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Remember 64
Your Go-To N64 Podcast
1 year ago

Level 63 - Caravans in Space!

Transcript

Hello everyone, just giving you
a bit of a heads up of something new that I'm trying for.
Remember 64 Another way to hear from you, the listener and
viewer of the show.

Voice cast dot app slash
Remember 64 voice cast is a cool new thing that I found from a
couple other creators that have been using them.
This is a great way to send a audio message to the show.
It's something that you can share about episodes, games,
things you want us to cover.

Sure, social media is a way to
do it, but this is a way to actually have your voice on the
show.

It is completely free.
Voice cast dot app slash remember 64 leave us a message.
It's completely free.

You can do it on your phone.
You can do it on a browser, and you can find the link on social
media as well and at the description of this episode on
your podcast app of choice.

All right, on with the show,
everyone.

Welcome to Remember 64, where
this week we're going to the arcade sort of space and who
knows where else.

Hello everyone, welcome to the
show If you're returning listener and viewer.
Hi, welcome.

And if you are here for the
first time, also welcome here on

Remember 64.
We played this and discussed the good, the bad, the ugly, and
everything in between for the

Nintendo 60 Fours library.
We will cover them all whether you like it or not.
My name is David Petrangelo and

I'm dodging lasers, picking up
random power ups and holding down the A button as long as
humanly possible until my thumb gets sore, which let's be honest
at this age, happens in about 20 to 30 minutes.
So that's where we're at at this point.
Did you look back with me again?

Hello.
Yo I can say my my thumb holds out a little bit longer because
I'm a little bit younger, so I get a solid 45 minutes before I
start cramping up.

Impressive.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, impressive.

But I pretty much spam the big
laser anyways as much as I can and then I die when I don't have
it so.

There you go.
You're not dodging.

You got a dodge, man.
You got It's the skills.

Yeah, no, it's not me.
It's not really my style.

Your style OK.
Yeah, I just puncture a giant laser through everything.
It's not about, it's not about the nuance, it's about the
aggression, just approaching the aggression.
Hey, whatever gets the job done, gets you, gets you to point A to
point B.

That's that's what really
matters.

So we have a guest for this
episode.

Someone brought the the game to
our attention to cover this on the show.
Writer, gaming sports lover, head of the great newsletter,
website, blogs, all these different things.
A lot of great work out there.

Mark Normandin is on the show
and brought Star Soldier

Vanishing Earth to our attention
to remember 64.

Mark welcome.
Thanks for having me I I figured no one else was going to bring
that game up, which I guess is kind of my thing.
Let's go.

Hey, you know what?
I've I've said this a bunch of times and say it to pretty much
every guess that I may maybe even said it to you when we're
we're messaging each other.

If it's a game I haven't played
and in this case haven't really heard of, I am more I'm actually
more excited because I like to play something that's that's
new, but retro is something that you don't run into too, too
often.

So, and especially on a console
that I played growing up.

So this is awesome.
I guess.

Just before we get into the game
itself, let's talk a little bit about your work out there,
because I mentioned a bunch of things that you're doing and
everything, but I'm sure you do a much better job of explaining
your work.

So, Mark, tell us about
yourself.

Well, on the gaming side, I have
a retro newsletter, The Retro

XP.
It's on Beehive now.

I moved from Substack earlier
this year.

Excuse me.
So I've, you know, I've got some of the importing growing pains
there, but I'm catching articles that didn't move over and, you
know, updating links and all that happy stuff.
Yeah.

I've been writing that for.
Is it 20?

Yeah, five years now, I think.
Oh.

It's been that long.
OK, nice.

That's awesome.
Yeah, I kicked it off with a a project where I ranked the 101
best Nintendo games.

Like Nintendo published Nintendo
developed games.

Yeah.
And by the time I finished it, I didn't like the list anymore.
So.

Yeah, I can relate to that.
I don't know, like 18 months to do it because instead of just
like doing like here's a list, it was like, I'm going to write
a feature on every single one of these games, right?
And I'm like, right, I played way more than I ended up writing
about in ranking, you know?

Right, right.
Yeah, Well, yeah, because you got to whittle them down a
little bit, right.

So.
Yeah, I mean, there's something like, I can't remember the exact
number, but there's like 1400

Nintendo games, you know.
So you know, people if people got really mad about something
being like ranked ninety 90th instead of like in the top 20,
it's like we're talking about like a fraction of like a
percentage point of a percentage point difference.
Yeah, you know, we're talking about, we're talking about the
top 3% of the games they've ever made.
You know, like you can chill out.
Yeah, people get mad no matter what.
In in that one O in that one O 1 is there and because, you know,
obviously it took some time like you mentioned and stuff, are
there any particular ones that you were like, Oh yeah, maybe
that could have been anywhere on the list or Oh yeah, maybe that
was like really close to making.

Is there anything that like
stands out like that, that like if you were to do it again and
maybe do it in 18 days instead of 18 months, like what would
you know what I mean, like?

Yeah, I had, I had a couple of
just missed. 'Cause that's always, that's
always tricky when you sort of make like even just like a
personal list of a top five or ten, right?
It's like, oh, what was 11?

What was 14?
You know, like so close.

We'll see.
What was funny about this is like I'm remembering #100 was
like linked to the past, which people got like mad briefly mad
about, but like I used it to explain like there the the next
two D Zelda was a better game than this.
There have been better Zelda than this.
It's like if we're going to get through a list where like 10
Zeldas make it, 1 of the ones you love is going to be back
here.

And it's like, I understand your
childhood has its grips on you or whatever has its grip on you
or whatever.

But like they made better ones
with better temples with you know.
Yeah, the mechanics are updated, the the UI, the the HUD, like
all those types of things like that makes a difference.
So if you've got Link to the

Past that far back, yeah, you
know that like you were leaving some great games off.
Like I didn't put, I didn't put

Super Mario World, I didn't put
Yoshi's Island.

Yeah.
I mean, they're both, they're both great.
But it's just like we're talking about like if that's the level
we're working with where like

Link in the past barely made it,
then it's like, Oh yeah, some stuff's going to be left off, of
course.

But there's also a little bit of
like trying to include, you know, there's so many, there's
so many Mario games, there's so many Zelda games.
So at some point you're kind of like, well, instead of adding
another one of those to when I want to put in like Drill Dozer
on Game Boy Advance, you know, like in I think in like the 90s
or whatever, Like, but it's like you're not going to, if you just
go by like what's popular, you know, what was critically
acclaimed, then you're going to miss out on like, hey, they
actually did a lot of other really cool stuff that maybe
people didn't play or they forgot about.
Yeah, 100%.

So like I kept off Kirby Planet
Robobot, this game that I really love, Orbient, I don't know if
you remember the We Wear series where they did the art style
games.

Looked at that sounds familiar.
Orbiant was really great.

I can't remember what that it
was called on the because they had like a a Gameboy advanced
version maybe just in Japan.

But yeah, there were there were
there were a lot of them.

That's like I would like to I
would like to jump if I do it again and I would like to to
rearrange some of it yeah, I'd probably do like 151 because
haha, Pokémon, you know, but.

The only Pokémon on that let's
let's be honest.

It's also like, you know, I did
it in, I did the list in 2020 and finished in like spring of
2021 maybe.

Right.
And then it's like, oh, here's

Metroid Dread.
Yes.

Oh my God, yeah.
Shit, Oh can I?

Can I swear on this?
You can swear as long as you man fuck it swear as long as you as
much as you.

Like I like to ask first but.
It's fair enough.

You know, that game comes out
and I'm like, oh, this game's amazing.
It's getting fucked up my whole list.
Yeah, you know, like.

Or like or like messes up even,
like just your Metroid picks, right?
Like, like even just that alone within that franchise, yeah.
Well, cuz it's like, OK, so the remake of Metroid 2, part of the
reason I ranked it like as well as I did is because it was the
only kind of Metroid that was like that.
But now it's like Metroid Dread is like an exponentially better
version of that game.

So not only do you have to find
a place for Metroid Dread, but you have to bump that one back.
Right, right.

That's.
I mean, I don't know if I have to care about all this stuff,
but like, I like Mario Galaxy better than Mario Odyssey.
But because I had Mario, because

I had Super Mario Galaxy 2
ranked really high, highly, I moved Galaxy back a few spots
behind Odyssey because it's like, well, they're so similar.
Yeah, that's fair.

Yeah.
I don't know if I twisted myself into weird pretzels I didn't
need to, or doing that stuff made it work better, but it's
five years later and I'm still thinking about it, so you know.
And you always will be.

Yeah, it's just gonna happen
forever.

I'm, I'm, I'm glad I brought it
up to make sure that you don't get any sleep tonight.
Yeah, you're welcome.

So I transitioned to after I
finished that list, you know, I was like, cool, I have a good
base.

I got like a good I'm like back
in writing about games because I used to, I used to cover games.
I like briefly didn't leave sports, but I stopped doing
sports quite as much And I, I did more games and I was like an
editor for a, an indie digital magazine and I left games for a
bit cuz it was like, oh wow, I'm just constantly playing things
and moving on to the next one.

And I don't think this is very
fun anymore.

But now like kind of picking and
choosing what I want.

And I do freelance work for pace
a couple times a month.

Nice.
And you know, some of the places when I can get the, if the
assignments, But that's, it's nice cuz I'm kind of pick and
choose what I'm doing.

And you know, I write about like
100 games a year at Retro XP, but it's what I want to play
anyway, so it's not.

So if I start to feel like a
huge task or job or something like it's just, it's different.
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, if I start feeling like
I'm falling behind on something, it's like, well, don't play an
RPG.

Yeah.
Oh my God, Like play a few arcade games and you've caught
up like.

Man, there's so many like RPGs
or like big games that come out even like in the last like few
years.

