Level 84 - WinBack: Covert Operations - Cover-Based Awesomeness!

Wherever you are,
where ain't going to find this skin.
What's this?

Well, the fly's stuck in my
train.

Whoa, wow, I think there's
explosions in this game.

Welcome to Remember 64, where
this week we're over there.

Hi everyone, welcome to the
show.

Hello again if you're a
returning listener or viewer, and welcome if this is your
first time here in Remember 64.

Of course we will play and
discuss the good, the bad, the ugly and everything in between
in the Nintendo 64's library.

My name is David Petrangelo and
I am on a mission.

I am on a mission to destroy
every exploding box possible.

Take that you Pinewood scum.
I will unload a full clip of ammo or more to topple your evil
plans with me.

As always, Jiggy, look back.
Hello.

Jiggy Winback Let me say I am so
thrilled to finally find a game that I think I roll more in than
Ocarina of Time.

Oh, interesting.
OK.

Oh yeah, compulsive.
Oh yeah, I was rolling quite a bit.
I mean, I was 2.

I wouldn't.
The ultimate defense, the ultimate defense, you're like,
you're like pretty much invincible.
Yeah, you roll and you dodge bullet.
It's crazy.

Who knew it was that easy?
That's gonna be my scrat.

If I'm ever somewhere in
someone's like open shootout, like just going crazy, like
public setting, I'm just gonna get on the ground and start
rolling because they can't hit me.
In any direction you know it's just in a 3D space forward even
works forward towards them, towards them and you'll.
Be fine, you roll at them.

Yeah, it's like, I feel like
that's like a scene from like

Pineapple Express or something,
you know what I mean?

Like something like that where
it's like you just.

Anyways, holy crap.
He's agile as hell.

Oh no, he's too agile for my
bullets.

Quickly get behind the sledge
with us, though.

We have we have three of us if
you're watching and our our video and our live stream here
on YouTube.

We have a a guest with us.
I believe this was something that we would have wanted to do
anyways, but I think Paul from remnant controllers put up their
hand and said, hey, you know what?
I this is a game.

That's that I want to I want to
tap you for and I said I would love to play win back covert
operations.

Paul welcome to remember 64.
How are you?

I'm great.
That was our exact conversation, by the way, word for word.
Pretty much, yeah.

I didn't have it in front of you
guys.

It's burned.
It's burned into my memory.

Like it's just, it's just pure,
pure memory.

Paul, you've been, you've been
a, a, a supporter or watcher or listener of the show for the
last little while.

You've popped into live streams,
which is awesome.

So I appreciate that.
But also even more than that, even more than that, Remnant
controllers itself.

We have to talk about that
because yes, you are a fan of the N64.
Yes, you are a gamer.

Yes, you are a friend.
But let's talk a little bit about your work, because if
anyone doesn't know, it is in some way linked to being a part
of the Nintendo 64.

So let's talk a little bit about
that.

What is Remnant controllers?
What is?

What do you do?
So I started Remnant controllers a couple years ago, 21/20/20 or
21 I think.

I got my N64 out of storage.
Times a flat circle, it's OK,

That's all right.
That's all right.

And I grabbed my controller out.
I'm like, man, this does not feel good.
This joystick feels like powdery and scratchy.
This is bad.

So I, I ordered a controller off
eBay.

I'm like, all right, OEM here we
go.

It's going to feel great.
All right, no, now, loose stick, floppy, terrible.
I'm like, OK, there's nuance to this.
There's a way to fix this.

So I opened it up, saw what the
inside of a used N64 controller joystick looked like.
And I thought, man, how many other people are digging their
consoles out and this is how their controller feels?
And they're like, this isn't how

I remember it.
This console sucks.

And they put it back away and
there's none.

So I got it fixed up.
And then I'm like, you know, I,

I like to tinker, you know, I
like to take this part, put them back together.
I always have since I was a kid.

So I came up with this plan.
I'm like, I can buy up these old worn junk controllers that
nobody wants, fix them up nice with some quality replacement
parts and send them back out into the world and improve this
used N64 controller market because it was bad, you know?
I mean it was a gamble for the most part or overpriced
depending on where you went.

Well, yeah, because you're.
You're the controllers, yeah.

Yeah, you're, you're grabbing, I
mean, you have quite a few things that you're working
through and, and up on on the store and stuff like how do you
find these and where do you look like?
I don't want to give away like a strategy if that's like, you
know, part of the business or whatever.
But like if anything, it can't be super easy to find something
that is not easily fixable or or you know, able to recharge or
whatever, but something reliable enough that you can actually
make it useful again.

Like is that is that tricky?
I feel like it it can be a real hit and miss type of experience.
It is.

It's a lot of buying in bulk,
eBay options and whatnot and you can't save them all.
So sometimes something is used for parts for something that can
be saved, which is fine.

That's fine.
But yeah, so you are you are re re jigging, jigging the the N64
controllers, but you do have other stuff too, but that's
large.

The the a good bulk of what you
do is you're making these controllers useful again for for
gamers and fans out there, which is it's it's the gods work, man.
It's it's you're you're doing you're doing this.
But but you know what, you know what you're right.
Like like your, your your story of of getting it going is
probably not uncommon where someone grabs a controller of
any console really.

And there.
But there's something about the joystick and the way the 64
controllers shaped and built and stuff where it just feels like
it's just made to be.

It's dirty, I guess.
I don't know.

Plastic parts rubbing on plastic
parts.

I mean, it's, yeah.
Yeah, well, if anyone wants coders, yeah, yeah, Too much,
too much Mario Party, you know, like it's just, it's.
Just all I could think of when you were talking about just the
nuance of, you know, fixing up controllers and stuff.
I have a copy of Majora's Mask on my N64, which you know that
that cartridge is like exceptionally brittle.
Like the the plastic they use is trash.
But I was just thinking about my one of my best friends he he's
the one who sold it to me and it started like cracking and his
solution to fix it was just to super glue the crap out of it.
So it's just like got but.

It's usable, right is.
It yeah, it plays and it's and like, but I had to clean glue
off of it.

I'm like, dude, what the heck?
He's like, I don't know, I was 15.
Just felt like the right decision at the time.
That sounds like a 15 year old top fix.
Yeah, limited resources.

You, you, you, you do what you
can, I guess, right?

Yeah, that's, that's pretty much
it.

Paul, if anyone wants to reach
out, if they want to see your work, if they want to head to
the store, what's the best way to to make sure that they do
that?

Remnant controllers on Etsy is
where it all happens.

That's where you can purchase.
I don't do international shipping right now.
That's just been a little tricky over the past year, so.
I wonder why in the last.

We don't need to get into.
That 14 ish months, it's been tricky.
I don't know.

It's AI, don't know.
Especially it's probably something in the air.
It's just something in the air.

I'm almost so on blue sky,
active on Reddit, active on

YouTube.
Fastest way to get a hold of me is message me on my Etsy shop or
message me on blue sky.

Amazing.
And that's Remnant controllers and at.
Remnant controllers.

I'll put a link to that in the
show notes.

If anybody has not written it
down or remembered or whatever,

I will have it in the show notes
for the video and audio feed so people can check that out.
OK, so let's get into win Back

Covert operations, everybody.
Oh, actually I almost forgot one more thing.
I did put up that Zelda poll

I've been talking about, if
anyone wants to take part in that, that is up on YouTube
where we are finding 3 or I have choice of three Zelda games that
came before Ocarina of Time.

And we want to narrow down our
choices of what we're going to play leading up to that game
when we cover it later this year.
So we did a very similar thing with Banjo Kazooie last year
where we played a couple of games in that franchise, the
handheld versions, and then

Nostalgia 64 as well, which was
a lot of fun leading into a game that me and Jakey for sure,
absolutely love and cool experience.
So in order to help us make a choice, one of the games we want
to play, we want to have you try to narrow down what they're
going to be.

So we have the first two Zelda
games on NES and then we have

Links Awakening.
You can vote on those and I'll keep the poll up for a while.
It's on YouTube, you'll find it under the polls and posts
section, but also on social media.
I'll be pushing out there too as of this recording right now, I
think we're about a week into voting, maybe just a little bit
less.

Links Awakening is ahead by more
than I thought it would be at the moment.
I thought people were going to make us play Zelda 2 for some
reason.

I don't know, I had this like
feeling.

So we'll see how it shakes out.
We don't know exactly when we're going to play Ocarina of Time,
but we will sort of put that out there as we get a little closer
to the date.

So I just want to make sure that
was out there.

But OK, win back Covert
Operations.

That is the game we are playing
and talking about today.

Jiggy, look back.
Do you know of this game?

Did you know of this game and
how was it?

No, never played it before.
It's one one of those few.

I remember this being announced
on NSO and I was like what's win back?
Yeah, what?

And then I played it and I was
like, oh, OK, it's like Metal

Gear Solid, basically.
Yeah, it was, it was fun.

I can't, I can't really complain
about it too much.

