Level 74 - Shadow Man - The Darkest N64 Game Ever!?

Shadow Man.
He is the one thing holding back the tide of evil which threatens
to engulf the living world.

The one man who has any hope of
stopping the apocalypse. 2 worlds, 2 identities.
One man.

Shadow Man, Come take a walk on
the dead side.

Music.
Welcome to Remember 64 everybody, where this week we
are kicking off our spooky games coverage by consuming your soul.
Hope that was spooky enough for you, everybody.
Hello everyone, and welcome to the show.
Hello again if you're returning listener or viewer and welcome
if this is your first time.

Welcome to our spooky season ish
coverage.

We'll tell you about what's
coming up next to here in

Remember 64.
We play discuss the good, the bad, the ugly and everything in
between.

A Nintendo 64's library.
My name is David Petrangelo and

I've been to hell and back and
met demons you wouldn't believe.

That's right.
A Scottish snake with a top hat.

All that and some notorious
serial killers.

Jack the Ripper or like Jack the
Camera Clipper.

Am I right?
Cheeky Look back.

Hi, how are you?
I'm the Lord of the dead side.

Yes, you are.
That's all I got.

That's all you got.
So it's gonna like make your screen bigger and be like zoom
in and now it's just grunting.

Apparently scary stuff is just
people grunting.

If anyone has not picked up on
it, probably not.

It's pretty vague, but we are
talking Shadow Man on the

Nintendo 64, a game that has
kind of been around in my head for a little while being like,
oh, I feel like this is a game we should play.
It seems like it's kind of got a little bit of a cult following.
It was out on multiple consoles and generations, really.
We're playing the N64 version, of course, but it was also out
on PC, Dreamcast and the

PlayStation.
Oh, we got the Dreamcast version there.
Look at that.

Yeah, I do.
Very nice.

And and had A and had a remaster
that was released not too long ago, I think in 2021 and 22, so
only just a couple years ago.

So that's been going around as
well.

But we're going to be talking
about that.

And we also have something
coming up too.

I plan right now is to also end
off October of 2025 to play

Castlevania.
The first Castlevania, which I believe as far as I remember is
the 1st 3D Castlevania ever made.
So we've had first 3D spider man not too long ago.
Now we have the 1st 3D

Castlevania, which has even I
would say even more titles in 2D leading up to this one.
So we got, we got we got some interesting pics this month
because Castlevania seems to be a a mixed bag when I look up
reviews and and how people feel about it.
And Shadow Man feels like a game that a lot of people know about
but didn't play.

I don't know if you got a sense
of that at all in the last little while.
Sort of I kind of I I seem to find that Shadow Man has like a
cult following at this point.

Yeah.
And I was, I actually was surprised to learn that they did
in fact make a sequel on the

PlayStation Two.
And apparently it was like, nowhere near as good.
Right.

Or widely received.
But I was like, yeah, it's one of those games that I kind of
always saw growing up.

Didn't really, didn't really
play.

Nope, I never played it.
This is the first time for me playing this.
I played, I actually did play the Dreamcast version.
Ironically, I have it and I still haven't really played it,
but I played the Dreamcast version like years ago 'cause it
was just one that my friend had and I was like, oh cool, let's
try that.

That looks creepy.
I played it for like 1520 minutes and then decided to go
get dinner or something and did something else.
And forgot about it, yeah.

And forgot about it.
Yeah, it was cool to play this on N64.
Well, I actually played this on my Switch with the I64 expansion
pass because it happens to be one of those that's available on
the mature N64 app.

Very, very, very interesting.
Like there's so many games that have not yet made switch online
and yet for some reason this comic book based acclaim studios
title is on there.

I know I I found, you know, I
find it a little strange that there's like a separate thing
for like mature and this is one of them.
And then like, it's just, oh, it almost seems like it's more
strange because there's so few games under that like mature
category.

It's this perfect dark.
And what did it just get added not too long ago?
They have this perfect dark

Turok.
Turok I think.

They have Turok 1 and Turok 2.
Yeah.

And then, Oh my God, there's one
more people are going to be yelling at us.
Yeah, I think there is.

It's a first person game.
Forsaken I think.

Forsaken.
Oh, Forsaken.

Yeah, yeah.
And there's not that many mature games, mature rated games on the
N64.

So, you know, and then, you
know, protecting so kids don't don't access them or whatever.
I get it, right.

But it's like, it's almost like
it's, it's like in this special category.
Yeah, it is.

It is.
But what's great is if you are listening or watching and you
want to give this game a shot, it is more widely available
where some of the games that we cover aren't quite as easy to
get a hold of, of course, unless you're, you know, emulating and
things like that.

So there's always a possibility.
But this one you can play on your fancy new screen and or any
switch and and give it a shot.

And I will say it's not a
terrible way to play it.

I split my time between the two
and mostly played on switch as well because I was just on the
go a lot while playing the last couple weeks.
So it was a great way to play this game on the go, sort of on
and off the train when I was going to and from work.
That was the majority of my experience playing this.
So I think that's a good way to do it and we'll get into the
details.

But I think having a little bit
of a a back up plan with like a safe state every once in a while
is helpful with this game.

So yeah, I why this is, this is
the first, I was going to say

Switch game, the first game in
general really, that I got to try out my new Airpod Pro
Threes, which Apple just dropped.
So I connected those.

So the silence with the noise
cancelling was deafening.

I went under the covers.
I played shadow man on my switch to I even have a little 64
engraved engraved in my case.

Oh yeah, I'm trying to show up.
My camera doesn't like to focus when I get close.
It's also like, it's also like the lighting too.
So it's kind of I think it's hard to find it because.
It's like super reflective.

Yeah, yeah.
Anyway, So yeah, I played it.

It was it was pretty cool.
But I will say, taking it from handheld, just plugging it into
my dock and playing with the proper N64 controller, it's a
it's way better.

OK, OK, way better.
See, I, I had only an hour or two with the 64.
Like when you said, oh, me and my friends played it for just a
bit.

That was kind of my experience
playing with the 64 controller.

So we'll we'll get into that in
in a couple minutes.

I just want to before I forget
because I often do.

I often forget.
I want to plug the show at the top, at the top right.
Not only did I say that we have and we have Castlevania coming
up as our next semi spooky game.

I don't know how spooky it is.
I feel like Shadow Man's kind of spooky, so it kind of made
sense.

We'll see what I.
Doubt there's any spookier game on the N64.
I honestly, I think this is there's a lot of themes, a lot
of settings, a lot of the music, all this stuff that there's
some.

Very disturbing stuff that I
want to talk about.

Yes, for sure.
Yeah, like in the first minute, yeah of this game.
Yeah, the first minute, the first half hour just is filled
with crap.

I'm just like.
What the heck is happening?

Yeah, yeah.
Speaking of fucked up stuff, remember 64 Yeah, you can, you
know, I don't know.

And just segways get Segway.
I'm trying, I'm trying here.

OK, Just just just give me some
credit.

I'm trying remember 64 show all
across social media and on

Patreon as well, where you can
support the show, get episodes early, all that fun stuff.
But but but but, but I do want to mention that because we are
part of the console Creatures team, there's a new way to sort
of support not only remember 64, but console creatures, the
creature cast and PlayStation

Generation, the other, the other
two shows and the website Bobby, the editor extraordinaire, as we
call him, of console creatures set up.
Is it coffee or Kofi?

I don't remember.
I don't really know how to say it out loud where people can.
Is it just coffee?

I don't know.
It's it's spelled Kofi, so I don't know.
I'm pretty sure it's coffee

I've.
Yeah, it makes sense.

And now you have me questioning
it.

