Level 88 - Dr. Mario 64 - Take These Pills and Call Us in the Morning

Your sister gave you the mumps.
Your brother gave you the flu.

Your best friend gave you
chicken pox.

It's payback time.
With help from Doctor Mario.

Go head to head on NES or link
up on Game Boy.

Then contaminate, exterminate
and spread.

The viruses spread.
You infect your opponent, make them sweat, run a fever, Get the
chills, Doctor Mario.

With two players, it's germ
warfare.

Sure.
Welcome to Remember 64, where this week we have a fever and
the only prescription of these little red and yellow pills
apparently.

Hello everyone, welcome to the
show and hi again if you are a returning listener and viewer,
welcome if this is your first time joining us on the show.
Here on Remember 64 we play and discuss the good, the bad, the
ugly and everything in between on the Nintendo 64's library.
My name is David Betrangelo and

I guess everyone in my small
town is going to suffer through cold season because I cannot
beat the stupid worm, this weird monster and definitely the
scientist.

There is no way I'm going to be
able to save everyone.

Jiggy, look back.
What about you?

Any success?
Well, I thought maybe I could become a hero and go save all
those people that were on that boat that, you know, the rat in
food situation.

They were getting all sick and
stuff.

And I thought I got a
prescription for that.

And then I just started like
being a doctor's hard man.

I I can't do it.
I can't do it.

Just can't do it, huh?
Nope.

So I give up.
They're just.

They're just gonna have to get.
They're gonna have to die.

That's all it is.
They're done.

Can't help them.
Sorry.

Well.
As long as you all you need is that apparently talk according
to Doctor Mario, is you just need that reflector thing on top
of your head and can do attitude with a thumbs up and then then
that's pretty much all it takes.

Do you want to do something
hilarious?

I absolutely do.
Please.

I have one of those.
Why?

Because a few years back for a
Halloween.

Party.
I was a doctor.

I actually was specifically
Doctor Mario and I had a white lab coat, I had a stethoscope,
and I had the white thing that like or the reflector thing that
goes in your head, and then I put on a mustache.
Yeah, it was great.

Pictures and video please.
By the way, I don't.

Maybe I have a picture lies.
Lies.

I don't know.
I might have the.

I might have the thing though I
think I know where it is.

What are those things called?
Even know what the hell that thing's.
Called.

No, I have no idea.
Doctor doctor reflector thingy.

It's like a mirror.
Doctor reflector thing it says head mirror.
OK.

I thought it would have more of
it.

It is a mirror.
I mean, I know, but like, hey, why is it a diagnostic device?
I don't know why it would.

And how does you do, How does it
help?

How does it help the doctors?
The question 'cause they can't see it.
Right.

Is it like for?
Kids looking to my mirror, Yeah.

Some of these pictures I see
getting very sleepy in front of their eye.
It's like covering their whole eye.
What, Instead of up above their head?
Yeah.

It's so weird.
Anyways, Doctor Mari, everyone, that's what we're talking about.
Yes absolutely we have ourselves a pretty late.
I didn't realize this is a 2001 release on the N64.
Looking at probably one of the last 10 games that was ever
released.

Largely a remake of the SNES and
Game Boy ones.

Apparently pretty close to the
way it's structured as far as the non story mode stuff goes.
Makes sense.

The gameplay is is pretty much
the same.

So we'll get into that in just
just a SEC.

But yeah, Doctor Mario 64
everyone also available on NSO.

So if it is something that
you're hearing us or watching us talk about this and go, oh, I
want to give this a shot.

NS OS got it for you right
there.

Pretty much plays exactly the
same as it would if you had a controller.
It's a pretty simple control scheme.
So I just want to mention before we get into the game, we still
have our giveaway going on for

Mullet Mad Jack.
That is the game that I was gifted the code for to give away
to listeners and viewers on

Steam.
So all you have to do is if you're listening to this still
in May of 2026, the contest will end at the end of the month.
But in May of 2026, all you have to do is go to our Star Wars
Rogue Squadron episode, subscribe to the channel and
comment on that video and tell us who your favorite Star Wars
character is.

Pretty simple.
I'll, I'll find your comments,

I'll find your sub, and you'll
be in the pool of names.

And at the end of May, I will be
pulling that name from a hat or virtual hats or virtual spinner,
whatever things you can do.

Mirror.
Mirror.

Doctor mirror.
Yeah.

Oh, that's what they're for.
They're for contests, Right?

Right.
OK, So, yeah, Mullet Mad Jack, if you haven't seen it.
Crazy retro 80s inspired B movie type of FPS action game about
chaining combos of robot kills and stuff.
Have you ever seen or have played Bulletstorm?
Think of that but with like a more anime design and feel.
Super fun game.

I reviewed it and really really
loved it.

It's now what on switch 2 as
well?

And Switch, but the code is for
Steam, so if you're PC player and you have Steam and on Steam
Deck plays great, that is a game that will be given away.
So just check that out for the contest that will end at the end
of May of 2026.

If this is when you're listening
to it and as well a commercial success.
We have a few episodes available.
By the time you're hearing this episode and watching it, one of
them will be out and it will be a little bit of a makeshift
replacement for the one that I had planned.
But Jiggy, look back and I discussed Star Fox, the new Star
Fox trailer and direct that they had just a couple days ago as of
this recording that is, and our thoughts on it.
Look what we expect, what we wanted may not have wanted a
whole bunch of things.