It's it's very repetitive, like
you're doing the same thing over and over and over and over and
over and over and over.

But it's a fun loop I guess.
Yeah, yeah.

So this is basically you went in
pretty blind.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Did you did you play it on on your 64 analog or on NSO I?
Actually played this on NSO.

Normally I try to get the game
and play it on my 64 or my analogue these days, but I was
like, you know what, this is on

NSO, I'm going to give it a shot
on that.

And it worked pretty well.
I even used it with the joy cons, which I also normally
never do once I got used to the controls because it was a little
a little weird weirded stuff going on.
But once I got used to it, yeah, it was pretty solid.
You got a flow going.

Thank.
The Lord for like auto aiming OK

I just didn't match and what it
would have been like without that.
Man, man, man, man.

Yeah, yeah, it's, it's a big
part of what what the game offers.
I guess you could say.

Paul, what about yourself going
into this?

Ever on your radar something?
I mean, obviously you said, Oh yeah, that you, you had on your
list, you're like, let's let's talk about this.
And so yeah, did did you have like a history with it or is it
just like, I'm super interested,

I want to try it.
I have a bit of a history with it.
It was a weekend rental, early 2000s, probably 2000, 2001.
I remember picking up from

Family Video and did not have a
controller pack back then, so I would have the pleasure of
replaying the first few levels all weekend.
Classic rental story.

I was like 6 so I could never
get past the first boss.

She would kill me every time.
Yeah.

But I remember being so into it,
you know, playing outside with my siblings as kids, you know,
we'd have squirt guns and Nerf guns and whatnot.
I would mimic Jean Luke's somersault.
Nice, nice.

You can't hit me.
Yeah, you can't.

You can't.
You always won because you were just somersaulting all the time.
Yeah.

I yeah, no one could hit me and
then I did not play it again until 2021.
Shortly after I got my N64 back out and got my controller
situation squared away, got a controller pack and made it all
the way through.

Felt like I was doing a favor
for my younger self.

It was great, but yeah, I liked
it back then.

You felt like Jean.
Luc, I was Jean.

Luc liked it back then.
I, I was Cougar.

And I just got done with another
run, oh, last week in preparation for this.
And yeah, it's a good time.

Maybe not a great time.
It's a good time.

There you go, there you go.
So I have, I knew of this game, but I never really played it.
I don't think I played it at the time.
I don't recall.

I mean, maybe I got hands on one
weekend or something.

I don't know any friends that
had it.

So I think I probably would have
remembered that because I feel like it's something we would
have picked up every once in a while, you know, But I don't
have any of those kind of core memories of it.
And then when it came to NSOA couple years ago, I I said,
yeah, sure, I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to give this
a shot.

And I played and this was just
as I was getting this podcast started.
So it was very close to that time or just after.
And I was like, Oh, this would be an interesting.
I feel like not a lot of people know what this game is.
This could be a cool.

I didn't know if if that was the
case at in the moment I was playing it, but I was like, OK,
I'm gonna play first couple levels.
I think I did the same thing.

I played I played on the switch
and did it with the joy cons.

And I recall being like, oh,
this is this is cool.

Like I'm getting my butt kicked
every once in a while, but but it's cool.
Like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna put this on the back burner and
we'll, we'll play.

This didn't happen, obviously.
It's like 3 years later, we finally got to it, but this time
picked it back up.

Started from the beginning,
played, played on the 64 and did not have safe states or
anything, which depending on how you're doing may extend your
play time of this, of this story.
But, you know, I think it's funny 'cause it keeps track of
how long you're playing the game for.
At the end of each stage it says how long you've been playing
for, but it doesn't account for the fact that you've probably
replayed that Level 3 times.

It's just what your completion
time is.

And like, that's not actually
what's going on here.

No, but I think I got around six
hours I think is what it ended up being.
But like, I definitely played it for 8 to 10, like, no problem.
Like, same here.

Something like that.
Yeah, in total, So.

Yeah, so the game is not easy.
So I would suggest if if you don't have a way to easily play
it on your 64, play it on NS OS totally fine.
I think it ran.

It ran fine for my memory.
Jiggy was it, It felt fine, right?
There's no.

Yeah, it ran fine.
I used to I my Switch too.

I played an Unswitch too.
Totally did rewind function every once in a while.
Yeah, when I'm, when I'm playing casual games, especially when I
would like turn a corner and hit a laser and it'd blow up and be
like, Oh no.

We will.
We will get to the lasers for shit's sake.
We will get to.

We will.
Get to the lasers.

Brand spanking new to you, Mark.
Heck yeah.

I was just gonna say, Mark, I'm
gonna pop that.

Hey, Mark Bradley.
Hello.

Hello.
Mark Bradley says I have never played or heard of this game
brand spanking new to me.

And that's.
See, that's one of the things that I really like about playing
something like this.

Where when I was looking up just
info about the game or put it out there that we might be
playing this soon and stuff like that, some people were like, oh,
I remember this.

You know, I had Alex from Low 5
Gaming, which is also a great show out there, replied to one
of the posts that I had of one of the of my gameplay pictures
that I had.

And he says this game holds a
special spot in my heart.

I rented it from Blockbuster.
It's one of the titles that I beat, returned and never played
again until picking it up in my adult life.
I can't say that it holds up as well in my mind's eye, but it's
a really rad game.

So you have like 2 like there's
a spectrum here where someone has something that's connected
to this.

It's not it's not Mario 64, it's
not Ocarina of Time.

It's not the heavy hitter,
right.

So it's something where, you
know, it was released at a time where a lot of people would have
had this console by 99.

This would have been something
that could have easily been rented or purchased or whatever.
But it doesn't seem like it's this huge seller either, even
though it also got good decent reviews and stuff.
So it's kind of interesting where it's like a little bit in
between so or has a both ends of it and stuff here.
And yeah, I wanted to mention too, what was interesting when I
was looking up the info about the game because I didn't like,
I recognize, is it Koei or Koei?

I don't know, actually, I'm
gonna pull up the game.

Why aren't we looking at
gameplay here?

Come.
On.

Get on this.
Yeah.

KOEI.
Is that what it is?

Yeah, Yeah.
I don't know.

It's it's a Japanese title.
Maybe it's pronounced differently, but I recognize
that logo.

But I was like, where do I
recognize it from?

I couldn't put a finger on it.
It's Dynasty Warriors.

They're the Dynasty Warriors
people, are the publishers of the Dynasty Warriors people and
the developer of this game is also the Dynasty Warriors
people.

So which for me I didn't get to
until PS2 came around.

I think I got, I don't know if
it was like 6 or something.

Someone told me it was like
really good and I was like OK, great, I'm going to play this
game.

And that's kind of my only
experience with it up until I don't know what it was a couple
years ago.

I played one of the ones that
was also on PS2 or PS3 or something.
So these companies that made Win back have made a massive
franchise that is huge worldwide.
It's so crazy to me.

I don't know if you guys feel
the same way, but for some reason I was like, it's crazy
that these guys made Dynasty

Warriors.
I don't know why I couldn't get past that it.
Feels totally different, that's why probably the interesting
enough.

I do know that they made this
game Dynasty Warriors and there was something else and they were
like known for making RPGs or something.
Like strategy, like really deep

RPGs for like literally decades
before they made this.

Game yeah, and these were like
games that they're like we could do more yeah and so they just
they they.

Created a separate studio just
to make something different.

They made a a dynasty Warriors
or a warriors game.

I think they might have called
it at the time, like when they made the the really early ones
and then they made win back and then dynasty warriors
constantly.

And it's like, Oh my God, like
what a difference.

Like and like when we say like
early strategy games, we mean like very simple point and click
type of stuff where it's like you're not, it's not some 3D
experience.

It's not even fall out or any of
those types of things at the time.
Like it's a very rudimentary type of experience and stuff.
And then they went and made this and I thought that was kind of
cool.

The, the story's also crazy.
I don't know, Paul, did you?

Did you?
Yeah.

I was going to say, I'm going to
put one of you guys on the spot of what the hell is going on in
this story.

I don't know if you know Paul.
I don't.

I mean I have a general.
Sense Yeah, I'm I'm the same

Dave.
I general idea, but I'm still just kind of like, OK, these are
the bad guys.

I'm killing the bad guys.
That's right, they don't.

They're not dressed the same as
me, so they're the bad guys.

Clearly.
Yeah, the thing with this story is it's not that deep.
I mean, it it gives context to why you're shooting the bad guys
and outside of that, I mean, I don't think you're going to be
re watching these cutscenes if you do a second run.
I don't think you need to just there's terrorists.
They have to.

There's terrorists with control
of a satellite.

The special something agency
scat.

The scat agency is here to stop
them.

So go stop.
Them you work for SCAT you work for SCAT for if I correct me if
I'm wrong, isn't that a nickname for cat poop?
Yes.

Well, I don't know about cat
poop.

Cat poop specifically, but poop,
yes.

Just poop, OK?
You know what?