I'm like I want, I want.
I think I'm going to love this game.
I just do not have the time and

I wanna play other things and I
wanna make sure I have enough attention to the games that
we're doing on this show.

You know, like, I don't wanna
let these ones slide, 'cause to me, this is the, this is the
most fun I've I have when I'm playing games is playing these
things 'cause I don't know.

It's just, it's, it's great
whether it's new or whether it's something I haven't played in a
while.

So.
So I yeah, I kinda get that feeling, I guess.
I guess the question is, is there a particular N64 game that
you think or, or is there 1?

I don't, I should have actually,
I knew I knew this list was something you had, but what is
the highest ranked N64 game?

I know I'm I'm kind of like
picking at the at the scab of you being like, Oh, everyone's
going to be upset about this or about that pick, but I just I
just want to.

I want to let anyone will argue.
Actually, no.

People would argue with OF.
Course, there's always.

There's always.
Someone it's Majora's Mask is the highest ranked one.
Nice.

Nice.
But I think the people who would argue with me are once you say
Ocarina of Time, but sure.

Yeah.
And on Green of Time's great and it's influential and it's
important, but one of the things

I was doing with the list was
completely removing influence.

My argument was essentially
like, if you're talking about how important something is and
you're using that as a qualifier, then it's like you
just end up with Super Mario

Brothers number one and and
like.

You know, I mean not on this
list in particular.

And Tetris, right?
Like it's like those, like the two games.
Yeah, so like, you just you kind of back yourself into those
situations.

So that's why it's like if
someone says, well, walk her into times more important than
Majora's Mask, it's like, I don't care.
Like Majora's Mask is a better game.
It's better right now.

It was better than it's better
now.

But that's what I care about, is
what's the most fun to play right this second.
Yeah.

What?
What can you go back to multiple times since like those things,
those things come in here, Yeah, even for a large game like that.
I was gonna say, it was like I was, I was guessing that you
were going to say Ocarina of

Time, but I'm glad you said
Majora's Mask because I prefer

Majora's Mask to Ocarina of Time
and I've argued about that.

I've been arguing about it for
25 years now.

There you go.
Yeah, We, we, we played it for the show.
We haven't done Ocarina of Time yet.
I Majora's Mask was like when we did it, it was the first time I
played more than just a few minutes of it.
And I played the entire thing.

So like that was just last year,
the year before.

So it was really recent for me.
Ocarina of Time I grew up playing, but that's because it
feels like everybody had that game and it was just that that
title like you mentioned, but I haven't played that game in at
least 20 years, at least longer than the first, like opening
half hour.

So when we get to that, I think
that's gonna be interesting too, because now I'll have a more
recent memory or a memory at all of Majora's Mask and I can
compare the two and not not that one has to be better than the
other and blah, blah, all that kind of argument or whatever.
But like they do, they do absolutely.
I am crazy to think otherwise, but it would just be interesting
that kind of from my own perspective be like, oh, now,
now I can really sit here as an adult and not as you know, a 14
year old or 12 year old playing it and like really think of like
the nuances and things like that too, which could be cool so.
That's great.

I can run down, I can run down
quick.

Which N64 games made it
actually?

Yeah.
That'd be neat.

So Blast Corp, I was, I should
say, I was very specific about like, so like, if Rare published
it, it doesn't count, you know, and certain things where it's
like, it has to be Nintendo had to have published it and it has
to be something that like, did not get released in a bunch of
other places.

OK, Gotcha.
So, you know, like they published some like Dragon Quest
remakes or whatever, and it's like, that's not a Nintendo
game.

Yeah.
Yeah, Yeah, yeah, that's fair.

Yeah.
I mean, you hear people talk about this sometimes there's
some websites that'll be like brand new Nintendo game and it's
like, excuse me, it's like a

Square Unix game or something.
And it's like that's on a

Nintendo system.
It's not a Nintendo game.

You can't.
That that's the thing I think of all the time when, when you like
for anyone that has has Netflix or anyone people that don't
work, it's like, oh, it's a it's a Netflix movie or Netflix
production.

It's like, no, you just bought
it is what you did like you just bought.
REST development, That's yeah.

Yeah, right.
Yeah, that except friends like what the fuck you talking about?
You know, like shit like that, like it's, I get it.
That's just how the industry works for that stuff.
But also like, no, like I know you're, they're fooling people
by doing that.

I know they are and that's why
they do it.

But you didn't make this.
You just sign the check.

You know, after the fact it was
after it was even done.

You're just paying for the
distribution, right?

It's just anyways, ANYWAYS,
tangent.

See, see jiggy tangents all over
the place.

You can't take me anywhere these
days.

Last Core and then Star Wars
Rogue Squadron and my excuse for including that had to do with
the fact that actor 5 Vince

Nintendo to make the expansion
pack commercial.

Because it.
Was supposed to just before the 64 disk drive.
Yeah, the DD.

That was, you know, it was
supposed to be just a developer side thing and they were like,
well, let's make that like commercial thing.
Honestly, like if I redo this list, I'll probably take that
off cuz I'll be, I think I'm gonna be, I think I'm gonna be
stricter about some stuff.

OK, All right.
Paper Mario.

Yes, yes.
Godwin.

Game Pokémon Snap.
I had three N64 games in a row,

Paper Mario, Pokémon Snap and
then Super Mario 64.

Probably a lot earlier than
people expected to say, but right there, neck and neck with
sunshine, I like them.

Oh nice.
Pretty much equally, but in different different ways.
I gotta, I gotta play Sunshine.

I haven't played, never played
it, never played it really.

Good, I guess just I have puzzle
league just as like a series here, which has an N64 entry yes
yes over battle 64 that's another one I'll probably take
off but Nintendo published that in in Japan.
OK, so, and it's the only you know, it's not like there's
there's Tactics Ogre, but Ogre battle is like this separate.
It's a separate thing.

Yeah, that that is 1 where we
need to like give ourselves lots of time.
I hear so.

It's so good, it's.
Nice and long.

Apparently, yeah, you will enjoy
the time you spend with it.

Great, then awkward enough.
Time, then sin and punishment.

Oh, man, that's one that me and
Jiggy were gonna play.

And then and the last one.
And then I had a kid.

And then I didn't do anything
for six months.

I forgot about that.
Yeah, we, I gotta, I gotta pick it back up.
I don't think I finished it when we said we were gonna cover it
so.

It is amazing, yeah.
Starbucks 64.

Yeah.
And then Smash.

I don't like the N64 Smash
Brothers, but I include the whole series as a a thing here.
That's another thing I did with, like, I don't want to write
about Smash Brothers six times or whatever, you know?
Yeah, but it's like Smash

Brothers series.
It's very important.

Mario Kart series like that kind
of thing too.

Like.
Yeah, I actually did for Mario

Kart.
I did a double dash and eight.

That's because Double Dash was,
I think, the first of the amazing 3D ones, and it's very
distinct from the rest of the series.
None of them, none other ones are like it, like that's it
stands on its own for sure, yeah.
Exactly.

And all the other ones are kind
of like working up toward what

Mario Kart 8 is.
And Mario Kart 8 is the best of those.
Yeah.

So yeah, pretty much.
I have Mario Kart World.

Hey, it looks I I was, I had my
even though I have a somewhat limited experience with double
dash.

I was kind of hoping they would
add that as like a mode or something, but maybe they will,
you never know.

Maybe there's a there's a rumor
going around.

NSO so.
Yeah, they probably will.

That's true.
There's a rumor going around that there's going to be the
potential of like getting off your cart and running around,
which I don't know if that's true, but it'd be awesome if you
could imagine if you could like play with a friend, be driving
Co-op like around the world.

You both hop off your carts and
just like swap.

Swap the car.
Why 'cause you're like running from the cops and you need to
like switch cars so they don't know who's who.
Like is that why it'd?

Be kind of awesome.
Or like, you know, you run into something and your and your
buddy crashes and they have to like jump onto your cart and
that's how the double dash starts.
I'm sure that's super easy to figure out.
I'm sure they can figure.

I'm sure they got this.
No, that's an easy programming.

No problem.
I I make games, I know how things work.
Yeah.

And then, and then I guess
Majora's Mask is up there.

Where?
Where was Majora's Mask actually in that?
In that list, anyway. 4th.

Oh, fourth.
Nice.

Oh shit.
Damn.

Top top ten, top five.
That's awesome.

Sweet.
OK, so check, check out mark.

Where can where can everybody
find it again?

That's part of retro XP I
assume.

Yeah, it's Retro XP.
It's now dot B Live, which has two IS in it.
I don't know why, but yeah, retroxp.beehive.com.
Sweet.

I'll put I'll put a link in the
show notes too, so if anyone can't remember or doesn't write
it down or whatever, I'll make sure it's in there so people can
link straight to it.

You can find that list and all
the other games that you've been playing and covering and stuff.
So OK, we're going to get to

Star Soldier Vanishing Earth in
just a second.

I just want to make sure that I
let everybody know that you can find us across the Internet.
Of course you can because that is where you find this show.
Remember 64 on all your podcast feeds.
Give us a rating and tell your friends.
That is the best way that more people can find us.
And whether it's just through discoverability or it is just
word of mouth, that is probably the two most powerful things you
can do as far as getting shows out there to everybody.
So make sure you do that.

You can also find us on YouTube
as well.

Remember 64 where you can find
some ridiculous shorts that I have ideas and random sleepy
thoughts on at 2:00 in the morning that I create, which is
the last couple that I've done.

And I'm like, oh, I have this
crazy idea and I can't sleep because my kids crying.
So this is what I'm going to do.

Also some gameplay videos, every
once in a while I will stream as well.
Very inconsistent with that, but

I try to share some hours every
couple weeks with playing some games, whether they're 64 or
otherwise.

And patreon.com/remember 64
show.