So that didn't sell us the whole
concept of a commercial success that I've I've thought of is if
I watch this commercial or this direct and I put myself in those
shoes at that time, would I be sold and what they're trying to
sell me?

And that's basically what we got
down.

So we broke it down in a bunch
of bunch of different ways.

So check that out.
All three of those, potentially even 4 by the time you have
this, but three of those will be on Patreon.
The first 3 will be for free and available to everyone.
And then after that, it's going to be one of the rewards for
supporters of the choice.

So check that out as well.
All right, Jiggy, look back.

Let's get to it, Sir.
We have ourselves a Oh, you got your glasses on 'cause you're a
doctor, right?

Yes, that is that what?
Professional.

Professional, professional,
professional Doctor Maria, whether it's this one or any of
the other ones, Any experience with this?
I guess you could call it franchise puzzle games before
this.

I played it once and it was too
hard.

This specific one or?
This specific one.

This specific one, OK, Yes, yes.
Yes.

Did you do it on?
NSO or was it?

Well I did do it on NSO, but no
back in the day I played it I don't I don't remember who had
it.

Maybe a cousin had it way too
hard for me, did not like it and then went on NSO.
Tried it again when it first came out and I was like, this is
too hard.

Did not like it.
And I was like let's play this for the podcast.
And so I went back, I played it, got farther still thought it was
way too hard.

I'm like really bad at this
game.

It is definitely something that
I wrote down myself and thought constantly.
I thought I just was.

I just thought it was bad at.
I thought it was bad at this.

But no, it's it's difficult.
It's just, it's just a hard game, like it is hard.
Game.

It is hard.
So I I played this.

I borrowed the Game Boy version
of this 'cause I had the original brick Game Boy back in
the day.

Sadly, it did not make it path
into the 2000s.

I don't think it yes, maybe it
was 2005, early 2000s.

It's probably the last time I
got my hands on it 'cause I left, I left batteries in it and
didn't realize and it would be years later.
I don't even, I was, I mean, it was definitely years later
'cause I had a color and had an advance.
It was at my parents place.

I remember it was probably 15
years ago or something, so not that long ago.
And it was like probably sitting with corroded batteries for a
decade.

Yeah, yeah.
So really, you know, I I have my, I have my Game Boy version.
I just use my, my, my Game Boy, the Lego Game Boy.
So I remember borrowing that from someone and playing it.
I don't remember if I enjoyed it or whatever, but it was like,
oh, it's a Mario game, It's a puzzle, whatever.
It's Mario Tetris.

Yeah.
And then the SNES one.

I remember renting a couple
times and actually really liking it.
Really liking it doesn't mean I got any further in it or did OK
in it.

I really hate don't remember,
but I do remember playing it and then this one never touched
until now just because whatever, it just wasn't one that was on
my radar kind of thing.

And yeah, I whipped my ass it it
beat me down.

Jiggy.
This game is we talked about the difficulty of Rogue Squadron.
I think this is worse.

Oh, for sure, for sure.
No, no, no.

This is like, I was struggling
like the first level I beat, but the first level I was still
like, this is pretty challenging and this is the first level.
And then I got to the second level.
I was like, OK, And then I got to the third level and I was
like, are you kidding me?

And I'm not gonna lie, I may
have dropped a few, a few choice words.
And then I got, I got to the fourth level and I was just
like, all right, Yep, same state.
Maybe I'll come back to this later.
I'm good.

Yeah.
So yeah, I so there's different modes in this.
There's just you just play through multiple levels until
you until you lose do that.

There's a story mode, which I
think is is sort of what you might be referencing where you
are either Mario or Wario, which is a cool idea, although we'll
we'll get to what what that means, if anything at all.
And basically you're just you're you're Mario Wario.
And there's the scientist that wants to steal the medicine
while you're trying to help people in this little village or
town or whatever it is in order to help them feel better.
And and yeah, we need hold on.

His name is I had it up here.
Mad Seinstein.

Sure.
Yeah, that's his name.

I remember being like, that's a
ridiculous name.

I got to have that.
Absolutely ridiculous.

Yeah.
It's just an excuse to have a bad guy.
And so essentially all the characters in this society, I
think, aside from the the scientists are actually in Wario
Land 3, which it didn't realize, which was out around this time.
So that's why Wario's in it.

And it sort of changes the sort
of dynamic of Team Mario and

Wario a little bit.
They're not just completely butting heads.
There is a reason why they're they're sort of acting together
at the beginning.

All it is is an excuse to take
you from A to B.

In between A to B, you'll run
into a creature.

That creature is the creature
you face off against in A in a head to head doctor Mario or
Tetris like match up is basically all it is, right?
It's not Tetris.

It is a little bit different.
You have to try to get rid of viruses that are on the screen
with doing matches and everything.
All the other modes are pretty basic.
One of those marathon just keep going and then there's just
scores and then there's just whatever play single level or
stuff like that and change your difficulty and stuff.
The story thing, it's fine.

You know, I don't know it, it's
OK.

The, the thing that I wrote down
that got me, I was trying to, I was wondering why it like, let's
like thinking to myself, like why doesn't this work for me in
the same way that it does for something like Yoshi's Story,
for example, where it's a storybook look and aesthetic and
all that kind of stuff.

And that's what they're going
for in like the in between story moments here.
It doesn't.

It doesn't look that good.
It doesn't.

It looks very choppy and blurry
and just doesn't.

I don't know.
I don't know what it is.

It's I have a few theories on
that.

One theory is that is the fact
that it's inconsistent across the board because you have these
segments that almost look like

Paper Mario, but it's not Paper
Mario, and you're like almost a cardboard cut out that is like
really animated.

