people online
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being like, oh yeah, like GameCube got me into video games.
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It was my first console. Like, yes.
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And, uh, you know, your, your impressions of Super Mario
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Sunshine are probably a lot different if you hadn't seen
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Mario move from Super Mario World and Yoshi's Island to 64. Uh,
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we were so hard up for, um, A new Mario game,
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a 3d Mario game. Like there hadn't been one since
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Mario 64. Right.
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Um, and so like, if.
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You were like, man, Mario 64, like literally changed the
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games industry. Like, I can't wait to see what they're
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up to next. And, and they're, the next thing is
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they gave him a water pack and it's like, Oh,
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oh okay and he's like it was weird like yeah
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yeah and i think like mario and i think more
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like uh nintendo figured it out that like people want
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that core mario experience you don't need to like tweak
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the experience you need to tweak like the emotional um
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you know the emotional experience not so much like the
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gameplay experience the ones like mario wonder is fabulous uh
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the core gameplay is it's mario it's very simple and
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it doesn't iterate much on you know, what we saw
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on the NES. But the visual experience, the emotional experience
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is very strong. And I think that's where Mario is
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really good. And I think that's where Sunshine made the
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wrong changes.
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All right. Well, if you are looking for the emotional
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experience of us cracking open GamePro number 170, and you're
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not already a Fun Factor Ultra member getting ad-free episodes
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or joining us live as we record this, well, hey,
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sit tight through the break. We're going to pay a
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couple bills. We will come back and look at GamePro
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170 right here on Fun Factor. FUN FACTOR Welcome back
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to Fun Factor, where two old gamers review old video
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game magazine reviews. Of course, we want you to review us.
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Do we get a full 5.0 in Fun Factor? Leave
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us a review on Apple Podcasts. We will read the best, kindest, funniest,
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and most entertaining ones on the air. Aiden, the deal
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with GamePro. Back in our first season, when we first
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covered an issue of GamePro, I called it mid. And
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though we've joked about the magazine being actually terrible, or
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at least, you know, The worst of the mainstream magazines.
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I've always thought GamePro's worst negatives were mostly just a
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lack of positives. You know, never ugly, but never beautiful.
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Never unprofessional, but also often uninteresting. And it wasn't either
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government name posed headshot critics whose names I knew and trusted.
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But also, they had the cartoon alter egos, but they
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weren't really front and center. And they weren't like cartoon
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katana wielding psychopaths frothing about censorship or whatever, right? Like
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the personalities weren't as strong in either direction, either as
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professional critics or as cartoon characters, right? And so it
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just kind of didn't really appeal to me. And Stewie
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is saying in chat, of course, talking about Greg Stewart,
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former EGM editor, GamePro's biggest strength was that they understood
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their audience and And they were experts at appealing to it.
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And I think you and I were just not that
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audience for whatever reason.
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I mean, I, I am looking at mine in like
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my magazine collection. I own quite a few game pros.
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I was its audience when I was younger. And that's
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sort of what Greg is getting at.
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I think. Yeah. Um, But I mean, like, and I
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think Greg's right that they.
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Knew their audience and they appealed to it. But I'm
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also like, what was that audience? People who weren't highbrow
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enough for EGM? Weren't lowbrow enough for Bill Donahue?
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You know what I mean?
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Like, you know, are they the centrists of gaming? It
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was all just very, like, very generic, I guess, is
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the best way to put it.
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With all due respect to what they were doing, a
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lot of hard work went into it. But again, and
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you're going to see in this issue, there's there's some
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swings being taken. But like, you know, again, it's 2002. Right.
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So as we compare to, you know, Edge is cover
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to cover, unbelievably high level editorial, you know. EGM's art
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design and layout and the coverage that they're getting and
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the content that they're getting is absolutely top notch all
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the way through. And though they're doing some interesting stuff,
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I just don't think they're enough of anything to anybody
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at this point, or at least not enough of anything
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to me.
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There's not like, you know, Edge and NextGen as they
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were sort of like trying to be like, quote unquote,
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mature gaming magazines. EGM was like really leaning into starting
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at this point to lean into like the personality based
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like games journalism, like putting like real personalities and names
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and faces to the writers, game pro, like looking through
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this issue, it looks pretty good. Like the design's pretty good.
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It's pretty dense and packed with, with content, but there's
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just no, you don't get a sense of who the
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people are behind the magazine in the same way that
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you did with EGM. And so it's like, but it's,
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you know, it's, it's, it was always the, the one
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that I like would pick up randomly on the way
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home from the grocery store if my mom let me.
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It wasn't the one I was clamoring over like EGM.
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Or whatever.
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It was like, okay, yeah, GamePro. I don't have this one.
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Cool. I'll read about it. They'll have some cool games. Yeah.
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For me, it was definitely, do I need to devour
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everything about this game? Right? It's like, what's the cover game?
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Do they have a feature that nobody else has? Is
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there a game that... Our cover issue here, we've got
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a GamePro... 170 Tony Hawk's pro skater for, you know,
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if I'm a Tony Hawk's pro skater for maniac. Okay, cool.
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I'll pick up this month's game pro. Right. So like,
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that's kind of where I came down with it was
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a time and place. If this issue looked interesting, I
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would grab it. Kid friendly, non-threatening magazine. No one's mom
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is going to get mad at their kid reading game pro. Well,
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that's a, yeah, absolutely a huge part of it.
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We do talk about how like so much of like the,
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games media coverage that we did in our first season
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was like kids writing for younger kids yeah whereas game
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pro definitely like softened like those rough edges uh so
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it was a lot less offensive to parents.
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All right well let's let's get a little deeper into
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it yeah it's it's issue 170 november 2002 238 pages
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which sounds impressive But we're going to see it's a
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little less impressive than it sounds. Number of games reviewed, 32,
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I think. They made it incredibly difficult to count. And again,
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we'll see why in a second. Six systems reviewed for PS2, GameCube, Xbox,
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Game Boy Advance, PC, and arcade. And I think it's
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really interesting. This whole year, Aiden, Game Boy Advance is
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the handheld market. There's one handheld, it's Game Boy Advance.
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And there's not even, you know, it used to be, oh,
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some mags would have like a handheld section. No, there's
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a Game Boy Advance section in every magazine that's just
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Game Boy Advance. It's weird to have one console or
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system just fully corner an entire segment of the market
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like that. Is it, Ty?
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How many handheld consoles do we have right now?
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Okay, but there were at least Contemporary competitors, right? You
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know what I mean? Like Game Boy, there were several,
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you know, there was a Game Gear, you know, they
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did do the, you know, color pocket or there are
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multiple Game Boys, right? Cannibalizing itself. You got Game Boy,
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Game Boy Color, Game Boy Pocket. You got Game Gear, Nomad,
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the PC Express, like, right. There's all a bunch of
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these overlap you have doomed efforts from companies that you
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know come and go that kind of thing a tiger
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tried updating their thing a couple of.
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Times game.com got the side talking uh what was that
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cell phone that was that was.
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Later than that yeah yeah but like you know and
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then you know psp ps vita right like we we
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get into there's usually some kind of overlap or more
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than Even if it's only Nintendo making a handheld, normally
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Nintendo has like multiple handhelds and it was just like
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Game Boy Advance. So let's get into it a little
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bit here. Got a big two page ad spread. Another
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big two page ad spread. Another big two page ad spread. OK, hey,
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here's the masthead. We dug a little bit into a
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couple of these folks last time on GamePro, especially Francis Mao.
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director of editorial and creative services. He had a bunch
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of original art and illustration and stuff. I wanted to
378
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look at Wes Nehi, editor-in-chief. Came up as an assistant
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editor of PC World from 1985 to 1989. Joined GamePro
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as an associate editor. Got promoted to managing editor in 1991,
381
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then executive editor in 1983, then editor-in-chief in 1995. Here
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in 2002, he's seven or eight years into what will
383
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be a decade-long run. in the big chair overseeing both
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00:21:07.730 --> 00:21:14.240
the game pro magazine and game pro.com website. Um, in 2007,
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he stepped back down to editor at large, still writing
386
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and editing, being involved in editorial and content strategy for
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both the magazine and the site. And he picked up
388
00:21:22.880 --> 00:21:26.759
a side gig or maybe made game pro his side
389
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gig by taking an editorial gig at Turner broadcastings, game tap.com,
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00:21:32.130 --> 00:21:34.849
which I'd never heard of. And now redirects to game planet, uh,
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Or Games Planet. So I don't know. But it's interesting
392
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because then we are Turner fam separated by like seven
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or eight years. I started at Bleacher Report, which got
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acquired by Turner in 2012. So like Turner Broadcasting owning
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websites they didn't really know what to do with. It's
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a thing that happened a lot. Lifespan of every website ever. Oh,
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Stewie says, GameTap was awesome. It served classic games online.
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I wrote about 100 instructional blurbs for that service. That's awesome.
399
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It was kind of like Netflix before Netflix, but for games,
400
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sort of.
401
00:22:14.480 --> 00:22:20.519
Cool. If I remember correctly. I mean, being Canadian, too. Well,
402
00:22:20.799 --> 00:22:21.759
Greg's Canadian.
403
00:22:22.839 --> 00:22:24.559
It seemed out of reach for me. a few other
404
00:22:24.579 --> 00:22:28.440
names that stand out on this masthead to me as well.
405
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Like we've talked about Dan Amrick as well.
406
00:22:31.240 --> 00:22:35.299
He's a great follow on. And we're about to again. Okay. Excellent.
407
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Also associate editor, Sean Malloy and international news editor, Kevin
408
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Gifford are two people that I know, not from their
409
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work on game pro, but their connections.
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Later on to one up. Oh, which is kind of
411
00:22:47.829 --> 00:22:49.289
interesting to me to see.
412
00:22:49.170 --> 00:22:51.769
Sort of like, you know, here in chat, Greg was
413
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saying like when he was working for EGM, GamePro was
414
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like the big competitor for them. And, you know, there
415
00:22:57.279 --> 00:22:59.839
was sort of some of that crossover. But most of
416
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the names I typically recognize from like mastheads in GamePro
417
00:23:03.900 --> 00:23:07.839
are the ones that carried on through to EGM or 1up.
418
00:23:07.220 --> 00:23:13.160
Com or whatever. Yeah. Also, Wataru Maruyama, senior editor of GamePro.com,
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was the editor in chief of PSX that Sony and
420
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Ziff bought and turned into the official US PlayStation magazine,
421
00:23:22.160 --> 00:23:26.809
if memory serves. I also, Frank Parisi was a name.
422
00:23:26.950 --> 00:23:30.390
I'm like, I swear to God, I know who that is.
423
00:23:30.950 --> 00:23:33.650
And I'm pretty sure I'm remembering the professional poker player
424
00:23:34.789 --> 00:23:38.200
who I don't think. Same one? I don't know. Could be.
425
00:23:38.579 --> 00:23:42.779
I was not able to determine for sure. But not
426
00:23:42.799 --> 00:23:45.799
done with Wes Nehi yet. In 2010, he started doing
427
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events planning for a Bay Area Asian American senior citizen org,
428
00:23:49.299 --> 00:23:52.180
planning and running fundraisers and events and doing PR and
429
00:23:52.220 --> 00:23:55.099
comms work. It looks like he's still basically just freelancing,
430
00:23:55.180 --> 00:23:58.900
doing any kind of media, PR, events planning stuff that
431
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he can. And according to Dan Amrick on this gigantic
432
00:24:05.019 --> 00:24:09.519
blue sky thread I'm about to bring up, Wes had, quote,
433
00:24:09.779 --> 00:24:14.980
about seven pseudonyms that he wrote under between the magazine
434
00:24:15.079 --> 00:24:15.859
and the website.
435
00:24:16.279 --> 00:24:19.000
Wes is also listed here as vice president of IDG
436
00:24:19.059 --> 00:24:19.940
Games Media Group.
437
00:24:20.569 --> 00:24:21.240
So he was his own boss.
438
00:24:21.269 --> 00:24:21.460
Oh, wow.
439
00:24:22.799 --> 00:24:26.279
Which is interesting. And Frank Parisi, I think it was,
440
00:24:26.839 --> 00:24:31.200
also is listed in credits on Moby Games with EA.
441
00:24:31.960 --> 00:24:34.640
But also, again, I couldn't tie that to any specific
442
00:24:34.700 --> 00:24:37.019
LinkedIn profile. There was a bunch of overlapping stuff that
443
00:24:37.079 --> 00:24:39.640
I couldn't figure out in time for this episode. But
444
00:24:40.240 --> 00:24:46.740
so way back, nearly the dawn of blue sky, August 12th, 2023.
445
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This great GamePro review of Quake 2 has me wondering,
446
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is there a definitive list of GamePro writers and their pseudonyms?
447
00:24:52.470 --> 00:24:55.200
I see Dan Electro is the legend, Dan Amrick, but
448
00:24:55.240 --> 00:24:57.539
I'm not finding much about other folks. Who are the
449
00:24:57.599 --> 00:25:01.960
editors behind these? And then Dan Amrick goes, ah, I
450
00:25:02.000 --> 00:25:03.759
kept one when I was there. I was also confused.
451
00:25:04.519 --> 00:25:07.039
Is there a list? He kept a list. I was
452
00:25:07.059 --> 00:25:09.200
also confused because nobody had kept track of it. So
453
00:25:09.359 --> 00:25:11.579
I created a master list of all the personas over
454
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the years. I probably don't have a copy of that
455
00:25:13.480 --> 00:25:15.930
list anymore, but I could probably... So it goes through
456
00:25:16.210 --> 00:25:19.029
Johnny Ballgame is John Robinson, author of several wrestling books.
457
00:25:19.069 --> 00:25:21.970
Scary Larry is Lawrence Nevis, was at Pokemon for several years,
458
00:25:22.019 --> 00:25:25.599
now doing content marketing. D-Pad Destroyer was Jay Tuner, went
459
00:25:25.680 --> 00:25:28.900
on to write for Bioware. Bad Hair and Dan Electro,
460
00:25:29.279 --> 00:25:33.960
both me. Dr. Zombie is Francis Mao. Muscle Shirt Guy
461
00:25:33.980 --> 00:25:39.190
is Air Hendricks. Paul Curthoise later went to official Xbox magazine,
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currently at Meta. Blue Hair Drivers, Tommy Glide, et cetera,
463
00:25:42.509 --> 00:25:44.750
et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Bruised Lee, I forgot.
464
00:25:44.789 --> 00:25:46.670
This was right before my time. You know, so we're
465
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going through these. Oh, and Miss Spell, my wife, Katrin Auk.
466
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And then here we have several of the early editors,
467
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like Francis, an editor-in-chief. Wes Nehi had multiple names. Wes
468
00:25:56.339 --> 00:25:59.779
had about seven, but mostly wrote under Bro Buzz. We
469
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shared the lab rat for peripheral reviews sometimes, but most
470
00:26:03.039 --> 00:26:06.660
characters were one person. I also wrote the tech column
471
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as White Rapper MC Squared.
472
00:26:10.640 --> 00:26:13.049
It's interesting that they took the approach of trying to
473
00:26:13.089 --> 00:26:15.289
make their editorial team.
474
00:26:15.329 --> 00:26:19.150
Like, bigger. Yeah, make it look like there's more.
475
00:26:19.190 --> 00:26:21.630
Than it was, like, with all those names and probably
476
00:26:21.670 --> 00:26:23.930
specialties and stuff, which is sort of the opposite, again,
477
00:26:23.970 --> 00:26:28.079
of that personality-driven games media that came to dominate sort
478
00:26:28.119 --> 00:26:31.579
of the following decade through the late aughts.
479
00:26:31.779 --> 00:26:35.180
Yeah, I also felt very embarrassed pulling this thread up
480
00:26:35.240 --> 00:26:37.400
because Dan was following me and I was not following
481
00:26:37.420 --> 00:26:42.230
him back. So I immediately rectified that. But it's it's
482
00:26:42.289 --> 00:26:46.490
fantastic once again to have. OK, somebody just post. Hey,
483
00:26:46.529 --> 00:26:51.259
like anybody remember this? And then have the person jump
484
00:26:51.339 --> 00:26:53.000
in and go, yeah, cool. I kept a list. Here
485
00:26:53.019 --> 00:26:56.240
you go. I'd like the person who asked, like, oh,
486
00:26:56.259 --> 00:26:59.190
my God, I this is incredible. I've done some basic looking,
487
00:26:59.230 --> 00:27:01.690
but couldn't get anywhere. What a gift. Hard to overstate
488
00:27:01.750 --> 00:27:04.450
just how much those pseudonymous cartoons had on me growing
489
00:27:04.509 --> 00:27:09.490
up reading GamePro. Amazing how spread out everyone's career paths are. So, like,
490
00:27:09.930 --> 00:27:12.670
you know, obviously people have been looking back on these
491
00:27:12.789 --> 00:27:15.529
for a long time before we started doing it. But
492
00:27:15.789 --> 00:27:17.630
it still is fun every time to go back and
493
00:27:17.670 --> 00:27:22.079
find how people were doing stuff back then and how
494
00:27:22.140 --> 00:27:26.539
it's aged now. I'm going to reshare our screen here.