You can support the show for as
little as a buck a month.

You can get pre show chats, you
can get some exclusive episodes where I talk about other games
that I'm playing that are not from the N64 and you can get
everything every single episode nice and early, usually at least
a week or just just a little bit, sometimes even more than
that.

So all that stuff is available
for you there.

And what am I forgetting Jiggy?
I feel like I'm forgetting something I.
Thought you did.

Great.
Oh my God.

I.
Thought you did great this time.

Yeah, thanks.
Five stars, which is what people should rate the podcast.
Boom, boom.

Thank you.
Well, as long as Jiggy said I did a good job, I feel like I
did a good job.

So let's let's get to it.
Let's talk about Star soldier vanishing Earth.
Mark, I know you've been talking for a little bit, but because
you're the guest and because you chose this game, one briefly
sort of touch on your experience with the 64 in general and why
this game in particular?

Cause at least for me, like I
mentioned earlier, it's not a game that I have any familiarity
with.

So for me it felt like, oh, this
one came out of left field.

But for a lot of people,
yourself included, it did not so.
Yeah, I don't know if I go so far as a lot of people, but so I
got an N64 not quite at launch, but I don't know within that
first year, you know, God, I played, I think the games I
probably played the the game I probably played the most on it
was was Perfect Dark, which I know, even though that was late,
I just kept playing it and playing it and playing it, you
know, for years after.

I can't I can't imagine I played
anything else as much as I played perfect dark on that.
But I don't know, I just I love that I love that system.
I love the controller.

That's it's probably I, you
know, I'm not I like, I like emulating.
I'm a really kind of like original hardware guy when you
can, but I understand that's not always feasible.
You know, I'm not going to go out and buy a 3D O.
So I got to figure out another way to do things.
The N64, though, is like the one system where I, I don't want to
emulate anything.

And part of that is part of
that's visual, you know, it's actually, I, I feel like people
give it kind of a lot of shit for what like the visuals look
like.

But I think they're playing
through like standard cables on

ATV, you know, the like hooking
it up to ATV, it shouldn't be hooked up to or whatever and
playing it, it's like 60. 4 on your on your 50 inch TV.
It's like that's like.

It's like, yeah, of course it
looks terrible.

Anything from that that era is
going to look worse in that condition, in that.
I've got yeah, exactly.

I've got my 60 fours hooked up
like through S video to a nice

CRT in the basement and it looks
awesome.

You know, and whenever you try
and play so like Star Fox 64, even if you try and play like
the Wii, you know the version on like the Wii U, you know, you're
supposed to you're supposed to like dodge quickly by pressing
AC button.

But now that has been mapped to
an analog stick and like the amount of time it takes to like
double tap an analog stick compared to just pressing the C
button, you know, it kind of it like messes with the experience.
It just doesn't feel right.

And that's the case for so many
of the games.

Like something is just off in
the controls all the time.

So that that's the one where I'm
like, no, I want to play on original hardware.
Bring back the C buttons.

They only brought one back.
Only one and you can't do anything with it.
You just press it and it's not really gameplay related as far
as we know so.

It's, it made me a person who
went out and bought a copy of like, I like, imported a copy of
Senate Punishment, you know, 'cause I'm like, yeah, I had a
lot of fun playing it on the

Wii.
And like, they adjusted the controls and it was fine enough.
And then I played it like in, you know, the way you're
supposed to with the controller that it was designed around.
It's like, oh OK, I like this even more now.
Yeah, I mean, Jiggy, you're you're you're on this page for
sure where it's like that, the control.
I mean, I think it sounds like all three of us are, but like
the controller is something special, right?
Like, I know that's something that you definitely write home
about for sure, yeah.

It's it's, it's, it's an.
I'm not going to say it's an it's not an unpopular opinion,
but it's not a popular opinion.

I I go back and forth with so
many people about it, but I also like the GameCube controller and
people also give me Flack about that so.
I do not, I do not like it, although I have far less
experience with it than I think a lot of people.
But I just I just.

I find it really awkward.
That little yellow sea nipple is amazing, I love it.
Sure, I just don't like the D pad.
That's my only complaint.

About it, Yeah, the D pad's too
small too.

Small that's kind of like so
that's a controller that was designed after everyone went OK,
like 3 dimensional movement one right we don't need the we don't
need digital anymore right whereas the N64 was that perfect
blend of like we don't quite know which way things are going
yet so like let's do everything and I I I.
And I would argue that let like, especially in like the original,
sort of like an actual Nintendo controller, like the joystick
feels great on the 64.

Like it it to me, it has always
felt like it really makes sense.

Like you're like you're
describing where it's like, oh, no, this is this is what it's
supposed to feel like.

And I feel like that's always
the case with the joystick.

You know, some games handle
controls better than others, no matter what, no matter what
console you're talking about.

But I find that that's always
been a strength of it.

And then when you get a
reproduction controller, like one that's digital or whatever,
it's, it's not the same.

Even if you're playing the same
game, there is a difference there.
Yeah, yeah, the the shame that they and the sticks kind of
break over time or or get loose over time.
Mine snaps.

Cause the actual mine.
Snap Plane.

Earthworm Jim, OH.
Man, the actual, the actual movement and the precision of
that stick is so good.

Like Sony didn't touch that
until the PlayStation 4, basically.
Like, as far as like a comfortable stick that does what
you want it to do.

Yeah.
I would I would argue the PS5, but that's just my opinion.
That's the that's the only that's the only one I I'm just
not a PlayStation controller fan in general.
I think the five is the one that feels the most comfortable, but
I'm just not a fan of the layout of the joysticks being in the
middle.

And that's just not my thing.
That's just.

That's funny.
I like the everything in particular.
I like the original.

It didn't have joysticks and
like, that's fine.

And then it's like they slapped,
they slapped those twin sticks on it and I'm like, I don't like
these sticks and I don't like the placement and I don't like
anything about this anymore.

Yeah, no, that's fair.
That's fair.

So OK, so why Star Soldier man,
is this like like one of the games that you were always
playing grown up, like along with sin and punishment in
Perfect dark or No way OK.

No, this one I didn't play until
I was an adult.

Really after so when the, you
know, the we had Virtual Console and that really got me going on
like turbo graphic stuff and you know, Hudson's various shooters,
a few of those games made it on to the Virtual Console service.
That's where I was introduced to like Superstar Soldier, Final
Soldier, Soldier Blade and then

Star Soldier, Star Soldier R,
Superstar Soldier RI, can't remember what they called it,
Star Soldier R.

I didn't realize there were so
many.

There's a bunch I don't.
Think I knew that when I.

Was looking it up, it's wild how
many there are.

Wow, yeah.
So Star Soldier, Star Soldier R was basically just a caravan
mode and they they kind of introduced it with like here's
an online competition.

That's how we're, like getting
you into this kind of game because, you know, caravan modes
had like kind of fallen by the wayside by it was like 2008 or
whatever.

And like, that's where I found
out, like what that even was.

Yeah.
And I played it and played it and played it and played it.
And, you know, I had some pretty high-ranking scores because I
was playing probably too much.

Justin.
Yeah.

Then like Justin.
Then going back, then going back and finding like oh cool.
There's also like I didn't have an NES growing up.
Like I was old enough, but I just didn't have one.
My cousins had one and they didn't have any shoot em UPS or
anything.

So I'm like, oh, there's star
Soldier and there's there's

Hector 87 or Starship Hector.
And like, oh, they did.

They did a Parodia style game
for star soldier with Bomberman in it.
Star Parodier on the on the

Turbo graphics.
And that's.

Crazy or on the PC engine, I
guess.

So it's like, oh wow, there's a
lot of these and then I find I mean I'm like, oh, you know, the
N64 doesn't really have a lot of doesn't have any shoot em UPS.
I don't there were not many shoot em UPS and it's like, oh,
there's a star soldier game on it like cool, I love star
soldier.

So I ended up buying a in a
cartridge.

I don't think it cost too much.
You know, I don't it didn't sell super well or anything, but it's
like not incredibly rare and not held in high enough regard for
people to straight up gouge on it or.
Right.

Not, not back then.
Probably now if I look it up,

I'll be like, oh.
That's what it cost.

Shit, Yeah, probably.
But you know, when I whenever I got it, it was like pretty
reasonable.

Yeah, but that was like as long
as it was.

Oh yeah, it's $55 now. 55, yeah.
Yeah, my, my price charting that is absolutely not what I paid
for.

I think like that and and you
know what, as long as you purchased it before like
2019-2020, you probably got it for a much more reasonable
price.

Yeah, yeah.
I'm, I'm thinking, I don't think

I even paid $30.00 for it.
Yeah, so.

So you sort of like, you sort of
like fell in love with this one as as you did with some of the
others or was it more of like sort of a process or like what's
the?

It's a very, it's different than
the others by a considerable amount.
OK, so this kind of introduced the the chaining for scores.
Oh, this is the one that introduced that.
Oh, OK.

I thought, cuz I thought that
was an interesting idea that I I was picking up on as I was
playing it.

Yeah.
Yeah, they had different ways.

So the score, the way you'd
boost your score and in like the turbo graphics ones is there was
all the stuff to kind of destroy all over the place that like
weren't enemies.

There's like, oh, destroy as
much stuff in the area as you can and you'll find bonuses and
you'll you'll get.

Which is kind of common in games
like this I think.

I feel like that's not super
rare, at least ones that I can remember playing.
Girl I don't even know if what name what game or what game I'm
thinking of but.

Instead of like, instead of like
buildings or kind of destructible environments, it
was straight up just like there's all this shit
everywhere, just like it's all organized and you clearly are
supposed to like that box, that box, that box.
Oh, I see.

Gotcha.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

OK.
And it's, you know, some of them had different colors and
everything like, oh, there's items under that color and
there's you know, so this one kind of went in a different
direction.