But then when you get into the
actual game, they have these little sprites that are
adorable.

They're they're cool looking.
I like the way they look.

Look at them, they're bopping
around and like.

Which reminds you that in the
cutscenes they could have just animated these sprites to do the
cutscenes and it would have been way better.
Totally 'cause they're actually a really good design.
I actually really like what they did with them.
I'm with you.

Yeah, it makes it makes no sense
why they have this weird Paper

Mario cardboard cut out sort of
story sequence cutscenes.

They're not great.
I agree.

I did not think they were good.
They just feel lazy, like they didn't have to animate the
characters.

Yeah, and I know they're trying
to tell a quote, UN quote story or whatever, but like even
playing it on on NSO, like I think the version we're watching
here, this must be like up resin some way or something.
But it was like it was blurry.

It didn't look very good.
You know, the sound is fine, but

I I just found like it was like,
all right, you know, and I noticed the same thing about the
sprites like you.

Like what's wrong with that?
Just and they.

Don't need to jump around or
anything, they can just sort of sit there.
Yeah, like this guy in the.

Home Depot Commercial.
This guy in the in the Milwaukee

Home Depot, in the look at that
look, he's he's not in a, in a, in a fake storybook.
Look at that free delivery too.

Free delivery man Home Depot
Canada.

And L'Oreal Paris.
Oh my God.

Oh my gosh.
Dude, money we're making off this episode is incredible.
It's so good.

Yeah.
Like the this, the whole game should just look like this.
Yeah.

What's I don't.
I don't.

I didn't.
I didn't.

I think your theory is correct.
It's stupid.

That's that's my theory.
Yeah, that's the theory.

It's stupid.
The theory is that it's, it's silly.
So my, my main beef with the game is that it's, it's too
difficult, but that that's the big issue for sure.
I I don't understand why it had to be that way.
And I think I realized that maybe you're maybe you're the
same.

I don't know.
It's just how I feel about games like this is that I prefer, I
wanted to go through the story because I thought, oh, it would
be fun to just go through that mode and see what they do with
it.

They really just find excuses,
like I said, to to have you face off against someone.
I prefer just playing single, single screen instead of being
up against someone you know like

I I find the stress and the
added, I guess you could call it difficulty, but the added piece
to the puzzle of needing to survive what another player is
doing to you to not be as enjoyable as me just playing the
single screen drop down myself.

I it's OK if you're playing
multiplayer with someone, that's fine.
That's the reason why you're doing it.
But to have that be the single player experience, I actually
don't enjoy it in the same way.

See, I actually like that
because it gives me, I feel, I feel like it gives me more
incentive to play it and, and like a sense of accomplishment
to beating someone.

But I, I, I think we need to
just describe how this one plays before I start making
comparisons because that's what my brain wants to do right now.
And that the base fundament, like, it's easy to look at this
game and be like, oh, it's like

Tetris, but it's really not like
Tetris.

The only semblance of Tetris is
that you're dropping shapes.

Like the layout is the same, but
the actual like what you're doing with those shapes is
different.

Yeah, Tetris 2.
If anyone's played Tetris 2,

Tetris 2 wasn't a sequel.
Yeah, they tried to.

I, I have, I have the cartridge
of my Game Boy pouch behind me.

I'll grab it has a similar thing
where like there's these little pieces in it that you need to
break, break in order to, to clear the screen.
Anyways, continue.

I'll let you describe it 'cause
you're you're on a roll.

Oh, OK.
So basically, essentially you will have a little jar.
They're supposed to look like jars or vials.
I don't know if you made that.

Like it's a pill bottle I think
is what?

It is a pill bottle, yeah.
So you'll have like little vitamins that you drop, which
will be basically either one solid color or two colors, and
you can rotate them.

And your goal is to eliminate
all the little viruses inside this bottle.
And so they're all color-coded.

So if there's a blue virus, you
got to line up at least 3 blue shapes against it to create a
sequence of four, and that will break them.
And once you break them, it eliminates the virus.
So you got to match the colors in all different spots.
There's yellow, red, blue, and it gets really hectic really
fast.

You can box yourself into a
corner.

It's difficult.
You want to get this done before your opponent on the other side
gets it done, but it's not the only way you can win.
You don't necessarily have to get all of the viruses defeated.
You could potentially just like outlast them and they get stuck
because their pills just stack up to the top until they like
block and they can't drop anymore.
Like when you lose a Tetris game right like that, that part of it
is the Tetris part, but the rest of it, you're right, is is
different for sure.

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

I don't, I don't know how to
describe it other than that there's a fun little animation
of Mario versus whatever he's fighting.
Which you'll never see because you're too focused on the.
You're too focused.

Yeah, you don't want.
To do little.

Later.
But let me tell you something.

I did pop in one of my favorite
games.

Doctor Robotnik means mean be
machine.

And actually you started doing
it, which I was.

Like.
I'm going to refresh my memory with this game and I went in and
I so I played this for like a good, I don't know, maybe like 2
hours I played it.

I was just like sitting there,
Doctor Mario.

I was playing Doctor Mario and
I'm like, why am I not into this?
I love mean being machine.

Why am I not into this?
I was like, honestly I was not having a lot of fun so I popped
in.

Mean being machine.
And I was like, am I did I just grow out of this?
Like it's been a minute since I played it and I went and popped
a mean be machine Freaking loved it.
I'm like, Nope, it's Doctor

Mario.
And I realized that actually, at least with what I was playing
on, which was I was playing it on my TV on my switch to on the
NSO and I was using a pro controller.
I wasn't using my N64 controller for this.
OK.