Cat poop I don't.
Know I like a good I like a good poop joke.
I'll take it.

Team poop.
Team poop What I what's this is one of those games where I can't
remember what I was what I was playing recently that did the
same thing.

That was a more modern game.
Anyways, the point is you have this like cutscene that we're
sort of seeing right now where they're they're jumping down to
their mission, they're stopping this so-called evil satellite or
whatever you want to call it.

And you know, it's it's a few
minutes long and then, you know, shit happens and stuff crashes
or whatever.

And then you kind of like don't
really know what's going on with the story or what is really
happening for like hours.

It's just sort of you stumble
upon a couple like people that I guess are on your team 'cause
they're dressed like you and they pretty much all die and
you're the only one that's like the Terminator, I guess maybe
because of your role.

You just keep rolling and
rolling, and that's why you survived.
Yeah, no one else can roll.

I guess that's the problem.
They got the training, they just didn't follow through.
Maybe they.

Don't.
This is what you do.

That's stupid.
It'll never work.

You can't tell me what to do.
You don't own me.

Whatever I do, what I won't,
it's the story is.

Yeah.
I think, Paul, I think you put it right, is that it's just an
excuse to have guys shoot at you and you shoot at them.
That's that's pretty much it.

Yeah.
And that's and that's fine.

I don't, you know, you don't
need much.

You know, when you really like
read any of the dialogue or you really like try to look at what
some of the scenarios are that, you know, the story's trying to
put you in.

It's all ridiculous.
It's all over the top.

It's all very like early 90s
Japanese excuse for action sort of sort of thing.
And that's whatever.

I mean, honestly, in a way,
Metal Gear Solid is kind of like that too, even though what's his
face would probably tell you otherwise.
To me, that's what those games always felt like.
I'm not into the story.

I just want to play the game.
And that's kind of what this game ended up being, too jiggy.
What you think about the the big, big, big thing in Win Back,
just in general, even if people have never played it, it's easy
to see this is a cover based shooter.
That is what you could say this genre is through and through.
Yes, it's an action game, it's a little bit slow moving, but at
the end of the day you are finding cover and shooting
enemies and doing that over and over again.
Like you said, how'd you think it felt 'cause this is like the
first or one of the first to use this mechanic?
I, I didn't think it was bad.

It does get repetitive, but I
kind of like, if I think about it, the more I think about it,
the more I'm like, oh, OK, yeah, why are these boxes here?
Like there's just boxes everywhere.
But I, I like the idea of like,

I have to cover or I'm not gonna
survive.

Like there's something, there's
something about it.

Although it does give me the
vibe that this is supposed to be more like, and maybe that's just
me throwing in the Metal Gear

Solid aspect, but I feel like
it's supposed to be stealthy.

Like you're supposed to like
hide and stuff but you really don't.
I mean it's really action focused and very much like every
step you take like 6 enemies show up and you're like uh oh,
what?

I'm gonna, what am I gonna do?
And they can give you a gun with infinite ammo.
So what does that tell you?

I guess.
It tells you that it's one of the best guns in the game,
that's what.

It tells you?
Yeah, exactly.

That's what it's handgun.
It's like, you know what it is?

Yeah.
The handgun is what you get.

And it's like, you know what it
reminded me of?

Not because it's, you know,
Infinite, but the pistol in in the original Halo.
Like that's like the gun that everybody loved.
It's fun to use.

It's very effective.
Like that's what this is.

You know, it's not the
strongest.

Sometimes it literally takes,
like I said, my silly intro literally takes the entire clip
just to blow a box up, which is just like what?
Yeah, it's go to or sometimes too, some random boxes literally
take 10 or 12 shots.

I'm like what is happening
anyways, Jiggy you so you thought it was it was mostly
mostly OK like you felt like it was was it did you did you get a
hold of it quickly or did it take a little walks?
It took me a little bit.

No, it took, it took, it took
me.

I would say I probably took me a
solid like 20 minutes to really grasp it. 20-30 minutes.
I don't know.

I definitely was dying in the
first level, but I was just trying to figure out, OK, I need
to duck and cover.

I I can't just go guns a
blazing.

I need to have some sort of
level of strategy here.

Things like switching my
weapons, like how do I do that?

Yeah, yeah, there's just some,
there's some quirkiness, growing pains I'd say with early 3D
gaming.

But the auto aim was great.
I'm going to praise that because that was a really smart
decision.

Like just the fact you hit a
button, you auto lock on an enemy that saved this game.
If it didn't have that, this game would be poo poo garbage to
me.

I don't think you would be able
to survive if it didn't have it, honestly, because just the way
that the rest of the the engine just works, you know, like, I
really don't know that it it would be possible.
This person that we're watching playing as we talk is just is
really good running, running show like.
I, you know what?

I, I'll.
I do I.

Gotta find different videos what
the shit I do.

Yeah, find.
Just just search win back long play bad and see if like someone
is just awful.

Jiggy, I didn't, I didn't.
I didn't post my my gameplay.

What are you talking about?
I could have if you really want to.
I can but I didn't post my gameplay.
Yeah, mine's probably not that much better.
Yeah.

I was gonna say one thing that
bothered me was when in in that that level in particular that we
were just watching when you're going up a ladder just.
Technically the the first stage, yeah.
Yeah, when you're going up a ladder and it's like you can see
everything, it still like cuts to a black screen and like loads
it.

I found that weird, the weird
choice.

Like so weird I must.
Do that and it doesn't matter what level you're in, it doesn't
matter what the scenario is.

It doesn't matter if there's
enemies or not.

It always does this.
It black, it fades the black and then shows him getting back down
on the rest of the ladder.

And I'm like every single time,
even on levels that are even less complex and whatever, I
just, it's so random.

I I must have something to do
with the programming, like something to do with the code
that they just had to do it.

I just don't know why that
particular decision was the one that made that, like, solve the
problem.

It's just so it's not like you
can't see anything else.

Like you were saying.
You can see what's above you or below you.
And yet, Oh, my God, this person's playing on hard and
they're running show.

Get out of here.
Oh, God.

It's not like there's a fog of
war.

Yeah.
You know what?

I'm walking away.
I'm out of here.

Yeah.
There's you see everything.

You see everything and yet
there's like a mini, not a load screen, but it feels like it's
it's trying to be a load screen.

Anyways, Paul, what about you?
This is I I, you know, this is like I made a comparison right
now.

I have a video up on I guess
when people are hearing this, you also see it on YouTube.
But I put up a video of my early thoughts of the game on on
Patreon and then we'll put that up on on YouTube, which again,
you'll see once this once by the time this full episode gets out
to to everybody.

But it remind the reason why I'm
I'm prefacing it a little bit is because this is very early in
the in the third person cover based shooting and third person
shooting just in general.

I would say.
Obviously there's ones before this, but not many.
And it reminded me a little bit of Body Harvest, because Body
Harvest was an early example of open world or semi open world
games, which we had pretty much none of at that time.
So they're both early examples of very popular types of games
and genres.

Now, did you feel like the cover
shooting worked for you here or was it Oh yeah, more of a pain?
Yeah, it worked OK.

No, it it worked.
The only thing I'm I was really missing was a blind fire option
where maybe Jean Luc Kugard just, you know, right around the
corner there.

Yeah, yeah.
The only thing I was missing but forgiven.
You know, this I I don't know if this is the very first third
person shooter to have a cover system like this.
Obviously, being one of the earlier ones, it was easy to
forgive.

I'm like, OK, fine.
I'll just yeah, yeah, I'll just show myself here.
I am.

Yeah.
That was the only thing I was missing was a a nice one.
Point yeah actually I never I never thought of that and while
while playing it but when you say it I go oh that would have
been really it could have been cool too right because it could
get you out of a vine every once in a while so.
I should think at what that animation might look like on the
64, but I'm here for it.

Yeah.
Do you ever, do you ever play the Uncharted games 'cause I
think about how the the blind fire is like when you're ducking
behind something and he just sort of raises his hand and
just.

It's just his arm.
Yeah.

And he kind of just like, does
it?

It's Yeah, that's that's the
that's the type of animation I was thinking of too.
But to your point, Paul, it's like, what would it look like?
It would look like this, like his arm would probably be
twisted in six different ways.

Oh yeah, yeah.
It would be like really weird, like a, we do like a pretzel,
but then it would be like this.

But no, I don't even think you
would be able to see the gun.

It would probably just be like a
block, you know, because they couldn't animate it properly or
whatever.

Yeah, probably it's he's not OK
right now.

He's not OK.
He's I wish, I wish I pulled up your screen even bigger.
That was performance getting real physical tonight, buddy.
I had to wake up, you know, I'm.

I'm awake.
Had to wake up.

We had a little.
There you go.

The coffee kicked in.
Now what?

What's what's said?
Resident Evil and win back.

You were it.
Boom.

It kicked in.
Boom.

Yeah.
I I like.