I mean, first of all, it's 3D.
But yeah, the chaining was new.

And it's kind of like, you know,
a cave that developer and started making shoot em UPS and
Dodam Pachi did a big thing with with chaining that was like
integral to the whole experience.
And it's interesting, like the score focus stuff with first for
star soldier games was really more about the caravan mode, not
the the main gameplay.

The main gameplay was like a
bunch of stuff is going to try and kill you, see if he could
survive, you know, and the real old ones were kind of more about
scoring, but it was in like it was because of the caravan stuff
as well.

So this is the first one where
emphasis on scoring in the game, like in the main game itself,
became kind of the big deal.

But it's also like.
Not because it's trying to explain it to people.
If anyone hasn't played it or doesn't know quite how they do
it, what they do is basically, and correct me if I'm wrong, if
this is pretty much on the basic level of how it works, you just,
you basically it has like this really, really quick timer in
the top left corner and you have to basically always be shooting
something in order to keep that multiplayer going.
And it counts how many shots or how many things you are hitting
from zero to thousands and thousands.
So you can get up to almost, you know, I, I assume I never did
this, but I assume you can get through an entire level, always
hitting something or getting very close to that.
And the more you do that, the more multiplies your score and
you kind of go from there.

And you can use your different
weapons and obviously your movement and stuff to sort of
make it happen.

But you know, the, the levels
and the enemies are pretty much set up so that if you are able
to and understand the levels or be able to read them and the all
that kind of stuff, you can keep that number going up and up and
up.

And the it's almost, is it one
second, like half a second where it resets.
So it's really fast.

It's fast, yeah.
It's.

Super, super fast.
So it is really a a skill based thing.
It's not just hey, let's just see what the number can be.
You really have to think about what you're doing on top of
trying to survive in a game like this.
Anyways, I just thought I would yeah, get to that.
Yeah, So they hadn't done that sort of thing necessarily
before.

So it's kind of a different
approach, different development team than had been going.
And they, they kind of based the, the, the graphics in PGPC
engine Star Soldier games on compiles blazing lasers, which
was a huge change to do the series like that in the 1st
place because the original, the original Star Soldier was based
on Tecmo's Star Force.

Oh, yeah, that's right.
I had that.

I wrote that down the notes,
too.

That's Star Force.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And they did the Famicom port
for it and then Tecmo did the the NES one.
But so Hudson did, they had their first, their first caravan
festival, which I don't know if you know what they did for the
caravan festival.

No, I don't.
So they had they had a big yellow van with AB on it, which
is because it's Hudson, but they would essentially drive a chosen
game found Japan and let people play it.
And you would like, you know, there's people are trying to
like best high, do like the best high scores.
And it was it, they became these very popular tournaments to the
point where it was like, OK, specific games were made with
caravan, the summer caravan in mind.
And then they were competing caravans as well because of the
success Hudson saw with this stuff.
So they made, so this first one happened, they they used Star
Force even though they just were responsible for the port.
So they were like, oh, we should make our own game.
So they made, they made Star

Soldier, you know, as like their
original work.

And it's very like, it's
different than Star Force, but it's very clearly like it could
be a sequel.

If you didn't know anything,
you'd just be like, oh, this is just what happens when you
release a game like a year or two after the the year after the
previous one.

Yeah, but then they, you know,
they just kept making it like that and they introduced the
caravan mode into into these games over time.
So you could just like at home, like here's your two-minute
challenge, here's your 5 minute challenge, right?
Which this has in that time, yeah.
Yeah, and now you see, like the caravan stuff has gone on so
much.

It used to just be like Hudson
and Max AT and a couple companies.
And now there's a lot of like all those arcade archive games
have caravan mode, which is, you know, the two-minute or five
minute challenge and Terra Ren, who does a lot of like throwback
shooters to the time of like

Compile and Star soldier and all
that stuff.

A lot of those games have
caravan modes in them too.

So it's cool that it's it's
persisted, you know, but it got started with like Hudson driving
a van around and being like, who wants to see who's the best of
Star Force?

That's crazy.
How much?

That's the answer.
You know, those vans are floating around somewhere and
they're probably like so exclusive.
The dude from Top Gear probably has it.
Oh, yeah, probably.

Yeah.
Yeah.

If anyone's going to have it,
it'll be those guys.

Yeah.
Did you?

So you play this a little bit
later and stuff?

Jiggy, what about you?
I think you mentioned that you.

I had this.
You.

Oh, you owned it.
Oh, wow.

I.
Owned it.

Yeah.
I had this as a kid.

And you're so cool.
I don't.

I never had.
Any of this kind of shit.

So OK, let me let me explain why
I had this.

This was like.
You have to explain.

Just say you're you sat at the
cool kids.

Well, it's OK.
I got the N64.

Obviously, I'm a, I'm a, I'm
younger.

I got it in 99, OK.
And so because I was on that back end, I think I've said this
before, but we've had my dad and

I had the opportunity to go to
places that were like, we were also in that like spot where
like movie rental stores like started closing down and stuff.
So we would go and like there were several that were just
closing down and just getting rid of inventory.
This is one of those games that

I just randomly thought, hey,
this is kind of cool.

We just added it to the pile.
Like my dad bought me like 40-50 games.
Like it was awesome.

This is one of them.
I played the crap out of it, never beat it, but I really
enjoyed it and I liked.

I played as the blue ship the
most, but if I had to pick between the ships, I don't know.
The green 1 was pretty cool too.

I think the red 1 was my least
favorite.

I had their names and everything
pulled up here, but we don't need to get into that quite yet.
But we.

Will we'll get there.
We'll get there.

I just love the special, like
just flying around.

It's I really love Starfox 64
and in my mind this was very similar to that, just like it's
different.

But it was, it was like giving
me Starfox 64 vibes.

So it was like another sort of
another outlet for me in that way.
But yeah, I just thought it was really cool and fun fact about
this.

So closing out my mom's house,
she was selling her house and and moving and it was going
through old stuff.

This is one of two games that I
found the box for.

I had the box for Star Soldier.
It, it wasn't like super great shape, but it was like intact.
And I was like, this is pretty dope.
And I, I don't remember, I think at the time I looked up like an
inbox copy and it was something stupid like $300 or something.
I'm like, oh.

My gosh.
Yeah.

It was pretty cool.
It was just cool.

You want to know what the other
game was?

You're going to love it.
I mean I had.

Two boxes, they were right on
top of each other like they were flattened out and I had them and
the other one was Superman 64.

Yes.
Yeah, it was.

It was awesome.
Yeah, 2 equally caliber games, obviously.
I swap between them, you know, play Superman, play star
soldier, play Superman.

And you know what, I could see
that, like you said, like, oh, I played this shit out of this,
but I never beat it.

But it it's it's kind of one of
those games, especially at a younger age, where that's
totally fine.

You know it.
It's.

It's kind of hard like.
Dude, I found it.

I found it hard.
I'll I'll get into sort of the details of like why I suck at
this game, but like I was like, what the like it's is something
wrong with me?

What am I do?
I can't.

I thought I was good at these
games growing up and I I just, I just was not so.
Did you if you look at, if you look at like, you know the
boards like where people talk about shoot em UPS?
Yeah, yeah.

And they're like, oh, this one's
so easy.

Whatever.
It takes like no time.

And it's just like easy for you
because you were a person who posts on a board.
Specifically.

Yeah, like, yeah, most people,
yeah, it's gonna take some doing, you know, come on.
Like, yeah, I can beat it or whatever, but I'm not like, Oh
yeah, that was a cinch or whatever.
It's like, no, this is, this has its moments.
And if you like, play the wrong way or you use the wrong kind of
ship or whatever, or you, you never master the dodge, you
know, the reflecting thing like.

No, I could.
That's gonna be really hard.

I I like it, but I couldn't.
I definitely could not.

Master is not a word that I
would use in my experience playing this game.
I'll tell you that.

Jiggy, did you?
Did you have some time to revisit it and stuff?
Which would you think if you did?
I did.

I really enjoyed it.
Yeah.

I was having fun.
I feel like I played it very similar to I did when I was a
kid.

Like I popped in and I was like
switching between the ships.

Like I play like I basically
just played till I died.

And then I'd be like, do you
want to continue?

I'd be like, no.
And then I'd go back and then

I'd swap my ship and then I'd be
experimenting with all the weapons and stuff.
I just thought that was super cool and I still think the blue
one's my favorite.

I remember the blue one being my
favorite.

I think it's still my favorite,
although the main weapon is not my favorite.
The green one's way cooler I think.
But I also like was looking at the stats, which is something I
never really paid attention to as a kid, but I'm like, do these
really affect it?

I don't know if I could really.
I don't know.

Like it, it's just like move and
roll and stuff and I'm like, I don't know if it's that dramatic
of a change that it really makes a difference.
Also, too, it's like because I didn't like I didn't, it's not
like I played this for hours and hours and I like I wasn't
endlessly playing this in the last couple weeks, but like,
wouldn't you just look at the move and roll bar and be like,
I'll just take the one that's maxed out?
That's the best.

That's exactly why is that.
Just the best one.

Like why take the one that's
half half that?

Like what?
Why wouldn't you just wait?

I don't know.
But the the weapons that I mean, that's what you have to like
play around with.

That's that's what you have to.
Play around with the weapons with each ship.
Yeah, those are really the deciding factor, and they each
have unique weapons and they feel different and it's kind of
awesome.

Yeah, Yeah, I did like that.
It was unexpected.

Yeah.
Sorry.

Go ahead, Mark.
So the it's funny, they have the multiple ships here because the
other star soldiers star sold.

I can't, it's a good thing I
can't say the word soldier right now, right after the star.
That's not important to what we're doing or anything.
The older Star Soldier games.