495
00:27:26.700 --> 00:27:29.789
Hold on. I wanted the world to see our show
496
00:27:29.829 --> 00:27:33.230
notes here. I almost never do this. Oh yeah. But
497
00:27:33.250 --> 00:27:35.650
we have to see West knee high. Did have a
498
00:27:35.670 --> 00:27:40.069
Twitter account. His last post was June 8th, 2011. We,
499
00:27:40.089 --> 00:27:48.990
you what's the, you stand for like as a last,
500
00:27:49.710 --> 00:27:52.450
a last Twitter post. Uh, I just think, I just
501
00:27:52.470 --> 00:27:56.670
think that's outstanding. I'm so envious of those people. Right. Who, like,
502
00:27:56.890 --> 00:28:00.190
gave it a shot and just, like, went, nah. Yeah,
503
00:28:00.289 --> 00:28:08.619
or were on TWTTR in 2007. Posting via SMS, like,
504
00:28:08.640 --> 00:28:10.839
from their phone. Yeah, that after a couple years just
505
00:28:10.859 --> 00:28:14.799
kind of went, eh, not for me. Social media, nah.
506
00:28:15.880 --> 00:28:18.180
A blessed existence, for sure.
507
00:28:18.859 --> 00:28:21.460
Before we move on from the masthead, though, down at
508
00:28:21.480 --> 00:28:25.150
the bottom, it says GamePro is powered by VisionTac and
509
00:28:25.990 --> 00:28:30.150
slumming it in games media, Nvidia. Uh, I wonder where
510
00:28:30.170 --> 00:28:30.759
that's all about.
511
00:28:31.079 --> 00:28:34.920
Yeah. Like I said, there's a bunch of interesting little
512
00:28:35.240 --> 00:28:40.160
things or game proactive. Uh, that's cool. Uh, highlighting like
513
00:28:40.319 --> 00:28:44.920
a charity. Yeah. That like addresses homelessness. That's actually kind
514
00:28:44.940 --> 00:28:45.640
of neat. Yeah.
515
00:28:45.700 --> 00:28:50.799
To like introduce like games community to just good causes
516
00:28:50.819 --> 00:28:51.079
like that.
517
00:28:51.099 --> 00:28:53.849
That's cool. All right. Well, having said all this, I
518
00:28:53.880 --> 00:29:05.329
think it's time. for the flip through. So Aiden, come back.
519
00:29:05.410 --> 00:29:07.470
Let's go ahead and start flipping through. There's a big
520
00:29:07.549 --> 00:29:11.170
two page ad spread. There's a big two page ad spread.
521
00:29:12.849 --> 00:29:16.339
There's a big two page ad spread. This is like
522
00:29:16.400 --> 00:29:19.299
the most glorious 2002 ad I've ever seen. It's so 2002.
523
00:29:19.299 --> 00:29:20.039
Like a bunch of like.
524
00:29:24.250 --> 00:29:28.309
Gen X, RFK Jr. voters who probably have lead poisoning now.
525
00:29:28.369 --> 00:29:31.369
Yes. They look so good. This caught my eye, not
526
00:29:31.410 --> 00:29:35.539
just because every person is like, you know, literally model gorgeous.
527
00:29:35.579 --> 00:29:38.319
These are just fashion models. But also it took me
528
00:29:38.339 --> 00:29:42.539
a second because I'm like, what? is this for? What
529
00:29:42.579 --> 00:29:44.119
is this an ad for? You can barely even see
530
00:29:44.150 --> 00:29:47.579
the jeans. The original Arizona Jean Company, which I think
531
00:29:47.720 --> 00:29:52.059
is actually just JCPenney's store brand, if I'm remembering correctly.
532
00:29:52.079 --> 00:29:56.880
But I was just like... Wow, this is a weird moment.
533
00:29:56.900 --> 00:29:59.799
And we've talked before, this is an era where game
534
00:29:59.880 --> 00:30:04.470
magazines are getting just legitimate mainstream ads. Movies are advertising
535
00:30:04.509 --> 00:30:10.210
in game magazines now. A jeans ad is just really
536
00:30:10.230 --> 00:30:13.250
weird to me to see this in a games magazine, right? Also,
537
00:30:13.829 --> 00:30:17.190
none of these people are coming anywhere near GamePro Magazine
538
00:30:17.230 --> 00:30:21.180
in 2002. Nobody's buying this magazine. Maybe some of them
539
00:30:21.240 --> 00:30:26.480
play games, but... I don't see these people... If I'm
540
00:30:26.500 --> 00:30:30.240
picking this up in 2002... I'm not seeing myself reflected.
541
00:30:30.279 --> 00:30:36.410
Even though I'm about these people's age. In 2002.
542
00:30:36.410 --> 00:30:40.829
From what I recall... If memory serves correctly... This is
543
00:30:40.890 --> 00:30:41.890
what I looked like in 2002.
544
00:30:41.890 --> 00:30:46.950
Oh yeah, absolutely. And I was full on into video games. Yeah,
545
00:30:46.990 --> 00:30:52.319
for sure. So again... If you're starting to pick up
546
00:30:52.400 --> 00:30:57.359
on a theme here, Aiden, this magazine, that's 230 pages.
547
00:30:57.819 --> 00:31:02.180
It's this rhythm of like two page spread, two page spread,
548
00:31:02.279 --> 00:31:05.119
two page spread of ads. And then one page content,
549
00:31:05.380 --> 00:31:08.019
one page ad, one page content, one page ad, two
550
00:31:08.059 --> 00:31:14.460
page ad. Nope. That's an ad. That's it. It's basically
551
00:31:14.460 --> 00:31:19.609
60% two page ad spreads, 40% one page content, one
552
00:31:19.640 --> 00:31:24.150
page ad. It's, really shocking how much of this magazine
553
00:31:24.190 --> 00:31:27.380
is ads. And I mean, you got to pay bills,
554
00:31:27.420 --> 00:31:28.339
but like, wow.
555
00:31:28.940 --> 00:31:31.920
You know, like for a long time, ads were part
556
00:31:31.980 --> 00:31:33.279
of the appeal too, I think.
557
00:31:33.359 --> 00:31:33.680
I don't know.
558
00:31:33.740 --> 00:31:36.200
I had ads like pinned up on my wall in
559
00:31:36.240 --> 00:31:39.150
my bedroom for games I liked. And so like, it
560
00:31:39.289 --> 00:31:42.690
feels like a lot scrolling through like in our browser window.
561
00:31:42.750 --> 00:31:44.309
But at the time, I don't know that it was,
562
00:31:44.650 --> 00:31:46.210
it didn't bother me all that much.
563
00:31:46.309 --> 00:31:50.829
I'm going to say it bothers me here because, Partly because, again,
564
00:31:50.869 --> 00:31:53.109
we just do the name of the thing, the flip through.
565
00:31:53.130 --> 00:31:58.289
There's Tom Brady. I was waiting. I spoiled the prize.
566
00:31:58.329 --> 00:31:59.730
That was going to be a joke. But I'm just
567
00:32:00.069 --> 00:32:02.930
flipping through these. Again, when you use, and we'll get
568
00:32:02.950 --> 00:32:04.779
there when we get into the reviews section, right? But
569
00:32:05.119 --> 00:32:09.779
when you use the box art for your reviews, right?
570
00:32:09.799 --> 00:32:12.519
When you put the name, when you use official assets,
571
00:32:12.680 --> 00:32:16.640
like here's Tribes, right? Obviously, this is an ad for Tribes, right?
572
00:32:16.680 --> 00:32:20.619
But like, wait, okay, that's an ad. This is a preview.
573
00:32:21.019 --> 00:32:23.480
This is what, you know, all kind of blends together,
574
00:32:23.500 --> 00:32:27.539
you know, using similar colors, similar, similarly busy. Right. And
575
00:32:27.579 --> 00:32:30.029
so like some of the, you, you, you blend all
576
00:32:30.049 --> 00:32:31.720
this stuff together. It's a problem we've had in other
577
00:32:31.769 --> 00:32:35.369
magazines in this one and, uh, old school game informer
578
00:32:35.910 --> 00:32:37.890
used a lot of provided assets.
579
00:32:37.970 --> 00:32:38.150
Right.
580
00:32:38.230 --> 00:32:41.569
And so it's just like, uh, okay. It, it just
581
00:32:41.589 --> 00:32:45.150
kind of blends all together when there's so many ads. Um,
582
00:32:45.190 --> 00:32:49.559
we also have here this siloing, uh, which I never liked.
583
00:32:49.599 --> 00:32:52.009
I did not like at the time. And I really
584
00:32:52.049 --> 00:32:54.109
don't like when I'm trying to count how many reviews
585
00:32:54.150 --> 00:32:58.789
there are in the magazine. PlayStation Pro reviews, GameCube Pro reviews,
586
00:32:58.970 --> 00:33:04.210
Xbox Pro reviews, but then also PC Game Pro, Harta Arcades?
587
00:33:04.730 --> 00:33:07.680
Are the reviews in here? Game Boy Advances? Are the
588
00:33:07.759 --> 00:33:13.839
Game Boy Advance reviews in here? Sports Pages, Role Players Realm? Okay,
589
00:33:13.859 --> 00:33:16.650
so are the Role So we could have three grandia.
590
00:33:16.769 --> 00:33:20.009
So like, are the reviews for RPGs separate from, are
591
00:33:20.029 --> 00:33:22.789
they in with the PlayStation review? You know, like, and
592
00:33:22.809 --> 00:33:25.589
so then they go, oh, we've created this monster. Here's
593
00:33:25.630 --> 00:33:29.349
what you need. Game finder. So they just have this
594
00:33:29.549 --> 00:33:33.650
running thing of here's where you can find information about
595
00:33:33.809 --> 00:33:38.849
the game you're looking for. Alphabetized. Um, this big long run.
596
00:33:38.859 --> 00:33:40.859
But I think like that was appealing to a lot
597
00:33:40.900 --> 00:33:41.220
of people.
598
00:33:41.259 --> 00:33:43.339
Like if somebody just had a game boy.
599
00:33:44.200 --> 00:33:47.559
Advance and a GameCube or whatever they were in Nintendo place.
600
00:33:47.599 --> 00:33:48.759
Like they just want to.
601
00:33:48.779 --> 00:33:50.839
Be able to rush through and see the stuff that
602
00:33:50.859 --> 00:33:51.619
they're interested in.
603
00:33:51.680 --> 00:33:56.519
Right. So like layout make more or the content structure
604
00:33:56.619 --> 00:33:59.109
make more sense to me. Right. Like you've made it
605
00:33:59.160 --> 00:34:02.829
so confusing instead of having previews reviews, you're like, we're
606
00:34:02.849 --> 00:34:08.110
going to separate this into 82 different contradictory and overlapping sections.
607
00:34:08.309 --> 00:34:09.869
And then we're going to realize it's so hard to
608
00:34:09.909 --> 00:34:13.639
find what you want. We have to make an index. Like, why?
609
00:34:13.860 --> 00:34:17.800
You know? This is not how I preferred it at
610
00:34:17.840 --> 00:34:21.280
the time or prefer it now. But it's certainly better
611
00:34:21.320 --> 00:34:23.940
than doing it this way and then not having an index.
612
00:34:25.079 --> 00:34:31.469
They clearly were not thinking about millennial bloggers making podcasts
613
00:34:31.889 --> 00:34:35.210
in 25 years. Obviously not. Obviously not. No. Okay, so Aidan,
614
00:34:35.230 --> 00:34:39.909
we're going to go to the editor's letter, which is by...
615
00:34:42.190 --> 00:34:46.920
the game pros. So this is the editor's letter, but
616
00:34:48.500 --> 00:34:52.239
by nobody in particular, no byline on the editor's letter.
617
00:34:53.639 --> 00:34:58.630
It's very weird. And literally all this is, is just okay.
618
00:34:58.670 --> 00:35:03.510
Tony Hawk's pro skater. Maybe Tony Hawk didn't single-handedly put
619
00:35:03.570 --> 00:35:06.840
skateboarding back there. I don't think there's much here. It's
620
00:35:06.860 --> 00:35:08.809
just talking about Tony Hawk and then just going, oh,
621
00:35:08.869 --> 00:35:10.610
and here's what's in this issue. It gives you the
622
00:35:10.630 --> 00:35:13.929
load on Resident Evil zero getaway Halo two. Plus, you'll
623
00:35:13.969 --> 00:35:17.809
find content. And I'm like, OK, this isn't. I don't
624
00:35:17.849 --> 00:35:21.570
know this. This reads like it's a group, you know,
625
00:35:21.610 --> 00:35:24.610
boilerplate hammered out thing and not like it's coming from
626
00:35:24.679 --> 00:35:27.730
anybody in particular. in a magazine where everyone's like, I
627
00:35:27.769 --> 00:35:28.230
wish this.
628
00:35:28.130 --> 00:35:30.849
Has just like a summary of what's in the magazine
629
00:35:31.329 --> 00:35:32.630
rather than like an editorial.
630
00:35:32.650 --> 00:35:36.610
No, it, it expresses no viewpoint. It's nothing. It's just like, yeah,
631
00:35:36.670 --> 00:35:39.219
Tony Hawk's pro skater four is a game and it's
632
00:35:39.260 --> 00:35:43.059
a game that has three that came before it. And
633
00:35:43.219 --> 00:35:46.019
also we ran a big preview of it and it's
634
00:35:46.059 --> 00:35:48.159
in this magazine. And also here's this other stuff in
635
00:35:48.179 --> 00:35:52.719
the magazine. Um, so I, I find this really weird
636
00:35:52.900 --> 00:35:58.800
and also quite poor. So for the letters section here, Aiden,
637
00:35:59.119 --> 00:36:02.239
I did put in the script. If you could read
638
00:36:02.360 --> 00:36:06.780
Alex Alzina's question here, the truth about the SNES CD
639
00:36:07.119 --> 00:36:14.139
and PSX in scare quotes. Quote. All right.
640
00:36:14.420 --> 00:36:16.780
My brother told me a little while ago that Nintendo
641
00:36:16.820 --> 00:36:19.860
and Sony combined to make the first PlayStation and that
642
00:36:19.900 --> 00:36:22.559
it looked like crap, but Nintendo wanted to stick with
643
00:36:22.599 --> 00:36:25.889
cartridges and and Sony wanted to go with CDs. Is
644
00:36:25.909 --> 00:36:29.159
this true, or has he been a brother about it?
645
00:36:29.989 --> 00:36:31.809
Alex Alzina, Via Internet.
646
00:36:32.110 --> 00:36:34.889
I love this so much, because this is how we've
647
00:36:34.909 --> 00:36:40.340
got this overlap of, yeah, my brother told me blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
648
00:36:41.059 --> 00:36:42.659
in an era, you know, we're coming to the end
649
00:36:42.699 --> 00:36:45.219
of the era, we're like kids making stuff up and
650
00:36:45.239 --> 00:36:47.420
telling each other about it, or rumors that are false
651
00:36:47.480 --> 00:36:49.420
spreading from kid to kid, or sometimes rumors that are true,
652
00:36:49.739 --> 00:36:52.269
and you have no way to, I know, I'll send
653
00:36:52.329 --> 00:36:55.789
an email to my favorite games magazine and then, but
654
00:36:55.829 --> 00:36:59.449
then still wait two or three months for the magazine
655
00:36:59.469 --> 00:37:02.260
to come out and get my answer. Right. Like it's,
656
00:37:02.639 --> 00:37:04.300
it's a foot in.
657
00:37:04.460 --> 00:37:07.780
I have this whole like theory about sort of like
658
00:37:08.440 --> 00:37:12.820
the modern world and how we're not like the human
659
00:37:12.840 --> 00:37:16.119
brain is not equipped to like, keep up with the
660
00:37:16.179 --> 00:37:18.800
speed of information at this time.
661
00:37:18.860 --> 00:37:19.760
And I think it was good.
662
00:37:20.309 --> 00:37:22.769
To like have a question and have to send it
663
00:37:22.809 --> 00:37:25.050
off to an expert and wait instead of like this
664
00:37:25.170 --> 00:37:28.170
instant gratification where everything is at our fingertips. And if
665
00:37:28.210 --> 00:37:31.719
it's not at our fingertips, we find the thing that is, that.
666
00:37:31.639 --> 00:37:33.099
Could be that false information.
667
00:37:34.300 --> 00:37:37.380
So I wish we could go back to that, slow
668
00:37:37.420 --> 00:37:37.960
it down a bit.
669
00:37:37.980 --> 00:37:43.420
Yeah. Make kids, make adults wait months. I agree. I agree.
670
00:37:43.860 --> 00:37:46.019
And having that kind of like quick turnaround time is,
671
00:37:46.519 --> 00:37:49.789
is weird in it. I think we're kind of coming
672
00:37:49.849 --> 00:37:52.429
back to, you know, we're siloing stuff back off social
673
00:37:52.469 --> 00:37:55.489
media into private discords and slacks a little bit. Right.
674
00:37:55.570 --> 00:37:58.219
So you have those communities where you can have the
675
00:37:58.239 --> 00:38:02.360
quick interaction with a closer group, a closer knit group.
676
00:38:02.639 --> 00:38:02.880
Right.
677
00:38:02.980 --> 00:38:06.719
And you can spread these rumors and you can go
678
00:38:06.860 --> 00:38:09.420
on main and see if you could debunk these rumors,
679
00:38:09.639 --> 00:38:12.159
you know, and then they, you know, of course they
680
00:38:12.179 --> 00:38:14.789
do give the real story here in a pretty clear,
681
00:38:14.829 --> 00:38:19.530
concise way. And I, I do think the, the CD
682
00:38:20.409 --> 00:38:23.690
SNES successor, uh, did look like crap. It looked like
683
00:38:23.730 --> 00:38:25.250
crap in the sense that I don't think it was
684
00:38:25.329 --> 00:38:28.909
aesthetically pleasing. Uh, I don't think it looked like crap in,
685
00:38:29.130 --> 00:38:30.889
in terms of like, oh, I think the specs of
686
00:38:30.929 --> 00:38:33.449
the system are gonna suck. I mean, nobody ever saw
687
00:38:33.530 --> 00:38:37.929
anything from it at that point. Right, right, right, right, right. Yeah.