I like the way this worked.
I think every once in a while I kind of missed like so basically
it just it locks you up behind a box or a wall or something.
It's which you know, like gears and even uncharted kind of does
a version of that.

We have to press a button, he
puts his back to it and you can either Crouch or or be standing
up.

You can roll out of it, but you
know, you just press the the R button or shoulder button to pop
out and then aim, usually auto aim as you guys were saying, add
an enemy with whatever weapon you're using and you just kind
of go up and down, in and out, up and down, in and out, just
trying to sort of almost like dodge their bullets.
Roll, roll, roll.

Yeah, and roll.
Yeah.

There's also the opportunity to
instead of just automatically dipping up and down if you're in
a certain position, which I found only happened.
It felt like it only happened at random times and then late in
the game I got I figured out this is how it works where he
like fully pops out like his whole body just he just jumps
out from cover.

Yeah, and.
He's like an.

Offensive stance, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, it takes, yeah, it takes a real hard stance.
Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, it looks pretty cool when
you pull.

When you pull it off, it's like,
yeah, I'm gonna win this fight.

It looks awesome, but then you
just get 7 bullets pummeled into you because you have no cover.
That's the problem.

It's A1V1 thing only.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think it is.

But it does actually look very
cool.

The animation of it is actually
pretty fun.

I I enjoyed that and I think
largely the game looks decent.

You know, I think like, yeah,
there's.

You can do worse.
What's that?

You could do worse on on the 60.
Four.

Yeah, for sure.
Oh yeah, You could do worse, yeah.
I mean, we just, The thing is, the environment is really, the
environment really is just like squares everywhere.
Yeah.

Like it's a lot of boxes.
It's a lot of like big box rooms and then like they focused all
the detail on the characters and it it shows like the characters
look pretty nice.

I've seen, I've seen way worse.
I don't think I've seen much better.
Yeah, and like the animations and stuff like again, like his
role, the even just the cover, even though it is very like, you
know, stilted with the way he moves.
Like it is a little bit.

It's semi reminds you a little
bit of Resident Evil.

Speaking of RE-9 and Resident
Evil, like it's a little bit of a tank control, not quite as
extreme, I would say as like the early first early RE games, but
like it's kind of going that way.
It's a little bit like that.

And I think even with that sort
of boxy feel that he kind of has as Jean Luc has sometimes, it's
still the animation still looks pretty good and the enemies are
kind of moving in patterns, but they never feel out of place, at
least not to me anyways.

But yeah, I think everything,
yeah, it's either you're in in a square or rectangle with a roof
or a square rectangle space outside.
That's that's a bit, most of the buildings, walls, things like
that, they're pretty much it's

Gray or it's brown, a little bit
of blue here as we're seeing.

I think it's not exactly, it's
not going for any sort of colorful stuff.
The, the characters and the story you could define as quote
UN quote colorful.

But like the, the, the game
isn't, isn't really going for that.
And that's fine, but it would be nice to have a little bit of
extra, but maybe that would feel too out of place cause the rest
of the game's supposed to be super serious.
There's another ammunition pouch in this level.
I didn't know that.

I didn't even know right at the
beginning you could go in one of those freights and there was
like ammo.

I was like, oh darn, missed
that.

So that's the other thing about
this, right?

Like like you can, it is fairly
linear and it is a little bit of, you know, backtracking and
stuff like that.

But you know, if you go off the
path sort of speak a little bit in most areas, most levels,
you'll get some ammo or you'll get a health pack or something
and at least it rewards you for doing that.
Like you can take your time with this, yes, there's a timer that
comes up at the end and OK, whatever.
If that's something that you care about, like speed running
and stuff, I guess you know there's speed running.
Well, there's different endings, but.
Yeah, so there's different endings too.
That's right.

Which I didn't know until after
I played.

This.
I didn't know that either, but yeah, apparently it's.
I don't know if they're all based on speed, but I know at
least one of them is based on how fast you beat the game.
I think they are and I could be wrong on this, but I I think you
need to get to the control room or level 24.
Take at least three hours to do that and then I think it's you
get to stage 28 within two hours and you'll get the good ending.
But as long as you get to the control room, I think in over 3
hours you get the normal ending.

You know, I don't know how you
get the bad ending.

I've never gotten that.
I'm just too good, obviously.

You just did you wait before we
get into more of the details of the ending, which is
interesting.

I didn't again, didn't, didn't
realize that was the thing.

Did you guys play on normal?
I don't know what.

What the?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I always play on normal.
OK, I, I try to for for most games.
I think honestly, like when I went back to my NSO save that I
played from a couple years ago,

I I would guess I was playing on
easy.

So I when I first before I
started fully on this and then played it on normal on my 64, I
realized a couple differences 'cause I played through, I think
it was the third stage or maybe it was even the 4th.
There's a, there's a couple differences, the enemies,
there's a couple less enemies, you take a little bit less
damage and it seems like there's a couple more health packs
around.

But largely the like the game is
pretty much the same.

It's not a massive difference.
I didn't play it long enough and easy at least this time to, to
be like, oh, it's way easier or oh, it's might as well just play
it an easy.

But I think like if you're
having a hard time at this game and you're not that far into it
because it is a difficult game, going to easy is probably fine.
Like you're gonna get through the game, you're gonna the game
plays the same.

That doesn't change.
You're still gonna be managing your inventory or ammo and
stuff.

So I think that that's pretty
much the same.

So yeah, the ending.
So Paul, you're right.

So I just, I, I pulled back up
the the differences.

That timing is right.
If to be around that, that three hour mark, 3 1/2 hour mark.
This one says 3 hours.

So I don't know if that's an
exact thing or if it's in the range of 3 to 3 1/2 and then
complete the whole game in under 6 hours.
That's what it says and the thing I'm looking up here
anyways.

And then the bad ending is you
do everything.

Doesn't matter what what or like
what speed you do things.

It's just you take longer is
pretty much what it is.

I think I got the normal ending
it sounds like based on the way that they're describing this.
Well, hey, it didn't fire twice and destroy the Pentagon and the
White House, right?

That's right.
So the bad ending.

Is.
That ending is a pretty much

Washington gets gets destroyed.
I'm trying to read what the difference is because it says
the normal ending is similar to the good ending with a few minor
differences but there's like 3 paragraphs to read.
I'm like, I I just want to know what the difference is, yeah.
So the difference is like who survives?
It's like who survives and stuff from the team.
That's the biggest thing and there's a couple there's like a
a slight difference in like what the cutscene is for, like the
the ending couple of bosses or bad guys or whatever that that
that's it.

Which again, like Paul said
before, do you need to pay attention to the cutscenes?
I mean, maybe at the ending, I guess, but that's fine as long
as you got through the game.

Although seeing the Pentagon in
the White House explode as a quote UN quote bad ending, maybe
I don't know.

I want to I want to see what
that looks like.

I didn't see it so.
Yeah, that's yeah, let's just steal everybody.
Yeah, let's just what was I gonna say?
I had Where was it here?

Oh, another thing too, which I
don't know if this is actually the case, but the laser sight is
a pretty early innovation type thing too.
I kept looking up.

I don't know why that never
felt.

I mean, obviously this is, you
know, 2525 plus years later.

But like playing through this
game like Paul, you're you're nodding your head like, yeah, I
know.

Of course it was.
I don't know why it never like impressed me as like, oh, look
what they're doing in this game, like, I don't know.
But apparently that was a big thing.
Is that in residence?

Yeah, I don't know always.
You're saying Resman?

Yeah, I don't know a game that
did it before this off the top of my head.
I don't either.

I don't when I again, when I was
looking up info in the game and development and things like
that, it didn't say, it didn't give me any.
I didn't find in my research anyway, any examples of what
that would be?

But when you're doing the lock
on, when there is a lock on mechanic for it, like we said,
it's pretty good.

When you don't do that, the
laser sight is hugely helpful I found.
So that was kind of fun.

Did you guys, Paul, did you ever
try to manually aim any with with any success?
Yes, I was.

I would always use the lock on
to assist me, but I went and turned my aim speed to low in
the settings so I would lock on and I got good at just get I got
a muscle memory of just flicking up the the joystick to get a, a
headshot or a lethal hit towards the end of the game.
I mean, it was, you know, 9095% of the kills I was getting were
lethal hits and you get a bonus.

Look at you.
Care, it's all good.

I won't lie, it's all good.
It, that's exactly what I was going to say when I pulled it
off, which once I realized that,

Oh, this is something that one
they keep track of, which is kind of cool.
Like you said, it does a lethal hit thing at the end when it
shows you your, your sort of score at the end of each level.
I, I was like, well, I'm going to try and get more and see how
much I can get and like see if there, I mean there's no grades.
It's not one of those things, but, but it is kind of kind of
cool to see.

One thing I did really like was
if there's enemies in the distance that can't see you yet
and you can see them, you can still shoot them.
Even though they look like just a blurred, foggy mess.
The game still lets you aim at them, get a headshot, shoot them
on the shoulder, whatever it is, and I did that a few times and I
was like, ha, ha, ha, suckers.