Oh, OK, OK, OK, OK.
One ship but you had multiple weapons and you could go
especially after.

Like pick them up or something.
Yeah, yeah.

And especially after blazing
lasers where they like combine because that was the compiled
style of doing things was like you're experimenting by
combining different things together and getting kind of
attacks and weapons that you wouldn't have had like on their
own or they're upgraded in some way.
So here they just instead of having you, you know, you can
make whatever your weapon is stronger, but you can't switch
your weapon, right?

Right.
Which is not how the few of the previous ones worked.
But instead they're like, OK, what if we take three of the
established weapon types from these games and make each of
them a ship?

Right.
Which is kind of a different way to do it.
And previously the the the bombs which here what are they X arms?
Like X arm?

Yeah, I think it's X arm, yeah.
So those would be like you would have, you'd have options maybe
flying around your ship and you could like sacrifice them as a
bomb kind of.

So it's a different situation
than here.

But here they do more than like
screen clearing bomb thing, limited, limited use, you know.
So it's an interesting, it's like a bunch of new stuff and
then like old stuff, but kind of presented in a different way.
Yeah.

Do you so you have you have
obviously much, I mean especially compared to me, but
you have more experience with like the variety of these games
or just this this franchise or series or ones that are similar.
Do you find, do you personally find that this one is like it's
different, but is it quote UN quote better or is it just it's
doing its own thing or do you like the differences or what do
you think?

It's doing it's own thing.
I think it I think it does a good job with the thing that
it's doing as well.

I but I also think it's very
it's easier to miss what this game's trying to do and then not
have a good time with it.

I feel like if you don't engage,
you know the other ones again, since they're just throwing
stuff at you and you're trying to not die.
If you were trying to not die also, which feels like a pretty
like that should be your goal, right?
Without much thought.

Whether you can do it or not is
like separate from whether you're like, yes, I'm trying not
to fail.

Right, of course.
So you can like engage with what the game is doing very easily.
But here it's like if you don't engage with the chaining system,
you're not going to score all the points you need because the
game is expecting you to die.

But you'll have like it's giving
you lives very generously, but you have to earn those lives by
scoring all these points with all the you know, and it wants
you to find those hidden levels because the hidden levels are
like cooler.

The hidden levels are better
than most of the regular.

I I saw them, but I never
actually got the chance to play them.
Like I, I didn't know that there were any.
And then when I was looking up more of the games, like, oh,
there's hidden level, like I just again, I just was not good
at this game.

I just, you know, I just, yeah.
They just give me that little like, yeah, they're like here
when you see this, we're not telling you what to do, but like
this is a moment where you should figure something out.
They're it's tough moments because it's like, oh, here's 6
blue ships, there's one red ship.
If you destroy a single blue ship, you will not unlock the
the secret level.

But if you like.
Wait.

Long enough, blue ship will kind
of retreat and then the red ship will be left all alone and you
kill the red ship and then you know you'll fly over the space
station or through a Canyon or something that you wouldn't have
anyway.

You still have to survive long
enough to like get to the end.

It's not like it brings you
right to the special level, right?
But the which?

To Jiggy's point, the the that's
sort of a shared Starfox 64 type thing too, right?
Where if you find out what you need to do, you sort of solve
that mini like real time puzzle and then you move on to like a
different.

Path it's it's got a lot of
similar elements to something like Starfox or Starfox has a
lot of similar elements to something like this, I should
say.

Right, because it would have
come before it.

Yeah, or or it's cool.
It's it's.

Really the perspective that's
like dramatically different.

It's just like top down versus,
you know, and this is more like a rogue light type situation.
Well, it's yeah.

It's like if you fail to, you
can beat Star Fox 64 without being any good at that game.
Yeah, You know, Yeah.

Come very close at least, yeah.
Yeah.

And then it's like I played for
40 minutes and I don't know if I enjoyed myself.
But if you it's, again, if you engage with the game the way it
wants to be and you get much better at like taking down a
higher percentage of enemies and you find the secrets and then
you're like, oh, this game rules.
This game's actually amazing.

There was so much.
There's so much this game has to offer.
I just have to be willing to, like, engage with it and notice
it and want to be part of what it's doing.
But yeah, I remember, like the very first time I played it, I
was probably, I feel like I was too young to really get it.
Yeah.

So I was like, yeah, I was like,
well, yeah, that was fun.

But like.
What am I doing?

And then I went back to it.
I went back to it later and played more and was like,
actually, this game like fucking rules.
This game rips, right?

But they took some time.
There's one mechanic, I'm just curious if you know what it
actually does if you press down.

I think it's down on the C
button.

You do like your little
thruster.

Yeah.
What the heck does that actually do other than just make a big?
Change the speed of your ship so it says the is it actually,
Yeah, in the top left corner where it says like low, medium,
high, Yeah, that that's that's your speed.
No kidding.

So it's there are times where
you want to go slower.

I think it's more noticeable
with some of the ships in the you know they show the speeds
when you're doing the like ship select.
I think it might be more noticeable for some of them than
others.

OK.
Just like the the jumps in in velocity are are more
significant less?

I didn't know.
I was like, what is this doing?

And I kept tapping it and I
didn't know.

So the only reason why I figured
that out, or I mean I ended up looking it up, is how I didn't
just naturally get it.

But like with these games, if
you're emulating it, for example, which I did, I've said
this before, it's like what a help to look up the manual, you
know, because I probably would have told you right?
What I did was like, what is that mid thing in the top left?
Like what is what is that mid?

What like mid power?
Am I not picking up enough points?
Like what it what am I only doing?
OK, like what does that mean?

So I looked it up and it was.
It was the speed otherwise.

I wouldn't even question that.
I'd never even like.

I was just like mid OK at.
Least this one starts.

At least this one starts in the
middle because I think there's some of them where you start on
the lowest speed and you're like, wow, I feel like I'm
flying a tank through space tank controls.
In space, what I didn't I didn't really get into a lot of variety
of of choosing different ones.

Maybe I should have and that
would have helped me out or whatever.
I had a pretty good time playing this game.
I I don't know, it's weird because there was the one the
most experience I have with this genre of game where it's the.
We're supposed to just take out the Reds there.
That one, yeah, that's one of the ones.
See, I probably was just like, blow everything up.
That's that's my and.

That's what I would do, yeah.
Sorry to.

Interrupt No, no, it's it's it's
good to know because now when I get to this level next, which I
I, it's easy to pick up and play this game, which I think is a
big plus.

I I enjoy that about just like
this genre or these style of games, Mark, because you have
like a decent amount of sort of experience with games like this
or ones in the franchise and stuff and similar.
The one of the games, it's one of the first games I remember
playing because it was like a demo and we had computers that
basically didn't run anything.

And this was just before I got
my SNES was a game called

Raptor.
I think there's a subtitle to it too.
That's the, that's the game in this genre that I played the
most growing up.

And it was like A2 level demo on
my cousin's PC.

And like, that's what it was.
And it's, you're just like a, you know, a, an army ship and
you're flying and you're just trying to survive basically and
stuff.

So that game wasn't that intense
and it's one that I just remember the most.
And then I turned this one on and it was like holy snikies,
Like I got to think about what

I'm doing here.
And then the dodge, like you said, is a big part of it.
And like, I don't know if these games are my thing anymore
because like, I enjoyed it, but

I, I wasn't like, Oh, this is
incredible.

This is like the, the, this is
like exactly what I wanted from this type of game.
Or maybe I'm just not good at it.
And that's what ruined part of my experience.
Again, I don't think it's, I don't think it's like a really
on the game all that much.

I think part of it's my own
fault, but it didn't click in the way that I thought I might
have.

And I think maybe if I give it
more time and I'm sort of like, like we're sort of watching
someone right now as we talk, sort of basically know exactly
what this boss is fight is gonna do and how.
Yeah.

They're not.
They're not even using the the the reflect thing.
They're just like.

Literally.
Just like if I said in this quarter, I avoid everything.
Yeah, which which is a skill in itself, right, to know how to do
that when where all those things yeah, memorization.
It's it's it's memorizing boss patterns and stuff that's or
just in general a game like this, memorizing the patterns of
all the ships leading up to that point too, right.
That's a big part of it and a way to to multiply that score
that we were talking about.

So I don't know that I would
ever get to that point specifically, but I think if I
put maybe even just a little bit more time or a couple more hours
or something, I'd be like, this is like really Jelly and really
clicking.

So I think I might have missed
that just a touch.

But I do see how this is a
pretty nuanced game, but like below the surface kind of thing.
So I think on surface level, it just looks like, like I
mentioned on my silly little quip off the top, hold on to the
A button and just try to survive essentially.
And like you, I guess you could do that.
You probably won't do great.

You'll maybe make it a couple of
levels if you get lucky with your pickups and stuff.
But to get to that 4th, 5th, 6th stage, which I think there's six
in total, you, you need to know what you're doing when you get
to like 5 and 6 especially.

Yeah, yeah, the end, the end
game, the last, the last secret area and then 5-6 are like,
that's hard.

The whole game was like this.
A lot of more people would have put it down earlier.
Yeah, Oh, yeah, yeah.

And that, and that's actually
true because like the first stage is is pretty simple and
pretty easy and like, I think, you know, that that the
progression of the difficulty I found actually totally made
sense and was was really good.

I kept getting my ass kicked in
the sixth one, like I just I couldn't get past it.
And and that's fine, you know, that's that's part of learning
the game and and whatever, right.
But yeah, I liked it.

I just didn't like it as much as
I thought I would, I think.

I'll say you're kind.
Of blaming yourself for this.

But I will say I like this game.
I think it's a good game.

I'm not like I mean, I I have
played a lot of shoot em UPS right a lot and like this is a
good game.