I question it everyday.
I question lots of things in my life everyday.
Kofi, Kofi coffee, coffee.

Anyways, point of that is, if
you don't know what it is, it is a way to just instead of doing a
recurring payment type of thing that like something like Patreon
has for example, you just can give any amount of of money to
the team.

And the whole point of it is,
hey, buy me a cup of coffee.

But it can actually, I'm pretty
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So what you can do is you can just sort of toss a couple bucks
our way as a team, and then that's going to go towards us
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So that is a way to support all
of us all at once, not just for this show.
So that is great 'cause those guys do awesome work talking
about PlayStation, talking about new releases, talking about
retro games every once in awhile.
And I'll pop myself in too as well.
But yeah, Creature Cast and

PlayStation Generation and
consolecreatures.com and us here at Remember 64, that is a great
way to to support our shows and our work and just a new way that
that was just launched.

So consolecreatures.com should
have that, but you can find it on Kofi and then search for
console creatures and it'll show up and that gets distributed
among all of us here as part of the team.
So other than that, before we get into it, Jiggy, I'll ask you
maybe again at the end if I remember.
But you've, you're, you're keeping busy, right Sir?
You're keeping busy as as usual.

Oh yeah, absolutely.
I just dropped a really, really dope video, The Legacy of wait,
let me remember what the title is.
The exact title, The rare legacy of the Donkey Kong series.
Yes, just this super cool.

Look back if you will, Donkey
Kong as a whole and talking about his time with rare and
sort of like pooling in my thoughts about Bonanza.
So it's sort of like a little bit of a Bonanza review at the
end, but not really, but just part of.
It Bonanza is part of the lore, whatever you want to call it,
it's, yeah, it's part of it.

It's not the Rare part, but it
is part of Nintendo.

It is.
You know, it's Donkey Kong, right?
So I.

Will say I gave some love to
jungle beat.

You know I love my jungle beat,
yes?

You do?
Yeah.

Fans unite.
Yeah, I was, I, I was watching it.
And I go, oh, there it is.

There's there's the, there's the
beat.

There it is.
I was like, I, I, it was almost like it's not that I was
expecting it, but I was sort of thinking in the back of my mind
before he got to that point.

I was like, I, I feel like he's
got to say something about that game.
He's got to say something about it.
And then it popped up and I go, all right, all right, some I
don't know, I know I knew DK 64 was going to show up.
Of course that's what you're going, that's going to be part
of it.

But once you mentioned jungle
beat, I was like, I feel like that completes the the circle of
life here in this video.

So.
Yes, got to love.

It that's awesome yeah.
So check out more of Jiggy

Lookback's awesome stuff man on
on YouTube as well.

Keep kicking ass I.
Just wanna say we, you know, we're doing this podcast and,
and a lot of you listen, but if you haven't watched, we have
decked out.

Both of our spaces are pretty
decked out at this point.

I added some, some banners.
I finally hung up a little earthworm gym poster.
It's pretty sick.

Dave has just moved into his new
space and he's got Nintendo powers galore.
Just lined up that beautiful, glorious shelf, lighting up
shelving beneath it that has

Banjo Kazooie.
All of the physical.

Boxes of Banjo Kazooie, man.
Of the whole franchise, the only box I don't have still is
Grunty's Revenge.

It is very difficult to find.
It's hard to find.

I have the I have the cartridge,
but I don't have the box.

It's the only game.
Otherwise I have the complete of all the games except for that
one.

So I have, I have my Lego
Piranha plant and my soon to be

Game Boy Lego that I'm going to
set up soon.

So that'll that'll be added to
the background.

So yeah, something to look at
aside from our lovely faces, you know?
That you don't need to look at that.
I mean, you can look at our faces all the time.
You'd be fine with that, right?

Yeah, exactly.
I mean, we could just walk off.

Screen.
Podcast for we can just talk off screen if you want, like it's
fine.

I can like zoom the camera into
my shelf or something.

I don't know like look it cool.
I can like, swap the Nintendo powers like as we're talking
with other ones.

Anyways, enough about that show,
shall we?

OK Shadow man now.
Shadow Man.

Before we get into some of the
details like the ones we just mentioned about how the game
starts, which is which is kind of crazy.
I'm gonna pull up some gameplay when we get to it in a second.
But I didn't really know this or

I didn't really remember.
But Shadow Man's based on a comic series from, I think
Valiant Comics from, from, yeah, from the 90s, just to sort of
set things up.

Because I do think that the
story and the world and stuff is a huge part of what's going on
in this.

Definitely not what I expected.
Not not necessarily the story that I didn't expect, but just
in general, it having such a deep lore.
But then I realized, Oh yeah.

Or remembered, it's a comic
book.

Of course, there's lots of that,
right?

That's part of why comic books
are beloved so much, and why there's so many stories, and
just the medium itself is always rich with background and lore
and all that kind of stuff.

So I wrote down a little bit of
what it's about, but of course feel free to fill in any of the
blanks.

Jiggy, but Shadow Man heads into
Dead Side after Jack the Ripper.

This is part of the opening.
Kills himself in order to gain power and construct a giant
insane asylum for someone named

Legion.
And this is where other crazies and demons can be kept and
unleashed in onto the world.

It is up to your main character
who turns into Shadow Man when he goes into dead side, which is
essentially the Hell realm, the land of the dead.
Land of the dead.

Yeah, something like that.
Yeah, he apparently has the ability to jump between realms.
I don't know how well that's explained, but that's kind of
the setup.

Something about the the thing in
his chest.

Yeah, if you've seen, if you see
the the box art, it's right up front where he's got this sort
of like thing sewn into his ribs or something.
They mentioned a little bit at the beginning.
So that's a.

Mask or something?
Something like that, yeah, it's a very basic setup.
There's a more deeper lore and stuff to go on, and there's lots
of dialogue at the beginning.

But Jiggy, let's start with the
opening and then we'll start getting into our feelings about
how it controls and the game itself and game play and all
that kind of stuff.

But like it, yeah, it kind of
hits you over the head right at the beginning.
It does.

It's kind of an expansive
beginning, like.

It takes a while to get going.
Yeah, it takes a while to get going, but also like the N64,
like it was just like watching cutscenes, which I'm not used to
doing on the N 60.

Four yes that's right yeah yeah
yeah, cuz it is very like we're watching it right now Again, if
you're watching the version or video version, there is like a
what 5 to 10 minute cutscene.

It's long, it's an in game
engine cutscene, but it's like, yes, it's there.
Yeah, there's a lot going on.

I was trying to figure out what
was going on.

It wasn't super clear, not going
to lie to me at least.

I don't know.
Yeah.

I mean, yeah, it's, it's sort
of, it's sort of playing on that ambiguity and like making it
like it's giving you a plot point.
It's sort of establishing things without explaining what they
are.

Yeah, here, let's play a little
bit of the audio of this opening thing, because it is something
like there's lots of voice work in this too, like constantly
through the whole games.

Let's let's do a little bit,
Maybe we'll get a little taste of what it is.
There's so much exposition,

OK.
And then she keeps talking and explaining basically a lot of
background and stuff like that.

But that's that's a sense.
There's a lot of back and forth and explanation and exposition
for that.

Like 10 minutes.
I, I, I was, it's cool that it's all there.
But the opening scene with the

Jack the Ripper thing where he's
like, oh, if you kill yourself,

I was like, what is going on
here?

Who are these people?
Yeah, I did not, did not get it.

Yeah, it's a lot.
I definitely do.

Wasn't processing it either.
It's like it.

It's almost like it happened so
fast and it's so much of A lower dump.
You just can't, like you can't follow it.
I don't know.