688
00:38:38.340 --> 00:38:41.280
So that's whether he's saying the, the, the system itself
689
00:38:41.340 --> 00:38:43.920
looked like crap or he was saying, oh yeah, like
690
00:38:43.960 --> 00:38:45.900
they made it that it looked like crap. It was
691
00:38:45.920 --> 00:38:48.510
gonna be terrible. Like, I don't know. I could see
692
00:38:48.570 --> 00:38:51.139
either use. You didn't like, uh, you didn't like it.
693
00:38:51.809 --> 00:38:54.289
I like it. Yeah. I think it looked good.
694
00:38:54.309 --> 00:38:56.730
What the renderings look cool with the super Famicom, but
695
00:38:56.809 --> 00:38:58.909
I'm also a big fan of the super Famicom.
696
00:38:58.949 --> 00:38:59.530
Yeah.
697
00:38:59.590 --> 00:39:01.469
So in any case, I am curious what his brother
698
00:39:01.510 --> 00:39:05.579
meant by, it looks like crap. Like I, like at
699
00:39:05.619 --> 00:39:07.559
the end of the day, like my PlayStation five looks
700
00:39:07.579 --> 00:39:12.840
like absolute garbage, right? It's an awful, ugly console, but
701
00:39:12.860 --> 00:39:15.780
it plays some pretty sweet games. So I'm fine with it.
702
00:39:16.320 --> 00:39:20.780
Very quickly, I like, hey, no, headlining. Hey, can you
703
00:39:20.820 --> 00:39:24.530
at least show a picture of the PS3? Max paid $ 808. 19
704
00:39:24.409 --> 00:39:28.750
via internet. No, it has not been designed yet. They're
705
00:39:28.789 --> 00:39:30.719
working on the chips that will be... be inside. I
706
00:39:32.780 --> 00:39:37.369
just love that. Every games magazine knows exactly what the
707
00:39:37.630 --> 00:39:40.269
has pics of the PS3 and they're just not showing
708
00:39:40.289 --> 00:39:44.630
it to people. Can you at least show a picture? No.
709
00:39:45.710 --> 00:39:49.260
But then we get into... A thing that I thought was, again,
710
00:39:49.599 --> 00:39:53.119
this is innovative. This is cool. This is also the
711
00:39:53.199 --> 00:39:56.619
Next Gen and Ziff Davis font. This is the font
712
00:39:56.719 --> 00:39:59.699
Next Gen was using in 1995. Now here we have
713
00:39:59.739 --> 00:40:04.400
it in 2002. GamePro is finally using it. But a
714
00:40:05.159 --> 00:40:09.480
bunch of this stuff still looks like 1632-bit era stuff
715
00:40:09.500 --> 00:40:14.510
to me anyway. Got a little Copperplate Gothic going on here,
716
00:40:14.530 --> 00:40:19.349
which is my number one favorite. That's actually my red
717
00:40:19.429 --> 00:40:22.750
flag of like, uh-oh, somebody just had to go with
718
00:40:22.769 --> 00:40:26.550
the basic Word 97 fonts. Like, oh, Copperplate Gothic. This
719
00:40:26.590 --> 00:40:30.590
looks professional. It's a good font. It is a good font,
720
00:40:30.630 --> 00:40:34.409
but it's also... One year, the Lions redid their end
721
00:40:34.429 --> 00:40:37.130
zones in Copperplate Gothic, and I lost my mind. I'm like,
722
00:40:37.170 --> 00:40:41.389
you guys are a billion-dollar organization. You cannot just go,
723
00:40:41.429 --> 00:40:44.139
what should our end zones look like? Hey, that Copperplate Gothic,
724
00:40:44.179 --> 00:40:46.840
that looks like a good font. Like, come on!
725
00:40:47.699 --> 00:40:51.139
Um, but like the people who make the decisions love
726
00:40:51.179 --> 00:40:56.199
that stuff. It's like 2002 version of Montserrat where it's like, Oh,
727
00:40:56.260 --> 00:40:58.639
like if you want something approved, you just like, you know,
728
00:40:58.699 --> 00:41:01.519
that's going to get approved by the CEO who has
729
00:41:01.820 --> 00:41:03.340
like no idea about anything.
730
00:41:03.380 --> 00:41:08.139
So buyers beware by the watchdog. Here's the watchdog. That's
731
00:41:08.179 --> 00:41:11.219
another game pro pseudonym, right? Also almost certainly I would
732
00:41:11.260 --> 00:41:16.909
expect a shared one. Um, but, uh, Watchdog tackles slowdown
733
00:41:16.949 --> 00:41:19.880
and control issues in Grand Theft Auto 3. Stardingo offers
734
00:41:20.019 --> 00:41:26.579
uber-technical expertise. These are consumer issues. People who are like,
735
00:41:27.119 --> 00:41:29.460
I've got frame rate problems on Grand Theft Auto. How
736
00:41:29.480 --> 00:41:32.630
do I fix it? I've got a Game Boy Advance.
737
00:41:32.670 --> 00:41:35.110
I've been hearing good things about the Afterburner internal light.
738
00:41:35.150 --> 00:41:36.789
I want to install one, but I don't know what
739
00:41:36.809 --> 00:41:42.429
I need to do. They're like, hey, yeah. This third-party
740
00:41:42.670 --> 00:41:46.969
aftermarket backlight for a game boy advance we've heard plenty
741
00:41:46.989 --> 00:41:49.730
of reports afterburner was a big deal in 2000 yeah
742
00:41:49.750 --> 00:41:52.769
on the effects of an improper afterburner installation bubbles and
743
00:41:52.789 --> 00:41:57.150
permanently embedded in the screen weird prismatic distortion finding your
744
00:41:57.190 --> 00:42:00.409
gba can suddenly only play game boy color games like
745
00:42:01.039 --> 00:42:02.739
but this is cool. And then they have, they print,
746
00:42:02.780 --> 00:42:06.019
you make the call having problems with hardware software from Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft,
747
00:42:06.039 --> 00:42:08.659
or Sega. Here are the customer service numbers. So like,
748
00:42:08.739 --> 00:42:12.090
this is like legitimately service journalism. This is cool. And
749
00:42:12.119 --> 00:42:14.829
I can't remember seeing a feature like this in any
750
00:42:14.869 --> 00:42:16.409
magazine so far that we've looked at.
751
00:42:16.750 --> 00:42:20.289
Oh, this is like Linus tech tips or whatever, like
752
00:42:20.969 --> 00:42:23.809
fills this niche now where it's like breaking down hardware,
753
00:42:23.849 --> 00:42:25.429
like talking about, you know, like.
754
00:42:26.289 --> 00:42:27.789
I guess I should say PC, PC mags obviously had
755
00:42:27.829 --> 00:42:33.800
plenty of, you know more yeah more coverage like this
756
00:42:33.860 --> 00:42:36.320
or more tech guides and stuff but that.
757
00:42:36.199 --> 00:42:39.699
Was the thing about like consoles as well was like
758
00:42:39.780 --> 00:42:42.000
and it's still like this is you want to buy
759
00:42:42.039 --> 00:42:44.300
them and they should just work right like you you
760
00:42:44.840 --> 00:42:47.800
game on consoles because you don't want to deal with
761
00:42:47.820 --> 00:42:49.539
yes all the other.
762
00:42:49.380 --> 00:42:53.289
Things that come along with like pc gaming um It
763
00:42:53.349 --> 00:42:54.289
is cool. I like that.
764
00:42:54.329 --> 00:42:57.510
And I wish there was more stuff like that in
765
00:42:57.769 --> 00:42:59.090
game mags at that time. Yeah.
766
00:42:59.369 --> 00:43:02.510
Pretty neat. Back when consumer rights meant more than like,
767
00:43:02.949 --> 00:43:05.199
I paid money for a video game so it should
768
00:43:05.239 --> 00:43:07.659
have exactly what I wanted and it had nothing else.
769
00:43:07.679 --> 00:43:09.239
That's my right as a consumer.
770
00:43:11.199 --> 00:43:14.119
I also like, I've seen often people, maybe we've talked
771
00:43:14.139 --> 00:43:19.000
about it on this show, but Rory talking about Grand
772
00:43:19.019 --> 00:43:21.860
Theft Auto 3 on PC, talking about frame rate. you know,
773
00:43:21.900 --> 00:43:25.019
like we've talked about the digital foundry effect or whatever. Uh,
774
00:43:25.059 --> 00:43:28.980
and I've seen people wondering like, when did consumers or
775
00:43:29.880 --> 00:43:33.889
people who play video games start thinking about frame rates?
776
00:43:33.989 --> 00:43:36.610
Like the idea that like, Oh, nobody used to think
777
00:43:36.650 --> 00:43:38.510
about frame rates. Nobody even knew what that meant.
778
00:43:38.650 --> 00:43:40.130
Like we never used that word. And it's like, here
779
00:43:40.170 --> 00:43:42.530
it is in 2002. So I'm being like, Hey, I've
780
00:43:42.550 --> 00:43:45.260
got frame rate stuttering. Like what can I do about it?
781
00:43:45.889 --> 00:43:47.940
Uh, is, is interesting. It is now.
782
00:43:48.199 --> 00:43:50.760
And then they're talking about going in and like, making
783
00:43:50.889 --> 00:43:54.639
registry at like reg edit there, uh, like edits.
784
00:43:54.480 --> 00:43:56.940
To your registry and stuff like that. And that's like,
785
00:43:57.860 --> 00:44:01.000
which is kind of crazy. All right. It's cool. So, uh,
786
00:44:01.260 --> 00:44:06.829
Tom Brady jump scare. Uh, here's our fully on surgically
787
00:44:06.869 --> 00:44:12.590
reconstructed Tom Brady with famous got milk mustache. Not surprisingly,
788
00:44:12.690 --> 00:44:16.139
Tom likes his milk on ice. Milk delivers nine essential nutrients.
789
00:44:16.260 --> 00:44:22.380
Active bodies need need no matter how hot you are. Okay.
790
00:44:22.679 --> 00:44:23.780
Is Tom Brady hot?
791
00:44:24.239 --> 00:44:29.380
Like, his whole thing is that he's, like, the most normal, like,
792
00:44:29.940 --> 00:44:31.579
non-athletic guy.
793
00:44:31.639 --> 00:44:32.239
Yeah.
794
00:44:32.699 --> 00:44:33.179
Isn't it?
795
00:44:33.469 --> 00:44:36.550
This kind of points toward he really wanted to be
796
00:44:36.630 --> 00:44:40.590
known as hot, which is probably why all the plastic
797
00:44:40.630 --> 00:44:44.530
surgery and supplements and everything over the years. Sure.
798
00:44:44.929 --> 00:44:46.929
He probably could have done his hair for this ad.
799
00:44:46.929 --> 00:44:52.659
Yeah. Yeah. Not gone to Supercuts. Right. Yeah, this is rough.
800
00:44:53.360 --> 00:45:00.719
The lettuce is... It's crying out. It's asymmetrical, also. Man.
801
00:45:02.239 --> 00:45:06.110
I love the quote. Quote, Tom likes his milk on ice.
802
00:45:06.809 --> 00:45:10.590
I get what they're going for there, but... Yeah. I
803
00:45:10.630 --> 00:45:11.869
don't know, man. It's wild.
804
00:45:11.909 --> 00:45:14.050
Milk ads are the best, because it's just milk. It's
805
00:45:14.760 --> 00:45:16.039
not a company.
806
00:45:16.099 --> 00:45:16.360
It's milk.
807
00:45:17.510 --> 00:45:19.489
Nothing else gets ads. Why don't bananas have ads?
808
00:45:19.550 --> 00:45:22.989
Right, right. Milk and cheese. I know the answer to this.
809
00:45:23.360 --> 00:45:26.059
Please don't feel the comment section explaining it to me.
810
00:45:26.099 --> 00:45:29.219
But I do think it's funny to have generic ads
811
00:45:29.280 --> 00:45:30.539
for certain food, like tea.
812
00:45:31.099 --> 00:45:36.699
Tea should just get ads. Or coffee. I really like this. Again,
813
00:45:36.760 --> 00:45:41.179
Dan Electro. Speech therapy. Here's a quick little feature. Voice
814
00:45:41.199 --> 00:45:44.239
chat can make online games more enjoyable or nearly unbearable.
815
00:45:44.300 --> 00:45:47.559
Before you rock the mic, know the rules. And so
816
00:45:47.639 --> 00:45:51.980
they have this little voice chat etiquette guide, which I
817
00:45:52.039 --> 00:45:57.429
think many people could use still today. This is like
818
00:45:58.690 --> 00:46:07.329
podcasting etiquette, too. True, true. Microphone placement, breathing, enunciation. Dragon,
819
00:46:07.369 --> 00:46:09.570
look out! There's a Fremnag hiding in a brush shell
820
00:46:09.650 --> 00:46:12.269
on the Marth. What? The fidelity of voice chat is
821
00:46:12.309 --> 00:46:14.489
inherently low. It's never going to sound better than a
822
00:46:14.530 --> 00:46:18.699
cell phone. However... It's crucial that you speak clearly or
823
00:46:18.800 --> 00:46:20.639
others won't be able to understand you. It's not a
824
00:46:20.679 --> 00:46:23.900
volume thing. You don't need to mumble louder. You need
825
00:46:23.960 --> 00:46:30.889
to not mumble. It's good advice. Silence is golden. It's
826
00:46:30.929 --> 00:46:31.869
so good.
827
00:46:32.289 --> 00:46:34.550
Voice chat and online gaming would be so much better
828
00:46:34.590 --> 00:46:36.190
if people stuck to that.
829
00:46:36.230 --> 00:46:44.050
Yes. Holy cow. They need more mouth noise advice, though. Oh, Lord. Yeah. Yeah.
830
00:46:45.650 --> 00:46:50.820
Pop filters for everyone also. Yeah. Compliments. Pay people compliments.
831
00:46:51.199 --> 00:46:53.599
Say you respect their skills with a Z. It's okay
832
00:46:53.619 --> 00:46:56.980
to let them know with a simple nice shot. Like that's...
833
00:46:57.000 --> 00:46:59.760
I don't know. I just think that's good. I just
834
00:46:59.780 --> 00:47:02.320
think they are thinking about their audience and they're serving
835
00:47:02.340 --> 00:47:02.639
it well.
836
00:47:03.579 --> 00:47:05.469
I did not read GamePro at this time, but I
837
00:47:05.550 --> 00:47:08.010
do like that they're thinking outside the box in terms
838
00:47:08.030 --> 00:47:09.610
of what type of content to deliver.
839
00:47:09.650 --> 00:47:12.150
This is cool. I'm impressed. And again, when we were
840
00:47:12.210 --> 00:47:13.909
thinking about, oh, I felt like this is more of
841
00:47:13.949 --> 00:47:15.929
a magazine for kids or I felt like, you know,
842
00:47:15.949 --> 00:47:18.840
I wasn't being challenged by this. I bet there were
843
00:47:18.880 --> 00:47:20.699
a lot of kids a few years younger than us
844
00:47:21.280 --> 00:47:24.079
that thought this was really cool and interesting, right? That
845
00:47:24.099 --> 00:47:26.380
this was really good and necessary. Absolutely.
846
00:47:27.260 --> 00:47:29.960
By this time, I had been playing online games for
847
00:47:30.159 --> 00:47:32.119
seven years or whatever, right?
848
00:47:32.360 --> 00:47:32.800
Eight years.
849
00:47:33.420 --> 00:47:36.559
So I didn't care about this kind of stuff, but
850
00:47:36.579 --> 00:47:38.880
there were definitely kids who were picking up GamePro when
851
00:47:38.900 --> 00:47:42.199
they were 10, and now they're 14, and they're getting
852
00:47:42.260 --> 00:47:46.070
online for the first time with the Xbox. Online console
853
00:47:46.090 --> 00:47:49.030
gaming is finally kind of coming into its own. So
854
00:47:49.050 --> 00:47:53.610
it's cool to represent that group, rather than trying.
855
00:47:53.449 --> 00:47:58.929
To appeal to the exact same people who were.
856
00:47:58.909 --> 00:48:03.250
Kids in 1993 who are now like young adults, like.