I like this game.
I am coming on a podcast to talk about this game because.
I like, I mean, hey, we've had people come on that.
Superman's a perfect example where we had Jake come on and
just say let's just play a shitty game.
So hey, it happens.

But you know if I was trying to
like turn someone on to shoot em

UPS or make them feel the way
that I feel when I play just like like this is not what I
would suggest.

Right.
So, so you got, you know, you're, you're being a little
hard on yourself, but like, no,

I could, I could probably
suggest some things to you if I, if I knew a little more about
like the kinds that have interested you and you know, I
might be able to show you the one that will change your.
Life I I wish, I wish I could list off how many in this genre
I have played in the last 10 to 15 years.
I would maybe be able to count it.
I, I for sure I'd be able to count it on one hand.
Like it's just, it's just not one in recent memory, at least
that I could remember.

I mean, they're not, they're not
as popular as they were either, right?
Like this was a, this was a 90s genre.
It was an arcade genre and stuff.
I, I, in my experience, I don't,

I can't think of anything off
the top of my head that would definitively be, oh, this is
that game from the last, let's let's say 15 years or something.
But maybe they just haven't been on my radar and maybe that's on
me.

I don't know.
So.

Yeah, so there you go.
Yeah, I mean, there's actually been like a huge revival, but
it's still niche.

Like you have to be looking for
it.

Right now, maybe that's that's
that's the simple instead of me rambling for two minutes, maybe
I just said should have said niche and that would have solved
that well.

No, I mean, they did.
They did go underground, you know, they were it.
Space Invaders was the biggest game in the world at one point,
and then ZVS was one of the most influential games ever.
Yeah.

Huge in Japan, sold well in the
NES, you know, and there was like a a string of all that
stuff, you know, Galaga is still super popular.
Galaga's great.

Oh my God.
But fighting games, you know, fighting games pushed shoot em
UPS out of the arcades so or at least out of like their Primo
position.

And then like the Sega Saturn
was the system that had the most of them for like at home.
And you know that didn't that's old even fewer systems and the
and the N64 did by like.

A a lot decent margin.
Yeah, that's the that's the one console or not, not only
console, but one of the quote UN quote mainstay consoles that I
have.

Poof.
Almost 0 experience with like

I'm I was part of the problem
so.

I've got one, I got 1 you.
Got 10 there's there's one in the store near me and I was so
tempted, but I'm like, but then it's going to be an investment.
I got to get into it.

It's just one thing at a time.
Let's go through the N. 64, my friend have about it.
We'd always hunt for games.

Like for him, I'd be like, dude,
I'm at a store, they have Saturn games.
Like you want any of these?

And it sent him a picture.
I'm trying to remember what it was.
It's just like the weirdest game because it's got Kirk Cameron.
If you know who that is, the actor, like the 90s actor, maybe
late 80s.

I'm trying to think of the show
he was in.

He does like a lot of Christian
content now.

Yeah.
He's he's, he was like.

He.
Growing pains, Yeah, the.

Older brother in growing pains.
Yes, yes, and he was in this game in like the cutscenes.
It was like any it was like a weird like medieval yes, it was
like a weird medieval thing and it was like build your build
your like fortress sort of a thing and like zombies would
come at night.

I don't know what this game was
called.

I can't remember, but I remember
being the horde.

Is it called the horde?
I'm actually like Google real quick.
It says the Horde, yeah.

That's when I look it up.
That's we type in his name and video game the horde pops up.
That is like one of the few games I played on Sega Saturday.
Yes, this is it.

This is it.
I just looking at the image of the game this.
Is happening in this game.

Dude, it's hilarious.
Well, I will say that.

And the cutscenes are fantastic.
The cutscenes are fantastic.

You need to just like watch the
cutscene, like the opening cutscene.
It's so funny we.

Can do that if you want.
Yeah, it's Kirk Cameron.

It's totally worth it.
I played a couple other Saturn games too, like Nights.
And is it bug bugs?

It's like, or zapper bugs.
I think I'm mixing games together.
Oh.

This guy's streaming it.
No, it's just.

I think it's just bug.
Yeah, Bug.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I played that
one.

What's an?
Exclamation point.

I didn't really care for bug,
it's probably a good thing didn't get that Sonic extreme.
Yeah, bugs too.

Yeah, I think it did, Crystal.
Dynamics made the horde crystal.

Dynamics made it.
Dude, I'm telling you.

It's awesome dude.
Being a ruler is a difficult business.
I thought you could handle it, but I see that I was wrong.
Shall I alert the executioner,

Sire?
No, no, no, no.

The cook along the views of my
mighty.

Sword grim it.
Served me well defending the

Kingdom from the evil,
insatiable, terrifying horde.

It's just like a laugh track.
It's happening.

It's crazy dude.
That's like when I love that game.
It was so fun.

I would totally play through the
whole thing.

I want to get a Saturn just.
I love how I just played a clip from a Saturn game, whereas I
can just like, maybe play the audio clip from the game we're
talking about.

Anyways, through all that noise,
I thought the music was actually kind of good.
Yeah, it was like, it's hard to.

It's hard to sit there and focus
on the music when you just.

Yeah, here the Open.
It does slap.

It is good, you know.
What it kind of reminded me of.

I'm a huge fan of the early
double dragon games.

It kind of reminded me of a
double dragon.

Soundtrack.
Yeah, like that high pitched synth, I guess you could call
it.

Yeah, it does have.
It does have that kind of vibe like.
Like Super Double Dragon, play that which I yeah, love that
game and then play this and it, it felt similar.
But maybe that's just because I have so much experience playing
that particular super, like

Super double Dragon game.
So.

Oh yeah.
I was going to say Streets of

Rage.
I was trying to remember.

I was like totally blinking.
I'm like, it does have that sort of vibe, like.
Yeah, it's keeping upbeat while you're beating.
People.

Yeah, yeah.
This is our composer's first.

This was the composer's first
game that he composed.

He was on.
He was like a sound programmer of sound effects in previous
games.

Oh wow, nice.
But he has done most of the

Mario Party games.
Oh no.

Pietro Shimakura, There's a lot
of.

Made Mario Party.
That's in Mario.

Party and then when Hudson got
absorbed by Tanami or even while

Hudson was still existing, but
they weren't doing Mario Party anymore and D Cube was formed by
a bunch of former Hudson employees and like as a Nintendo
studio making making Mario

Party.
So that's where a lot of the that's where a lot of the tech,
the that's where a lot of the former Hudson devs ended up
going.

Not all of them, but it's
probably more former Hudson devs at Nintendo than there are in
the place that like a Hudson.

Look at that.
We're we're full circle, OK, We started this conversation about
the N64 controller and the joystick and it breaking and now
we're back to.

Oh yeah.
By the way, the people that made this game is Hudson, who also
made Mario Party, which is the game notorious for breaking your
N64 controller joysticks and.

Your boom, it didn't break.
It didn't break my joystick, but

I had the I definitely had the
he.

Had the palm thing.
Yeah, me too.

Yeah, me too.
You know, you know what blows my mind?
I, I think like there, there's a certain amount of people that
probably learn from someone else, like, oh, that's how you
play that mini game.

But you just naturally, like if
you isolated like 6 kids, they all played Mario Party, they all
played this game.

You just naturally know that
this is how I can make it.

Go spin it.
Around.

Yeah, you know that's true.
You gotta account for that, yeah.
And what's the same thing as when you, like, turn the
controller so you can like slam, you know, press the button.
It's like you're not gonna be able to press the.
You know I do that like I.

I do the AB thing I I do it
sideways in a like.

Yeah cuz I can I can push faster
with I'm left-handed.

I feel like it gives me I can do
more with this one.

Left-handed especially would
make a difference.

Yeah, for sure.
I think what I've done it's harder to do with the 64
controller just because of the shape of it.
But like if it was a SNES1 or some you know what that's flat,
I would put it on the floor or on the chair or on my lap and
use both my my fingers to back.

And forth we can't talk about
this anymore.

I'm having like mad Canary Mary
like flashbacks right now from

Banditui.
I'm just like I can't, I can't.

My fingers like are getting sore
just thinking about.

It well, actually recently we
played, we, we just played Ray

Man 2 like a month ago.
Or something and those mini games, those mini.
Games, that's what I did.

I put it on my lap and I was
like, and I was like balancing it on my knee while I was
playing it and I was like.

Go back and forth.
I would go back and forth by pressing the buttons like this.
Yeah.

And then I'd be like, and then
I'd switch to my finger and my thumb and then go back and forth
like this.

And I go and then switch back.
Sorry, what was?

What was that sound?
What was?

That and capture that sound bite
that later.

For future reference, I will say
the I played the, I played the

N64 version of Raymond 2 like a
billion times.

But this last experience, I
played the Dreamcast version because I was just like, I'm
gonna play the different version to get a slightly different
experience.

And I will say the N64
controller is a much more pleasurable experience for those
bonus levels.

The buttons on the Dreamcast
feel like mushier there.

There's some they're not bad.
It's not that it feels bad, it's just like comparatively they
don't like bounce back as fast.

So I feel like it was like
holding me back are.

They smaller too.
I feel like they are smaller.

Smaller.
Yeah, they are smaller.

Yeah, that makes a.
Difference.

I have them stored in the back
but.

Yeah, but especially as like an
adults like a smaller like primary button or button buttons
like that would make a difference.
Like if the if the size of the C buttons were the main AB on a 64
like I, I, that would feel weird

I think like yeah, if that was
game B, the size of those so.

You know, we need to go back.
We need to go back to the

GameCube.
Every Button's gotta be like that, A button.
Let's just make them really big.

Really.
Big.

But then you're gonna have a
controller that's the size of the Xbox.
I don't care which I like.

I like that.
I think that's joke.

Yeah, Yeah, I think.
We but it, but it wouldn't have wasted space because all the
buttons would be giant.

So yeah.
And analog triggers.