You don't.
You don't have time to.

Take context like as you keep
playing the game, like it's like it's, it's sort of like you
understand it more as you keep playing, but that initial
cutscene, even though it does actually explain so much, it's
just it's, it's so much at once.

It's like going into precalculus
when you know you're barely in algebra.
Yeah, I don't remember either of those.
Exactly.

I'm surprised I remember what
they were called.

Yeah, honestly, yeah.
When you say algebra.

Which one's This is the part
that got me.

When he's just like going and
all of a sudden he's like on the river, I'm like, wait.
So is this.

Dead side.
Yeah, that was a good way.

No Game Dies does a lot of
talking to himself.

That's definitely a big part of
what Shadow Man does.

Yeah.
So, so basically you have to go over to dead side and you can't
you do do back.

You do go back and forth as
shadow man or Mike, I think his name is.
You go back and forth and to collect things and sort of get
to new areas and all that kind of stuff.
So you don't just play as shadow man with your abilities and
stuff.

You do go back to the real world
and you know, the story kind of progresses from there and stuff,
but.

Do you feel like that, the setup
and stuff like did you care the way things are set up and and
all that?

Like did it, did it add anything
for you?

Because because they do quite a
bit of it in the opening, I would say like hour at least
doesn't have a ton happening.

A lot of it is set up and just
kind of reaching the area that leads you to what the game
really is, I think.

Yeah, I think from what I was
experiencing, I was like, I don't, I feel like I would
rather just have been thrown into the dead side, like right
away, sure, rather than this whole like beginning area in
Louisiana or wherever the heck you are.
Yeah, I think it's sort of like almost like a tutorial because
like you're just kind of running and jumping and that's it,
right?

Maybe.
But.

I think it's an interesting
concept switching between the two worlds though, and the fact
that your abilities are like different, like similarly
different.

I the, the thing that I realized
as I went on is there was a couple points in the game, like
especially later on that I needed a little bit of help
because I was kind of lost about what to do next.
Because there's not a lot, there's almost like no hand
holding in this game.

And in some ways that's good
because like why, you know, you got to sort of explore.
It's kind of a larger game.

There's a lot of different areas
that you can kind of discover things and, and find weapons and
new items and collectibles and whatever.
But like I needed a little bit more guidance in some spots.
So I ended up looking up a guide, which I rarely, rarely do
like.

I really try not to do that.
And, and many of the games on the 64 don't really require it.
You know, we haven't played a ton of RPGs and played a ton of
massive games.

This is definitely I would
consider a pretty big game.

And as I was doing that, I
realized some of the sort of descriptions of the of the areas
that I was looking through when it sort of said, oh, you know,
this area you can't reach yet, this area you can't reach up for
this reason.

And I go, but I thought, I
thought it was like, like, why?

And then I realized this is one
of those games where the manual is actually pretty helpful
because it explains what each item is.
It explains what all the weapons do.
It explains that you can only use this in this area, that and
that area when you go between the dead side and the real
world.

Like those types of things are
not explained to you in the game explicitly.
It's like, oh, you found a new weapon or oh, you found a new
item.

This is what that item does.
Like the little red things that you keep collecting and the, and
the gold skulls that are around.

I thought they were just like,
and the red ones are so common.

I was like, oh, I have like a
hundred of these.

I guess it's some sort of
currency.

No, it's ammo for one of your
weapons.

And I had no idea.
It doesn't tell you because you don't get that weapon until like
2-3 hours later.

And then I looked in the manual.
Yeah.

And I look at the manual and the
manual doesn't even tell you it's ammo.
It just says, oh, it's a mysterious thing.
I was like what is going on?

Yeah, and you're collecting it
like the entire time you're there, like the.
Whole the whole game.

Yeah, it's not like it shows up
when you get anything.

It's just it.
They're just randomly there and you're like, what are these
little heart things?

It looks like a yeah, like a
yeah.

It kind of looks like a heart
makes like this sort of sounds like a cricket when you pick it
up or something.

Yeah, it's.
Just I definitely had that because the, the, the bottom
right, the like you like your health and stuff.
I was like, what are all these different meters exactly?
There's so many and they don't really tell you what they are.
You can kind of pick it up by context, like, OK, that's my
energy.

OK, that's, you know, but it's I
don't know.

The only way that I obviously
the red one is your health.

That OK, that's understandable.
When you kill enemies, most of them drop little health orbs
that you can pick up.

OK, that's fine.
But then there's like a a dial underneath it that's purple.
And the purple is like.

So if you want to, if you want
to describe like sort of these collectibles and stuff to games
that you and I love and will sort of equate to, we can sort
of equate it to like the little red things, which are called
Codos.

I don't know what that means,
but a codo, it's a French word,

I think.
So those little red things that we said, oh, that's appears to
be ammo.

Those are sort of like the notes
in Banjo Kazooie and then the is it the Soul Spires?
What are they called?

I have the manual in front of
me.

What's it called here?
What it called the ones where you have to shoot them?
They get the what the fuck is it called?
The glowy.

Things.
No, the big the big ones you have to collect.
I don't know what they're called.
I don't know what anything is called.
And therein lies the problem, everybody.
Describe it to me.

The Dark Souls.
The Dark Souls.

The Dark Souls.
Okay, actually that's the one thing.
I did know what it was called, yeah.
It's sort of like on these like pedestals and you have to shoot
them eventually and you collect these Dark Souls anyways.
What that does is that ends up filling up that little purple
bar underneath your health.

The more of those you have are
basically like Jiggies in Banjo

Kazooie, and you can open other
areas to get to them, but you have to collect enough in order
to get to those areas.

Not really explain to you, you
know, the only thing that got got to me is like I kind of
looked at the doors and they kind of looked like my health
meter and I was like, OK, maybe that.
You know, but so I figured that out and the reason why I figured
that out, like as I was collecting the Dark Souls,
because that purple meter goes up, the symbols all along the
side of the door, depending on how many like are required to
get in, they're colored purple.

And I so I kind of pieced it
together.

I was like, oh, OK, so if I have
one, I can probably open this door.
If I have two, I can open this door.
If I don't have three, I can't open this door.
And then my I just it was like a testing my theory and it just
happened to be correct.

I think.
I think mine ended up being about the same was that I was
like, oh, that's also purple.

Cool.
I'm going to try that.

Yeah, yeah.
OK.

So with that, and this is, we're
only really talking about like the sort of overall like
collectible stuff.

We'll get to the gameplay, which
we're sort of watching right now and sort of the combat and
things like that.

But there's a lot of exploration
in this.

And I think I texted this to you
like last week or a few days ago.
I go, oh, this game is basically a Metroidvania, yeah.
Because not only do you collect those things that we're talking
about, they lead you to new areas.
They will only you have to find enough in order to progress the
story, really.

Because if you don't get into
those doors, you're kind of stuck in a loop of of spots.
Unfortunately, there's no set map, so it's really hard to know
kind of where to go and stuff, which is kind of my problem with
it.

But you can go back to areas
that you weren't able to reach before because some of those
doors, just like in a game like

Banjo Kazooie and others,
collect the thongs and others like them is, oh, I can only
actually legitimately get, let's say 4 Dark Souls in this area.
But this door requires 8, let's say, well, I'm going to get 8
eventually, but now I have to remember to go back to that
exact spot in order to get through that door.
And that will help you progress or potentially unlock something
new like a weapon or whatever.

But I, I don't, it's so hard to
remember where to go and how to get there because there's so
many areas and so many spots that you have to remember where
things are.

And as cool as some of the
elements are in this game, a lot of the environments are just
samey.

They're all kind of brown and
dark.