But I was using the D pad and it
was super bad.

Like in a game like this that
requires you to precisely move your piece, right?
So you wanna do things like drop it down and there'll be like a
little slot to your right.

And if you like, tap the button
and move it to the right super fast, you can squeeze your piece
in there.

Like you can do that, but it's
really sloppy in Doctor Mario.

It's it's bad if you, if you pop
in Doctor Mario and you hit right and left with the D pad
and you just move right and left, you'll feel how choppy it
is.

And if you don't feel how choppy
it is, go play Doctor Robotnik's mean being machine, because this
is exactly what happened.

I popped that in, same
controller, NSO, same situation.

And I sat there and I moved and
it felt fluid.

It felt like it was really like
responsive with what I was doing.
Yeah, Even the rotation of it where it feels a little clunky,
like the, IT felt like it was really spinning like it.
Was the rotate.

The rotation isn't great because
it's.

It's square.
Yeah, there's something about it where it just it, I didn't
notice it at first.

I was, you know, assuming it was
me that was the problem, which is a fair assumption.
But I noticed after a while I was like, yeah, it doesn't quite
move the way that I'm expecting it to.
It does not.

Yeah, yeah.
And it's it is clunky the way they fall too.
I found which doesn't help.

That's, that's a great way to
describe it.

Just in general, it's not that
it's bad per SE, it's just when you played other games that are
similar to this concept, they do it a lot better.
I I can't speak to the original

Doctor Mario, only this N64
variant, and I honestly think it's probably probably my least
favorite sort of puzzle style game like this that I've played.
Of the, of this like genre of puzzle game where you have to
eliminate locks and things like that.
Yeah, 'cause at this point there's a lot of them.
I think when we were talking about covering this the other
day, it was like Pollo Pollo.

I think it is, is like the, the
big, like sort of popular.

Yeah, baseline there.
That's a good way to say it.

And I haven't played those
games, but I hear they're great and there's tons of them and
there's different types and all these kinds of.
Things so many of those, so many of these like puzzle like games
are just like that game reskinned.
Yeah.

Like there's a Kirby one,
there's like there's all sorts of ones.
There's a is it Wario Forest or

Wario Woods?
Or something like that.

I think it's.
Wario's Woods is kind of like this.
And I was watching a difference and listened to a different
podcast called Play Retro that I listened to a a bunch.
They they play a whole variety of different games and stuff.
And that was one of them.

And I didn't really know what it
was.

They started talking about it
and I watched the I watched the video version of their podcast.
It's cool to see the gameplay and stuff, especially when it's
games that I don't know, like, like that one.
And I was like, Oh, this looks like fun.
I never played this before and it's on a whole bunch of it's on
like Genesis and stuff too.

I'm pretty sure it's it's a
weird one of those weird rare games in that time and and it
was a lot of fun.

It has it's not exactly like
this, but it has ideas similar to this and I thought it was
great.

That was a lot of fun.
I didn't play a bunch of hours.

I played this more than I played
that but like it was a it was a better game then this was.
Yeah.

And it was made probably six or
seven years before this was.

Yeah, you know, the only game I
can think of now, now that I'm now that I said that we played
previously Pokémon Puzzle

League.
Yes.

And I, I'd be curious, maybe I
need to go back and play that one again because I remember
also not really not really caring for that one too much.
And now I'm like, which one did

I care for?
Like less?

Like was it, was it Doctor Mario
or Pokémon Puzzle League?

Because what I will say about
doctor Mario is it has a lot of charm as far as like this part
of it, the actual gameplay part of it, minus the sort of silly
cutscenes situation they got going on.
This part has so much charm.

The little sprites being
animated, just the idea of like dropping pills and like
defeating little virus monsters and they're animated and they're
kind of laughing at you in the thing, or at least that's how I
took it.

They seem to have little
personalities and I just, I don't know, there's, there's a
lot to like about.

The look of it, it's a it's a
fun little idea.

You know, it's a fun little like
it feels so random, but but it does it is it is fun.
I I I, I agree.

There's some of that charm there
that that work for me as well.

I guess that's like you have to
at least hit that if you're playing a Mario game, right?
You have to at least have that.

Oh, Brett Phillips.
Hey, what's going on?

Welcome.
Welcome.

What's up?
We're talking Doctor Mario.

Have you played Doctor Mario?
Brett, there we go.

Or any of.
Them, like Doctor Mario 64 have.

You played Doctor Mario 64 or
any of them at all?

Yeah, it's, it does have that
charm.

That's true.
I, I'd be curious too.

I thought of Pokémon Puzzle
League 2 because that was what I just probably over a year ago
for sure that we played it.

And that was one that I think I
enjoyed more than you did.

But it wasn't like this perfect
puzzle game by any means.

It was pretty basic.
I, I remember us walking away from away from that being like
Pokémon was just a skin on it.

Like why didn't they do
anything?

Sort of like if you pick a fire
type, you have a fire type advantage or something it like.
That was the part that we didn't

I, I didn't, I still don't
understand why they didn't do that.
I, I still don't don't get it.

That could have been.
That was like a puzzle league.

Opportunity.
Anything puzzle league like.

It could have been Stick Man
Puzzle League and it would have been just as could.
Have been Doctor Mario Puzzle

League and it would have been
the same like.

Nothing was.
Nothing needs to change.