Dude, I could make the perfect
controller.

Come on, somebody hire me just
to design it.

I don't.
I don't.

Give me 10 bucks.
Buy me dinner.

I'll just draw it for you.
I'll draw you the perfect controller and then you handle
the rest and I'm out.

I would like to know where you
go to dinner for $10.

What's 10?
Dollars in addition to dinner, I think. $10 was like, that's my.
Mistake.

I was like, and dinner, and that
is what I was what I was trying to get because, you know, I'm
going to milk them for all they're worth.
We're going to like Red Lobster or something.
Red Lobster.

Isn't Red Lobster gone now too?
Maybe you'll save it.

Maybe you'll save it I think.
That was the only like semi cheap semi cheap fancy
restaurant I could think of so.

I'm going to bring this full
circle in another way, since we're talking about hitting the
controller really fast.

So the guy who was an attraction
at the caravans for Hudson was

Takahashi Mission because he
could, he ended up being like their promotional guy, like he
didn't do development or anything, but he was an employee
for the company.

He was like face of the company,
like public face of the company.

They used his likeness for the
Adventure Island character, but he could he could press 17 shots
per second, which was huge for a game like Star Soldier.
Star Soldier back in the day, because you didn't have the auto
fire, you couldn't hold the button down you.
Had to press you.

Shot as fast as you pressed.
So he could do 17 shots per second, but they actually like
lied and said he could do 16 because he liked the way it
sounded better.

He shaved off a shot per second,
but he's just got this like inhuman press, press speed and
he like designed an analog stick.
Oh my God, it's an analog stick to use on the on the Famicom
which I would love to like.

Get That is an absolutely crazy
number.

It's in he can still how.
Do you do that?

I can't even.
Yeah, like I want to see a video.
It's kind of there.

What does that look like?
I am sure you can.

You probably can't even see that
it's.

Like a flash speed force thing
or how how it like freezes everything, you know, Yeah.
Yeah, what's what's the name of it?
What's the guy's name of it?

Takashi.
Takashi yeah, let me see if I can find.
And when you said his likeness,

I thought you were about to say
for the B.

Let's see here I'll.
The Hudson B.

See if that oh, that might be
it.

Takashi Izuka?
No, I know who that is.

Yeah, that's not him.
That's the guy who won't give me the chow garden.
Let's see.

Oh, I dropped one in the yeah.
Oh my gosh you.

No, that's not fapping.
That is him pressing the button super fast.
Yeah, it's not.

So he's like 6.
They had him do the Star Soldier

R1 during that challenge event.
They included the second thing they did in addition to the
two-minute and the five minute caravan was they did a like
shots per second challenge.

And.
They had online leaderboards for it and everything and I think I
got up to, I think my highest was probably like 10 1/2.
That's that's pretty sweet.

Holy shit that's great.
That's good he was still doing, you know, this is 20 plus years
after he was like famous for it.

And he was still doing.
He was doing, he was doing almost 12 1/2 shots per second.
Which is like, yeah.

His OK, I'm not even kidding.
If anybody's ever watched the flash on CW when he goes when
they go to like vibrate their hand as like a weapon to like
kill people right.

His hand is doing that right
now.

It's literally blurred like.
Yeah, they, they didn't go around in the van and like, show
off doing that.

So the little controller thing
measures how much he's how fast.

Like that little controller that
you can hear him clicking is measuring how fast he's actually
pressing the button.

And it has a little number that
pops up and says, at least in this particular video, I think
at the end, it's at 16, I think.

But I think that's this.
Is going to sound bizarre, but I would love to get like an X-ray
of his wrist.

Just see it like in motion.
Like what?

What's moving in his hand?
Is it, but I think it I think it's wouldn't it be like your
elbow more than anything?

Like I'm trying to think of like
like you would keep your wrist maybe stiff so that you can like
I'm just trying to think of how you would do that.
And I feel like it would have to be your talking.
Technique.

We got to know what muscle he's
using because like for me, it just goes right to my forearm
and listen, I got a pretty you know, I got a decent forearm.
It's you know, look at you solid.
It's solid.

Look at that, look at that, flex
it OK, and I can the power of youth.
The power of not having a child.

I feel like if we have a video
of this it's gonna like be a meme online.
I should stop doing.

That power review Power reviews
with a with a in the back.

And in the air for the for the
listeners and I was doing the motion, you know what I was
doing.

I mean, I have the video, I have
the video, I can make it happen.

Oh my bad.
So Hudson's no more.

Yeah, that's right.
Yeah, Takahashi still out there, though, he he partnered in a in
a game that came out in the last few years called Star Gagnant.
I think that's how you say it.

It's out on the Switch.
I think it's out on Steam too.

And that whole game is unlike a
lot of other stuff where it's like here's auto fire.
This game is designed around the idea of shooting as fast as you
can, then you have to press the button.
But like it is built into the gameplay.
It's not just like, oh, shoot a lot and you'll do better.
Like the concept of keeping your shots per second up high is
built into it.

So I mean, you want to talk
about like you're getting tired 30 minutes into playing a game
or whatever.

You know, I was like playing and
trying to like move up in the leader boards in that game, and
I was doing well enough that I wanted to keep doing that.
And it's just like, Oh my God, this is exhausting.
How do you I've seen this game, it's got a whole bunch of like
scores on the side and it has all these like different sort of
gauges and like on your head and stuff.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've seen this.
Yeah, the higher your rapid fire is, the more points you're
getting in addition to it, like helping you sustain the chain
that you have, which gives you even more points.
Yeah, that's a cool like cartoony style and stuff too.
Like the art style of.

It's really cool.
Yeah, it was made by the company

I mentioned earlier.
Yeah, there's a ton of these kind of throwbacks, even though
it's like a one person studio as far as I can tell.
I don't know.

I don't know about the music,
but yeah, like the rest of it is this one person.
And yeah, yeah, he partnered with Mention and did something
based on the the thing he's like most known for.
That's awesome.

That's that's cool looking game
that actually before I sort of forget just because I mentioned
the he should have put the controller.
I don't like create it.

I don't have a crazy I.
Have an Xbox controller beside me.
I'm just blown away.

That was the crazy.
That was the craziest visual

I've ever seen.
I just can't believe his hand was just blurred it was moving
so fast.

Yeah, his.
Like he can understand why, like the caravans took off when it's
like we have to go see the person do the impossible thing
and like play a game doing.

Yeah, absolutely.
This is five years after, I think it's five years after
like, Space Invaders, which like

Space Invaders blew everyone
away.

And, you know, and obviously
like, that's that's it was great.
But like, man, it's slow moving compared to the guy who's like,
watch me press this button 17 times per second.
Watch me blow your mind and not break this controller by going
crazy with it.

Like watch like that's insane.
That's some real freaking skill, man.
Like that's that's really impressive.
That's impossible.

Like, do you think he uses that
as like a not like a party trick, but like he goes
somewhere and he like, like I just imagine trying to pick up a
girl or something and he's just like, check this out.
He's like, I was really big in the 90s.
He's just like, I'm like, OK.

And.
Like what?

What does he carry around that
little thing everywhere?

He's like, Oh yeah.
Yeah, I mean, I would.

It's cool.
Do not.

Yeah, Hey, you gotta, you gotta
work with what you're best at, man.
That's you gotta do what you gotta do.
I mean he has not one, but he has not one but 2 video game
characters modeled after him so.

You know, yeah, you said the
Adventure Island.

What's the other one?
It's the star Gagnon.

He's like.
He's like a.

Captain in it like his
likenesses in it, but the.

Adventure Island one's a little
insulting, but I do remember it.

Yeah, if you see a picture of
him in the 80s where he's like wearing a baseball hat and like
just kind of standing around, you're like, no, OK, I see it
like, yeah, that's.

Oh, there it is.
Yeah.

That's him.
How about that?

Cuz I also I feel like that
looks a little weird and I think

I did.
I think when I wrote about

Adventure Island, I put the like
a photo of him in a photo of the characteristics.
I was like, oh shit, that is that is him.
How about that?

It's not, it's not too, too bad,
but yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's Oh yeah.
Here we go. 86.

Is that what it is?
Yeah.

So that's, you know, people got
people should look it up because it's, it's pretty.
Yeah.

I, I see, I see where you're
coming from, Right.

Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, he's got a shirt on there.

You know, it's unlike his video
game counterpart, but.

Yeah, he's just good, but he's
wearing a hula skirt.

There it is.
The question is.

It like that's him, you know,
You're like, Oh yeah, OK.

Yeah, you could see it.
On vacation, you know, no shirt on.
There you go.

This is what he does on his
spare time, on vacation or just or just, you know, when he
decides to cruise an island.

That's, you know, Yeah, it's
fine.

I can't, I can't see it.
It'd be still funny.

It'd be like, yeah, we based
this video game character off of you, the main character, really.
And he's like.

He stands there like, OK.
This is how you see me.

Are those what are those?
Are those my nipples?

If you want them to be.
They can be.

How did you know?
How did you know?

Oh, they come to work shirtless
on Sundays.

You never see me like this was
1.

Time.
It was yeah, it was it was only that one time Adventure Island
Game Boy.

Oh yeah, these games.
OK, Star Soldier everybody might might be a little hard and and
and expensive to kind of find the cartridge at this point or
apparently the box.

Oh oh, oh oh oh did you mess
with the difficulty at all?

Oh yes.
Oh yes, I did.

Yes, I did.
There's no chance I was gonna get to the 6th stage on the
normal difficulty.

Not this.
Yeah, I will say though, it feels, it feels very cheap to
not do the regular difficulty.

Like I would never do the expert
difficulty like that's not me.

But going to beginner like
swapping it down your weapon is just automatically like the
highest, which I feel like that's a fundamental.
It feels like cheating.

Basically.
It feels like cheating.