857
00:48:03.130 --> 00:48:05.150
A lot of the other magazines we're doing. And now here's,
858
00:48:05.789 --> 00:48:10.130
this is pretty inherently not for kids. Uh, I think
859
00:48:10.150 --> 00:48:12.489
this is so cool. Now, other video game magazines have
860
00:48:12.510 --> 00:48:15.590
been either talking about games in the industry or in
861
00:48:15.610 --> 00:48:17.889
the case of next generation. Um, and a couple others
862
00:48:17.949 --> 00:48:22.420
were actually taking ads from games companies in their, like
863
00:48:22.820 --> 00:48:27.179
apply here. If you're reading this magazine, you know, game developer. Yeah. Um,
864
00:48:27.889 --> 00:48:30.800
apply here's what you need send your resume here like
865
00:48:30.840 --> 00:48:33.500
help us build the future help us build madden you
866
00:48:33.519 --> 00:48:37.219
know like unbelievable and here we go take this job
867
00:48:37.300 --> 00:48:40.059
and love it part two game tester so it's like
868
00:48:40.139 --> 00:48:43.960
here's the interview some game testers and people in uh
869
00:48:44.199 --> 00:48:48.239
management for game testers uh jason wong director of qa
870
00:48:48.380 --> 00:48:54.000
activision christopher nelson senior quality assurance analyst at sony america
871
00:48:54.500 --> 00:48:58.949
colin munson designer tester for insomniac And Sean Christopher Johnson,
872
00:48:59.010 --> 00:49:04.800
QA manager at Treyarch. I realized just now that I
873
00:49:04.920 --> 00:49:06.900
should have looked up all these people and where they're
874
00:49:07.019 --> 00:49:12.280
at now in in the industry. But holy cow.
875
00:49:13.300 --> 00:49:13.489
Yeah.
876
00:49:13.530 --> 00:49:16.130
So this is really cool, though, because they've got again,
877
00:49:16.170 --> 00:49:20.619
they're interviewing. Here's starting salary range, 20,000 to 30,000. again
878
00:49:20.619 --> 00:49:25.840
2002 folks this is you know this is pretty darn
879
00:49:25.860 --> 00:49:30.170
good money in 2002 for an entry-level position right and
880
00:49:30.230 --> 00:49:31.849
so yeah go through what was the first major lesson
881
00:49:31.869 --> 00:49:35.190
you learned what academic focuses would you recommend for someone
882
00:49:35.210 --> 00:49:37.929
who wants to have your job someday right you know
883
00:49:37.989 --> 00:49:41.500
like i i think this is awesome Yeah, this is cool.
884
00:49:41.539 --> 00:49:43.559
This is the type of stuff too, that I think
885
00:49:43.619 --> 00:49:48.010
benefits from games and media moving online. Like this is
886
00:49:48.070 --> 00:49:52.550
a perpetual, like useful information that it's too bad that
887
00:49:52.570 --> 00:49:54.710
it gets stuck in one issue of a magazine and
888
00:49:54.849 --> 00:49:58.199
isn't like retrievable again by people coming along later.
889
00:49:58.610 --> 00:50:00.119
Yeah, that's true.
890
00:50:00.139 --> 00:50:03.780
And like it says extended and extra interviews available at
891
00:50:03.860 --> 00:50:06.260
game pro.com. So like, you know, it's living there and
892
00:50:06.320 --> 00:50:08.480
it is something somebody could stumble across later.
893
00:50:09.190 --> 00:50:11.730
Uh, for that sort of advice, which is cool. I
894
00:50:11.769 --> 00:50:15.889
do like, um, in earlier school days, uh, about.
895
00:50:15.530 --> 00:50:18.429
Like high school students, like what they can do if
896
00:50:18.469 --> 00:50:22.349
they're thinking about getting into games, uh, research, the biz,
897
00:50:22.550 --> 00:50:24.989
the advent of the web has unlocked a wealth of
898
00:50:25.070 --> 00:50:29.429
info that was previously available only to industry insiders as
899
00:50:29.489 --> 00:50:32.329
Tommy Tallarico suggests, read Gama Sutra.
900
00:50:35.190 --> 00:50:35.449
Oh boy.
901
00:50:35.489 --> 00:50:35.750
Yeah.
902
00:50:36.840 --> 00:50:42.070
Um, and, uh, Man, I'm trying to, my brain is
903
00:50:42.110 --> 00:50:50.030
workshopping several grim jokes about the apparent slash impending doom
904
00:50:50.210 --> 00:50:56.130
of Game Developer, the website, descended from Gamasutra, descended from
905
00:50:56.389 --> 00:51:02.360
Game Developer, the magazine. Several key staffers, including Editor-in-Chief Danielle Riendo,
906
00:51:02.420 --> 00:51:06.900
announced they were leaving. And you go, what's that gonna
907
00:51:07.139 --> 00:51:10.309
look like? That's a bummer. Again, where are these resources
908
00:51:10.750 --> 00:51:13.050
for how to get into the industry? Also, how does
909
00:51:13.150 --> 00:51:16.730
one get into the industry? In QA, a lot of
910
00:51:16.769 --> 00:51:21.929
these games now are outsourced, right? I said games. In QA,
911
00:51:22.320 --> 00:51:24.119
a lot of these jobs are outsourced. A lot of
912
00:51:24.139 --> 00:51:27.619
these are not in North America or the UK. There's
913
00:51:27.880 --> 00:51:31.699
studios around the world where you're paying entry-level people significantly
914
00:51:31.780 --> 00:51:35.239
less and working them harder. And then it's kind of
915
00:51:35.280 --> 00:51:39.059
this ongoing battle between... unionizing those folks and or bringing
916
00:51:39.099 --> 00:51:41.900
them back in house versus you know trying to outsource
917
00:51:41.940 --> 00:51:45.139
them so i don't know i i this is again
918
00:51:45.719 --> 00:51:49.739
really unexpected for me for game pro in 2002 really
919
00:51:49.760 --> 00:51:55.780
cool that it's here i'd.
920
00:51:53.150 --> 00:51:56.030
Love to like find somebody and like trade like who
921
00:51:56.070 --> 00:51:59.650
like got into like the games industry via this article
922
00:52:00.190 --> 00:52:02.670
and see what their like career was like yeah you
923
00:52:02.690 --> 00:52:04.530
know it'd be fun fun project to like track down
924
00:52:04.570 --> 00:52:06.909
somebody who was like who got into it and became
925
00:52:06.949 --> 00:52:11.679
a sound designer because they read Tommy Tallarico's advice, uh,
926
00:52:12.389 --> 00:52:16.019
in here, which man, like what was the first major lesson?
927
00:52:16.039 --> 00:52:18.679
So this is about sign sound designer. Uh, there's interviews
928
00:52:18.699 --> 00:52:22.239
with Tommy Tallarico, uh, the fat man, AKA George Sanger
929
00:52:22.380 --> 00:52:25.360
and Eric Craber. Uh, so one of the, the first
930
00:52:25.400 --> 00:52:27.699
question here is what was the first major lesson you
931
00:52:27.739 --> 00:52:32.099
learned once you started working in the industry? Tommy Tallarico says, quote,
932
00:52:32.599 --> 00:52:34.599
that doing a great job is not the only thing
933
00:52:34.639 --> 00:52:36.780
you need to deal with. Politics and business are half
934
00:52:36.820 --> 00:52:39.150
of the work. And in hindsight, that is such an
935
00:52:40.110 --> 00:52:43.349
amazing telling quote from Ptolemy Tallarico, who, you know, like
936
00:52:43.849 --> 00:52:45.269
was sort of exposed by H.
937
00:52:45.289 --> 00:52:46.090
Barmer guy as.
938
00:52:46.050 --> 00:52:49.250
Like not doing the work and basically only doing the
939
00:52:49.269 --> 00:52:51.630
politicking and like taking a ton.
940
00:52:51.510 --> 00:52:53.650
Of credit for work that other people were doing.
941
00:52:55.690 --> 00:52:58.980
You know, and that he's kind of giving that out
942
00:52:59.440 --> 00:53:01.739
as advice at this time.
943
00:53:03.590 --> 00:53:07.769
Is interesting. And again, telling. Yeah, not the point, but
944
00:53:07.869 --> 00:53:11.110
this ad for swingers with a Z golf. Also notice
945
00:53:11.150 --> 00:53:16.250
how 2002, I feel like we're well past Z as
946
00:53:16.309 --> 00:53:19.710
a thing, but there was NHL hits with a Z.
947
00:53:19.789 --> 00:53:22.989
Like this is actually peak with a Z era. There's
948
00:53:23.070 --> 00:53:25.550
so many things that don't need to end with a Z,
949
00:53:25.610 --> 00:53:28.969
but do for some reason here. And swingers golf, this
950
00:53:29.110 --> 00:53:33.070
literally looks like the pitch was what if those big
951
00:53:33.110 --> 00:53:37.119
Johnson t-shirts were a game that you could play?
952
00:53:37.159 --> 00:53:40.199
Uh, this, this, it's like one of hot shots golf,
953
00:53:40.280 --> 00:53:41.699
but DLSS five.
954
00:53:42.280 --> 00:53:51.030
Yes, that is exactly it. Oh my God. Unbelievable. Hey, uh,
955
00:53:52.369 --> 00:53:57.079
the turf wizard. Uh, and again, here's this. I, I
956
00:53:57.239 --> 00:54:02.230
truly don't know. When we're talking about ads versus editorial,
957
00:54:02.250 --> 00:54:05.210
I literally don't know what I'm looking at right here.
958
00:54:05.789 --> 00:54:11.280
I don't know what either of these... They're actually both ads.
959
00:54:12.599 --> 00:54:14.780
But this is like a... It's a two-page ad. It's
960
00:54:14.860 --> 00:54:17.320
a two-page ad. One looks like the cover of a
961
00:54:17.380 --> 00:54:20.590
fake magazine. And then the other looks like an editorial
962
00:54:20.630 --> 00:54:26.590
page of a magazine. Both about this doctor for this game, Dr. Muto.
963
00:54:26.610 --> 00:54:26.690
Yeah.
964
00:54:27.219 --> 00:54:31.059
Right? So, like, they're both fake magazine content, and it
965
00:54:31.139 --> 00:54:38.199
doesn't look any different than the real magazine content. Like, it's, like,
966
00:54:38.280 --> 00:54:41.460
it's tough. It's tough, man.
967
00:54:42.380 --> 00:54:45.619
Like, they even sign off in the bottom right corner of, like,
968
00:54:45.760 --> 00:54:50.889
the copy, the article, quote-unquote. There's even the little Midway logo,
969
00:54:51.010 --> 00:54:52.949
the same way that, like, a magazine would put its
970
00:54:52.989 --> 00:54:55.010
little logo at the end to signify.
971
00:54:54.590 --> 00:54:55.809
That the article is over. Yeah, it puts its little
972
00:54:55.829 --> 00:54:59.869
logo there. Yeah. Pretty wild. And I want to know,
973
00:55:00.280 --> 00:55:04.099
this was probably done by a freelancer who probably worked on,
974
00:55:05.860 --> 00:55:09.400
if not this magazine, then other magazines at some point, right? Yeah,
975
00:55:09.440 --> 00:55:11.699
for the media group or whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
976
00:55:12.059 --> 00:55:13.860
A lot of the time, I mean, I feel like
977
00:55:13.900 --> 00:55:16.300
a lot of the time these would be listed as
978
00:55:16.340 --> 00:55:18.480
an advertorial at the top and have to be labeled
979
00:55:18.500 --> 00:55:19.030
as such.
980
00:55:19.070 --> 00:55:19.219
Yes.
981
00:55:20.519 --> 00:55:22.260
Um you see that a lot but i think that
982
00:55:22.300 --> 00:55:22.940
must have come.
983
00:55:22.860 --> 00:55:28.980
Later uh yeah for magazines i think just because it's
984
00:55:29.300 --> 00:55:33.070
this yeah i don't know i guess they thought it
985
00:55:33.110 --> 00:55:36.190
was clearly enough not part of this magazine that but
986
00:55:36.929 --> 00:55:39.269
you're right it normally that had to have some kind
987
00:55:39.309 --> 00:55:42.389
of labeling or maybe later it would have more labeling
988
00:55:42.429 --> 00:55:45.530
like that as you know more that became a thing
989
00:55:45.550 --> 00:55:47.489
where People would take out, you know, companies would take
990
00:55:47.530 --> 00:55:52.070
out like multi-page ads that were, looked like reviews or
991
00:55:52.090 --> 00:55:54.809
looked like previews or looked like interviews with a developer
992
00:55:54.849 --> 00:55:57.550
that were just literally advertising. Yeah.
993
00:55:57.690 --> 00:55:59.809
And it's like straight up trying to trick you into reading.
994
00:55:59.829 --> 00:56:03.050
Yes. Like that's, that's all it was. So you've got
995
00:56:03.070 --> 00:56:06.230
the PC Game Pro previews, right? And so this is
996
00:56:06.269 --> 00:56:11.289
interesting because again, it's okay. So here's Dungeon Master, who
997
00:56:11.409 --> 00:56:15.929
is Dr. Doom question mark. uh you know reviewing uh
998
00:56:16.050 --> 00:56:20.389
astronauts call 2 previewing earth and beyond astronauts call 2
999
00:56:20.389 --> 00:56:26.099
somebody so we've got named previews like this is interesting
1000
00:56:26.119 --> 00:56:28.760
because do i need to know that yeah hendrix yeah
1001
00:56:28.780 --> 00:56:32.579
like wrote these like 72 words that are you know
1002
00:56:32.599 --> 00:56:36.590
this is gonna be a rainbow six game You know.
1003
00:56:37.230 --> 00:56:39.710
Especially knowing now that, like, the same writer.
1004
00:56:39.469 --> 00:56:44.230
Might have multiple... Pseudonyms! Yeah! Byline. Yeah, pseudonym byline. So
1005
00:56:44.289 --> 00:56:49.550
it's like... This could all be the same person assigning themselves... Yeah, exactly. Totally.
1006
00:56:49.570 --> 00:56:52.030
multiple different characters to just.
1007
00:56:52.530 --> 00:56:57.659
On page, what, 74, though, we have a preview for
1008
00:56:57.699 --> 00:57:03.739
Divine Divinity from a little studio called Larian Studios. Oh!
1009
00:57:03.800 --> 00:57:10.070
Which is cool. Yeah. Who would have thought? Yeah. This
1010
00:57:10.289 --> 00:57:13.309
is the era where a bunch of companies that we
1011
00:57:13.349 --> 00:57:17.510
think of as legendary developers or legendary companies are getting
1012
00:57:17.530 --> 00:57:20.469
their first start on some of these weird little games
1013
00:57:20.510 --> 00:57:23.349
that are not remembered. I actually really like this one.
1014
00:57:23.369 --> 00:57:28.090
The Tribes 2, or sorry, Tribes Aerial Assault. This is good.
1015
00:57:28.780 --> 00:57:33.670
That's done up in the airplane safety diagram. Airplane safety. Yeah.
1016
00:57:33.829 --> 00:57:36.190
In case of missile lock, throw a flare grenade. Do
1017
00:57:36.230 --> 00:57:39.110
not throw. No. Shoot. Spitball. No. Tantrum.
1018
00:57:39.449 --> 00:57:39.679
No.
1019
00:57:39.699 --> 00:57:43.199
Out of ammo. One. Ready. Two. Lead. Three. Bed. Four.
1020
00:57:43.280 --> 00:57:48.860
Kiss ass. Goodbye. You know, falling to your death. Feudal flapping. Cannonball.
1021
00:57:48.960 --> 00:57:49.340
Prayer.
1022
00:57:49.360 --> 00:57:53.780
Like, I think this is well done. This is good stuff. Yeah,
1023
00:57:53.800 --> 00:57:55.110
this is excellent. I like it.
1024
00:57:55.159 --> 00:57:57.469
And it fits, like, what Tribes is all about, too.
1025
00:57:57.739 --> 00:58:00.590
You know, it wasn't just goofy, like, randomly. It was,
1026
00:58:00.909 --> 00:58:02.130
you know, Tribes is goofy.
1027
00:58:02.510 --> 00:58:04.989
Yes, it was. I'm going to flip through a little
1028
00:58:05.030 --> 00:58:10.789
bit because we are running late a little bit. We're
1029
00:58:10.829 --> 00:58:13.170
running long. A little bit. Not too bad. We're not
1030
00:58:13.210 --> 00:58:14.929
too bad. We're in good shape. We're in good shape.
1031
00:58:15.739 --> 00:58:22.659
Dragon's Lair 3D. Man, they wanted this to happen. Uh, yeah. Uh,
1032
00:58:22.860 --> 00:58:28.070
somebody did. Yeah. Uh, I, I did like goth Lara here. Where, what,
1033
00:58:29.090 --> 00:58:31.489
why do we make Lara? We gave her the black
1034
00:58:31.650 --> 00:58:34.670
top and then, uh, the emo eye shadow.
1035
00:58:34.690 --> 00:58:35.929
Yeah.
1036
00:58:35.969 --> 00:58:41.570
The JD Vance. Oh my God. Yeah. Um, resident evil zero, uh,
1037
00:58:42.449 --> 00:58:45.869
for game cube got a lot of love. They, they
1038
00:58:45.889 --> 00:58:49.539
hyped this up in the gate, not Metroid prime, which
1039
00:58:49.599 --> 00:58:52.070
is interesting to me. You know, like a lot of
1040
00:58:52.110 --> 00:58:56.710
the cover space was given to Resident Evil Zero. The
1041
00:58:56.789 --> 00:59:00.469
letter from the editor, from the editor's letter, where the
1042
00:59:00.530 --> 00:59:03.550
apostrophe was between the R and the S, when I
1043
00:59:03.570 --> 00:59:05.230
guess it should have been after the S, to be
1044
00:59:05.250 --> 00:59:08.750
like a letter from all the editors. Yeah, from plural editors.
1045
00:59:08.769 --> 00:59:11.570
Plural editors. out the Resident Evil Zero. And like, yeah,
1046
00:59:11.699 --> 00:59:15.920
no shade to Resident Evil Zero, but like Metroid Prime
1047
00:59:16.099 --> 00:59:20.420
is the one that's going to be a beloved all-timer forever, right?