Yeah, exactly.
Brett says he hasn't played these games, but says if we
played Wet tricks, Speaking of

N64 puzzle games, we haven't,
but I've been wanting to do that 'cause it seems like it's like
this odd, out of nowhere type of

Yeah.
People talk about it.

Concept, I know it's sort of
like hidden gem type of things.

Apparently it's pretty good.
So I mean, we play Tetrasphere and I did not expect to like
that as much as I did.

That game is, yeah.
Tetrasphere is cool.

Is so I Oh, dude, I went back to
it like a couple months after we did the episode.
It's great.

I love it.
I honestly love it.

Yeah, it's weird, but oddly fun.
Yeah, exactly.

So there we go.
The other thing is is that there is the Game Boy version in
comparison.

Wait, where?
Is it?

Oh yeah, you had it.
Oh, there it is.

There it is.
The Game Boy version looks, you know, whatever, a pared down
version of what it is.

The other thing about this is
you mentioned the charm, the music and the sound is pretty
good.

I found that to be pretty fun.
But how about the music on the

Game Boy version is insane.
It's so good.

Oh, just wait.
It's coming.

It's
so good.

It's reminiscent of Ghostbusters
in my mind.

Oh, yeah, no, I can see that.
Yeah, I can see that.

And then in comparison, let's do
the.

How clever of them to separate
the colors of the pills the way they did to give it variety.
Yeah, yeah, that's because it's hard to do right.
Like you have to do like Shady.

On a monochromatic screen, it's
like, How do you get more than just like?
What's cool about it too is what's cool about it is the
little guys at the bottom, the viruses, when you eliminate them
from the screen, they pop out of that corner like they're 'cause
they don't exist anymore.

They're not just there just to
be animated, just for fun.

Like if you get rid of all all
of the black viruses, the little black virus dude in the in the
corner pops away completely when you get rid of all of them.
That's awesome.

Yeah, it's really cool.
And then like when you when you crush, when he kind of like goes
Oh no, like he's getting hit or something like.
That, yeah, I see that.

Yeah, yeah, it's fun.
And then in comparison, this is some of the music from the 64
ring.

See if I can pick find a
different level.

It's not bad.
It's not bad, yeah.

It feels pretty I don't know N64
EI like it.

Yeah, I like the Game Boy one
better.

That's just my like sort of
preference for.

Like definitely more unique or
whatever, it's more unique.

Yeah, that's true.
I do like House or I don't know if this is, they have like sort
of like a ambulance siren almost in the background every once in
a while when the yeah, yeah starts like ramping up and
stuff.

That's the other thing too.
The sound design for it is actually kind of good because
you might not have enough time to peek over at your opponent's,
you know, screen, which totally makes sense 'cause otherwise you
might just screw yourself over if you if you do that, the music
ramps up when things get a little bit more tense on either
side, which is good.

So it's a little bit of a heads
up, like, oh, I might be doing really well.
They might be close or vice versa, which is kind of nice.
But yeah, I, I, I like the game.

I, I don't know.
I don't, I was, I was a little disappointed.
Honestly, I wish I wasn't, but

I, I was a little disappointed.
How about you?

I totally, I, I was very, yeah,
I was very middle route.

I think I, I don't, I did not
hate it, but I definitely was getting frustrated and probably
more so than I should have because it's a game.
But I don't know sometimes.

Because it's a game.
Yeah, sometimes when it, when you play a game and it's hard,
I, I get this like, I, I get this gratification, this like
satisfaction of being able to beat something.
And Doctor Mario just felt unfair because I wanted to play
through the story.

I wanted to just experience it.
I I actually went down to the easy mode and I still was having
trouble.

Dude, I was gonna say that
before I totally forgot.

It's a good thing you brought
that up.

I I did normal and I think I
made it to the third stage.

Yes.
And I was racking my brain, I could not do what I spent.
So it, it, what happened?

It's funny.
So when you fail, when you, regardless of what difficulty
you're on, regardless of what you know on the story 1, I don't
know if it does it with the other ones, but you can just
immediately restart.

And actually the layout of the
viruses is actually different than what you did before.
It's actually randomized, which

I thought was kind of cool
because you're not in a way, you're you in a way, I guess
that's good because it's variety, but in a way you can't
perfect that stage or that level that you keep failing.
But I do appreciate the sort of like lack of repetitiveness, I
guess.

And you can do that in the
middle of it.

If you're like, I'm not going to
get myself out of this.

I'm going to go and I'm going to
just restart.

It'll reset the board and it'll
actually be completely different, which is kind of fun.
So I was doing that so many times that I was like, you know
what, screw this.

I'm just going to go down to
easy.

And then I think I have made it
to the fifth one.

And I was like, oh, well, it's
better than before.

And then I looked at it also
has, like, a counter, like a clock for how long you've been
playing.

And I was like, wow, I spent way
too much time just getting past getting that far.
Like, this game is continually kicking my butt.
Yeah.

Just we're, we're pretty much in
the exact same boat.

That's like exactly as far as I
got as well.

Yeah, I, I don't, I don't know
why they had to do that.

Like I just don't get it's just.
I think, I mean, I to be fair, the people that get games like
this want games like this to be challenging.
But even on easy, you know what

I mean?
Even on.

Easy.
I don't know, I guess.

Like.
I it, it's definitely not a like a casual friendly sort of a
game.

Like you have to be into these
games.

Right.
And what, what what frustrates me about that is that it
presents itself that way, right?