Textures are very, very the
same.

Even in new areas.
It's like, oh, that's just a slightly lighter brown or
whatever.

And like the game is like dark
in theme but also just very dark.
So here's the thing, it's that

N64 muddy look that a lot of
games have, but it works for

Shadow Man because it's
thematically like the way they're trying to make it look.
Yes.

So it's.
It works, but it's like it's a matter of muddy, yeah.
Dramatically, it 100% works.

Yeah, I agree.
It just doesn't help with the exploration part, which is a big
part of this game, right.

So that's the only issue with it
for me is I don't mind the setting.
I don't mind what they're trying to do.
I I get it.

Like all of that stuff actually
worked for me.

I kind of like the sort of Moody
music and him talking to himself or like those things are fine.
Very comic bookie.

I like it.
It's just after a while I was like, oh, I tried to make note
like, oh, I'm going to come back to that spot because I'm going
to have more whatever I need to get into it, the Dark Souls or
something like that, or different weapon or whatever.
And then I would inevitably forget and I would just be
moving on to the next spot and stuff.
And I feel like I probably missed some stuff that would
have helped me, like a new weapon or maybe a health upgrade
or probably more Dark Souls or something.
So anything really.

Yeah, anything.
So yeah, I don't know any of that stuff that I missed.
I feel like I was just rambling.

No, that was, that was pretty
good.

I totally agree with you.
Navigating can be kind of tough.

Yeah.
Even early.

On also also like going off of
the navigation thing, you have one of the creepiest elements I
think of this game and it's using your brother's, your dead
brother's teddy bear as like essentially like a teleportation
tool.

Yeah, like fast.
Travel you in it's fast travel.

It can take you to different
areas within the dead side or the real world and it like pops
you back and forth every time you use it.
You get stuck in this like static animation where he like
grabs him and then it it plays like some creepy little kids
voice like let's play.

Tag or something?
Yeah, like over here, Michael or something.
Like that, his brother's voice.

Or something.
Yeah, yeah.

It's like very like like.
It sounds like he's like Jiggy's exaggerating, but no, it's like
literally what it is every time.

Yeah.
I don't think it's a bad idea.

It's just it is creepy.
It is creepy.

Yeah, it's pretty creepy, but it
also says the same thing every time.
I don't think it changes.

I I never heard it say anything
else.

Yeah, I think it was the same
thing.

I can't remember anything else,
but yeah, I definitely used it more than once.
I did too, because when I did look up a couple of those hints
that I needed, it was to get a couple Dark Souls.
So I knew that I can progress.

That's really the reason why I
was like, I feel like I missed one.
I might have turned right instead of left or I I didn't go
up the right ramp or go through the right door and inevitably it
was one that that I was like, oh shit, the I damn, I definitely
should have saw that and I just didn't.
And whatever, right?

It happens but it.
Can't be helped.

It's it's a big world to go and
explore.

I mean, you really have to.
It's one of those things, if you didn't have a guide, you'd have
to go back and comb everything.

Yes.
From the beginning, and ain't nobody got time for that.
No, honestly, that's the thing.

That's why I think there's a
little bit of an advantage to plane it on the Switch version
is because you can sort of stop where you were and be like, Oh
yeah, right.

OK, I was going forward here and
I was in this area.

There's a lot of, there are some
open areas, but a lot of hallways and stuff as well.
Very easy to kind of get turned around or think this is 1
hallway over another.

So the, the, the navigating of
trying to remember where to go or where you came from does get
a little difficult for all the reasons that I've sort of
mentioned before.

But but the idea of it and most
of the execution I still enjoyed.
You know, I, I don't think that

I was like upset at the game for
those things.

I just wish it was a little more
fine-tuned.

I think, if it's even possible,
which I don't know that that it is because of the technology and
just what the 64 can do with textures and things like that,
like you said, so, but it's also just like level design.
You know, it's not just the the muddy textures that you were
that you were mentioning, like level design is part of this and
it's just some areas are just better than others.
That's all I think.

Yep.
And and with that, I feel like we could segue into gameplay a
little bit because I have something that I've been dying
to say.

Yes, which 100%.
Sort of connects with the navigation aspect.
There are switches and things that you can press and what we
said earlier about how the game really doesn't tell you like how
to do anything or what anything is like it just kind of throws
you in and figure it out.

Which in some aspect I'm like, I
respect that.

I'm like, OK, I'll get in and I
did figure things out.

So it's not impossible, like it
does happen.

But one thing that really threw
me off is that if you go, there's like these, you'll find
these switches or like buttons on a wall and you'll be like,
OK, I can totally hit that.

That has to do something and you
know it's going to do something.

But I sat there and I'm like
what?

Like why is it?
What do I do?

I'm pressing A, I'm pressing B,
I'm pressing Z left C button for some reason is the button to
like?

Hit switches.
Yeah.

And I'm like, huh.
I never, it's like I never would guess.
That button or whatever.

Yeah, it is the control scheme
is a little strange.

I would say playing it on on
Switch it kind of it felt the same way because I was using the
the right joystick as the C buttons right?
You know what I did on switch though?
Because the switch the what button is it the Y button?
Let's talk about the button layout again.
The button layout on the Switch, yeah, right.
The Y button, which is the one on the left, the face button on
the left is mapped like natively on N64 games with the Pro
controller and the the joy cons or whatever to be the left C
button.

Yeah.
So actually on Switch, that being the activate button
actually felt more natural because it's like part of your
face buttons, right?

And you're gonna use it often,
right?

Or.
Often enough, yeah.

But then translating it back to
the N64 controller which I do believe is the superior way to
play it controller wise, I was like what button is that like?
And why?

I didn't know it was the C
button, like the left C button.

I'm like, oh, OK, I didn't
remember that.

Yeah, it's a little, it's a
little strange because you get part of gameplay too is is the
combat right?

And this is sort of related to
what you're saying where you can equip different items and your
weapons on each hand, which again is a cool idea.
It's sort of like dual wielding.

They're sort of pulling off a
bio shock type of idea that that works in those games, obviously,
but one of the I I I think it's considered AA or BI can't
remember off hand because again, with the switch, you, you
correct me if I'm wrong, is like a quick draw.
So whichever.

Yes.
Yeah.

So whichever like weapon you
have, I think in your right hand, I can't remember if it
matters what hand it is, he will automatically fire, fire that
gun.

So like the pistol is used very
often in the first half of the game.
And anytime you press that, you don't have to like equip it and
then take it out and say, because it's sort of like an
inventory system and stuff in this.
You just press that button and he automatically starts firing.
That's just ends up being your your fire button at that point.
I think that idea is kind of cool.
But then that takes up that button layout that you're just
talking about.

Yeah, kind of kind of makes that
part a little awkward.

So does it solve the problem to
have a quick draw?

I don't know, maybe just pick a
different button to shoot and just keep it at that.
It's just.

Yeah, it's.
Almost like they're trying to do too much.
Yeah, it just was.

It threw me off.
Once I figured it out, it's like okay, but it definitely like
doesn't feel intuitive at first.

No, that's right.
That's a good way to put it.

Just about everything else feels
intuitive just that like activation and also I mean like
in that button layout going into the menu.
I also like the amount of times

I accidentally use the teddy
bear because I press B on it because my instinct says B is
back.

It's kind of like when
PlayStation games would flip flop the X and the O as like
select.

You know that that always messes
with my brain.

It's like, can we all just be
universal about what's accept and what's not accept?
I was like everything else can be different.
Just make accept and not accept the same.
It throws me off man.

Make your make your letters
LMNOP like we don't care.

Just, you know, make the the
spot on the controllers.