1048
00:59:21.320 --> 00:59:26.000
There's some pretty significant games previewed in this actually, which
1049
00:59:26.059 --> 00:59:28.699
is kind of wild looking back on like Metroid Fusion
1050
00:59:28.760 --> 00:59:31.219
is in here as well. pokemon ruby and sapphire uh
1051
00:59:32.079 --> 00:59:35.079
for the game boy uh ballistic x.
1052
00:59:34.920 --> 00:59:37.719
Versus sever two yes i did see that i got
1053
00:59:37.760 --> 00:59:40.619
a sequel yes i saw that i was flipping through
1054
00:59:40.659 --> 00:59:43.409
for my writing this script uh but again here we
1055
00:59:43.449 --> 00:59:46.369
have you know the castlevania harmony of dissonance actual logo
1056
00:59:47.170 --> 00:59:49.949
right like they're pulling it just ah it makes it
1057
00:59:49.969 --> 00:59:53.929
tough we do need to get to the review Um,
1058
00:59:54.050 --> 00:59:56.030
so we're going to take a break right here. However,
1059
00:59:56.050 --> 00:59:57.769
we have to, we have to give our love to
1060
00:59:57.829 --> 01:00:01.030
Wesley Snipes blade to half human, half vampire, and only
1061
01:00:01.110 --> 01:00:05.969
half done killing, uh, super, super cool. Um, I was
1062
01:00:06.030 --> 01:00:10.400
actually thinking about, uh, the blade, uh, I guess, abandoned
1063
01:00:10.739 --> 01:00:15.260
blade game and movie both now at this point, uh,
1064
01:00:15.340 --> 01:00:18.059
Mahershala Ali, uh, was supposed to be the star of,
1065
01:00:18.099 --> 01:00:21.179
and like, because, because I was remembering, uh, triple click.
1066
01:00:21.489 --> 01:00:24.829
that was having a discussion about the Nintendo direct and
1067
01:00:25.369 --> 01:00:32.130
is the model of direct release. And like, Ooh, surprise. Like,
1068
01:00:32.150 --> 01:00:34.239
is that even really moving the needle anymore?
1069
01:00:34.699 --> 01:00:34.949
Right.
1070
01:00:35.010 --> 01:00:38.599
Like, yeah, I think it works really well for Nintendo.
1071
01:00:38.780 --> 01:00:40.519
And I think it doesn't work for everybody else.
1072
01:00:40.739 --> 01:00:41.260
Yeah.
1073
01:00:41.360 --> 01:00:43.800
But like probably a topic that would be a good
1074
01:00:43.840 --> 01:00:44.559
topic for another.
1075
01:00:44.599 --> 01:00:46.679
Yeah, no, I agree. But I was thinking about that
1076
01:00:46.719 --> 01:00:50.639
blade game because there was a leak of some minor
1077
01:00:50.679 --> 01:00:54.800
story stuff. And the producer of that game went online on,
1078
01:00:55.320 --> 01:00:57.989
I think it was, I can't remember if it was Twitter, uh,
1079
01:00:58.010 --> 01:01:02.010
you know, X.com, uh, or blue sky, but it was
1080
01:01:02.030 --> 01:01:04.889
kind of like, Oh, like these leaks are so bad.
1081
01:01:04.909 --> 01:01:06.690
You know, it means we have to like throw out
1082
01:01:06.849 --> 01:01:09.690
months worth of assets, you know? And I was like, what,
1083
01:01:09.909 --> 01:01:11.719
what do you mean you have to throw out months
1084
01:01:11.780 --> 01:01:15.039
worth of oil? Like if somebody knows a plot beat,
1085
01:01:15.280 --> 01:01:17.929
that means we can't use it anymore. And I'm like, I, I,
1086
01:01:19.579 --> 01:01:22.880
I don't think that's true, man. I think if you
1087
01:01:22.920 --> 01:01:25.070
wrote the story and you're telling the story well, the
1088
01:01:25.110 --> 01:01:27.349
fact that people who want to spoil themselves can look
1089
01:01:27.389 --> 01:01:29.590
on the internet. For a game that you're expecting to
1090
01:01:29.630 --> 01:01:33.730
sell literally millions of copies, 99% of them will never
1091
01:01:33.769 --> 01:01:36.409
know any of these things were leaked. And even if
1092
01:01:36.449 --> 01:01:38.809
you know some plot beak was leaked, it doesn't mean
1093
01:01:38.849 --> 01:01:41.710
that the game is ruined. If you're destroying months of
1094
01:01:41.829 --> 01:01:45.670
assets because the only thing it has, you know, you
1095
01:01:45.710 --> 01:01:51.630
think The element of surprise is absolutely critical. The paramount
1096
01:01:51.710 --> 01:01:54.210
among any other thing. I don't think you're barking up
1097
01:01:54.250 --> 01:01:57.429
the right tree. And I guess the game's never coming out.
1098
01:01:57.690 --> 01:02:00.670
The whole Grand Theft Auto, this leads into the Grand
1099
01:02:00.690 --> 01:02:05.559
Theft Auto 6 preview, which was a Netflix special. But
1100
01:02:05.599 --> 01:02:10.440
then everything kept getting leaked, and it was a big deal.
1101
01:02:10.500 --> 01:02:13.780
And I feel for the employees at Rockstar, the individuals
1102
01:02:13.820 --> 01:02:16.099
who worked really hard on this, it sucks having your
1103
01:02:16.119 --> 01:02:16.579
work leaked.
1104
01:02:17.219 --> 01:02:17.860
It was awful.
1105
01:02:18.619 --> 01:02:22.590
But at the same time, this idea of holding everybody
1106
01:02:22.630 --> 01:02:26.449
hostage over a Netflix preview for this game that's coming
1107
01:02:26.570 --> 01:02:28.650
out and is going to be the biggest game of
1108
01:02:28.730 --> 01:02:32.190
all time. At a point, if you're just doing it
1109
01:02:32.489 --> 01:02:35.110
so that you can feel like you won the day
1110
01:02:35.199 --> 01:02:37.739
or won the internet for a day, I think that
1111
01:02:38.239 --> 01:02:40.579
your intentions are in the wrong spot. And there's so
1112
01:02:40.599 --> 01:02:47.210
many decisions made by terminally online high-up execs. And it's like, man, like,
1113
01:02:47.210 --> 01:02:51.280
99% of people don't see this stuff.
1114
01:02:51.460 --> 01:02:52.039
They don't care.
1115
01:02:52.460 --> 01:02:58.559
Like, they're not crawling on X.com looking for, like, Grand
1116
01:02:58.579 --> 01:02:59.420
Theft Auto leaks.
1117
01:02:59.800 --> 01:03:01.079
You know, like, are you going to lose to the
1118
01:03:01.139 --> 01:03:02.519
Reddit crowd? Sure. But, like, so?
1119
01:03:04.280 --> 01:03:06.480
But even you won't but you're not even gonna lose
1120
01:03:06.619 --> 01:03:08.940
them they've just already seen it yeah right it's just
1121
01:03:09.159 --> 01:03:10.079
i don't know yeah.
1122
01:03:09.949 --> 01:03:12.849
They the triple click gang wrapped up by going yeah
1123
01:03:12.909 --> 01:03:15.070
the fact that they were making an ocarina of time
1124
01:03:15.369 --> 01:03:18.369
remake got leaked and then the ocarina of time direct
1125
01:03:18.389 --> 01:03:20.090
came out and everyone's like oh i have so many
1126
01:03:20.150 --> 01:03:23.170
opinions and then the trailer came out they're like oh
1127
01:03:23.230 --> 01:03:26.210
i have so many opinions and then kirk hamilton was
1128
01:03:26.230 --> 01:03:28.309
like yeah and then like days after the direct i
1129
01:03:28.349 --> 01:03:30.570
get a text from a normie friend he's like oh
1130
01:03:30.610 --> 01:03:33.619
i heard they're remaking ocarina of time like that's interesting
1131
01:03:34.559 --> 01:03:36.539
Wonder what it'll look like. You know, it's just like, okay,
1132
01:03:36.579 --> 01:03:40.539
that's the audience for this game. The fact that it
1133
01:03:40.579 --> 01:03:43.380
was spoiled, that it was going to happen six months
1134
01:03:43.449 --> 01:03:49.329
ago by a leaker doesn't change anything about it. PR
1135
01:03:49.369 --> 01:03:53.170
versus journalism drives me nuts every time. Okay. Okay. We
1136
01:03:53.190 --> 01:03:55.010
need to take a break and I got to get
1137
01:03:55.050 --> 01:03:58.780
another drink. I'm getting parched. It's so much. It's so
1138
01:03:58.800 --> 01:04:02.480
much talking that we do here on this podcast. Who knew? Anyway,
1139
01:04:02.579 --> 01:04:04.260
sit tight, listen to a few ads if you're not
1140
01:04:04.320 --> 01:04:07.300
already a Fun Factor Ultra member, getting ad-free episodes. And
1141
01:04:07.340 --> 01:04:10.940
when we come back, we will review GamePro's review of
1142
01:04:11.260 --> 01:04:27.119
Super Mario Sunshine, right here on Fun Factor. Super Mario
1143
01:04:27.460 --> 01:04:36.239
Sunshine We are back here on Fun Factor. We are
1144
01:04:36.300 --> 01:04:38.639
having five stars out of five stars worth of fun.
1145
01:04:38.760 --> 01:04:41.440
If you are too, folks, just leave a review or
1146
01:04:41.539 --> 01:04:45.179
rating on Apple Podcasts. We will read the best, kindest, funniest,
1147
01:04:45.219 --> 01:04:48.199
and most entertaining ones on the air. Please, five stars.
1148
01:04:48.280 --> 01:04:50.280
It helps us out. We have not gotten a review
1149
01:04:50.420 --> 01:04:53.440
on Apple Podcasts in like a while. So please, if
1150
01:04:53.460 --> 01:04:56.139
you are listening to this, go do it. Also, if
1151
01:04:56.159 --> 01:05:00.900
you're watching on YouTube, thank you. Leave a comment. Subscribe.
1152
01:05:01.059 --> 01:05:04.469
Hit the upy, the upy tummy thingy. because our last
1153
01:05:04.510 --> 01:05:07.170
episode did really, really well on YouTube for no apparent
1154
01:05:07.210 --> 01:05:10.409
reason by our standards. And gosh, we sure would like
1155
01:05:10.449 --> 01:05:12.969
that to continue. So if you like what we do,
1156
01:05:13.250 --> 01:05:16.590
tell the computer you like what we do. It helps
1157
01:05:16.679 --> 01:05:19.159
more people see us so that we can get to
1158
01:05:19.219 --> 01:05:20.820
keep doing it, which we would like to do because
1159
01:05:20.860 --> 01:05:23.780
we also like to do it. Anyway, Aiden, I have
1160
01:05:23.840 --> 01:05:27.480
been sharing the show notes, which is not correct. I
1161
01:05:29.019 --> 01:05:34.349
am now going to switch to... Game Pros review of
1162
01:05:34.610 --> 01:05:39.610
Super Mario Sunshine and Aiden just, you know, by itself
1163
01:05:39.690 --> 01:05:42.250
right here looks real nice. And we got to talk
1164
01:05:42.269 --> 01:05:47.250
about the famous Game Pro review system from which we
1165
01:05:47.269 --> 01:05:51.309
take our name. So this review, go ahead.
1166
01:05:51.369 --> 01:05:54.030
You know, like at the beginning, you know, we talked
1167
01:05:54.050 --> 01:05:55.659
a lot about Game Pro and what it offered, but
1168
01:05:55.739 --> 01:05:58.840
it really like truly the Game Pro review scale and
1169
01:05:58.860 --> 01:06:03.659
the icons associated with it are iconic. Like, yes, I
1170
01:06:03.719 --> 01:06:06.260
such a huge part of like games media and games culture.
1171
01:06:06.530 --> 01:06:08.889
But they also I needed to do a little more
1172
01:06:08.929 --> 01:06:14.769
digging over the years. They started modifying their graphics that
1173
01:06:14.789 --> 01:06:18.389
go with this to like sometimes it would be themed
1174
01:06:18.639 --> 01:06:22.219
to the games themselves. Sometimes it seems to be themed
1175
01:06:22.260 --> 01:06:28.639
to the reviewer. This reviewer here, Star Dingo. But this doesn't.
1176
01:06:29.110 --> 01:06:31.250
I don't know if this is what Star Dingo looks
1177
01:06:31.269 --> 01:06:34.230
like in real life. It certainly doesn't look like Star Dingo.
1178
01:06:35.309 --> 01:06:39.590
And according to Dan Amrick's Blue Sky thread, Star Dingo
1179
01:06:39.610 --> 01:06:42.829
was Sean Malloy, who went on, again, according to him,
1180
01:06:42.929 --> 01:06:46.389
spent several years in editorial at Blizzard and now works
1181
01:06:46.449 --> 01:06:52.719
at Humble. Asterisk on that now being August 13th, 2023.
1182
01:06:52.719 --> 01:06:56.719
So that might not be the case because I think
1183
01:06:56.760 --> 01:07:00.260
Humble has also had some layoffs since then. uh they're
1184
01:07:00.280 --> 01:07:01.769
part of ign now aren't they.
1185
01:07:02.429 --> 01:07:04.949
Yes i think that's right yeah sean moly was on
1186
01:07:05.050 --> 01:07:09.710
gfw radio as well which was a fabulous uh podcast
1187
01:07:09.929 --> 01:07:14.260
with sean elliott jeff green sean okay and i think
1188
01:07:14.300 --> 01:07:16.579
there's a fourth seat as well uh so you know
1189
01:07:16.619 --> 01:07:18.460
like that was one of those instances.
1190
01:07:18.099 --> 01:07:21.659
Where i you know like got deep into that um.
1191
01:07:23.380 --> 01:07:26.550
Uh games media personality driven games media stuff and so
1192
01:07:26.570 --> 01:07:29.320
like You know, Sean was somebody that, you know, I
1193
01:07:29.360 --> 01:07:31.360
listened to on GFW radio a lot.
1194
01:07:32.920 --> 01:07:37.619
Cool. Over the years. Well, he's the one handling this review.
1195
01:07:37.699 --> 01:07:40.480
And of course we have four categories, graphics, sound control,
1196
01:07:40.639 --> 01:07:44.480
and hey, fun factor on a five point scale, but
1197
01:07:44.559 --> 01:07:49.159
with half points, which they designated with thumbs up. So
1198
01:07:49.219 --> 01:07:51.719
just adding the thumbs up, it usually is here. We
1199
01:07:51.760 --> 01:07:54.619
actually have whatever this cartoon person is doing a double
1200
01:07:54.659 --> 01:07:55.199
thumbs up.
1201
01:07:55.519 --> 01:07:55.639
Yeah.
1202
01:07:55.739 --> 01:08:01.230
Cool. And spoiler alert, the game gets good review. Okay.
1203
01:08:01.449 --> 01:08:04.570
It's 4.5 in graphics, 4.5 in sound, 4.5 in control,
1204
01:08:04.590 --> 01:08:09.820
and 5.0 in fun factor. So, of course, you just
1205
01:08:09.860 --> 01:08:13.920
kind of want to, like, read all of it. This
1206
01:08:14.559 --> 01:08:18.090
is a really, there's a ton of stuff, a ton
1207
01:08:18.130 --> 01:08:21.550
of screenshots. The art is cool. They use the whole
1208
01:08:21.649 --> 01:08:26.100
two-page layout, right? There's nothing else in here. They have
1209
01:08:26.119 --> 01:08:29.359
a couple strategies. They do actually have a big strategy
1210
01:08:29.380 --> 01:08:34.590
guide for Super Mario Sunshine earlier in the issue, right? So, like,
1211
01:08:34.630 --> 01:08:37.710
they really did go all out in covering this. So, yeah,
1212
01:08:37.729 --> 01:08:41.210
can you read the first paragraph here? I actually didn't...
1213
01:08:42.390 --> 01:08:44.149
I did not put it in the script. This is
1214
01:08:44.189 --> 01:08:44.729
my bad. Yeah, sure.
1215
01:08:45.949 --> 01:08:51.699
Quote, Link's new cel-shaded Parappa paper appearance. Metroid reinvented as
1216
01:08:51.739 --> 01:08:57.340
an FBS? Mario's latest stint as an Earth-cleansing Greenpeace spokesman.
1217
01:08:57.979 --> 01:09:02.000
The mere fact that Pikmin even exists. Many gamers have
1218
01:09:02.039 --> 01:09:06.239
taken these as sure signs that Shigeru Miyamoto's sanity meter.
1219
01:09:05.960 --> 01:09:07.680
Has finally hit rock bottom.
1220
01:09:08.479 --> 01:09:12.319
Here's hoping the entire video game industry contracts a crippling
1221
01:09:12.420 --> 01:09:14.960
case of mad cow disease.
1222
01:09:15.880 --> 01:09:19.399
Right. So they're saying if he's crazy, he's crazy like
1223
01:09:19.420 --> 01:09:22.819
a fox because this is a great game. Right. Like, oh, man,
1224
01:09:22.880 --> 01:09:28.510
if only every developer could contract whatever brain worms Miyamoto
1225
01:09:28.699 --> 01:09:31.750
and the rest of the Nintendo's top teams have because
1226
01:09:31.789 --> 01:09:35.750
they love this. Right. So they explain quickly he's got
1227
01:09:35.770 --> 01:09:41.270
this patented flood water cannon because he's falsely accused of
1228
01:09:41.310 --> 01:09:44.039
dirting up an island resort with ugly magic gloop. So
1229
01:09:44.079 --> 01:09:47.170
he's got to take his flood water can. which helps him.