I know it's a Mario game fine,
you know, but when you're putting across that music, that
aesthetic that we've been talking about the you know, I
just I wish it would kick into that mode on hard or obviously
on multiplayer, which totally makes sense, but to just have
like that easy mode still kick my ass.
It just it feels discouraging.

It's not it's not great, it's
not great, you know, and I'm sure that if I if I dug into the
NES Game Boy SENES versions, I'm sure they would probably still
kick my butt because like I message you, the mean bean
machine game also kicked my butt.
I just think I'm not good at these games anymore.
I never felt like I was really good at Tetris and stuff, but I
can wrap my head around Tetris more in this.
I was having a hard time going like, OK, this is what's up
next.

This is how I have to put this
and that.

For some reason the added clear,
the virus thing and the the opponent that I'm playing
against, my mind was like in circles.
Well, you know what it is too the about the the viruses.
Stupid.

Yeah.
No.

Yeah, the the viruses are
plastered across the the entire like pill bottle.
So like you have some at the top, you have some at the
bottom.

So you have to move pieces like
super quick to the right.

You have like seconds to think
versus something like Tetris or something like even mean being
machine, you drop it down and you're connecting colors and
you're just like, you have the whole screen to think about it
for a second, right?

And it it builds up and it gets
harder as it goes.

Doctor Mario's just like it's as
hard as it's gonna get, like right at the beginning.
Almost at the beginning.

I mean just you just fill it out
and it just continues to be hard until you start clearing stuff
out.

Yeah.
And what what I found this is partially, I guess you could say
it's partially a skill thing, but partially just like a this
this genre set up is that if you screw up, like if you like you
were talking with the controls as part of the sort of
frustration that you ran into what you thought wasn't as
snappy as it should be and stuff, which I totally agree
with.

If you if you fuck up one of
your moves, it's really hard to recover, really, really hard to
not just restart.

And I never like that in puzzle
games where it's like, well it's it's not one and done.
Sure you can recover, but when you have someone basically at
your tail the whole time ACPU that is actually near perfection
every time they play.

You.
You, you have to start over almost.
And I, I don't find that rewarding.
Like if I need to keep starting over and I can't make more than
maybe one mistake, maybe 2 if you're doing well, I find that
to be more frustrating than anything else.
And I just, yeah, it, it's, it's just, I was just disappointed.
I was, I wanted to really like this and I, and I think I was, I
was just let down by it.

I don't, I don't think it was
just that expectation, but I just didn't have as good of a
time as I thought I would.

So.
Yeah, I think it's I don't know.

I'm I'm with you, I'm with you.
It ain't no talk for about next mean being machine.
So, and that game's not exactly the same, you know, It's just
one that you had history with.

You're like, oh, you should try
it.

Whatever I'm like.
Another puzzle game.

That's the only association it
has with this game.

Yeah, yeah, there's, there's
like you could say, oh, well, maybe aesthetic or maybe it's
it's a different game.

And I the, the hour that I
played, I didn't play a ton, but the hour that I played of it, I
was having a good time.

I just got to get my hands on it
being a little bit different and better and stuff and whatever.
And I just played it on my little GBA Amberdeck.
Yeah, games and plays great on a little handheld, perfect for a
little screen.

Stuff like that.
Doesn't have to be an actual

Genesis.
I probably actually could have just plugged in my Genesis
Classic, my mini that I have.

I know it has it on that.
You know what's really cool about me and be Machine too?
Not to hijack this episode and just make it about all about
Good Man Machine.

It's one of the few, if not the
only Sonic game that is based on the Adventures of Sonic the
Hedgehog cartoon, which is not the Saturday morning one that
was more serious, but it's actually the silly one.
One of the Julia White ones where he voiced Sonic and it's
the one where Sonic would give life advice.
Like remember, kids don't talk to strangers.
Psas, Yeah.

Yeah, and like the in the Hall
of the Mountain King was like the theme song, like that show
was so silly and I loved it growing up and mean being
Machine had all the characters because the some of the robots
that you fight, Eggman's bots, those were from the show.
So yeah, you never see anywhere else, even in the Saturday
morning cartoon, which was the more serious of the Sonic one.
They aren't they're they're, they're different, OK.
Yeah, this game too, I didn't realize is pretty expensive if
you want to get your hands on it.
Is it really an actual?

Yeah.
I think because it's, again, it's one of those late ones, you
know more than I would have.

Thought would be cheaper because
they wouldn't sell as well and they probably.
I think it's 'cause there's not, there's not as many.
I think that's why that would be my guess.
Yeah, that's my assumption.

I, I don't know.
Or maybe it just didn't sell, did it?
Did it get the, the ET on Atari treatment where they just got
rid of a bunch?

You never know.
That's just speculation.

But the reason why I bring that
up too is because.

Part of I think maybe part of
the reason too is this.

This game was never released in
the PAL version at all.

Oh, really?
Yeah.

So there's a whole territory,
basically the European territory that never got this game.
The only time that you can play it like legally on a PAL device
in of any kind like the 64 version.
The other ones were was 20 years later, October of 2021.
No classics on I guess that would have been we at the time
and we you like that 20/21/20 years later and then now on NSO.
It was so long with that multivitamin.
Worse all.

Like that was a call back.
To a previous discussion.

I it, it was a wow, you know,
it's, it's always a great call back when you have to call back
the call back, right?

That's that's how that works,
yeah, unless they've watched your.
Commercial series you're doing,

Don't worry, don't worry.
Everyone will watch it.

Everyone will watch it.
Yeah, that's.