I thought there was like.
One I thought there was like at least one that you pick up that
that upset a bit.

No my.
I'm pretty sure it just starts off Max power and that it just
feels like that's like a part of the essential like gameplay like
being able to pick up these power ups and retain your power
ups.

So it just it feels cheap and I
just would recommend don't soil your experience.
Like just try to get good and at least play through a couple
levels.

I just wanted to highlight that.
I think, I think on the normal one I might have made it to four
I think so I didn't see too bad.

But if the first couple would
feel like a little too tough I would.
I wouldn't say shy away from trying the easy one, but maybe
you'll get a better handle of the way things.
No, I would.

Feel.
I'd say, I'd say if they feel, if they feel a little tough to
you, you just probably suck.

I don't have to tell you, dude.
Hey, oh hey, I am not questioning.
I've said that from the beginning.
I do not.

Question.
Hey man, I'm not saying I'm good, I sucked, but you like
better knowledge it you know, you got to keep practicing.
You got to know where to sit on the screen so you can't be hit.
Period.

It yeah, apparently some of the
guys that we're watching here, it's it is a it is skill,
though.

It is it's not one of those
games where you can just sort of, you know, bulldoze your way
through it.

Like it, it seems like that.
It definitely appears to be that.
And so and maybe the first level you can pull that off maybe.
But after that, you really got to sort of focus on it, whether
you're going for a score or whether you're just going to
survive and get from from through each mission and stuff
like that.

Yeah, just try to survive.
Try to survive, try to survive.

Don't don't worry about the
score.

You'll you'll get it.
And and Mark, you've mentioned it a couple times too, but like
the the two and five minute mode things, I forgot about that
earlier, but I found those pretty fun.
I like those sort of a bite sized thing and just sort of I,
I, you know, I played up my own scores and tried to beat my own
scores a couple times and two minutes feels like, Oh yeah, you
can get through the first stage kind of in a couple minutes.
It's up to 5 minutes.

It's like, oh, this is like it's
a little bit of an endurance test too.
It's not easy.

And it is interesting to sort of
trying to approach it with different ships in different
ways and stuff like that.

I I found that to be a pretty
fun idea and I actually gravitated to them more than I
thought I would.

I thought they would just be
kind of like a throwaway option, but I liked them.
I thought they were pretty fun.

That's the power of the caravan,
you know.

Yeah, they're enjoyable even
when you don't have the actual van attached to.
It.

Jiggy's gonna find.
That Van Jiggy's gonna find the van.
I totally would.

Look, I wanna know.
That would be sick.

It's it's that or the Oscar
Mayer Wiener car like I was.

Get a a the dream, the dream,
the dream garage.

Let's see.
Dude those vans are pretty cool looking.
They are.

Oh man, the art and everything.
Yeah, it is cool.

Dang, they're like school bus
covered or colored, not covered, colored.
They look awesome.

They're art on the side.
Oh man, if I saw that pull up

I'd be like, what is?
Yeah.

Oh, I.
Did I've been lying for that?

They did shoot them up most of
the time for the caravans, but at one point they made, they
made like a, a Bomberman one that was they made an HDTV for
it essentially in like 93.

Oh, what?
Yeah, and they had this there and it was yeah, 10 player HD
widescreen so that it could fit all the players in 1993.
Right.

Yeah.
Oh, I don't see the band.

Yeah, was that one of the one of
the caravans?

Wow.
Widely regarded, Bomberman 1993 is widely regarded as the first
HD video game.

Wow.
That's a really cool fact I never knew.
Holy cow.

Go Bomberman.
Bomberman deserves more.

Yeah, that is cool looking.
Yeah.

People gotta look that up, look
up those, that sort of big screen, sort of.
That's crazy.

Yeah, 'cause to be able to fit
all those people.

And what?
Yeah, that the players and stuff.
Wow.

Yeah, and it's like the only,
it's like the only thing that it was used for.
It's not like High 10 Bomberman was released anywhere else
'cause like, what were you gonna do?
How come the system you're gonna have in people and you didn't
have HD at the time, so it was like there?
'D be there'd be no other way to pull it off.
That's true.

Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.

That's.
That's so wild.

Yeah.
That experience was so singular, like, so exclusive to be able to
experience that.

That's awesome.
Yeah, High 10.

Barber, Man.
I wasn't.

I wasn't even.
I was.

I was a twinkle in my daddy's
eye at that point.

I.
Was I was almost here, but I was just a twinkle still.
I was, I was getting my SNES and and Game Boy I think in 9293,
so.

Now that I say that, it's
possible I may have been almost here.
Depends.

Depends where the caravan was,
right?

Just kind of depends on where
where that van was headed that that much.
Crucial to my.

Existence that that big screen
TV, the first HD Bomberman was crucial to the existence.
So you didn't even know it.

You learn something you learn
something new everyday.

Happy we can help, Jiggy Mark,
before we get out of here, let's remind everybody where they can,
where they can find you online and you're and you're writing
too.

Sure, I'm where am I these days?
I'm on blue sky.

It's just my name.
I'm pretty sure.

Do I have?
Yeah.

No hyphen or anything, just mark
normandin dot B sky dot social.

I didn't give myself a special
address or anything like some people have done.
It seems like work, you know?

I had to verify some shit I
don't.

Know.
Yeah, that's enough.

Yeah.
Fair.

My writing is
retroxp.beehivethatswithtwois.com.

OPI.
Damn that was good.

I didn't see that coming.
Sign up, sign up for that newsletter.
It's free.

It's a lot of words.
I think today's the one I wrote published today was like 3400
words on the different shoot em up.
That is even more obscure.

So I'm not always writing about
those that just happened to line up that way.
We're just.

Really good at what we do here
at the show so I just.

I would.
If I wrote about them as much as

I wanted to.
I think I would probably have fewer subscribers.
I try and keep it to like.

It's like I'm like I'm normal
about them that I have some kind of problem that people not know
about.

Problem, skill color, whatever
you want.

He sits in his Hudson van and.
I show we show up at Pace magazine a couple times a month,
again, usually writing about older games, but sometimes,
sometimes with a review of something new, sometimes with
some kind of take on something going on in the news.
Yeah, that's that's the video game stuff for the most part.
Nice and jiggy March April ish as this episode is is released.
How's how's things going buddy?

You're you're always busy,
you're always taking ass taking names.
You know, you're playing a couple games and streams and
stuff.

How's everything going?
Yeah, Oh yeah.

I've been playing Quest 64,
which I've never experienced before.
I think you did an episode on it right?
Before or not, I've never played.
OK, I've never well I look forward to the day we're going
to do an episode on it.

Me too.
It's actually not that bad.

I I'm surprised that people
always have this like notorious.

At least this is my experience
and I'm like 6 hours into the game maybe.
And I'm just like, it's very grindy and I could see why that
would rub people the wrong way.

But it's very charming and it
feels good to play.

It's, it was interesting.
I'm not saying it's a 10 out of 10 game, but I'm not saying it's
a one out of 10 that I keep seeing everyone, you know, kind
of talking about it notoriously.

I'm like, I'm having fun with it
and it's silly and you know.

It's great.
You're having fun.

Well, it's it's nice.
Like the it's like star soldier is to the Saturn where you're
like hey, this is good, but like the Saturn has better shoot em
UPS like quest 64.

This is a system that doesn't
have a ton of RPGs, so everyone compares it to like what's on
the PlayStation instead of just kind of right.
Or, or compares just like Paper

Mario or something, which is
like, yeah, in my opinion, it's fantastic.
That's great.

And and that's that, you know, I
get it.

I see why people gravitate
towards that.

So.
Yeah.

It's fun.
So that's that's the immediate thing.
And then I get a couple videos in the works.
Yeah, which is?

You know I always do.
As as you do as you do, Sir.

Remember 64 does as well.
Not quite as much as Jiggy does, but as I mentioned earlier,
across YouTube, across social media.
Remember 64 show when I say across social media, pretty much
just Instagram and Blue Sky.

That's pretty much where
everything's going to be happening at this point.
If you want to support the show, there's a free tier for Patreon
as well.

But as I mentioned earlier, you
can get some stuff exclusively through 1/3 or 5 bucks a month.
You can get some extra stuff there to support the show, but
that's pretty much it.

Just if you're listening to this
when it releases and just before these episodes are about to come
out, we have two really great episodes.
We are getting to the point where it's time to talk.
Banjo Kazooie Episode 64 is here.
We have Mr. Jiggy himself with us for so long at this point.
It is about time that we got to that.
So yeah, there it is.

There's the Jiggy.
There's the look back.

There's.
The rare logo.

Yeah, rare logo, everything's
there.

So yeah.
So if you're listening to this when it's when it's released,
they're pretty close.

Banju Kazooie is going to hit
your feed as well, as well as talking about the GBA games that
were based in that franchise as well.
So we want to take a little bit of a detour on an episode about
that.

A lot of great stuff coming up
too for the rest of 2025.

But thank you everyone for
listening.

Mark, thank you for being here.
And we will talk to everyone next time.
Thanks for joining us.

Goodbye Remember 64 is part of
the Super Pod podcast network.

Oh yeah, we are teamed up with a
whole bunch of awesome people that some you may have heard on
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You can of course find the Super
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Press B to cancel all of these
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That's we're just here to talk
about great times with games, share their thoughts with you,
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Check us out Superpod Network on
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Have you ever played a game in a caravan!? At least one of us has this week! But what does that have to do with our game Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth? Let's find out...


Dave and Jiggylookback are joined by writer and gaming newsletter creator Marc Normandin! He brings some awesome facts about the game and we chat about some of the top Nintendo games of all time!!!

You can check out Marc's awesome work at RetroXP


What did you think of the episode and this game? Leave us a message completely free at: ⁠⁠voicecast.app/remember64⁠


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