1230
01:09:47.250 --> 01:09:51.649
He backflips, hovers, flies, and then also actually physically cleans
1231
01:09:51.720 --> 01:09:53.699
up the goop. This, of course, gives us a chance
1232
01:09:53.739 --> 01:09:57.779
to have GameCube show off its water physics, water reflections,
1233
01:09:57.840 --> 01:10:02.699
water engine. Also, I love Wave Race Blue Thunder. Blue Thunder, right?
1234
01:10:03.020 --> 01:10:06.529
Blue Storm? Blue Thunder? Yeah, the Wave Race, the GameCube one.
1235
01:10:06.550 --> 01:10:10.350
Blue Storm, I think. Blue Storm. Yeah, it's like the
1236
01:10:10.369 --> 01:10:13.779
GameCube did water real good and reflections real good. And
1237
01:10:13.810 --> 01:10:17.550
we get all these different screenshots and whatnot. Blue Thunder
1238
01:10:17.609 --> 01:10:32.779
from Zoolander. Wait, that's Blue Steel. Blue Steel. Magnum. Blue Steel. Anyway. Sorry.
1239
01:10:33.220 --> 01:10:36.180
Here's why the Japanese version of the game is slightly
1240
01:10:36.220 --> 01:10:39.260
better than the US version left. And it's because this
1241
01:10:39.720 --> 01:10:46.270
shine get was changed to just shine in the localization.
1242
01:10:46.560 --> 01:10:49.060
Because i feel like that meme has persisted.
1243
01:10:49.020 --> 01:10:53.260
Yeah yeah it's fabulous right yeah there's a there's a
1244
01:10:53.300 --> 01:10:56.520
section here um it's basically talking about the water squirt
1245
01:10:57.420 --> 01:11:00.699
like like like this is integral to the design and
1246
01:11:00.720 --> 01:11:03.319
the movement and everything else right uh there's hardly a
1247
01:11:03.359 --> 01:11:05.899
movement when you're hovering or squirting or executing some sort
1248
01:11:05.939 --> 01:11:07.899
of hover squirt combo maneuver be it to hose down
1249
01:11:07.960 --> 01:11:10.270
enemy land a tricky jump water a plant in the
1250
01:11:10.289 --> 01:11:12.189
hopes of revealing some sort of pleasant surprise or just
1251
01:11:12.229 --> 01:11:15.590
giddily annoy the perpetually agreeable citizens of delfino the parade
1252
01:11:15.630 --> 01:11:19.010
of new uses never seems to end clearly the gamecube
1253
01:11:19.050 --> 01:11:22.100
controller was specifically designed with this game in mind and
1254
01:11:22.119 --> 01:11:24.779
i wanted to highlight that sentence because this is also
1255
01:11:24.819 --> 01:11:29.340
what people said about pikmin uh and also several other
1256
01:11:29.359 --> 01:11:30.460
games right.
1257
01:11:32.000 --> 01:11:35.920
I think it's just because the GameCube controller is awesome.
1258
01:11:36.119 --> 01:11:40.180
That's the thing! Right? And it just works well for
1259
01:11:40.220 --> 01:11:44.750
so many games. And people still buy new GameCube controllers
1260
01:11:45.489 --> 01:11:49.729
for PC and other systems. Because part of it is
1261
01:11:49.750 --> 01:11:55.449
just to play Melee with. But, like, it's... People... initially
1262
01:11:55.560 --> 01:11:57.939
really did not like the GameCube controller because it's got
1263
01:11:57.979 --> 01:12:00.560
the weird yellow C nub and like the face buttons
1264
01:12:00.640 --> 01:12:03.100
are in a weird pattern. And like, you know, it
1265
01:12:03.520 --> 01:12:05.960
just seemed like Nintendo messing with stuff to mess with stuff.
1266
01:12:06.420 --> 01:12:10.239
But then somehow every game on the system feels like,
1267
01:12:10.699 --> 01:12:12.720
Oh wow. It feels like the controller was designed just
1268
01:12:12.760 --> 01:12:14.979
to play this game. Like, no, it's just, it was
1269
01:12:15.000 --> 01:12:16.279
just a really good controller.
1270
01:12:16.840 --> 01:12:19.560
Fabulous 3d game controller. It's awful if you have to
1271
01:12:19.659 --> 01:12:20.899
use a D pad, but I mean.
1272
01:12:20.939 --> 01:12:23.880
I bought one of the Nintendo controllers, on switch.
1273
01:12:23.739 --> 01:12:27.409
Online ones wet last year or whatever. It's like, I
1274
01:12:27.449 --> 01:12:29.909
can't stop buying them the way the wave bird is
1275
01:12:30.510 --> 01:12:31.390
a perfect controller.
1276
01:12:31.590 --> 01:12:33.010
Yes. Yes.
1277
01:12:33.529 --> 01:12:35.729
Um, and it's just, yeah, it's just a good controller.
1278
01:12:35.789 --> 01:12:37.649
And I think you're right. You see that pattern and
1279
01:12:37.670 --> 01:12:39.850
being like, Hey, it feels like the GameCube controller is
1280
01:12:39.890 --> 01:12:42.630
built just for this game. And it's like, well, just
1281
01:12:42.670 --> 01:12:43.390
cause it's so good.
1282
01:12:44.329 --> 01:12:48.090
Yeah. Um, if you want to get some, uh, you
1283
01:12:48.109 --> 01:12:50.899
want to read the happy dance mushroom forever, wish land
1284
01:12:50.909 --> 01:12:55.470
a bit, at least the first, You know, well, there's, yeah,
1285
01:12:55.590 --> 01:12:57.369
if you can just read this paragraph, it's a long bit,
1286
01:12:57.770 --> 01:12:59.630
but if we had a little counter that could just
1287
01:12:59.970 --> 01:13:03.170
start pinging every time a superlative occurred, I would, I
1288
01:13:03.189 --> 01:13:05.680
would do that here. Okay.
1289
01:13:06.220 --> 01:13:13.380
So, quote, Happy Dance Mushroom Forever Wishland. Mario Sunshine's graphics
1290
01:13:13.439 --> 01:13:17.600
are best described as larger than life and absolutely alive.
1291
01:13:19.020 --> 01:13:22.850
The character animation constantly delights, and a curious peek in
1292
01:13:22.890 --> 01:13:26.890
the distance reveals an entire world of bulbous, happy things,
1293
01:13:27.449 --> 01:13:32.449
hopping and bopping and glooping about. The sheer sense of scale,
1294
01:13:32.989 --> 01:13:35.649
sometimes you can see entire levels you have yet to
1295
01:13:35.729 --> 01:13:39.630
visit looming way out in the distance, often leaves you
1296
01:13:39.670 --> 01:13:43.409
with the overwhelmed, overjoyed feeling that there may, in fact,
1297
01:13:44.090 --> 01:13:47.130
just be too many things to do in this damn game.
1298
01:13:47.149 --> 01:13:49.739
Ha ha! The effects are glorious.
1299
01:13:50.140 --> 01:13:54.600
The water, a squirted or swum through, is gorgeous. And
1300
01:13:54.649 --> 01:13:59.989
the mirror effects are mind-bogglingly cool. The one shortfall is
1301
01:14:00.109 --> 01:14:05.229
the close-up graphical detail, where the primitive textures stand in
1302
01:14:05.289 --> 01:14:07.350
sharp contrast to the rest of the.
1303
01:14:07.310 --> 01:14:11.560
Game's polished glory. Yeah, so I think the textures aren't
1304
01:14:11.569 --> 01:14:17.699
very detailed. Our high-res is the only not-giddy thing in
1305
01:14:17.939 --> 01:14:20.619
almost this entire review they give it a four and
1306
01:14:20.640 --> 01:14:23.970
a half and graphics levels stretch out like enormous hands-on
1307
01:14:24.029 --> 01:14:27.449
science and modern art museums before your awestruck eyes the
1308
01:14:27.489 --> 01:14:30.640
water reflection effects are glorious textures look sort of primitive
1309
01:14:30.680 --> 01:14:33.500
and viewed close up though sound four and a half
1310
01:14:33.560 --> 01:14:36.720
the islander gerbil talk is a delight mario's italian woo-hahs
1311
01:14:36.779 --> 01:14:42.149
and he's make you feel right at home The sound effects...
1312
01:14:40.850 --> 01:14:44.130
Control for the GameCube controller was designed with this game
1313
01:14:44.170 --> 01:14:45.789
in mind. There are tons of great moves, and the
1314
01:14:45.810 --> 01:14:49.949
water cannon adds exponential amounts to the gameplay. The score
1315
01:14:49.970 --> 01:14:51.770
would be a flawless 5.0 if it weren't for the
1316
01:14:51.810 --> 01:14:55.770
camera that occasionally gets annoyingly stuck behind obstacles. Does Mario
1317
01:14:55.800 --> 01:14:58.819
Sunshine equal Mario 64 with a water cannon? Yes! But
1318
01:14:58.840 --> 01:15:02.279
that just means Mario Sunshine is a masterpiece of superior
1319
01:15:02.319 --> 01:15:07.069
game design, infinite gameplay variety, creativity, and life. And it's
1320
01:15:07.130 --> 01:15:09.789
got a water cannon and a damn brilliant one at that.
1321
01:15:10.170 --> 01:15:14.649
It more than justifies your GameCube purchase. 5.0 in fun factor.
1322
01:15:16.449 --> 01:15:19.100
All right. And then one more paragraph. Sorry, if you
1323
01:15:19.109 --> 01:15:21.779
just want to read the shine yet paragraph here to
1324
01:15:21.800 --> 01:15:22.359
close this out.
1325
01:15:23.479 --> 01:15:29.439
So quote shine get in summary. Yes, it's much bigger
1326
01:15:29.500 --> 01:15:34.380
than Luigi's Mansion. Yes, it's very, very much like Mario 64. No, no.
1327
01:15:36.130 --> 01:15:39.319
You don't spend the whole game scrubbing dirt off walls
1328
01:15:39.460 --> 01:15:43.779
as some sort of interactive environmental message. And yes, oh
1329
01:15:43.899 --> 01:15:50.229
hell yes, Mario Sunshine is exactly the brilliant, enormous, endlessly
1330
01:15:50.310 --> 01:15:51.970
fun GameCube-purchased.
1331
01:15:52.069 --> 01:15:56.029
Justifying Miyamoto super game you were hoping it would be.
1332
01:15:57.050 --> 01:16:03.180
Shine on, you crazy designer. Okay, so before we talk
1333
01:16:03.260 --> 01:16:06.710
about our opinions... I'm going to stop sharing that and
1334
01:16:06.729 --> 01:16:12.130
I'm going to start sharing an article on CBR that
1335
01:16:12.310 --> 01:16:18.380
went up literally as I was writing the script. Shigeru Miyamoto, quote,
1336
01:16:18.560 --> 01:16:22.979
regrets making the lowest rated 3D Mario game on Metacritic
1337
01:16:23.720 --> 01:16:27.260
because Super Mario Sunshine just got released on Nintendo Switch
1338
01:16:27.260 --> 01:16:32.369
2 hours, like literally concurrently while I was writing the script.
1339
01:16:33.609 --> 01:16:36.489
But he's saying he regrets certain aspects of the game's design.
1340
01:16:37.149 --> 01:16:40.949
And this is actually a resurfacing of a 2002 interview
1341
01:16:41.010 --> 01:16:43.710
he did where he said he wanted Super Mario Sunshine
1342
01:16:43.729 --> 01:16:46.569
to be a game that all audiences can enjoy. However,
1343
01:16:46.590 --> 01:16:49.310
he said, I think Mario Sunshine turned out to be
1344
01:16:49.449 --> 01:16:52.090
difficult for an average user. It's something I very much regret.
1345
01:16:52.670 --> 01:16:54.590
I want someone who hasn't played a game in 10
1346
01:16:54.590 --> 01:16:56.510
plus years to play our game. But I think such
1347
01:16:56.550 --> 01:16:59.170
a person wouldn't know what's going on in Mario Sunshine.
1348
01:16:59.949 --> 01:17:02.689
Miyamoto went on to explain his philosophy behind the Mario franchise.
1349
01:17:02.770 --> 01:17:05.289
Mario is supposed to be an easy to understand game.
1350
01:17:05.750 --> 01:17:07.770
Even if it's confusing at first, after playing for a day,
1351
01:17:07.810 --> 01:17:10.840
you should be able to understand what today's game are
1352
01:17:11.119 --> 01:17:20.720
all about. So the Metacritic Metascore 92 universal acclaim. Yeah.
1353
01:17:20.760 --> 01:17:22.800
The lowest. So that's the lowest.
1354
01:17:23.819 --> 01:17:25.060
Uh, I do.
1355
01:17:25.579 --> 01:17:27.520
We do need to point out to that CBR, uh,
1356
01:17:29.130 --> 01:17:36.569
Is a Valnet. Website. Sure. Sure. So. Yeah. Hyperbole is.
1357
01:17:36.689 --> 01:17:40.520
Is part of the. Style guide. Right. But again. This
1358
01:17:40.649 --> 01:17:43.399
is a 2002. You know. This is an interview. Maybe
1359
01:17:43.420 --> 01:17:46.619
we missed the mark here. Right. And he wasn't being asked. Hey.
1360
01:17:46.640 --> 01:17:50.039
You've got the lowest score. On Metacritic. In 2002. But.
1361
01:17:50.140 --> 01:17:52.579
You know. This is something about. The reception. And the design.
1362
01:17:53.000 --> 01:17:56.180
Here is. We have. Game Pro going. Shine on you.
1363
01:17:56.199 --> 01:18:00.399
Crazy designer. Miyamoto. Miyamoto. you're a brilliant genius. You made
1364
01:18:00.420 --> 01:18:03.920
this game so rewarding. There's actually maybe too much to do.
1365
01:18:04.279 --> 01:18:07.279
This game is maybe too deep and too complex. Uh,
1366
01:18:07.380 --> 01:18:09.920
and we, we love you for it. You, you brilliant,
1367
01:18:10.479 --> 01:18:14.439
crazy genius, man. And he's like, yeah, maybe a Mario
1368
01:18:14.479 --> 01:18:17.760
game shouldn't be all that technically deep or complex. Maybe
1369
01:18:17.800 --> 01:18:20.680
there shouldn't be lots of like emergent shit you can
1370
01:18:20.720 --> 01:18:23.000
do with Mario that you never would have thought possible.
1371
01:18:23.619 --> 01:18:26.060
Maybe he should just like run and jump and maybe fly.
1372
01:18:26.119 --> 01:18:31.050
If you have the right power up, you know, I'm
1373
01:18:31.069 --> 01:18:32.550
kind of on both sides of the fence, right?
1374
01:18:33.779 --> 01:18:35.880
I think one of the things that stands out to
1375
01:18:35.920 --> 01:18:39.140
me here is that Malloy, in a couple of places,
1376
01:18:39.180 --> 01:18:42.109
says like, hey, is this just Super Mario 64 with
1377
01:18:42.109 --> 01:18:43.029
a water gun?
1378
01:18:43.029 --> 01:18:44.449
Yeah. But all of.
1379
01:18:44.250 --> 01:18:49.439
Like sunshine's flaws as i understand it again i haven't
1380
01:18:49.500 --> 01:18:52.079
played it much more than about half an hour or
1381
01:18:52.140 --> 01:18:54.560
so but my understanding is all of its flaws are
1382
01:18:54.579 --> 01:18:58.180
the ways that it deviates from mario 64 is like
1383
01:18:58.640 --> 01:19:04.590
simplicity and pickup and plainness like yes and structure like
1384
01:19:04.649 --> 01:19:06.399
it's it The way that you can go in with
1385
01:19:06.420 --> 01:19:08.859
Super Mario 64 and accomplish something quickly, or you can
1386
01:19:08.920 --> 01:19:11.960
sink in and play it for a long time. Sunshine
1387
01:19:12.000 --> 01:19:13.960
just didn't have that pick up and play. And that's
1388
01:19:14.000 --> 01:19:16.859
what Miyamoto is getting at, is saying it was a
1389
01:19:16.979 --> 01:19:21.430
little bit too complex. It didn't lean into the idea
1390
01:19:21.470 --> 01:19:25.430
that anybody, no matter what, could pick this up and play.
1391
01:19:25.869 --> 01:19:30.220
The way that Mario 64 and Super Mario World, all
1392
01:19:30.260 --> 01:19:31.039
the Mario.
1393
01:19:30.720 --> 01:19:33.020
Games on the NES. I would say the.
1394
01:19:34.399 --> 01:19:37.479
closest to that is Yoshi's Island, which I think is like,
1395
01:19:37.520 --> 01:19:41.680
has that added level of complexity with throwing eggs, catching,
1396
01:19:42.479 --> 01:19:44.119
you know, baby Mario, all that.
1397
01:19:43.979 --> 01:19:44.560
Kind of stuff.