I don't know.
It's fine.

It's fine.
It's just OK.

I was just disappointed.
Yeah.

Jiggy.
Doctor Mario.

People can check it out.
It does won't, it won't hurt you if you check it out on NSO, if
you have NSO, but it's it's not going to make you sick.
But it's.

No, no, let me present.
It's it's not going to make you die, but it's not going to make
you.

Well, how about that?
Is that your?

Mafia doctor.
Yeah, yeah, don't.

I'm trying to be a doctor.
Here.

Hey, hey.
Hey.

I can do that because I'm.
Italian.

Hey, OK, I'm not and I'm not.
I don't like, I just.

Don't know what to do with my
hands.

Oh, you're gonna do that?
Oh.

That's what you said.
Beep.

Beep in a bop.
Beep in a bop.

Pasta OK, we have a music quiz,
Sir.

Music quiz time.
Yay, I'm.

Gonna pull up.
Let me ace this few things here.

I got.
It's one per one thing.

It is N64 games.
OK, specifically I think yeah, it's just the music, it's not
gameplay.

Couple of them are title things.
I I don't know exactly what part of the games they're from, but
we have 4 choices.

I'm going to play 30 seconds
roughly of this music and hold on now where is it here?
How do I make it bigger?

That's bigger.
Oh, unmute, unmute.

Come on.
Unmute.

Play that funky music.
Groovy.

All right, here are your
choices.

I remembered to pull this up.
N64 Music Quiz, a Razor freestyle scooter, Derby
Stallion 64, Destruction Derby 64 or Turok 3 Shadow of
Oblivion.

All of these are late N64 games.
I have to look up Derby

Stallion. 64 I don't know what
the horse racing game, no way.

Yeah.
I was like I've.

Never heard of that.
OK, this is a good one because

I've never.
Maybe I played Turok 3?

For a minute, yeah, I haven't
played.

Me neither, I don't.
Think I've played any?

Of these and you know that this
is a late N64 game because there's a Razor scooter game on
this list and that is a real game, everyone.
It's a real game, it is.

Believe these are all 2. 1001
potentially 2000 games I can't remember if Turk's 2001 but the
other ones all late.

What vibe the.
Game cover is what vibes they have.
OK, so if anyone didn't hear.

Again, I'm going to play a
couple of seconds of the music and our choices are Razor
Freestyle Scooter Derby,

Stallion 64, Destruction Derby
64, or Turok 3 Shadow of

Oblivion.
Let's let's, let's hear it one more time.
I don't know why I have to say that.
I'm I'm gonna go with I'm gonna go with C Destruction Derby 64
for lack of.

I'll tell you my.
Logic.

Yes, please.
Please, I'll tell you my.

Logic.
OK, so.

Razor freestyle scooter, sort of
going for that Tony Hawk Pro

Skater vibe, right?
It's that time frame trying to capitalize on that.
Obviously nowhere near as successful, but I feel like
they're going to go a little bit more like that.
Tony Hawk route and.

Have actual artists have actual
like music in it.

So that's that's my logic with
that one.

I'm like, it can't be that Derby
Stallion 64 is about horses.

If this is the music for that
game, that's crazy.

Maybe they're crazy horses.
Man, you don't know.

It could be so that.
There was my, my choices down to

C&D, which is Destruction Derby
and Tarak 3.

Tarak 3.
I, I honestly, it could go either way.
But when I saw looking up the covers, I'm just like
Destruction Derby 64.

The sort of feels like car, like
racing music, sort of like a fast track Arcady, kind of a
sound.

And that was my logic.
So that's why I want to see, OK,

I like that.
Logic.

I have pulled up a video of what
the winner is and it is.

Let's get past the look the.
Dang, dude.

Dang, yeah.
Dude, I can't believe that.

I can't believe.
The logic actually worked out.

Dang, you know what?
I mean, that is a loud game.

Yeah, it's sort of.
It's sort of what's reminding me a little bit of Hot Wheels Turbo
Racing.

That's honestly when I heard.
It too, I was like, that's what this kind of yeah, I could kind
of and it if you didn't give me games.
To guess, that's probably what I was gonna guess be like, Oh, is
that from Hot Wheels?

That would totally be.
Fair.

That would that would be fair.
Yeah.

So the structure Derby 64 is the
winner is the actual choice.

You know what this You know what
this proves?

About, like, sound design in a
lot of these games, yeah, they're really good at.
Capturing.

Feels because I I never played
it, I heard the track and I said this sounds like cars racing and
that was one of my options and that's why I picked it
absolutely yes and the only.

Reason.
Well, one of the only reasons I did pick all late games in the
in the console's life cycle.

But one of the only reasons why
I picked the stallion game the horse racing game is because it
also had Derby in the name.

I mean, it looks kind of, I'm
not gonna lie, it looks kind of bang and like we should play
that.

I, I mean, we'll play both of.
These Yeah, let's, let's what was it?
Stallion, stallion, Derby stallion, Derby stallion.
Something like that.

Yeah, look at that.
Impossible to play games.

I'll never play again.
That's what this one video says.

Oh my God, look at that.
Menu.

I love it.
By parody bit I wonder what it actually sounds.
Like let's go with 16.

Oh, this is just a video guy
playing it.

You can hear the music
underneath.

We're back to the fucking can.
I see your ID.

That's your big boss man.
I can't get out.

Here, how do we play?
This he can't.

Even navigate to the actual
game, it's just the menus.

Trying to navigate the.
Menus it's.

Terrible.
That's so funny.