Yeah, no, I, I, I agree with
that.

That's yeah, it it's you're
right.

So again, what's cool is that
you can equip different things, you can have them both going at
the same time.

Those types of things are
interesting ideas and more like

RPG like systems are more of
like a 3D action game system built into it and stuff.
But it's definitely a much slower moving game.
I wouldn't consider this an action game, but I would say
it's, you know, it's an adventure game with some combat
elements.

The combat itself though, at
least in the opening half of the game.
Why does it take 19 shots to kill the simplest, smallest
enemy?

I just don't get it.
I, I maybe to start in the first like hour or two I I guess, but
it seems to never change.

Like some weapons are more
effective against other enemies,

I guess like later on.
But at the beginning it almost felt like, OK, so here's an
enemy, all I'm going to do is keep firing and then just keep
walking backwards until they die.
And that's not, it's not that fun.
It's, it's cool.

I honestly.
Thought the zombies at the beginning part of the game were
invulnerable.

Like I couldn't kill them
because I shot, I would shoot them like 5 times and I'd be
like, oh they went down and I think they'd be dead and then
they'd get back up and be like oh but you have to keep firing
and your, your pistol's bizarre.

I I kind of like how it looks
when it it'll like shoot its projectile and then the
projectiles like swarm around them and hit them like a few
times.

Yeah, it doesn't.
It it I think it does.

I don't know if it hits them
more or if it's just a visual flare type thing like that's the
only thing I couldn't quite tell.
Oh look cool.

It did.
It did look kind of cool.

Yeah, it's and it's.
I don't.

I mean, you're playing with with
your headphones.

I was playing with headphones
too, because I was mostly on the go on the train when I was doing
it.

But it's super loud too.
I don't know if you noticed that.
Yes, I turned it down.

OK, yes, so did I turn that?
You can go on the menu and turn it down.
I turned it down.

That was like one of the first
things because it's obnoxious.

It's like it's.
And you're.

You're again.
Yeah.

And you're firing it so many
times.

Like, let's see if I can.
Yeah.

Find a spot where he's shooting
it.

I mean, any point, he's pretty
much shooting.

Yeah, let's see.
Unlocks a door.

He's watching fire.
It's one of those boots.

They're so heavy.
Also, this key is like a glove.

I find that to be hilarious.
See him fire his laser?

Come on.
I can't believe you picked the one part.
Does that not sound like the

Goldeneye doors?
It totally does.

A 100%.
There we go.

Yeah, why is it so loud?
And just over and over and over.

It's funny you said that you
said that because I definitely thought it was like a me thing
because I was playing and I was like, Oh my gosh, this is
getting irritating.

And I turned it down and then it
was fine, but it was like it was excessive.
I mean you're blasting him like 20 times and it's super loud
just out of the gate at least.

To their credit, at least, they
give you the option to turn down all the effects.
You can turn down the sound effects, the music, anything and
customize it.

You can adjust the brightness,
which I did after a little bit.

I turned up the brightness on my
screen and still I was kind of like, oh, this is a little bit
tough to the game is just actually just a little too dark.
And then this particular play thread didn't show it when I
pressed play on it or whatever.

But this person actually goes
into the menu and turns up the brightness too, like before they
even start the game.

Did you not do that?
I did.

It.
No, I didn't actually.

I had to.
It was just.

I don't.
Know I, I don't know, I like it.

I like when the horror games are
dark and it's hard to see stuff and then it's like scary when
things pop up.

I don't know.
It's part of the vibe for me.

It is.
You wanna see stuff?

Like like a little bit.
It wasn't like it went from like whatever the number was.
I think it automatically had it set to 30 and I turned it to 50
or you know, something like that, just a little a little
extra and stuff.

And then I never touched it from
there.

But you're right, there's
there's creepy vibes, I would say through this whole game.
So.

Yeah, I like, I like it.
It's sort of the gameplay.

If I had to like summarize it,
it's sort of like a combination between Resident Evil and maybe
Doom.

Like it it.
It's like the world reminds me of Doom.
Yeah, sure.

And and the Switch gameplay.
Reminds me of like, yeah, but the gameplay reminds me sort of
of old school Resident Evil.

It's like tank controls.
It's it's sort of half tank controls because.
It feels better than that.

It feels better than that.
Yeah, cuz you can move cuz tank controls is like like
traditionally at least is you have to stand still in order to
shoot, which is the early

Resident Evil games and you need
to mostly have a locked camera, which at least in this game's
credit, neither of those things are the case.
So like, he moves.

To where you could start backing
up as you were firing.

I think so.
I think it was in was it in the original 2?
Maybe, maybe not.

I can't remember exactly.
But obviously the first one you can't it's all fixed camera and
things like that, right.

But it is it is kind of a mix
between those two.

That's that's a good point.
That's just what, what it reminds me of.
Like in my head, this is what, but it's, it's a, it's
definitely a cool vibe.

Yeah.
Definitely the Resident Evil vibes are are there.
Like there's a lot that reminds me of that.
I think I, I think there's a like, there's because this is
drawing off of comic book story and comic book world and stuff.
There's like we said earlier, like there's so many ideas in
this and so much going on than just the moment to moment that,
yeah, you can really dig into a lot of the stuff that's
happening here.

I just wish the game itself
provided a little bit more at times because you're going
through like right now, you're going through like that asylum
that I mentioned earlier of where some of these, you know,
other serial killers and other sort of bad people are being
held or could be held or whatever ends up being part of
the story at this exact point.

And, you know, you go into the,
I don't know if you got to this point where like, you go into
like these rooms that are almost like shrines of all these actual
serial killers from history.

Yeah, yeah.
And I was like, oh, this is like, I didn't really know who
they were.

There's like photos.
And then there's like these different sort of areas in it.
Eventually you've you access those areas and you fight
against these actual serial killers in this asylum and
they're almost like the boss battles of the of that area or
whatever.

All that idea is very cool.
None of it is really clearly explained.
I found that out by looking stuff up.
And I wish there was room in the game.
I don't know if the game would need to be smaller.
I don't know if they would need to simplify things or whatever
to fit that in, but it feels like that's very vaguely touched
on and I would have loved to understand more about that.
And it's crazy that a game like this has like these real world
characters are throwing into it, which is very, again, very comic
booky, but it's but it's interesting And I just, there's
so much deep stuff and dark stuff going on here.
Yeah, the team, the team wrote out all the all the bosses were
based on real life serial killers.
And even up to like the release of the game, like in 99, I think
there was one killer that was like literally just exposed as a
serial killer in like 99 and they put him in the game.
It's crazy.

It's crazy, yeah.
It's totally crazy, but I think what I was gonna say is there's,
there's like a isn't there like pages or something that you can
read that sort.

Of that's right, Yeah, you're
right.

You're right.
Yeah, there's sort of.

It's not, it's not like
something you have to do, but it is there and it's.
Like a yeah, it's like a notebook and stuff.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's true.

I just, I didn't automatically
go to that because it's not because you're not accessing
that out of necessity.

It wasn't my inclination to be
like, oh, I should pull up the book and flip through it in
order to understand what all this is.
Eventually I did and yeah, you're right.
So so that's that's good correction that it is available.
It's just not explained it it.

Wasn't What's funny is I feel
like your approach is probably the normal approach, like just
play the game and hopefully it explains it to me as I'm going.
Whereas I feel like I have the opposite approach where I'm
like, OK, what can I find out about this game without having
to play it?

Like, I want to know everything
about it.

I want to know all the lore I
want to.

Know not a bad game, I just want
to know.

I just want to skip ahead like.
Right.