1398
01:19:45.140 --> 01:19:49.770
Uh, but Mario's there's Yoshi's Island, uh, is good. And
1399
01:19:49.789 --> 01:19:53.569
it's like, it deviates from that simplicity, but in ways
1400
01:19:53.630 --> 01:19:58.149
that worked where sunshine was like experimental, they obviously wanted
1401
01:19:58.210 --> 01:20:02.699
to show off the game cubes, like graphical prowess. I
1402
01:20:02.739 --> 01:20:05.460
think that was probably the, the origins. Hey, let's do
1403
01:20:05.500 --> 01:20:08.119
a tropical setting so that we can show off water
1404
01:20:08.279 --> 01:20:11.329
and all this, you know, beautiful tech colors as the
1405
01:20:11.369 --> 01:20:14.510
other companies were kind of leaning into that brown gross,
1406
01:20:15.090 --> 01:20:17.949
like look that a lot of the games during this
1407
01:20:18.010 --> 01:20:21.850
period had on like PlayStation and Xbox. Nintendo wanted to
1408
01:20:21.869 --> 01:20:24.369
make something that felt Nintendo-y like let's make it in
1409
01:20:24.409 --> 01:20:25.529
this tropical setting.
1410
01:20:25.550 --> 01:20:28.130
What does tropical setting have a lot of water?
1411
01:20:28.569 --> 01:20:31.189
Well, how could we do stuff with water instead of saying, Hey,
1412
01:20:31.199 --> 01:20:32.550
let's make a great Mario game.
1413
01:20:32.970 --> 01:20:36.729
And then that'll be enough to show off the console. Yeah.
1414
01:20:36.789 --> 01:20:39.170
And it's also, I feel like it's probably partly a
1415
01:20:39.210 --> 01:20:41.229
response to the audience where, you know, you're growing with
1416
01:20:41.250 --> 01:20:45.149
the audience, right? Where, and again, as I was saying
1417
01:20:45.170 --> 01:20:47.789
at the beginning, right? Like this is the smash brothers.
1418
01:20:47.850 --> 01:20:52.210
That's the one that's fast and technically, technically sound enough
1419
01:20:52.270 --> 01:20:55.090
that the fighting game community is still active. Like there's
1420
01:20:55.130 --> 01:20:58.899
still melee tournaments, melee streamers, like people play melee and,
1421
01:20:59.840 --> 01:21:02.800
as much if not more so than any other smash
1422
01:21:02.840 --> 01:21:07.640
brothers because it is technically deep enough and and responsive
1423
01:21:07.680 --> 01:21:09.359
enough to support that when a lot of the other
1424
01:21:09.380 --> 01:21:13.079
smash brothers games are either too gimmicky or too like
1425
01:21:13.279 --> 01:21:16.689
programmed for casuals basically they're not deep enough mechanically to
1426
01:21:16.710 --> 01:21:19.050
support that right or there's enough lag in the code
1427
01:21:19.090 --> 01:21:22.090
or whatever uh to make it easier for online play
1428
01:21:22.109 --> 01:21:24.729
or whatever so like this feels like they're in this
1429
01:21:24.770 --> 01:21:27.670
generation of let's make these more technically interesting let's make
1430
01:21:27.689 --> 01:21:31.579
these more challenging people who are buying game cubes, you know,
1431
01:21:31.819 --> 01:21:34.159
in a lot of cases are 20 and 30 something gamers.
1432
01:21:34.979 --> 01:21:37.439
These are not just kids toys anymore. And this gives
1433
01:21:37.500 --> 01:21:40.600
us freedom as designers to go design cool and interesting things.
1434
01:21:41.239 --> 01:21:44.149
And then maybe this is Nintendo also going, maybe we
1435
01:21:44.189 --> 01:21:46.609
went a little too far down that path, maybe to
1436
01:21:46.630 --> 01:21:50.470
the frustration of people who were like, I love Nintendo
1437
01:21:50.510 --> 01:21:53.350
bringing their Nintendo thing. And then also giving it that
1438
01:21:53.510 --> 01:21:59.409
technical depth and, uh, mechanical experimentation and stuff. Um, Also,
1439
01:21:59.529 --> 01:22:02.369
real quick note before you respond to that. GamePro did
1440
01:22:02.390 --> 01:22:08.020
not give this game a 100. I'm looking here on Metacritic. GamePro, 100.
1441
01:22:08.020 --> 01:22:10.800
A masterpiece of superior game design. And it's got a
1442
01:22:10.840 --> 01:22:12.500
water cannon and a damn brilliant one at that.
1443
01:22:12.520 --> 01:22:12.600
Okay.
1444
01:22:13.060 --> 01:22:15.119
Not 4.5, 4.5, 4.55 is 1.5 short of a maximum score.
1445
01:22:15.140 --> 01:22:16.300
So this is not 100. So how does... This kind
1446
01:22:16.319 --> 01:22:29.510
of shit happens all the time. Are you having fun? Fun, yes.
1447
01:22:29.550 --> 01:22:32.630
Maybe Metacritic knows how to read a GamePro review. There
1448
01:22:32.670 --> 01:22:34.850
you go. Fun factors are all that matters. There you go.
1449
01:22:35.409 --> 01:22:38.300
I think in this whole discussion, it's worth noting that
1450
01:22:38.380 --> 01:22:42.739
Shigeru Miyamoto didn't really make Super Mario Sunshine either.
1451
01:22:43.119 --> 01:22:46.640
Right? He was a producer on it. Yes. With Tezuka.
1452
01:22:46.960 --> 01:22:47.810
But he didn't direct it.
1453
01:22:48.439 --> 01:22:52.109
It wasn't his game the way that Super Mario 64
1454
01:22:52.109 --> 01:22:55.109
and previous Mario games were. And you can feel that.
1455
01:22:55.229 --> 01:23:01.710
It doesn't have that perfect... toy-like like timeless feel to
1456
01:23:01.789 --> 01:23:04.550
it that so many of the other great mario games
1457
01:23:04.609 --> 01:23:09.119
that preceded it have um and yeah you can just
1458
01:23:09.140 --> 01:23:10.680
you can tell that he didn't have his hands on
1459
01:23:10.720 --> 01:23:13.420
it he wouldn't have he wouldn't have made the flood
1460
01:23:13.659 --> 01:23:16.939
water pack thing no right that's not like there's no
1461
01:23:16.960 --> 01:23:21.029
way um so i mean it's also a sign of
1462
01:23:21.109 --> 01:23:23.289
nintendo maturing as a as a company um.
1463
01:23:25.229 --> 01:23:26.850
And just getting away from.
1464
01:23:26.869 --> 01:23:30.640
You know, Miyamoto moving into more senior role where he's
1465
01:23:30.680 --> 01:23:33.840
overseeing projects rather than like directly working on them as
1466
01:23:33.880 --> 01:23:35.920
a director or a game designer.
1467
01:23:37.340 --> 01:23:40.520
Yeah. And I did this before, but I'm doing it again.
1468
01:23:40.539 --> 01:23:45.689
I'm going down. I'm down into the 90s now. Right.
1469
01:23:46.770 --> 01:23:49.850
And the most anybody bad anybody's had to say about
1470
01:23:49.869 --> 01:23:53.510
it is literally it's not as big of a jump.
1471
01:23:54.680 --> 01:23:59.409
From previous super Marios to like from Mario 64 to
1472
01:23:59.489 --> 01:24:02.189
this is not as big of a jump as the last,
1473
01:24:02.289 --> 01:24:06.529
you know, super Mario world is to super Mario 64. Well, I, oh, okay.
1474
01:24:07.729 --> 01:24:09.729
Like that's the worst thing you can say about it.
1475
01:24:09.750 --> 01:24:13.789
Remake the con, like, you know, the remake, everybody's understanding
1476
01:24:13.850 --> 01:24:15.069
of console gaming.
1477
01:24:15.670 --> 01:24:18.270
Yeah. Game spot, a couple of things about the camera
1478
01:24:18.310 --> 01:24:21.649
game spot gave it an 80 allegedly. And of course, unfortunately,
1479
01:24:21.670 --> 01:24:26.010
a lot of these reviews are no longer at these URLs. GameSpot,
1480
01:24:26.029 --> 01:24:28.100
I give it an 80. Game that's generally pleasing, but
1481
01:24:28.180 --> 01:24:30.100
heavily reliant on a few new moves that seem more
1482
01:24:30.140 --> 01:24:33.260
like gimmicks and gameplay innovation. Again, a couple dings about
1483
01:24:33.279 --> 01:24:39.359
the camera. Entertainment Weekly has given it a 75. We
1484
01:24:39.399 --> 01:24:42.060
have to wonder why, after 21 years, Mario creator Shigeru
1485
01:24:42.079 --> 01:24:44.359
Miyamoto has decided to make problem solving less important than
1486
01:24:44.420 --> 01:24:50.880
button mashing. By button mashing, you mean doing technical... moves
1487
01:24:51.079 --> 01:24:55.510
on the controller like you know technical gameplay as opposed
1488
01:24:55.550 --> 01:24:57.439
to you know but like i get what they're driving
1489
01:24:57.479 --> 01:24:59.689
i hear if you're entertainment weekly you're the pick up
1490
01:24:59.750 --> 01:25:04.430
and play people right so yeah anyway i i think
1491
01:25:04.649 --> 01:25:07.329
i just wanted to kind of situate this review in
1492
01:25:07.569 --> 01:25:11.609
yeah meta because this is again overwhelming praise it's the
1493
01:25:11.649 --> 01:25:16.550
lowest rated one on metacritic but it's still overwhelming praise
1494
01:25:16.609 --> 01:25:19.659
people love it people love the direction Flood is cited
1495
01:25:19.720 --> 01:25:23.720
as a positive development in many of these capsule summaries
1496
01:25:23.800 --> 01:25:27.710
of it and quotes. People loved this game when it
1497
01:25:27.770 --> 01:25:30.970
came out. And now it definitely is just sort of
1498
01:25:31.050 --> 01:25:36.329
known as the bad one. Even though it's not bad. No,
1499
01:25:36.409 --> 01:25:39.189
it's not. I mean, it's like pizza, right? Even bad
1500
01:25:39.229 --> 01:25:41.289
pizza's good. Sure, sure.
1501
01:25:41.729 --> 01:25:47.539
Polygon actually ran a review of the Switch 2... release
1502
01:25:47.920 --> 01:25:52.159
of sunshine. Uh, so, you know, Polygon has gone through
1503
01:25:52.189 --> 01:25:52.810
a lot of changes.
1504
01:25:52.890 --> 01:25:53.779
It's a Valnet site.
1505
01:25:53.819 --> 01:25:57.609
It's not what it used to be, but, uh, reviewer games,
1506
01:25:57.649 --> 01:26:01.670
critic Giovanni, uh, Colantini, Cole Antonio is fabulous.
1507
01:26:01.710 --> 01:26:04.949
Geo is great. Um, and I'm just going to read
1508
01:26:04.970 --> 01:26:06.229
a couple of paragraphs. Bear with me.
1509
01:26:06.329 --> 01:26:08.369
Cause I, Geo touches on a lot of what we're
1510
01:26:08.390 --> 01:26:10.789
talking about here. So this is how, uh, Geo's review
1511
01:26:11.010 --> 01:26:12.329
of super Mario sunshine.
1512
01:26:12.060 --> 01:26:13.699
On switch to starts quote.
1513
01:26:14.579 --> 01:26:16.750
I can't remember what I had for lunch yesterday. but
1514
01:26:16.789 --> 01:26:20.729
I still remember the day Super Mario Sunshine launched in 2002.
1515
01:26:20.729 --> 01:26:22.630
It was a summer's day, and I couldn't wait to
1516
01:26:22.649 --> 01:26:26.119
line up at the GameStop in the Natick Mall to
1517
01:26:26.159 --> 01:26:26.600
pick up.
1518
01:26:26.560 --> 01:26:27.539
My pre-ordered copy.
1519
01:26:28.060 --> 01:26:32.680
It was getting rave reviews, a 9.4 from IGN, a 9.75
1520
01:26:32.680 --> 01:26:35.979
from Game Informer, perfect marks from Nintendo Power.
1521
01:26:36.180 --> 01:26:38.689
Imagine that. That was me editorializing.
1522
01:26:39.649 --> 01:26:42.970
So it felt like an instant classic. Players at the
1523
01:26:42.989 --> 01:26:46.069
time seemed to agree, considering that the 3D platformer would
1524
01:26:46.109 --> 01:26:48.770
go on to become the third best-selling GameCube game of
1525
01:26:48.829 --> 01:26:54.979
all time. Everyone loved Super Mario Sunshine. In 2026, that
1526
01:26:55.020 --> 01:26:58.359
sounds like a bit of revisionist history. These days, Sunshine
1527
01:26:58.399 --> 01:27:00.979
is regarded as one of Nintendo's most divisive games. It's
1528
01:27:01.020 --> 01:27:04.579
both overrated and underrated at the same time. Some players
1529
01:27:04.619 --> 01:27:07.300
continue to go to war for it, praising its wealth
1530
01:27:07.359 --> 01:27:10.739
of creative ideas. Others are proud haters who point to
1531
01:27:10.760 --> 01:27:12.279
poor camera controls and.
1532
01:27:12.220 --> 01:27:13.359
A handful of dud levels.
1533
01:27:13.779 --> 01:27:15.979
To give its apologists a reality check.
1534
01:27:16.880 --> 01:27:19.199
Switch 2 owners will get to play Jury this week
1535
01:27:19.359 --> 01:27:23.649
as Super Mario Sunshine is available now. Interesting. Yeah.
1536
01:27:23.859 --> 01:27:27.130
To, like, have somebody who, like, loved the game at launch,
1537
01:27:27.170 --> 01:27:30.130
was excited for it, and still is kind of coming back. Because,
1538
01:27:30.369 --> 01:27:32.329
you know, Geo then goes on to say, Allow me
1539
01:27:32.350 --> 01:27:34.109
to play the role of prosecution as you dive into
1540
01:27:34.130 --> 01:27:38.880
Mario's most polarizing adventure. Despite some undeniable flaws, Super Mario
1541
01:27:38.899 --> 01:27:41.880
Sunshine is the one Mario game that best captures the
1542
01:27:41.979 --> 01:27:45.890
ethos Of the entire series. Even today, I'm still happy
1543
01:27:45.909 --> 01:27:48.470
to go to bat for one of Nintendo's most inventive
1544
01:27:48.529 --> 01:27:49.689
and focused games.
1545
01:27:51.090 --> 01:27:51.750
Yeah.
1546
01:27:53.250 --> 01:27:53.369
Huh.
1547
01:27:54.529 --> 01:27:54.930
Interesting.
1548
01:27:55.229 --> 01:27:57.430
Like, just to hear that perspective from somebody who, like,
1549
01:27:57.510 --> 01:27:59.569
you know, I have a ton of respect for Geo
1550
01:27:59.609 --> 01:28:03.470
as a critic. But again, I don't have that emotional
1551
01:28:03.510 --> 01:28:07.329
connection that he does to this game. But for him
1552
01:28:07.369 --> 01:28:09.550
to say, like, hey, people are really hard on this game,
1553
01:28:09.590 --> 01:28:10.369
but it means a lot to me.
1554
01:28:10.430 --> 01:28:11.630
Here, I want to explain why.
1555
01:28:12.949 --> 01:28:14.880
I think it's interesting, and it does point to how
1556
01:28:14.960 --> 01:28:19.800
divisive the game has become over the past 20 years
1557
01:28:19.840 --> 01:28:21.779
or whatever, however long it's been.
1558
01:28:23.600 --> 01:28:29.220
All right, Layden. What do you think? Score-wise, for GamePro's review,
1559
01:28:29.239 --> 01:28:34.970
Sean's review, Sean Malloy, a.k.a. Stardingo. Man, I.
1560
01:28:38.300 --> 01:28:39.600
Actually....
1561
01:28:40.460 --> 01:28:46.239
Despite this being, like, so glowing about a game that
1562
01:28:46.279 --> 01:28:52.649
becomes divisive and not really, like, honing in on all
1563
01:28:52.670 --> 01:28:55.609
of its flaws, like, not really recognizing the ways that
1564
01:28:55.630 --> 01:29:00.319
it was flawed, I think that Malloy catches... the feel
1565
01:29:00.340 --> 01:29:01.979
of what it was like to have a new Mario game.
1566
01:29:02.239 --> 01:29:04.460
There were not, we get quite a few Mario games
1567
01:29:04.500 --> 01:29:10.180
these days. There were not many in 2002, especially 3d ones.
1568
01:29:10.600 --> 01:29:14.390
And so, you know, again, like it's, it's the worst
1569
01:29:14.510 --> 01:29:18.649
reviewed Metacritic game. Like is that, but it's still up
1570
01:29:19.050 --> 01:29:23.250
over 90% or whatever. Like universal good game is just
1571
01:29:23.310 --> 01:29:28.430
when you're standing on the like shoulders of giants, you know,
1572
01:29:29.060 --> 01:29:30.939
if you're six foot eight and you're standing next to
1573
01:29:30.960 --> 01:29:36.020
somebody who's seven foot two, you look short, right? And
1574
01:29:36.279 --> 01:29:40.409
I think that, you know, Malloy might be missing context
1575
01:29:40.470 --> 01:29:44.000
for how the game would sort of like be reevaluated
1576
01:29:44.100 --> 01:29:48.500
under a different lens. Uh, post-launch and 20 years later,
1577
01:29:48.579 --> 01:29:50.760
but I think that what he has to say in
1578
01:29:50.800 --> 01:29:53.880
here for the most part is, is pretty good. I
1579
01:29:53.899 --> 01:29:56.479
would dock him points for saying, Hey, it's like Mario
1580
01:29:56.479 --> 01:29:58.699
64 without a, or with a water gun.