Amazing.
Oh jeez, this is a This looks like it could 00.
Is this horse?

Betting is that.
All it is you're betting on a horse.
I don't know, that sounds like

Thunder, but those are horses
running, everyone.

Those are horses running
anyways.

Amazing.
Congrats Sir.

Yay.
Yay, yay.

I'm glad I'm.
Glad that I'm not stumping you too much.
I'm trying to have fun with it, but I'm glad I'm not stumping
you too much.

Oh, hi, Kat.
OK, those games will all be on our list.
Those games will all be on our list.
OK, so just teasing a little bit coming up, everyone.
One of the games that's going to.
Yeah, I do actually, Brett, yes,

I do think it might actually be
Japanese only the the Stallion game, it looks like it.
It looks.

Like it is only.
Japanese text for everybody.

Who's playing it for every Yeah.
It's got to be even the.

People that can't, especially if
you.

Can't navigate the menus like
that one guy.

Yeah, that's actually really.
Funny.

Like, can we get to the game?
That's the whole video.

Exclusively in Japanese.
That's so funny.

That's the whole video.
One game that we are going to be playing coming up, it'll be the
next episode of potentially the

One after that.
But within the next two episodes we are going to be playing.
If you want to hit up AI, guess you could call it a cozy game.
That's sort of a term that's been thrown around a lot.
A farm management SIM per SE

Harvest Moon 64 is what we're
going to be playing, so should be the next episode.
If it's not scheduling wise will be the one after that.
But that's that's the goal.

So if you want to sync a little
bit of time in the next couple of weeks into playing a game
that has probably going to take a little time to get things
going and stuff, it's sort of a slower moving game and stuff,
which makes sense.

Harvest Moon is coming up a game
that is on NSO as well.

So that could be a little bit
beneficial to how you play it and is actually pretty difficult
to get in a physical version of.

I remember when my sister-in-law
lent it to me, it was like, Oh yeah, I've never played this
game before and I looked it up and it's a very expensive game,
a physical copy of it for some strange reason, and I don't know
why I do have it, but I will likely play it on NSO
personally, just because I can play in between moments while
I'm to and from work on the train and stuff like that.
So, yeah, Harvest Moon's gonna be coming up, so stay tuned for
that.

We're sort of lining up some
guests for a couple games.

Hey, look at that.
Jiggy's got the physical copyright there.
Mine's.

Nice, I'm looking forward to.
It never played the game before.

I know of it.
I haven't really played anything

Harvest Moon.
So we'll see how it goes.

It's gonna be gonna be fun, kind
of play something a little bit, a little bit chill, a little bit
different and just sort of see how it goes.
I know there's sort of like story mode type thing to it and
you have your little dog and stuff, but that's pretty much
all I know.

That's pretty much it.
Yep, that's right.

That's all you need to know.
That's all you need to know.

Jiggy, look back.
I know we're recording this kind of at a different time and
stuff, but we are, we have been and are in Mumbo May for you.
That's right.

Yeah, not that that.
Stuff goes away when May goes away for listening to this
later, but Mumbo May.

Mumbo May speaking names again.
Yeah, first episode's out.

It is, it doesn't have all the
bells and whistles of a proper like Mumbo dialogue intro, which
I did last year.

The next one will the next one.
I was very ambitious which which by the time this episode comes.
Out, actually, might actually be out.
I don't know for sure.

Yeah, possibly, possibly.
This first one is actually ranking my like top ten favorite
rare games of all time.

That was sort of to ease into
Mumbo May.

That's the first one.
The next one I'm super excited about.
The next one it is.

Banjo.
Kazooie, the cult of the Jiggy.

And it is the return of my
series Overthinking It, where I just overanalyze an element in a
game essentially.

And so I am diving into the
Jiggy cult, the Jiggy people.

And yeah, it's, it's fantastic.
And I did an intro that's like 3A a 3D, like Jiggy Wiggy's
talking to you dialogue boxes like you go in his temple.
It's like that.

It's got multiple camera angles.
It like I animated like everything looks great and I'm
so proud of it.

And it even like culminates like
the laser fires out of the crystal Jiggy and intros into
this like is amazing.

The ambition, the ambition.
And skill of this, of this guy, everyone, dude, the first, the
first. 2 minutes are absolute gold.
I haven't even finished writing the video but I've made the 1st
2 minutes and I'm like this is fire.
See, that's that's what that's what you come to YouTube for
everyone, not just me hanging out talk about games we like how
the real skill is.

No look, hey, I'm happy, I'm
happy to do it.

It's great.
But let's be honest, you're you're doing some pretty kick
ass stuff.

So check it out.
Jiggy look back has a lot of fun with this video just in general,
but the skill and ambition behind all of them clearly is
there and I'm very excited.

We're we're sitting here where
that hasn't been released yet.

But I am going to be by the time
you hear this and watch this, I will have watched that video and
give me a huge thumbs up on those first couple minutes that
you were just talking about.

No question.
And then yeah, that's pretty much it.
Everybody you know remember 64 show across social media and on
Patreon as well, where you can watch our new series of a
commercial success.

You can get every episode early
for just a buck a month and support the show and pre show
chats and all that fun stuff.

So check us out there and
support us support jiggy look back jump on the jiggy look back
discord as well and we'll see you there everyone until next
time go harvest some moon.

Is that what you do and squash
some viruses with with a doctor, everyone?
Because I guess that's what you do when you have a 64 in 2001.
All right, everyone, cheers.

Goodbye.
Have a good one.