I, I want to sort of it and and
you know, the manual does provide that again, we've
mentioned this a few times recently, but like, you know,
having the manual is, is something that we just don't do
anymore.

But also they are available
online a lot of PDFs of copies of manuals and stuff.
This is it would help you even if you did know that that
notebook was in the game and stuff like that, because it
still provides a lot of context and, and, and lore.
It has big explanations of each character's background, which
you definitely do not get at least explicitly.
Again, maybe I'm thinking a little too modern because those
are types of things that would probably be explored in some,
you know, cutscene or other type of way that that lore and
background is is explained in a more modern game.
So maybe that's on me and my sort of expectation of it or, or
what I assume would work for me.

But this game is so big and so
deep that I feel like it would be nice to make it easier, I
think because there's so much else you have to think about.
Yeah, I think honestly.

I only.
No, my only complaint about this game really is that the enemies
are like bullet sponges always from from the get go.
That's the only thing that really causes me to be like,
because there's a lot of them like.
Every corner are littered with enemies.
Yeah, yeah, every corner's an enemy and every enemy takes like
20 hits and you have infinite ammo.
It's not like you run out of ammo, but it's like.
Well you don't run out of ammo for your for your pistol, but
the other the other weapons you do.
Right.

For the gun that you're going to
be using, though, let's be realistic.
For the most part.

Yeah, for the pistol, you have
infinite ammo, which is fantastic, but you sit there and
have to shoot them 20 times here.
I don't know, you just it gets it gets repetitive and tedious
and you're just like there were there was a point where I'm just
like, I'm just going to run past these enemies.
And you and sometimes you can.

Sometimes you can.
Most of the time I can.

I did it quite a bit.
As long as I could, if I could,

I did.
Yeah, and, and it's a shame too, because like, it's, it's kind of
cool to be able to say like, oh,

I'm fighting through demons, I'm
going through this asylum, I'm going through dead side.
Like there's stuff there where it's like, yeah, I'd want, I'd
want to fight my way through it.

Yeah, and the combat like
shooting it just like auto aims for you and like I would say 85%
of the time it's good enough.

The only because I see him on
the screen right now.

But the flying enemies pain in
the butt because you like your lock on would sometimes lock on.
And then sometimes it would be like if they're right in front
of you, no problem.

But if they were like above you,
you could switch to like the first person mode and like, just
like look around and shoot.

Yeah.
But I don't know, I found it really annoying.
I it was it those were, those are pretty rough too, and they
have pretty good accuracy and can hit you from further away,
it felt like.

Then you, yeah, they hit you and
then you can't hit them.

And that's like the worst case
scenario.

It's that it's that sort of loop
where it's like you don't flinch per SE when you get hit, but you
you do need to kind of be, I mean, there is sort of a lock on
like this person here that's playing has is doing sort of the
sidestep and the the strafing that I ended up using quite a
bit.

And I would sort of walk in
circles around enemies because they they don't fire super fast.
So if you're just kind of running from left to right and
shooting them, you'll you'll probably hit them and you know,
but again, because it's tedious, it doesn't feel like I'm doing
anything all that exciting.

It just feels like, oh, I'm just
trying to get past these couple guys in order to get to the next
spot.

Because for me, I don't know
about you, but despite how sort of stiff Shadow Man runs and
moves, I didn't actually mind the traversal parts all that
much.

I think those areas for me felt
like they were designed fairly.

I think maybe is what it is,
where some of the combat and some of the other areas felt
like they were just more convoluted and like you said,
they get a little tedious.

Is it the most exciting
traversal in the world?

No, you just kind of move from
one spot to another.

And there's just for some
reason, platforms broken up into 13 pieces just for reasons to
get up a Cliff.

You know, it's just an excuse to
kind of get you to jump a few times.
But I never found it to be super frustrating.
And if I ever did feel like, oh,

I really should have just made
that jump, I would just rewind 10 seconds.
Oh.

I definitely did that.
Yeah, so.

And that's fine.
You know, it's a big enough game that I didn't feel too sad about
that, but I don't know you.

You kind of were like, eh, it's
not.

You didn't think it was all that
good?

I I actually think it was it was
pretty cool.

I think.
I think gameplay wise it's it's pretty like slightly above mid,
I'd say.

Like I, I wouldn't say it's
good, but I think it's, I think it's fine.
It works, but I think the vibe and aesthetic is definitely
where this game shines.

Like the whole like story is
just so crazy and I could never predict what was happening next.
And it was creepy and it was interesting and so.
Fucked up.

Yeah, it's, it's messed up the
whole way and I, I don't know, I just, there's something about it
that I see why like just playing it, I'm like, this is a game
that has has a cult following.

Like I, I could just feel it was
one of those games.

And I actually am really curious
about trying the remastered version because they had things
like updating the textures and everything which might help with
navigation like separating things and making a more
distinct.

I think.
Sorry, pushed a couple buttons by accident there.
Whoops.

I thought you were trying to
highlight me for a second.

I was like, well I can be
highlighted and talk you.

Want me to highlight?
I can highlight.

You ready?
See.

Whoop.
Hey, watch the stream, everybody.
Highlight, highlight.

There's a game extreme close up.
That's really dizzy and that was a terrible idea.
Not forget what you said.

It probably was not that
important because I don't.

Know the Remastered?
The Remastered.

Oh yeah.
Remastered.

So when I was looking up,
looking up gameplay and when I looked up a couple of sort of
tips and stuff as I went along, remaster came up quite often
because that's the most recent one.
People are playing through it, they're putting up their let's
plays, things like that.

It looks pretty sharp.
I think they, you know, like I,

I didn't play it, so I'm not
sure what it feels like when you play it, but you walk through
some of the areas that I was very much like, oh, this is very
samey.

A lot of muddy stuff, like
everything looks more distinct.

I, you know, I don't know that
the levels are necessarily laid out any differently.
It sounds like there's a couple of spots that have changed
because when I looked up a a couple of the hints that I ended
up looking up sort of halfway through the game or something,
sort of noted that oh, this door is over here instead of over
here or oh, this ledge isn't there anymore.
That dark soul is actually in this room.
So there's little they didn't just fancy it up and that's it.
There was more to it than that.

So I.
Heard they also added like cut content back into the game.
Oh yeah, I read that too, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, which is very
interesting.

Yeah.
I the biggest thing for me is like and I don't know if it
supports ultra wide but apparently it supports wide
screen support which.

Writes.
I think could actually be really helpful in a game like this to
see like enemies and stuff off to the left or the right.
Yeah, it's it does allow you again like through the settings
you can do.

I think they call it wide screen
or something.

Wait in this in the 64 one.
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, did I not check that well?
It's in there.

It's.
On me.

I I when I went through the
settings and turned up the brightness because that's the
like one of the couple of things that I read before I started
playing it, it is in the settings is one of the things.
Let me see if I can pull up the settings.
Actually, oh man, I bet it works on Oh my gosh, I'm going to pull
my switch.

Well.
It definitely works on Switch because that's where I played it
so.

Yeah, that's what that's what I
want to see because oh man, that that changes everything.
I freaking love 1.

Here in game.
Apparently I was dying the last time I was playing just.
Listen to some music while we pull up the the.
Oh yes.

There's that vibe also, like
loading screens.

I don't see.
I don't see wide screen I.

Saw it somewhere,
I'm going to let this guy pulled up the options here.
Pretty sure.

Where is it in game?
Shadow meter resolution, Low res, high res.
That's what it is.

That's what I was thinking of.
Not widescreen, low res or high res, yeah.
I wonder if it's.

That's interesting.
I don't.

I can't remember if it makes it
any brighter, but.