1581
01:29:58.779 --> 01:30:02.250
Cause that's not really true. Um, but I, I think
1582
01:30:02.289 --> 01:30:04.409
it's a pretty good review overall. I'd give this, you know,
1583
01:30:04.750 --> 01:30:08.250
a seven. It's pretty good. All right. Seven. Um, I'm
1584
01:30:08.289 --> 01:30:10.350
a little higher on it just because I think this
1585
01:30:10.409 --> 01:30:14.289
is an honest review from the place the reviewer is at, right? Like, Hmm.
1586
01:30:14.829 --> 01:30:18.760
Miyamoto is saying, I regret that people who haven't played
1587
01:30:18.800 --> 01:30:22.520
games in 10 years can't pick up Sunshine and play
1588
01:30:22.560 --> 01:30:27.550
it the way they can 64 or previous or subsequent
1589
01:30:27.649 --> 01:30:31.770
Mario games, right? Like, it's way more fiddly. It's way
1590
01:30:31.789 --> 01:30:35.569
more technical. You know, there's a lot of non-obvious things
1591
01:30:35.609 --> 01:30:37.189
you can do. And part of the fun of the
1592
01:30:37.210 --> 01:30:40.449
game is discovering, oh, I can, like, you know, my
1593
01:30:40.489 --> 01:30:43.399
water jet can raise me up. It can spin me around.
1594
01:30:43.420 --> 01:30:45.239
I can use it to clean the sludge. I can
1595
01:30:45.279 --> 01:30:47.699
use it to water plants to make the plants grow,
1596
01:30:48.239 --> 01:30:49.939
which I can then climb on the plants. You know,
1597
01:30:49.979 --> 01:30:54.579
there's like this emergent gameplay stuff happening. And like, I
1598
01:30:54.619 --> 01:30:58.430
can just see reviewing that when you're whatever age, Sean,
1599
01:30:58.449 --> 01:31:00.710
was it that you're like 25, 26, you play games,
1600
01:31:00.750 --> 01:31:03.050
you're a hardcore gamer, you play this game and you're like, wow,
1601
01:31:03.170 --> 01:31:05.909
I love that. They're doing brilliant shit. This is, this
1602
01:31:05.970 --> 01:31:07.930
is so innovative. I love what they're doing with Mario.
1603
01:31:07.949 --> 01:31:11.229
This has taken Mario to a whole new level. You know,
1604
01:31:11.310 --> 01:31:13.350
I can see I feel like this is an honest review.
1605
01:31:13.369 --> 01:31:18.479
And it's like, you know, Stewie was talking earlier about
1606
01:31:18.520 --> 01:31:20.359
how GamePro catered to its audience.
1607
01:31:20.619 --> 01:31:20.859
Right.
1608
01:31:21.720 --> 01:31:25.159
I don't think GamePro thinks its audience needs to include
1609
01:31:25.159 --> 01:31:28.640
60 year olds who haven't played games in 10 years. Yeah. Right.
1610
01:31:28.939 --> 01:31:32.020
Like this review isn't for. Yeah. But like, what about
1611
01:31:32.340 --> 01:31:35.279
the casuals who just hear there's a new Mario and
1612
01:31:35.319 --> 01:31:38.930
they haven't played a game since the last Mario? You know, like,
1613
01:31:39.270 --> 01:31:41.909
I don't know that they care about that person or
1614
01:31:41.979 --> 01:31:48.619
that they're catering to that audience. So it's still a
1615
01:31:48.659 --> 01:31:51.100
little reliant on it. And it's something almost every writer
1616
01:31:51.119 --> 01:31:55.789
does in journalism, too. You know, any kind of nonfiction
1617
01:31:55.829 --> 01:31:59.210
writing where you're like, I'm trying to get across how
1618
01:31:59.310 --> 01:32:02.810
cool this is. And then I ended up just troweling
1619
01:32:03.050 --> 01:32:07.060
on superlatives because it's brilliant. It's gorgeous. It's stunning. It's
1620
01:32:07.100 --> 01:32:10.079
mind boggling. It's not, you know, cause you're like, I'm
1621
01:32:10.119 --> 01:32:14.760
just trying to get across how great this is. And
1622
01:32:14.859 --> 01:32:19.770
you can probably use more specific or more meaningful words
1623
01:32:19.890 --> 01:32:24.350
than the superlatives, right? Like it, it comes across a
1624
01:32:24.390 --> 01:32:29.439
little too thin, a little too, shiny for shiny's sake, right?
1625
01:32:29.460 --> 01:32:33.869
It comes across a little PR-y as opposed to communicating
1626
01:32:33.909 --> 01:32:37.329
authentically what you loved about it. Even if your intent
1627
01:32:37.529 --> 01:32:40.529
is genuine and authentic, right? Like, it's just a craft
1628
01:32:40.569 --> 01:32:43.229
thing for me. And again, it's something I've done. I do.
1629
01:32:43.369 --> 01:32:44.970
You know, it's something when I catch in my own work,
1630
01:32:45.010 --> 01:32:48.529
I'm like, wait, I just piled a bunch of superlatives
1631
01:32:48.590 --> 01:32:51.430
in a sentence here. I can be more specific. I
1632
01:32:51.449 --> 01:32:54.680
can do a better job. So that's, that's something that I,
1633
01:32:54.930 --> 01:33:00.239
so I'm actually, oh, we didn't pick a thing. Yeah. Shines.
1634
01:33:01.039 --> 01:33:04.720
I was just about to say shine gets. Yeah. Um, this,
1635
01:33:04.939 --> 01:33:09.229
this gets, uh, I'll give it eight out of 10
1636
01:33:09.229 --> 01:33:10.289
shines for me. Yeah.
1637
01:33:11.010 --> 01:33:13.510
I'm actually going to revise my score and, and, uh,
1638
01:33:13.569 --> 01:33:15.270
give me a second to justify why.
1639
01:33:15.310 --> 01:33:16.069
So I'm going to read you.
1640
01:33:16.010 --> 01:33:21.000
A review of Super Mario Sunshine, uh, from GamesRadar.com. from
1641
01:33:21.340 --> 01:33:24.039
March 15th, 2006. It's not very long.
1642
01:33:24.060 --> 01:33:27.140
I'll read the whole thing. A little bit of time. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1643
01:33:27.560 --> 01:33:30.420
Back when Super Mario Sunshine was released in 2002, signs
1644
01:33:30.460 --> 01:33:35.239
were everywhere that Nintendo had finally, unequivocally, lost its freaking mind.
1645
01:33:35.840 --> 01:33:40.119
Links recently revealed Wind Waker makeover, Mario Prime's apparent reinvention
1646
01:33:40.180 --> 01:33:43.810
as some sort of first-person shooter, Mario's weird water cannon
1647
01:33:43.829 --> 01:33:47.149
and sudden tree-hugging tendencies. Years later, it's much easier to
1648
01:33:47.189 --> 01:33:50.170
peg Sunshine for what it actually is. One of the
1649
01:33:50.210 --> 01:33:53.569
most entertaining, satisfying, and solid 3D platformers ever made.
1650
01:33:54.850 --> 01:33:59.850
The plot is simple. Some shadowy Mario-shaped figure is wreaking havoc. Blah, blah, blah.
1651
01:33:59.949 --> 01:34:01.640
I'm not going to go through that part of the review.
1652
01:34:02.340 --> 01:34:05.939
It wraps up with this paragraph. Each of these levels
1653
01:34:06.039 --> 01:34:08.739
is an ingeniously wrought hyper playground.
1654
01:34:08.859 --> 01:34:09.960
And even though there are.
1655
01:34:09.920 --> 01:34:13.060
Multiple tasks to be accomplished within the same area, fight
1656
01:34:13.079 --> 01:34:15.859
a boss, collect 8 red coins, win a race, explore
1657
01:34:15.880 --> 01:34:18.560
a labyrinth, catch a shadow Mario, and so on, There
1658
01:34:18.600 --> 01:34:22.039
are enough sub-areas and new twists accompanying each task that
1659
01:34:22.060 --> 01:34:25.199
the levels rarely get boring. The game's mechanics are ripped
1660
01:34:25.439 --> 01:34:28.699
directly from Super Mario 64, the archetype for all 3D
1661
01:34:28.729 --> 01:34:33.409
platform hopping games. Sunshine's wall jumps, triple hops, and black
1662
01:34:33.449 --> 01:34:36.729
flips feel completely natural thanks in part to the GameCube controller,
1663
01:34:36.770 --> 01:34:40.010
which was clearly designed with this gameplay firmly in mind.
1664
01:34:40.829 --> 01:34:44.819
This review from 2006 on GamesRadar was written by Sean Malloy,
1665
01:34:45.140 --> 01:34:46.579
who went in and re-reviewed it.
1666
01:34:47.909 --> 01:34:49.689
Had many of the same things to say.
1667
01:34:49.770 --> 01:34:52.649
And so I think also like part of it is like, Hey,
1668
01:34:52.689 --> 01:34:55.409
like this is a really divisive game. Should Sean Moley
1669
01:34:55.430 --> 01:34:57.869
have seen that? I think he just liked the game,
1670
01:34:58.210 --> 01:35:01.109
which is fine. Cause Super Mario Sunshine is a good
1671
01:35:01.149 --> 01:35:04.539
game with flaws too. And so like that to me
1672
01:35:04.600 --> 01:35:09.399
also just says, you know, he's a pretty hyperbolic personality.
1673
01:35:09.460 --> 01:35:11.779
That's the way he writes. And he just liked Super
1674
01:35:11.800 --> 01:35:14.300
Mario Sunshine. And that is all kind of reflected in
1675
01:35:14.340 --> 01:35:16.640
this review. And I think that helps me kind of
1676
01:35:16.659 --> 01:35:19.220
bump it up to an eight. eight shine gets out
1677
01:35:19.239 --> 01:35:19.640
of ten.
1678
01:35:20.460 --> 01:35:23.800
All right cool there it is that is our review
1679
01:35:24.039 --> 01:35:27.819
of game pros review of super mario sunshine did we
1680
01:35:27.840 --> 01:35:31.430
get it right leave our review or review on apple
1681
01:35:31.470 --> 01:35:33.489
podcast post it as a comment on youtube and we
1682
01:35:33.510 --> 01:35:35.729
will read the best ones on air and hey go
1683
01:35:35.750 --> 01:35:37.630
ahead and pass the show around to all your friends
1684
01:35:37.649 --> 01:35:39.970
like it's third grade and we're on the playground shout
1685
01:35:40.010 --> 01:35:43.310
us out on blue sky youtube i'm sorry shout us
1686
01:35:43.369 --> 01:35:46.689
out on blue sky at fun factor pod.com and everywhere
1687
01:35:46.739 --> 01:35:50.050
else at FunFactorPod. Special thanks to Millennium Falc for all
1688
01:35:50.090 --> 01:35:52.409
our amazing original music. Check out his work and his
1689
01:35:52.489 --> 01:35:58.270
incredible Windows 95 website at MillenniumFALCK.com. Unlike these old magazines,
1690
01:35:58.289 --> 01:35:59.550
you won't have to wait a whole month for your
1691
01:35:59.569 --> 01:36:03.300
next installment. We're dropping new episodes every two weeks. So
1692
01:36:03.920 --> 01:36:07.680
go to FunFactorPod.com. Follow our show on your podcatcher of choice.
1693
01:36:08.180 --> 01:36:11.199
And again, please consider becoming a member of FunFactor Ultra.
1694
01:36:11.979 --> 01:36:15.520
Our premium tiers to unlock ad-free episodes, bonus episodes, and
1695
01:36:15.539 --> 01:36:19.000
the members-only channels of our Discord, where we post the
1696
01:36:19.119 --> 01:36:23.609
secret links to watch live stream recording sessions of shows
1697
01:36:23.850 --> 01:36:26.329
like this one that we're doing right now. So just
1698
01:36:26.350 --> 01:36:29.470
go to funfactorpod.com, and I promise you, you cannot miss
1699
01:36:29.529 --> 01:36:32.210
the sign-up widget on our homepage. If you do, you
1700
01:36:32.750 --> 01:37:01.560
and we will have a maximum score in Fun Factor. Wait,
1701
01:37:01.579 --> 01:37:02.279
where does it say this?
1702
01:37:03.659 --> 01:37:06.279
Underneath the guy on the masthead to the left. I
1703
01:37:06.300 --> 01:37:08.319
guess on the masthead page, but to the left of.
1704
01:37:08.319 --> 01:37:10.899
The actual masthead. Sorry, sorry, sorry. I haven't spread out
1705
01:37:10.939 --> 01:37:13.460
on the tube. Yeah. So under that pizza guy.
1706
01:37:13.479 --> 01:37:16.390
Or that food prison food guy.
1707
01:37:17.149 --> 01:37:18.359
Vision Tech, NVIDIA.
1708
01:37:18.649 --> 01:37:18.810
Yeah.
1709
01:37:18.819 --> 01:37:21.609
Homelessness is an ongoing challenge in each town across... Huh.
1710
01:37:22.449 --> 01:37:23.270
That's actually kind of cool.
1711
01:37:25.109 --> 01:37:36.369
Um, and... I... It's the... And let me share. Window.
1712
01:37:36.529 --> 01:37:42.310
Here we go. Of original assets. We need to take
1713
01:37:42.350 --> 01:37:45.479
a break. We will take a look. And shoot. I
1714
01:37:45.520 --> 01:37:50.659
forgot to look for reviews again. Or ask for reader comments.
1715
01:37:50.920 --> 01:37:54.640
Questions on the Discord. That's probably it.
1716
01:37:54.920 --> 01:37:58.819
I did kind of prompt. Uh, based on our opening discussion,
1717
01:37:58.859 --> 01:38:00.159
but we didn't really get a whole lot.
1718
01:38:00.479 --> 01:38:02.619
So, okay. Uh, it was a little late, late to
1719
01:38:02.649 --> 01:38:04.649
the game. So late in the game. Yeah. My fault.
1720
01:38:04.670 --> 01:38:10.569
My fault. Uh, do we have, wait, wait, wait, wait.
1721
01:38:10.890 --> 01:38:13.149
I did listen to this show. Are you getting me?
1722
01:38:14.810 --> 01:38:20.750
It won't let me, it won't let me read the reviews. Yeah.
1723
01:38:21.510 --> 01:38:26.770
On Spotify until I listened to it. I don't want
1724
01:38:26.800 --> 01:38:31.510
to rate it. You can't read the reviews? Yeah, there's... Okay. Okay,
1725
01:38:32.970 --> 01:38:37.329
hold on. By the way, here's... This is another thing. AI...
1726
01:38:37.300 --> 01:38:41.340
People are like, you can find ways to incorporate AI
1727
01:38:41.380 --> 01:38:45.420
into your workflow. And I know it definitionally can't. The
1728
01:38:45.500 --> 01:38:47.539
one thing I would love to do is have AI
1729
01:38:48.020 --> 01:38:52.529
do this shit. Yeah, find, uh, 13% of my time
1730
01:38:52.569 --> 01:38:58.369
and effort every day. Yeah. Is spent, uh, just trying
1731
01:38:58.489 --> 01:39:01.989
to get it to verify my verification to two factor,
1732
01:39:02.029 --> 01:39:05.609
my magic links to, but it's just bouncing back and
1733
01:39:05.670 --> 01:39:07.869
forth between two, three, four screens that are all right
1734
01:39:07.890 --> 01:39:10.710
in front of me on, you know, I click stay
1735
01:39:10.750 --> 01:39:14.939
logged in. Doesn't matter. this enormous amount of time and
1736
01:39:14.979 --> 01:39:18.739
effort just sunk into verifying and re-verifying and logging in
1737
01:39:18.779 --> 01:39:21.539
and re-logging into services. It doesn't fucking matter if I'm
1738
01:39:21.560 --> 01:39:22.899
logged in or not. Okay.
1739
01:39:23.239 --> 01:39:25.729
All right. I too would like AI to handle my
1740
01:39:26.090 --> 01:39:27.409
internet privacy for me.
1741
01:39:27.630 --> 01:39:29.850
Just, just do it. It's not like we have any
1742
01:39:29.890 --> 01:39:33.250
internet privacy. All of our shit has long since been scraped.
1743
01:39:33.529 --> 01:39:36.109
It's all on the dark web. We don't have any privacy.
1744
01:39:36.840 --> 01:39:44.640
So quote, Link's new cell shaded Parappa, Parappa paper. Yeah,
1745
01:39:44.659 --> 01:39:48.579
it's weird. But I think such a person.
1746
01:39:50.300 --> 01:39:53.579
Riverside says my recording has stopped.
1747
01:39:53.939 --> 01:39:57.180
I also. No, I got it. I got a message
1748
01:39:57.239 --> 01:39:59.800
that your recording stopped, but I can still see you.
1749
01:40:00.720 --> 01:40:03.319
So I don't know. Refresh and see what's going on here.
1750
01:40:03.699 --> 01:40:14.939
And he's gone. But. there he's back.
1751
01:40:14.739 --> 01:40:18.640
Very cool okay this is gonna make editing the video.
1752
01:40:18.060 --> 01:40:20.779
We're gonna get a good clip though of you going
1753
01:40:21.520 --> 01:40:24.439
i'm just gonna refresh and you go black and i
1754
01:40:24.479 --> 01:40:28.930
go and he's gone it's pretty great