I'm I'm changing this game or
I'm, you know, I'm I'm a pro with this game.
I was not I would die shortly after, but but it's but it felt
good.

Like you said, like this guy
we're watching obviously is very good at this game, getting the
headshots, playing it hard, doing it pretty easily.
He's cracked.

Look at them go.
Yeah, like, look at this, like get out of here, man.
I'm so depressed right now.

It's very impressive because
seeing this happen in motion, like watching a play through a
long play, regardless of of which one you're watching,
seeing it with the action, it's like, oh, this game is cool.
I can see what they're kind of doing here.
But when you do it in practice, the game is it's not.
I wouldn't, I wouldn't call it punishing, but it is.
It is difficult.

Jakey, did you have tough time
with it or?

Well, I mean, I had a rewind
function, so if I didn't have that, probably.
But you're talking to a guy who just recently beat Battletoad,
so you know what?

That's nothing is hard to me
anymore.

Yeah.
Child's play.

I just took the the frank from
Always Sunny method and it's just like walking room.
So anyways, I started blasting.

I guess you could do that and
that's just to make sure you have cover when you do that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

OK.
We have to talk about, and this is if people haven't played this
game, we're probably going to sound like a like a few crazy
people here, but we have to talk about the lasers that we talked
about before.

So in this game, one of the
things you're you're running into and, and hiding behind is a
bunch of boxes.

There's boxes everywhere.
I think you said early, you're like, why?
Why is there boxes everywhere?

Just because that's the design.
That's just the game.

That's just what it does.
It's just another excuse to have like it's one of those games
where you walk into a space.

And I mean, this happens with
some of the Uncharted games, even Gears, where it's like, oh,
I can tell this is going to be a set piece.
This is going to be a spot where we're going to do some shooting,
where some action where some shit's going to go down.
That is this game.

Pretty much every five feet that
you walk, oh, that box is in a different spot, or oh, you
backtrack to a different spot because you have a key now.
Oh look, there's an extra box there for some reason 4 minutes
later.

Why?
I have no idea, but action's going to happen.
Now.

I say all that because there's
also laser lasers everywhere, apparently in this like facility
and area that is just blocking a bunch of things off.
It kind of helps guide you to certain areas sometimes, but
also you need to dodge them and you need to roll around them or
underneath them or shoot boxes that will shut them off.
But when you don't have that option, Paul, what?
What the hell you?

Die instantly, don't touch it.
Snap instant.

It doesn't matter how much of a
tank you were leading up to that point.
It doesn't matter if you have full health.
The second you touch this little red line you are done.
I hate it so much.

It's the only thing about this
game that I absolutely hate.

It it gives you the finger, it
doesn't care.

It.
It doesn't care about hurting your feelings like you touch the
laser.

I'm sorry, Back to the
checkpoint for you.

Think about what you did.
I like finding the switch and shooting it.
I thought I found that satisfying and like this like
puzzle solving sort of way.

What I thought would have been
really nice is if, and maybe this is just the whole Metal
Gear Solid like comparison to me, I would have liked to been
able to like prone on the ground and like army crawled underneath
some of those lasers.

Like if you had that mechanic
versus just like strict Crouch and walking.
Like if you could just like double tap and like drop to the
ground completely and crawl, that would have added something
to this game I think.

Yeah, that's a yeah.
I felt a couple times and it would be kind of cool too.
Where you could lie in the ground and and shoot enemies
that are not quite a great.

Angle of hitting, you could aim
under, like you could Crouch under one of those big trucks
that's parked out there 'cause there's like a huge gap and you
could aim under that like that would have, that would have been
a really cool just small change.

And doesn't feel like anything
that would have like drastically changed the game too.
It feels like an animation and and thing that they probably I
I, you know, I assume could probably fit in with relative
ease, but maybe not.

Sorry, Paul, you were going to
say I cut you off.

Sorry.
Oh, that's fine.

I I was just going to say I
actually, I don't know if you guys ran into this.
A couple of the enemies proned on me.
I'm like.

What?
Later, later in the game, there's a couple that are that
are yeah, yeah, yeah.

I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa,
whoa, 'cause you don't see it for hours.
Like hold up, I got.

Smoked by some guy 'cause I was
just running up a hallway.

I'm like, what is that on the
ground?

It's a man with a gun.
God, well, that's a that's a human with a gun.
Oh, yeah.

Good friend.
Yeah, there's not many of them.

But what's crazy is that that it
comes out of nowhere, you know, 4-5 at work, probably more
because he probably died a few times as you would just playing
this game.

Like, Oh my God, what is this
guy doing?

What?
What?

That was the coolest thing.
He just did Jiggy's animation.

How did he do that?
Wait, is this your playthrough?

Is this your playthrough, Jiggy?
Yes, Oh my God, I'm bringing this back.
Hold on.

This is me.
I did the I did the mocap for

Winbeck.
You just didn't know.

I was.
I was, I was like 4 when I did it.
I.

Was going to say I was like a 2
year old.

Yeah, yeah.
Oh, now it's going to be hard to get because it's like, wait,
here we go.

What the heck?
He like, he walked into that room, didn't take a single shot
from any of those enemies and he got them all.
So that was a celebratory like.

Yeah, it.
Was awesome this.

Game also innovative emoting in
game.

Inherently right there, like
what is happening?

Oh my God, that was the most
like this game's got some ridiculous stuff, but that was
more ridiculous in the story in this game like Oh my God.
OK, well if if people aren't watching this full episode up
until this point, I am definitely putting that up as a
video so people can see it anyways 'cause it's just looks
ridiculous.

Even if you don't know what this
game is, that's.

Awesome, that's.
Hilarious.

I don't even know that you could
like do that with your with the controller like it even allows
you to do something like that.

We're talking about old lasers.
Yeah, fuck the lasers they're a pain in the ass.
I I just it's it's like.

It's it's too much.
They just do it too.

Much it's too extreme and they
do it too much.

And then later in the game, I
can't remember what stage it is.

It's it's probably 20 or
something like that close to that where you have to go
through a a particular room or or two rooms maybe that have
like 4 of them that are doing the up and down thing.
But the checkpoint includes both of those rooms in it.
Oh my God.

Yeah.
Like again, it's the only thing

I actually despise about this
game.

I really like this game.
I think this game is awesome.

I like truly, truly think that
that people need like should play this game if they're a fan
of third person action games, If they want to feel something
that's a little bit, you know, not too quick and bombastic, but
also has some strategy, like you said, Jiggy, some puzzle
elements in a way.

Like that is sort of how the
levels are laid out and I just find it just, I just found it
like just very fun to keep going.
But that spot, that particular level, I actually stopped
playing.

I died at it three times.
And I'm like, I, I'm not doing this today.
Like it's just, it's not the night for it.
I'm going to play something else that's going to make me not feel
frustrated.

I can't remember what I played,
but I played something else simple older game, that's
whatever.

And I'm like, I got to come back
to this and then I play it the next day and I died twice, but I
got through it and like, OK, great, I got past it.
But I just, it's not rewarding to me.
It doesn't feel rewarding when games do something like that.
Like, yeah, accomplish it.

I got past it and like, hey,
great, I got past it.

I'm moving on.
But I don't, I don't feel like I accomplished anything.
I just feel like I got over an unnecessary hurdle.
And to me, that's not fun.

It's just, yeah, it's the only
thing that I that I think this game really, really does wrong.
If it took off, you know, 1/4 of your health, 1/3 of your health,
OK, you know, or it bounced you back and you have to keep trying
but didn't kill you.

That's fine.
I think I could live with that.

It's, it's the instant kill
thing that that really just destroyed me.
So Oh my God, another ammo poach.
Or is this 'cause it's in hard?

Is it just me that I only find 1
ammo poach this entire game?

Yeah, I did not find this many.
I found one, the one at the beginning and like the very
first like little building.

That's it damn it.
Anyways, what that does is it you hold les Amo, so you're
stuck with just your pistol at times where you probably
shouldn't be stuck with just your pistol.
Yeah, I mean, like, well, like guns with the shotgun, you start
out, you can only hold up to 16 shots and it's like that goes
quick.

It goes really quick.
It's like 1-2 reloads maybe?

I think it might be two, but
even then it's it's not that much.
Actually.

I think it holds 12 in a clip.
I think the shotgun.

So it's not yeah, it's it's just
too fast.

Yeah.
Oh yeah.

And there's melee in this game
for some reason, like.

It's there.
It's it's available.

I got melee a few times and I
was like oh Jesus but oh.

Yeah.
Man, Speaking of melee, did either of you guys get attacked
by some dude who looked like

Albert Wesker with a knife on
those guys?

Yeah, no, yeah.
The knife guys.

I charge you.
Yes, Yes, yes, yes.

That didn't be the.
Popular list, yeah, yeah, Like it's, I'm not trying to leave
yet.