Oh yeah, I have it in high res.
Yeah, so did I Yeah, I, I assume it's not that far, not that
different, but probably because you can put the expansion pack
in this.

That's probably that's probably
what that is.

So yeah, it's it's I, you know,
I, I, I think it is the vibes.

I think it is the music here.
I'm going to play more, more sound because that's something
we kept we've we've talked about constantly.
I want to play some of the sort of sound just as the game's
going on.

Is it an important part?
It is.

I actually it's a huge part of
the game.

Let's go here because he
collects like a dark soul and they get like a voiced over.
There's there's that.

Oh, and they do a great job
making all the enemies sound terrifying by the.
Way.

Oh yeah.
There's like the little ones that go and they're like shadow
man, yeah.

You know what they are?
They're gargoyles.

I didn't know that they were
gargoyles.

Oh man, I I didn't either.
They're just like little creepy fucking things.
I know.

So like even when you're not
doing much, like the ambience, yeah, the ambience, atmospheric
sort of sound, and it's constantly.
And when you hear those Dark

Souls too, it's like a
heartbeat.

So if you're like against a wall
or something, it's like boom, boom, boom, boom.
And it's, oh, it's around me somewhere.
Yeah, it's cool.

I feel like I just saw that he
was gonna get a dark soul here.

I just wanted to find it because
the to be able to hear that heartbeat part.
There you go.

Where it is, Yeah.
The Dark Souls are mine.

Are mine.
He always sounds so angry.

He's so angry.
Yeah, he is.

He's always so angry.
He's always angry.

I mean his brothers, I.
Am the shadow man.

Yeah, again, I, I, So when it
really comes down to it, I think, as I said, like I, I
really like Metroidvania games, some of my favorite genre in the
last, let's say, 15 years or something.
A lot of really great games that that have made that obviously
just Metroid games in general.

I love the 2D Metroid games
especially.

Dredd is one of the best Switch
games in my opinion.

I freaking love that game so
much.

And it's one of the best Metroid
games.

I think it's just so well
designed, has so many cool ideas.
The difficulty is great, So I like games like that.
I just I those are more you can you can follow those a little
easier.

You know that you have to
backtrack the certain spots a little bit better.
I think that was my biggest problem with it, like is yes,
the bullet sponge enemy stuff is not great, But if it's
encouraging me and I'm and it's required of me to go back and
find these Dark Souls and go to areas like this where now he's
running through lava, which would instantly kill you before.
But then you get in the yeah, well, no, you get an ability
that allows you to do that, that allows you to run on the lava.
What cheat did he activate though?
Oh, I.

Don't know, there's cheat,
there's areas where you can go, where you go in.
Just like jump down somewhere and said cheat activated.
Yeah, you unlock cheats in certain areas, like when you
when you find them and stuff, but there's there's spots where
you couldn't access before until you get an ability later on,
regardless of which one it is.

And I don't always know or
remember because there's no map.

There's no like like if it had
any kind of navigation other than just the areas that the
teddy bear let's you go to

Again, I don't remember what
everything's called.

I remember what everything looks
like.

You're just transported to like
the start of that area.

There's no other kind of
checkpoints or travel area.

Maybe I'm asking for something
too modern, but I really think that would have like gotten me
to honestly finish this game because unfortunately neither of
us did because it's just, there's just too much to do I
think.

But we will.
I, you know what I, I think if

I, I, I put the remaster on on
my steam wish list.

Nice.
So I think that when I get the chance or I, you know, see it on
sale or whatever gives me a heads up like, oh, hey, it's 10
bucks off.

You know what, I, I think you
know, now that I've been through the 1st, I would say 2/3 of this
game, I feel like I could get through it pretty quickly
because I've done it.

And then I can sort of
experience going back and backtracking to find some of
those things that I didn't before because of all the things
we've explained.

So I think like I might do it.
Is it going to be tomorrow?

No, but I'm willing to do it
because the game is.

It's not bad, it's just little
things add up to some annoying aspects I guess is part of it.
Yeah, yeah, I agree.

I think, I think overall it's,
it's, it's a very interesting game though.
Yeah, it's a vibe.

It's a vibe.
It's a.

Vibe and it's cool that it's
based on a comic and that just that that whole story, it's just
really interesting to me because they were like, didn't they want
to originally make a game about like a cop or something?
That was, yes.

Yeah, So what I what I found was
that the acclaimed studio, I don't have the name of the exact
acclaimed studio that it was, but Acclaim who is now actually
coming back under new ownership and was purchased, repurchased
or what some of the rights to some of the stuff obviously is
not there.

Like they don't have, I don't
think they have Turok anymore, stuff like that.
Anyways, point is that studio started making the engine for
this game before they even knew what game they were going to
make.

So this game was in development
technically for like two or three years before it was
released.

And then they just sort of built
a game around it once they were got the right they the, the
Acclaim Studios or Acclaim, like the publishing part of Acclaim,
but a bunch of comic book rights, which I think Turok was
one of them.

And they're like, OK, we want to
make a 3D potentially action game, adventure game type of
thing.

We're going to start building an
engine for that.

And then eventually they're
like, oh, we're going to choose shadow man.
We're going to use that.

I think that's kind of cool
because you don't, you know, you're, you're sort of this is
our technical idea.

And then, OK, let's use the deep
story that we have and sort of build around it, which maybe is
a lot of the stuff that we've been talking about that that's
why those things feel not drastically different from each
other, but definitely feel like they were done separately in a
way because of the way that the story is told and how crazy it
is.

And how the gameplay is hit and
miss I.

Just got I just got like what
this game like the vibe of the aesthetic, what it really
reminds me of.

It's the movie Jeepers Creepers.
Nice, yeah.

Do you like the stitching of the
skin and everything?

Like all of that?
But it's definitely got a

Louisiana voodoo kind of plot to
it.

Yes, yeah, that's where it
starts.

Until you until you run into
this guy, which is the guy I mentioned at the beginning in my
little spiel more than a drop of the hard stuff, just calling her
a drunk.

Like, why is this guy super
Scottish with the top hat like a creepy snake?
Like, what is it?

Feels so It's so.
I don't know.

It is pretty bizarre.
Again, another cut scene halfway through the game.
Lots of dialogue, lots of sort of explanations.
Like there's just so much of this going on.
Oh.

My gosh, and I, I have to say
this because I just saw it there, the, the mouths freaking
move to the words they're saying whether it matches up or not.
Not the point.

This is an N64 game and when he
talks, his mouth is like moving.

All of them.
They never did that.

They never did that.
They were always just static models, so I was very impressed
with that when I saw it.

It's a little thing, but they do
so many close-ups on the characters when they're talking
because there's so much dialogue that you're like, oh, you know,
you actually notice it.

Yeah, yeah.
That's, that's a good point.

Because you know what reminds me
of the the models in this, the actual sort of silhouettes, the
actual character models of, of the humans, at least reminds me
of, you know, no Mercy, for example, Because I just I look
at those models of those wrestlers in that game so often
because I play that game so much, but none of their mouths
move every time they do it.

They just sort of like do these
actions with their hands or whatever and things like that.
And there's more going on in the game.
So it's fine.

But like then you see it in this
And I was like, Oh, that would have been cool if I could see
stone Cold chirping the rock or something like or Undertaker
sort of yapping.

A chirp on rockers Coconut.
Yeah, that's.

Power driver of a runner.
Yeah.

Yeah, so that that's a good
point.

I actually forgot to mention
that.

That's that's huge.
So overall pretty good game.

Just you got to get through some
some sort of convoluted stuff here and there.
But I do think that there's a lot here to enjoy.
It's a little ambitious, maybe is part of it.
Yeah, yeah, I.