Where is it here?
It's probably in the in like the 20 stages somewhere like that.
I was running away once from him, he snuck up on me around
the corner and he stabbed me in the back and I had almost full
HP and I died like.

What?
Oh, snap back shot.

Yeah, there's there's a couple
couple enemies.

I think there's literally only
two enemies that not that only two that melee you, but two that
do significant damage that come right up to you.
And yeah, they have like a some sort of melee weapon, knife or
whatever it is, and it like demolishes your health.
Like you don't have a shield or any of that.
You just have a basic health bar and you pick up health packs
and, you know, I guess the plot.

Perry.
Yeah, you have no Perry.

There's no way to do that.
You can't do Leon with Leon

Kennedy with his knife where he
just like Perry's a chain saw.

Like you can't do that.
There's no house.

Kick follow up, you know.
Yeah, that's it.

You're just.
Everybody needs a good

Roundhouse kick.
We gotta It's a counter.

It's the ultimate counter move.
Yeah, if if if your role fails, you need a Roundhouse.
Absolutely.

It's good to have a backup,
yeah.

Yeah, you're going to have a
backup plan.

Yeah.
Move.

I got a couple of This is
interesting because I got a couple of reviews.
I always, if I can find them, I always want to find a couple of
reviews of the game just to see what the the general consensus
was at the time.

And looks like it got mostly
favorable reviews and actually sounds like the 64 one got a
better reception, critically at least.
Because the PS2 version which came out a few years later
wasn't enough of an improvement to say like, oh this is
definitely worth it.

So I can understand that's why
the game itself, it's largely the same game.
It looks better, sure, probably runs a little smoother.
There's more detail, but like if it's just basically the same
game, like you're just getting only higher fidelity.
So if you don't have APS 2, all right, just play it on the N64
and you're totally fine.

That seems to be the general
consensus.

But I found a couple of these
ones that I that I copied over 'cause I thought this was kind
of funny.

A game pro review.
I was a game pro reviewer or reviewer reader back in the day
at this time.

So I might have read this this
is it's quote no Metal Gear 64 or Goldeneye 2, but on its own
merits, it's easily it'll easily infiltrate the hearts of N64
gamers.

It has tight controls, decent
graphics and plenty of challenge.
Win back should earn a spot on everyone's N64 squad.
And I think that pretty much sums it up.
I I really like that.

I think like it's not those
other games and doesn't have to be and that's totally fine.
But I don't know.

That's that's that's well put.
I found.

I don't know.
But it's fair.

Yeah.
What else we got?

Where is it Here?
I lost it.

This is a bizarre 1 to me that
it released on PS2 like later on and then they're they need a
sequel to it as well.

But I wrote.
That too.

I was like, what?
There's a sequel to this game.

Yeah, but the fact that they
released this on PS2, it feels like this would have been one
that I wouldn't be surprised if it's on Dreamcast, but like it
feels like once you skip a few, all of a sudden it's randomly on
PS2 like.

It feels like if they were gonna
do it, they it should have been a sequel or something, or they
should have done something more varied.
But like this.

Everything I saw about it was
yeah, it's just it's pretty.

Yeah, it's the same game.
Like, OK, So what is it just because you think no one played
it on 64?

It sounds like it did decently
well.

Not sold amazing or anything,
but like enough to be like, oh,

OK, well, this is a success,
let's do something with it.

But I don't know.
The company just went straight, went hammered away at Dynasty
Warriors.

I guess that's pretty much it.
They're just the Dynasty

Warriors people.
So yeah, there was.

The sequel was made in 2006, did
not get good reviews and apparently does not feel like
the same game, like at all.

So I heard.
Yeah, So what I read, So what they called it, I think they
called it like a split system or something where you're playing
through the same level.

Let's say you're playing through
this like sewer stage here in in this game.
I'm going to pause this because this reminds me of something I
wanted to talk about before you, you play through the same level,
but what you're doing like solo with two different characters.
So you play through it once and this person will flip some
switches, do a couple like, you know, shut a couple things down,
maybe pull down a bridge or like sort of like set the level up
almost.

And then the next character that
you play as follows up and then like does the action.
Essentially that action isn't possible to pull off unless
you've done this stuff before.

And I think like on paper that
sounds kind of interesting or cool, but I think only if it was
like an active Co-op experience.

Yeah, that's what I was just
thinking like, like doing 1 and then the other.
I don't want to do that.

I'm not buying that.
Like why am I doing the first one when all I really want to do
is go through the stage and just killed his enemies it.
Reminds me a lot of Sonic O6.

How?
Does it feel like that?

You would go, you would go
through, you'd be running through the level of Sonic and
you'd randomly run into like

Tails or something.
And then you have to switch to them.
The gameplay slows down dramatically and they're like,
you got to find this, the hidden switch to open the door for
Sonic.

And it's like.
I don't want.

To frigging do that.
Like stop it.

Coincidently enough, also in
2006.

There you go.
We in here, weird decisions happening.
This particular thing at this, just to remind me that we got to
this point, the game.

I don't know if this is a
Nintendo thing.

I feel like it's one of those
things where Nintendo's like you can't show someone die in a
certain way, although people are dying all the time.
It's literally what you do in this game.
But this guy in particular is like, you have to help me, my
family needs me, and then he dies in your arms.
He's like some worker.

What but the funniest part?
Can you hear me?

Hang in there.
Hey buddy, hang in there.

Is this part after if it's in
this particular?

There he goes.
Classic.

As the same death animation as
all the enemies where they just blink and disappear.
It's like supposed to be this like, you know, obviously
there's no voice acting in this or anything.
It's supposed to be probably come across as like, Oh my God,
average people are dying because of these terrorists and
whatever.

And then it just completely
undermines it by like showing the body literally blink and
disappear in front of like at his feet as if that's a normal
thing to happen.

He doesn't even acknowledge.
Doesn't happen.

Only if you Only if the
satellite blows up the Pentagon and White House.
Oh, OK, yeah.

In the bad ending, that's what
happens, yeah.

That makes sense.
Or good, depending how you define it the I just thought.
That was well, us Americans would define it as a bad thing.
Just for the record.

These Canadians, I don't know
how you feel.

Us crazy Canadians, gosh, just
for unruly unruly.

You can't, can't take us
anywhere.

Be careful what you say I.
Know right?

Actually, I really don't tear up
the crap.

Out of you.
I don't there.

I already have.
I don't want to go anywhere.

Actually.
Actually don't want to go anywhere.
I'm good, actually, right where

I am, this basement, these
games, I'm comfortable, I'm fine.
This is all.

This is what I need.
My my kids sleeping upstairs.

I'm all good.
I'm fine.

Life is good.
Life is good.

Yeah, life is good.
It's it's exhausting, but it's good.
This is actually interesting.

Mark Bradley, I don't know if
you're still in the chat live here, but this is an interesting
point too.

And it kind of does seem a
little bit like this.

The game play in this game, he
says reminds me of an arcade game.
You played a movie theater, but it's third person and you
control the pace.

So I think what they're sort of
getting that is kind of like a time crisis type thing, or what
am I thinking of with the zombies?
House of the Dead.

House of the Dead, yeah, that
type of time crisis, House of the Dead, those the the cover
base shooters where you have to reload off the screen and you
have to pedal and things like that.
Like that's this game.

Could definitely be that.
I think that's actually a really good comparison.
Put that on the console.

You do control your character's
movement.

Think of it kind of like that.
It's not, you know, an on rail shooter, but I can understand
why it kind of looks a little bit like that or could be
similar.

So anything else you guys wanted
to mention, Paul, is there anything that we're that we're
missing?

I feel like there's there's lots
to talk about with this game, honestly.
Yeah, I have a question actually.
Why does one of the big baddies of the Crying Lions, I think
they're called Man looks straight up like Doctor
Disrespect.

Let's.
What's going on?

No.
Why does he look like that?

Like everything.
That's a shame.

I don't know.
Someone.

I guess I'm just something.
Yeah.

Nowhere very influential game
again.

I guess, yeah, I guess.
I guess that dude had to get inspiration from somewhere.
I don't know, really big win back fan.
Maybe we missed that in his.

He must be and his origin story
hilarious.

Yeah.
The the boss, there's boss fights in this.
Actually, that's something we haven't talked about where like,
you know, they have rocket launchers or they blow up crates
around you.

And it's a lot of like, run
around, dodge an explosion, shoot at them as much as you
can.

And yeah, just.
Yeah, exactly.

Do the dodge and flip.
Yeah, Yeah, exactly.

They don't have crazy huge
health pools.

You know it at times it does
feel difficult, but at least a checkpoint for the bosses
doesn't feel like a RIP off pretty much load right back into
it if you die.

So I appreciated that part.
A lot of games like this or based on some of the checkpoints
and difficulty parts of this game, I'd almost expect that to
not be the case.

But that is that is what happens
here.

So at least there's that they're
all ridiculous.