Think that that might be
something.

Yeah, ambitious, I would say.
And it pulls a lot more often than it fails, I would say.
Yes, 100 percent, 100%.

Like we're, we're talking about
the things that like sort of feel off, but it doesn't make
the game bad.

I don't think this is a bad
game.

I was actually surprised.
I thought the first couple minutes I thought sort of the
fact that it's not a hugely popular game, it's not like I've
knew a bunch of people that played it.
I was like, oh, I'm kind of worried that the gameplay is
going to be kind of and whatever, but but I, I did enjoy
it, You know, I was willing to go through those and get past
those areas that we've been talking about because I was
still having a good time in it and still interested in keeping
going and finding those crazy things.
Like you were saying, there's just constantly things that are
thrown at you that are interesting and, and dark and
creepy and like, I want to see more of that.
I want to experience more of that.
And it does give you tons of that the more and more you play.
So a pretty long game.

So if you really want to sink
into a spooky game for for an

October or spooky season like
this will eat up a decent amount of time for sure.
I don't know I should look up on how long to beat how long it is,
but I feel like it's it's up there, man, Let's see, come on.
So it says if you want to do just main story, which you know,
sometimes there's there's some areas you can go back to unlock
and whatever 15 hours.

I would, I would say that you'd
have to be pretty efficient with your time to do this in 15
hours.

It's it's a pretty long game.
I think I played it for about 9,

I want to say maybe 10 in total.
Decent round.

And I felt like I I did a lot
and I went to a lot of places, like there's a lot to do here.
So maybe do the remaster version, maybe play the original
if you want, but worth it I would say, right?
Yeah.

Yeah, I would say it's worth it.
I mean especially if you have the expansion pack on switch
like.

Yeah.
It's with that it's cool.

And.
I think I might give the

Dreamcast version a shot just to
really see the differences, you know?
Yeah, the only thing I noticed,

I mean, I didn't look at a ton
of gameplay from it per SE, but like a couple of the reviews
that show up when you sort of search, you know, backgrounds
about these games and stuff is that it's it's just it runs a
little bit smoother.

Like there are some frame drops
and things like that.

Even even playing it on Switch,
it just feels like it's just the game itself, just how it was
built and and all that, because it's so big, I feel like it
makes sense that there's limited space on that cartridge and
expansion pack to run it.

And I heard, and the thing that
I read was that the Dreamcast one just looks a little bit
better.

It might sound a little bit
better and there's less of those sort of technical issues and
stuff, which is all good.

That's all the bonus, right?
That's all positive.

Pretty much what I expect from a
Dreamcast port.

Yeah, exactly right.
Which was like a couple year, 2 years, maybe three years after
it was released on 64.

So had some time to to cook a
little bit, but shadow yeah, was is there a year on the on the
case there 2001 or two maybe I would assume oh.
It says 99 acclaim.

Oh, it's still 99.
Oh, OK, so there you go.

Wait, what the Frick?
Yeah, uh oh.

It's just fine.
Come on.

What the anticipation is killing
me.

Is that a map?
It's a map of the dead side.

What?
I'm not even joking, I just opened it.
I never saw that.

It was like I've opened this
case and looked at it.

I've never seen this map before.
I opened it and it was just there.
It's like separate from the manual, like a separate.
Dude, it's separate.

Yeah, it's a separate little
pamphlet.

Live side level Bayou Paradise,
Louisiana, dead side level the marrow gates.
And then it has like it has like a long that's cool tips and
stuff.

And this man, this is literally
a map of everything path.

I mean it's not super detailed
but it's like an over overhead view of where everything is.
Wasteland Paths.

It shows the gates that you can
go through and it shows how many

Dark Souls it takes to.
Open.

Oh, that's huge.
That's huge.

And it shows the asylum gateway
and the pathways through the asylum and.
Oh that's oh man what?

Wow, instantly the best version
of this game.

Wow, I mean the fact that I have
this is dope.

I don't even know I had this.
I wish.

I need a clear shot of this for
this.

Maybe I'll send you a picture,
or maybe you should just throw it up on the screen.
That's unreal.

Oh man.
That is epic.

It was just like chilling in the
in the case.

See, OK, This is why when you go
to gaming conventions and stuff,

I hunt especially for my
Dreamcast for the actual like cases because they're so hard to
find the jewel cases.

But often they do have the
instruction manuals.

I just never, I must not have
noticed that that was sitting in there like that.
I opened it.

It was like on the disk, you
know?

That's man, that's awesome.
That's you see, that would have meant a lot of the things I just
talked about.

And we've meant it.
Man, would have I had before I started.
Yeah, that would have made a difference.
So here's the thing.

So that's like that's just point
in case where it's just like, I don't know if there's a version
of that.

I don't know in the remaster if
that's included, it's some version of that or whatever.
I'm sure you can find it online at this point.
But you have something like that in this game available to you or
you have it in the jewel case like you did there with the
dream cat.

Like it makes a difference.
Does it does it make the gameplay itself 10 times better?
No, but it takes away some of that convoluted.
Yeah.

Design.
There to go.

That's all you need, especially
the the gates and stuff to be like, oh, now I have six.
OK, I'm going to go to this area.
That's great.

That's all I need.
You don't have to put me right in front of the gate.
I will just know that that's the area I have to go to, which
would be kind of cool.

So damn, man, I feel bad for you
now.

Shit, I mean it's cool, but I
feel bad for you too.

That's OK, I'm still playing the
game though.

There you go.
I can use it, yeah, but we'll move on from this and head to
our next spooky game.

Again, like I mentioned earlier
in the show, we are going to be playing Castlevania.
Just Castlevania.

Some people just call it
Castlevania 64, but just the first 3D Castlevania.
There are two on the 64, but we're just going to play the
first one this time.

We'll get to the other one at
some point, but if you want to play along, that is the game
that's coming up next.

I'm not going to make any
promises, but I'm going to try to stream it or we're going to
try to do something like that closer to the Halloween, if
you're hearing this before

Halloween comes around.
But that will be the Next up.

And until that time, Jiggy,
where can everybody find you online, Sir?
I'm on YouTube, look me up on

YouTube.
You can find me on YouTube.

That's where you go.
Can they find Jiggy?

Look back on YouTube.
I can't.

I don't.
Know they can find jiggy look back on YouTube.
In fact, if you could go jiggy, look back, I'm pretty sure an AI
overview comes up.

Oh God, saying to find me on
YouTube.

It just says on YouTube, yeah, I
doubt I doubt much of that comes up with Remember 64, but of
course you can find Remember 64 on YouTube as well.
consolecreatures.com is where you can find me writing mostly
about indie games and and playing indie games.
Also for anyone who is a fan of games on the N64, the Banjo
Kazooie series, rare games on the 64 Yoka Replayli, I believe
that is how you're supposed to say it's it's I, I don't love
it.

I don't love it.
I am currently as we are recording this, playing that for
review for console creatures.

So you can check that out as
well.

Very cool way to sort of be able
to experience that game mostly for the first time 'cause I
actually hadn't played a whole lot of the first one.
So that's something you can check out.
Of course, support this show at remember 64 show on Patreon and
find it all over social media.

And as I mentioned at the top of
the show, if you want to support this show and the others that we
have a console creatures, coffee.com, just search console
creatures and you can toss us any small amounts of of bucks
that will go towards making this these shows bigger and better
than than they are even now.

So other than that, everybody,
thank you so much for joining us once again on remember 64.
Get spooky, get shadow Manny and

I don't know what's that thing?
Sure, sure.

OK, before I say any more and
screw this up, I'm getting out of here.
OK, Bye everybody.

Bye.