They're all over the top.
They have weird outfits and weird voice line or weird, you
know, dialogue and like it's just insanity.
It kind of feels like a really weird comic book or something
like that on comic book characters or something, but in
a good way, I think why not have fun with it so.
Yeah, like a cheesy like late 80s comic or something.
Yeah, for.

Sure.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It can't be.
There you go.

That's thank you Paul, for being
here for to be able to give me that reminder of the words that
I keep missing because I'm just so tired.
That's why I'm here, man.

That's why you're here.
Yeah.

So I just to sort of unless
we've missed anything else, but

I just want to Jiggy, do you
recommend the game?

Sounds sounds like we all have a
pretty good time.

Yeah, I would recommend the
game, especially on that it's available on NSO, pretty
accessible.

It's not one that I would have I
I didn't really know about it growing up.
I don't think I ever really saw it.
I don't remember it, but it's yeah, it's fun.
I, I had a good time playing it.

It's kind of just a change of
pace from what I've normally been playing so.
That's true that it does feel different from a lot of the
stuff that you would either expect or probably normally be
playing.

Sure, there's other action and
there's other games that are shooters and or brawlers or
whatever.

And I guess you could kind of
say it kind of feels a little bit like that, but like it does
feel pretty distinct.

I think that's that's a point I
would say too.

It's it's not a perfect game,
but I personally had a fantastic time with it.
I really, really liked it.

I said in that in that video
that I was referencing earlier that it's one of those games
where I feel like there's frustrations in it.
And we've talked about quite a few of them, Blazers obviously
being one of them.

But it's not enough for me to
say like, well, I'm just I'm not going to continue with this
game.

Like it's, it's too frustrating,
it's too shitty.

The design is unfair.
Like all those types of like things that would just sort of
push you away.

You step away once like I did or
something, that's fine, that happens.
But there's not enough there for me to say like, I need to stop
playing this.

I was just having fun outside of
those moments, enough fun outside of those and thinking
that, oh, I'm having a good time.
I want to keep going.

I don't necessarily care about
the story, but I just I want to do more.
I want to have more set pieces.

I want to see more shooting
galleries.

I want to see more enemies.
I want to see what else the bosses are going to offer those
types of things.

So that that's that's where I
come from.

And I definitely think people
should play this.

Maybe it's not the most well
known game, but I don't think that that is any reason to not
play it.

So Paul, where do you where do
you land on it?

Sounds like you're a pretty big
fan.

Oh yeah, I wrote up a little
review for it and I landed 7 1/2 out of 10.
That feels like a pretty good number.
I will say though, this is not a game that somebody who does not
have experience with an N64 should play as their first N64
game.

We'll turn and run from the
console.

You know, you need to have some
experience, I think, especially if you're using an OG
controller.

But man, if you got a decent
grasp on how that game pads laid out, it's a good time man.
You'll have a fun time with it.

It's it's not going to move
mountains but feels good.

Yeah, yeah, I think so.
And and 2.2 about the like controls and just being able to
sort of handle the game part of it like they there is a there
are different control schemes.

I think there's three or four of
them and it switches things up a little bit.
I went with the default.

I don't know if you guys changed
at.

All I didn't change, no default.
Yeah, I, I what I wanted was and

I, I don't even know if this was
an option.

I wanted the the trigger button
under to be shoot, but then when

I like I sort of like sort of
ghost felt it.

You know, I was like, oh, what
if I did this?

What if it and actually it
didn't feel good because you have to be somewhat precise with
the joystick sometimes when you move and when you're doing
manual Amy and that like if you were.
Pressure, yeah.

Yeah, it would move your thumb a
little bit.

I'm like, oh, 'cause if at first
I was like, why is A&B the main sort of gun mechanic?
I thought like this just feels like they're putting an SNES
game on the 64 like there there must be a better way to do that.
But actually, I think I think it does work.
I think it it actually makes sense the way that they did it
and never felt after the first, you know, few minutes, I was
like, oh, OK, this this feels natural because it's just A&B
mostly and then R and that's mostly what you need in this
game.

And I think the joystick feels
good on it too.

You know, at least with the non
digital one, it felt pretty good to play and I totally didn't
realize that you could adjust the, the aim sensitivity on it.
Paul I, I, I don't think I really looked through it that
thoroughly.

I just, I just jumped in and
just just played or whatever.

But I wonder if that would have
helped in some moments.

It it's the first thing I do
with any game.

I play straight to the options.
What do we got?

What are we working with here?
Yeah.

Yeah.
And especially, like, again, we've talked about this a
million Times Now at this point, but like Jiggy, we've talked
about how like if you don't have a manual in front of you to tell
you things like that in games like this, you're not really
automatically going to the settings.
You know, you were talking about before we hit record on on the
episode that you went through a bunch of settings playing
through, like playing through RE 9 and how fun that is.
That's not something you're gonna naturally do with a game
on an N64 in the 90s, you know?

Well, I do, they just don't give
you options.

Yeah, OK.
That's.

True, Yeah, yeah.
I mean, usually I do.

I I always go through all the
options.

I always like the first thing I
do with an N64 game.

Does the support widescreen
look, it's always my my number one thing.
And then I'm like, OK, surround sound, I'm gonna turn that on.
Usually I bring the audio like the master audio down.
Yeah, I do.

I do puts with settings.
But you're right.

You're right.
It's not as typical.

Yeah, not or, or at least, yeah,
the options aren't like as available.
Actually, Speaking of that, I don't know how I didn't get to
any of the sound or any of the music or anything.
Let's play a little.

Bit of that punchy handgun
sound.

Yeah, it's a cutscene.
That's a heavy stiff.

Sometimes it's just kind of sit
down.

Real hard.
So this is what kills me about that character that died before
this guy gets shot in the face.

Wow, that timing could not have
been better.

This guy gets shot in the face
and yet they don't want to show you another character lying on
the ground.

They disappear like.
No.

Moody Music.
When this one of the mostas I think music is like what's
exposed.

Yeah, his knees are.
What's his leg is like protruding completely out from
what he has.

They even show the effective I.
Mean he, I mean, he's behind next to Wilson.
He's.

Got a full type.
It's just the fact you can't see him and his he's like sticking
out.

A little diaper guy, just like,
Oh yeah, you can dodge that, but when you play.
It he's fine, he rolled.

You can dodge an RPG.
You can dodge a ball.

He dodge your wrench.
Yeah.

Oh yeah.
What's this guy's name?

It's like or something.
Gun gun all the all the names.

No it.
Isn't it's, it's something stupid like that.
Yeah, let's see, I think he talks to talk at the end.
Oh, this is that that vocal?

Work operetta.
Yeah, operetta.

And then he looks so dead
because he disappeared.

Just like the engineer, doesn't
it just, I don't know, it just pulls on your heartstrings when
it blinks like that.

I.
Know what the worst kind of death is, where you just
disappear into the ether?

It's the worst kind of death.
I know.

Drowning, that's nothing.
Burning.

No way.
When you just blink out of existence, that's yeah, you just
exit the matrix out of nowhere.

That's the worst yeah.
Play win back covert operations people.
I actually think it's really good if you're having a little
hard time.

I think Paul mentioned sort of
controls and stuff like yeah, you don't have a ton of
experience with the controller.

I think that's a good point.
But also I do think that even just bumping the difficulty
down, because I do think like actually one of the later
stages, the checkpoints become a lot further apart.
That's one of the ways that they, that they, your eyes are
like, Yep.

Stage 30, yeah.
Last like 2-3 stages I had a couple times where I was same
thing as the other, that laser point where I was like.
Yeah.

Like, I didn't at one point, I
didn't realize that I didn't hit a checkpoint.
And then I died and I was like, no, what?
Oh, yeah, it's brutal.

It's brutal.
Needed that NSO safe state.

So you want to be normal, safe
state rewinds, NSO, No problem, just go for it.
It it makes things easier.

You're still going to have fun
playing the actual game itself or bump it down to easy.
If you're playing it on on the actual hardware and stuff.
I think there's nothing wrong with that.
The game's still fun.

The game, the actual act of the
gameplay is still the same.

So that's a good way to go about
it too.

No shame, go for it.
OK, before we get out of here,

Paul, one more reminder of
Remnant controllers and where they can find you and your fine
work.

Yes, find the shop on Etsy that
is where you can purchase lovely

Nintendo 64 controllers.
I also I just started this year's stocking Super Nintendo
controllers too.

Getting those cleaned up and in
nice shape for people to grab.

I also occasionally will list
the console bundle and that does come with an OEM controller.
You don't have to pay extra to get a OEM controller.
That's not an upgrade in my book.
It's an upgrade in a lot of brick and mortar stores and
stuff, right?

Yeah, I don't like them, so fair
enough.

Don't like?
That I'm also on blue sky at remnant controllers.
Also on Reddit.

I occasionally post game reviews
there.

I posted a win back review there
that got a decent amount of attention.
That was fun talking with people about this game and then I also
have a YouTube channel.

I got tutorials on there of how
to take your controller part properly, clean it up, repair
your joystick, all the things.

So if you.
Actually doing it, it's, it's your, it's your, it's your, your
hands, your desk, you actually properly doing it and stuff.
They're super fascinating.

Because I don't know.
I don't.

I don't know if I believe it's
your hands.

I.
Don't know because I don't have gloves on.
Here's the box.

OK, they are.
They are.

Those are just leftover from
COVID.

That's not.
That's that's true.

I got a back stock if you guys
can see the desk.

Honestly, there are just
joysticks everywhere.

I mean, that's.
Awesome, got one right here ready to go.
Hey.

Look at that.
Yeah, it's honestly it's, it's really cool to see because you
know, unless you are someone like yourself or you say you
really like sort of tinkering and taking things apart and
whatever, it's really easy to just be like whatever.
It's just piece, a couple pieces of plastic.
But it is much more intricate.

You really do have to be careful
putting the right parts back properly and having the right
parts in general cleaning in a proper way so it doesn't make
things worse.

Sort of like that's all part of
the process so.

I actually, I, I kept the worst
joystick bowl I've ever seen.

There's a hole in it.
What's from Just Mario Party?

Yeah, someone had to.
They needed to calm down.

Man.
I mean, I did, I did, and it was probably because, I mean, I
bought it used and whatever, but

I did snap my joystick on one of
my controllers playing Earthworm

Jim, so.
Yeah, what a game to do it on.

I know.
Just made it.

Not a horrible game, but it did
make the experience worse that I actually.
I have never knock on wood, never snapped an N64 joystick.
I did however once eat a peanut butter Jelly sandwich and glob
some stuff into the D pad, but that was a long time ago.
I don't even have that controller anymore.
We're fine.

You're going to say, but I have
eaten a joystick.

It's.
It's probably one of the controllers I ended up getting
in a lot.

It's fine.
It's crazy.

Wells got it right behind him,
actually.

Oh God, I've seen some things.
That's hilarious, but I the the reason why I bring up the sort
of you know, and and the cool that you brought up the the
YouTube thing too, is like it is something worth watching, not
just to see the work that you do, but just in general.
I find that stuff fascinating.

So the YouTube page as well.
Jiggy look back.

Speaking of YouTube pages, you
well, we are going to be covering Conker's bad fur day
somewhat soon.

I don't have an exact date of
when it's going to be but it but it a fairly close to today
episode.

It's going to be, it's going to
be soon, but you are currently playing that as well, probably
for like the 100th time I assume.
Yeah, I yeah, I don't know how many times I've played it
different versions.

This is this is going to be the
the live stream on Friday, which by the time this comes out,
it'll probably.

Be you'll probably be on to like
your second stream if you're doing it in more than one
sitting.

I don't.
Know I'm probably going to do it in one sitting.
Oh damn, I'm probably gonna.

I'm probably gonna pop a Red
Bull and go all night.

Mother buzzer.
Nice, nice.

And as you mentioned earlier in
the episode too, you have you beat Battle Toads and that is.
Exactly.

Yeah, nothing.
Nothing matters anymore.

Nothing is difficult.
I can do anything, even like anything.
Ready to go any situation.

You know what's funny?
I think if I were to I were to have played Resident Evil 9 like
4 weeks ago before I beat

Battletoads, I would have been
very cautious.

I would have been very stealthy.
But now that I've beaten

Battletoads, I just walk into a
room and stand there and say come at me.
I do the wind back pose.

Yeah, you don't need a roll.
I don't need anything.

No, although you do have the
Roundhouse as we discussed.

Oh.
Yeah, the Roundhouse kick, yes.

That helps.
And A Perry.

Yeah, that helps.
Classic.

OK.
And as I mentioned, we'll have a couple of fun games coming up.
Conker's Bedford A is one of those games.
It is 25 years old.

As if you're listening to this
episode and watching it, I think just a couple days prior or the
day of of this recording, maybe it was the anyway.
The day of this recording.

Day of this recording.
It is right now, as we speak, it is 20.
Five years old, which is roughly a week before you'll hear this
episode is 25 years old.

So we are going to get to that
to celebrate it.

As much as Gigi has played
multiple versions and played it probably 100 times, I have.
When we get to it, I'm going to have a lot to say, so you'll
want to TuneIn.

I it is all very, very useful.
That is not true.

I have a history with it, but I
don't know if I actually don't remember if I played the entire
thing.

I've played it multiple times,
but I don't know if I've actually personally made it to
the end, start to finish kind of thing.
So, but I, I, I, I'm excited to play that.
So that's one of the episodes and games coming up and talking
to a couple people about potentially coming on the show
as well for other episodes.

But we'll keep you posted And
yeah, head over to Patreon as well.
I did mention the last episode, the one before.
I'm trying to be a little bit more active on there and, and
not sort of let it lapse like it had been over the holidays and
stuff and life getting in the way and everything.
But I can try and put up, you know, obviously all the episodes
are always early there if you want, but a couple other things
added on as well, like my early thoughts on games that we're
playing and they'll be paid and free options on there.
Kind of going to use it as like a landing page for things that
aren't episodes, things you can get early and all that.
But I'll, I'll, I'll keep tweaking it.
And if everybody has ideas of what they would love to see, I'm
happy to hear it.

I want to take, you know, any
kind of constructive feedback and criticism and all that.
All for it.

I'm all yours.
So no, we don't.

We don't want any criticism.
We just want praise.

We just want praise.
So.

You take your criticism and turn
it into praise and then tell us how great we are.
That's all we want.

Or else, I mean, I'll take that
else or else or else you will not be tucking and rolling away
from our shots.

OK.
So, yeah, thanks everyone for listening.
Paul, thank you so much for coming on the show.
This was great to have you on and a great game to to have us
cover, so thank you.

Yeah, yeah, I appreciate it.
Thank you guys so much for having me on.
And just real quick, it it's a bit of a full circle moment.
I spend a lot of time in this office taking controllers apart,
fixing them up, what not.

And I can't tell you how many
hours I've been listening to you and Jiggy talk about in 64
games.

So crazy full circle moment for
me.

It's been fun.
I'm so sorry.

I'm so sorry.
Oh, stop.

Well, I'm not sorry.
Not sorry, not sorry, just whatever.
Can I say before we go?

Yeah, exactly.
Before we go.

I've been wanting to play stuff
the whole time, but I haven't.

Dave, behind you, your door is
open.

And like the the like horror
movie horror games connoisseur that I am, all I can picture is
a face appearing in that like black void that I'm seeing.
It's it's like prime dude, that would have been terrifying if it
happened one time.

I would like people need to go
back and watch this YouTube video.
Just watch that the entire time and just log it if something
happens, if there's like a ghost or something, because that is.
That is prime terrifying door crack.
I I have the door just a crack open because it gets too warm in
here if I don't.

This is actually a very small
room.

It's like it's not a closet, but
it's not, it's not a bigger, it's the size of like a very
like small bathroom.

It's.
Like a walk in closet.

It is almost like it is actually
kind of the size of a walk in closet in the way like it's
probably 12 feet deep in total from where my computer screen is
to where this shelf is not not very big And then the same it's
a square and the same wide.

If I have that door closed, it's
way too hot in here.

And our kid was having a little
bit of trouble getting down and he's he's up a couple floors,
but he's a sensitive sleeper.

So I'm I'm gonna gonna just just
a little bit, I'm in the basement, but still I'm just
gonna.

So that's the reason why and
also there.

Is is like white eyes and like
teeth and just like, yeah, Yep.

Yeah.
There's also, there's also one of those.
There's also one of those there too.
Yeah, there's also that.

Yeah.
Terrifying.

Well, I'm glad.
I'm glad I could make you feel uneasy.
Mission.

I've been watching it like every
time.

Every time your head's covering
it, I'm like, oh, thank goodness.
And then you move out of the way and I'd be like, looking at it
and just be like, staring at it for like an extended period of
time.

Yeah, exactly.
That was really great for the audio listeners to be pretending
to be a monster that you couldn't hear or see.
Watch the video.

What are you doing?
Watch the video.

Watch the video, it's actually a
lot of fun.

Honestly between just watching
the gameplay and I was sort of doing silly things like that.
Jiggy was very physical today and we'll have a a pre show chat
of that too on Patreon.

There you go, everybody talking
about Resident Evil and Jiggy working out.
So yeah, I got I got a little out of breath and mega lay I'm
out of shape.

Good.
Form it was pretty good form.

You know, I, I, I the, the just.
Seen a Roundhouse kick?

It's at least knee height at
least.

That's is that, Is that the
sound effect that comes out of your foot when you hit
something?

Yes.
Like, you don't actually have to make that with.
Your mouth it's like a purple like starry looking thing and
says wopow in like yellow text.

That's just straight up talent,
everybody.

Jiggy, look back, Paul, from
memory controllers and remember 64 across the board.
Everybody, thank you very much for joining us on the stream.
Thanks to everyone for watching and listening.
We'll see you next time on the show.
Ciao.